Chapter 22
Skipping class for two straight days, Monday and Tuesday, and getting some proper rest was great.
Since Department Head Sylvia had basically written the report for me, I got to enjoy my time off properly.
Then, when I opened my eyes again, time had vanished in an instant.
By the time I came to, it was Wednesday morning.
...No, where did my time go? Give it back.
Of course, I had tried to hole up in bed this morning too and hold out to the very end.
But the maids stormed into my room first thing in the morning, as if they'd been waiting for my officially sanctioned skip-class period to end.
And they did it by blowing the door clean off, barging in fully geared up as if they were waging war.
With magical armor fit for imperial guards, plus gauntlets engraved with magic circles.
With the gear advantage, the numbers advantage, and the fact that it was early morning—my weakest time—I was completely overwhelmed without even being able to resist.
No, where on earth did they get equipment like that?
Did they get some kind of backing from somewhere? Or did they really dump all their pay just to catch me alone?
Anyway, sitting in a lecture hall from morning already puts me in a terrible mood.
My motivation had sunk so low it was practically digging a hole, so I was draped over my desk, melting into a puddle.
“Aha-ha! What, Luna? Why are you here so early? Aren’t you being way too diligent?”
At my side, Senior Estelle gave me a proper hard time.
“No wonder I heard something exploding in the dorms this early in the morning~ Looks like the maids really got you today?”
“Don’t tease meee... yawn...”
Even my voice was sunk in drowsiness, languid and heavy.
Senior Estelle giggled and reached out to gently stroke my hair.
“You look like a sleepy puppy. Cute~”
“...Could you bite me like a puppy would, just once?”
“Huh? That might actually be a reward?”
“You’re driving me crazy...”
While I weakly replied, the classroom door opened and the professor came in.
He always looked tired, but today it seemed especially bad.
If I had to put a number on it, he’d be about 0.8 Lunaris.
With unfocused eyes, the professor stepped up to the podium, tossed the folder carelessly onto the empty desk, and let out a sigh first.
“Let’s see. Lunaris Evermoon, you’re here. Then everyone must be here.”
A small laugh rippled through the classroom. Even I had to admit, that was one efficient attendance check.
“Theory in magitech, huh! There aren’t many words that clash more than those.”
The professor gave us a bored look, then folded his arms and said casually.
“Honestly, there isn’t much you could even call theory. There are so many variables involved that there isn’t really a single correct answer.”
He even said it was ridiculous to have theory classes all year long, so when he wasn’t feeling well he’d just cancel class on the spot, and whistles rose from all around.
“The gist is, magitech is a field you learn by actually messing around with experiments. So treat theory as reference material only. If you don’t know something, ask the second-year student next to you, not me.”
“What if the second-years don’t know?”
“If a second-year still doesn’t know the theory, then they’re so hopelessly untalented they should just quit the academy and find something else to do.”
Laughter mixed with murmurs bubbled up from all around at the professor’s brutally sincere insults.
“Ah, and since this is technically class, don’t get too noisy. If there’s anyone louder than me, I’ll make them give the lecture in my place.”
“Aha-ha-ha!!”
“Does that sound like a joke to you?”
“...”
“Go on, let someone get caught. I’ll really make them do it.”
At the center of the classroom, now silent in an instant, the professor began the lecture in earnest, drawing a mana circuit diagram on the blackboard.
“Magitech is the field that lets even people who can’t handle mana use magic.”
The essence of magitech came down to two things.
Where to store mana in a magic tool.
And how to make that mana flow.
With my chin propped on my hand, I listened lazily, blinking slowly.
As I listened, the concept itself started to feel oddly familiar.
Storing mana and letting it flow? That’s basically the same as letting electricity flow from a battery.
Once I realized it was all stuff I already knew, my brain immediately went on strike.
The reason for the strike was boredom and tedium.
So I openly dozed off.
With one cheek propped on my palm, I kept bobbing my head.
I let out a long yawn and stared blankly at the blackboard.
As sleepiness crept in, a part of the circuit diagram the professor had drawn caught my eye at the edge of my vision.
Hmm... that somehow feels off.
The drawing isn’t pretty. It has no soul.
...That was what my instincts were saying.
“That... if you connect it like that, the electricity—no, the mana—won’t flow properly...”
A voice slipped out without thinking.
In that instant, silence fell over the classroom.
“Hmm? Which part do you think is the problem?”
“There, the spot second from the right, around the five o’clock position, where four lines meet...”
The professor stopped the hand that had been waving the chalk around and studied the spot I pointed at carefully.
Then he dropped the chalk to the floor and quietly nodded.
“...Looks like it.”
Low exclamations burst out from all over the classroom.
Whispers spread quickly.
“My eyes must be going bad; I connected the lines wrong. Today I’m going to need a double shot in my coffee.”
With a tired sigh, the professor picked up a new piece of chalk and started revising the circuit.
“Good eyes. Estelle, did you poke Luna from the side?”
“Nope? I was too busy watching Luna doze off to even look at the blackboard.”
At Senior Estelle’s brazen admission of goofing off, the professor let out an incredulous snort.
“A lovely sight. One top student is openly sleeping through class, and the other top student isn’t even trying to wake them, just watching.”
To think these are top students.
Yeah, the state of the Magitech Department is definitely legendary.
*
In the afternoon, lab class followed right away.
“I’m going to catch a little shut-eye. Second-year craftsmen, make sure the first-year apprentices don’t cause any trouble.”
The professor leaned back in his chair and, in less than a minute, started snoring loudly.
Self-directed learning—doing it yourself—is the Magitech Department’s trademark.
I figured I could probably run away from the classroom like this and nothing would happen, but today I didn’t want to.
Because this was the time to make a magic tool with my own hands.
For the essential item that would make a pleasant, enjoyable lazy life possible, I had to be there for the process of creating the conveniences of modern civilization.
I was a little excited too.
That was only natural, since this was my first magitech practical.
First experiences are always supposed to get your heart racing, right?
Even someone as easily bored as I was felt a little excited, so the other students, well, you know.
The classroom atmosphere came alive at once.
The first-years’ eyes sparkled as they crowded around the workbenches lined with various materials, while the second-years had already opened their notebooks and started sketching this and that.
The difference in how tense they were was clear.
For the first-years, who were enjoying carefree pleasure, it was a time to get familiar with magitech materials.
For the second-years, who felt only responsibility and no pleasure, it was a time to endure the agony of designing something that would determine their semester grades.
“Hmmm~ What should I make this semester~?”
Of course, Senior Estelle didn’t look particularly tense.
“Luna, is there anything you’d like to make? Something that’s usually inconvenient, or something you’ve thought would be nice to have...”
“A portable communication device.”
I answered as if I’d been waiting for it.
“We absolutely, no matter what, have to make a portable communication device.”
A portable communication device.
In other words, a cell phone.
If it were up to me, I’d make a smartphone right away.
But with the magitech level of this era, where the only thing available was a mage-only walkie-talkie, that would be impossible.
For now, start with the basics. One step at a time.
“A portable communication device? So... you mean a communication crystal sphere?”
Senior Estelle looked a little flustered.
“Putting aside how hard it would be to make, isn’t that already an existing magic tool? It isn’t original at all.”
“The communication crystal spheres we have now can’t really be called magic tools.”
At my words that it wasn’t doing anything magitech-like at all, Senior Estelle blinked.
“To use a communication crystal sphere properly, someone has to keep pouring mana into it. I want to make a communication device even ordinary people can use.”
I went on, drawing a boxy rectangle on the paper.
Because I didn’t have much strength in my arm, it came out crooked, but it had its own golden ratio and looked decent enough.
“Honestly, only being able to send voice is lame, and above all, the design is what I hate most.”
“The design...?”
This wasn’t about the old saying that if something looks good, it tastes good, either.
This was a matter of portability and user experience.
Suddenly, I thought of my boss from my previous life.
He’d dump design work on me too because I was young and supposedly had a sense for it... Ugh. Just remembering it made my head start throbbing.
“The biggest problem is that it’s a round ball shape. It’s awkward to put anywhere, and if you drop it, it’ll roll off somewhere you can’t see. More than anything, it looks tacky.”
No more, no less—just aim for iPhone level.
I had no intention of awkwardly adding some personal twist. My goal was to reproduce it exactly as I remembered.
Senior Estelle stared at me for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.
“Pfft! I think this is the first time I’ve seen Luna so actively voice her opinion.”
I gave a light shrug and said,
“Because this is something that’s going to revolutionize my bed life.”
“Uh...?”
Maybe the reason I’d lived such a lazy life up until now was for this very moment.
Lying down and clicking away? I absolutely can’t resist that.
Must have a smartphone...
Absolutely a smartphone!!
“Anyway, if we can improve only the problems I mentioned, it’d basically be the same as making a completely new magic tool.”
Even ordinary people without mana could use it.
It could transmit not just voice, but video too.
And it would be easy to carry.
Innovation isn’t that far away.
Senior Estelle thought it over for a while, then finally curved her lips into a smile.
“Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Okay, let’s give it a try!”