The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 157: Partial-concern, Partial-success

Afterwards, Heerlein sat there for a long time with her hands folded, fingers laced. Until the meeting resumed.

Miss Heerlein always went around with a bright expression, but not today it seemed, having met Renawill Hasfeldt.

Without a doubt, she had been tormented thinking that she was indirectly responsible for Klais’ death.

It was only that she had kept it hidden until now.

“It’s alright, she’ll be alive.”

She looked so miserable that I purposely revealed knowledge that couldn’t be known without being a transmigrator. When I did, Heerlein’s devastated eyes fell on me.

According to the knowledge Vermel told me, Klais was alive.

Should I say she was unlucky or lucky? Klais had a good chance of staying alive until the beginning of next year. It was just that she was trapped in the Demon Castle unable to do anything.

Of course, I didn’t see this for myself.

However.

I trusted the transmigrator’s words. If I didn’t believe him, how could I have come this far? He was a big part of why I could come up with a plan while avoiding Rosemary’s eyes.

And what about what had happened at Pitchblende Mountain? It had been thanks to Vermel that I was able to obtain HEU and plutonium from Jǫrmungandr, after all.

There were several other things besides that. For example, helping Lotte escape from Black Death.

I spent a short but significant time with him. We frequently had personal conversation even while conspiring in that enclosed room. We’d get excited over stories about Earth at every opportunity.

Was that why?

“Where’d this guy go, seriously.”

Before I’d just think ‘whatever’, but now that an acquaintance from the same world was actually gone, it was lonely.

It seemed that I unconsciously developed an attachment. The values as fellow countrymen must have become a connection and built some kind of bond.

Right after leaving the palace, I lit a stick of mana grass. The temperature hadn’t dropped below zero yet, but puffs of white cotton candy-like breaths escaped each time I exhaled.

With my hands in my outerwear pockets, I walked back to the Academy.

All sorts of thoughts went through my mind on my way here.

Where Vermel had gone without touching base in a while. Why Rosemary was walking on eggshells around me. What to do with Klais if I end up going to the Demon Castle during winter break, and what kind of aftereffects there would be once I finished the research that was currently in progress.

My head was complicated with all these things tangled together like spool.

The third issue was a problem in particular.

Rosemary and Blanton helped me during the physical. And in return, they asked that I stay at the Demon Castle for winter break. My concern was how I should treat Klais if I met her there.

Just ignore her? Or help?

If I excluded personal feelings, the latter was correct. According to Vermel’s ‘strategy’, she had to stay alive until the end of the story.

It wasn’t much different even from the emotional side of things. My heart was restless after seeing Miss Heerlein’s face.

However, there was still animosity left in me. The way I’d been fucked over at the end had left too much of an impact for that emotion to fade with time.

“Huuh.”

There was no answer even if I thought about it.

Contemplating something like this didn’t suit my temperament. The ironclad rule of a physicist was to act first and see. My future self would deal with that when the time came.

“Huu.”

First I’d have to finish the research.

I flicked off the ashes and headed towards Professor Cai-Lussac’s lab.

Step.

“...Hm?”

What was that?

“Was someone here just now?”

I searched the area carefully just in case but there was no sign of a presence. I must have heard wrong.

Click.

I used the key I got from Professor Cai-Lussac. When I unlocked the lab door and entered, there was the stench of medicines.

It was place where only silence lingered. Instead of light, there was a dreary aura.

I brought the mana grass to a Fire Magic scroll sitting in a corner. As I did, the area brightened instantly with a flash.

The concept of electricity in this world was weak or at the basic level. As such, one had to chase away the night in this way using a Fire Magic scroll.

I took my seat and activated the device that was similar to an AFM. A humming sound echoed off the lab walls.

The structure or principle itself seemed like a mixture of all sorts of electron microscopes. But then the discipline thaumaturgy came in and it became a microscope with its own individual magnification technology.

The microscope was the ‘eyes’ of the operator. In order to weave a nanometer-scale scroll, you first had to be able to see that scale.

The current goal was simple–to coat a scroll at the ten nanometer level.

“...Would using Innate Magic work.”

I snapped my fingers and took out the hardcover. The hardcover which had been quiet for a while opened its jaw without saying anything.

[Ultimate Innate Magic ─ Element Operation]A legendary magic that was said to have been used even by the Demon King.

Although it was called ‘Element Operation’, it was actually closer to working with electromagnetism.

There were a total of eight slots for Element Operation. That is, the Eightfold Way could have up to a maximum of eight skills.

Of these, the first one ‘Short’ and the second ‘Avalanche’ had the ability to control electricity.

Similarly, the third and fourth skills had the ability to control magnetism.

These four were all I remembered with my current memory. That meant that I wasn’t fully assimilated with Aether yet.

There wasn’t a skill that I needed to use immediately besides these ones, anyway. Mana grass in my mouth, I slowly moved the cantilever with ‘Element Operation’.

“Oh, I see it.”

At the nanometer-scale, one could indirectly see elements, like seeing what the radon atom or carbon nanotube looked like with a tunneling microscope.

“But what’s with the resolution?”

It was blurrier than expected. It looked like some kind of cigarette smoke was around the ball’s shell.

I had no choice but to do more operations. I made an interferometer that would counteract unnecessary parts, brought a calcite from the lab next door and stuck it in the appropriate place.

“This doesn’t work either.”

Then suddenly, I recalled the chairman saying that he stocked the club room with supplies and stood up.

It was as he said. The Transmutation Club was a gold mine in itself. Shouting with glee, I moved the ingredients.

I went back and forth between between the club and lab a few times. It took some time because of that, but I was able to focus on research with lots of materials piled up.

[My goodness. You’re going to use all of these this time?]

It didn’t matter; I was going to pull an all-nighter.

Since a long time ago, I’ve had this one habit. It was that if I couldn’t finish that day’s work, I wouldn’t sleep.

I’d have to ruin my pattern of life like that once to realize the next day that ‘Ah, I was too lazy yesterday’.

And I was happiest when I researched like this, because I could focus on one thing without caring about other complicated things, especially interpersonal relationships.

“......Whoo.”

As I did a bunch of things after that, it became dawn. I just had the final task left.

I laid out aluminum on top of silicone and waited until it was coated with oxide film. Thin film insulation that was made like this was just a few nanometers thick at most.

Then coat it again with aluminum. Deposit high concentration silicone in the necessary parts and take out the electron ray, leaving space to flow mana.

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When I casted ‘Short’ or ‘Avalanche’ in this state, I could see that the elements moved with the current.

In other words, I implemented ‘Element Operation’ as a scroll.

This was like a microphysiological system (MPS), meaning it was definitely a machine but it moved like a human organ.

“Alright.”

It took a long time to get here. When I looked outside, the sun was coming up.

Now for the last. With the probe attached to the microscope, I looked over the completed scroll’s structure.

The current running through the cantilever tapped the surface of the sample and stimulated the elements. The stimulated elements began moving all over inside the cavity like a shot arrow.

I was sweating from concentration, but didn’t have the time to wipe the sweat on my forehead.

The flow of elements that had been circling around the cavity were gathered in one place.

It was the bloom unit that had gone through the etching process that I had made in advance. It was obvious what would happen if it reached the bloom unit through the circulation part.

I gently placed my hand on the part in charge of output–

Piing!

“Ouch, fuck, that stings─!!”

–and had to shed a few tears as I got the expected result.

As for what this was, it could be said that a massive mana breakdown had occurred in between the gaps of the created scroll. As such, it left a burn on the fingers that had been holding onto the bloom unit.

Blowing huu, huu on my hand like when I ate a bun, the corners of my mouth slowly went up.

“...It’s a success for now.

Just in case, I had adjusted the output to low before firing yet it was to this extent. It wasn’t ‘White Night’ for nothing.

Although it was only a few thousandths of the original scroll, I confirmed that a significant level of destructive power could be obtained. There was still the matter of safety but this should be fixed if I fiddled with it a bit.

[Master, are you a dumbass? Why would you take a direct hit from it?]

The hardcover nagged as if I was pathetic, but I just shrugged it off.

Because I was currently feeling really good.

Although it was a downgraded version, I was almost there with creating White Night. All that was left was discussing the theoretical part with Lotte and increasing the safety.

I smiled a bit at the thought of going back to the dorms. I’d be lucky if I didn’t get smacked on the back by Lotte.

I cleaned up the materials and stepped out. As I walked the end of the hallway, I could sense someone’s presence.

...Probably a grad student.

Thinking that, I returned to the Academy dorms.

“...Why are you coming in now?”

And as expected, I had to face Lotte’s peeved face.