The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 72: A Meeting Before The Meeting

Chapter 72: A Meeting Before The Meeting

After the conversation with Blanton, Rosemary climbed into her bed.

Despite being defined as a Magic Beast by the world, her body wasn’t much different from a human’s. She dragged her partially mechanical body and laid it down on top of the comfy mattress.

“Haaaahm.”

The other humanoid beasts also needed to take rest, especially those with smaller bodies like Rosemary who required longer hours of sleep than the rest of them.

Rosemary was keeping Scope activated all day for surveillance, and magic took a lot out of the caster just from using it alone. Even if used with mana grass or candy, her body inherently was incapable of containing mana so it was hard on her either way. It was imperative that she have eight hours of sleep daily.

“Huh, there’s nothing much today.”

Post-midnight. Rosemary tracked the movements of Aether and the long-eared elf, and snorted when she saw them drinking beer at a pub. Seeing how there were others with them, it must be the day for unwinding.

“Yeah, you guys should enjoy the end of the semester, too.”

Exasperated by the alcohol wafting through the screen, Rosemary monitored the marketplace for a few minutes.

Then once she concluded that there wouldn’t be anything significant happening, she snuffed out the mana grass joint in the ashtray. Her mouth felt dry from all the smoking she’d been doing.

To get rid of her bad breath, she not only sprayed perfume made from the plant sharing her name but also used a cleaning spell. Her scent shouldn’t be a problem after this.

With a long yawn, Rosemary pulled the cotton-filled duvet over herself.

Although there were many things to think about, she had to get her rest. She stopped all thoughts and focused on heading off to dreamland.

That night, Rosemary dreamed of playing the violin on top of a giant turtle. The corners of her lips curled up even while she slept at how ridiculous it was.

**And Vermel knew all about Rosemary’s daily routine, hence his reason for waking up at dawn.

He was suffering from a hangover because he hadn’t drank that much in a while, but didn’t have much time to take it easy.

There was a metal sheet and mesh that he had already prepared and he took them to the club room.

The club room consisted of three spaces. Out of the three, the largest area was the workspace and the second was the supply room attached to the room which had most of the materials needed for club activities.

There was one other space which, unlike the other two, was blocked in all directions. With its size only being about 6 m2, it didn’t get used very often by the members.

It was basically a trash closet where junk that couldn’t be handled by the supply room went.

But because the club president, Lorewell, liked to be clean, the area was currently empty.

Vermel lockpicked his way into here and began putting up the sheets and mesh all over the place. On the ceiling where it was difficult to stick the sheets directly, he weaved nettings from wires and stacked them on top of each other.

And thanks to that, the space that was already dark from lack of windows transformed into a torture room.

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“This should be good.”

The standard way to avoid Rosemary’s Scope–cover the place with metal that had good conductivity and completely block out the sun. He was now ready to welcome his guest.

Finally, he dragged over two chairs and a small, light desk. The place was already full with just three pieces of furniture.

Vermel, sitting on the chair closer to the wall, placed a thick notebook on the desk.

A plain old leather notebook that seemed ordinary on the outside, but the inside was anything but.

Of course, since it was packed with all the strange encounters he’d acquired and missed from the moment he dropped into this world as well as relationships and all the different strategic routes.

Vermel opened to the middle part where a red candy wrapper the size of a palm was pasted all spread out. But that wasn’t all. The inside of the wrapper had something written in cleancut writing.

[If u r not Korean, we could talk in EN]An alphabet that differed slightly from the one used by the Philiut Empire and at the same time, Earth’s own international standard language that corresponded to modern grammar1.

And Vermel had believed he was the only person in all of Ahrens continent who could write and read this kind of sentence.

This way of communication and writing style could seem childish to some, but he was glad even for this.

“... We’re set.”

From now on, the situation was going to change significantly.

Because it wasn’t just one person anymore, but two.

**The meeting with the transmigrator was after sunset. Before that, I was summoned by Miss Heerlein so I was going to see her first.

[Aren’t you going to let me out?]

The hardcover that was locked up kept seething but I ignored it easily. Having been told by Miss Heerlein to come to the chairman’s office, I finished packing about halfway then left the dorm room.

I actually didn’t care about meeting the chairman. With hurried steps, I entered the Academy’s main building.

“Oh, you’re here!”

It was the familiar voice of my mentor, but Miss Heerlein’s face wasn’t as relaxed as her voice. There was something resolute and tense about it, the opposite of her usual easy-going attitude.

I felt in my gut that something serious was going to happen, that my vacation wasn’t going to go so smoothly.

Miss Heerlein, who had been waiting at the entrance, began walking. I followed her lead to the chairman’s office. I’d been here a few times so I could find my way with eyes closed, but normally it was a place that couldn’t be found easily without an escort.

Let’s see. I tried to guess why the chairman wanted to see me.

The first time was regarding Flare, and recently it was to award me for doing a good job in dealing with the plague.

He shouldn’t have a reason right now.

Curious, I stepped inside the office. With a Thunk, the well-lacquered door groaned.

“You’re here, welcome.”

Chairman Robespierre was courteous in his greeting toward a student. He was worthy to be called a man of character in this harsh world. As a show of respect, I bowed slightly in a silent greeting.

There was only the chairman, myself, and Miss Heerlein in the office. No other student or staff could be seen.

Why did he call me this time? Eyes shifting, I waited for the chairman to lower his teacup.

Tap.

“Thank you for responding to my call, Miss Aether.”

“Not at all....”

I let out a short chuckle, and the chairman smiled to follow suit.

He was asking non-verbally if he could get to the main topic, and I had no reason to deny him. I shot him another smile.

“Mm, where should I begin? First of all, aside from Black Death incident, the number of accomplishments you’ve shown at our school is incredible. But it didn’t seem appropriate to have you make a trip here every time so I’ve called you to talk about all of them at once.”

It seemed that there were more than a couple of things. When the chairman asked if I had the time, I asked that he keep it short if possible.

I’ve got something else after this.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to waste your valuable time. Alright, then, I will try to make this quick.”

Tap–a paper was laid in front of me. At the chairman’s gesture, I rubbed around my eye and picked up the paper.

Then a few seconds later, I read something unexpected. My eyes automatically grew wide.

[You’ve been recommended for this semester’s research scholarship student.]There were other words written above it but this last line was the most eye-catching.

Dumbfounded, I couldn’t speak. Hadn’t I already received that research scholarship thing from Miss Heerlein? As I swallowed down my reactions, the chairman spoke.

“It’s too early to be surprised.”

Shuff–another paper appeared from behind the desk. The names of many students were listed beneath the heading ‘Academic Scholarship Student List Announcement’. My name was at the very top of this list that was divided into first to fourth year.

“A-are the marks already out?”

When I asked in a shocked voice, the two people nodded in sync.

My rank in the column said first place. That meant I beat the transmigrator and ranked the highest out of all the first years this semester. This was possible since the first semester consisted more of theoretical courses than practical.

“As you may already know, the top students of each year are granted full scholarships. But here we have some bad news.”

“Bad news?”

“The nation’s economy is in a bit of a dire situation due to the defeat in the northern front and the plague outbreak.”

“Ah.”

I already knew as much from having seen it myself. This state area where only the wealthiest in the Empire could settle had soup kitchens open up, and even those without an ounce of faithfulness had gathered at the churches to live as a community in the name of quarantine.

If this was how it was around the palace, I couldn’t imagine what the rural areas must be like.

“And so starting from this semester, the Imperial court demanded that the scholarships be reduced to half for the top students.”

I expected as much, but what could I do? Inwardly smacking my lips, I nodded in the face of reality.

“But you needn’t worry; that is why this research scholarship was formed separately.”

“I’m sorry?”

“We’re bending the rules, in other words, and covering the rest of it under a different name.”

Heerlein patted my shoulder with a crooked smile.

“You gave up the patent for Flare, and same with the pulse scroll recently. Just think of it as the school trying to compensate for it.”

I was utterly grateful for such consideration, to the point that I’d bow right here and now if I could.

Yeah. I was that thankful, but....

“Ahem.”

I didn’t know why both their complexions were so dark.

They were definitely smiling. They were smiling yet it felt strongly like they were forcing themselves to do so. But they weren’t trying blatantly to hide themselves from me either.

Ah, of course. The scholarship benefits wasn’t the main point of this conversation. There wasn’t a reason to visit the chairman’s office just to be notified of this, come to think of it.

I discerned at once the changing expressions on Miss Heerlein and the chairman’s faces. I wasn’t sure about Miss Heerlein but Chairman Robespierre clearly wanted something from me.

I started to get a grasp and knew what I had to say next.

It must have been a month or so since I last put on a business smile. Smiling as naturally as possible, I began to speak.

Footnotes

1. i.e. English