—There is freedom of magic in the Magic Tower! So I would like to settle this by giving Assistant Professor Epherene a two-year suspension, with a review for lifting the suspension every quarter! And, and, if we start arguing from the beginning, there’s also the supervising professor’s negligence!
The supervising professor’s negligence.
In other words, Deculein’s fault.
Adrienne boldly brought it up.
—Isn’t that right, everyone?!
—……
She asked the faculty and board members, but no answer came back.
Everyone merely groaned under their breath; it was as quiet as a grave.
—Hmph! Are you all watching yourselves because I’m about to step down or what?! Anyway! Assistant Professor Epherene!
The chairman called Epherene with a pouty mutter. Epherene looked up at that silhouette.
“……Yes.”
—I, Chairman Adrienne, who am still the chairman, recommend a two-year suspension as Assistant Professor Epherene’s disciplinary punishment!
Adrienne’s cry rang out across the area.
A disciplinary measure far, truly far better than dismissal.
—Let us decide by vote.
But Deculein showed no sign of backing down so easily.
He continued in an even more resolute voice.
—The disciplinary measure I recommend remains dismissal.
—Oh-ho!
Adrienne slapped her knee, and Epherene, looking at Deculein, worried her lips.
Of course she couldn’t help feeling hurt.
They said that in the world of magic, masters and disciples were more often the kind of people who wouldn’t even attend each other’s funerals than those with close bonds. Was this perhaps something similar to the process of becoming that way?
—Then! It can’t be helped, Assistant Professor Epherene?! If you have any remaining defense, go ahead! Something that might change Professor Deculein’s mind!
Adrienne said.
—Who knows?! If you bend your will even now, it might be reduced to a one-year suspension!
A persuasion to see if she would yield.
Sitting in a narrow chair, under the gazes of those looking down at her from a place higher than herself, Epherene sank blankly into thought.
Clutching the hem of her robe, she thought once more about what she had done wrong.
“……Ah.”
Then suddenly, an enlightenment tapped against her skull.
A single thought brushed through her mind.
Gulp—
Epherene swallowed and raised her head.
She looked up at Deculein’s silhouette.
“……”
If.
If I’m going to continue this research.
If I’m going to connect science and magic no matter what, and achieve something of my own.
If I want to become independent as a full-fledged adult mage.
Wouldn’t it be better to grow distant from Deculein?
No, shouldn’t I grow distant from him?
—Assistant Professor Epherene?! Do you have nothing to say?! Do you intend to yield?!
And if I’m the only one hated like this, that would actually be better.
But Yukline has its dignity. It has a bloodline that is the history of the Empire itself.
Deculein is also a noble. He is the emperor’s captain of the guard, and the Head Professor who will become the chairman of the Magic Tower.
He is in too high a position, and has too much to lose.
As Adrienne said, the supervising professor’s negligence.
If I don’t give up, if I don’t bend, I might end up smearing mud on his face and dignity.
I might cause him even greater damage, greater harm.
Is Deculein trying to dismiss me because he hates that too?
No, even if that isn’t what Deculein feels……
I hate it.
“……No.”
Epherene spoke.
At that instant, exclamations mixed with contempt and disdain drifted down from above.
“I have no intention of retracting it.”
But their reactions didn’t even register.
The only person here with me in this place right now is Deculein.
She decided to think of it that way.
“I, you see, saw the possibility of science in the 「Deculein·Luna」 thesis. Not as science that is a tool of magic, but as magic that can develop together with magic.”
Looking back on it now, perhaps she had been relying too much on Deculein all this time.
“Even if it is an idea different from yours, Professor Deculein, and far too radical.”
No, perhaps she had gone beyond reliance and had become dependent on him.
“I thought you, Professor, would acknowledge it.”
Whenever something happened, wouldn’t Deculein somehow resolve it?
With that kind of complacent mindset, she had nearly caused Yuren’s volcano to erupt.
“Professor Deculein. My father died because of you. Even after he passed thirty, he never even came close to the threshold of assistant professor his entire life—”
—Ahem!
Relin cut in, but she paid him no mind.
“He was overtaken by his juniors, by brand-new students far younger than him, tormented by that humiliation, and then killed himself. And after all that, you thought everything would be justified just because you added his name to a single theory?”
Of course, she knew the inside story of that incident. She knew the truths hidden within.
“But weren’t your other past papers written together with my father too, Professor? Then why is my father’s name absent from those papers? It’s absent because you stole them, isn’t it?”
—Assistant Professor Epherene! I told you not to say irrelevant things! Head Professor, there is nothing more to see! This ungrateful—!
Even so, she would pretend not to know.
“And now, you’re trying to dismiss me too.”
Because she was the arrogant Epherene.
—……
Deculein said nothing.
Whether that silence was anger, sorrow, or indifference.
Because she couldn’t see his face, Epherene had no way of knowing.
She only seemed to know that every professor and board member was watching Deculein’s mood.
Whatever it was, he must find me unbelievably disgusting for saying such things. He might be glaring at me as if looking at filth.
—All right. That’s enough now.
Bang, bang, bang—
At that moment, Adrienne struck the desk.
—This personnel committee today is, in effect, the final decision of my term. Soon, I will leave not only the Magic Tower, but this entire secular world.
However, her voice was rather strange.
Unlike just moments ago, when she had been enjoying herself tremendously, it was quite emotional, and very serious.
—Of course, this situation is entertaining…… but by the authority of the final chairman, shall we end it here?
It was the first mature voice Epherene had ever heard from her.
At Adrienne’s exceedingly unusual demeanor, the faculty fell silent. No one dared to add another word.
The one who broke that heavy silence was, as expected, Deculein.
—I will take my leave now.
He spoke as he usually did, but Epherene’s heart ached.
He must be disappointed in me.
Of course he is.
—Professor, the vote first.
Adrienne asked Deculein for his vote, and Deculein answered.
—I am still for dismissal.
Epherene lowered her head. Her tightly bitten lip trembled.
—Yes. Then, next. We’ll proceed in order, starting with Mr. Relin.
Thud—
The sound of a door closing.
In that space where Deculein seemed to have left, the personnel committee’s disciplinary vote slowly continued…….
* * *
……That was a week ago.
The vote had been taken on the spot that day at the personnel committee, but it was announced to the Magic Tower today.
[Personnel Committee Results]
[Suspension: Epherene]
[For damaging the dignity of the Magic Tower by submitting an irreverent and incomplete thesis to the academic world without review by any member of the faculty……]
“Sigh……”
The result of the personnel committee, slammed onto the Magic Tower’s public notice board.
As Adrienne had said, a two-year suspension, with a review for lifting the suspension every quarter.
She had no regrets.
She wasn’t sad either.
Because this time, she had realized down to her bones that the Magic Tower could not tolerate the research she intended to pursue.
……Ah, that suspended kid?
……She was unpleasant from the start.
……But is that true? That her dad died because of Deculein.
……Yeah. They say it’s true. Apparently she exposed some suicide case that had been pretty much covered up? buried? at the personnel committee.
……Wow, then was she sticking around Deculein all this time to get revenge? Ruthless. Ruthless.
Receiving all sorts of gazes from the Magic Tower, Epherene trudged into the elevator.
Even in the elevator packed with mages, the eyes glancing at her were irritating, but what could she do?
Ding—
The 77th floor, where she arrived.
Stepping out into the corridor, Epherene looked around as she walked.
Professor Deculein probably isn’t here.
I came alone today to clean up.
Knock, knock—
Just in case, she knocked on the office door, and when there was no response, she opened it and went in.
“Phew.”
The empty interior drew a sigh of relief from her.
Deculein was not in the office chair where he was always seated. The table where she had sat as his assistant had already been completely cleared away.
“……I’m sorry, Professor.”
Looking around the place made her heart hurt for no reason. Her chest ached.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said those things.
Her father, who committed suicide after suffering under Deculein, and her father, who delivered the Devil’s Letter to Deculein’s fiancée.
Even though she knew of that tragedy, so entangled and intertwined…….
“Please hate me.”
Muttering in a needlessly sorrowful voice, she placed a mana stone, the thesis, and one ‘gift’ on Deculein’s desk.
For reference, this mana stone was a ‘verification mana stone’ she had created by infusing it with her own mana.
It was evidence that the 「Deculein·Luna」 thesis had truly been implemented, and that it could be implemented.
With this, Professor should be able to rise to Elder.
“But, you know. I think I’m really becoming a mage now.”
It would be nice to set aside her own will and stay with Deculein, but now she wanted to pursue her own research.
Because it truly felt as if she had encountered what mages often called ‘the lifelong desire of my life.’
She didn’t want to abandon this research, the theory that would become her magic.
She didn’t want to waste even a little time.
Was this what it meant to become a ‘true mage’?
“I suppose it’s time to step out of the shade.”
Time to become independent as a mage.
A chance to become an adult.
That time had come for her as well.
“……Then I’ll be going.”
Leaving behind a small smile, she came back out of the office.
The corridor of the 77th floor. She passed the research rooms, laboratories, assistant rooms, conference rooms, and the other spaces she had grown attached to…….
“……Uh.”
Suddenly, dismay entered her mind.
“But. Where am I supposed to do research?”
She had no research room.
No, forget a research room—she didn’t even have a place to sleep right away.
After all, she usually stayed in the dormitory, and occasionally at the Yukline mansion.
“Stocks……”
Of course, if she liquidated all her stocks, she would have enough to buy a house in the capital, but the prices of mana stones, magic books, and all kinds of experimental tools were astronomical.
Mere stocks couldn’t cover that.
For facilities befitting my research, I’d need at least five million elne—
“……I do have sponsorship.”
There was Deculein’s sponsorship. The support funds Deculein had delivered anonymously from quite some time ago.
But she didn’t want to squander that.
“How could I use it after saying those things to the professor?”
“Those things?”
“Yes. Rumors are going around the Magic Tower too. For no reason, our personal affairs……?”
What?
Epherene, stopping mid-sentence, blinked.
Who did I just answer?
“Hehe. It’s been a while~”
Behind her.
A voice mixed with a cute laugh came over.
At that moment, goosebumps rose along Epherene’s back, and she quickly turned that way.
“……Aaaah, A-Assistant Professor Allen?!”
Assistant Professor Allen.
That mischievous person who had disappeared after ‘pretending’ to die in Reccordak was looking at her with the same appearance as before.
At first, she wondered if it was a ghost, or if this was also a dream, or if she had perhaps time traveled again—
“Nice to see you~ I wanted to see you so much, but I had work to do too.”
“……Work?”
Epherene asked back blankly.
“Yes.”
Allen answered brightly and grabbed her wrist.
“Would you like to come with me?”
“……With you?”
“Yes. You said you don’t have a place to do research.”
“No…… where are we going?”
“You’ll know when you come.”
With a beaming smile, Allen stepped one pace forward.
At that moment, the world turned upside down.
The corridor of the 77th floor flipped over with a whoosh, and an entirely new landscape filled every direction.
“……Hweeeek! Wh-wh-wh-wha, what is this?”
Startled, Epherene whipped her head around.
“Where is this?”
First of all, it was dark.
A very dark clearing.
The only source of light in that dark place, which might have been a cave or a basement, was a single glowing tree set in the middle.
“Oh, looks like I brought you properly.”
Beneath that tree’s shade, a mage in robes sat at a tea table, looking at her.
Epherene peered at that face with narrowed eyes.
“……Mage Idnik?!”
The eyes that had narrowed went wide again.
“Yeah. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
Idnik answered, raising a hand.
“Wh-what is this? Where are we……”
“Here? We call it Sanctuary.”
She sipped her black tea.
“Its official name is ‘Time.’ It was built beneath the Land of Extinction, and its significance is…… a community? meant to oppose ‘God,’ I suppose.”
“……What did you say? Then this place is the Land of Extinction……?”
“Yeah. The North. It’s quite a fine place for magic research.”
She gave a faint laugh and pointed behind Epherene.
“And over there. There’s one more.”
“?”
Epherene spun around. Sure enough, there was someone there as well.
A woman in a robe like Idnik, but with a sword at her waist.
A knight whose snow-white hair swayed like snow between the edges of her hood, her face still resolute and strong.
“It’s good to see you, Miss Epherene.”
Yulie von Deya Freyden.
* * *
“That ungrateful bastard finally left, I hear.”
The corridor of the Magic Tower. Relin chattered away as he trotted after me.
“Phew. It feels like having an aching tooth pulled. Ah, please don’t worry, just in case.”
He kept talking without pause even as we got into the elevator together.
“I’ll make sure he never passes the next review, or the one after that. In two years, well, he’ll probably wear himself out and leave for the provinces on his own.”
Ding—
The 77th floor.
“You may go now.”
“……Ah, yes!”
Leaving Relin behind as he saluted like a soldier, I opened the door to my office on the 77th floor.
“…….”
Only one person was gone, and yet the office felt as though it had become empty.
Ah, of course, there was still one person in the laboratory.
Drent. The man who had now become my only assistant professor.
In any case.
“……She learned something strange.”
Recalling Epherene’s appearance that day, I shook my head.
In truth, her words had angered me a little. Especially when she mentioned bloodline, a temperamental, instinctive anger had boiled up within me.
However, the fact that it looked as though our master-disciple relationship had been severed was good.
It was clever, unlike Epherene.
This way would be safer for her, rather.
“Mm?”
Suddenly, I noticed some objects that had appeared on my desk. They seemed to have been left behind by Epherene: a mana stone covered in sticky notes, a thesis, and a book.
I read the sticky notes first.
[This is the proof mana stone for the Deculein-Luna thesis. I made it by putting my mana into it, so the manifestation is certain.]
[I was originally going to present it myself, but it was disgusting, so I’m just leaving it here. No. Even if I had tried to present it, you would’ve found some way to interfere, right? Obvious as day.]
[Present it and become an elder or don’t. But don’t use my name. I don’t want to get involved.]
[And, if that ‘arrogant’ view of magic is still valid, try reading this book. Science is just as amazing as magic.]
[Let’s never see each other again.]
Even her way of seeking hatred was clumsy.
For reference, the title of the book Epherene left behind, telling me to read it, was [Theory of Relativity, Volume 1].
“…….”
I smiled faintly. I sat down in my chair with the bundles of gifts she had left behind.
“Hmm.”
Letting out a small breath, I looked around the inside of the office.
It was quiet.
There was no sound at all.
It was that still, and that clean.
In other words, I was alone.
Once again, I was alone.
“Good.”
I nodded in satisfaction and picked up Epherene’s proof thesis. I began reading it line by line from the first page, then furrowed my brow.
“Why are there so many typos?”
Perhaps she had written it in a hurry because she was leaving, but there were far too many typos in the sentences.
I moved a pen with 「Psychokinesis」 and began correcting and editing it.