Ch.2323. A Mad Scientist Needs a Laboratory

Heinrich’s Law states that before any major incident occurs, there are always numerous smaller incidents and warning signs. I’m inclined to agree with this principle.

‘Ugh, what in the world is this…?’

How could I deny it when I just experienced one of those small incidents myself?

I woke up to find my wall gone. Beyond it, I could see a complete mess of a room.

Well, I’m not sure if this qualifies as a “small” incident. Compared to an entire building collapsing, I suppose one wall is relatively minor.

Looking closer, I noticed a disheveled man sleeping among various experimental equipment.

That lunatic… I knew he might blow up the entire dormitory someday, but I didn’t expect him to cause an accident like this after just one day.

I expected trouble, but this is ridiculous. How can they suddenly force us to share a room?

Judging by how soundly he’s sleeping, he probably has no idea what happened. I walked over to the adjacent room, intending to wake him up.

As I approached, I kicked away the flasks covering him to get a better look at what kind of person he was.

Spiky white hair and a skinny frame. Wearing a white lab coat, he was young, but it was clear that when he got older, he’d look exactly like the stereotypical mad scientist everyone imagines.

Though young, he already has the talent to blow up an entire dormitory building.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Mmm… who is it?”

The guy got up groggily and made eye contact with me.

Still half-asleep, he stared at me blankly before suddenly jumping back in surprise.

“W-who are you! Don’t carelessly enter the laboratory of the great Frang!”

As he just said, his name is Frang.

And his family name is Kenstein.

Yes, Frang Kenstein. A parody of that famous name.

Talk about living up to the mad scientist stereotype with such a ridiculous name.

Since he didn’t seem to realize what he’d done wrong, I silently pointed at the missing wall.

My room, though not fully organized, was much cleaner than his side and now completely exposed.

“W-what… What…”

Frang stared blankly as if his brain had stopped working, then after apparently grasping the situation, he prostrated himself on the floor.

“I’m so sorry! Could you please keep this a secret?”

That’s what he started saying.

I wonder how the original Ludion would have responded? I don’t care about that—my answer was already decided.

“No.”

“Please! If you could just reconsider…”

Frang began desperately clinging to me after my firm refusal.

But my decision was unwavering.

“Wait, aren’t you Ludion! What an honor to have such a distinguished person in the next room!”

Now that he was starting to recognize who I was, he began flattering me, trying desperately to change my mind… Nevertheless, my decision remained firm.

No. I won’t change my mind. I have no intention of changing it. Go back quickly.

Let this slide? That’s not possible.

If I ignore this accident, it will surely lead to a bigger one. In this case, the dormitory’s collapse would be inevitable.

To prevent that, this needed to be handled properly.

As a student council member, what I needed to do was simple.

Report this to Alkine to make it public, then convene another disciplinary committee.

Put Frang in the same seat where Celia sat yesterday, and watch a more enjoyable process unfold.

Since he hasn’t caused a major incident yet, I imagine he’ll just receive periodic monitoring or have his experimental equipment confiscated.

“If I succeed later, I’ll give all the glory to you, Ludion. And I’ll provide all my creations for you to use free of charge, so please…”

He’s probably so desperate because he can guess what’s coming.

And seeing him like this made me wonder:

Is stopping his experiments really the right thing to do?

No, guys like him just get crazier when you try to stop them. It might actually cause the dormitory to collapse faster.

I’m absolutely not tempted by his offer of glory and free access to his creations.

…Honestly, I am tempted.

But listen, how could I resist the opportunity to use the creations of a mad scientist who doesn’t even appear in the original story?

Before I knew it, my heart was leaning toward helping him.

So what should I do?

After thinking briefly, I saw the answer.

“Hey, get ready for school.”

“There’s still about two hours until… I mean, yes! I’ll prepare right away!”

That’s right, just follow along nicely.

They say good things come to those who listen to experienced people, right? Trust me and follow.

After getting ready, we left the dormitory, and it was extremely quiet and empty outside.

It was still far too early for school, so that was natural. Most students were probably still sleeping.

Frang, who had been forcibly dragged out at this hour, was hesitantly following behind me.

I just told him to follow me since he’d understand when we arrived, but he seemed anxious because of that… I had no intention of being kind to someone who had destroyed my room wall, so I maintained my silence.

Frang continuing his dangerous experiments in the dormitory was actually the result of discrimination.

He was assigned to the lower class, and lower-class students didn’t receive proper research support.

Of course, that wasn’t the academy’s fault. It was his fault for coming here instead of going to a research institute when he was so serious about this stuff.

In the end, the dormitory collapse incident could be seen as a disaster caused by a lower-class student not receiving proper facilities.

Therefore, if he were given a proper place, he would have no reason to experiment in the dormitory, and the dormitory collapse incident would naturally disappear.

A perfect solution.

Now I just needed to find the right place… First of all, the academy grounds had quite a few unused spaces.

There were even several dummy buildings that were never used until the end of the game.

But that was just in the game—now that it had become reality, someone might be using them.

So I needed to find a building that was definitely empty.

That’s where we were heading now.

That building located in the most remote corner where no human footsteps reached.

I was confident no one would be living in that place, which seemed so meaningless it might have been abandoned mid-construction.

Of course, finding it meant having to memorize the arrangement of trees in the dense forest, so we’d probably wander for a while… but honestly, there was no place more appropriate for the current situation.

After walking for about 40 minutes, the building I was looking for finally appeared.

“We’re here.”

“What… is this place?”

A fairly large wooden cabin.

It definitely existed in the game but had no interactions whatsoever—a mysterious structure.

As expected, there was no sign of anyone here.

Right. The only ones who might be here would be ghosts.

…That’s scary when I think about it. I decided not to think about ghosts.

Looking around the cabin that stood in such an unexpected place, Frang sidled up to me and said something strange.

“I was worried you might be planning to bury me in the forest.”

“What do you take me for?”

I found this empty house with good intentions, and all I get in return is that he thought I was going to kill him?

But I suppose it wasn’t strange for him to think that.

He had done something wrong, was dragged out without forgiveness, and then led deeper into a dark forest for about 40 minutes?

Oh… thinking about it that way, it’s impressive he didn’t run away earlier.

But in the end, I found him a place, so it’s all good. Now he can experiment here instead of in the dormitory.

When I told him that, he started staring at the cabin with sparkling eyes.

“Um… may I go inside?”

“Sure.”

He asked if he could look inside, apparently curious about the interior, so I told him to go ahead. It’s not my house anyway.

I was also curious about the interior, so I casually went in with him. You couldn’t enter it in the game.

When we entered the cabin, the inside was cleaner than I expected.

More precisely, it was completely empty except for dust on the floor, so there wasn’t much to make it dirty.

Of course, I was careful not to say that out loud, as I didn’t know what might happen.

While I was thinking about this, Frang was looking around the interior and expressed his satisfaction in an excited tone…

“With this much space, I can even conduct experiments I’ve only been able to conceptualize due to space constraints! I can do that over here… and over there…”

Halfway through, he started muttering to himself about what he would do, so there was no need to listen further.

I tapped Frang on the shoulder as he was lost in his own world.

“Alright, let’s head back. If we leave now, we should make it back in time for school.”

“You’re right. On the way back, I should leave some markers. It might not be easy to find this place otherwise…”

“Do as you please.”

No one’s likely to come here anyway.

And if someone does follow those markers, it’ll be Frang who’s in trouble, not me.

I just need to sit back and wait for him to complete something. That’s what I call a passive game.