The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 108: Its A Conspiracy, Not A Rendezvous (1)

Chapter 108: It's A Conspiracy, Not A Rendezvous (1)

The Transmutation Club room. A small room located in one of the sections was the only space where Vermel and I could talk freely.

We met here every chance we got like we had agreed on it. Well, it was more appropriate to call this a conspiracy than a rendezvous but it didn’t seem to appear that way to others.

Anyway, we knew what we had to do. As soon as we arrived, I unpacked my bag.

“What’s that?”

“What do you think? It’s what I got from Jǫrmungandr.”

“Pitchblende?”

“No, something more valuable.”

The elf’s face blanched as soon as I finished speaking. Vermel backed himself as far into the corner as he could and yelled as he glared at me.

“Why did you bring that all the way here!”

“What do you mean ‘why’? It’s the only way to prove that I met Jǫrmungandr.”

The elf furrowed his brows, showing his incredulity.

“I mean did you really have to show me this dangerous thing? You could’ve just said it!”

“But you might not have believed me.”

“Why wouldn’t I!”

Strange. I wouldn’t have if I didn’t see something like this for myself.

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As I tilted my head, unable to understand, Vermel held his forehead and let out a groan. You would think he lost his country1 with the way he was sighing.

In the meantime, I took out the stones that I brought to show him. I didn’t just take them out, of course, but activated the anti-radiation scroll first then peeled off the boric acid wrappers one layer at a time.

“Hey, don’t take it off!”

“It’s fine. It’s not going to wear out just from that.”

“What are you even saying....”

It was a huge mistake to think that a one-stage bomb couldn’t be made due to radioactive decay. The half-life of a substance like this was at least in the tens of thousands of years.

I removed all the neutralizer and absorbent and put down one mana stone of each type.

One of uranium, the other plutonium.

“Wow, look at that color.”

It was practically a silver gem once it was on display.

“Look at this brilliance.”

“Please.”

I stroked the stick of plutonium weighing just under a kilogram and appreciated its texture. It could only be expected that Vermel would freak out at what I was doing.

“Wait! I said not to touch it! It’s sensitive so it’s dangerous if you don’t do it right!”

Vermel’s lips were oddly quivering. He was so rushed that his words were coming out jumbled as well.

I huffed a laugh at seeing the anxious elf.

What was he so concerned about in front of an expert?

“It’s fine, seriously. Just let the expert handle it.”

“Shut up and put it away right now....”

“So you believe me, then?”

“Yeah, so please.”

Okay, he shouldn’t be saying anything else now.

“But you don’t get affected even if you touch it like that?”

“Oho, you want to know?”

“No?”

“Gotta tell you if you’re curious.”

I took the stick of plutonium I was holding and brought it down on my other hand a few times. Smack, smack, smaaack. The sound of light impact rang inside the tiny room.

“See, even if you smack it like this there won’t be any chain reaction if it doesn’t exceed critical mass. Maybe if the shape or density was different, but.... So. Cool, right?”

“I don’t care if it’s cool, just put that thing away already!”

“Chicken.”

With a pout, I resealed the mana stones. There was nothing else to show, anyway.

“Alright, let’s move onto the main subject.”

We sat at the desk across from each other. Vermel was still looking at me with disapproval.

“Did you really major in physics?”

“Again? This is why I think you don’t believe me.”

“I mean, if you really are the expert then you should know best that that’s dangerous. I know that the anti-radiation scroll is active, but it’s still....”

“I said there’s no need to worry.”

I raised my arms slightly and shrugged.

“It’s greenlight2 with this body right now.”

Bang!

...... What the.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know.”

We automatically lowered our voices.

“It seems like someone’s outside.”

Holding our breaths, we crept up to the iron door. When we put our ears against it and waited, the faint sound of three people murmuring drifted through.

[Did you just hear that? S-she gave the greenlight3!]

[What does greenlight mean?]

[You don’t need to know, Lotte.]

They all seemed to be speaking quietly but unfortunately, both the Golden-Eyed and elves had good ears.

“This voice is....”

I could at least tell who two of them were.

Lotte and Freyr.

The question of ‘what are they doing here right now?’ was immediately resolved.

These two were also members of this club. They must have come to clean the room before the start of school and happened to hear us talking.

Even if there was a misunderstanding, I could clear it up with them.

The problem was the last person.

[Anyway, this is a scoop! Let’s see, where did I put the recorder scroll?]

My brows furrowed at the last voice.

“I knew it.”

“What?”

Instead of replying verbally, I gestured at Vermel to lend me his ear.

“Do you know an Angelica Totzfel?”

“Angelica in fourth year? I do.”

“I met her before coming here; she was really persistent.”

So that must have been how she ended up all the way here. Was she that desperate for a story?

“This is annoying.”

Something had to be done here.

“So you’re saying that Angelica is listening in on our conversation.”

“She’s already blabbing about something going on between us.”

“I heard about that, too. This is the ‘Paparazzi’ episode, an annoying part of the game if you get caught.”

According to the explanation that followed, it was a pretty useless episode. It was one that was inevitable when the main character of this game set on this continent began a romantic relationship.

... Huh?

Wait a minute.

“It’s something that occurs when you get into a relationship?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you get with a girl here or something?”

“Didn’t you see me acting like a loner gathering items until the plague?”

“Yeah, but.”

Then that meant something was triggered after the Black Death episode.

Snorting, I gave Vermel a look and he also looked this way and smirked.

There was only one implicit meaning behind the smile we were giving each other. It meant that even if we had an inkling, we were just going to ignore it if it wasn’t an important issue. Simply put, it was an act of mutual respect.

“No need to think of it like a game. This is reality so it can probably still happen without any romantic feelings.”

Most of all, we did act suspiciously. It wasn’t going to be easy to fix this.

We needed strong evidence showing that we weren’t in that kind of relationship to clear up this misunderstanding, but trying to explain it outright could have the opposite effect.

Besides that, there was the chance that Rosemary whatsherface could discover our true identities if things went wrong.

If we left it as is, however, it was obvious that the rumor would become even more bizarre....

“So, how do you get rid of Angelica in this case?”

“Two strats–the easy way or the hard way. What do you want to do?”

“Let’s hear the easy way first.”

“We openly date.”

“Are you insane? Do you want to get expelled together?”

Before even considering the effect it would have on my sexual identity as a now-girl, if the rumors about us kissing and shit reached the ears of a higher-up within the school, then that would be the end of our school days. We’d probably get dragged in front of the committee and be put on trial.

Then at best it’d be a hundred hours of community service, and expulsion if we really got screwed.

“We just need to lie that we’re doing it outside of school.”

“Yeah, and they’d definitely believe us while we’re like this in the clubroom.”

“The board doesn’t know yet so we just need to meet outside from now on. But then it’ll make things hard.”

There shouldn’t be a problem if we exchange information outside. But wasn’t it already a given that we’d be harrassed by our peers?

“Anyway.”

Clicking my tongue, I drew my ear away from the door.

I had zero intention of suffering internally for the sake of admitting to a lie.

So.

“Hey, get your staff.”

No choice but to go the hard way from the start.

**Scope was an Innate Magic exclusive of Rosemary which formed images and sounds by sending out radio waves to objects within a 400 km radius.

Immediately after Aether had returned to the capital, Rosemary was following her using Scope.

“Hm?”

Aether began conversing with a bun-haired lady with melons for breasts.

No, it was too one-sided to be called a ‘conversation’.

“Who the hell is she?”

There was no reason to hide her distaste. The girl scrunched her face, brows furrowing.

“It’s Angelica Totzfel.”

“Totzfel? Ah, a spawn of the Grand Duke, then.”

“Why do you not know?”

“She didn’t have much of a presence, so.”

In the first place, she didn’t remember those who weren’t obstacles in their plans to resurrect the Demon King. It would just be a waste of memory.

But that thought was soon dismissed.

“Big sis and that lowly elf dating?”

Her teeth could be heard grinding because of what that girl Angelica was saying over Scope.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Blanton clicked his tongue, saying that he knew it.

“Haven’t I told you last time that it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility for the advisor to have romantic relations with the elf?”

“But even so, with an elf of all people....”

The elves–a divine race who received Elemental blessings directly from the Goddess.

They were the complete opposite of the Golden-Eyed who had been rejected by all Elementals.

“This piece of trash who’s nothing more than a doormat of the Goddess dares to try and date our big sis? The hell is the world coming to!”

Rosemary kept watching Scope even while clenching her teeth. From the looks of it, that Angelica person seemed to be trying to generate quick news by contacting the elf and then big sis.

The Commander of the Fourth Brigade thought for a moment.

And not long after, she quietly verbalized that thought.

“Crazy bitch. How can I get rid of her?”

But Duke Blanton, who had been standing nearby, had a different thought.

“Isn’t this a good thing, rather?”

“What is?”

“If the news that they’re in love spreads throughout the campus, then there’s a greater chance that it will lead to expulsion. I rather think that if we are able to persuade her well, we could easily lure her back to the Army....”

Rosemary responded to her aide’s advice with a sigh.

“This is why you’re still Septimus.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You think big sis wouldn’t be aware of a rule like that? If it’s her, she’d definitely....”

“... Wait. What is that?”

Before she could even get started, Blanton pointed at the scene beyond Scope. Angelica was taking out something suspicious-looking from Aether’s backpack.

“What is that...?”

“It looks to me like a mana stone.”

“What the hell did she bring back from Saliere County?”

She wasn’t that knowledgeable about mana stones.

Rosemary’s specialties were detection, guerilla warfare, and scroll construction.

Even if they both were Great Mechas, there was information that they didn’t share with each other so she had no way of knowing what that was.

Soon after, Aether shook off Angelica’s pursuit and went to Vermel’s place. She then chatted with the elf as they walked to the clubroom within the Academy.

“Fuck. If you’re going to talk privately, then do it at home! Why are you going to the clubroom during vacation!”

“Isn’t it because there is no soundproof?”

“Blanton, one more bullshit out of your mouth and I’ll smash your head in with the violin.”

“I will correct it. Then how would you like to deal with that one?”

Blanton’s finger pointed at Angelica Totzfel.

She was currently outside the room that Vermel and Aether had gone into, holding her breath with her ear against the iron door. The younger daughter of the Saliere family and a short Youko could also be seen next to her.

“Hold on a minute.”

The resolution of Rosemary’s Scope decreased sharply in the face of iron plates due to electromagnetic principles. It couldn’t penetrate inside the place surrounded by wire meshes.

But what if she observed the reactions of those three?

[D-did you just hear that?]

[No, it couldn’t be. No way. My friend wouldn’t do that.]

[Aren’t they mating?]

[Freyr!]

Rosemary’s head spun at the bombshell dropped by the short girl. It was like she’d been abruptly struck by a dirty bomb4.

“I.... I don’t need to see any more of this.”

When she flicked her fingers with a snap, the mirror reflecting Scope vanished.

It had been a while since she felt lightheaded. Rosemary, who’d barely got up from her seat while stumbling like a patient who’d been diagnosed with a terminal illness, suddenly started to pack.

“Blanton, send a summons to all the humanoid comrades who are available right now.”

“Where would you like the meeting to take place?”

“The Eight Iron Stations.”

There was no time to waste. If she couldn’t do it by herself, then they’d think about it together.

Rosemary didn’t delay any further and immediately set off to the lands.

Thus, she wasn’t able to see.

How in the time she deactivated Scope and left the palace, Aether burst through the iron door and beat Angelica with the calipers.

Footnotes

1. Korean metaphorical expression to describe an overreaction to something that may not be a big deal2. Seems to be a personal definition being used here as in 'it's all good' rather than anything being permitted3. In Korea, this is a positive sign of interest in the context of romantic pursuit4. "A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with radioactive material, serving primarily as an area denial device against civilians." (Wikipedia)