Ch.54Stone Golem – 3

—Knock knock knock knock knock!!!!!

Ingrid, who had been deeply engrossed in improving her wide-area magic formula, stopped her work when she heard urgent knocking from outside the door.

She checked the clock. The numbers already indicated evening. Who would be so rude at this hour? Slightly furrowing her brow, Ingrid spoke.

“Enter.”

“P-Professor Ingrid!”

One of her assistants tumbled into the room.

“What’s the matter?”

“The magic stone golem! The magic stone golem was destroyed during practice combat!”

“What?”

Ingrid rose from her seat without realizing it. The magic stone golem was destroyed? During practice combat? She was about to urgently ask what happened when a thought occurred to her, and she changed her question.

“By any chance, was the person who destroyed it a student named Mira Crate?”

“…How did you know?”

The assistant’s eyes widened. That was all the confirmation she needed.

“Yes, Mira Crate. The youngest son of the Crate family. Professor Jake said that student destroyed a magic stone golem during combat practice.”

As soon as she received confirmation, Ingrid sat back down. In that case, there was no need to worry. She had just wasted emotional energy for nothing. Ingrid waved her hand, dismissing the assistant.

“There’s no need to concern yourself. You may go.”

“What? B-but is it really okay when a magic stone golem has been destroyed?”

“The Sword Saint will understand. He said from the beginning, didn’t he? Even if the golem breaks, the Imperial Palace will cover all repair costs, so don’t worry. When the chairman heard that, he got upset, asking if Bellium Academy was really that poor.”

“That may be true, but…”

Ingrid forcibly shooed away the assistant who was trailing off and mumbling, then sank back into her chair.

‘It was true after all.’

When the Sword Saint had provided the magic stone golems for practice combat, he had given Ingrid a separate warning. If Mira Crate happened to destroy a magic stone golem, she should absolutely not be surprised.

He was one hundred percent certain that student had such capabilities.

When she asked how he could be so sure, he replied that there were a few suspicious points. Though she never did hear what those suspicious points were.

‘Didn’t he say his disciple might enroll in the academy soon?’

Recently, he’d been focused on rehabilitation training for a disciple who had miraculously returned to being human after spending several years as a murderous demon. That was certainly like the Sword Saint’s driving force.

“Well, let’s see how badly it was damaged…”

Ingrid picked up the report on the magic stone golem’s destruction that had just arrived and turned to the first page. She let out a small gasp of admiration.

The report, written by Professor Jake, stated that Mira Crate had moved at such a speed that even the professor could barely see him, completely severing the golem’s wrist and destroying its core.

‘He shattered the core of a magic stone golem used by the Royal Guard for practice?’

Setting aside the fact that they would need to recreate that extremely expensive, top-quality item, the thickness of the chest armor designed to prevent such damage was beyond imagination.

It was hard to believe he had destroyed it in less than a second.

‘I can almost hear Valera tearing his hair out from here.’

While every part of a magic stone golem was expensive, the core’s price was particularly astronomical. Not only was its structure completely different from ordinary golem cores, but it couldn’t simply be conjured with mana.

And was it just the price that was high? The manufacturing process was ridiculously complex. It wasn’t for nothing that grand mages had been reusing the same design for over a hundred years with only minor improvements.

And now this precious item had been shattered along with the magic stone golem. Ingrid was slightly hesitant about how to take this news, even with the Sword Saint’s warning.

“Professor, are you there? It’s Priscilla Agnes.”

Just as Ingrid was racking her brain for a solution while reading the report that was complicating matters despite the prior warning, another knock came at the door.

“You may enter.”

Upon receiving permission, Priscilla carefully entered carrying a bundle of parchment. Surprised by this unexpected combination of person and object, Ingrid set down the report she had been reading.

“What brings you here, Miss Agnes?”

“I’ve designed a new core for the magic stone golem, and I was wondering if you could review it, Professor.”

“…A core for the magic stone golem?”

Ingrid was startled, though her years of experience allowed her to hide it outwardly. Designing a new structure for something that even grand mages hadn’t dared to touch?

It seemed impossible, even for a student known as a genius mage.

“Please just take a look at it. I’m begging you.”

Priscilla placed the rolled parchment on the desk and bowed respectfully. Ingrid sighed.

“Miss Agnes. Since you brought it, I’ll check it, but be aware that if anyone else had brought this, I would have sent them away for talking nonsense.”

“I understand. Thank you for your consideration.”

Ingrid unrolled the parchment with a displeased expression. Though she had smoothed things over by saying she would look at it because Agnes had brought it, she actually had no expectations.

After all, Priscilla’s recent attitude had been a topic of discussion among the second-year professors. Since advancing to second year, she had been skipping lectures far too frequently.

While her grades weren’t a problem—she still scored perfect marks on every quiz thanks to her skills—her changed attitude was inevitably becoming a subject of gossip.

Since this change happened right after meeting Mira Crate, rumors were spreading among the second-year professors that Priscilla had fallen for a man and completely abandoned her studies.

Of course, some professors didn’t care whether students attended lectures as long as their grades were good. Ingrid was one of them.

“…”

As Ingrid read through the design on the parchment with such thoughts in mind, her eyes grew wider with disbelief as she understood more about the core’s structure.

“What… is this…?”

“What do you think, Professor?”

“…This could be implemented immediately without any issues. This is impossible. The structure is more complex, yet the manufacturing process is simpler, and the magic stone efficiency has increased by more than 30%?”

Ingrid’s arms trembled as she faced a design that directly contradicted everything she knew. Priscilla gently drove the point home.

“I’ve been missing a lot of lectures recently, right? That’s because I was testing this.”

The second-year professors’ gossip in Ingrid’s mind melted away like spring snow. Instead, that empty space filled with amazement and praise for Priscilla’s genius.

“…Did you really come up with this yourself? Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to doubt you, but is there anyone who might have helped you…?”

Priscilla smiled slightly at Ingrid’s incoherent speech.

The man who was her light, her sun, her warmth, her savior, her everything, had said this achievement should belong solely to Priscilla, but she had no such intention whatsoever.

“Mira was the one who opened up the possibility for me.”

Because Mira’s happiness was as good as her own happiness.

The plan had ended about halfway successfully.

The completely destroyed magic stone golem, along with hastily gathered fragments, was transported to the Imperial Palace to be tested with the new core, and students were now looking at me with expressions that said, “Just take the top rank and everything else, go ahead.”

Considering we hadn’t even properly taken midterms yet, it was quite a successful change. Priscilla’s image had also been completely reversed.

But why only halfway successful? Because Priscilla had blurted out that the original designer of the core wasn’t herself but me.

Thanks to that, I was summoned by Ingrid without knowing why, and had to listen to her half-crazed explanations for quite some time. She was much more passionate than when she had explained the improvement method for wide-area magic formulas.

Well, there’s quite a difference between magic that’s only used on battlefields and golems whose improved magic stone efficiency could make everyday life much more abundant.

In the original story, they were worried about human extinction and such, so they never thought about using improved cores in daily life.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I don’t need any of that. If you’re happy, I’m happy. That’s why I said you did it.”

“That’s… no, never mind.”

The reason I wanted to credit Priscilla with the new core was because it wasn’t actually developed by us but by future grand mages.

It felt wrong to take credit for it, so I wanted to give it to Priscilla as a small compensation for being trapped in this world for so long.

But Priscilla, who should have received the recognition, had passed all the credit to me and was smiling with genuine happiness, so I couldn’t say anything against it.

‘Next time I’ll just do it myself.’

It seemed that rather than offering her food with a spoon, I needed to chew it and put it directly into her throat for Priscilla to accept it.

Because of this incident, the wide-area magic formula lecture was replaced by another professor. Ingrid had practically run out with the design toward the Imperial Palace, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Hey, Mira. Are you free this weekend?”

And it seemed this matter was going to grow much larger than I had anticipated.

“Or we can postpone it if needed. I know you need to prepare for midterms.”

About ten days later, with only about four days left until midterms began, Priscilla suddenly said such a thing.

“I’m almost done with exam preparations, so I do have time, but why?”

“My father wants to meet you.”