The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 79: The Dragon Who Drinks Uranium (1)

Inside the carriage heading west.

There were three girls sitting within. Seemingly exhausted from the long trip, two of them were off in dreamland.

Leaving them be, Lotte shook her head as she looked out the window. It wasn’t to be rid of post-meal drowsiness but rather, she was having issues falling asleep.

Lotte turned her eyes inward; she could see two girls sleeping soundly while leaning on each other’s shoulders.

The one drooling in her sleep was a girl by the name of Freyr Shelkany. Shelkany–a rare family name. It wasn’t one that she’d heard of in the Empire, at least.

Freyr was small in stature. She’d introduced herself as a dwarf when they first met, and was someone good at drinking as well as an expert in transmutation.

Lotte, who enjoyed learning from others, would immediately ask Freyr for help whenever she got stuck on studying Earth Magic. A can of beer was all she needed as lesson fees.

She was small, skilled at transmutation, and could drink even the strongest of alcohols. She had all the characteristics of a dwarf.

Still, that doesn’t make her a dwarf.

The dwarves had been wiped out long ago by the beasts, at least centuries back. No matter how much Freyr went around claiming that she was one, no one took it seriously.

She’s a strange one.

Once she finished her assessment of Freyr, Lotte glanced a little to the side.

A cool breeze blew in through the window at that moment. Black hair like ebony swayed gently with the wind, right in the direction that Lotte was looking.

The girl before her wheezed in her sleep, fingers locked together. Lotte had heard this distinct breathing for over three months; it was the sound made when the party wasn’t sleeping well.

Aether.

The Golden-Eyed girl who had been her roommate for the first semester.

Aether ranked second in the entrance exams of Tilette Magic Academy. She’d narrowly avoided failing the practical, but instead unprecedentedly scored perfect marks for the written.

And as if that wasn’t already amazing, there was another above her–Vermel, the international elf student from Kaurelia. Because Vermel and Aether had respectively taken first and second place, Lotte’s marks put her in third place.

─ You were third? No way.

─ But you worked so hard!

The students of other families and the family servants who followed her all had the same reactions. When she thought back to the words she’d heard half a semester ago, it left this kind of bitter aftertaste.

With a bitter smile, Lotte gazed at Aether who was sleeping in her seat across from her.

I envy you.

The naturally intelligent Golden-Eyed. Was this gap between species impossible to overcome?

She was talented, too, of course. She had great mana capacity and maintained being at the top of her classes. And the biggest talent that she had was being born into a rich family.

But it wasn’t that she didn’t put in any effort. Rain or shine, Lotte trained. She swung her staff a hundred times more often than her peers and read through all the magic texts in her father’s library. The fingerprints on her pointer and middle fingers wore down from all the scrolls she drew.

She especially practiced Fire Magic to the point that it could be her specialty, in order to one day wield the ultimate Fire Magic that would surpass the Duke Hasfeldt family.

However, she realized after entering the Academy that there were many others in the world who were more talented.

I can’t even think about being envious, to be honest.

An overwhelming gap in theoretical knowledge. The Innate Magic that nullified her own technique in one shot during the practical.

As such, she felt respect rather than envy.

Of course, Lotte first learned that this was an ugly emotion from her father. Count Saliere, who withdrew from factional conflict and maintained neutrality, always advised her and her brother to control their emotions.

─ You should never envy others no matter what.

By taking that advice to heart, Lotte had been able to learn a lot of things. She was now capable of using over 800 Flame Magic through the Fire Magic theories she’d learned from asking Aether.

Not just 800, but that many in the span of 3 months. Thinking about how long it used to take her to learn even one, it was a vast improvement.

Father was right.

Lotte didn’t make the wrong choice. Watching Aether, she began reminiscing about the past.

How they developed Flare together. How Aether did her best to take care of her when she’d nearly died from the Black Death.

I hope this will continue to be our relationship in the future.

She wished they could stay together like this until graduation.

“Ah.”

She could see jagged mountains there in the distance.

It was the Pitchblende Mountain range that extended from the Elankaya Cordillera in the north and crossed the western borders.

The appearance of that mountain indicated that they had entered the Saliere territory.

It was time for her to wake her friends.

Lotte shook the sleeping Aether’s shoulder.

“Euegh.”

She didn’t react much other than the brief groan. Feeling weirdly playful, Lotte tapped Aether on the cheek this time.

Still won’t wake up, hm?

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on ƒreewebɳovel.com.

“Sendd me huome.”

“...!!”

That scared me...!

Her heart nearly leapt to her throat; she didn’t expect her to suddenly talk in her sleep.

Anyway.

Send me home?

What did this mean?

Aether seemed to be searching for her home in her dreams. If so, it didn’t make sense.

Summer vacation was when everyone could leave the capital and do as they wished. Aether could go home if she wanted to.

Is she unable to for some reason?

She didn’t know where Aether’s home was. They’d speculated that it might be in the Elankayas but it was merely a theory.

Yet if there was a reason why she couldn’t return home and she’d come along to the western regions to avoid the killer prices of the capital.

I’ll treat her well.

Aether was her lifesaver who’d saved her from the plague. Her idea was to introduce her to her father and bring her into the citadel if possible.

Lotte shook the other two awake again.

“Eugh.”

Freyr woke up first making a strange noise. She wiped the saliva at her mouth with her sleeve and blinked a couple times.

Aether seemed deeply asleep, having a harder time waking. Freyr, who gradually became more aware as she looked around, asked her.

“Are we there?”

“Almost.”

Freyr looked out, and her eyes turned wide.

Who’s interrupting my sleep.

Tap, tap, tap.

First it was the cheek, now the side. Someone was poking me. Considering the seating arrangement, there was only one person who’d do this.

“Hey! Look over there!”

As expected. I opened my eyes reflexively at the brat’s yelling and saw tall, dark mountains outside the window.

“That’s Pitchblende Mountain! It’s your first time seeing it, right?”

I let out an exclamation upon hearing that; it was bigger than it looked.

Good, I won’t be short on materials.

“Did you sleep well?”

I nodded in response to Lotte’s question.

“We’ll be at the estate soon.”

I stretched my arms to relieve my stiff body. It made a _Crack _sound like the air between the cartilage was being popped.

I slept for less than two hours a week for the sake of meeting with Vermel, and that certainly seemed to have its toll on my body. I didn’t remember any conversations I’d had with Lotte and Freyr on the way here.

[Did you sleep well until now? Your wheezing was something quite special.]

A voice I hadn’t heard in a while. The tone was one that rang directly inside my head and gave me a migraine. It was the voice of the hardcover I strongly suspected was given to me by the Goddess.

[So, what were you up to for the past few days without me?]

The hardcover talked to me grumpily. It seemed fairly salty at being locked up in the drawer since the end of semester party.

Wow, a book was sulking because I didn’t read it for a bit.

[You really don’t bother to learn the magic required to return to Earth. Understandable when the plague was around, but what did you do afterwards?]

What did I do? That’s.... No, let’s not mention it.

[I probably don’t even need to ask. You went off drinking whenever you could, didn’t you? I assume that’s how all the academy students in your world spend their first year?]

Well, that was the beauty of freshman year. Because from the third year–commonly known as death year–things were hopeless.

Those who wanted a job had to start preparing for job applications at that point, and if you wanted to go to grad school, you needed to take care of your academic ranking. That was how everyone found their places.

As for me, well. What did it mean for me to find my place here? Going back to my world?

[Yes. Returning to your original world.]

The hardcover responded in a more appeased tone.

Ah, right. This guy got angry if I didn’t research magic but in contrast, it spoke in a gentler manner if I properly focused on the task.

What are you, a homeschool teacher?

Anyway, I did need a progress check. I opened the book for the first time in a while and increased the number of magic I’d mastered so far.

[◆ Progress]

[Fire Magic : 1011/1049]

Fire Magic was mostly done.

[Water Magic : 421/992]

[Earth Magic : 578/1007]

[Air Magic : 160/824]

[Unclassified : 21/149]

The rest were pretty much the same.

I didn’t get too far. The only thing worth promoting probably was that I was almost done with Fire Magic.

Besides that, I noticed how the number of Earth Magic I needed to learn went from 1005 to 1007. I was behind on Air Realm because I was taking that one slow, but the fact that the number went up meant something significant.

Someone created a new magic, regardless of whether it was easy or difficult to learn.

This was a problem in itself.

The faster I learned magic, the shorter it took for me to go back to Earth. On the other hand, procrastinating allowed someone on the continent to invent new magic.

A magic that was created and recorded couldn’t be erased. I’d have to do whatever it took to discover it and fabricate the scroll for it to count as having learned it.

[Do you understand now? I wasn’t telling you to hurry for any other reason.]

Yeah.

This much was within my expectations. I already had plans B and C in case the number of magic I had to learn jumped.

It had been a while since I flipped open the book. The Invisibility Mode was off so the ever-studious Lotte instantly focused on it.

“You’re going to study while you’re here, too?”

“Just for a bit until we get off.”

Lotte asked to switch seats with Freyr, and the brat agreed without complaining since she wasn’t interested in the book.

“Hm.”

Guess it won’t matter even if she sees.

I summoned the pen–an accessory of the hardcover–and drew the mana required for the action from the book. I casually made the motion of pulling it from my hipsack so that Lotte wouldn’t notice.

The pen that materialized looked like one used for tablets. This design didn’t seem like it was from this world. Was it always like this?

Anyway, this pen was the only way to use the Writing(-w) function in the book.

Like now.

[Switching to Admin Mode.]

[Construct the theoretical framework describing the new magic here.]

I began writing while gazing at Pitchblende Mountain. Lotte, who’d been watching me for a while, opened her mouth and asked me.

“Um, what is a ‘Teller-Ulam design’...?”