Chapter 30 – No Eternal Friend, No Eternal Enemy (5)

The administrative processing office of the magic engineering department.

Someone entered that place where the grading of the qualification exam that ended today was busily underway.

It was the Intermediate magic engineer, Bexel Mitro.

“Lord Bexel, what brings you here…?”

A public servant sent from the leadership’s administrative office to support greeted him with a tense face.

Since grading the multiple-choice section with set answers was something a non-magic engineer public servant could handle alone, there was no reason for magic engineers, whose hands were precious, to visit this place before the subjective grading.

If they visited, it was safe to assume some problem had arisen.

“I dropped by for a moment to check something. Don’t worry and carry on with your work.”

However, Bexel merely encouraged the public servant dispatched from the leadership’s administrative office and disappeared into the back of the office.

‘That kid’s subjective answer sheet should be around here somewhere…’

The kid Bexel was referring to was the genius boy who had solved the multiple-choice section through mental calculation without even writing down the steps.

The reason he, busy with research, had gone out of his way to visit this place was also to inspect the answer sheet of the second exam, the subjective section.

The boy’s genius was well worth it.

Rummaging through the answer sheets wrapped in layers of envelopes, Bexel finally found the answer sheet with the boy’s name written on it.

“Indeed… I did not see it wrong.”

As expected, the answer sheet was written in a flowing handwriting that seemed to have been jotted down all at once without a trace of hesitation.

It meant his insight to pierce through the questions was that great, and in fact, the answer sheet was also flawless with airtight, solid logic.

However, although the Beginner logic was perfect, the narrative transitioning into the Intermediate level was at an immature level, falling below the initial expectation that he would be a mature Intermediate.

‘This boy must be taken into our Ember by all means.’

What did that matter anyway?

Bexel pulled out the personal profile he had requested and received from the leadership’s administrative processing office.

[Name: Will Ford]

[Age: 15]

[Affiliation and Origin: None]

‘To think his age is a mere fifteen. Moreover, did he self-study magic engineering as a wanderer…?’

Though in terms of level he was far below himself, the boy’s age was overwhelming.

Furthermore, unlike Bexel, who had grown up receiving all kinds of support from the Immortal Embers as a prospect, wasn’t this wandering boy knocking on the threshold of the Intermediate level solely through his own talent without any help?

This was a level where even Leona Melville, the granddaughter of Herman Melville who graduated at the top of the academy and was highly likely to become the next Chief Mechanical Magic Engineer, would have to yield a step.

‘I should show this to the Chief Engineer.’

Although taking the answer sheet without permission was a criminal act, Bexel slipped the answer sheet into his briefcase without hesitation.

Not only due to the boy’s talent, but also due to the leadership’s directive to check the growth of other Embers, it was right to report this to Herman Melville as soon as possible.

Only then could he know how much the Immortal Embers would invest to win over the boy, and only with that knowledge could Bexel finally move to recruit him.

In short, it meant the boy’s talent far exceeded the scope of Bexel’s authority.

Tap, tap—

It was while Bexel was organizing the documents in that manner.

“Hmm? This is…”

The answer sheet of number 16,978, Eilen Vale, right behind the boy who was number 16,977, caught his eye.

The answer sheets were arranged in numerical order, and since Bexel had just pulled out the boy’s answer sheet, Eilen Vale’s answer sheet naturally ended up on top.

“What did he write all this for? Was he bored or something?”

For some reason, the content written on the answer sheet was longer than the boy’s.

Bexel had thought of him as someone who came along as the boy’s guardian, having seen him fall asleep in less than twenty minutes during the first exam.

Thus, he assumed that the words and sentences filling the answer sheet densely would be the grumbling or confession of a man who had lived as a yellow-band.

“Shall I try reading it once…”

Naturally, he had no expectations for the answers. He merely thought there might be some past history or personal information about the boy that could be useful in negotiations.

However, from the very first sentence, Bexel could not help but tilt his head.

The answer should have definitely started with a pathetic story like, ‘I grew up as an orphan and fought a fierce battle for survival in the harsh, vast snowfield, and the boy is like family to me…’ decorating the introduction, but.

“Establishment of a short-and-long distance wireless communication magic network through the installation of magic wavelength amplification towers…?”

Something was strange.

It was not content that number 78 could have written.

Even setting aside the magic wavelength amplification towers, what on earth was this bizarre phrase, ‘establishment of a short-and-long distance wireless communication magic network’?

It was clearly not words and sentences that should be written by someone who shouldn’t even know the first thing about magic engineering.

“What is this…”

Prompted by this strangeness, Bexel even pulled out his chair, sat down, and began reading Eilen Vale’s answer sheet.

The content that followed was truly shocking.

[…The definition of scholars that the magic wavelength of Eternal Magic, the source of the disaster that is the ice age, cannot be deciphered is incorrect.]

Eternal Magic, the perpetual motion machine and infinite power generator that brought about the ice age.

Even Herman Melville had practically given up his ten-year research after hitting the obstacle of the fluctuating magic wavelength of the runaway Eternal Magic, yet this was refuting him from the introduction.

[It is true that the variation of the magic wavelength depending on place and time due to the runaway of Eternal Magic makes deciphering difficult. However, everything magical has a cycle, and Eternal Magic is no different. Although the academia completely denies this, it is not a difficult task if we have accumulated information, that is, weather information of a sufficient period of time.]

“…!”

At this passage, Bexel trembled all over as if struck by lightning on the crown of his head.

Although a concrete solution was not written, the description that the magic wavelength could be deciphered with collected weather information was the cause that gave him goosebumps.

‘Could it be that the research data was leaked?’

This was because this was precisely the method Herman Melville had proposed as a solution to accomplish the task of ‘analysis of the Eternal Magic wavelength’.

The important thing was that this task was a study conducted in absolute secrecy.

Yet, to share the main direction and align with such classified research…

‘Is this guy a spy? If so, the boy too?’

Bexel seriously entertained even such thoughts.

Since there was no way a mere yellow-band could possess a vision that only Herman Melville could harbor.

However, they could not truly be spies. What spy would write the core of a classified study on an answer sheet and submit it?

Unless they intended to confess, it was something they could not do unless they were insane.

Therefore, it was right to assume that the current answer sheet was written purely by Eilen Vale’s insight.

“Does this… does this actually make sense?”

In the end, it led to the conclusion that this yellow-band was looking at the same thing as the grand magic engineer Herman Melville.

No matter how one thought about it, it was impossible.

Bexel, who might be facing the birth of a new great magic engineer, barely calmed his racing heart and continued to read down the answer sheet.

“Hmm…”

Near the end, he thought it might have been his own misunderstanding.

‘Was it luck? Or a coincidence? Perhaps the recklessness of a genius…’

The idea of establishing a wireless communication magic network that followed was novel and the Beginner logic was perfect, but the Intermediate logic was full of loopholes, just like the boy’s.

Expressing the same opinion as Herman Melville might have been the boldness of an ignorant prospective magic engineer.

But judging that was not his responsibility.

“Candidate 78 Eilen Vale… I should take this along as well.”

Bexel took both answer sheets.

Those two answer sheets were thus delivered straight from Bexel’s hand to the hand of the Chief Mechanical Magic Engineer, Herman Melville.

“Bexel, leave the boy. I must see the face of candidate 78, Eilen Vale.”

“Does that mean…”

“Let’s see him in the interrogation room. The charge… cheating would be good.”

Did Herman Melville think there was a spy inside the laboratory?

Eilen Vale’s disposition was decided in that manner.

However, Herman Melville’s words did not end there.

“One more thing.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“This answer sheet must not be disclosed to the public. You know the reason, right?”

There was no way he didn’t know.

The logic developed by candidate 78 contained the core of the state secret.

The clever Bexel Mitro immediately grasped the intention of Herman Melville, his Chief Engineer and mentor.

“Shall I rewrite it?”

“Yes, that would be good. If you understand, leave now.”

“Then I will take my leave, Chief Engineer.”

It was the moment Bexel bowed his head, left the room, and the door closed.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Eilen Vale’s answer sheet burst into flames in Herman Melville’s hand and disappeared like magic.

Though he did not know how that strange thing was possible, what was clear was that there was no ignition tool in his hand.

“Interesting.”

Only the residual scent of non-material elements left in the air after burning the answer sheet remained in Herman Melville’s hand.

* * *

“Don’t think of doing anything foolish and wait quietly!”

Slam!

The police officer made a threat and disappeared despite me being dragged along quietly.

Handcuffed without even having time to grasp the situation, I was shoved into an interrogation room somewhere by those coercive men.

‘Cheating… what kind of bolt from the blue is this?’

No matter how much I thought about it, nothing weighed on my conscience.

After all, as soon as I finished writing the answer sheet, I was busy lying down and sleeping.

If there was just one thing that bothered me, it was that I went to the restroom during the exam.

“Even then, I went and came back wearing a blindfold…”

Didn’t I even have to show a shameful sight because the proctor accompanied me?

It was a great relief that they did not wipe it for me.

Anyway, as Bexel said, there were nine magic spheres installed on the ceiling of the testing room as CCTVs. This meant a blind spot for cheating could not possibly exist.

So, if I was truly caught for cheating, I should have been caught red-handed.

Instead of being arrested after a time delay like this.

‘Could it be because of Heimdall? Was that sergeant’s words true?’

The sergeant’s words that the yellow-bands Heimdall contacted all disappeared from the city.

At this moment when I did not know the real reason I was arrested, that was the only thing to suspect.

However, thinking about it carefully, since his guard Carlyle said his lord was ordered to a week of confinement by the leader Odin…

“Damn it…”

At present, I have no way of knowing who did this and for what reason.

How many minutes did I wait anxiously amidst the tension that my life might fly away?

Click!

Someone walked in.

A white-haired old man whose skin held the wrinkles of time as the twilight of his life was setting.

Yet his two eyes still contained the setting sun, harboring a vitality that seemed capable of piercing through everything with a deep and serene gaze.

‘Who on earth is he…’

A posture imbued with the majesty of the strong despite his small build.

I could instantly sense that this mysterious old man was a man of power incomparable to anyone I had met so far.

The moment the old man, who sat down so leisurely and comfortably, finally opened his mouth, I had no choice but to be astounded.

“I am Herman Melville.”

“…!”

Herman Melville, the Chief Mechanical Magic Engineer, said to possess the same status and power as Odin Arcadius, the leader of the Immortal Embers.

He, who was called a giant of the era, was sitting right in front of me, a mere yellow-band.