༺ The Helper for Freshmen ༻
Someone called me. It was Lorewell, the student with red hair and eyes.
“Good morning, Senior!”
“……?”
I was finally hallucinating. Or I was sleepwalking.
A student of the Academy wouldn’t be calling me their senior since I wasn’t even enrolled. But you never know. I pointed to myself and cocked my head.
“Were you speaking to me?”
“We owe you a lot for last time, Senior.”
“I’m not your senior. I don’t even attend here.”
“But you just stepped out of the Fire Magic lab at this early hour.”
Uh, hm. What should I say? He was misunderstanding big time.
I’ve been introducing myself to others saying, “I’m Professor Hasfeldt’s personal grad assistant,” as a joke, but that was only if Hasfeldt was with me at the time of the exchange.
I was living like a graduate student but my actual status was that of a slave. Just a high-quality slave who knew some math and could apply them to magic theories.
The public’s perception of the slave class wasn’t the best one. An Academy student might have less prejudice since they were given a third status, but….
No one could know everything about the world. Lorewell’s reaction to my status would only be known through an actual conversation with him.
There were very few people at the Academy who treated me well after learning my status. The exceptions were Professor Hasfeldt who never cared for the system to begin with and Professor Heerlein who was of commoner origin.
Revealing my true status in light of all that? I didn’t think it was necessary if I wasn’t going to see him that often.
But it would also be problematic if I say something else and then get caught later.
Alright. Since it was like this, I’ll go with the ‘no lying’ tactic.
“Senior…?”
“I’m not a senior. I’m Professor Klais Hasfeldt’s only assistant.”
“Assistant? Ah, that’s why you came out from here.”
“Yes. I’m helping out with work that the professor doesn’t have time for. She’s quite the busy person, after all.”
“Then I guess you’d already know.”
“Sorry?”
“I actually attend Miss Hasfeldt’s class. It’s called ‘The Foundations of Flame Magic’ and…. Well, she seemed a bit tired during yesterday’s lecture. She gave less assignments than usual, too. If it’s alright, may I ask what’s going on?”
Uhh…. I don’t know about that either.
“I’m not quite sure about that.”
“I see. Then…. May I ask one more thing?”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
As soon as I nodded, Lorewell pulled out a piece of magic paper from within his robe. The paper had traces of advanced Flame Magic engraved into it.
“This is an assignment that needs to be done for this morning’s class but I’m having trouble with it.”
So.
What do you want me to do with it…?
**
The Academy wasn’t an exact equivalent of the educational institutions in the original world.
Was it a high school or a university? It was hard to say which it was closer to. If I had to answer, it’d be something like half-and-half with a cup of military school.
Perhaps that was why the undergrad students of the Academy often called their professors ‘Teacher’.
They weren’t exactly wrong. The first years especially had a homeroom teacher and learned theories in a designated classroom.
There was a significance to this. An undergrad calling a professor ‘teacher’ implied that they acted and thought like the high school students of my world.
For example…
“You’re really going to teach me?”
Lorewell’s eyes sparkled.
“There’s time so it’s fine.”
“Then please give me a moment! I’ll bring my friends over.”
Though I clearly stated that I was the professor’s assistant, he obviously considered me a tutor. With my mental age being close to a tray of eggs1A tray of eggs in Korea contains 30 eggs., I found this kind of attitude rather cute.
It was like seeing a freshman who just entered university. Because of that, I nodded my agreement to help him even though I could have refused.
Of course, it wasn’t purely out of good intentions.
Lorewell said that he attended Professor Hasfeldt’s classes. Therefore, he was a figure connected to Hasfeldt in some way.
I needed someone to back me up later on if I got accepted into the Academy. If things soured between me and Hasfeldt, that’d be difficult in its own right. Being on the receiving end of a Duchess’ displeasure was dangerous beyond imagination.
Basically, it was a give and take.
“Hello, Miss Assistant.”
“Ah, hello…….”
It was the same group from last time. Two male, two female students. Their demeanor showed that they were starting to adjust to the school.
Wow, this was giving me cognizant dissonance. I’ve been here for two years longer than them without even being enrolled. How did this make sense?
We sat at a large wooden table that was nearby. This was also a part of campus life, working on assignments together with fellow peers. Ah, good times.
Lorewell thoughtfully brought coffee. He offered a cup of espresso from a tumbler. After I thanked him, I washed away the exhaustion with the plant-based alkaloid.
Ahhh, caffeine. The light of my life.
“The homework that Professor Hasfeldt gave us last week was to complete this scroll. But regardless of how hard we tried, we couldn’t figure it out.”
“It’s so unfair! We’re just starting to learn the basics and this is what she gives us!”
Yeah, I know. I’ve been there.
You’re capable of doing math, you said? Then you should be able to construct this magic formula.
It was Hasfeldt who had assigned the completion of five advanced Flame formulas for the next day. If I hadn’t been given the paper on kindlings as a bonus for entering this world then I would’ve been sent right back to the slave market.
“Is there a way to solve this?”
“Hmmm.”
I fixed my eyes on the complicated formula. The level was that of an Advanced Flame Magic.
It wasn’t about formulating a specific kind of magic, merely asking for the steps of completing a basic closed circuit.
Indeed. This was an assignment that was difficult as fuck for first years.
I pointed to the northeast part of the circuit and asked.
“What mana stone should be placed here?”
“We learned in class to choose an element that could amplify the circulation. But….”
“There’s no mana stone that fits the criteria, you’re saying?”
All four of them nodded. The reserved-looking female student even let out a sigh.
“Have you tried adjusting the bloom output?”
“It didn’t help. The professor wants a minimum output of thirty sieverts…….”
Upon hearing that, I huffed an incredulous laugh.
“Thirty sieverts?”
“Yes.”
With the experience of having seen tens of thousands of circuits in the past three years, I could tell. It was impossible to make a scroll with that much output using only these materials.
How dejected would these kids be if they worked hard on the assignment only to hear that, “There actually isn’t a solution to this”?
“When is Professor Hasfeldt’s class?”
“It’s at 8 a.m.”
Then she wouldn’t be back in the lab until 10 a.m., at least. Normally I’d be sweeping until then.
It was an opportunity to let her know earlier the results of my research. She’d immediately recognize the use of the transistor if she saw an unexpected solution to the assignment. One way or another, Hasfeldt had a knack for picking up on things.
I took out 12 transistors from my hip sack and handed them out to the students.
“What is it?”
“Mana stone.”
“I’ve never seen one like this.”
“It only recently came out on the market. Even though it looks like this, it’s top-grade.”
“T-top-grade?”
“It’s called a transistor. Transistor is a material that is simultaneously mana conductive and resistant.”
The students dropped their jaws at my explanation.
“Such an element exists?”
“You’ll see when you use it. If used correctly, then you can control the mana however you’d like. It’s also possible to amplify the circuit’s output.”
I didn’t tell them everything. It wasn’t an appropriate teaching method to explain A-Z at university-level learning.
Inducing curiosity and guiding them so that they could figure it out themselves was my way of teaching.
I gave just two hints. The first was that depending on how the three legs of the transistor was positioned, the current could flow or not flow.
“The mana doesn’t flow at all like this.”
“How…? I did it the same way but mine’s flowing.”
“The mana stone is symmetrical. Try putting it the other way.”
“Ah! I see. There we go.”
Then the second. It could be done with just three transistors.
Any less than that and they wouldn’t get 30 sieverts. I knew this exactly because I discovered this during my overnight research.
“I did it!”
“Me, too…!”
“Was it something this easy?”
All 4 students finished the assignment within thirty minutes. When they activated the circuit with their respective mana, the output was greater than the target goal. A small exclamation sounded at the table.
“But everyone’s circuit looks different.”
“Of course they do. There’s more than one way to create a circuit.”
The students all nodded at what I said.
**
After being thanked profusely by the freshmen, I returned to the lab. Without Professor Hasfeldt, there was only silence within the room.
Professor Hasfeldt’s desk was a mess. It was unusual for that cleaning-obsessed witch to have left her lab in such a state. What had she been doing last night?
I started with organizing the piles of documents on the desk. While I was organizing, a gold-colored letter slipped out from between the papers and fell to the floor.
What’s this?
Without thinking, I picked up the letter and read it.
####
[To the Heir of the Esteemed Hasfeldt Duchy]
[It is the time for my younger son to be applying for the Academy. Your school, that is.]
[You see, however, he mentioned seeing you during his secret preliminary visit to the school. Along with that slave of yours, of course. He has taken an interest in your slave from what I hear.]
[He may have needlessly grown attached because he wishes to take her as his mistress of all things. I absolutely forbade it at first. How could a noble imperial blood take a slave as his wife?]
[But it appears that he is much too stubborn. I came to a compromise with my idiot son so that she can be brought in as a servant for now. Hence, I apologize and ask for your understanding.]
[How would you like exchanging her for 30,000 gold 4 months from now? I do not wish to hurt the pride of a family of founding contributors. If there is anything else that you would like, I shall grant it.]
[There is no need to reply. Come to the palace for some tea when you are able to.]
[The Emperor, Yelchin Philiut (Seal)]
####
“Ah.”
I seemed to have opened Pandora’s box.
