Research Life of a New Professor at Magic University

I returned to the lab late at night.
Arien was admirably engrossed in her research.

“Welcome back.”

“Yeah, what paper are you reading?”

“It’s Professor’s paper.”

My paper? That doesn’t make any sense. I must have written only one or two papers.

“It’s Professor’s master’s thesis.”

“Argh! Ugh! Uwaaaaaaah!”

“Huh?”

“No! Don’t read it!”

“W-why are you suddenly like this?”

“Shut up and hand it over quickly! Why in the world are you looking for that?”

I wanted to dig a grave and bury myself in it.
Is she really doing this on purpose?

“Didn’t you tell me to go through your research? You said it would help with my–Hey! No, go away! Why are you doing this, really!”

“That’s an exception! Just skip that and read anything else. Stop reading!”

“Fine!”

Arien tried not to let go of the paper.
Eventually, I had to take it away using magic.
She seemed angry that she couldn’t read more of my embarrassing past.

“But you told me to study, right? So why are you interfering?”

“No, you did well! You did well…! Please, just don’t read this one.”

Arien expressed her dissatisfaction with my contradictory behavior.
Maybe she thought I’d be pleased.
I’m sorry for scolding her for studying when she was told to! But still, no way!

“It’s a request. I’m not telling you not to read research papers. Just not this one.”

Arien eventually softened her expression.

“Why do you hate it so much?”

“You had your master’s thesis too.”

“But the professor graduated with a master’s degree quickly. And the research results were good, right? The paper didn’t seem strange to me.”

“For goodness’ sake, could you please stop… Can’t you just let it go?”

“You were studying rune languages back then.”

Feeling completely relaxed, Arien even chuckled and continued mentioning my embarrassing past.

I was sure of it. This was intentional.

Finally, it took me a while before I could bring up Claire’s request.

***

“Ah, was that the reason the knife looked like that? Was it because of the cross?”

“Why would I know that? Sarkada is an Elvish religion.”

“But I know more about Apis than the professor, so let’s move on.”

I remembered the ridiculous flower story from last time.
If I delve too deep, I might touch on sensitive topics again, so I should move on.
No, aside from that, why does she keep taunting me?

“I was curious why the knife looked so different, but I guess there was a reason. Oh, what about the dwarves? Or do other races make them differently, too?”

“Races as fervent as humans are rare. Dwarves just make them as requested. They don’t incorporate their faith into it.”

“It didn’t seem like elves couldn’t use human swords. Why do Apis believers… Ah, never mind.”

I definitely chose the wrong person to complain to.

Bringing up the dark side of religion to someone who doesn’t even carry a symbol of faith will just result in mutual cursing.
Arien didn’t seem particularly interested in bad-mouthing Apheism. (TN: Apheism is a way to describe the Apis system.)

Unlike me. Shame.
As long as there was a listener, I was confident in my ability to curse the religious fanatics until the date changed.

“I hope you’ll think about it when you have time, but your duties as my assistant and your research come first. This is a personal request, so there’s no need to spend too much time on it.”

“But still, why?”

“Alright, just think about it whenever you have some spare time.”

“Um… okay.”

Arien nodded and stepped back.
Seeing that, I added naturally, as if it were nothing but a passing remark:

“Of course, I’ll share the research fund with you, so it will be helpful for you too.”

“…Yes.”

“So, think about it briefly after finishing your assistant duties.”

“…….”

“If you have nothing else to do, you can also look for some materials.”

“…Professor?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just tell me to do it…….”

I was a kind professor who listened well to his graduate students.

“Do it.”

“No, seriously, why are you like this? I said I’d help you from the beginning!”

It’s my revenge for earlier.

*

Two days later, during the fourth class of ‘Utilization of Magical Materials.’

Professor Atwell entered right on time, as usual.

Unlike the previous class, Arien, the assistant, was also present today.
However, some students looked at them with slightly peculiar eyes.

Stella Lacton was one of them.
In her mind, she had already written an epic story about the two, complete with five different endings.

‘How far have the two of them gone?’

Arien suddenly felt puzzled by the change in the students’ gazes, but Professor Atwell proceeded with the class.

The professor only called three names directly for attendance and quickly finished the roll call, his attitude showing clear annoyance with the process.
He skipped even greetings and got straight to the point.

“Today, we will be learning about ‘metals.’ You might remember this topic from the last class. Let’s delve a bit deeper.”

The students realized it was time to exercise concentration over imagination.
They ceased their irrelevant daydreams and listened carefully to Professor Atwell’s voice.

“As I mentioned last week, metals are the worst materials for enchanting. However, they are also commonly used in magical tools. Do you know the reason?”

Professor Atwell glanced at Stella, assuming she would answer again, but Stella was doing something else.
In the end, Atwell answered his question.

“The reason is because their compatibility with ‘gemstones,’ the best material for enchanting, is exceptionally good. There isn’t a better material than metal to surround and support gemstones. The reason for this has yet to be fully understood.”

Atwell continued, “One hypothesis is because of the purpose of gemstone. When enchanting it, strong magical power is concentrated in a small volume. Maintaining this concentration becomes difficult if we support it with a material that absorbs magic well.”

As usual, Atwell did not omit elaborations and examples.
He could always provide detailed examples because his knowledge base was exceptionally broad.

However, without Arien, every class would have been challenging to prepare.
She was diligent in organizing class materials and handing them over.
In return, she was almost always sleepy during class.

“Among metals, silver and gold have better compatibility with gemstones than iron. There’s even a saying that jewelry has evolved due to magical tools. It’s not an established fact but a fairly plausible hypothesis. In fact, silver and gold are so widely used that they are considered too valuable for currency or jewelry.”

Not only silver and gold but many precious metals and gemstones, as well as rare minerals, are mostly buried around dragon habitats.
It is still unknown whether this is because the dragons settle in such places or if their mana alters the veins.

The important thing is that most of the silver and gold stored are difficult for humans to mine.
Veins in areas without dragons are mined by dwarves or kobolds.
Humans control a tiny fraction.

Mining so much and then using what’s left to make money and the like… Atwell thought it was wasteful.
Of course, this was a thought he could afford because he wasn’t particularly interested in economics or art.

“Silver and gold are used a lot in magic on their own, even without gemstones. Do you know which field they are most used in?”

Atwell glanced at Stella again this time, but she didn’t answer.
She was the student currently running the most daydream circuits in the classroom.
However, feeling the silence lengthening, she eventually responded to Atwell’s words as usual.

“Electricity!”

Atwell secretly felt relieved.

“Yes. Metals are often used in electric magic. It’s not about enchanting the metal itself but rather about the metal assisting after the magic is activated.”

Besides using metal for electric magic, many other cases like this exist.
There are countless ways that magic directly and indirectly affects materials.

“Silver is known to be the best.”

Atwell recalled his elemental science class at the Royal University during his undergraduate years.
Someone had mentioned using silver to support electric magic, prompting him to ask this question.

‘Could it be because there’s not enough copper?’

Atwell felt that it was really a stupid question even now.
How could someone come up with the idea of using silver because there wasn’t enough copper?
He couldn’t even imagine what would have happened for that to be the case.

‘Would it require all the countries on the continent to participate in one war? Or would it take large-scale magic to erase one city from…’

‘Even until mankind is destroyed, there will never be a case where silver is used due to a shortage of copper.’

Atwell paused his brief digression and continued the lecture.

“Rare minerals are even more complex. Some are used for magic involving elements other than electric elements. It’s not limited to elemental magic. For example…”

Today, the students felt that Atwell’s class was particularly challenging.
Stella Lacton was also feeling overwhelmed by the detailed and specialized knowledge.

This was no illusion.

“Some special metals have properties that allow them to be enchanted for specific types of magic only, for example…”

For the first time, Professor Atwell felt fortunate to have taken on this class.
He had accepted Claire’s request and spent two days researching various metals.
There was much about the field that Atwell was not familiar with.

‘The best way to acquire knowledge is to teach it to others.’

While explaining the newly acquired knowledge to the students, Atwell could also hear it for himself.
He felt he was truly experiencing the ‘joy of teaching’ after a long time.

‘So, this is the pleasure of teaching students!’

Of course, the students had to endure the pain of dealing with content far beyond the undergraduate level.

Translator’s Corner

Sorry for uploading this late. I took it easy the past few days and derusted at osu. Got a new peak rank as well.

-Ruminas