The Magic Academy's Physicist

Chapter 56: Black Death (3)

Chapter 56: Black Death (3)

A few days later, Klais returned to her father’s office.

“So, have you decided?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Klais adjusted her collar and continued.

“I’ll return to the battlefield.”

Her father had given her two choices to restore the family’s reputation. Klais chose the latter of the two.

? Redeem yourself by making a notable contribution.

Contribution, commonly represented by money and fame. To put it simply, it was the noble or knight receiving a ‘well done’ stamp from their lord.

“It seems my words weren’t completely lost on you. Good, do not die and come back safely.”

What parent on earth would send their daughter off to the battlefield, one might think, but the Hasfeldt family was the exception as a household full of soldiers. Everyone in the family believed slaughtering beasts on the field to be the achievement of a lifetime.

As such, Klais had been able to beat all of her many siblings and rise to the position of the head. She had killed the most beasts and saved the most number of allies. That was a feat in and of itself, but she had also broken through the first line of defense with her comrades during her time as a War Mage. She had been rewarded by the Emperor for that one contribution alone.

The first line of defense wasn’t something easy to break through for any mage. Once you went past it, there was a greater ratio of Calamities and in unfortunate cases, Cataclysms would also start to appear on the field.

Originally, humanity wouldn’t have been able to go beyond this line and only remain on defense. But that was no longer the situation.

“I will go and breach the third line of defense.”

She would break through not the second, but the third line. This was Klais’ ambition.

Realistically speaking, the chances of this happening were low. She was essentially saying that she would strike right in the heart of the Demonic Lands. Klais knew this, and so did her father.

“... The third? You don’t need to go that far.”

“It’ll be fine since I have Flare.”

Her father’s brows furrowed. He was using the same habit as Klais to express himself.

“It was my mistake that we lost the patent for Flare. Yet there is a positive aspect to that child releasing it.”

As she said this, Klais set down a bulky bag at the desk. She then took out a bunch of items and laid them out.

Magic paper. It was a whole pile of them filled with first-class scrolls, etched and coated.

The amount looked to be about at least a thousand sheets. The sheer quantity had Klais’ father dropping the mana grass in his mouth onto the ashtray below.

“These are all Flare?”

“Yes. I was working on these over the last few days.”

It was an unbelievable quantity, certainly not a number that could be completed in a week by one person.

“You may not be able to trust me still, but I wanted to show you that I’m capable of this much as someone who had completed Flare around the same time.”

“... Mm.”

“As for the family’s money that was poured into Flare’s development.... I will procure it somehow through the mana stones collected from the Calamities on the front.”

She pondered many things while staying at the main house.

Whether she should just copy the same runes that had shattered her mind to pieces, whether she should follow everything in Aether’s paper although she had been accused of plagiarism. Everything she was struggling with had to do with the Golden-Eyed girl.

To be consumed by envy, or to shake off trivial feelings and focus on efficiency.

And Klais remained loyal to her duties. So here she was now after fabricating Flare scrolls relentlessly using the freely-distributed blueprint.

This is enough.

Think of nothing but bringing wreckage upon the demon lands. Reduce the numbers of Calamities significantly and if possible, take down a Cataclysm as well. It was a plan she’d never could’ve imagined back in the days without Flare.

“Since the patent has been taken, it’ll be used in battle to gain merit... A sound judgment.”

Having received the elder’s approval, Klais bowed her head then left the office.

The office was covered in silence once again. Klais’ father, Renawill Hasfeldt, flicked the cigar that was sitting atop the ashtray and fell into thought.

? Zzzz.

“Mm, the mosquitoes are already rampant.”

Renawill snapped his finger forming a small container of fire and trapped the mosquito that had been buzzing around inside. The metallic mosquito was cooked to death, leaving no ashes.

There was a metallic tang as the ashes fell. It was the smell of penninite he had experienced hundreds and thousands of times on the field.

A smell that was more than familiar.

Yet, just a little.

“.......”

Just a little, the burnt smell filling his lungs seemed a bit different than before.

And in front was a wall as high as two grown men which was the barrier that separated the main house of Hasfeldt from outside.

A bright yellow moon in its fullest and several starry galaxies beyond. The shining stars which made up the galaxy suddenly reminded her of the eyes of the assistant who had left her.

She no longer wanted to see it, but the eyes tended to go back to beautiful things. Considering that the ground was all she would see as she grinded for the next while, it’d be best to take in as much of the sky as she could.

As she did, she spotted a set of sulfur-colored marbles shining subtly between the sky. Klais snapped her eyes wide open, sensing something off.

“Taking a walk somewhere?”

A voice suddenly sounded in front of her. The abrupt words had all of her hairs standing on end.

“...... Aide?”

And the response that popped out of Klais’ mouth was unexpected. So much so that she herself wondered why she said that.

There was a girl sitting on the wall of the ducal residence. Her eyes shone like full moons as she glared at her. Her appearance was eerily similar to Aether.

Except for one thing–the whiteness of her hair.

“Ha, ‘tide’? The only tide I know is in regards to tidal range.”¹

“... This is a Duke’s property. Who is so bold as to climb onto this wall?”

“Ah.... Right. It is rather dangerous to be this high up. Still, isn’t it fun to climb over walls?”

This conversation alone was full of rude comments. Klais glared daggers at the other person. And in response, the girl lifted her head and looked down at her.

The white-haired, gold-eyed girl enjoyed the view from up top with her back to the full moon. One leg crossed over the other, she made a sly face with a cigarette between her lips. Klais instinctively felt fear at the sight and stepped back to consider the situation.

“Are you a Golden-Eyed?”

“Can’t you tell?”

The girl chuckled and took a long drag of the grass.

If a Golden-Eyed who couldn’t use magic was smoking mana grass, it meant they were about to cast something. After spending a long time with Aether, this was familiar knowledge to Klais.

Something wasn’t right. She needed to be on guard.

Klais concentrated Fire elements in her hand. If the girl showed any suspicious signs, then she’d be ready to pull out her staff at any time and knock her in the head.

But contrary to her belief, the girl didn’t attempt to do anything to Klais. She just seemed to be having a smoke since her mouth was bored.

“Who are you?”

Klais asked, and scanned the girl’s appearance at the same time.

She was able to learn three things.

The first was that she was a Golden-Eyed, the second was that she had white hair all the way down to her waist.

And the third, she wore an attire that couldn’t be found in the Empire or elf country.

Her robe was white like her hair, but there wasn’t a hood attached that could be worn like a hat. The fabric itself was thinner than a normal robe as well. It might be summer, but this was the north where cold climate was the norm. She’d catch a cold with the way she was dressed.

Yet the girl showed no signs of being cold as she blew out smoke. After taking a moment to flick the cigarette, the girl smiled craftily and gave a peculiar answer to Klais’ question.

“Who am I.... that’s quite the philosophical question. Are you in a contemplative mood since it’s the hour when humans become the most emotional?”

“What are you....”

“It’s no fun to just tell you the answer. Who am I? Take a guess.”

She didn’t know her name, where she originated from, or what she was thinking. The biggest clue was her being a Golden-Eyed but except for looks, she was different from Aether in every way.

“Have you come over from the Elankaya Mountains?”

“Twenty questions! Not a bad strategy. That’s right, I was born there. Next?”

“And you haven’t been caught by slavers.”

“Correct.”

“You’re rather rude, unlike the Golden-Eyed of fables.”

“... Rude?”

At that point, the girl’s gaze upon Klais turned sharp. The white-haired Golden-Eyed jumped down from the wall and slowly walked towards her.

“The rude ones would be you guys who capture and use us.”

There was strange killing intent within those words. As one who had survived through hundreds of battles, Klais was able to sense it instinctively.

“You do know this is trespassing? If you don’t leave immediately, I will take action.”

“Try it if you can.”

“What....”

Klais was taken aback by her arrogance.

According to the stories passed down, the absolute majority of the Golden-Eyed were obedient and gentle. Yet what was happening? A Golden-Eyed like this was supposed to be a simple existence?

Thinking about it, there were many holes in those fables. If there were a hundred humans, they would have a hundred different personalities so why would the entire race of Golden-Eyed be assumed to share a single personality?

Klais realized something all of a sudden.

That Aether’s obedience hadn’t come from being a Golden-Eyed but simply because she had been a slave. Since they were an intelligent and quick-witted species, they’d come to grasp their situation faster than any of the others.

“Go ahead, whether you set me on fire or call on a servant or the master of the house to beat me. But if you do?”

So conversely speaking, a wild Golden-Eyed who hadn’t been made a slave and was running freely in this place.......

“You’ll pay the consequences.”

Was far more dangerous.

Klais pulled out her staff of twirling fire from subspace, but the girl didn’t even blink an eye and watched her. Then she took it further with actions aggravating to nobles such as inserting her hands into her pocket and bobbing her head.

“Oh dear, you’re really trying to go for it. It’s fine, you don’t need to be wary. I’m only here to greet you, anyway.”

“Greet...?”

“Exactly. A greeting.”

The girl casually moved back and forth in front of Klais. Her steps were slow as she twirled her fingers. She walked very similarly to what Aether had shown at the Flare presentation.

“You’ll be here a while, no? Then of course I should say hi because my hometown isn’t far from here.”

“What does that....”

“Ah, I might as well warn you while I’m at it.”

At the end of that statement, the restless footsteps treading the front yard also came to a halt.

Burning red pupils met soft uranium-colored ones.

The white-haired, gold-eyed girl added one last thing.

“No matter what you do, don’t go past the third line.”

Footnotes

1. Re: Aide = tide - ?? is a Korean homonym for assistant and tide and is directly used for tidal range (?? ??). A similar-sounding pair of words didn't exist and as the character herself is not exactly mishearing, please suspend your disbelief for this similar spelling instead, thanks.