The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 113: The Transfer Student (1)

Chapter 113: The Transfer Student (1)

The number of enrolled students at Tilette Academy was less than you’d think.

There were around 300 to 400 in each year. Because of that, it was easy to memorize the faces of my classmates if I put my mind to it.

Actually, it was said that the social butterflies could memorize the names of everyone in their year from going around to a few drinking parties. I wasn’t to that extent, but was at least able to think ‘oh, they’re a first year’ when I ran into a student on the street.

This was simply because I was a Golden-Eyed. It was partly due to good memory and also by way of being the race that I was, which would seem fascinating in other people’s eyes. As such, there were more than a few times at the beginning of the semester where I’d learn someone’s name going up and down these corridors.

It was ironic considering how the Golden-Eyed had been shunned for over a millennium for not being able to use magic. The first impression of most students I had met after entering the Academy hadn’t been so bad, either. Maybe because I had got in as second place.

They could be treating me differently because I was a Golden-Eyed who was in Tilette’s gifted class rather than just a normal one. Whatever the era, a person who went to a good school was generally treated well, after all.

Of course, there were also people who purely despised or discriminated against the Golden-Eyed.

I had met a few guys like Prince Klion who’d spit insults like ‘a race who can’t even use magic’. Although I’d usually walk past them because of time constraints, there were some who’d take that as me being intimidated and cross the line. Whenever that happened, I’d give them a good taste of my calipers and relish the sweet sensation of legally smashing their heads, relieving the stress that had built.

Whether I liked it or not, the number of students I’d met through such means was around 500 now.

“It’s my first time doing course registration, so would you be able to help me for a moment?”

And out of all those faces, this girl didn’t exist in my memories.

...... Who?

“Course registration?”

When I asked with a curious tilt, the girl nodded, ocean blue eyes sparkling.

“Yes, I’m only attending this semester.”

“Is it like an exchange student?”

“Ah.... yes!”

It didn’t seem like it.

The course registration itself was easy enough that a ten-year-old could do it themselves if they were smart enough. You just needed to jot down the subjects you wanted to take and submit it at the desk.

And they should know that if they were smart enough to come to Tilette as an exchange student....

With how much bullshit I’d personally heard and experienced from all the people over the years, I could feel it. This girl was lying.

In cases like these, it was best not to get deeply involved and just leave.

“You see that poster up there? You can go there and fill it out with which course you want and the instructor’s name and hand it in at the reception desk.”

“Oooh.... What are you planning to take?”

I momentarily short-circuited at the abrupt question with no prior context.

Why do you want to know?

“... I’m just taking the fundamentals.”

“I see. Then may I take the same ones?”

“Sure....”

The girl grabbed the registration form and pen and sat next to me. She then started copying all the subjects I wrote down.

“I just need to write it here, right?”

She lifted her head slightly with a shy grin. Her blue-purplish hair which flowed straight down to her waist fluttered gently, a scent similar to the bath salts I’d smelled while I was in Saliere County coming and going like a breeze. She seemed to be using quite the luxurious conditioner.

Looking closer, her looks rivaled that of a Golden-Eyed or a High Elf.

“Right?”

“Yes.”

Ah, fuck my life. Yesterday it was Angelica, today it was this girl.

She was suspicious in many ways. Like the way she kept grinning whenever she looked at me, or wearing a dress you’d see at an Imperial social to a course registration.

“Sis, may I call you sis?”

Or some weird thing like this.

“... Whatever you want.”

It was annoying but it was at least better in the sense that she didn’t make me want to smack her like Angela.

I didn’t know why. Just, she wasn’t that bad.

“Thanks for helping me, sis.”

The girl pulled out a fan from her pocket, which I didn’t even know why she carried. She chuckled. Her villainess-like posture seen in cartoons and shows had me nearly scoffing.

“Allow me to treat you to a cup of tea.”

“No, I’m fin.......”

“I happen to know a decent dessert café nearby. I believe it’ll suit your taste as well.”

“.......”

... Dessert, eh.

Let’s consider this seriously as a physicist on the border between metaphysics and physics.

I had tons of things to get done. I needed to develop a mini-Flare in exchange for the tuition and research funds I was getting from the chairman, and also had to think of a new way to exchange information with Vermel. I also had to worry about the development of the thermonuclear bomb in case the Demon King resurrected, and needed to master as much magic as I could here at Tilette in order to get back to my original world.

And this all came at a cost which was stress. I would become more and more mentally drained with each completed task.

In such circumstances, wouldn’t it be beneficial to spend a little time to reduce my stress level?

“They even have Luwak coffee and a three-layer parfait that you won’t find elsewhere. Would you like to go see?”

The girl tugged on my arm and smiled gently with her eyes. With a smile added to her round cat-like face, she was hard to resist mentally.

Yeah, this was give-and-take. I helped this kid so it should be fine for her to treat me.

I could always pay the difference myself.

**... And that turned out to be a crucial mistake.

“Your total comes to fifty gold.”

The shop we were currently at was called the ‘Yellowcake Median’, a dessert spot hidden in the back streets of the capital according to the girl in front of me.

That didn’t matter. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at the server’s flat voice.

Fifty gold? The fuck?

When I stared dumbfoundedly at the server, she looked between me and the girl with an expression that said ‘will you be okay, dear suckercustomer’? Regardless, the girl sipped on her mocktail in bliss.

We didn’t even order that much and it was costing a fortune. I wasn’t the one paying, but wouldn’t it be an unfair deal for this girl, then?

“I’m sorry, ma’am. The costs have gone up so much lately.... We would have been in deficit if we hadn’t raised our prices....”

I did think that there was something wrong with the Empire’s economy even before the plague broke out.

Even if I hadn’t studied economics in depth, I knew that this was inflation or stagflation as they say. The problem was that I was an amateur in this field who only knew the basics so I couldn’t do anything about it.

“It’s alright.”

Whatever. The girl took fifty shiny coins from her inner pocket and stacked them. Even in rough estimation, I could see that it was fifty pieces.

The server looked a bit taken aback.

I was probably making the same face as her. Either way, most of the people working here were commoners, and I was still one, too. Which meant that she and I had similar economic sense.

“Huhu, no need to feel bad. It’s my treat, after all.”

Didn’t this mean I owed her, then?

I knew for sure that this girl was a noble, or a princess of some country.

“Still. Wouldn’t you try to be a little frugal if the nation’s economy’s like this?”

Before I knew it, I was talking casually to the girl. Not because I wanted to, but she’d begged me so I was going along with it. If I could have my way, I wanted to immediately go back to speaking formally.

“For commoners, yes. But I’m rich enough to not be concerned with that.”

“But to be going around with this much cash....”

“I brought it with the intention of coming here, originally.”

“You’re okay spending this much on me?”

“Yes, I said it’s fine. If anything, it’s times like these that people like me should be pouring money into the market. That’s how the country’s economy will keep functioning, right?”

She was saying it jokingly, but it didn’t sound like a joke. Rather, there seemed to be an ulterior motive behind the light words.

As if she was trying to figure something out about me....

“Not really.”

“Hmm.”

I smirked and stopped there without further explanation. I didn’t want to get into an argument with someone I’d just met today.

“Your parfait.”

“Can I really eat this?”

“Yes, of course. This isn’t to have you owe me so please go ahead and eat all you’d like.”

Yaaaay.

With excitement, I speared the half-strawberry sitting at the top of the glass cup with my fork. As I was about to bring it to my mouth, the girl in front of me blinked her long lashes and asked.

“By the way, sis, we haven’t even introduced ourselves yet. Do you recognize me?”

“Recognize you...?”

“Haven’t we met somewhere before?”

“... No?”

Not that there wasn’t a sense of déjà vu when she said that, but these things were usually an illusion experienced by the brain. When it seemed like it should be something, it often wasn’t. It was something I’d realized several times while studying my major.

“Hmm, alright. You felt familiar like I’d seen you a few times.”

Something felt strange so I abruptly raised my head.

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

“What is it?”

“... It’s nothing.”

Let’s think.

She thought that I, the only Golden-Eyed in the Empire who’d been trapped in the capital for four years, ‘felt familiar like she’d seen me a few times’?

I examined the forkful of whipped cream I’d scooped before shoving it into my mouth. On it were little jade-colored particles too small for the human eye. Beryllium crystals.

And lastly, I recalled the name of this café once more.

Yellowcake Median.

“Hooh.”

I now had an idea of what was going on, who the kid in front of me was.

It was as Vermel had said before.

Second semester wasn’t going to be easy.