“What on earth is there, exactly?”
[To be precise, it is a spirit vessel bearing my seal—the “Spirit Vessel of Principle Interference, the Ring of Word Spirit.” A thousand years ago, I bestowed it upon that disciple of mine as a token……]
Eleanor looked at Ivelin’s receding back.
[It seems that child is his descendant.]
“What kind of bullshit is that, seriously……”
[It is no lie. I was certain the moment I saw the grain of how that child handles mana. She is of my disciple’s bloodline. Now then, let us use the pretext of checking her homework and pay a visit to that duke’s mansion.]
My vision went dark.
The duke’s family treasury?
Wasn’t that place as heavily guarded as the Imperial Palace’s storerooms?
If some mere researcher with a rat’s tail’s worth of mana walked in there and said, “That item from a thousand years ago belongs to us, so hand it over”?
I’d probably be physically dismantled by the duke’s knights before I even got near the treasury.
I shuddered.
“Ugh, I’m not going. Absolutely not.”
To begin with, there was no proper way for me to set foot in that heavily guarded ducal estate.
Even if I barged in under the pretext of checking homework, there was no way they would welcome me.
[Oh? Look at this fellow. Do you think that ring is some ordinary ornament? It is a vessel that contains the primordial True Words that shaped the world.]
As if tempting me, Eleanor lowered her voice.
[The words you utter would become the laws of the world, allowing you to directly interfere with the flow of all things.]
For an instant, a scene from an anime flashed through my mind.
……Cursed speech, dragon tongue, word spirit?
“Wait a minute. No way. You mean like, if I say ‘Don’t move,’ everything stops, and if I say ‘Explode,’ it goes boom?”
[The principle is similar. The mana of this world responds to the caster’s will and takes form.]
Eleanor continued.
[That ring assimilates your voice with the song of all things flowing through the foundation of the world. With a single word, you can suppress or erupt the waves of causality.]
All of a sudden, my heart began pounding like mad.
Eleanor was talking about magical True Words and laws, but from my perspective, this was no different from permission to access the system called the world.
To put it simply, a kind of cheat.
It meant that without having to calculate complicated formulas one by one, I could forcibly fix the laws of physics through the medium known as word spirit.
And then Eleanor delivered the finishing blow.
[Furthermore, my spirit vessels are also fortresses that store mana. If you reclaim the ring, even that pitiful mana vessel of yours will surge with the power I left behind. Will you still give up?]
“……………”
Word spirit and an auxiliary mana bank.
To a physics student and researcher—
and, beyond that, to an otaku, those words were utterly lethal.
The dream hardware that could turn hypotheses existing only in theory into reality was right there.
Sleeping in the ducal treasury, close enough to trip over!
This was an academic yearning beyond mere possessiveness.
No, actually, I just wanted it really fucking badly.
“……We’re going. Let’s go. Damn it, it’s do or die.”
[Oho, your eyes have changed. As expected of the man I chose.]
“But in front of Ivelin, you absolutely have to watch your mouth. The moment we’re found out, we’ll be treated as thieves and sent straight to the guillotine.”
[Do not worry. Am I not one who endured the void with patience for a thousand years? My dignity is not so light.]
I can trust her, right?
“Hmm…… Well, I’ll trust you for now.”
Even with Eleanor’s confident answer, my anxiety did not fade.
Theft, huh.
Just as the last remaining conscience I had as a scholar was starting to prick at me—
‘……Wait, now that I think about it.’
A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
If things followed the plot of this novel—
the Estal ducal family was destined to fall miserably in the future because of the female lead, Yuna.
But the situation was different now.
As long as I was teaching Ivelin and rebuilding her magic system through physics,
she would not collapse as meaninglessly as she did in the original.
In other words, I was deleting the scenario of this family’s destruction itself.
‘The fact that their house won’t be wiped out is entirely thanks to me, isn’t it?’
If the price for saving a doomed family and raising her into the Empire’s greatest genius mage was just one ring?
Then wasn’t this not theft, but a legitimate charge for survival?
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I was the one taking a loss here.
“Yeah, this is a perfectly fair trade.”
[What are you thinking so sinisterly about? A wicked smile is spreading across your lips.]
Perched on my shoulder, Eleanor narrowed her eyes and asked.
“Sinister? I was merely designing a fair transaction. Senior, when we get to the ducal mansion, you need to pinpoint the ring’s location first.”
[Do not worry. It is an object imbued with my aura, so even if we merely approach the treasury, I will feel it as though my heart were beating. By the way…… what do you plan to do if that child fails to complete her homework?]
Eleanor asked as she looked at the lingering trace of Ivelin, who had disappeared beyond the door.
“As if that would happen. Even if only because of her pride, she’ll stay up all night and do it perfectly, won’t she? That’s how graduate students are trained, after all.”
[……You know, sometimes you seem more wicked than I am.]
Leaving Eleanor’s disgusted voice behind, I packed my bag.
***
On my way to the laboratory.
The refreshing morning air pierced my lungs, but my mood was not refreshing at all.
Yesterday, I must have briefly lost my reason after being blinded by the performance of that cheat-class item called the Ring of Word Spirit.
Let’s think about it calmly.
Sneaking into the treasury of the duke’s mansion—the number one noble house in the Empire—under the pretext of checking homework?
That was the kind of plot even the protagonist of a romance fantasy novel would attempt and then get the series discontinued.
‘What kind of lunatic goes to a duke’s house using homework-checking as an excuse? This isn’t elementary school.’
To shove such a childish idea, one that might only work on modern people, at the greatest power in the Empire—
it was not something I could do in my right mind.
What was I supposed to say to Ivelin, anyway?
I was so worried about your homework that I came to take a look around the ducal treasury?
That sharp-witted villainess would probably report me to the guards immediately.
As if she had read my thoughts, Eleanor, wriggling inside my coat, scolded me.
[Oh, what are you fretting over? Did I not say she is the descendant of my disciple? Simply knock on the door with confidence and command them to hand over my spirit vessel!]
“As if it’s that easy. Do you think the duke’s family home is someone’s living room? If you set foot in there the wrong way, you don’t just get a spicy taste of class society—your head and body physically say goodbye, Senior.”
What a childish Tenth-Circle mage.
That might have worked a thousand years ago, but now this was a strict class society.
Thinking that I needed to come up with another plan, I opened the laboratory door.
***
The moment I entered the laboratory, Director Barman came rushing toward me in a panic.
‘What is this ominous déjà vu?’
Whenever this man came looking for me first thing in the morning, sweating cold bullets like this, something bad always happened.
“Ugh, Director. What is it this time? You’re even doing that nervous thing you normally don’t do.”
When I asked, Director Barman gripped my shoulders hard enough to crush them and shook me.
His pupils were trembling so violently they were practically spasming.
“He’s here…… He came to see you in person!”
“What’s here? Lunch delivery? It’s still morning, though.”
“Is this the time for jokes?! His Grace the Duke of Estal has come to see you personally! I’m begging you, Rihan. Today, put some life into those dead-fish eyes of yours and be as respectful as possible! Do you understand?”
“Pardon? What are you talking about…… Why would the duke come here……”
“According to the rumors, that man is a madman obsessed with magic. If he doesn’t like your research results, he’ll physically dismantle you on the spot! If you get on his bad side, there won’t even be bones left to pick up, you fool!”
‘Holy fuck!’
Why would the head of a ducal family come to a research institute like this without warning?
Is this his living room?
It’s not some neighborhood convenience store.
He should have at least given us a heads-up so we could prepare.
***
My thoughts grew complicated.
Where could Ivelin’s fiery personality have come from?
Obviously from her father.
This was exactly when the phrase “like father, like daughter” applied.
I remembered why the Estal ducal family had fallen in the romance fantasy novel.
Ivelin’s wicked deeds had been a problem, but the decisive blow had been the duke himself, the head of the family.
His desire for magical inquiry had been so strong that he had crossed the line and even dabbled in black magic—that had been the setting of the original work, hadn’t it?
In the end, that was exposed, and the family was blown apart.
And that magic-obsessed madman had come to see me personally?
The reason was obvious.
Like Ivelin, he was probably after my physics theory.
[How wonderful! This is a chance to see for myself what my disciple’s descendants amount to. While we are at it, why not ask him to give us that ring? Proudly reveal this lady’s name and all!]
Eleanor, tucked inside my coat, was excited without understanding the situation at all.
‘I’m telling you, saying your name won’t mean much, Senior……’
Even I, teaching modern physics, was just begging to be treated as a heretic.
Revealing that a legendary mage who disappeared a thousand years ago was parasitizing my body would be no different from suicide.
I swallowed dryly and looked toward the reception room the director was pointing at.
I had just been racking my brain over how to infiltrate the ducal treasury.
But now the owner of the treasury had come to me on his own two feet?
There was a saying that crisis was opportunity.
I took one deep breath.
If this was a meeting I could not avoid anyway, then perhaps a head-on breakthrough would be the fastest route.
“Phew…… Let’s go. I’ll at least see his face.”
I followed behind Director Barman.