Chapter 93.
Chapter 93.
The day after I was appointed to the Red Magic Tower, I went to work with a restless heart. I was saddened by the fact that I had to deliberately drop my grades during this training to ensure a safe appointment.
Since I was also a magician, I knew what magicians hated, so it wouldn’t be hard to drop my grades. However, if performance during training was poor, it was unlikely to land an appointment at a magic tower later. To send a type of person that they hated to the magic tower was no less than telling the person to go die quietly.
But the number one place in my mind was the Giant Magic Tower. I could embezzle a whole variety of magic ingredients that came here. In addition, it was a good location to sneakily read the magic books housed here. Also, magicians didn’t come out of their labs easily, so I wouldn’t get scolded by the old magicians.
It was a dream position considering I would only have to treat the few customers who came to buy magic equipment and magic supplies. However, if I didn’t lower my grades this training session, there was a 100 percent chance that I would be appointed to a department somewhere within the imperial palace.
I did consider that I could lower my grades later because I still had other probationary training. However, no matter how much I thought about it, now was the only chance I had to lower my grades.
After this, the next probationary training was with the Mercenary Alliance or Adventurers’ Guild, and next with a department in the imperial palace. There were two total probationary training sessions left. But neither presented the right opportunity to decrease my grades.
In fact, at the Mercenary Alliance and the Adventurers’ Guild, the probationary training was more like just taking a class as a student. To top it, there were hundreds of civil servant trainees but only two places that received these trainees- the headquarters of the Mercenary Alliance and the headquarters of the Adventurers’ Guild. Even if the hundreds of trainees were split in half, managing them properly would paralyze their workflow. Because of this, the training just took the form of a class, and most usually received perfect scores for grades.
But I couldn’t do it at the department within the imperial palace, because I had to consider my safety. There was also a possibility that I could meet my uncle, Bloody, while I was a trainee at a department within the imperial palace. Because I would have to act like I was kind of there, but kind of not, I didn’t think there would be any opportunities for me to cut my score.
Now I was going to have to be a troll at my number 1 choice just because that damn Director Pelgrant unnecessarily gave me a perfect score when I was training at the district office last time.
Sigh. I entered the Red Magic Tower.
As I headed to the place where the trainees were gathered, the magician standing in front of the trainees got angry at me.
"What time is it right now!"
I took out my watch and checked the time.
"Damn! It seems to be 9:10?”
The original time for the assembly was nine. Most magicians are sensitive to time, I’m not. It was understandable as it was a kind of an occupational disease caused by the fact that magic could possibly fail from just being a second late.
This was definitely a deduction. This way, if I got a lower score than average and got an average score in the next two probationary training sessions, I would be able to get appointed to the district office or a town office in the capital.
The magician frowned and calmed his anger. "Forget it. Next time, don’t be late. Take a seat!"
"Yes, yes."
The magician’s frown wriggled once again at my reply.
Magicians were sensitive to manners. A culture of courtesy was established because they knew that they wielded strong power and that once they fought, the fight would not end until they saw blood. In addition, magic was often inherited by apprenticeship, so it was even stricter. This was another deduction.
As I sat next to Flam, he whispered in a small voice. "Why are you so late?"
"I had some things to take care of," I said with a bitter smile.
The magician standing in front let out a dry cough.
Keheum!
This was another deduction. Flam would have received one as well, but he spoke to me first, so it wasn’t something I needed to feel bad about.
The magician gave the same warnings as the professor yesterday on how to behave in the magic tower. There were a series of detailed nagging explanations such as "don’t make noise, don’t run, don’t touch without permission," and so on. Then, he led us on a tour inside of the tower.
"This is where you will frequently visit for the next week and also where magic tools are kept. Didn’t I tell you not to touch earlier!?"
The magician angrily scolded a trainee walking in front of me.
Shoot, I should have touched it! I never thought he’d be mad for touching such a trivial magic tool. Let’s call that magician Squidward hereon.[1]
"Keuhmm! The magic tools here are important items made by the magic tower. You have to handle them carefully so that they don’t get scratched."
I couldn’t help but be surprised. They were selling this crap for money! Where did they sell their conscience?
Even at a glance, these magic tools were made by trainees for the sake of practice. Though I couldn’t make a pocket space, the things I made when I was five were still better than these.
The trainees without good eyes for magic tools were simply in awe. If the prices of the magic tools written here were not low enough for ordinary people with some wealth to buy them, some curses might have flown out of my mouth.
"Well, the quality doesn’t look very good."
I nodded in agreement with Flam, who unexpectedly, had good eyes.
"The quality looks like a student from the magic school made it for practice.”
It was really only slightly better than the magic tools Alice made for class.
"You there! Don’t make noise!"
Squidward pointed at me and Flam. All right. Let’s try to bring down my grade, a little by little, this way.
The next place that Squidward guided us to was the Chimera Research Facility, the pride of the Red Magic Tower.
"This is a place you are normally restricted access to. But how would you be able to say that you’ve trained here without having seen the facility that is the pride of this place?"
In short, he was showing us this place just to show off.
The Chimera Research Facility was dark. Squidward explained that it was because some magical creatures were sensitive to light. Let’s make a note of this.
One chimera was in a glass container filled with magic solutions, while another was wandering around a huge glass room. As I passed by looking at them, I felt like I was visiting a zoo from my previous life. It looked like the laboratory of a mad scientist. If it had been my previous life, this sight would have been enough to make animal lovers go on protest.
Squidward roamed amid the breeding grounds containing chimeras and gave magic heavy explanations such that other trainees wouldn’t even be able to understand.
He even talked about things that seemed to be classified research information, probably because he thought no one would understand it anyway, but it was an unexpected gain for me.
I’ll have to wear my mask and make a visit to the magic towers later too.
While I was observing the chimeras interestedly, Squidward stopped in front of one. This chimera resembled a dog.
"This chimera can speak a human tongue.”
Squidward’s face was full of pride. Flam, on the other hand, was terrified by his words.
"Did you, perhaps, combine a human and a dog?!"
He looked like he would immediately beat that magician to death if he had really combined humans with dogs.
At Flam’s forcefulness, the magician faltered and stammered. "There, there’s no such thing!"
The magician’s words softened Flam’s momentum. Perhaps, feeling embarrassed at having stammered due to a trainee’s forcefulness, Squidward gave a dry cough and resumed explaining.
"Ahem! This chimera can only imitate a person’s voice because we have inserted in it vocal cords similar to a parrot’s. But it does not understand human speech nor is it able to speak like humans," he said as he glared at Flam. "Of course, the ultimate goal is to have it understand humans and for it to be able to learn to a certain extent."
Flam bowed his head at Squidward’s gaze. "I’m sorry. I have a tendency for being unable to control myself when blood rushes to my head."
"Keuhmm!" Squidward quickly turned his head away as if he was still feeling uncomfortable.
Human experimentation in making chimeras was taboo amongst taboos. However, those who dealt with life magic often received gazes that were suspicious of human experimentation. So from Squidward’s perspective, Flam’s remark was quite rude.
"That goal is what we call man-made intelligence, an artificial intelligence." Squidward continued to explain while ignoring Flam.
I whispered quietly to Flam. "You should go and apologize formally later."
Flam put on a somber face interspersed with a sigh. "I’ll do that."
"Cheer up." I patted Flam’s back and consoled him.
Flam had an old and a little aggressive-looking face, but he was a good guy.
Then Squidward picked up the microphone lying in front of the chimera cage and asked the trainees, "Who wants to teach some words to the chimera?"
"I do!"
I raised my hand as soon as I heard Squidward.
Perhaps because I raised my hand too aggressively or because they felt uncomfortable about the chimera, other trainees did not raise their hands. Thanks to that, the mic landed in my hands.
"You can’t teach sentences that are too long yet, so keep them short. And say one word at a time first and make a sentence after."
"Yes!"
I answered energetically. Then, turning on the microphone, I spoke a word.
"Edward."
When a sound suddenly came into the completely soundproof glass cage, the chimera raised its head.
"Eh... de... ward."
When the chimera followed along, I said the next words with a pause in between.
"Oppa."
"Play."
"With me."
The chimera slowly repeated my words.
“Edward oppa, play with me.”
“Ed... ward, oppa, play... with me."
I felt goosebumps at the chimera’s speech.
Squidward, watching from the side, asked, "What does that mean?"
I shrugged and replied, "It doesn’t have any meaning."
If I were to tell the truth, he might try to kick me out, unable to fully vent his anger.
Squidward looked at me strangely. I felt guilty for no reason, so I avoided Squidward’s eyes.
"Well, if it doesn’t mean anything, that’s fine. All right everyone, let’s go to the next place."
He led the trainees out of the Chimera Research Facility.
1. Squidward is the grumpy character from the show, “Spongebob Squarepants”.