Ch.101Smart College Life (1)

*Splash.*

Professor Stranov filled a whiskey glass and added ice.

“Would you like a drink?”

“Um, Professor?”

“Yes?”

“I’m still a minor.”

She let out an “Ah” of surprise. I continued with a sigh.

“Besides, this is inside the college. Isn’t alcohol prohibited on university grounds?”

This wasn’t just an empty classroom, but a professor’s office no less. Having drinks in such a place. It felt like it was damaging the dignity of academia.

“Hehe, Rheinland is quite the straight arrow.”

She finished filling the glass with carbonated water and gave me a sly smile.

“If you don’t get caught, it’s all good.”

Right, whether it’s adultery or murder, if you don’t get caught, you’re innocent.

The issue is conscience.

I ultimately chose to wet my throat with carbonated water instead of alcohol.

I was weak with alcohol to begin with. I feared making a mistake if I drank here.

“Scared?”

“Scared.”

“What a shame.”

I won’t fall for the provocations of an old maid professor. I see right through you, that’s what I’m saying.

As time passed, Professor Stranov’s face loosened up.

Her eyes blinked drowsily, her expression grew mellow. Her limbs flailed about like a newborn’s, and her voice became coquettish as if she was being flirtatious.

She grabbed my arm and whined.

“Rheinland. Won’t you stay and debate with me all night?”

Lady, you’re being ridiculous.

“Hmmmm. Just listen to me for a bit.”

Please, stop being so unseemly…

My inner conflict deepened. I couldn’t just abandon a research colleague like this.

Above all, she was a professor, a professor. I couldn’t openly reject someone who would be central to the gravity resonator research.

In the end, I endured the professor’s obsession with the mindset of Sima Yi persevering at Wuzhang Plains. And during that time, I was able to hear many behind-the-scenes stories.

“That guy… rejected my confession three times. I will never, ever forgive him. I’m going to grab him by the collar and throw him into a particle accelerator! Let him suffer a bit too, hic…!”

Perhaps due to excessive drinking, her tongue was slurring and her speech became sluggish. I wanted to wipe away her welling tears─ like hell I did. This was the first time in my life I’d seen such hysteria.

“Richard, I’ll kill you. For real, hic.”

Professor Feynman. What kind of battle have you been fighting?

“Professor.”

“Whaaaat.”

“Thank you for the master’s admission offer. I appreciate that you value me highly. Despite being busy with research and lectures, I’m truly grateful that you took the time to have a sincere conversation with me.”

“Then don’t gooo.”

“Still, I need to think about this matter more. Thank you. I’ll be going now.”

“No, no. Nooo.”

A blanket is perfect for a drunk woman throwing a tantrum.

I headed toward the station, feeling the cold wind of Iruyel Academy.

“…”

Let’s pretend today’s drinking session never happened.

***

The obligatory lab tour was finally over.

Ah, the long period of humiliation and oppression is now over. Eidel is free!

[This is Professor Stranov……]

I casually trampled over the professor’s email that belatedly assessed the situation. What they call “read and ignored.”

In fact, I was giving her time to correct it slowly. Emails can be canceled if the recipient doesn’t read them.

Anyway, I was in a good mood today for the first time in a while.

Why?

Because I was able to have a constructive conversation with Professor Feynman.

“I’m going to research the discovery of gravitons.”

There it is. The mainstream!

When dividing the development research of graviton bombs into four stages, the first button is precisely ‘the discovery of gravitons.’

Gravitons. Their existence has been predicted for a long time, but due to humanity’s lagging technology, they still haven’t been discovered—these pathetic, goddamn particles.

“Oh, is it finally time to end this hide-and-seek?”

“No, you crazy bastard. If we mess up, we might not even graduate.”

“Let’s toss this topic to our junior Rheinland. Hehe.”

Thank you so much, seniors. I’m so happy that you’re throwing a research topic at someone as humble as me.

“But Professor, there’s a problem.”

“Tell me.”

“We don’t have money.”

“……”

Breaking news) Research topic falls through.

Damn it, my graviton bomb production plan!!!

“It’s a fatal flaw of theoretical labs. It’s incredibly difficult to secure project funds, whether from national projects or corporations.”

“That’s why we have simulations, isn’t it?”

“Student. We’re currently aiming for ‘discovery.’ Simulations don’t have much meaning.”

Graduate student No. 1 sank under Feynman’s sharp criticism.

Following that, No. 2 and No. 3 sharply countered. They asked how to obtain research funds, what the theoretical outlook would be, and what the experimental plans would look like.

Our advisor presented a simple solution.

“I’m going to try to persuade the government.”

That’s right. The plan was to have no plan.

“How?”

“Recently, thanks to Eidel’s achievements, a ray of light has appeared in theoretical research. It has sent a message to the public that theory can also make money and is important. There couldn’t be a better time to persuade those in power, right?”

The professor proudly said he would appeal to this point.

Perhaps because he’s a theorist, he’s too pure, even for someone pure.

Jinsoo Lee, a young man born and raised in a certain country with experiences of having proposals written and flatly rejected + research budget cuts + a prevalent “theory can go to hell” attitude, knew from the start that Professor Feynman would fail.

And it actually happened.

“We got rejected……”

“Why? You wrote a good proposal.”

“It was rejected for lacking scalability and profitability.”

I knew this would happen.

[“Stupid fools. Rejecting it because it won’t make money.”]

[─ The ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ snickers.]

I patted the back of the dumbfounded Professor Feynman and said,

“I’ll try even if I have to use my family’s assets.”

“Student, you might get kicked out of your home if you do that.”

“I’ll try somehow anyway.”

I’ll have to become the head of the family or something.

For that, reputation was important first.

And to build that reputation, the only thing I could do right now was research.

Somehow, I needed to establish the frame of ‘this guy is a scientist who’s good at taking down foreign gods.’ At the very least, I needed to become famous enough that even if I sealed shit in a can and put it on the online market labeled as ‘Foreign God Repellent Air Freshener,’ it would sell.

In the end, days passed without any particular gain, and.

Eventually, an email arrived.

[(Reminder) This is Professor Stranov……]

No, not that one.

[January New Student Orientation Guide]

Yes, this one.

That’s right.

I, Jinsoo Lee. In my second year of being possessed as Eidel von Rheinland.

I was about to attend university for the second time.

***

Going back in time to October of last year.

Upon hearing the news that Eidel had gone to college, Zernya gave the middle finger to midterms and ran around everywhere.

The faculty office, administration office, college admissions office, administrative department, House Adelbein, education department, and so on.

She went and whined.

Let me graduate early, boo-hoo.

But no matter where she inquired, she heard the same thing.

“According to the Higher Education Act, if you pass the early graduation assessment, you can directly transfer to the college program.”

Get your diploma and just take the exam, period.

That was correct.

“Who says I can’t do it?”

Zernya’s eyes gleamed with determination.

Midterms?

She took them casually without even bothering. Why? Because she was still number one.

Although she lost to Rustila in swordsmanship, she secured the top position in other subjects by thoroughly outperforming her classmates.

Still, she didn’t feel good about it.

“Did you really reclaim the top spot? You got it for free because Eidel isn’t here.”

“You’re still below Eidel anyway.”

“Rheinland was smarter. And had a better personality too.”

“The very fact that you’re still here and not in college means you’ve already lost. Look, real geniuses are different.”

The classmates kept picking at her. It was annoying how they kept singing Eidel’s praises at every opportunity.

Paradoxically, because he wasn’t there, she even felt lonely.

While he had already reached the top and was still aiming higher, why was she satisfied with this throne…

Being number one. What had been natural until now was no longer natural at all.

Anyway, to meet Eidel, she needed to graduate early. With that goal in mind, Zernya put in a final sprint during the final exam period. Somehow, she needed to be evaluated as equal to or better than Eidel.

And Zernya succeeded.

[Name: Zernya von und zu Trisha Adelbein]

[Judging that the above student’s academic level is suitable for college-level studies, we hereby authorize her graduation from this school and transfer to the same college program.]

Although she lost some points during the interview when asked about her future plans, she somehow managed to succeed.

Zernya grinned as she received her diploma.

What she looked forward to most was Rustila’s reaction.

When she realizes that Zernya is nowhere to be found in the Academia when she becomes a second-year student, what kind of face will she make?

“Wait for me, Eidel.”

I’m coming.

***

[─ You have failed the sudden quest.]

[─ As a penalty, 50,000 Fron will be accumulated.]

“Ugh!”

Blood poured out as Ireh exhaled.

Staggering, Ireh barely grabbed the wall and vomited. It was a pain like her intestines were being torn and her brain was throbbing.

“Haa, haa……”

How many pranks was this already?

If she had known it would be like this, she should have stayed locked up in the Spirit Shrine.

But there was no choice.

If she had stayed there, she would have inevitably been transferred back to Alcatraz.

[“Move, girl. Don’t you have a mission to save your kind?”]

The foreign gods who held her reins kept urging her with snickers. It was just a pretense, and in reality, they were trying to obtain ‘star energy’ through Ireh’s pain.

The more Ireh rolls, the more she breaks, the more star energy comes out.

This energy can be converted into coins and becomes a material that foreign gods really like.

“Damn it… ack!”

After walking a few steps, Ireh slumped down in an alley with sparse footsteps.

It’s all because of her trait.

If only she hadn’t been born with such a cursed body…

[“Then you wouldn’t have been controlled by us either. Hehehe.”]

[“That’s why we gave you the quest to kill your parents who gave birth to you like that in the first place, right? Hahaha.”]

[“Enough chatter, if you want to live, move quickly. You lowly woman!”]

Her mouth tastes bitter.

Even in this state, she has to get up.

If she doesn’t save the world, there will only be loops. An endless cycle of pain.

Ding!

[─ A new quest begins.]

Ireh looked up at the empty space with dead fish eyes.

There, another quest had appeared.

[─ Eliminate Eidel von Rheinland.]

She didn’t want to think too much about it.

[─ <Mental Induction> has been activated.]

Ireh’s mouth twisted grotesquely.

She had already figured out what route this iteration’s Eidel would take using her <Tracking> ability.

Early graduation.

Stellarium College.

Ireh slowly walked toward the application office.