Ch.208Chapter 208 – The Butterfly Effect Caused by the Repairman’s Existence

Behind the store.

All the students who had visited my shop had disappeared to attend their classes.

Therefore, right now, there were only two people here: me and the Disciplinary Committee Head.

Just the two of us.

In academy stories, this would be the classic scene where the heroine confesses to the protagonist.

Or perhaps the rival confesses to the heroine.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an academy story, nor a romantic comedy, and certainly not a dating sim.

“Since there’s no one around, I’ll explain in detail what happened.”

“Fine, go ahead and explain.”

“Yes, Count. Are you aware that Miss Mina Endras works as an assistant to a professor in the Magic Department?”

“I am aware.”

I recall that Mina has been working as an assistant to a Magic Department professor to earn living expenses since her first semester of freshman year.

So, does that mean the incident occurred after she had been working for a little over a year?

The Mina Endras I know was described as someone who never caused trouble when it came to magic-related matters.

“Then this will make things easier. The person in charge of the laboratory where Miss Mina Endras worked as an assistant is Professor Karen Blechet.”

“Karen… Blechet…?”

I was startled when the Disciplinary Committee Head mentioned Karen Blechet’s name.

Karen Blechet.

The reason I knew her name well was because she was the main villain in Mina’s awakening story.

The villain in Mina’s awakening story, Karen Blechet.

She was from the Blechet family, a prestigious magic house like the Sandrios family, and had lived her entire life being compared to others.

The reason was, naturally, because of her sister, Isabel Blechet, and her academy peer.

Isabel Blechet was called a genius magician with enough talent to potentially become a grand magician in the future.

Naturally, the head of the Blechet family hoped that Karen would possess the same talent as Isabel.

However, Karen didn’t have that level of talent; she had just average magical ability.

In any other family, that would have been considered sufficient talent, but her family was the Blechet family, the second most prestigious magic house after the Sandrios family.

Therefore, for her, average talent was as good as insufficient talent.

Afterward, Karen always had to be compared to her sister Isabel, and even to her sister’s unnamed academy peer.

Especially since that academy peer was a commoner, she was despised as being worse than a commoner…

‘This is all because of those arrogant commoners. If only commoners weren’t so talented…’

Karen’s inferiority complex and hatred shifted its target from her parents to innocent commoners.

And now, that arrow had found its mark in Mina Endras.

Mina Endras, a magic student of commoner origin with outstanding talent, just like her sister’s unnamed commoner academy peer.

Karen usually treated commoners in a gentle manner, but that was only when their talents were ordinary.

If a commoner student’s talent threatened to surpass that of noble students even slightly, she would use every means possible to make that commoner student leave the academy voluntarily.

Her methods were carried out away from the academy’s surveillance, and within three years of becoming a professor, she had caused as many as five students to leave the academy of their own accord.

And now, after targeting Mina Endras and finding herself on the receiving end, she resorts to forbidden methods.

This leads to Mina’s potential exploding in the crisis, allowing her to narrowly escape danger.

The academy, noticing something suspicious about commoner students voluntarily leaving after being employed by Karen, conducts a thorough investigation, resulting in Karen being punished for her wrongdoings—that was Mina’s awakening story.

‘I didn’t expect Karen Blechet to appear here.’

Honestly, I didn’t expect a villain related to Mina’s awakening story to appear so soon.

“Yes. She’s a professor in the Magic Department… Students working as assistants under Professor Blechet frequently ended up leaving the academy, but Professor Blechet explained that since magic requires extensive learning, commoners felt limited in their studies and left voluntarily.”

“But you found that suspicious?”

“Yes. And the fact that Mina Endras was the one involved in this recent laboratory accident only confirmed my previous suspicions.”

This Disciplinary Committee Head seems quite perceptive.

That makes sense.

Karen Blechet is someone who extremely despises talented commoners.

She’s the type of person who would readily hide her true nature if it meant she could destroy a talented commoner.

“I assume you found some common traits between Mina Endras and the students who voluntarily left the academy after working in Professor Blechet’s laboratory?”

“To be honest… yes.”

The Disciplinary Committee Head was looking around as he spoke, suggesting that he believed this matter should not be leaked outside.

“What common traits did they share?”

“They were all commoners and were considered promising students with decent talent at the time of admission. That’s why other professors couldn’t understand why these students were leaving the academy, but…”

So they were let go because of their own strong determination to leave?

“Did they express a strong desire to leave on their own?”

I voiced the thought that was most strongly coming to mind.

“That’s correct.”

As I thought. The academy didn’t question the issue because they were respecting the students’ wishes.

In the first place, there was no direct evidence that Professor Blechet had harmed them, so the academy couldn’t say anything to her.

Moreover, until last year, Sister Regina was struggling with the curse, making it difficult for her to properly oversee the academy, so there was no one to question Professor Blechet’s actions.

But there’s one strange thing… Mina’s potential didn’t explode.

‘If Mina’s awakening story is progressing… the plot should be that Professor Blechet, after targeting Mina and fearing retaliation, resorts to forbidden methods to corner Mina, only to be countered by Mina whose potential has awakened… Wait.’

I felt something off here.

Forbidden methods.

In Erasto Chronicle, “forbidden methods” almost certainly refers to involvement with “them.”

And by “them,” I mean the Demon Cult, of course.

‘Ah, could it be that due to the butterfly effect caused by me, Professor Blechet couldn’t use forbidden methods?’

Currently, the Empire has declared war on the Demon Cult, and as a result, the Demon Cult has essentially weakened and is presumed to be inactive.

So… it would be difficult to obtain illegal drugs or artifacts distributed by them.

Saying it’s difficult is an understatement; it’s more accurate to say they’ve been completely eradicated.

The Empire had only refrained from investigating due to a lack of justification against public backlash, but if they wanted to, they could crush a mere cult.

‘It seems like I really need to intervene here.’

What if Professor Blechet, seeing Mina’s growth potential, planned to completely bury her, and while there were some illegal activities in the process, she didn’t resort to forbidden methods?

‘Perhaps she really intended to use them, but had to abandon the plan midway due to the Empire’s declaration of war against the Demon Cult.’

Considering all possibilities, I think Professor Blechet planned with the assumption that she wouldn’t be able to use forbidden methods.

“So, what wrongdoing did Mina Endras commit to deserve suspension?”

“Recently, dwarves from the Grendillet Mountains, along with professors from the imperial palace and academy, were collaborating to develop an artifact that could track the energy of Demon Cult followers and believers. The prototype was shattered due to Miss Mina Endras’s mistake.”

“Hmm?”

So they were developing an artifact to track the energy of Demon Cult followers and believers.

And it got shattered?

“Couldn’t they just fix it or make a new one?”

“Well… the resources required to remake or repair it are immense. I heard that just the development of the prototype cost about 10% of the academy’s annual budget.”

Wow, 10% of the academy’s operating budget is an enormous amount.

But why didn’t they call for me?

“Why didn’t they seek me out? With my abilities, I could have fixed something like that easily.”

“About that… at that time, Count, you were recovering, and the imperial family had strictly ordered that no one should disturb you…”

“I understand. I’ll investigate the details myself.”

It’s been a while… I should contact Mr. Justin.

The Black Feather knows everything.