A Tantrum So Powerful It Was Bound to Work

Chapter 26

If it had only been a comment about my clothes, it would’ve been easier.

And yet I was hearing, in the roundabout way a parent might phrase it, 'Teacher, your clothes are so revealing that it’s hard to feel comfortable leaving my child with you.'

From the Empire’s greatest genius mage, no less.

If there were a mouse hole, I’d hide in it right this second.

"A-no, not at all! I-I absolutely didn’t mean that!"

Iris waved her hands frantically and stammered.

"T-this is because today is... a special day! Y-yes, it’s a momentous day to welcome a disciple, so I dressed formally... I’m usually very, very proper! Really!"

"I see? That’s a relief."

Corinth let out a relieved, good-natured smile.

"I’m sorry for bringing up such a sensitive subject."

"Y-yes... haha..."

Iris gave an awkward laugh.

Cold sweat ran down her back.

'I should’ve listened to Seria.'

I should’ve worn a proper suit.

No, at least I should’ve tried it on first.

Suddenly, the waistline that had seemed fine until just a moment ago started feeling painfully tight.

What had she been thinking, covering only a bit of her cleavage and deciding, 'Isn’t this okay?'

The nickname Seria had given her echoed in her ears.

Iris von Evergarden was a foolish genius.

* * *

The next dawn, at the Faculty of Magic’s conference room.

The professors seated around the round table looked downright miserable.

The reason was simple.

Because Professor Iris, the faculty’s least-senior, lowest-ranked professor, had summoned a faculty meeting at dawn, claiming it was an emergency.

Normally, they would’ve shut it down with, 'How dare the youngest one!'

The problem was that this youngest one was no ordinary youngest one.

A genius.

The youngest archmage in imperial history.

Not to mention a direct disciple of the previous faculty head, making her, in terms of the school’s lineage, equal to—or even above—the old men here.

She was the kind of time bomb you didn’t touch unless you wanted it to go off.

So everyone had come here, grudgingly, with a sense of resigned defeat.

But as soon as Iris sat down, she dropped a bomb on them.

"Please give my disciple, Cassian del Farne, a private research lab."

She braced a hand on the table and added with solemn determination,

"Immediately."

"……Hah."

A dry laugh rippled through the professors.

So, in other words.

The reason the Faculty of Magic’s adorable youngest granddaughter-like Professor Iris had urgently gathered professors old enough to be her uncles—or even great-uncles—at this hour of dawn was

because the request to 'give her disciple a lab right now' had been turned down?

And it wasn’t even an outright refusal.

Eric, the department chair handling the administration, felt his blood pressure spike straight up.

Of everyone here, Eric might have been the only one who liked Iris just a little less than the others did.

In other departments, they dumped the chair position onto the youngest professor in their late thirties.

But here in the Faculty of Magic, because of Iris von Evergarden’s special status, Eric was still saddled with the department chair role even after reaching his late forties.

He pressed his throbbing temple hard.

"Professor Iris. Didn’t I explain it clearly in writing?"

Fatigue and irritation were smeared all over Eric’s voice.

"I didn’t reject it. I said it needed procedural review, and that it’d be brought up for consideration at the next regular meeting. Is it really that urgent that you had to gather everyone at dawn?"

A reasonable point.

She ignored it and said, her red eyes flashing,

"It’s urgent."

"What’s so urgent about it?"

"I almost had my disciple stolen from me."

"……Hah."

Eric let out a dry laugh, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

"Who? Which faculty dares covet one of our Faculty of Magic’s talents, a student with magical aptitude?"

The old professors around him snorted.

"Ho-ho, the Faculty of Knights, then?"

"Impossible. Then we’d have discovered the first student in history gifted in both swordsmanship and magic."

"Or the Alchemy Faculty? If he wants to go there, just let him. Clearly he doesn’t know magic’s value."

Their pride reached to the heavens.

Magic.

What a noble and magnificent field of study.

Someone with talent as a mage turning away from magic and walking another path?

Impossible.

Water flows downhill, and talent gathers in the Faculty of Magic. That was the truth of this world.

But then.

"Viscountess Müller, full professor of herbology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts."

At the name that left Iris’s mouth, the professors’ smug boasting came to a screeching halt.

"And Professor Wilhelm von Kreuz, full professor of military studies in the Faculty of Knights."

"……."

Silence.

Eric’s jaw dropped.

"……Who?"

"Those two came to my lab in person yesterday. They asked whether I could let my disciple go."

"Th-that was outrageously rude!"

Eric stammered.

Iris lightly adjusted her silver-rimmed glasses with her fingertips and said,

"That wasn’t all. Since they were impossible to persuade, the three of us had to go all the way to the Farne family mansion in the capital last night. We left it up to the person involved."

"So! What happened to the student!"

"Thankfully, he stayed loyal to me."

The professors’ mood slowly shifted.

This was no joke.

The opponents were Viscountess Müller, who was said to slap people with wads of cash from herb sales, and Wilhelm von Kreuz, the living legend of the imperial military.

At this point, they couldn’t even be dismissed as just professors from another faculty.

Just what was so special about that student with all those insulting nicknames?

Then.

The real power broker of the Faculty of Magic, who had been sitting there silently watching Iris,

Professor Hicks, the most senior of the professors present, finally opened his eyes with interest.

With his head of white hair, he slowly stroked his beard.

"Hmmm... doesn’t seem exaggerated."

Professor Hicks turned his eyes to Iris.

"You’re saying the one rumored to be a savage, an uneducated man, a starving second son, and the like is truly versatile enough to be coveted by big names like that?"

"That’s right."

Iris answered in a voice full of certainty.

"He’s a genius. One we can’t afford to lose."

The research fanatics’ eyes began to sparkle with curiosity.

It was only natural; this was the first time Iris had ever called someone else a genius.

But Eric soon regained his composure and made a perfectly reasonable point.

"Even if I grant that, what does it have to do with assigning a lab?"

Eric slapped the folder shut.

"You said he almost got stolen away, didn’t you? Then have him go through initiation first. He can sign the pledge and stamp it, can’t he? I’ll even put him at the top of the lineage chart. If that had come in as a top-priority matter instead of something as trivial as lab assignment, I’d have handled it immediately. A lab isn’t what makes someone a disciple, is it?"

"……!"

Iris’s expression stiffened.

She was thrown into a complete panic.

'A formal initiation? I haven’t even properly won him over yet!'

Should she tell them the truth?

'That my disciple is so picky I have to meet every condition he sets?'

Then the professors would definitely brand Cassian as a cheeky brat.

But she couldn’t lie, either.

In the end, Iris decided to go for broke.

"You have to grant it. I promised."

"Hah, a promise? You made a personal promise serious enough to break the rules?"

Eric scoffed and was about to wave her off.

At that moment.

Iris went for broke.

"If it really can’t be approved,"

she sprang to her feet.

"I’ll vacate my own private lab and give it to Cassian."

"……Pardon?"

"And I’ll request a reassignment of my lab. I’ll move my things out today, so keep that in mind."

"M-mad…"

The professors were stunned.

That wouldn’t do.

To the professors here, Iris was no different from everyone’s daughter, or granddaughter.

It wasn’t the exaggerated kind of affection mages tended to have, the sort that said she was so precious it wouldn’t hurt to put her in your eye.

Still, everyone here remembered the little girl who, not even ten years old, looked at the magic they’d devoted their lives to with pure eyes.

They had also smiled fondly at the sight of that little girl climbing onto a chair to solve equations, clutching a piece of chalk in her tiny hand and scribbling away on the blackboard.

That bond couldn’t help but be special.

And everyone knew it.

They knew that Iris, clever little thing that she was, knew that too and was putting on this protest because of it.

It was a tantrum so powerful it was bound to work.

Eric’s face turned ashen.

"No, Professor Iris! What kind of nonsense is that!"

"My disciple is worth that much."

Iris was firm.

She had no intention of backing down even a single step.

And at last, a cheerful laugh burst forth, ending the standoff.

"Hahaha!"

It was Professor Hicks.

"Let’s just approve it."

"Professor!"

"What can we do? We’re the ones who raised that girl to be so spoiled. We have to take responsibility."

After comforting Eric with a kindly smile, Professor Hicks turned to Iris and asked gently,

"Do you like that boy that much?"

"……Yes."

Iris’s face colored slightly.

"I really like him. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime connection."

Two hundred percent sincere.

That earnestness moved the veteran professor’s heart.

"Very well. Then bring him here."

"……Huh?"

"I’m curious about this remarkable disciple you’ve chosen. If you promise to show him to us old men once, I’ll use my authority to hand over the lab right away."

"……."

Not bad. If anything, she was being shown consideration, so agreeing would have been natural.

Even so, Iris couldn’t help but hesitate.

Cassian had made it clear he hated troublesome things.

If she dragged him in front of the professors, he’d obviously hate it.

And yet, the condition of doing it right now was too tempting.

The trauma of almost losing him yesterday because she had no lab was just too great.

'……He’ll understand once, right?'

A teacher just wanted to brag about her disciple a little.

"All right. I promise. In return, would it be okay if you came to my class next week?"

"Sounds good."

In the end, Iris got the deal done by throwing a tantrum.

'Thank goodness. I might get scolded a little, but still.'

Iris nodded to herself.

For a moment, anyway.

Then suddenly, seeing herself worrying about being lectured by him, Iris thought,

'Am I even the guardian here?'

Wasn’t this the kind of worry a kid had while scheming to get forgiven after doing something wrong?

That thought almost made her feel a pang of self-disgust.

* * *

Right after I got to school, in front of Iris’s lab.

The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I let out a sigh.

'……Fuck.'

Where had the dress gone?

Before my eyes stood Iris again, dressed in a stiff suit buttoned all the way up to her neck.

Well, that was technically the proper outfit for a professor.

Human nature really was devious. I’d been thoroughly enjoying the sight of that killer body.

Of course, it was knight-destroying.

It was.

'This is definitely big-sis’s fault.'

I missed her cleavage.

I missed the blatantly exposed lines her clothes traced, especially her hips and waistline.

I hid my disappointment and sat down on the sofa.

"You’re back in the suit you originally wore?"

"Yes. But this outfit is only for today, too."

"Huh?"

What was that supposed to mean?

Only until today?

Did that mean she’d wear the dress again starting tomorrow?

Woohoo!?

Just as excitement was starting to poke its head up, Iris added solemnly,

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll be wearing a different suit."

"……?"

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

The conversation was sinking deeper and deeper into a maze.

"That was the plan from the beginning. In a proper, cultured way."

She rambled on.

"After class today, Seria and I are going to the boutique to buy more suits. All kinds of them."

"……Ah, yes. I don’t really know what you mean, but have a nice shopping trip."

I gave up on trying to figure it out.

If I tried to understand this woman’s fashion philosophy, my brain would probably overload and explode first.

She couldn’t possibly be asking me to go shopping with her, right?

And yet, the fact that I could only read it that way meant I was definitely not following this conversation.

Whatever.

"By the way, where’s the key?"

"……Is that all you can think about?"

A slight pout began to form on Iris’s lips.

Though she looked annoyed, I stubbornly held out my hand.

"Of course. This is really, really important to me."

"Haa."

She took a brass-colored key out of the drawer and placed it in my palm.

"Here you go."

The heavy feel of the metal.

At last.

Got my own private lab, da ze!

Now I could stretch out and sleep in a room with blasting air-conditioning.

"I’ll fill in the rest quickly—furniture, any equipment you need, things like that. If you need anything, feel free to tell me directly anytime. I’ve already ordered the air conditioner. A ceiling-mounted one."

What kind of bullshit was it that I had to buy a system air conditioner separately and have it built into the ceiling?

"Take your time. As long as I have the space, that’s enough for now."

I was about to pocket the key and stand up.

But then.

"……"

Iris’s expression didn’t look quite right.

The way she kept fidgeting and fiddling only with her glasses frame was, what should I say,

extremely suspicious.

"What’s wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your face practically has 'I messed up' written all over it in giant letters. Come clean already."

"What’s that kind of attitude toward your teacher? So rude."

"All that polished talk is useless. I kept my promise, didn’t I? I even turned down Viscountess Müller’s temptation."

I couldn’t bring myself to mention that I’d also turned down old man Wilhelm’s temptation.

I leaned my upper body back against the sofa again, after having moved forward as if to get up, and stared straight at her.

"So hurry up and tell me. Watching you get all nervous is making me nervous too. What is it?"