Chapter 42
Morgan opened her eyes.
“…Yaaawn.”
She’d read until late the night before, so her neck was stiff.
“Mmm….”
The area in front of her bed was a complete mess.
Haphazardly piled books and luxurious laboratory tools filled her view. It was a chaotic room, but nothing compared to a dusty storage cellar.
Morgan raised her head and looked at the table.
On it sat a mana stone that could heat reagents without a flame, with a brass alchemy pot resting on top. Her final exam assignment was simmering inside.
She checked the contents.
Bubbling—
“….”
‘…It’s done.’
The final exam assignment—a reagent made through an elemental mana reaction—was complete. She’d dumped in the ingredients in the prescribed amounts and boiled them, and that was it.
Morgan said flatly,
“What? This is stupidly easy.”
At this rate, you could have an eight-year-old do it.
Damn old man Edmund.
He’d threatened them about how hard it was when he assigned it.
-Those who cannot read the flow of mana will not even be qualified to witness a reagent’s completion. And those who cannot see the essence of its ingredients will never understand the numbers on the page.
“….”
‘You just look at it, figure out when it seems right, and roughly grasp each ingredient’s properties. That’s all there is to it. What’s the big deal…?’
Apparently,
it had just been nonsense to put the freshmen in their place.
Grumpy old man.
Hmph.
“….”
Morgan grumbled to herself as she briskly smoothed her hair with a wooden comb. With a pleasant shhk-shhk, her red hair flowed like a river.
‘Hmph, I don’t want her seeing me looking disheveled. This is a matter of a genius’s pride.’
Thinking that,
she elegantly smoothed the wrinkles from her pajamas.
Just as she was about to head out.
“!”
Oh, right.
Eye gunk….
Morgan hurriedly turned around. Then she rummaged across the bed covered in books, searching for a mirror.
Found it!
She wiped the mirror with her sleeve,
then slowly examined her face.
“….”
Hmm.
Mmm….
No eye gunk, though.
‘Have I gained weight?’
Something was strange.
Somehow, the line of her cheeks seemed rounder. And strangely, her red eyes, which had always shone in the dark, now only glimmered a little.
‘I feel like they used to shine like a cat’s.’
It wasn’t all bad, though.
‘The inside of my mouth doesn’t hurt anymore, my skin’s smooth and pink, and my nails and hair are growing really fast.’
It had been two months since she started living with Lydia.
She felt like she’d changed in all sorts of ways.
‘Will Lydia think something’s strange when she gets back from her dawn training…?’
“….”
…Hmph.
Whatever.
‘Annoying.’
Hmph.
What, me? Change, huh?
Huh? What, do you think I… care about you?
‘Does she think I’m going to follow her around every time she leaves at dawn? That I’ll fret about when she’ll get back? I’m busy too. I don’t care about that.’
“Hmph.”
Morgan tossed the mirror onto the bed.
Today, too, she was an elegant and tidy genius witch. She’d only checked to confirm that fact, not anything else in particular.
“…Hmph.”
Then she flung open the door and went out.
In the hallway, a middle-aged woman with black hair—Lydia’s maid Mirian—was passing by. She greeted Morgan with a gentle smile.
“Good morning, Lady Morgan. Shall I prepare breakfast for you?”
“….”
“Ah, Her Highness said she’d be back after her dawn training. She should be back soon.”
“….”
“Would you like to eat first?”
“…I-I’ll bathe first.”
“Very well.”
Her short legs hurried along.
Patapata!
“Q-quickly…!”
Morgan hurriedly gathered the uniform she would change into.
Then she calculated the fastest route in her head. If she bathed now and dried her hair with a towel, it would take too long.
‘If I combine wind and fire magic to make hot air… wind and fire are mutually generative elements, so I can reduce the number of activation words…’
In front of the bathtub filled with warm water.
She quickly stripped off her pajamas and devised a combination of beginner spells. It was a talent that had gone beyond calculation and reached instinct.
It was a level only possible by resonating with mana as naturally as breathing. She was putting that terrifying genius to use shaving off a little time.
Splash!
Morgan’s smooth body sank into the tub. She rubbed her little palms together, washing her face, hair, and body all at once.
Shhhh
Shhhh
“….”
Mirian listened to that sound,
with a wry smile.
“…You’re making it way too obvious.”
*
Lydia returned with a smile. Across the table, Morgan, impeccably put together, was eating breakfast with a prim expression.
“Taking care of your hygiene the moment you wake up. You really are meticulous.”
“Hmph, I’m a genius witch. I have to keep myself in perfect condition from the moment I get up.”
“What remarkable rationality. I was planning to wash up after eating… but I suppose washing first is better. It’s more rational from a hygiene standpoint.”
“…Why don’t you eat with me and wash up after? You need to brush your teeth, too.”
“Hehe, I see. Streamlining the route. I was shortsighted.”
Lydia nodded and began eating breakfast. Her sweat-damp golden hair swayed in the morning breeze.
“….”
Morgan almost smiled. That eccentric royal tried to copy any way of shortening her routine, no matter how trivial.
‘She acts like not a drop of blood would come out of her in public, but when you live with her, she has surprisingly loose screws.’
For example…
‘Like eating with only a knife to cut down on dishes.’
Slice
Slice
A single knife moved.
Various fruits and bread were being cut into cubes in front of Lydia. It was amazing how skillfully she cut them with a dull knife.
And then.
“Mm.”
She put it in her mouth.
Stabbing it with the knife.
“….”
It was a barbaric way of eating, like one of those barbarians said to live in the far northern continent. The nobles of Gallia or the Republic would probably be shocked if they saw her.
‘But she’s so pointlessly beautiful that even that bizarre behavior looks refined, which annoys me. It looks like she’s performing some kind of religious rite.’
She did plenty of other bizarre things, too.
She slept naked at night to cut down on laundry, or woke up without leaving a single wrinkle in the bed….
She did every unprincessly thing imaginable. And yet her naked body was as beautiful as a noble statue, while her perfectly controlled room looked like a sacred space.
‘Pointlessly beautiful….’
The things she said were stupid.
-It is all for the sake of rationality.
“….”
The most frightening thing was,
that she knew her behavior wasn’t normal.
-Even so, I shall live rationally.
“….”
Hmm.
Mmm….
Isn’t she just an extraordinary idiot?
‘It’s funny that she pursues rationality while rejecting the fact that even the irrationality of her behavior serves a kind of social rationality…’
But wasn’t even that part of Lydia’s charm?
Anyway.
She’s a woman who lives however she wants, as if being pretty makes everything okay.
“….”
Just as she thought that,
Lydia tilted her head and said,
“Morgan, what is it? Your hand has stopped.”
“!”
“Is the food not to your liking?”
“No, I was just thinking about something.”
“I see.”
“….”
That smiling face that seemed so indifferent, too.
It annoyed her for some reason.
‘…If you’re curious, just ask. Don’t nod like you know everything by yourself.’
Hmph.
*
-That concludes today’s lesson. The final exam assignment will be strictly timed, so make sure you submit it properly.
Old man Edmund exited with an air of hauteur.
“!”
Morgan raised her head.
The drab hours had passed. It had been a painful stretch of stupid classes among idiots. She hurriedly stuffed her notes and ingredients into her bag.
“…!”
She wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
Just hearing his voice made her nauseous.
-Ahhh! This is really hard.
-Have you finished the reagent?
-No…. I couldn’t understand a single thing, even after looking at the book.
-As expected, it’s no wonder the Alchemy Guild accepts people with Academy diplomas. The lessons are all advanced.
“….”
What are they talking about?
You can’t do it because you’re blockheads.
I can do it with my eyes closed.
‘I only couldn’t do it before because I didn’t have money for the ingredients.’
I don’t have to worry about money anymore.
I don’t need the Republic anymore, either.
Idiots.
Morons.
I feel like throwing up.
Morgan hurriedly slipped away.
‘This isn’t where I belong.’
Among the freshmen in the Department of Magic,
no one noticed she was gone.
*
“…Am I an idiot?”
She was just depressed. It felt like she’d run away from idiots.
And because she’d hurriedly run away, she felt like the real idiot.
“….”
Morgan was walking across campus when she stopped short.
“…You mangy mutts.”
Far below, on the training grounds, a man and woman were running around like fools. The silver-haired girl in the lead called out cheerfully. Lately, her voice had been climbing higher and higher without end.
-Catch me if you can~!
-Huff…! Hah! A-Aria! S-stop!
-Hm? Why?
-We’ve been running full speed for two hours…! Hah! It’s too…! Hah!
In the end, Arti plopped down, gasping for breath.
Toward him,
Aria hurried over.
-A-Arti—!
“….”
Morgan was convinced.
Ah.
They really are idiots.
‘Now those are real idiots.’
Somehow, she felt refreshed. If people like that could live and breathe beneath the sun, surely she could manage, too.
“…Let’s go back.”
Morgan quickened her pace.
Then a familiar voice called from behind her.
“Are your classes over?”
“!”
She turned around.
Beneath the sun,
golden hair swayed and glittered like sunlight.
Lydia approached at an unhurried pace. Then she saw Aria holding onto Arti and crying out apologies.
“…Hehe. They’re such adorable little fools.”
“Those two? Running like idiots and then falling over?”
“Isn’t that the sort of affection only possible at that age? Quiet love can be enjoyed all through adulthood. But the memories you think of right before you die are things like that.”
“….”
Her blue eyes watched the two tenderly.
“….”
Lydia sometimes….
Acted as if she were twenty years older.
And.
-I was too weak, so my first love ended in failure.
“….”
Morgan quietly tugged at Lydia’s sleeve.
“?”
“…Let’s go.”
“All right.”
The two walked across campus in silence.
“How is your final exam preparation going?”
“…I already finished.”
“Really? That was fast.”
“Yeah.”
Thanks to you.
She left those words unsaid.
“It’s convenient to get things done ahead of time.”
“I see.”
“….”
Not yet.
She didn’t want to say it.