The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 298: The Last Lie (1)

Chapter 298: The Last Lie (1)
0% My head felt like it was going to shatter.
Come to think of it, I drank like crazy yesterday. Of course I’d be hungover.
I wanted to down a bowl of hangover soup if I could, but there was no such thing in this world. No, I never drank too much in the first place, so as if I’d be familiar with nursing hangovers.
Anyway, I must not have sobered up yet considering the demented thoughts I was having.
My body felt heavy like I had sleep paralysis, and my mind felt foggy like I was in a coma. My face felt like it was burning.
“Fuuuu.”
The tipsy scent of alcohol stung my nostrils.
I defied gravity and just managed to pull myself up. It was around then that I felt something soft and cushiony beneath my hands holding me up.
“......What’s this.”
When I came to my senses, I realized I was on top of my bed.
That was weird. I was sure that I had blacked out on the living room floor.
Lotte and Freyr must have moved me here.
What strength. This body was partly metal so it would have been heavier than a normal woman.
“Ugh!”
My breath caught like I was having an arrhythmia. When I pounded my chest on reflex, I felt something come up my throat.
Although I desperately tried to hold it down, it was too late.
Thick, oil paint-like blood leaked through tightly closed lips.
“.......”
When I looked around, thankfully no one was there. Lotte and Freyr must have gone to work first. It was times like these that had me thinking it was good to be a higher-up with flexible working hours.
It was as I stepped down to head to the sink with a mouth full of blood.
“Augh...!”
Something soft touched the tip of my feet, and at the same time, a seductive-sounding groan....
I... didn’t have a good feeling about this.
My head slowly lowered like a malfunctioning robot.
“.......”
“.......”
And, I made eye contact with the person lying below the bed.
Flowing hair like it was embroidered with gold threads, and ruby eyes that were slightly tired and relaxed yet still in proper focus.
Her throat and chest area reddened from the alcohol was a captivating sight. It was like a flower that was attracting a bee called ‘man’.
That was how attractive a woman she was. A woman, yet....
“Ugh, um, your foot, please.......”
“‘Msrry.”
I quickly moved the foot that was stepping on her thigh. I also managed an apology somehow, but it didn’t come out properly because of the blood.
I rushed to the sink and spit out the blood, then shoved my toothbrush into my mouth.
Refreshing spearmint–the best choice to wash away the alcohol. As I stood there brushing, my head felt like it was clearing up.
Let’s think.
Why was Klais lying on the floor below me?
“...How’s your stomach?”
“It’s not bad.”
While I was brushing, Klais followed me into the bathroom. I handed her a spare toothbrush without thinking.
Klais stared at me blankly, then firmed her face like she made a resolve and accepted the toothbrush.
“Um, Minister.”
“You can call me by my name in private.”
I said after spitting out toothpaste foam.
Klais’ eyes widened into saucers.
“...Can I, really do that?”
Klais looked at me cautiously, hesitant, which made her appear different from before.
“Why do you think we drank together, Miss?”
“......!”
Miss.
This was probably an unfamiliar expression to this person.
Of course, because I had never referred to Klais as my teacher before.
“I once heard from Miss Heerlein that the two of you became close after a drinking party when you were students.”
Miss Heerlein had been a commoner at the time. Someone who had walked a completely different path from Klais, a high noble. How could such people have become friends with each other?
There was only one answer: alcohol.
A moderate amount of alcohol helped people connect with each other beyond their status. People didn’t share drinks at banquets for nothing.
So, there was no other reason that I had drinks with Klais; it was simply to close the psychological distance between us.
Although I had no recollection, the atmosphere from that time still remained. While Klais might see it as embarrassing, it was a good experience for me.
Klais bit down on her lip, as if she was also remembering last night. Her face turned funny because of the way her lips had subtly gone up.
“I’m also responsible for us starting off on the wrong foot. I was your enemy, and if you had known who I was, you might’ve killed me a hundred times over.”
And in front of Klais, I recalled the distant past. This was long before she was born, that is, when gold eyes being the ‘inferior pupil’ had been the norm.
The Golden-Eyed had formed the Demon Army because of persecution. At first in order not to be discriminated against, but later on to prove their superiority.
Some of the army that was formed confronted the Hasfeldt family and took many of their lives.
Beasts killed people of the Empire, and the people killed Beasts.
And like that, the cycle of anger continued on and on and came down to us. As a result, she became obsessed with Flare, and I became obsessed with Dark Day.
“But at some point, you stopped being angry. Instead of condemning me for being a Beast, you apologized, said that you were sorry for treating me harshly back then.”
“.......”
“That was when I realized as well.”
Ending a relationship...
...was also a step towards a new beginning.
“Miss Klais.”
I cast my gaze towards the mirror. In it, the woman’s eyes glistened like morning dew.
What was she thinking?
Her family killed by the Demon Army? Memories of working me in the past? Her days as a slave at the Demon Castle? Perhaps all of the above.
Yet despite holding those grudges, she let it go in the end, into the vast sea with a glass of wine. I admired her greatly for it.
“Let’s head to work.”
I’m sorry, or thank you.
No other words were needed.
With those words, I finished brushing my teeth, and Klais also smiled gently as she brushed her hair.
“......Yes, Aether.”
The long, long history of bad blood finally came to an end today.
**
She saw it.
She had seen it clearly.
“...That was blood.”
She recalled Aether who had been drinking with Miss Klais last night.
It had been a bit different from the color of wine. Lotte knew because she had been enjoying wine regularly since becoming an adult. That had definitely been human blood.
- Even if I die, it’s okay to have a drink, riiiight?
Drop.
Lotte’s arm, which had been experimenting, fell limp.
She was currently in a lab as an undergrad intern, working as a low-level staff on ‘Project Ivy’, the plan to develop Dark Day to go up against the Demon Army.
Unlike Aether who was the chief director, Lotte had set starting and end times. And as such, she couldn’t wait until Aether woke up and had to leave.
Of course she wasn’t feeling good about it.
“What are you thinking about?”
Just then, a girl came up to her and asked.
It was a girl with brilliant eyes like the rippling sea.
Her bangs were hanging neatly, and her back hair naturally came together with her side hair and was tied tight. It was a ponytail style common within labs.
“......Yufiel.”
Yufiel Vierbein.
Although she was born in a traditionally powerful family of Kaurelia, she was a poor girl who had a magic disability of sorts.
“Mm, I was zoning out for a moment. Sorry. It’s nothing.”
Lotte didn’t want to worry Yufiel.
In the first place, she could just ask her friend directly whether she was sick or not.
But having looked over Lotte’s expression, Yufiel immediately asked.
“There’s something troubling you, isn’t there?”
Her chest felt like it exploded, like a balloon poked with a sharp needle.
Lotte unwittingly brought a hand up to her chest.
“Uh, hm? Uhh, no.......”
“We’re classmates. You can always tell me if you’re struggling.”
Yufiel continued as she changed instruments.
“You know, I also used to be bad at confiding in others, because I didn’t want to upset the elders in the family.... But after learning that my body had a disability, I didn’t think about it. Just, I tried to learn as much as I could as a student by asking a lot of questions, whether it was related to my studies or not.”
It was important to share your problems. Yufiel talked to Lotte on this subject for a few minutes.
Everything she said was right.
Lotte could see both herself and Aether in Yufiel, literally seeming like an elf who was half her, and half Aether. Because of that, she felt a sense of kinship and intimacy at the same time.
Perhaps she would be able to help her somehow.
At the thought, she opened her mouth.
“......What? Miss Heisenberg is unwell?”
“I’m not exactly sure, either.”
She had definitely seen blood come from her mouth. Unlike Freyr, she had gone into closet without drinking so she was sure.
“...What if it’s simply a chronic illness?”
“I would have known earlier if it was.”
Lotte and Aether had known each other for nearly two years, and the first few months especially they had stuck together like glue.
There was no way she wouldn’t have known if she was sick.
“Then it’s possible she could have caught it here.”
“Is it endemic?”
“I’m not sure, but probably not.”
“......What about the possibility of it being a curse from the Demon King?”
“That’s.... I don’t know.”
Although they exchanged a bunch of ideas, they didn’t reach any conclusions.
They were just two undergraduates at the academy. If they could make a judgment with just pieces of information without any medical or healing magic training, that wouldn’t make any sense.
“If it’s a curse from the Demon King, there should be a way to break it. Like defeating him, or at least taking him to the Elemental King.”
Yes, that would be good.
She’d first take her to a healer, and if they weren’t sure, they would go ask the Elemental Kings.
Even if she did have an illness, it should be curable. She wouldn’t actually die, right?
If something like that were to happen–
She would die with her.