The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 142: The Physical Exam (2)

Chapter 142: The Physical Exam (2)

Elemental Magic period.

I should be focusing on the lesson but I just couldn’t.

“Today, I’d like to talk about something interesting. Magic Beasts... Cataclysms, to be exact, and why they aren’t able to destroy us completely despite being much stronger than us.”

It was an interesting topic, but the two relevant parties weren’t listening.

Because it was something they already knew?

No, because they were too preoccupied to listen.

My mind was racing right now; I reckoned it wouldn’t be much different for Rosemary.

“As with all Beasts, Cataclysms are also machines on the inside, although we don’t know the color of their blood as we’ve never been able to land an effective blow. Yet when we compare the Calamities, we presume that it’d be either black or dark gray in color.”

“Professor, I have a question. Then can we not distinguish the hidden Beasts with that method?”

“By drawing blood or the like, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“That is a good question. Beasts that mimic humans are clever so they’ll try to get out of it somehow. Either they will not create a situation in which they spill blood or even if they end up doing so, they’ll have some kind of backup plan.”

Ah, this period was a bust. Professor Cai-Lussac’s words weren’t registering at all.

This couldn’t be happening. Did they know what it took to get here after starting out as a slave....

Wasn’t it too harsh of them to kick me out, especially after everything I’d done up until now?

There were a few excuses that I’d prepared in case I got caught. Like the fact that I gave up the patent for Flare after making it, or how I’d made the EMP scroll during the Black Death incident, etc. In the case of the latter, I’d been commended by an executive of the Student Council.

Furthermore, I was currently working together with Lotte and Freyr to oppose the Cataclysms.

I’d spent a long time interacting with Lotte and Freyr. Though it hadn’t been long since we met, we were spending most of the day with each other. We studied together, ate together. This was also our second big research project.

Friendships weren’t anything big. It just happened naturally when you spent enough time with each other even without some dramatic event.

So it was going to work out as long as the worst didn’t occur.

“...That is why Beasts detest Elementals, because Greater Elementals are the only ones who can accurately filter out humanoid Beasts. As agents of the Goddess, Elementals exercise great influence so that our world can be maintained.”

And that worst thing would be being discovered by an Elemental.

“As I mentioned earlier, Elementals have the power to detect evil machinations. It isn’t a hundred percent correct, of course. If so, then the contractors of the Greater Elementals would’ve already chased out the monsters lurking within our society.”

Once midterms finished, exchange students from Iliad Academy were going to arrive. With the school being in elf nation, most of them would probably be elves, and elves had great Elemental affinity. At least more than half of them would have formed contracts with an Elemental.

“Haa.”

It was just one thing after another.

“Then we’ll end here for today, and.... You have your physical exam this week, yes? As we don’t know when your turn will be, many professors including myself will be taking breaks.”

This wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things.

I turned around as soon as the class bell rang. And there sat one Blueberry who was staring dazedly at the ceiling and chalkboard in turns. Rosemary blinked twice, then lowered her gaze.

“Sis.”

“Hey.”

“Would you like to come over after school today?”

“Sounds good.”

**No one stayed an enemy forever in this world.

Today’s friend could be tomorrow’s enemy, or vice versa. This was something you’d know even just by reading the Three Kingdoms.

I was at Duke Blanton’s residence after cancelling all my plans for today. Wherever I looked, everything was decorated with gold or platinum. They were seriously praying for the country to fall, weren’t they.

There wasn’t even time to be offered tea. Rosemary and I sat on the sofa and began discussing what we should do.

“Sis, we’re fucked.”

“Don’t use such crude language.”

“But you use these kinds of words, too.”

“That’s not the issue right now....”

We knew what the problem was without saying.

“This.... This wasn’t part of the plan. I didn’t expect to be cornered like this.”

“Yeah? I thought you were trying to screw me over at first.”

“Why would I?”

“Because you pulled something similar at the dungeon exploration practice.”

“Ah.”

Rosemary paused for a moment before speaking.

“Doing that at this point would be bad move. That time was because I’d been leaning towards you having forgotten.”

“So back then you were planning to screw me over while I didn’t know anything?”

“No, no, no...! Th-that wasn’t......!”

“I’m joking. Let’s keep going.”

No matter how smart she was, she was still the younger one. This one only needed to tease her a few times and she’d make decent expressions on her own.

“The blood draw is going to be the key point of this physical.”

“The two of us can’t have blood drawn with a regular needle in the first place. If they find out that the needle can’t pierce our skin, that’ll be the day they suspect us.”

“Can’t we make our skin like a Calamity?”

“If that was how soft it was, then it wouldn’t be a Cataclysm’s. It would be a disgrace to be injured by human tools.”

Then what.

Even if we did get our blood drawn, it was still a problem. Rosemary and I both had mercury in our blood. The people of this world knew how to filter injections so if the one who was checking realized that there was mercury in the blood....

At least my blood was reddish so I had a chance to explain myself. The problem was when it was black like Rosemary’s.

“You’re both thinking.”

A gentle voice came from behind me. I turned my head to see the source of that voice.

“Have you been doing well?”

He was a dignified-looking man with blue eyes. I’d never seen someone like him before.

“And you are?”

“I am currently operating under the name of Jack Blanton.”

“Ah, that’s right. You’re Septimus, then.”

“Yes. It is a great honor to meet you, the technical adviser Secundus.”

Duke Blanton bowed his head in greeting as if he were a servant. He laid down some refreshments and tea in front of us, then took a seat on the opposite chair.

Unlike Quartus, Septimus wasn’t soft at all. I was pretty much sisters with Rosemary in this body, but with Blanton... That is, the guy who actually went by the name ‘Orléans’, I wasn’t really close.

“This physical exam was requested not by us but the medical community. It seems that they’re coming from a position of putting more effort into public health after the Black Death.”

“And who caused the Black Death, I wonder.”

“The matter of Flare was started by you, Secundus.”

“If you have issues, then take it to the Duke of Hasfeldt.”

“And who said you should get caught by the slavers?”

I glared at Blanton for a moment.

“...It wasn’t like I wanted to.”

“In my humble opinion, I believe that you did.”

“Based on what?”

“For someone who decimates mountains with a single swing of your staff, how could you have been helplessly caught by those inferior things? I can only think that you were quite intentional.”

“I had lost my memories at the time so I didn’t remember that I was of the Demon Army.”

“And who was it that used the Lantern of the Dead as they wished?”

“Hah.”

At this rate, it was just going to be a waste of time.

“That is enough of a warmup; you don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

Sitting around like this, memories of when the original owner of this body was serving in the army slowly surfaced.

The time when they’d waged war against the Elementals to ‘protest’ against the Goddess.

Despite all the preparations, the resistance of the Elemental Realm had been so strong that whenever there was a problem, she’d sit together wherever with her comrades and hold emergency meetings. It was... not a great memory. Because they had all died.

“The Medical Association put in a request to the Academy for a free physical exam, right?”

“That is correct.”

“And that chairman bastard permitted it.”

“I would say so.”

Rosemary snorted and crossed her legs.

“Let’s sink those bastards.”

“...You mean the entire Association?”

“Can’t we?”

“It isn’t easy.”

From the way she spoke, I could guess who picked up Aether’s habit of taking the calipers to someone’s head at every opportunity. Unless everyone in the Demon Army was like this.

“Or at least fuck up a few key figures.”

“That won’t change anything.”

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“Or make a law against blood draw.... That’s taking it too far.”

At this point, there really was no other way.

Just research like crazy and fall sick. Even as a machine, I could catch a fever if I pushed myself too hard. And if Lotte vouched for this, I could get through this week of physical exams by being absent.

That was the best option I could choose.

Or it should’ve been.

“It can’t be helped. I will see to it personally.”

“What are you thinking?”

“You know my ability. I will try to buy as much time as possible before the nobles’ assembly takes place this week.”

Hmm, Rosemary hummed. She looked to be thinking for a moment as she drank her tea.

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you. It seems that you’re the one for this job.”

“I will not disappoint you. Instead.......”

“Instead what?”

“In exchange for assisting with this situation, I’d like to ask something of Secundus.”

Yeah, I knew it’d turn out like this. There was no way they’d do something for free.

Blanton only asked for one thing, no more, no less. It wasn’t something physically challenging, but it was troublesome in many ways. At the same time, it was something expected.

“...Understood.”

I reluctantly agreed because I felt like I’d be kicked out of the Academy immediately if I didn’t. Blanton nodded as if satisfied, and Rosemary’s face bloomed like tulips in a field.

“Secundus, I know that you value even spoken promises. I hope that this will be a good agreement.”

“I said I got it.”

With the end of that conversation, Blanton went off somewhere. Now it was only the two of us left.

As I just sat eating the cookies on the table, Rosemary looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Sis, if you eat like that then there’s going to be a problem when they check your weight.”

So what.