Chapter 220
Chapter 220
An inflection point in history.
So far, there had been three in total.
The first was the survival of Charlotte de Gardias.
As a result, the events of the main story changed significantly, but the survival of such a character was inevitably worth the effort of changing history.
The second one was the survival of Olivia Lanze.
Olivia had strong divine powers, and although I don’t know what to call it, she could also use a different form of divine(?) power. Whatever she might do in the future, she would be a great person that would achieve at least one great thing.
The special achievement ‘inflection point of history’ seemed to focus on changing the whole history of this world rather than just the main story.
Of course, history was constantly changing and shifting, in big or small ways, as long as I existed to change it. The terrorist attack on the Imperial Capital from last time was also quite the big event, but I wasn’t granted the inflection point of history achievement for it.
This world did whatever it wanted whenever it wanted anyway, so it would give me that achievement at times and at others it simply wouldn’t.
However, at that time, it did. In any case, that event was definitely going to change history by a lot.
The third inflection point of history.
The Orbis Class Incident.
The whole Orbis Class was put under an emergency closure.
That would lead to major changes in the character compositions.
I was actually able to confirm one thing that had changed directly.
“It looks like we won’t be able to compete against each other anymore during the festival.”
“We definitely won’t. Even if things get resolved, they surely aren’t in any position where they could show their faces at official events like that for some time.”
“Is that so?”
“Probably.”
That was the answer I gave upon hearing Harriet’s words.
Rumors about the Orbis Class’ internal problems seemed to have spread all over Temple after some time.
So, that incident aside, they didn’t have the luxury to leisurely enjoy festivals or any other enjoyable activities.
The main event of the second semester…
It immediately evaporated because of the fight I caused.
It was correct to call that an inflection point of history. A big part of the main story had been blown away, after all. The tournament and all related activities were gone.
I couldn’t believe I’d destroyed that arc’s main event while trying to stop Ender Wilton from falling into ruin.
Was that… was this the right thing to do?
Anyway, that wasn’t what was important.
Harriet and I were standing in front of a building, and I still had my crutches with me.
Since I couldn’t do any personal training, I’d decided to push that part of my schedule aside for the period I’d be in recovery. When my body recovered more, I would completely focus on my personal improvement.
Even though I could still be considered a patient, I was still working all over the place while supporting my body with those crutches.
Wasn’t I hella diligent?
I was about to faint from the admiration I felt for myself.
“Is this our club room?”
“Yeah. Although, I don’t know if we should call this a room.”
There wasn’t just Harriet and me, but all the others as well. Louis Ankton, Adelia, Christina, Anna. And our little senior, Redina.
She had accepted my offer.
All of them were members of the Magic Research Society.
[Royal Class Magic Research Society]
That was what stood engraved on the plaque before me. However what I was standing in front of wasn’t a room but a fairly large building.
That couldn’t be called a club room, it was a whole-ass club house, or even a club research institute. What the hell was up with that?
The Magic Research Society wasn’t just some club where we would gather to chat, but it still took a while to get permission because there was a lot of equipment required for our activities. So they had a lot of things to prepare on Temple’s side before we could officially start club activities.
It seemed like Royal Class’ magic majors tended to do a lot of personal research without being part of any club, so we were the first to create a club like that.
As such, the faculty of th Royal Class seemed to have agonized over what they needed to prepare for us, and eventually came up with a rather special alternative.
“…I can’t believe they actually emptied out one of the labs for us.”
They didn’t prepare anything, they just gave us a place where we’d find anything we might need. It was said that the place was used as a research lab by one of the wizard professors, however when they’d asked if the Royal Class could use it, he’d willingly given it up, saying that we could just take it.
He would just need to get a bigger research lab.
That building wasn’t actually that large of a facility, but it was still large enough that I wondered if we could really use it. I mean, it was just too luxurious to use as a students’ club “room”.
Everyone was looking around the club villa, admiring it each in their own way. I didn’t really know much about the equipment, so I just sat somewhere in the middle of the hall.
-Wow. What’s this?
-This is my first time seeing something like this…
-This is a mana stone fusion furnace…
-Junior, junior. What’s this?
-Ah, this is…
Even the magic majors seemed to have seen a lot of that equipment for the first time that day, while Harriet and Louis Ankton were able to name quite a lot.
Harriet recognized most of it because she was the young lady of the Duchy of Saint-Owan, famous for their advancement in the field of magic, and Louis seemed to recognize a lot of them because he’d seen them in books.
After they took quite a long time to go around the building once, everyone gathered at the main hall again.
“What’s with that reaction? We were able to get such a great place.”
Harriet stared at me, seeming annoyed by my dull reaction.
“What the hell am I supposed to like about this place…?”
I didn’t even know what most of those things were. Well, they looked pretty cool. What other reaction did she want me to have? I still didn’t get why I was that club’s president!
“This place holds a lot of equipment specialized for studying magic of all fields. These kinds of facilities aren’t common, even in the Duchy.”
It seemed like that place was on a different level from the dormitory’s magic lab. Seeing that everyone had such positive reactions, I guessed that it was something insanely good.
“Well, I guess this place is decent.”
“Be more sincere!”
“Haha! It’s soo amazing!”
“I’m getting angry!”
It seemed like she was in a great mood, but seeing my dull and bored expression seemed to send her fuming. No, I mean, what did she expect after she basically forced me to give some sort of reaction in that situation?
It was like she kept asking me “Isn’t this fun? It’s fun, isn’t it?”, while we were watching a movie that I absolutely didn’t like.
It was like a garbage movie full of jumpscares!
After everyone was done looking around, they sat down at the round table in the main hall.
And I was actually the president of those guys.
It was a strange picture no matter how much I thought about it.
The president was the least qualified person for the job, and yet all of those talented people were still only looking at me. It felt like I was the leader of some heretical cult.
They would do the research, so I had to be in charge of coordinating human affairs.
All of them seemed to get along well with each other at first glance, but they were actually just looking at me, as I was their only connection.
In particular, Redina, the little senior, looked at me anxiously.
While she did ask the others questions going, “Junior, Junior.” I was still the person she was most comfortable with.
“Let’s skip the boring opening speeches and procedures and whatever. I don’t have a fucking clue how to do them, and I don’t want to, either.”
The first gathering of the Magic Research Society.
Started that day.
“Anyway, this isn’t some club room, but a whole club house, so if you have the permission of the superintendent, you can stay over in this place on weekdays as well as weekends.”
I only stayed in the main hall, but I knew what that mansion contained because Mr. Epinhauser had informed me about it prior to that.
Separated labs and equipment enabling one to research almost every field of magic.
…And a bedroom.
The existence of that bedroom made me feel an eerie sort of fear.
That was originally a professor’s lab.
However, maybe it wasn’t the professor who slept in there, but the student assistants…
“Really?”
“Then does that mean we don’t have to go to bed at the usual time?”
“…As the superintendent won’t come around here, I guess.”
When they heard that they could research all through the night, their expressions brightened considerably.
Harriet and Adeila seemed especially pleased.
I was going to tell them that if they got caught playing outside after they got permission to spend the night there they would get in trouble, but it seemed like that wasn’t necessary.
Those guys loved magic to the point that nothing else filled their brains, apparently.
“The club advisor is supposed to be Mr. Mustrang. So if you don’t know how to use some of the research facilities properly or you want to do some dangerous research, you’ll have to observe first or get permission from him.”
The Magic Research Society wasn’t a general club, so the club advisor had to be a wizard.
And Mr. Mustrang happened to be one.
* * *
* * *
So, that guy, who never had this kind of role in the original, became the club advisor of the Magic Research Society.
I heard he’d actually volunteered to take that position.
Both students of Class A and B with magic majors gathered in that club to do magic research, so he’d stepped up.
However, to be honest, I didn’t like Mr. Mustrang all that much.
Well…
No matter how one thought about it, I was a pretty weird guy, wasn’t I?
With how positively I portrayed Mr. Mustrang and Ludwig, for me to not like them after I met them in real life was pretty unbelievable.
I didn’t like those guys filled to the brim with positive energy. Instead, I liked Mr. Epinhauser.
‘Oh sure, do it or don’t, it’s your life. You are responsible for your actions, after all.’
I liked those kinds of people.
Mr. Mustrang was extremely compassionate and thought too much about his students to the point that he would definitely interfere in what they did in one way or another.
The club advisor was just that, a teacher who was supposed to give us advice, so he didn’t actually have to show up.
However, taking Mr.Mustrang’s personality into consideration, I knew he was certain to come around often.
Unfortunately, Mr. Epinhauser was unable to become our club advisor, as he wasn’t a wizard. Ultimately, that wasn’t enough to whine and complain about, but it was still rather regrettable, having Mr. Mustrang as our club advisor.
Still, since he was a good person by nature, he wouldn’t pose that much of a hindrance.
I went around to take a look at that club mansion so that, later, when we held a formal club meeting, Mr. Mustrang would be present as well.
“Formal meetings will take place once a week, but the facilities are pretty well kept, so it doesn’t really matter if you come around any time you want. The place is protected by a magic lock, so you won’t be able to get in unless you’re registered. We don’t have to worry about robberies and such because of that, but still, try not to leave anything valuable in here.”
Well…
I felt like I was talking more like a teacher than the club president. Everyone was looking at me like that at least, nodding their heads at my words.
Ah.
All of them were acting pretty cute.
They were so cute I just wanted to eat them up.
I could just bite them to death. Why was I acting like that?
“Anyway, that’s all the information I got from the teachers…”
Of course, since I had been made club president, I had my own thoughts as well.
I didn’t know how to use magic. So whether it was research or holding lectures, it would be them who would do that.
“Louis, how are the preparations for your lectures going?”
“I don’t know if it’ll go well, but, well, I’m preparing for them.”
My role as the president was just organizing everything.
Louis was studying and preparing even before our club activities and had started to improve his skills. He was studying separately from his preparations for exams or grades—he showed great enthusiasm to become a magician who could teach wizards.
“Great. You can hold them whenever you’re ready.”
“Alright.”
Because I held the title of club president, they treated me differently than they used to. In the past, that guy would have only listened to my words because he was scared of me, but then he listened to me because I was the president.
Good.
Louis was preparing for his lectures. He might even be able to start right away, but it would have been rather awkward if I made him do it right that instant.
“I can’t really help you with your research, but there are some things I want you guys to look into. Can I tell you?”
All of them looked a little suspicious at that sudden remark but still nodded. I was surprisingly nice, being the president, wasn’t it?
Even if I couldn’t participate in their research, I could give them some research topics and goals to work towards. Originally, there were six members, including me, in that club, but as the senior Redina joined, we then had seven.
The Gate incident…
It would be best if we were able to make sure that plot point wouldn’t happen.
The core element of the Gate incident were the warp gates, which connected a different world to this plane.
However, if we weren’t able to stop it, we had to fight. To do that, everyone had to become stronger.
Therefore, the results they had to produce should lead to their improvement.
The improvement of their combat capabilities, to be precise.
So I was going to give each of them an individual research topic to improve their practical skills.
“First, senior.”
“Huh? Me?”
The first one was Redina.
When I suddenly called out her name, she tilted her head.
“You’re mana pool is still miniscule, right?”
“That’s mean!”
“It’s true, though.”
“Damn it! I hate you! I knew it! You’re the worst!”
Redina snapped at my words, but because I only said the truth, she kind of looked like she was about to cry.
Her talent was No Cast.
It was one hell of a cheat she had there, but she also had an extreme weakness—her mana pool was extremely small. When I looked at her physical data, it turned out that her magical power wasn’t just low, but really low.
Magical Power: 4.2
It was only at F+ Rank. That was very, very low compared to her classmates.
I was at 13, making it C+ Rank. She had half of my magical power.
Mana Sensitivity was very important for the growth of one’s magical power.
It seemed like it had been judged that her mana sensitivity was very low or inadequate. It was even lower than Cayer’s, who didn’t have Mana Control.
If one had to give up either Mana Sensitivity or Mana Control, it would be less advantageous to give up Mana Sensitivity. Although Cayer was blessed with a gigantic mana pool, he was unable to control that magical power, so even though he had a lot of magical power, he had no way to use it.
Anyway, Redina lacked something different from Cayer.
Even if we did something at that point, her natural growth rate wouldn’t change much.
We would soon take some measures to enhance all of their magical power, but Redina’s problem was unlikely to get solved by that.
As such, we needed another alternative.
“Senior, don’t use your own magical power for now.”
“…Huh?”
Everyone stared at me and tilted their heads as if they didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Is there any law that says that you have to use your own magical power to activate magic? If you extract the magical power stored in a mana stone to activate a spell, is that not magic?”
“Huuh?”
“What?”
“?”
Everyone seemed shocked by my radical idea. “No, He’s just someone completely ignorant of magic. Is that why he’s able to talk such bullshit?” That was what they seemed to think.
However, there was one person who seemed to know what I was talking about.
“Are you talking about Stone Magic?”
Harriet de Saint-Owan…
I could only trust in our little idiot.
As expected, she was the best!