The Magic Academy's Physicist
Chapter 243: True Discipline (1)

Chapter 243: True Discipline (1)

0% There was a saying that a fool kept their enemies as an enemy, and the wise made enemies into allies.

In order to exterminate the elves, she needed to get close to them. This was all for the big plan, and wasn’t about giving actual trust or anything.

Aether told Yufiel while feeling like she was walking on thorns.

“You never know, so it’s good to fortify the World Tree’s defenses. Who knows what the Beasts will do?”

“You’re right.”

“And you don’t need to hold back on the budget. It’s certainly better to spend as much as the country’s finances will allow to revamp the facilities.”

Yufiel kept nodding.

The national World Tree was the hope of all elves. And at this point, it was also the hope of humanity, as well as the last ray of light of the continent.

“Whatever you do, you mustn’t let them have the Lodestone of Wind.”

Aether spoke words that she didn’t even mean.

“Ah, by the way, Yufiel.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“You said you have trouble learning combat magic, right?”

“I’m ashamed to say, but yes.”

“I will help you.”

At that, Yufiel leapt up from her seat, her eyes growing as wide as saucers.

“H-help me?”

“It’s just as I said. I’ll teach you the theory so you’ll be able to unleash Ultimate Magics with miniscule mana.”

For a few seconds, Yufiel stood there stunned. Her expression was saying that she couldn’t understand what she heard just now.

“Is that.... actually possible?”

“A picture paints a thousand words. Let me show you something interesting.”

Aether took out a scroll from her inner pocket.

It was a complicated pattern even at a glance, looking like it would be hard to both make and trigger it.

“Do you know who made this?”

“Was it you, Miss?”

“Smart girl.”

You’d make a good grad student, she said jokingly, and unraveled the scroll.

Aether gave an outline of each part making up the scroll.

“This is the bloom unit, here’s the retraction unit, and here, the firing unit.”

Yufiel listened with bright, rabbit-like eyes.

With a small laugh, Aether took out a stick of mana grass.

“Let’s go to the training grounds.”

The two arrived at the training grounds.

“This scroll is the lightweight version of ‘Aquatic Blaze’ that someone made a long time ago.”

“The Ultimate Water Magic?”

Aether nodded.

She brought out this one out of the backup scrolls she usually carried, because that was how she’d get the attention of Yufiel whose specialty was the Water Realm.

Aether reconstructed all the parts. The original ‘Aquatic Blaze’ used up a lot of mana unnecessarily, so she modified and altered the circuit to what it was now. Just like how she attached White Night to Flare and made it lightweight.

At the lightweight scroll, Yufiel quirked her head and asked.

“How do you know how to use difficult Water Magic like this when you specialize in Fire, Miss?”

At Yufiel’s question, Aether only said one thing.

“Theory.”

Literally.

“If you have the perfect theory, whether it’s Fire, Water, Earth, Air....... You can put any magic into a scroll, construct it, and fire it.”

Yufiel gasped ‘wow’.

With this, she was halfway.... No, to be strict, a third won over. 이걸로 절반.... 아니, 빡빡하게 잡아서 3분의 1은 넘어왔다.

“I told you earlier that it’s better to show you once than explain a hundred times, didn’t I.”

Aether casually took out a lighter, to which Yufiel raised her hand and asked in confusion.

“Why aren’t you using your own fire?”

This was the question she had been waiting for.

“It’s eye-level education.”

Yufiel had said that she was born with a body that could hold only a little bit of mana. And so, ‘Professor Asteya’ had to look like she was accommodating her out of good will.

“I said I’d tell you how to get to the top with just a single drag’s worth of mana.”

The explanation made Yufiel’s eyes sparkle even more.

As expected, she didn’t suspect her.

Now when she was with Yufiel, she didn’t have to worry about being discovered that she couldn’t use magic without mana grass, and the chances of her being suspected of being a Golden-Eyed had lowered significantly.

She had opened a way to gain access to the World Tree, eat away at Kaurelia’s finances, and use magic without being cautious.

It was three birds with one stone.

“Alright, watch carefully and see what happens.”

“Yes, Miss!”

Aether flicked on the lighter. When she moved the flame to the end of the cigarette, she could taste its true flavor unlike when she had only held it in her mouth.

It was sweet like candy and peppery like mint.

After a few seconds of exhaling smoke like dragon’s breath–

“Add 0.003 sieverts into the bloom part here, then another 0.008 sieverts to the outer part.”

Aether rubbed at the scroll as if reading braille; she was infusing it mana.

Mere millisieverts worth of mana.

It was a count that could barely operate a Beginner scroll, let alone an Ultimate. At best, it was a miniscule amount that might be used for mana detection training.

“.......”

Gulp.

Yufiel watched to see what would happen.

Boooom─!!

And soon after, she saw firsthand the activation of a scroll with less than 1 sievert of mana.

Yufiel asked in shock.

“H-how did you do it?”

“You just need to follow what I showed you. Here, I’ll give you a cigarette so try it yourself.”

Yufiel also took a cigarette and fiddled with the scroll.

Soon, mana filled her body. But 90% of it traveled up her spine to gather in her lungs, then it was expelled with the carbon dioxide upon exhaling.

Currently, Yufiel could only store 10 sieverts of mana in her body, a ridiculously low amount compared to a normal person. This was the average for patients with ‘Mana Depletion Syndrome’.

It didn’t matter.

Because 0.1 sieverts was all it took for this scroll to work.

Yufiel took a deep breath.

She only had to do what Miss Asteya taught her. Carefully, remembering what she learned, she flowed the exact amount into the correct place.

Fshuuuuu.

A little after the sensation of mana leaving her body–

Shwaaaaaa─!!

Sparks of water and ice burst from the scroll.

With the force of a ferocious tiger, the stream of water burst forth and crashed into the training ground’s dummy, sending hot steam in all directions and instantly turning a radius of a few meters into a sea of water. Shaaaaa! A refreshing yet warm gust of wind hit both of Yufiel’s cheeks.

“Ah....”

Yufiel unconsciously let out a cry.

It couldn’t be.

In power alone, it was at the Advanced.

Although it was weaker in strength compared to the one that Aether showed her, she still did it.

She had never used a magic this strong with her own hands.

“Miss.......”

“You did very well for your first time.”

The tip of her nose stung. Yufiel wasn’t moved or anything. Holding back the coming tears, she began analyzing and calculating how her magic was weaker than Miss Asteya’s.

“Why do you think it was weaker in power?”

“I don’t think I controlled the load very well.”

Aether asked back.

“So in a word, what did you lack?”

“Theory.”

She was lacking in theory.

“The human brain is divided into procedural and descriptive memory. If you practice this magic repeatedly following the procedure, you’ll be able to handle Advanced-levels as an Intermediate power, and Ultimate-levels as Advanced. Like how you used to memorize the multiplication table.”

“I don’t want that.”

“Then the only way is to understand it explicitly.”

Yufiel nodded vigorously.

“Do you remember what I said in answer to your question during the first class?”

“You said that if you have the theory down, you can get to the top no matter how little mana you’re born with.”

“Close.”

That first class, Miss Asteya hadn’t been lying.

This scroll that she was holding in her hand right now.

If she could properly learn the principles of this scroll and construct it, she could contribute significantly to the southern coastal battlefront even without wielding a staff.

Yufiel felt an overwhelming sensation in her chest.

“Yufiel, if you are okay with it, I was thinking to tutor you for about three hours from 9 p.m.”

“D-don’t you need to research...?”

“If you mean my research project, I’ve already done a year’s worth of work in advance.”

Actually, that was a lie.

But Yufiel didn’t seem to catch that, and let out a wordless noise thinking that everything the professor was saying was true.

“...I don’t know you’re being so gracious to me.”

“What reason does a teacher need to teach her student?”

They were insincere words, but Yufiel was happy about it.

How could an elf of the Vierbein family be so naive?

Aether held back the wicked smile that was threatening to leak.

“Um, but Miss.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“If you’re so good at explaining, why don’t you teach us step-by-step during class?”

“...Excuse me?”

Before Aether could answer, Yufiel dealt another blow.

“To be honest, class was quite difficult.”

For a moment, it felt like she was hit in the head with Flare.

‘Aether’ groaned at the unexpected problem.

“This one is, I’m....”

–that awful at teaching?

She had never heard that before.

While she expected the complaints because of the difficult assignments, she hadn’t imagined that she would be told that she wasn’t good at teaching.

This was a shock on its own. Had the students’ levels dropped after a thousand years....

Or was the way she taught not so good?

For now, she had told Yufiel that she would try her best to change her lecture form, but there were more than a few things that came to mind, to be honest.

[You just suck at teaching.]

“What?”

[During class, I mean. As for right now, it was only because I was helping you.]

She laughed in disbelief.

She was the one in control of the mind, yet her other self had surfaced and talked with Yufiel?

Since when?

How?

“...I see, I suppose that could be.”

Come to think of it, it wasn’t impossible considering how clearly her other self could be heard.

Their memories and thoughts and all would be mixed together right now. The unification of mind was in progress.

And as such, her hostility was starting to diminish.

─You’re my friend─!!

If it hadn’t been for that Youko brat, she wouldn’t have been so troubled about scheming something.

Smack!

‘Aether’ slapped her cheek and strengthened her resolve.

“I need to get it together.”

There was still the renewed promise.

Three strikes.

She couldn’t wash away the thousand disgraces until she was confirmed three times. The control over the mind was still hers.

“Did you really interject?”

[If you’re unhappy, then why don’t you take a good look at how the kids react tomorrow.]

Come to think of it, no one had asked questions besides Yufiel or Leninya.

She had assumed that they didn’t because they knew everything.

[But it’s not if you think about it, right?]

‘Aether’ flinched.

At this rate, tomorrow’s lecture was also going to be uninteresting.

She had just gained Yufiel’s favor. She couldn’t disappoint her with her usual teaching the next day.......

“I don’t know.”

She was clearly a newbie on this point. It was because while she was good at research, she wasn’t so good at reading other people.

She knew this. She did.

[It’s because you knew that and didn’t bother to change that you were betrayed a thousand times....]

“Shut it.”

She unconsciously let out a groan.

Learning how to teach wasn’t something that could happen overnight.

Getting into the habit of explaining the same thing over and over again wasn’t going to help with learning it, and reading dozens of books on educating wasn’t going to help her improve.

Because the only way to learn how to teach was by talking sincerely and communicating with many students.

“This is bad.”

Today’s progress could be reversed tomorrow.

No, now it was today, as it was already past midnight. There were only a few hours left until the next lecture.

It was a strange thing.

She had fallen Corrupt because she couldn’t understand the hearts of humans, and because of that Corruption she resented the World Tree. Yet if she wanted to burn that World Tree, she had to understand the human heart again. ‘Aether’ couldn’t help but sigh.

“Me.”

[What.]

“I have a favor to ask.”

Since it came to this, there was no other way.

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