Ch.85Contact Reversal ~ Becoming the Prospective Graduate Student that Professors Obsess Over ~ (2)

I soon received hundreds of emails.

After filtering through them all and organizing only what I needed, the following subject lines emerged:

[Please come to our laboratory]

[Graduate School Admission Offer]

[Hello Eidel, I am a professor in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at Iryuel College…]

It feels somewhat unfamiliar.

Instead of me sending emails to professors, professors are contacting me.

It’s even more thrilling than when a professor asks if you can come to their office after an undergraduate lecture.

“Heh, hehahaha.”

[─ The God of Wisdom and Curiosity is shocked.]

[─ The Orchestra of Mud and Flesh cannot close its mouth.]

What’s more, emails are piling up in real time.

Reading and replying to all of them would be difficult in many ways. No, to be frank, it’s annoying.

The subject line needs to grab attention. I acted as if I were choosing a web novel. I scrolled down, carefully examining the email subjects.

This one’s not great, that one’s not great either.

[I’m the professor you scooped]

This looks fucking interesting.

I’ll read it right away.

The email itself was compact.

Your research topic overlapped with mine as a student. But I’m not angry. Rather, I’ve become ambitious and wanted to contact you about recruiting you.

Cutting-edge research facilities and abundant research funds. Papers published in high-level journals. Even lab colleagues who feel like family. All of this is waiting for you.

So, please.

[I ask that you apply to our laboratory.]

[Iryuel College – Regards, Callis Stranov]

It’s so well-written I can almost feel the intensity.

So what should I do now?

Reply, of course.

I prepared to send the same response to several other promising professors I had picked out.

With their passion, they might help me achieve my goal. The thought made me smile.

That’s when it happened.

Thump, thump, thump.

“Student, open the door!”

The impact spread from the locked door.

It was Director John Whitewood. It seemed he had made up his mind to kick me out of this prison.

“Director, don’t come near! I think I’m having a fit of madness. Aaaaargh!”

I shouted with all my might and pounded on the keyboard.

“Stop talking nonsense and open the door!”

“Director! Gurk, querurk.”

“Hey, you bastard!”

The steel door with its state-of-the-art lock system isn’t easy to open. I munched on the preserved food I had stockpiled and clicked the email send button.

Now I just need to do something else until replies come in.

And that something was the administrative work of this prison.

Since I’m not paying any rent at all, I should at least do this much.

“That’s enough! What more do you want from me! I, I don’t want to die. I’m sick of this! Aaaah!”

Prisoner 888887.

That girl is at it again today.

Of course, she’s not the only crazy person in this prison.

I categorized the outbursts of madness that erupted from time to time and made them into a spreadsheet.

Looking at the timeline, it seemed like more people were showing worsening symptoms lately.

***

There’s a saying that the early bird catches the worm. It means people should be diligent.

Like many professors, Callis was a diligent one. However, unlike other scholars, she overflowed with sincerity and dedication. So much so that she would humble herself before a student who had stolen her paper.

It was humiliating, but what could she do?

She had ambition and a desire for revenge that was second to none.

‘Richard. Just as you abandoned me, I’ll make your favorite student abandon you too. Feel the same pain of loss. And soon, you’ll be begging me. Hehehe!’

It’s a story from more than ten years ago.

A burn from the past with no reason or need to obsess over.

But who would know? The emotion called love is more stubborn than one can imagine.

The remnants of unfulfilled passion had continued to smolder like embers, gnawing at Callis’s heart.

Her memory goes back to her academia days.

A boy obsessed with research.

And a girl who came to love such a boy.

“I like you.”

She gathered courage and confessed her love.

She thought they could surely date because she was pretty, her grades were decent, and their family circumstances were similar. She believed it without a doubt. That’s why, even though she lacked confidence, she could push through with her pride and speak up.

But.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept your confession.”

“W-why…?”

“I’ve decided not to date anyone until I finish my research. Honestly, it’s a waste of time.”

Richard escaped with an absurd excuse.

Unable to accept this, Callis followed him and majored in physics.

And she confessed again, suggesting they research together.

“Then we can just be research colleagues.”

She felt like her heart was sinking. Why? At the age of entering college, shouldn’t they at least be matching wedding rings? If he didn’t like her, he could just marry someone else. That would have felt more liberating.

Richard left room for possibility until the end. He was still single, and Callis, due to external circumstances, had not married either.

‘I’m going to change this dependent relationship starting today. Eidel, I’m sorry to Professor Feynman, but you’re destined to be my graduate student.’

A reply had already arrived.

Callis read the email with a broad smile.

[I’m sorry.]

“…Huh?”

[It seems I won’t be able to enter the graduate program at all.]

Callis’s eyes lost their focus.

This just doesn’t make sense.

***

[It seems they don’t intend to release me from Alcatraz. Being able to exchange emails like this is the extent of the permission granted to me.]

[Also, I am a student in the academia program. Even if I were released, I couldn’t immediately apply to your laboratory. If I were a prospective graduate of the college program, I would have already requested an interview with you, Professor.]

Eidel sent the same email to several professors.

All of them were professors who desperately wanted Eidel.

The number was around 300.

The will of the Spartans was about to awaken here, in the Laniakea Federation, thousands of years later.

“That concludes the presentation of the paper written by me and my protégé. Thank you.”

*Clap clap clap clap*

Professor Feynman had to wipe away tears as he heard the applause.

He used to be a genius only I knew about.

He was my little Eidel.

Now the competition ratio had reached 300 to 1.

Eidel wasn’t yet an official graduate student. Perhaps he could be stolen away by another lab.

‘…But I have achievements that these others don’t. Eidel only contacted me. I’m the only one he came to see in person. So it’s inevitable that I become his advisor.’

Haven’t they even written two papers together?

Feynman forcibly moistened his cracked lips.

Then he looked around. To rescue Eidel, he needed everyone’s help. Because he couldn’t represent the academic world alone.

The professors who had heard Feynman’s presentation were discussing strategies as if they had received a buff.

“I’ve made a proposal to the Akea Committee. It’s the most authoritative committee in academia, so the government will surely feel pressured.”

Notably, more than half of the scientists gathered here were Akea Award winners.

If Eidel had seen this scene, he would have fainted without being able to breathe, but fortunately, he wasn’t here.

“Let’s also email famous journals like <Universe>.”

“I happen to have the chief editor’s address. I’ll try contacting them.”

“My relative is quite high up in politics, so I should speak to them.”

“Let’s also request solidarity from other research institutes.”

The best thing professors can utilize is their network.

In fact, there was nothing that couldn’t be accomplished using connections.

It was a common occurrence to bury someone in both academia and society, and the opposite was just as possible.

The flutter created by this alliance of 300 soon turned into a massive typhoon.

[Federal Basic Science Research Group Begins ‘Demand for Eidel’s Release’ Protest]

[156 Organizations Under the Supreme Technology Innovation Research Institute – Strike Beginning Next Monday]

[Akea Committee: ‘Alcatraz Should Not Misjudge the Nation’, Essentially a Threat Toward the Government]

This news soon spread to the public.

“Do you remember the Rheinland troublemaker who appeared in some news articles before? That’s right, Eidel Rheinland. He has returned as an extraordinary genius.”

“Eidel’s achievement this time can be summarized in one sentence: ‘Humanity has secured its right to survive from foreign gods.’ That’s right. We now know how to repair the holes in the Aether Belt.”

“Why is this significant? By utilizing this theory, the concept of frontier planets disappears. The entire area where humanity lives will be filled with aether! Neither avatar bodies nor foreign gods can enter!”

The research results, instantly disseminated through mass media, created ripples.

Engineering professors also did their best to produce follow-up research.

Money was inevitably involved in such matters.

Major corporations in space competed fiercely to secure the “Aether Barrier Restoration Technology.” The value of Professor Renkel, who first created this technology, also soared.

Renkel smiled and carefully set aside all the invested money, except for the actual research funds, in his bank account.

‘Eidel, this money is all yours.’

He too, not yet at retirement age, was in desperate need of a smart graduate student.

And soon, there was a response from the government.

[It has been confirmed that Eidel Rheinland has experienced a recurrence of madness due to foreign gods and requires additional care at the Alcatraz Treatment Center.]

“What?”

“He wrote such an impressive paper and they’re saying he’s being controlled by foreign gods?”

“That’s nonsense. There must be something fishy going on here!”

The scholars immediately protested.

However, after the subsequent release of CCTV footage, everyone had to keep quiet.

First, video #1:

“Heh, hehihihi.”

Then, video #2:

“Director, Director. Gurk, guerk.”

Video #3:

“Air raid warning, haaa, air raid warniiiing.”

Video #4:

“Huk, huuuk, huuuuk…!”

The professors watched the tapes one by one with dazed expressions. Even in this situation, their brains were working busily. They needed to find something, anything strange.

But it all looked like madness.

“Why suddenly give me a mission and make a fuss? Well, this one’s okay. But why is the failure penalty pregnancy again? Do you like me or something?”

Finally, video #15.

Callis, who had been sitting still like a dead person, suddenly jumped up and shouted:

“It’s, it’s fake! A government conspiracy. This can’t be real!”