The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 122: What Are You Doing Here, Sis? (2)

Chapter 122: What Are You Doing Here, Sis? (2)

The Monday after the weekend.

Yesterday... that is, on Sunday, my plan to comb through every inch of the Academy in search of Vermel was ruined. It was because Lotte, who’d realized I wasn’t feeling well, got into a whole fuss over it.

But instead, I was able to send her to Iliad Academy as an exchange student, fortunately.

It shouldn’t be a big problem to be a day or two late. Today, I was going to the chairman’s office after class.

“Hey all, did you have a good weekend?”

I replied to Miss Heerlein’s question in my mind.

I didn’t.

“I have news for you from the first day of the week. Don’t be too surprised.”

I wondered what that news was. Everyone’s ears, including mine, perked up.

“Horde has withdrawn from school.”

All our mouths dropped open at the bombshell Miss Heerlein just dropped. My head spun like I’d been hit with a hammer.

My body started, nearly jumping from my seat.

That bastard bolted? For real?

“Vermel left school? Why?”

“He said that he couldn’t attend anymore due to personal reasons. He asked me to tell you that he’s sorry for leaving without saying goodbye.”

That wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.

─ If something happens, then tell me right away. Or leave me a hint, at least.

That was what he promised me only a few months ago and he broke it already?

Although Vermel and I hadn’t known each other long, we were both from Earth and both Koreans.

We each had our own goals and needed one another. To take off like this under those circumstances without even notifying me was the same thing as stabbing me in the back.

Seeing as Rosemary entered the picture, it wasn’t something that couldn’t be taken into consideration but still, there was a limit.

Feeling unsettled, I drank from the tumbler on my desk. The syrupy Luwac coffee tasted particularly like shit today.

“Ah.... that’s such a shame. I had really wanted to meet the international student.”

Waving her fan like a peacock’s tail, Rosemary sighed as if it was regretful. But there were slight traces of pretense in her eyes.

“This can’t be.”

No matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t get it.

I had told him not to act independently when we first talked about working together.

I had told him numerous times to at least contact me before moving if something happened!

“Ah, also, I have one more announcement.”

Thud.

While I was collecting my scrambled thoughts, Miss Heerlein dropped a thick pile of paper onto the lectern.

“Starting this semester, us teachers have to be mindful of your career paths as well and this is the questionnaire. It’s nothing too difficult so fill it out today and hand it in before the end of the day.”

Then Heerlein gestured towards me in the front row.

“Aether, please take these and pass them to the back.”

When I saw the questionnaire at the top of the pile, something was weird.

The name and student number sections were already filled in with a light pencil crayon.

[Come to the Cultural Center’s basement when done.]

I took the first sheet and passed the rest to the back. Rosemary was right behind me.

Quickly taking out an eraser, I erased the words and wrote my full name with a ballpoint pen.

As Heerlein checked to see if anyone didn’t receive a paper, the kids who got theirs first immediately began writing on it. They were thinking it was better to get this bothersome thing done and over with.

“Do we really have to do this....”

As if speaking on behalf of the class, Rosemary grumbled as she waved the paper around.

“Of course, my Lady.”

Lotte began kindly explaining the reason to Rosemary.

“Career exploration is an important process for everyone because it’s about discerning what to do with your life after you graduate from the Academy. We no longer live in a time when you could do something with just the school’s name.”

Korea had a similar trend.

We were past the days when the name of your university got you a good job. Not that I even had a clue about what a good job was in the first place.

... Let’s see.

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The questionnaire had two main parts.

[1. The career you want to pursue after graduating][2. What specific goal you would like to achieve] They were all hard-to-answer questions.

If I’d been asked something similar back on Earth, I would’ve been able to answer it without any trouble. No, I wouldn’t have, actually. There was nothing to write because I’d pretty much achieved that goal on Earth. And since I got dragged here in that state, how could I not be outraged? I had struggled so much to get there....

I looked around as I wondered what I should write.

“I’m done!”

Surprisingly, it was Freyr who finished first. One by one, the other classmates who’d been contemplating what to write gathered around her.

“What did you put?”

“Hehe, not telling.”

Freyr folded the paper and put it inside her desk. Then in the next moment, there was a sense of dread.

“Is it something too embarrassing to show us?”

Instincts were never wrong, it seemed. Rosemary smirked and needled Freyr.

And effectively provoked by her, Freyr glowered at Rosemary while snarling like a lynx.

“Hey! Why are you trying to pick a fight?”

“It’s what you did to me last week. Is something wrong?”

“Whatever.”

Freyr just turned away without exploding.

She was holding back her temper more than I thought; it was quite sensible of her. Yeah, the answer was to just ignore it.

“Oh my, you turn your head like a child, too. How cute.”

“Yooooouuu!!”

But I guess there was no mercy when it came to her trigger.

“I don’t care if you’re a Duke’s daughter!”

“Calm down, Freyr.”

Just as Freyr was about to leap forward like an accelerating supercar, Lotte picked her up and put her back into her seat.

Huffing, Freyr took the paper back out and presented it.

In summary, it was about making every race equal.

Humans with elves, elves with the beastkin, the beastkin with the Golden-Eyed, the Golden-Eyed with Elementals.

It said that she wanted to contribute to a world where all races on Ahrens continent could live harmoniously. It was an ambition that someone could be proud of, but also something that could be embarrassing to show others.

“Oh? I expected it to read ‘please let me grow taller’.”

“Do you think I’m stupid? I can differentiate that much!”

“No, no. Huhu. Isn’t this a bit too grand?”

Rosemary snorted and shrugged.

“How could every race be equal? They’re already different from birth.”

“What does it matter if they’re different!”

“It’s because they’re different.”

“Why don’t you just say that you don’t like me?”

It had to be frustrating for Freyr.

The beastkin to whom she belonged had been discriminated against since a long time ago, simply because they had extra ears and tails attached to a human body.

They were called barbaric for smelling like animals, and for hundreds of years, they had been stripped of their lives like the Golden-Eyed with a significant number of them being taken into slavery. It was only after the elves had taken an interest in basic rights that they were able to breathe.

The Youko were probably the worst of them all, because they actually took to plundering. Every time they lived together with humans, it would have only left resentment between them.

Yet Freyr had said that she came to Tiletter with all those feelings suppressed.

For the sake of reviving her race. For the civilization of the Youko. To prove that they were all intellectual beings.

Although she hid her little fox ears under a big hat and pretended to be a dwarf or whatsit, she was actually a soft-hearted fox who couldn’t hate on a single human.

“Listen carefully, kid. Just as there is an order within human society like the nobles and commoners, there is order and hierarchy amongst races as well. Isn’t the inferiority of the beastkin compared to humans something that many people agree with?”

There was nothing more cruel than telling someone with the innocence of a child to give up their dreams even if they may be an adult.

“Excuse me, are you listening?”

Freyr shut her mouth tightly. The hand held up to her shoulder to tug her hat further down was trembling.

“So why don’t you erase that and think of something a little more realistic.......”

Snap!

“Ow!”

“Why don’t you stop there, Lady Blanton.”

Having been flicked, Rosemary grabbed her forehead and glared this way.

No, it wasn’t even a glare. It was a stunned face uncharacteristic of a Great Mecha.

“Sis...?”

Rosemary already had tears gathering in her eyes. I didn’t even hit her that hard and she was putting on a stupid act like this.

Officially, she was the daughter of a Duke and I was a mere student. As such, Rosemary could take issue with this and ruin me.

However, she wasn’t going to.

Because ‘hierarchy’ wasn’t about superiority between races, but this.

“Even if you’re a Duke’s daughter, I won’t overlook you making fun of my friend.”

“But sis....... You can see from history that there have always been those who became slaves and those who enslaved them. It’s not something strange!”

“Then the Golden-Eyed must be an inferior race because they’ve been worked as slaves for centuries.”

“.......”

Just as Freyr had a moment ago, Rosemary also shut her mouth.

Both Freyr and Rosemary were hiding their identities.

The two of us glared at each other for a while, or more like one-sided glowering on my part.

“... Now, now, let’s not be fighting in the morning.”

“Exactly. That was unnecessary, Lady Blanton. Please apologize to Freyr.”

Mayreel and Lotte stepped forward to try and relieve the tension.

But this racist must have had some pride because she kept pursing her lips. She was acting exactly like Prince Klion had last semester.

“That, that.......”

It didn’t seem like she was going to say it easily.

This wouldn’t do.

“Wait, then let’s take what you said a little further. Then doesn’t that make the dragons the most superior race?”

Rosemary’s complexion went dark at the word ‘dragon’.

Her face revealed what she was thinking. She was probably thinking about Primus and imagining herself being beaten with the control rod when the semester was over. That was what I had been aiming for with that comment.

But the only ones who knew the story behind it were me and Rosemary. Even Freyr wouldn’t be able to make the connection.

“I’m, sorry, for making fun of you....”

Rosemary bit down hard on her lip and bowed her head, and what a sight it was.

**Even as she bowed her head to the filthy beastkin, Rosemary clenched her teeth.

Friend, friend, is it....

It was unfair. To think that big sis would take the side of that Youko brat instead of hers.

She never imagined that this brat and Aether would be so close. Even if she couldn’t remember, she and Aether had been together for centuries. It felt like she’d been taken from her by some stupid brat which made her head throb.

I won’t be able to kill her easily.

She had had an eye on her during the dungeon practice, but this made things more complicated.

After the insincere apology, Rosemary gripped her pen like she was about to break it. A questionnaire about career exploration lay on the desk.

It asked two things:

What is your dream?

What do you want to do specifically?

She couldn’t possibly write down her true goal, so she just scribbled that she wanted to become a violinist.

It wasn’t her first time destroying a country; she had several templates like this.

Then she suddenly got curious.

I wonder what sis wrote?

Rosemary poked Aether in the back and asked in a timid voice.

“Sis, are you angry?”

“.......”

“... Sis?”

“No.”

So you’re pissed.

Whether you did or didn’t lose your memories, a person’s nature didn’t change easily. Her sis talked less and became calmer when she was angry.

“What did you write for your career, sis?”

Rosemary asked.

And Aether passed the paper back without a word.