Ch.300Ph.D (5)

“Sister, how is it?”

“Sister…?”

“Yes. Since Ireh is a year older than me, I think calling her sister isn’t bad. Only in private settings, of course.”

Sister, sister. Ireh murmured blankly.

“There are many other titles like Doctor or others, so why?”

“Anyone can use those titles, even people who aren’t close.”

“…”

“If it makes you uncomfortable, we can go back to how it was before…”

“No, no! It’s fine! It’s fine, so you can call me that!”

Ireh turned her gaze away with a smile. Her eyelashes, thin as reeds, faced toward me. Then, a melody soft as melted cheese flowed from her lips.

“…Call me that now.”

“Yes, Sister.”

“Yes, little brother.”

“…”

“…”

A peony-like blush rose to Ireh’s face. I also cleared my throat and scratched my head. It’s still new, so I’m not used to it.

“Suddenly changing how we address each other isn’t easy.”

“But I like that it makes us feel closer.”

I held out my fist to Ireh.

“I’ll be counting on you from now on.”

“Yes.”

Ireh bumped her fist against mine.

And the next moment, she did something unexpected. Ireh opened her hand and completely enveloped my fist.

Like a frog being swallowed by a snake, I was startled and tried to pull my hand away.

But Ireh gripped the back of my hand so strongly that I couldn’t.

“Sister?”

“If we’re closer now, this much is fine. Don’t you think?”

Looking at Ireh’s expression, I instantly realized.

Something had gone seriously wrong.

“Ugh!”

Ireh suddenly clutched her head and staggered.

“Sister, what’s wrong?”

“My head feels like it’s splitting…!”

Ireh’s complexion was pale.

I supported Ireh to the cot. I brought her headache medicine and water.

“You should take this now. Here.”

“…Give it to me.”

“Pardon?”

“Open it and put it in my mouth.”

I was momentarily flustered, but it was evidence of how severe her headache was. Ireh was the type who handled everything herself, even when embarrassed.

I supported Ireh’s springy hair and helped her take the medicine and water.

“How is it?”

“I think it’s getting better.”

“You’ve been pushing yourself for years. The fatigue might be catching up to you now.”

Ireh laughed weakly, as if to say, “Could that be it?”

***

Eidel laid Ireh down on the bed and prepared for graduation. Since time had started flowing normally again, he would be able to receive his degree in a few days.

“Ah, I want to get my degree.”

While Eidel wrestled with his lovesickness, Ireh was preoccupied with enduring her throbbing headache.

The cause of the headache wasn’t fatigue.

[— ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ uses <Stress Amplification>.]

The headache had started when Ireh began calling Eidel “little brother.” It was the doing of Cartesia, Eidel’s patron deity.

Why is this happening only to me?

She felt wronged. Either help or hinder, but not both at once.

As she swallowed her complaints, a voice reached her.

[“There’s a limit to how much you can flirt with that youngster.”]

It was a sharp, informal female voice.

[“Know your place. You’re just a lowly creature following that youngster. Without Eidel von Rheinland… no, without Jinsoo Lee, you’re nothing but a fragile existence that would crumble.”]

Though the words were roundabout, the interpretation was simple.

Don’t call Eidel “little brother” so intimately.

‘Who are you to say that?’

Foreign gods were all incomprehensible, capricious, evil, or eccentric beings. Ireh couldn’t understand why Cartesia, who had been quiet all this time, was acting this way, but she didn’t feel obligated to understand either.

Even if Cartesia continued to interfere, she would still call him “little brother.”

Because doing so gave her, someone without a family, a little comfort.

[“How unpleasant.”]

The feeling was mutual.

[“I’m the only one who can talk to that youngster as an equal about research topics. What have you accomplished with your limited brain capacity to be sitting in the shadows taking credit?”]

Maybe that was true.

But this was the only way to save the world.

After that, Ireh spent several days suffering from constant headaches. Her face turned red and she developed a fever even though she hadn’t done anything.

“Sister, are you okay? Wait, I’ll make you some tea.”

Eidel unexpectedly found himself nursing Ireh. She felt sorry for holding him back when he was so busy.

But at the same time, she was happy. Because he was looking only at her while his two wives and Sonia were away.

[“I’ve lost interest. I’ll stop now.”]

In the end, Cartesia was the first to let go.

Soon it was the day before the degree ceremony. Zernya and Rustila left their two children with their in-laws and came to the lab.

“Eidel!”

“Darling!”

The two wives stuck to him like glue and kissed him.

“Did you live well while we were gone?”

“Of course.”

“No other women approached you flirtatiously?”

“No, really.”

“Right? There was no one except Sonia?”

“Not even Sonia. I was only with Ireh. We were busy with final research work.”

Ireh stood a few steps away. She greeted Rustila and Zernya with a gentle smile and a wave.

The two wives whispered to each other.

“Should we consider Ireh unnie as another woman too?”

“We can trust that unnie. Anyway, let’s celebrate our darling’s degree today and tomorrow.”

“Now, did you miss us while we were gone?”

Eidel didn’t push away his wives as they clung to him seeking affection.

An “ah” of resignation escaped from Ireh’s lips.

The good times were over. As long as the two wives were by Eidel’s side, there was no room for her to intervene.

Ireh left the room first, using organizing her thesis as an excuse. She was tactfully giving space to the strange atmosphere flowing between the two wives and Eidel.

However, once outside, Ireh carefully placed her ear against the iron door of the lab that felt like a wall.

Click.

How much time had passed since the lab door locked?

– Ahh!

The moans of the two women began to be heard little by little.

Ireh pressed her ear closer and clutched her pounding heart. She slid down helplessly while leaning against the door. It wasn’t because her legs had given out, despite that convenient excuse.

At night… sounds travel downward.

“Huu.”

Because it was regrettable, because it was disappointing.

Because she wanted to be loved the same way, but it wasn’t her fate.

Yet she wanted to release this desire.

That night, Ireh discovered a way to comfort herself.

***

“Ugh, I’m so stiff.”

My vision was blurry and my lower back tingled.

From last night until dawn today, I was devoured so thoroughly it felt like my pillar had been uprooted. Since we didn’t meet often, both seemed to have been constantly frustrated.

Even so, it was too exhausting. It felt like having my energy drained by a succubus.

“Sigh, darling. Your upper half is a PhD, but your lower half is still just a master’s?”

“That’s right, you publish papers well but not sperm.”

My wives complained while fondling my lower body. I had my own grievances about hearing such things.

“We did it eight times, you two.”

“Just joking, just joking. But it’s a shame. If we’d reached ten, it would have been a new record.”

“Honestly, I’m still not satisfied.”

A series of chilling statements.

Checking the time, I hurriedly washed and put on the borrowed graduation gown. Rustila and Zernya also groaned as they put on their outer clothes.

“Ugh, my buttocks are tingling.”

“My jaw feels like it’s going to dislocate.”

“Please, you two.”

I thought I’d be full of energy on the day I received my degree. This was the first time I’d been so tired on such an honorable day.

After getting ready and leaving the lab, Ireh was waiting for me.

“Del, are you ready?”

“Yeees.”

“Are you okay? You look tired.”

“Something happened.”

Ireh glanced at Rustila and Zernya. She seemed to have figured out what had happened last night.

“I’ll help you.”

[— ‘Ireh Hazlen’ uses <Bullet of Energy>.]

A spirit bullet lodged in my head. Immediately, amazingly, my fatigue disappeared as if washed away by water.

“It’s a skill that increases stamina. I’ve done it for you before, right?”

“Thank you.”

With the triangle effect applied, it was much better. I even thought I could get revenge on my two wives tonight.

My heart began to regain its vigor. What mattered most was right in front of me. Trying to calm my pounding heart, I headed to the degree ceremony venue.

The first people I noticed at the venue were Feynman and Professor Stranov.

“Student Eidel.”

“Professor.”

“You’re finally graduating. It’s been both a short and long time.”

Indeed it has.

How many things have happened since I fell into this place? And yet, how long a road do I still have to walk?

It was a good thing regardless.

“It might sound cliché, but receiving a degree isn’t an end but a new beginning. As you’ve been until now, I hope you’ll continue to be someone who isn’t bound by status or authority, but who enjoys learning from and sensing nature itself.”

What mattered was that I was walking this path. Not because it was the only way to save this world, but because it was the path I had chosen from the beginning.

In the solemn auditorium, speeches continued from the president and various dignitaries. I couldn’t hear any congratulatory words.

Because soon I would be able to meet my soul mate.

“Doctoral graduate representative, Eidel von Rheinland.”

I went forward.

I faced the highest person in Stellarium. He opened his mouth.

“Degree certificate. Name, Eidel von Rheinland. The above person has completed the integrated master’s and doctoral program at this Academy’s graduate school, passed the prescribed examinations, submitted a dissertation, and passed the review of the Graduate School Committee, thereby recognizing that he has qualified for the degree of Doctor of Science.”

I could have just received it at the academic affairs office and left, but that would have lacked both romance and meaning.

The later you receive it, the greater the emotion.

Finally, the doctoral certificate, along with the outstanding graduate award plaque, fell into my hands.

The degree certificate, bound in a rugged hardcover unsuited to this era, bore the seal of Stellarium. Seeing this, I unconsciously lost my grip on reason.

“Hsssp, haaa.”

“…?”

“Finally, finally I meet you again…”

“Student?”

“You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you.”

Five years since the possession, through Academia, College, and Graduate school. Add to that the years of time reversed, about 15 years in total. It took so long.

I’ve reclaimed my doctoral degree.