The Magic Academy's Physicist

Chapter 52: Your Paper’s Kind Of Awesome (11)

Chapter 52: Your Paper’s Kind Of Awesome (11)

Flare’s light pierced through the whole armor. Complete penetration. Suddenly, the audience turned into baseball spectators.

The mages who had come for the presentation started to raise their hands one by one for a chance to speak. While the custodians swept the floors of the mess caused by Flare, the three students had to handle many questions.

How long did it take to develop. Could you please elaborate on this section of the paper. Where did the concept of a three-dimensional scroll come from. How did a Golden-Eyed decide to research Fire Magic, etc.

Some questions were tossed one after another like a job interview. Lotte and Freyr just chewed on their lips, unable to give articulate answers to these questions.

That was the normal reaction. No one criticized an undergraduate for not being able to properly answer a professor’s question. If anything, it was admirable that they even made the effort.

However, the Golden-Eyed girl was a little different.

Aether breezed through the waves of questions. It was a level of defense that couldn’t be found even from a graduate student who was about to get their Ph.D.

Her eloquence had the mages backing off begrudgingly, including Klais and Meriga.

By the time all sorts of questions were answered, it was already an hour and a half later. It was a good time to start wrapping up the presentation.

Just then.

“Then who gets the patent for Flare?”

Someone mentioned this. The audience’s attention shifted to the back of the podium.

It was Klais. She had been saving this question for the very last.

There was nothing to criticize about the technique. Academic attacks weren’t working on the Golden-Eyed girl. The Flare that Aether had made was that solid in terms of theory and testing. Yes, she admitted as much.

Then she needed to change her thinking.

She would purchase Flare.

She’d buy the patent and register it to the Hasfeldt family.

It was truly materialistic thinking, but Klais had no choice. She saw this as the only way of restoring the family’s crumbling dignity.

“The patent for Flare? It’s currently split between the three of us.”

For any magic, the inventor possessed the rights to it.

It was the same for Klais. She made two Ultimate Fire spells herself: ‘Corona’ and ‘Chaser Flow’. For anyone in the continent to fabricate a scroll containing either of them, they’d need to pay her commission.

Of course, it applied to Flare as well. It could be bought and sold like any other patented technology.

“How, how much would you like? How much can I buy the patent for...?”

A thousand gold? Or two thousand?

No, that’d be too shameless.

She should give ten thousand pieces at least. Considering how much the Second Prince had offered her, that was the right thing to do.

Even for a Grand Duke, ten thousand gold was a considerable expense. Spending that much could topple the whole family in a time of war such as this.

However, it was a trade with more to gain than lose no matter how you looked at it. Losses could always be made up for.

After Klais’ inquiry, the three girls put their heads together and talked. They seemed to need their own discussion.

Lotte and Freyr nodded their heads in turn. They must have finished negotiating a price.

Aether opened her mouth.

“From this point, I hold all rights to Flare.”

“... Were you not saying earlier that the co-authors had shares, too?”

“It has just been transferred to me, for the cost of treating these two to a drink.”

Laughter burst from the audience. Klais also huffed incredulously.

Flare was valuable; how could it be given away for a single drink?

The other mages had also finished their calculations regarding Flare. The value of Flare’s patent was at least more than fifty thousand gold pieces.

Yet the words that followed erased everyone’s smiles.

“I will also forfeit my rights to Flare.”

The seminar room froze. Silence. Even Meriga, who had been casually listening with her arms crossed, pulled up her chair and leaned forward.

“What do you......!”

“Miss, you should rethink this! You’re wasting a golden opportunity to become filthy rich!”

If she just kept her eyes closed and sold the patent, then her bank account would be filled with enough money to be set for a lifetime. And a mere commoner, not a noble nor Imperial, was throwing away such an opportunity.

With composed eyes, Aether turned her head. To where Klais sat.

Klais’ mind was half-frozen at the sudden declaration of Flare becoming free to use. And this was what Aether’s eyes seemed to be saying to her.

? Your Flare’s pretty badass.

“... Th-that’s ludicrous! With what confidence are you rejecting passive income when you don’t have money? Are you mad...?!”

At her protest, Aether responded with a smile.

The smile of a stork looking down upon a crow-tit¹.

“Everyone here may see me as foolish or naive but even if that’s the case, I’ll go ahead and say it.”

“What....”

“This very moment, soldiers and citizens are being torn by Magic Beasts. But it doesn’t end there. Taxes are ever on the rise due to the prolonged war and the waves of poverty are overflowing out of the north into the east, south, west, and all the way into the state.”

“.......”

“I also was in this class before entering Tilette. It was to the point of living off of corn soup bought with two bronze coins.”

There weren’t many who could relate to Aether’s story; expectedly so since most of the audience were nobles. Only Meriga was nodding along.

“From the people’s perspective, their income is decreasing or staying the same while more and more taxes are being collected from them. And so I thought, if this continued then the national treasury would eventually run out. To prevent that from happening, there is only one clear solution in this instance.”

“Then you mean....”

The other mages were now starting to understand the point she was making.

“Yes, reduce military costs. Since Flare will be in the form of a scroll, if I forfeit the additional expenses which leaves only the cost of scroll fabrication, then we can end this war swiftly.”

“Still, you’ll regret giving up on a research patent such as this! You’d be better off selling the patent to some other...!!”

“... Professor Hasfeldt. You cannot put a patent on the sun.”

Eyes dipped in sulfur turned towards Klais.

Whether commoner or noble, status meant nothing here. This place was Tilette Magic Academy.

Indeed. ‘Magic’ Academy. A school that raised mages, a school filled with mages.

Thus spoke the scientist.

“Flare is now the public property of the continent.”

The ducal residence was located in the middle of the capital. Although it was no more than a villa separated from the main house, it was Klais’ only sanctuary.

“Welcome back.”

She nodded wordlessly at the butler’s greeting.

Taking off her robe, she tossed it carelessly. It was rash behavior inconceivable for a noble house that not even a five-year-old would display.

It wasn’t just the robe. She chucked away everything–her staff, bag, even her witch’s hat decorated with dried rosemary leaves and went into her room.

She pulled a stick of mana grass from her shirt and lit it. It tasted awful. The acrid smoke kept going down the wrong pipe which had her coughing constantly and prevented her from catching her breath.

“This was in the mailbox, Master.”

Klais’ butler, Houston, handed her an envelope. It was quite thick at the bottom. She looked for an address but there was nothing written.

“The sender is unknown.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Klais finally took out what was in the envelope.

It was a video film.

The mansion had a video projector that was run by magic so it wasn’t hard to recognize what this was. Klais returned to the room, inserted the film into the projector, and waited.

A wide snowy tundra spread before her eyes. Judging by the angle, the person who had filmed this recorded it from higher altitude.

Then a large monster burst through the snow. Though it was hard to gauge the overall size, its form was fully captured within the video.

A beast that was half-lobster, half-scorpion in appearance and mainly resided in the tundras.

“Homarus....”

Klais had faced it a few times. Its armor wasn’t as hard as a Gargantua but still quite tough.

Every fire bullet aimed at the head especially would ricochet. To safely subdue a Homarus, one needed to take out all of its legs first.

That should have been the standard tactic.

Along with a roaring Baaang, the Homarus’ head went flying. Thick smoke arose from where the head had once been.

“This... This is.......”

Klais had already seen this phenomenon once today.

“That Homarus is....”

A clip of a Calamity crumpling to a single Flare. The Flare in the video seemed far more lightweight than her own.

The times had changed. It was now an era where even a nine-year-old could handle a Calamity-level beast as long as they learned how to use it properly.

The world shook. Klais tried to pick herself up but toppled into the chair at her desk. The high-quality, hardwood chair creaked, then quieted.

Klais dropped her head onto the desk.

Then lifted it.

Then dropped it again. She picked up her head.

Drop.

Lift.

Once, twice, three, four times.

With every knock, time slipped away.

One year, two years, three years, four years.

Five years of her life, lost.

Not a sound was made. There wasn’t even the strength for that.

Her forehead on the desk, Klais wrapped the ends of her hair around her hand.

“.......”

If, if–

–she hadn’t sold Aether to the Prince, what would have happened? Then would she have been assigned as the corresponding author, at least?

If–

–she had treated Aether a little more like a human, then would she have been smiling together with the Golden-Eyed girl in that other world?

“Heh....”

What an utter fool. The consequences of ruining three years for one girl was five years of her own life wasted. This must also be the Goddess’ punishment.

“Mmhm, Master...? There is a call for you....”

As she kept knocking her head, someone knocked. It was the maid, Bella.

She brought with her the telephone. Klais reflexively raised her head and stood up.

The receiver was connected, and a low reception sound could be heard through it.

[Klais.]

Ah, there it was.

The familiar voice of her flesh and blood that she could never get used to.

Klais picked up the receiver handed over by the maid with a trembling hand. The word she hadn’t wished to say was forced through her lips.

“... Father.”

Footnotes

1. Reference to a Korean saying that a crow-tit can break its legs running after a stork (that one shouldn't bite off more than they can chew), so here, the stork is making it clear that the crow-tit's attempt was futile.