The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 44: Your Paper’s Kind Of Awesome (3)

“Do you know what Flare is?”

As soon as he heard that, Vermel’s brain froze.

“It’s in development but something’s missing. We’redone with testing for today and plan on continuing tomorrow.”

What was ‘Flare’? It was the key magic that acted as the milestone for every event within this game.

It was important when and by whom Flare was developed since it was like an indicator as to how the latter part of the game would proceed. The ending could differ especially depending on who did the developing.

Hence, many players reacted sensitively to Flare’s development. Vermel was no exception.

Is this why she joined the Transmutation Club?

A few puzzle pieces were finally falling into place.

There was a reason why the story had gone off course from the beginning of the Academy Chapter.

Understandably, seeing as they kidnapped a girl who’d been living peacefully gathering herbs in the Elankaya mountains and sold her into the slave market just because she was a rare species. She’d have spent a month terrified at the possibility of becoming a bed slave, the only positive emotion being the relief she had felt towards the woman who bought her.

Then she was betrayed by that same woman. Considering Professor Hasfeldt’s personality, she would’ve been slaving like a dog for three years. Even a superhuman would break down if they had to go through all of that.

Pushed to her emotional limit, the only way out for Aether was entering the Academy. But if she couldn’t adjust to school life even after admissions, the girl just stuck with researching magic.

That was Flare.

Vermel stared at Aether. Her face was as calm as a lake surrounded by land.

The Golden-Eyed weren’t the most expressive of races. They didn’t smile when happy, or cry when they were sad. Even during instances of anger, panic, or fear, they would sit down and think through it calmly first.

Ergo, if someone made a Golden-Eyed cry or angered them, it meant that that person did something despicable. Vermel reminded himself of that as he opened his mouth to speak.

“That Flare you mentioned, could you work on it later?”

The earliest that Flare could be revealed to the world was July. That was the fastest route in the story, the one where Professor Hasfeldt dramatically finished its development as soon as summer break began.

But Aether had already completed the framework three months in advance and even went ahead with a test fire. If this continued, then all the incidents would be rushed through before he could be ready for the main event. There was even a chance that the Empire would fall before he finished all the preparations here at Tilette.

The girl’s expression was asking ‘Why?’ at Vermel’s question. Of course, he had an answer prepared for that.

But Aether was firm.

“Sorry, but that won’t be possible. It’ll be done in a few days so it’d be a waste to stop now.”

Aether’s eyes were resolute.

Shit...!

No, it was something beyond that.

That something was an emotion called ‘certainty’. He could see it even without looking at the System Window.

Golden eyes shone brilliantly like full moons. And despite the signs of not having been taken care of properly, the black ink of her hair still flowed smoothly down to her waist.

Truly an incomparable beauty. But it was obvious what that ‘incomparable’ exactly meant. For Vermel, it was hard to even meet Aether’s eyes due to all those times he had died to her in the game.

It’s the same with that one in Iliad... Why are the Golden-Eyed so difficult to deal with?

Aether was determined to complete Flare no matter. If he couldn’t stop that, then there was only one way.

I have to prevent corruption at all costs.

As long as Aether didn’t get corrupted, there would be no issue with her completing Flare. It removed the plausibility of her burning down the state with it. If anything, humanity would be gaining a way to oppose the Cataclysms even earlier.

Vermel changed the subject.

“Have you been having a hard time lately?”

At the random question, Aether tilted her head with a ‘Hm?’. She seemed to be wondering why the sudden change in conversation.

Then finally, Aether sighed and nodded.

“Don’t even get me started. There’s too many things. But why do you ask?”

“Ah, well, you’re looking a bit thin. Take it easy and don’t strain yourself. We’re only first-years so we have time, right?”

“I can take care of my own health so don’t talk if you aren’t going to help.”

“Help...? With what?”

That was strange. Aether wasn’t the type to ask someone for help or anything.

Come to think of it, they weren’t the only ones in the clubroom. There were two girls staring at him from beyond Aether’s shoulders.

“Were you guys testing as well?”

Lotte and Freyr nodded in response to his question.

Aether doesn’t tell anyone when she goes down the route of developing Flare. She definitely researches on her own from start to finish.

The rate of development should’ve been slow because she didn’t get help from others.

Why is she in such a rush?

According to the System, the chances of Aether being a player like himself was less than 7%. Based on that probability, it wasn’t good to keep thinking with that in mind.

“So, what are you planning to do with Flare once you finish it?”

“What else? Gonna use it to pound those beasts.”

It was a good excuse. Because who in the world would say that they were developing Flare to destroy humanity? What she said could be a lie.

Such lies didn’t work on Vermel.

Stat Window.

SYSTEM : ‘Dark Day Aether’ is expressing a clear conscience in the face of your doubt.It’s not a lie?

“It’s as Aether said. When we finish Flare, then humanity gains the ability to stand against the Cataclysms.”

SYSTEM : ‘Crimson Flame Lotte Saliere’ admires ‘Dark Day Aether’ for her accomplishment.“That’s right! Long Ears could never imagine what an incredible test we conducted today!”

SYSTEM : ‘Youko King Freyr Fon Fasstrand’ wishes for a refreshing glass of beer.Since when did the three of them get along so well?

He’d never seen such a thing. It didn’t make sense.

During the time that he had been busy going around Tilette finding additional strange encounters, the relationship between the three had progressed to this much. He had never seen this kind of route before in his life.

“R-really...?”

“Yeah! It should be about 99% done! It’ll be done by tomorrow earliest! Ow!”

“Who says it’s 99%? It’s more than just one or two things that need fixing before I can submit it.”

“Doesn’t mean you should hit me for iiiiiit!!”

Then that means it’s at least 90% done.

If it was to that extent, then there might be changes to the System Window. Vermel silently called on it.

A translucent screen appeared before his eyes.

SYSTEM : The probability of heading towards the Bad Ending is currently about 80%.And he had to accept that the story’s progress had changed completely.

**

“There’s no way. It’s a brand new route but this counts as an event, too?”

The hell is this guy saying.

Why’s he talking nonsense all of a sudden? An event? The only event I know is Event Horizon1.

It seemed as if he was hiding something again.

When I glared at him, Vermel went ‘hm, hm’ and cleared his throat. Awkwardness filled the clubroom.

“No, it’s nothing. That Flare thing, whatever it’s called, Eliyev and I can help with the development.”

“You’ll help?”

I doubted what my ears just heard.

“We’re all part of the same club. Let me know if you ever need anything.”

Uh.... his attitude changed in some way. Even though he had been telling me not to work on it just a moment ago.

Either way, I had to develop Flare in order to fill out the index. If I completed just that one, I should pretty much be able to automatically understand the rest of Fire Magic.

After analyzing Vermel’s expression, I noticed that his eyes were rolling off to the sides. Eyes tended to move in that way if one was lying or up to something.

Was he okay?

It didn’t really matter if Vermel or Iluka helped out. It wasn’t that hard to write a word of thanks in a section of the paper, anyway.

“You’re an Air Mage.”

“I-I am.”

“Then can you control things like temperature or pressure and maintain it?”

“It’s hard but not impossible.”

“Oho.”

Then things could finish quickly.

Alright then, Canf2. You can be in charge of the tokamak. When I make an artificial sun later on, you’ll be maintaining it.

When I nodded, Vermel let out a sigh as if relieved.

“So, you know how to use Teleport.”

“I do.”

“Then can you transport us or the testing equipment instead of yourself?”

“It’s possible at any time with a little bit of preparation. But why are you asking that?”

“You want to help with the testing, right? We need a larger area than this to properly see Flare’s power.”

We’d have to adjust the maximum output one way or another if we wanted to conduct tests in this tiny space. And if the output was adjusted, then it’d be hard to see if it was actually effective against a Calamity. But on the other hand, if we increased the focus of Flare instead? Then this clubroom... no, the whole school could accidentally blow up.

So I thought it’d be better to do this in an open space.

“Yeah, so, let’s go to some place where there are lots of Calamity-level beasts since we’re doing this. If a Calamity dies instantly when hit, then we can take that as the test being a success.”

“... Have you always been this reckless?”

“Somebody once said this. A great person is someone who thinks and acts at the same time.”

“.......”

There wasn’t time to hesitate. If he was going to dawdle like this after saying he’d help, that just made him baggage.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I can just publish the theory first and do the test when it’s summer break.”

“Wait, if you’re putting it that way, I’ll do it.”

Like that, Vermel decided to help me on a limited basis. It hadn’t been the intention but the situation was certainly going in a good direction.

Vermel was an Air Magic user. I didn’t know exactly how talented he was but the fact that he was the top student of this class year guaranteed his skills.

There was said to be an Air Magic that could operate statistical-mechanical variables such as temperature or pressure. There weren’t many human Air Mages so I had wondered when I’d be able to learn properly, but if I could take this opportunity to learn a little something, then it’d be considerably beneficial.

The control of temperature and pressure was important in plasma physics since plasma was easier to form and maintain with hotter temperatures and greater pressure. They also played key roles in producing nuclear reactions.

Uh.... come to think of it, I couldn’t just be proficient at Fire Magic if I wanted to make a hydrogen bomb. It was the time for interdisciplinary studies.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

In the end, the journey to defeat a Cataclysm was the same thing as the journey to get back home. When I thought of it like that, it felt as though things were really working out.

The next day, I went over to Vermel’s desk as soon as the morning meeting was done. He started in surprise, then swept over his chest. I ignored his reaction and asked what I needed to.

“Are you available to Teleport sometime tomorrow or the day after?”

“Hm, it depends on the location.”

“It’s a place close to here.”

My answer was already decided.

“The Elankaya Cordillera.”

The snowy tundras of despair and screams swarming with Calamities and the occasional Cataclysmic giants.

But also the place known as the homeland of all Golden-Eyed.

That would be the first testing site.

1. "In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_horizon2. A War of Warcraft 3 font-related bug in the Korean version where instances of 'elf (엘프)' were displayed as 'canf (깐프)' and thus became a memehttps://namu.wiki/w/%EA%B9%90%ED%94%84