The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 204: From Master to Slave (5)

Chapter 204: From Master to Slave (5)

It was early morning. Aether took Klais for a walk around the castle.

Earlier she had said there was somewhere to be, but all they were doing was going around and around. She didn’t understand it.

But soon, Klais realized what this was and huffed indignantly.

That’s right.

Aether was ‘taking her for a walk’.

“Wow, it’s hard to get those soldiers tamed. How is it so obedient?”

“Hey, try barking like a dog. Woof, woof!”

“It has all its limbs intact, hm? Let me know if you have no more use for it later on. I don’t have enough limbs to experiment with these days.”

As they walked a bit, Beasts would appear and talk to Aether.

Whenever that happened, Klais would get attention as well.

The humanoid Beasts who saw her collared all had the same reaction.

They registered that she was a human, but didn’t seem to have any intention of treating her with the dignity of one.

“You....”

As much as she feared the pressure of the collar, Klais decided to protest to Aether.

“Why are you doing this?”

Being cautious about eating and cleaning because she was told to, she could understand one way or another.

But she absolutely didn’t want to be subjected to this kind of denial of her basic rights.

Even though it was the middle of winter, she was boiling like magma.

It was as if Klais had become some kind of pet dog.

“If this is how much of a grudge you hold against me, just kill me instead.”

“What?”

“I said just kill me!”

The creed of the Hasfeldt family–honor over life.

Hasfeldts didn’t beg for their lives. They also didn’t get on their knees before someone they didn’t submit to.

Honorable even in death. She could discard her body like a rag to preserve the family honor.

“I’d rather be where my brothers and sisters are. I cannot bear to live and face my father!”

Aether snorted at that.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Who said you’ll be let go alive?”

“I already know that, so just kill me.”

“And you’ll be able to face your siblings after dying like that?”

“I would at least have an excuse if I die by your hands.”

“You’re as sophistic as ever, Klais.”

Aether yanked on the leash even harder. Klais, choking, pulled at the chain and thrashed with pain.

The porridge she’d just eaten came up again. Klais covered her mouth and barely managed to swallow down the liquid mixed with stomach acid.

Perhaps due to the thrashing, two of the cherry tomatoes that she’d stuffed in her pocket dropped onto the snowy field.

“Aha?”

Eyes narrowing, Aether looked back and forth between the fallen tomatoes and Klais.

Like the eyes of a bird of prey on its target.

It was so cold that even Klais, who had been ready to die, felt scared.

“What did you just drop?”

“I saved it. To eat later.”

Aether didn’t say much. Instead of raising her voice, she pointed to the tomatoes on the ground and continued the conversation.

“Pick it up.”

“Pick it up and eat it?”

“That’s right.”

“No.”

“Didn’t you just say you were saving it for later?”

“I will not eat what’s on the floor.”

“My god.”

Humans were still like this. Most of them were spineless and two-faced. Aether was rather relieved at that.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Because there were only people like these, she didn’t need to feel guilty about leading the world to ruin. She thought that she no longer needed to struggle with morals.

“You still haven’t learned your place, have you?”

“I know my place.”

“Then pick it up and eat it.”

“I’d rather die than do so.”

“Seems you won’t get it until you almost starve to death.”

When Aether had been a slave, she would even eat bread crumbs off the floor.

It wasn’t because Klais had told her to, just that she couldn’t have a sufficient meal with the money she gave her.

Three years. That was how long she had to suffer from hunger. Not just for a day or two, but everyday.

“Keep being stubborn like that.”

Aether tugged on the leash harder than she ever had like she was vexed. Klais’ body was yanked, and she couldn’t help but cry out.

“Mmphhh...!”

Before she knew it, the tomatoes were in her mouth. Aether had picked them up and shoved them into her mouth while she’d been moaning.

“The snow here is cleaner than you think. Stop grumbling and chew.”

Klais chewed and swallowed the tomatoes unintentionally.

The texture of sweet and sour freshness. The sour and savory flavors that she hadn’t had in a while stimulated her tastebuds. It was the kind of taste that kept her chewing even when she tried to spit it out.

“Ah.......”

As soon as it went down her throat, Klais let out a sigh.

Because she still happened to be hungry. Her insides were hollow due to eating only plain porridge, and her stomach had emptied because they had been walking continuously after breakfast. Even her arms and legs subjected to the blood-drawing weren’t moving properly.... So in that kind of situation, the cherry tomatoes that she ate were just as good as a meal of delicacies.

“Stop dawdling and finish the ones in your pocket. You’ll be standing for hours once we go into the meeting.”

Aether prompted her as she looked at her watch.

She couldn’t bring herself to care. Now that she ate, one or two wasn’t enough. Klais took the tomatoes out of her pocket and popped them all in.

It was delicious. Really, so delicious that it brought tears to her eyes. Her stomach felt alive again.

It was nothing like dextrose or Hartmann’s solutions. At this moment, the tomatoes were like drugs for her.

After that, Aether checked her wristwatch. Klais had to keep walking until the appointed time.

**What in the world did I do.......

After time passed, reality hit her. She was feeling embarrassed now that she had finished eating.

She’d proudly demanded to be killed one moment, then had shamelessly ate the tomatoes a little while ago. It was a disgrace as a noble.

“Ah, that’s how you train them.”

There were Beasts who had seen it all happen, even. They laughed at Klais,

having followed them to the meeting room.

She wanted to die.

Seriously, she wasn’t lying and wanted to die this time.

Following Aether, Klais entered the Eight Iron Formations where the meeting room was. It was where she had been up until yesterday, and where she had attempted to escape.

The last time she tried to escape, she had been captured here. It was a place that brought back awful memories for Klais. Back there, where she had been beaten by Rosemary and dragged off by her hair by Akasha.......

Now she was serving the ‘big sister’. Perhaps she was depressed? Klais was so ashamed that she no longer wished to live.

Nothing else mattered, she only wanted to pass away peacefully. A deadly poison or a powerful spell was fine, even. That was how humiliating it was, to be captured by Beasts and ordered around like a slave.

“Spring Heaven has entered.”

“Summer Heaven will also be here soon.”

The Four Heavens were coming together one by one. The once empty meeting room was gradually getting noisier.

Klais looked over each of their faces. All powerful ones exuding sinister energy, opponents that she didn’t think she could ever beat.

“So, why are we having this meeting?”

Arriving last, Jǫrmungandr asked anyone, but she only got criticisms in response.

“You’re still as lazy as ever.”

“Huhahahahahaha!”

“Get out.”

The Four Heavens each gave their own responses, short and succinct. Jǫrmungandr literally tucked her tail and sat down.

“You have no respect for your elders.”

“This one is our regular meeting. Luckily, it coincided with Winter Heaven’s return.”

The one who gave a proper answer was the co-Secundus Akasha. She was sitting on the big chair with Aether.

“By the way, why are you two sitting on the same chair?”

“Because we’re twins.”

Akasha smugly tucked herself in. As she shuffled through papers with her back right up against the chair, a sigh came from behind her.

It was Rosemary. Rosemary felt wistful as she watched her two older sisters sticking together.

It would’ve been nice I had been a triplet with them. It was a moment where she felt it a pity that she was a sworn sister.

“It’s a regular agenda meeting, but this could be the last one if all goes well. You all have an idea why that is, right?”

Akasha threw a sheet of paper onto the round table–a rough map of the elf country’s capital.

“As you all know, the Empire is now done for. Kaurelia is the only one left.”

Klais was shocked by Akasha’s words.

The Empire was done? Was it destroyed?

Then what about the capital? Tilette Academy? Her father?

Her head was scrambled. She wanted to demand that white-haired girl right now if she could. Just where and how did the Empire end? But everyone except Klais was already aware of the situation so they skipped talking about it.

She was dying to know. Klais had no choice but to listen closely to the Beasts.

“As I said last time, the Lodestone of Wind is located around the root area of the World Tree of Verdure. Unless we gain entrance to this place, it’ll be hard to obtain it.”

“Can’t we just burn it and take it? Huhihi!”

“It’s easier said than done.”

Akasha picked up the pen to help her explanation.

The place she circled was ‘Märcherm’, the capital of elf country.

“The World Tree is located in the heart of the capital here, surrounded by a 100 km radius barrier. It’s a despicable thing set up by the Elementals. If we get clumsy and show our malicious intent, then it will be detected by this barrier.”

If that happened, then the Elementals would come forth. The Greater ones might be okay, but the Elite onwards were ones that even the Four Heavens needed to be wary of.

Furthermore, if an Elemental King called the Great Elemental showed up...... they would be defeated before they even tried anything.

Pasmo and Gilach also knew this well. These two had gotten themselves sealed by losing to the Elemental Kings in the first place. Of course they’d be disgruntled.

“It’ll be hard to strike the World Tree directly. It would take Jǫrmungandr to land an effective hit.”

Of course, even this didn’t guarantee that their plan would work.

Jǫrmungandr’s specialty was one-on-one. If she got surrounded by hundreds of Elite Elementals, she wasn’t going to be able to survive.

“Then I guess the only answer is to infiltrate.......”

“Infiltrate my ass.”

Aether interrupted Akasha. Dumbfounded, Akasha asked.

“Do you have some other way?”

“Of course.”

Aether crossed her legs and looked back; it was the direction where her slave, Klais Hasfeldt, was.

“I have tons.”

Klais stiffened.