The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 103: Change In Strategy

“Egahhhh.”

I woke up with a weird noise. What time was it?

My head felt like it was going to split open from drinking too much yesterday. I was initially supposed to drink only to my limit but failed. I hadn’t expected it to be strong enough to get me drunk off a single glass.

Yet it tasted like juice which made it addictive. So in the end, I kept drinking it even though I knew and blacked out....

But it wasn’t that I didn’t remember what I talked about with Lotte. Of course, because what kind of race were the Golden-Eyed?

Organizing my thoughts, I closed my eyes and folded up. I was feeling restless from the way last night’s conversation was playing naturally in my head.

To think that the Saliere family had been researching nuclear physics. No, thaumaturgy was the mainstream here so maybe I should be calling it nuclear thaumaturgy.

Anyway, it wasn’t an ideal situation. Even if the Demon King was defeated somehow, it was the aftermath that was concerning.

But if that was going to be the case, then it was just better for me to tell them about the risks from the beginning. I had taught Lotte about designing a hydrogen bomb with that in mind, although I didn’t tell her the details with the limited time we had, of course.

The people of this world weren’t stupid either. It was a tactical weapon that would’ve been developed one day even if it weren’t for me. If it was a disaster that was going to be created anyway, then wouldn’t it be the responsibility of the experienced person to properly supervise them?

It was going to get busy from now on. I wrapped up my thinking and slowly opened my eyes.

“Augh.”

My eyes really were dry. They somehow felt like dried up grass splitting at the root.

I pressed into my eyelids and looked around. That was when I noticed that someone was lying right next to me.

What the.

An uneasy feeling brushed past my cheeks. Maybe it was the alcohol but they were still burning.

I carefully lowered my head and when I did, a sleeping Lotte with half her shirt unbuttoned came into view.

“Ah?”

My broken voice leaked out stupidly. It was the moment that my mind went blank.

Did we do it or something?

No way. Moreover, why was I in a bed? I definitely fell asleep at the desk.

I thought back again to what happened during the night. No matter how much I racked my brain, there was no memory of sleeping in the same bed with Lotte.

Did I do something while blacked out? If so, then that would be a really shitty thing.

With my chin in hand, I chewed on my nails. Strange. Nothing came to my mind.

Okay, calm down. If I couldn’t remember the situation at the time, then I had to figure it out from indirect circumstances.

I first checked my appearance. Alright, my pajamas only had five buttons undone.

“Huh?”

Five?

“Uh, mmm.... What’s wrong?”

Just then, the key to the mystery woke up. Lotte lifted her head and tucked messy hair behind her ear. She blinked sleepy eyes and greeted me.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Uh, um.”

“Is there a problem.... Ah.”

She also seemed to realize that there was something wrong about this situation. Lotte sucked in a breath and abruptly got up, then immediately went back to her spot.

Lotte hugged her covers and looked over here with embarrassed eyes.

“Sorry.... I meant to sleep over here after putting you down.”

“Oh, well....”

Sure, that could happen. But that wasn’t what I was wondering.

“So who undid my buttons? I’m sure I went to sleep fully buttoned up.”

“T-that! I loosened them so that you wouldn’t have trouble breathing.... Ah, there wasn’t anything like that! You know, right? Right....”

Judging from her rambling, she wasn’t fully sober either.

I thought about this incident briefly, then realized that it was pointless and decided to not ask anything. It didn’t seem like anything funny occurred seeing how desperately Lotte was trying to explain.

And there wasn’t time to fuss over this, either. I let my head cool down and spoke again.

“Aside from that, do you remember what we talked about yesterday?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“Then could you go tell the Count?”

Since it came to this, there wasn’t a second to lose.

As soon as the maid gave permission, I stepped into the Count’s office. What came into view was the competent official who was reading over multiple documents at once while busily stamping papers as usual.

“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, sir.”

“Not at all, as if I couldn’t spare a moment for my daughter’s friend.”

Count Saliere put down the document with a smile. It was the same expression Lotte often made, making it apparent that they were father and daughter.

“How are the repairs going?”

“The damages are a little worse than previous years but it’s going well. It’s like this every year in these parts so we were already prepared to some extent.”

“That’s good to hear.”

I gave a slight pause, then continued.

“I had a talk with your daughter yesterday, was told that you succeeded in refining the pitchblende stone.”

“That’s correct.”

“I didn’t know that you were working on something like that so I was quite surprised. But is it alright to tell an outsider about what you’ve been researching alone in private?”

“Haha, a person doesn’t get criticized for using the answer sheet to grade math homework, do they.”

“You’re too kind, sir.”

I see, that’s what it was.

This man realized that I already knew how to refine pitchblende. He either had a good eye or heard it from Lotte.

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“Your face is wondering how I knew.”

“Yes, of course, because I never told anyone.”

“Flare.”

“... Excuse me?”

Count Saliere responded with a grin.

“Do you know how many times your paper has been cited?”

“Uhh.... no?”

I never went back to the society and checked after screwing over Professor Hasfeldt.

“More than a hundred at the very least, including myself, of course.”

“You read about the Magic Element-Energy Convertibility Theorem.”

Magic Element-Energy Convertibility Theorem–the general theory of Flare. As per its name, it was the principle of magic elements becoming energy and vice versa.

This principle was the theory behind the construction of Flare which corresponded to a high-intensity laser, as well as the principle for building nuclear bombs in this world. The science in the other world and the magic here differed slightly in this respect.

“When I built the refiner and discovered the powder through grinding the stones, I did think that this was something similar to gunpowder. That was when you published your paper.”

A mage who created a machine to refine uranium would also be proficient at reading papers.

It would’ve been possible to calculate the yield of nuclear weapons using the information I wrote.

“I see, I suppose that makes sense.”

The Count got up from his seat and showed me the refiner. It was a sophisticated machine like Lotte had said. The fact that something like this was built here in their home was very interesting.

Ah, maybe it wasn’t that out of the question. I also had experience with making a makeshift accelerator when I was in undergrad, after all.

I looked over every inch of the machine’s structure intently, then the Count spoke jokingly.

“If you’re shown this, you have to be my successor. Do you want to become my foster daughter?”

“Ahaha.... the thought’s appreciated.”

Anyway, it was pretty dangerous that this was in the house. I asked the Count.

“Sir, do you handle the stone with your bare hands?”

“Usually, yes. Post-refinement, perhaps, but the stone didn’t seem harmful prior to that.”

Oh dear.

“How long has it been?”

“It’s been close to ten years of proper research, I suppose?”

“Do not touch it with your bare hands from now on.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Pitchblende emits faint mana radiation. Ten years may be okay, but if it goes on for twenty, thirty years, then your body may have long-term fatigue and develop health problems.”

The Count seemed shocked by my words. He quickly shut the door of the room with the refiner and washed his hands with a cleansing scroll.

“You know things like that as well?”

“Yes, it’s information that I picked up from our people back home.”

What modern day citizen didn’t know that uranium was dangerous? So I wasn’t wrong.

I then got paper and a quill from the Count. From the magic element-energy equivalence theorem, I derived in detail all the formulas leading to the Bethe-Feynman equation, then substituted the appropriate values to calculate the result.

“I did something similar for Lotte yesterday. Now both father and daughter know about the explosive power of pitchblende.”

“So it was something this dangerous.”

While Count Saliere was considering, I borrowed a ruler and compass as well, and took out a map with a detailed scale. The map contained the main roads and topography of the Empire.

“The physical significance like the blast radius is better understood through pictures rather than numbers. Take a look here.”

Where I pointed to was the capital of the Empire, Philut.

“Pitchblende can be used as a bomb on its own, but you can also make an even stronger magic weapon using Air Magic. Here, I’ll show you how much of a photospheric radius you get with this much explosive power assuming this design.”

I measured the map again, then stuck one end of the compass in the middle of the capital. It was right where the palace was.

“The capital of the Empire has a rotationally symmetrical structure around the Imperial court. The main roads extend radially, right?”

“Right.”

“This kind of structure is highly vulnerable to large-scale explosions because the fire will spread wildly along the main roads.”

Scritch, scritch.

I used the ruler to draw a line segment, a little over eight kilometers according to the scale. When I turned the compass and made a small circle, the entire capital as well as all the neighboring cities were inside of it.

“If we draw the blast radius according to the previous calculation....”

“S-so this would be the maximum damage range.”

“No?”

With my eyes on the bewildered man, I added quietly.

“First, you can assume that everyone in this circle is going to die.”