The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 21: Brilliance Recognizes Brilliance

Lotte Saliere.

As the oldest daughter of the Saliere household, she grew up constantly hearing from her parents to exercise noblesse oblige.

Though she hadn’t known what it meant at first, hearing it from a young age was enough to shape her values. So despite being of noble birth, she never discriminated against others.

And unlike her older brother, Lotte was born with a propensity for Fire Magic.

Her brother was a decent mage, as expected of a Saliere family bloodline, but many others at Tilette were at a similar level. In contrast, Lotte grew up with the expectations of making history with Fire Magic.

And in order to meet those expectations, Lotte practiced magic diligently.

She trained in magic and studied theories, rain or shine.

Lotte’s acceptance into Tilette Academy was a given. Yet she never became proud and never compared herself to her brother to put him down.

Because her goal wasn’t about worldly success or good networking; it was to become a mage who defeated the Magic Beasts and saved people.

This was why she was still reviewing the written test question even after passing. She had been scrutinizing it for days since the time that she secretly copied it at the test site.

I understand why I got the other questions wrong.......

Basic Magic Theory, question number 50.

The last killer question was an advanced problem from the Fire Magic category asking how to control the amplification of the illustrated circuit using a mana stone called the ‘transistor’.

She had solved most if not all Fire Magic-related practice questions and had actually gotten all the Fire Magic problems correct.

Except this one.

She knew nothing about this transistor stone. It was the first time she had heard of it. From what she gathered, it was supposedly a top-grade stone that had just been discovered for use.

That didn’t really matter because the question had outlined the general usage of the transistor.

The real issue was how she was supposed to get the answer from the text alone.

Does this require some fundamental knowledge that I don’t know about...?

Unfortunately, she hadn’t found the exact solution even after they announced the acceptees.

“You’re still holding onto the question even though you’ve already passed, Miss Lotte?”

“I’m merely curious about why this works in this way.”

It was pure passion for learning that was independent of the test results. The ladies who’ve been with Lotte since young were often moved by this side of her.

“There’s no need to rush it. You can ask the teacher who chose this question later.”

“I can, but I’d like to figure it out on my own if possible.”

If she could find out what the transistor’s base theory was, then she should be able to solve it by herself.

Yet when she searched the city library, there were no books on any theory, nothing detailing the transistor’s usage.

Is it a hypothetical mana stone?

She even thought that once but when she went to her brother as soon as she was accepted, he said that it was a real stone which scrapped her hypothesis.

To celebrate their acceptance, Lotte visited a pub with the other noble ladies. They were able to get a table near the counter since someone happened to vacate it.

There was a Golden-Eyed girl sitting at the counter. Her face was somehow familiar.

Then Lotte soon remembered that she was the girl who took the Combat Magic test with her.

She was a Golden-Eyed who used Innate Magic. It makes sense that she would apply for the Academy.

Lotte continued her studies even after they sat down in the restaurant. She pulled out a few sheets with written formulas from her bag and reviewed her work.

“By the way, did you hear?”

“About what?”

Lotte’s ears perked when the two girls with her started talking.

“That someone got a perfect score on the written test after a thousand years. I heard that they ranked second.”

“The one with a perfect score is only second? Even though Miss Lotte is third?”

Although Lotte had believed that she worked hard, she saw from the results that there were two other people who had passed with even greater skill. Seeing such brilliance reminded her that it was important to be humble.

“This person got perfect on the written and barely passed the practical so they got around 440, they say.”

With the information from her friend, Lotte started a series of calculations in her head.

The written test totals 400 and the practical 100, so.... Is it 40 points exactly for the practical, then? How is it possible that they bungled the practical that badly while doing so well on the written?

No matter how little talent someone had, they were born with a base amount of mana. Whether they were human or elf, even beastkin or any other species, they were blessed by an Elemental.

One’s starting mana was determined at birth but it could increase to an extent through studies and training. Since Tilette Academy’s practical test was considered an absolute evaluation, even a student with poor control of their mana could still achieve 50 points if they tried like their life depended on it.

So it was contradictory that someone got perfect on the written test which was known to be challenging and scored only 40 on the relatively easier practical test.

One possibility suddenly crossed Lotte’s mind.

What if they’re a species that can’t use magic on their own to begin with....

The Golden-Eyed.

Out of all species in the world, they were the only ones who couldn’t auto-circulate mana.

No one knew why only the Golden-Eyed had been cursed by the Goddess. The ones who knew the specifics would be those from a thousand years ago.

If you lose something, you gain something else, they said. While the Golden-Eyed couldn’t cast magic by themselves, all of them were born with prodigious calculating abilities and exceptional memory. Their level was far beyond the modern day calculating device.

If they scored perfect on Tilette’s hellish written test, then it could only be the Golden-Eyed.

Moreover, the Golden-Eyed were a rare species that could only be seen occasionally in the Northern Elankaya Cordillera or the beastkin’s nation in the west. With the exception of the girl at the counter, it was difficult to spot a Golden-Eyed within the capital.

It can’t be anyone other than her.

She didn’t think long. The only way to confirm was to call the person in question.

“Excuse me, I’d like to add to the order.”

Raising her hand, Lotte called out to the Golden-Eyed girl. The girl approached with a smile and put down the beer in her hands before picking up the menu.

“What would you like?”

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

“I’d like some of your time.”

Lotte offered a tip.

Two silver pieces. It was a significant amount for a tip.

The Golden-Eyed girl looked around to see that the other tables were okay for now and collected the silver pieces.

“I’ll take your order.”

“I’d like to ask you something. Do you know what question this is?”

The girl glanced at her papers and spoke.

“It’s the last question of Basic Magic Theory. It was rather difficult this time.”

“I agree. Are you one of the people accepted to Tilette this year?”

“I was fortunate.”

“Were you able to solve this problem?”

“I wasn’t able to do it in time.”

The girl scratched the back of her neck, trying to pass it off, but....

She must have done it somehow, and she was only saying that because she wasn’t sure of her hunch. Lotte was able to see through the girl.

People recognized others who were alike and tended to be attracted to them.

Good people could be found near good people, and beauties were surrounded by other beauties. Because those of a certain type instinctively recognized people who had a similar nature.

This was the same thing.

Brilliance recognized brilliance.

Lotte realized that she was asking the wrong way and reformatted her question.

“I’d like to ask what kind of stone the transistor is.”

If she could understand it, then she’d be able to solve the problem herself.

Smiling faintly, the girl who was fiddling with the silver coins gave an answer that was worth the cost.

“... The transistor is like a dam.”

“A dam? Do you mean what’s built over a river?“

The girl nodded and continued explaining.

“The transistor is a dam that holds and releases elements instead of water. In the same way that a floodgate controls the amount of water released into a river, the flow of mana can be amplified into a flood if you adjust the center of the stone accordingly.”

“So the circuit didn’t work because there wasn’t enough mana flowing into the input?”

Like a reservoir that required a specific water level.

“That’s right. When you first calculate the equation, you can’t assume that the circuit starts from zero sieverts and works gradually. If you don’t apply a certain level of bias, then characteristic-wise the mana current won’t flow through the transistor.”

“It sounds like a threshold.”

“Hence, the central part that controls the current is called a Gate. It acts as a floodgate of sorts.”

The knowledge that the girl possessed might be something old and prevalent amongst the Golden-Eyed. Lotte asked about that as well but she avoided answering, saying that she couldn’t reveal any more than this.

Anyway, this much was good. The two silver coins were well worth getting to hear about the general theory which wasn’t explained in the question. Lotte was deeply satisfied.

She could solve it if she thought about it some more.

**

Lotte was smarter than I’d imagined.

She obviously seemed to have grown up in a good, noble family, but showed no signs of discrimination against commoners.

It was a bit too early for judgment but from what I’ve seen, she was a virtuous one.

That was evident from the expressions of the students next to her. Their respective speech clearly indicated a difference in class but apart from that, they seemed to treat her like a friend.

They say that birds of a feather flock together. It wasn’t the best of expressions but it was convincing at the same time.

Lotte had taken the Combat Magic test with me during the practical. In those short few minutes, I could estimate that Lotte possessed an exceptional amount of mana.

Plus she knew how to stack magic non-verbally as well as multi-cast. It was considerable talent.

I also knew that such talent didn’t manifest that easily without effort. It was apparent how relentlessly Lotte brushed up on her skills in order to elevate her mana to that level.

See. Even now she was poring over an unsolved exam question despite the test being over. If this were university admissions, she was like the student who got one wrong on her CSATs and analyzed why she got it wrong while the other students were looking at the assignment charts.

We became comfortable with each other throughout the exchange. Before we parted, Lotte and I smiled at each other.

“It was nice to meet you. I’ll see you when school starts.”

“Take care on your way back as well.”

This kind of exchange was cheesy but so what? I made a good friendship. One that could help each other.

If all went well, the time it’d take for me to return home should be reduced drastically.