The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 84: The Dragon Who Drinks Uranium (6)

Jǫrmungandr’s eyes had a golden glow.

She was a Golden-Eyed like me, except the pupils were vertical like you’d see on reptiles or cats.

It proved that she was of the dragon.

“Can you not see?”

“Why do you suddenly say that?”

“You’re looking slightly in the wrong direction.”

Jǫrmungandr twitched her head in response to my breathing or footsteps. The center of her pupils still couldn’t focus properly and her gaze kept shifting.

“Excuse me.”

She closed her eyes again.

“Let’s hear it, then. Why have you come to see me, fellow compatriot?”

Compatriot was a word used by the Golden-Eyed to refer to each other. Due to their small population, they’d generalized the pronoun to increase the sense of connection.

Meaning that although Jǫrmungandr was blind, she’d known that I was a Golden-Eyed since the beginning.

It was something that was immediately noticeable, if I thought about it.

[The radiation dose in the current location is 4.11 sieverts per hour.]No other species would be able to withstand this much mana radiation. Only my fellow compatriot and I were able to stand on our feet here.

Looking around, I finally got down to business.

“There is something I’d like from you.”

“Oho, what would that be?”

I came here for one thing.

“Highly enriched uranium (HEU).”

Flinch. Jǫrmungandr’s shoulders momentarily shivered at my response. She appeared quite shaken that her face contorted.

“Who did you hear that from?”

It was a secret that most didn’t know about besides her, so it was understandable that she’d become wary after revealing something like that.

Anyway, it was an expected reaction. I’d already heard the correct reply from my homeland buddy so I recited the prepared answer without a single change in expression even in the face of Jǫrmungandr’s questioning.

“I heard a tale from the beastkin, and realized as I pondered on it.”

The dragons were also beastkin–a benevolent race, even, that loved all types of their kind including their own.

Just by mentioning that I wasn’t an enemy of the beastkin, Jǫrmungandr’s eyes on me softened a bit.

“Interesting.”

As if finding my answer fairly acceptable, Jǫrmungandr’s lips curled up in a pleased expression.

Was this what Vermel meant by ‘affinity building’? Anyway, it seemed I got past it okay.

“I’d like to know how you figured it out.”

“Actually, I became certain after coming here.”

“Is that so?”

It was time to take control of the conversation.

I started to walk around. Though it may not be visible to her, she’d be able to figure out where I was heading from the sound.

This nest where Jǫrmungandr dwelled was structured with a path of water circulating around the center where the dragon lay. The silvery freshwater formed whirls as it drifted around the nest.

“When looking around this cave, I can see a few interesting structures. The waterway is connected over two points and there’s a device that spews steam right above it. How about over there? I can hear something running–a turbine, perhaps?”

There were other components with topologically equivalent structure that stood out, not much different appearance-wise from the equipment I’d once learned about in nuclear engineering class.

I was convinced after seeing this whole structure.

“This place is a nuclear reactor.”

“... Clever.”

“But it’s hard to affirm everything from this alone.”

The place I was now standing at was right in front of the water way, and I scooped up some of the water flowing between the furrow.

Soon afterwards, I lit a stick of mana grass. I needed to wait until the mainstream smoke circulated throughout my whole body.

I wasn’t doing this for any particular reason despite being able to use mana through the grimoire.

“Huuu.”

I liked smoking.

“Excuse me.”

I took a beginner scroll from my hip sack and stuck it into the water sloshing in my hand.

[Beginner Water Magic ─ Partial Freezing]

Crackle.

I placed the ice-turned-water back into the channel. The ice that was returned to its original place with a plop floated due to positive buoyancy.

“It’s light water.”

“Yes, it’s regular water that anyone can drink. Is that strange?”

“If you’d used heavy water, I would’ve been stunned.”

In nuclear engineering, it was important to distinguish between light and heavy water because the type of nuclear fuel used varied depending on what kind of water was used as a moderator to run the power plant.

“In the case of the light-water reactor (LWR), it uses low-enriched uranium where the uranium has been enriched to 2 to 5% as the fuel.”

“So?”

“It’s all good but I don’t see anything that looks like a control rod or concentrator, though it would be difficult to bring such devices into a cave like this in the first place.”

“.......”

“The kind of fuel that goes into a LWR is, well, pretty obvious.”

When I turned my head, the ends of my robe rustled. Jǫrmungandr’s ears perked at the small sound and she slowly opened her eyes.

“.......”

Silence followed.

But not for long.

“... You’re quite the impressive one. You predicted that much from this cave’s structure alone?”

Jǫrmungandr rested her chin in her hand and pulled up her mouth, seemingly lost in thought.

“Are you related to White Night?”

“White Night?”

“No, if you don’t know, nevermind.”

Come to think of it, I forgot to ask Vermel if Aether had any relatives with everything else that was going on.

Oh well. If there was, there was, and if there wasn’t, there wasn’t.

The Golden-Eyed were a rare species, after all. Even in the densely-populated capital, there was no one else besides me. So how would one appear in a frontier territory like this?

“Then since it has come to this, let this one show you something.”

Done with pondering, Jǫrmungandr picked up one of the pitchblende stones lying around and crushed it with her hand. The mana stone crumbled feebly and quickly turned into powder. Lastly, she put it in a gourd-shaped bowl and mixed it well with the freshwater.

The metallic powdered water didn’t look very appetizing, but Jǫrmungandr drank it one sip at a time without delay.

[Wow, a dragon who drinks radioactive water.]

The action didn’t feel frivolous or ridiculous. Rather, it evoked awe.

It was like a tea ceremony. The dragons must have some kind of power that makes anything they do look elegant.

Soon after gulping down the liquid reacting with alpha decay into her steel-like stomach, Jǫrmungandr took a stick of mana grass from an inner pocket and put it between her lips.

“Apparently our compatriots make and sell these cigarettes nowadays. This is supposed to be quite an expensive one, I hear, and it seems to be worth its price. The mana is more concentrated so the engine compartment feels fresh with each inhale.”

“Is it the beastkin who made it?”

“I wouldn’t know. This one has never been to the magic tower or any such place, but heard that it’s made by the Golden-Eyed and distributed by the beastkin.”

Mana grass was being made by the Golden-Eyed who bordered the Beasts and distributed by the beastkin. Something was weird.

“There, it’s ready so watch.”

[Massive waves of mana detected.]Putting her hands together, Jǫrmungandr weaved dark silver powder like she was using a loom.

There wasn’t a separate transmutation circle that was active–she’d stored all necessary strokes of the circle for constructing the object in her body itself.

It was a more advanced version of the chantless transmutation we’d learned last semester. A skill of this level would be impossible to use unless you were an Archmage of Miss Heerlein’s caliber.

Shaaaaa.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

She transmutated a small, light gray disc. The chiseled edge was beautifully refined but there was no time to sit and appreciate it.

“This is high-enriched uranium. With my current capability, 92% is the maximum.”

“That works. More importantly, how many kilos is it?”

“Can’t you tell? At most, it couldn’t be more than a hundred grams.”

That wasn’t enough, not even close.

“I’d like to ask for a few hundred kilos, at least.”

“Ha, a greedy one, aren’t you.”

But it couldn’t be helped.

[Technology currently being researched : Teller-Ulam design]

[This design is divided into a total of five stages. The first is to acquire more than a certain amount (=660.1kg) of high-enriched uranium in order to achieve critical mass in testing or practical use.]

To produce a significant nuclear reaction, the chunk of uranium needed to be a certain size. Uranium that wasn’t bunched was useless no matter how highly enriched it was.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. If I have the time, I don’t see why I couldn’t give you that much.”

Whish–she tossed the disc my way. Catching the refined uranium with my bare hands, I realized once again that I wasn’t human.

How much exposure was I getting today?

“But there is a catch, you realize.”

“Yes.”

It was time to sign a contract.

Also known as give-and-take.

Since I had received first, it was now my turn to give.

“In my life as a dragon, this one has seen endless suffering of other beastkin. This is the story.”

Radiant Dragon Jǫrmungandr.

A monster that once half-destroyed the world together with the Demon King. But her original purpose was to save the persecuted beastkin.

Having lived for a long time, her love for her kind was deep and the flow of her thoughts was gentle. As such, the agreement she was about to offer would have a lot of things omitted.

“I ask only one thing of you–I want you to take care of our beastkin this summer in the place of this blind one.”

Like this. Again, it was as I predicted.

“.......”

Normally, an agreement like this left one party disadvantaged.

Until what month, what day the agreement would be in effect, which beastkin should be cared for and how much, what counts as them being properly taken care of.

“Is there a problem?”

It didn’t seem like she was going to specify any of it.

A detailed and strict procedure was no use before a dragon. The important thing to them in this process was a voluntary fulfillment based on trust.

Like this, I’d have to care for the beastkin until she was satisfied, and that would be the only way to get as much enriched uranium as I needed.

Yeah, normally.

“I accept.”

I had an elf with a strategy guide on my side, so I already knew about the conditions of caring for the beastkin that this dragon had in mind before coming here.

“You’re agreeable unlike the other compatriots. Or is it that you are dealing wisely according to who it is?”

“I heard that the dragons value loyalty and trust. Wouldn’t the motive of the heart matter more than how much help is given?”

“Interesting. That is a good attitude.”

“Then, I will take my leave for today.”

Boom.

I couldn’t deny how worthwhile a time that was despite it being short. Deal finalized, I dragged the results of the strange encounter with the dragon down the slope.

The sun was already peeking over the mountain ridge.

It was the start of dawn.

“Ah.”

I’m screwed.

I was going to have to take a hit from Lotte.