Chapter 74
*
Right after our conversation ended, Master's reaction was a little strange.
Master seemed vaguely wary of me.
“Hmm... are you planning to make that paper public?”
“Of course not. I’ll have it reviewed at Class 1 first.”
Though easy to overlook, magic spans everything from pure science to military weaponry.
There was no way they'd recklessly release magic like this to the public.
So every magic paper has to be self-submitted to the ethics committee for a classification review before it's filed.
“I’m planning to keep the security classification high. There’s a lot of potential for misuse.”
The paper will show how much lead mages are currently exposed to, and prove the worst possible outcome if they’re left untreated.
And, as a bonus, it will explain what treatment they should undergo to prevent it.
Still, the potential for misuse by dark mages was high enough that I needed to pay attention to the security classification.
“I see. If it's you... I suppose you'll manage.”
Master reluctantly agreed, looking somewhat displeased.
The mysterious, subtle wariness directed at me was a bonus.
“Then when do you think the paper will be finished? I suppose it's still hard to make it in time for this Olympiad, yes?”
“There’s less than a month left. Even for me, that’s impossible.”
Even a thesis mill couldn't crank out a paper in a month.
Besides, my paper was going to cover the entire empire.
Even with the guild's resources, it would probably take a solid two years.
“There’s no need to rush. It will take a long time before His Highness Edmund can establish the department.”
“True enough. That brat still has plenty of mountains to climb. I can win over the magical academia, but he'll have to handle the House of Nobles and the Church.”
Master nodded, stroking his chin.
“Good. Then in the meantime, you'll just have to talk with your senior disciples. Some of them shudder at the mere mention of black magic.”
“Thank you, Master.”
That marked the end of today's business.
After chatting about recent happenings with Master and exchanging a few trivial questions.
I stood up and gathered my coat.
“Hah... You've really grown a lot taller too. Feels like just yesterday you only came up to my solar plexus.”
“I'm already 18 now.”
“Yes. You're an adult now too. Maybe I've lived too long, but sometimes even twenty-year-olds look like babies to me.”
By Master's standards, I suppose that makes sense.
“Come to think of it, how much have you set aside in donations for this Olympiad?”
Ever since I first started making donations in Master's name to the academic society.
And even after that, our guild has kept donating to the society every year.
Master was delighted too, saying his research had gotten much better funded.
“Ah, this year it's a little higher than usual.”
“Because of that medicine?”
“Yes. Thanks to that medicine.”
Miracle Blue Pill.
Thanks to that medicine, the Mercure Merchant Guild was experiencing an unprecedented boom.
Accordingly, the various donations and welfare programs carried out under the guild's name were set to increase as well.
“This year's donation will be... about this much, then.”
Luckily, I happened to have the donation certificate paperwork with me, so I handed it to Master.
Master stared at the paper for a while, speechless.
“...It looks like one extra zero was added? Did you write it wrong?”
“Didn't I tell you? I said it was a heart medicine made to make money. Of course, I didn't know it would go in this direction, though.”
“....”
Master couldn't take his eyes off the paperwork for quite some time.
*
After finishing my conversation with Master, I returned to the mansion.
As soon as I stepped into the entryway, the head butler was waiting.
“Young Master. You're back.”
“Yes. Please tell the kitchen dinner will be a little late today.”
“Understood. Also, Young Master, a letter arrived while you were out.”
The head butler held out a silver tray.
On the tray was a single letter.
‘A scholarship student.’
Who could it be?
I was planning to meet Cal, Ellie, and Valeria tomorrow, so it couldn't be them.
The other scholarship students had sent letters asking after me the day before yesterday.
So it looked like one of them had sent this.
I took the letter from the tray and headed to my room.
As I untied the shabby string, a dried flower slipped out of the envelope.
The moment I saw it, I knew who had sent it.
‘Aila, maybe.’
Aila.
Valeria's younger sister.
A scholarship student who has entered the seminary's high school division and dreams of becoming a healing priest, inspired by her mother.
For reference, she's the same age as Freya.
‘Looks like she grew another sunflower this year, too.’
Aila always enclosed this flower whenever she sent a letter.
After I thanked her, she kept sending them.
Thanks to that, a whole pile of sunflowers she'd sent had stacked up in one corner of my desk.
I added one more sunflower to the pile and unfolded the letter.
A rounded, bubbly handwriting. It was unmistakably Aila's.
— Hello, Director! It's Aila.
— First, I wanted to say thank you, thank you so much for saving my sister.
— Honestly, when I heard the news I was terrified, but when I heard that you had safely pulled my sister away from those evil black mages, I can't tell you how relieved I was.
— I'm so sorry that the only gift I can give you right away is this dried sunflower, grown and dried in the guild's greenhouse.
It seemed she'd sent the letter because of Valeria.
‘We'll be seeing each other tomorrow anyway.’
Right now, the scholarship students were recuperating in a safe house provided by the guild.
Not only the scholarship students, but their families had also relocated there.
Aila would probably be with her sister Valeria by now as well.
I'd already told them in advance that I'd be coming to visit tomorrow, so she must have known that.
Even knowing that, it was admirable that she'd still sent a letter like this.
I kept reading.
— And, Director, something amazing happened to me. I awakened divine power!
— I've been staying in the safe house provided by the guild, and my sister had been suffering because she kept having nightmares. So I held her hand and prayed beside her all night... and suddenly a warm light burst out of my hands!
The handwriting in the letter wobbled noticeably in the middle.
She must have been trembling from excitement.
And I was almost as excited, nearly letting out a cheer myself.
‘So she finally awakened divine power.’
There had been signs of it from the start.
Growing sunflowers in a place with no sunlight at all.
That's not something just anyone can do.
No need to even bring genre conventions into it; this is one of the healer-priest screening methods that has quietly taken root in this world as well.
Small animals especially tend to follow them, or they rarely get sick as children.
The greater a healing priest's talent, the more likely they are to have one such small, trivial quirk.
— If I can just get through the high school final exams and graduate, I think I'll be able to enter the Healing Department right away when I'm twenty!
— Mom got even more worked up than I did. She awakened late, so she entered the Healing Department late too. She said she had a really hard time because of the age gap with the younger students, so she's super glad I awakened early.
Priests can be broadly divided into two types.
The ordinary priests we all know.
These are ordinary people who devote themselves purely to God.
It's the path most theology students take after graduating seminary.
And then there are healing priests.
Priests among the ordinary clergy who awaken divine power and wield divine magic.
Students on the priest track transfer to this path once they awaken divine power.
There are also late bloomers like Aila's mother in the letter, who awakened divine power much later in life.
Fortunately, Aila didn't awaken late, so there didn't seem to be any need to worry about that.
— To be honest, I don't really know why I suddenly got divine power either. The theology professors didn't tell us what conditions make divine power awaken.
— Do you know why that is, Director?
I don't know that either.
Neither does Master.
The conditions for awakening divine power still haven't been revealed.
Judging from the fact that most ordinary priests awaken, it seems like faith would be the condition,
but that can't be it, since even old people and babies who've never prayed a day in their lives sometimes awaken.
If you ask whether selfless or sacrificial people awaken, that doesn't fit either, because the sort of people who become healing priests are no different from ordinary people.
It's already been shown that it's unrelated to good or evil deeds.
Opinions are still divided over the conditions for awakening divine power.
But the important thing right now wasn't that part.
— I can help people now!!
— I can only use Refresh for now, but people who are tired really seem to love it when I use it on them!
— Just like Mom, just like you, Director, I want to become a healer who can heal sick people!
— Director, thank you so much. If you hadn't saved my sister, I never would have awakened.
— Next time we meet, I'll Refresh you myself! I promise!
— From Aila
What mattered now was that the girl I'd picked up on the cheap had awakened divine power.
More importantly, she was a girl with the potential to become a saint.
‘At this rate, we might end up with another saint of this era.’
Just as there can be multiple heroes, there can also be multiple saints or holy men in one generation.
Of course, not just anyone can become a saint.
One must prove feats and qualities worthy of it.
But I wasn't worried about that part.
Aila had already been standing out since her seminary days.
With just a little push from me, she'd sail ahead like a ship with a tailwind.
If that's the case, then all I have to do is one thing.
‘I just need my name listed beside Aila's, like always.’
What was it that made Julian famous for black magic and solving unsolved cases?
It was exactly thanks to the title of Charlotte's rival.
Since my first meeting with Charlotte.
No matter what case she solves, she has been promoting my name alongside hers.
— “If Young Master Nihirit had been there, this would have been solved much more easily.”
— “This is knowledge Young Master Nihirit taught me.”
Thanks to that, even when I just stay home and research, my reputation keeps rising right along with it.
Then, whenever I occasionally went along to my father's workplace and proved myself once or twice, people would on their own start treating me as a genius on par with Charlotte.
That's why nobody even doubts the news that I played an active role in this black mage kidnapping case.
So Aila was planning to coast in much the same way.
‘The one who taught Aila the mindset and basics of a healer.’
I was planning to milk that fact hard.
Then the more Aila shone, the more Director Shun's reputation would grow.
‘Come to think of it, Aila is seventeen too, isn't she?’
Seventeen.
One year past the age when nobles are busy making names for themselves by following in their parents' footsteps.
Usually, reputable healing priests begin making a name for themselves before reaching this age, with help from a prestigious house or their parents.
But Aila's mother had only just been promoted to intermediate priest.
It was a difficult situation to arrange a good stage for Aila to make a name for herself.
So,
‘I should help her.’
Just like the other scholarship students had.
Giving her hands-on experience in the form of an internship didn't seem like a bad idea.
It wasn't a difficult task.
In my previous life, it had been my job to teach residents while doing research and surgery.
Turning one person into a proper doctor... no, a healing priest, wasn't difficult either.
‘When I see Valeria tomorrow during the visit, I'll talk to Aila's mother and bring her along.’
I'm sure her mother would be delighted.