The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 213: From Master to Slave (14)

She was definitely sleepy. How many hours had passed now? It was hard to tell exactly because there was no clock in the room.

At least she could see if it was night or day with the curtains drawn.......

Why was the sun coming up?

That’s right, the two had stayed up the whole night–Klais, to find out her sister’s name, and Aether, to watch Klais and study theories. It was like seeing two corporate slaves who were close to a deadline.

“What time is it right now?”

Having her back to the window, Klais asked while yawning repeatedly.

The sun was already peeking over the mountain ridge, and it’d soon pour into the room.

The weather was nice today, even. Aether hurriedly closed the curtain.

“It’s a while longer until bedtime.”

“I-is it.......”

Klais was clearly exhausted, but it was best to get it done while the flame was going, no?

Come to think of it, wasn’t it fine to not sleep for a night? Such as Aether right now. When she had been a slave, going two days without sleep had been child’s play.

It had been the same after entering the Academy as well. Starting with Flare, she had constantly been in research. Her being a Beast aside, she could count on her fingers the number of days she’d gotten sleep.

Most of all, this was the Demon Castle. Humans who were prisoners had to do whatever they were ordered, and this was relatively humane treatment.

However.

She must have reached her limit.

“Excuse me, this may be presumptuous of me to say, but.......”

“May be presumptuous but what.”

“May I take a quick nap? I’m very tired.”

Klais turned around and pleaded. The way her eyes twitched showed that she was in worse condition than she thought.

One could go without food for a day, but went mad when they missed a day of sleep. That was what a human was, and Klais, too, was a human. She had to sleep even a little to maintain her efficiency.

“Isn’t it the most important part right now? If you’re going to finish it, then why don’t you do it before you sleep?”

Unfortunately, Aether had no thoughts of taking that into consideration. With shadows beneath her eyes, Klais’ complexion darkened at once.

Aether also knew that this was a poor move. Researching for long hours without getting good sleep made one less efficient, even if it was Klais.

But there was a magic word that changed this poor move to the best one.

“Sister.”

This Beast who was bent on destroying the world had already decided not to consider others anymore.

“You don’t want to die without even seeing your sister, do you.”

“Y-you.......”

Even so, how could she hold her family hostage?

Klais rubbed her sleepy eyes and glared at Aether, narrow things full of resentment. In response, Aether furrowed her brows and shrugged.

“I told you, I’ll let you know the name of which sister if you finish that. Who knows? I may even let you meet her in person if you do something greater.”

“Kugh....”

In the end, there was only one thing that Klais could do–grit her teeth and finish the scroll in front of her.

Actually, this much toil was on the milder side at the Demon Castle. And even then it was because the one who was ordering her around had a grudge.

It was the same with holding Klais’ sister hostage. If it had been Gilach or Pasmo, they’d have cut her fingers off one at a time in front of Klais every time she disobeyed.

This was the relatively famous ‘double-slave experiment’1 amongst Beasts–taking one of them hostage and observing how the other reacted. The closer the relationship–family, lovers, close friends–the better the experiment.

Although Aether was focusing more on ‘efficiency’ than ‘amusement’ with this.

“...I’m done.”

Klais finished the last of it. At Aether’s nod that it was okay to collapse, she knocked out on the spot.

While Klais was off in dreamland, she checked the scroll. Aether let out a small ‘hmm’.

It wasn’t bad; there was a level of completion, and a good understanding of the structure. If Aether had been a grader, she would’ve given around a 3.0.

The reason why this wasn’t in the A’s was because of the following: first, there was a lot of clutter–a lot of unnecessary wiring and wasted mana stones as well. There was a problem with the power delivery and spaces that were wasted. The fact that it’d be difficult to operate at temperatures higher than a thousand degrees was also a flaw.

Being a Fire Mage, however, she’d at least dealt cleanly with the problem of thermobaric splintering. If she were giving an objective assessment, she’d give extra marks for this.

Aether put the whole bag of remaining leftover tomatoes on the desk, then untied all the chains that had been tied to chair and desk leg. She carefully dragged Klais, who had been lying uncomfortably, and laid her on the floor.

The floor was colder than she thought, but it could be because it was dawn.

And Klais didn’t even have proper underclothes, either. There wasn’t anything to keep her warm besides the fall robe.

“......Ugh.”

It hadn’t been long since lying on the cold ground yet Klais started to shake. She furrowed her brows and even hunched in on herself.

“...Cold.”

Unfortunately, there were neither covers nor a pillow. She’d have to take a few coats from the closet to warm her up, or else she was going to freeze to death.

“......Sister, it’s cold. I’m, cold....”

“.......”

Really, what a high maintenance research equipment.

Still, she couldn’t die or anything yet. There was potential so she had to keep her alive until the high-temperature superconductivity research was finished.

To prepare as much as possible, Aether gathered all the clothes. She spread a coat with a hood on the floor, and covered her layers of robes. The areas that weren’t covered she used things like dress pants, shirts, and socks.

She thought this would be enough, but it seemed it wasn’t. Klais kept shivering.

It didn’t look like she was cold seeing the warmth of the clothes.

But if she left, she could escape in that moment so she couldn’t even go somewhere.

“Whatever.”

Aether let out a sigh and perched on the desk. She fell into the thought as she looked at the scroll Klais made once more.

A high-temperature scroll that still wasn’t anything special, but it was a product that had Klais’ touch.

To be honest, it still felt a bit too soon; but since she had gotten this far, then it might be possible to get her to start researching immediately.

The corner of Aether’s lips quirked subtly.

**When Klais woke up, it was five hours later.

The sun was now high in the sky, but Aether didn’t say that Klais didn’t sleep enough. If anything, she would’ve chided her mildly for being too relaxed for a slave.

Either way, five hours or eight hours were both a lot to Aether. Three, four hours of sleep should be enough for a slave to work. Five hours, really?

“Excuse me, this is....”

“Don’t argue about the food; I’ve given you less because you woke up late.”

Even so, it was still a luxurious meal.

Two slices of toast with butter and honey. A chicken breast salad with boiled eggs. For the drink, it was warm milk, and there were three sticks of almond biscotti for dessert.

She had downgraded it saying something about how it was originally supposed to be a Mont Blanc, but Klais didn’t care.

It was her first time being given a proper meal that wasn’t porridge. The amount was filling, even.

Was this the relative effect?

Forgetting her pride, Klais hurriedly stuffed the toast in her mouth.

Except for the salad, each one was a hot food, perfect for surviving the cold winter. So there was reward for her work after all, she thought.

Although she was a slave... Yes, with this, she could die looking decent, perhaps.

Klais finished the toast at once and devoured the salad. Before long, she’d gulped down the hot milk, then stood up fidgeting.

She felt sorry all of a sudden. When she had made Aether work like this, she hadn’t provided anything the next day. Had it been two bronze coins at most?

“What.”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything.”

Klais dropped her head and looked away.

Why?

Despite the fact that Aether was a Demon Army executive who had taken the lives of her family, she was feeling conscious rather than angry.

“Let’s go out.”

Aether took the leash and pulled gently. Klais slowly trotted after her.

It was time for the damn walk again.

The walking itself wasn’t bad, since she couldn’t lose too much muscle. The problem was taking a walk with the collar on.

This was still as humiliating as ever, and it was even cold. The winter temperature here was indeed an icy hell. No matter how bundled up, one couldn’t help the tears and runny nose.

However.

Where were they going right now?

“...This isn’t the usual path, no?”

“We’re going to stay inside today.”

Klais was inwardly relieved. She wouldn’t be in the winds at least so it was good at least, even though she’d get fingers pointed from the Beasts roaming around inside.

It was as she was sighing while being slowly dragged around.

“Hey, do you know where my slave went?”

A tall man who was nearly two meters tall blocked their way.

The Golden-Eyed elf who had sharp hooks on either arms–Gilach the ‘Summer Heaven’. Klais knew because she got a glance of his face when the Beasts had been meeting.

“I’m asking if you know where my slave went.”

It was still an incredible aura–the skill ‘Intimidate’. Klais felt herself shrink back.

This big shot was equivalent to Aether who she had once treated like her hands and feet?

“I don’t know. Move.”

“No, you probably know.”

“I won’t say it a third time. Move.”

“You haven’t taken my toy, have you?”

Aether’s indifferent expression turned into a scowl. It seemed Gilach was rather peeved as well.

“I? Took your toy? Stop talking nonsense.”

“How strange. You’re the most likely at this moment.”

“You must have been careless.”

“No, that can’t be. I definitely played with her properly and put her in the toybox. They can’t leave as they want from there.”

“Sector Zero.”

“That’s right. She definitely wouldn’t have been apple to escape on her own.......”

Gilach’s gaze turned to Klais, and Klais turned to a statue on the spot.

An overwhelming difference in strength. She didn’t think she’d ever win. Would Flare even work in the first place?

That worry soon disappeared because of the next conversation between the two Heavens.

“You know the toy looks just like that slave of yours, right? Since you’ve seen it last time. Huhuhuhu!”

“You mean Klara Hasfeldt.”

“Exactly, that one! I gouged out her eyeballs so she would’ve lost all will to run away! Kyahahaha!”

Klais’ pupils constricted into pinholes.

“W-what did you just.......”

Footnotes

1. Parody of the double-slit experiment