The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 82: The Dragon Who Drinks Uranium (4)

I settled about halfway up Pitchblende Mountain, and sank down onto the stone floor to catch my breath.

[I think you’re the only crazy bitch in all of Ahrens continent who’d hike in the middle of the night like this, Master.]

It wasn’t just a hike, either, but climbing up a steep, rugged mountain. If I didn’t pay attention for a single moment, I could fall to my death.

The summit I was currently climbing was called Falling Dragon Peak. Here, there was an item that could be considered a strange encounter by my standards.

“Huu.”

After burning through one stick of mana grass, my break was over. I resumed climbing.

[The concentration of natural radiation is currently 2.14 sieverts.]The amount of radiation exposure increased the higher you climbed this mountain. As the name suggested, this was due to it being a deposit containing lumps of uraninite.

[The concentration of natural radiation is currently 3.29 sieverts.]There was no modern person who didn’t know about the dangers of radiation exposure.

Even one sievert caused nausea and overall weakness of the body. If hit with something close to four sieverts, then there was a fifty percent chance that you’d in a month.

The current concentration was dangerous to the human body. There was no other reason why people weren’t up here compared to the area below where they actively mined.

“Huff, huff.”

Panting, I finally made it to the top.

The constant dry heaving probably wasn’t just from the radiation. I could almost taste sweetness in my mouth because of how I’d pretty much used shukuchi1 to get here from the bottom.

[But why did we come here?]

I kept silent even at the hardcover’s question. Disconnecting our telepathy as well, I thought about the conversation with Vermel.

─ Can you find a strange encounter for me?

“Making a person run errands.”

No, was I asked to because I’m not a person?

The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth as I looked around for a suspicious rock. Not long after, I discovered a cave big enough for one person in a unique rock formation that looked as if conjoined.

[Wow, there’s a cave in a place like this.]

An ominous aura spilled from the gap. If I held a Geiger counter2 to it, it’d go dddddd, probably.

This world’s version of Chernobyl was in front of me.

When I squeezed myself through the gap, a rather spacious interior appeared. It seemed that the path continued down.

[There’s pitchblende everywhere.]

From where the silver mine ended, it was black ore galore. As I moved forward, I found more and more yellowish stones to the point I was kicking them as I went.

I picked up the aptly-sized ones out of these and stuck them in my pocket. It wouldn’t be enough for a Manhattan Project3 no matter how much I took, but that didn’t matter.

“Man, it’s suffocating.”

After walking for some time, I was having trouble breathing. A regular lighter didn’t even work properly so I used a Fire Magic scroll that emitted light as a torch and marched on.

I didn’t know how long I walked for.

Drip, drip

I could hear the water dripping from somewhere. When I walked in that direction, it became a lot easier to breathe.

[Strange. Based on the closed nature of a cavernous space, this shouldn’t be enough to change the level of oxygen....]

“Probably means oxygen is being supplied somewhere.”

[Is that even possible?]

Why not. If there was water, then oxygen could basically be collected.

─ When you enter the cave of the Radiant Dragon, it’ll become increasingly harder to breathe. At that point, head in the direction of the wind blowing and you’ll be able to find it.

It was actually helpful advice. Recalling Vermel’s words again, I made my way through the horizontal cave at full speed.

Panting, I looked at the watch–1:58 a.m. To meet this guy who appeared exactly at 2 a.m., I needed to get to the area with the shrine as quickly as possible.

[2:00]

“I made it.”

The scenery before me was a fantasy, beautiful like some scene in a fairy tale.

The stalagmite and stalactite glowed fluorescently in the dark as if painted with tritium. And the thing nesting in the luminescent glow of those stalactites was–

[Oh my gosh, it’s a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur!]

A dragon the size of an apartment was sleeping. It had scales of steel and its body glowed the same color as the stalactites.

Around the glowing dragon, four Iron Drakes were also deeply asleep. They were all gilded, the exact same type as the ones I saw at the entrance ceremony.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a visitor.”

While I was in awe for a moment at the majestic figures of the dragon and Drakes, I was caught from behind.

“Let’s take a look at your face.”

It was a leisurely and playful voice of a girl mixed with a strange noise. And not only that but there was also the sound of something being dragged.

When I turned around, no one was there. I instinctively realized that the aforementioned girl had moved to the front.

“Over here.”

Stroking the sleeping dragon’s head, the girl smiled bashfully.

She was a girl wearing a white priest’s robe, and her eyes had been closed since the beginning. I hurriedly scanned her features.

Something like horns protruded from either temple and both of them looked neatly cut. As well, a tail wagged through the side slit in her robe, dragging along the floor.

Severed horns, a tail like an iron club, normally closed eyes.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who she was based on the three conditions received from Vermel

“Are you the Radiant Dragon?”

“So you do know about me.”

There was this story from the creation myths.

A long time ago, a poor dragon waged war against the Goddess’ authority and was cursed to be bound to these Pitchblende Mountains.

Seemingly taken aback, the girl’s mouth parted slightly.

“To be precise, I’ve become this pathetic half-version of what I was. My original form is right behind me.”

Indeed.

─ It cursed the humans and elves thereby picking a fight against the Goddess. As a consequence of defeat, it was stripped of its form and got trapped in the human body it hated so much.

The girl’s statement was exactly like what Vermel had told me. It seemed I came to the right place.

Radiant Dragon Jǫrmungandr.

I heard that it valued price more than any other creature in the world. As someone who preferred relationships with equal exchange of value, they were the ideal trading partner.

“So.”

The girl opened her eyes and asked.

“What brings you here, fellow compatriot?”

**

Aether disappeared without a trace.

“Huh?”

Gazing at the empty bed by the window, Lotte zoned out for a while.

No matter how much she thought about it, it felt like she was dreaming. Because how was it that Aether suddenly vanished like this?

“Wh-where’d she go?”

Lotte wandered around like a child searching for a lost toy in pursuit of Aether’s whereabouts.

Including the hallways and rooms, she searched every nook and cranny of the house. She even went around the garden to see if she was taking a walk in the courtyard, but couldn’t find any traces of Aether or her having been anywhere.

Lotte’s mind turned into a blank slate.

Why, all of a sudden, now? So abruptly?

“She’ll be back on her own, right...?”

Lotte decided to wait back in her room. The sound of the clock hand was especially bothersome today.

She certainly wouldn’t be going back to sleep.

Her already complicated mind became even more jumbled like tangled yarn. Not only was she suddenly appointed as the next head by her father, but she’d also been asked to carry on the will of the secret magic being developed by the family.

It was a heavy burden for Lotte since she had a strong sense of responsibility. She could understand the matter of succession, but she wasn’t confident in developing a Fire Magic with immense explosive power.

During the development of Flare, she’d definitely felt the difference in skill compared to Aether. And Lotte could sense that what her father was researching would be much harder than the likes of Flare.

Could she do it?

Her brain wasn’t functioning well from thinking about such things all day. Chewing on her nails, Lotte planned to organize her thoughts until Aether returned.

An hour was already going by, and her friend wasn’t back yet.

“Where in the world did she go?”

This wouldn’t do. She wasn’t sleepy anyway so she would go find her.

The Saliere family’s land was a well-organized city. Compared to other regions, it had low nighttime crime rates and no curfew, but that didn’t mean Aether would be safe.

Because of natural disasters.

According to the forecast, the rainy season was to begin at least tomorrow or today. It was the most unwelcome of unwanted visitors that struck Saliere territory every summer causing a chaos of floods and fled.

And each time, the Pitchblende Mountain would break down a little from being swept away by soil. It was already a dangerous place because of rockslides but the rainy season made it abysmal.

“Right, Pitchblende Mountain.”

Recalling the mountain’s location that Aether had been gazing at right before bed, Lotte clapped her hands in realization.

“She was looking at Falling Dragon Peak!”

She didn’t think long; Aether must have gone over there. From the longing in her eyes and their conversation earlier this evening, Lotte could vaguely guess Aether’s whereabouts.

Putting on her robe, Lotte wrote a memo in case of her family worrying and leaped down from the second story window.

Worrying her all of a sudden.

“She’s getting a smack once I find her.”

Lotte pulled out a small scroll from her pocket.

By using an Air Magic scroll, it was possible to cover several meters with a single step. Lotter transferred mana into the emergency-use spatial compression scroll and leapt to where the mountain was.

It was a mountain made of rock but the bottom was a forest. The trees that Lotte’s father had planted to minimize flood damages were holding the soil firmly in place.

─ This is damn steep.

“This voice....”

Speech pattern, tone of voice, even the accent was the same.

It was unmistakably Aether.

Trying to remember where the sound came from, Lotte ran full speed. A figure appeared between the dense forest of fir trees.

“Hey! Why are you standing...!”

Lotte shouted at the blurry shadow but soon screeched to a halt.

“Wh-what.”

The girl who reacted to her words and approached her through the complete darkness.

Her hair was white.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

1. Rapid movement technique, literally 'reducing earth'2. "A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter or G-M counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter3. "The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project