I Got a Fake Job at the Academy
chapter-69

“Umm.”

Flora slowly opened her eyes while holding her forehead.

‘What?’

She had fainted after seeing the spellform, and she felt like she had dreamed about something in the middle of it.

—It was nostalgic and affectionate.

The feeling of something warm that embraced her body…

—It was like her late mother's embrace.

Flora realized afterward that she was lying on the sofa.

Sraaak.

“Ah.”

Flora, who slowly raised her upper body, belatedly discovered that the coat that was covering her body had slipped down.

It was a black frock coat with golden embroidery thread.

It was impossible for her not to recognize the familiar garment.

“Th-this is…”

“You woke up?”

Flora turned her head unconsciously toward where she heard the voice.

What she saw there was Ludger Chelysie, who was sitting at a desk while reading a paper.

Instead of the coat that he usually wore, he was wearing a white dress shirt and a black vest.

His long bangs were slightly pulled back to reveal his forehead.

Below the forehead was a nose as smooth as one made by a sculptor who was extremely careful in sculpting it.

His usual sharp eyes became softer thanks to the rimless glasses on his face, which rather highlighted his intellectual feeling.

That alone made his atmosphere quite different.

“I, uh… what on earth happened…?”

Flora could not recall why she fainted or the situation that happened before that.

Ludger lifted his head slightly and stared at her when she asked her question.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Pardon? Remember what?”

“I showed you magic.”

Only then could Flora recall what Ludger was talking about.

Yes. Ludger had shown her something, and Flora had fainted at the intense sensation she felt for the first time.

“R-right you did! What on earth did you…?”

Flora woke up from the sofa and was about to ask him that, but perhaps because of the shock of her faintness, her legs became weak and she fell back on the sofa.

“Just sit down. I don't think you can recover that easily from the shock of your faint."

"How long has it been since I passed out?"

“It wasn’t that long. It was just around 30 minutes.”

“30 minutes…”

Was it fortunate since she still had a lot of time left before the class?

No, of course, it wasn’t the case.

Flora shook her head, then stared at Ludger with a wondrous gaze.

“What on earth was that spell technique?”

“What are you talking about?”

"The one you showed me right before I passed out!"

“Ah, that one?”

Ludger replied in a casual voice as if it was nothing big.

"I'd seen something about it before, so the magic just came to my mind and I made it. It’s called Klein’s Bottle.”

“Klein’s Bottle? Such magic exists?”

“It is not practical magic in the first place. It's more experimental rather than practical."

“You called that experimental?”

Flora's lips trembled greatly.

Other people might have thought it was a unique type of magic.

But the more one knew about magic, the more different Klein's Bottle would look to them.

That was an innovation.

Other than calling it an innovation, how could they express the fact that spell techniques, which were basically limited to three dimensions, had been raised to the next level?

Even when they looked at the magic with their own eyes, they would wonder if it was real.

Moreover, what Flora had observed was much bigger.

“Yes.”

But Ludger spoke in a flat tone as if it was not a big deal.

“This is an experiment. To what extent can mana and the technique created by that mana be implemented?"

"Such a great magic is just an experiment, you said? What kind of…”

‘What kind of magic are you trying to create, Professor?’

Flora couldn't bear to ask that.

—For she could not fathom the magic that Ludger was trying to create.

“Hm.”

Ludger stroked his jaw at Flora's sensitive response.

He had made the form of Klein's Bottle due to his own curiosity by using mana which had not yet been properly identified.

Was mana purely physical?

Did mana have only have full physical effects?

It wasn’t like that.

From the spell that was expressed by mana, mana was already something beyond the laws of physics.

Magic was the embodiment of mystery.

The magic power which became the foundation of such magic, which was called mana, was the source of its mystery.

‘It's the unknown itself that has not been revealed yet.’

If one had mana, they could even teleport.

Some of the people that he remembered had even gone beyond that.

It was the technique of Klein's Bottle that proved the hypothesis that mana was more than just physical.

It was a form that could be implemented in four dimensions, beyond three dimensions.

A structure that was created by amplifying the one-sided Möbius strip even more.

Klein's Bottle’s inside was the outside, and the outside was the inside.

It was literally an endless cycle.

‘One hypothesis was satisfied—mana can interfere in a dimension other than just space.'

However, Klein's Bottle was a technique that only served to prove the hypothesis.

—Because there was not enough research to incorporate the hypothesis into other magic.

"I'm glad you woke up again, anyway."

“Pa-pardon?”

Come to think of it, Flora had fainted in the lab, but when she woke up, she was in the professor's room.

"Did you move me here, Professor?"

"I can't leave an unconscious student alone in the lab."

“Then…”

‘How on earth did you move me?’

Flora naturally imagined Ludger's appearance of lifting her up as if she were a princess after she had fainted.

Her face flushed red in an instant.

“Su-such…!”

“Flora Lumos. Are your eyes and nose okay?”

“Pardon?”

‘Why did he suddenly?’

"So that's why… are you perceiving magic with a different sense?"

“...!”

Flora was appalled.

Ludger had at once noticed her secret and peculiar physical type that no one had ever noticed before.

“Ho-how on earth…?”

“Because you showed it.”

“I showed it, you said?”

"Every time you see my magic, your pupils dilate greatly. I found out there that you were looking at the secondary effects of the magic and not only the magic itself."

“…”

‘Did I?’

Flora couldn't believe that Ludger noticed such a reaction that she didn't even realize.

She couldn't believe that he saw her pupils dilate.

What kind of observation was that?

"And every time you saw a new magic, your fingertips trembled. It was a reflexive action of feeling momentary pleasure. It was more of a delight than a surprise."

“…!”

“It would especially be better for you to fix your habit of twitching your nose bridge. Apparently, you can perceive magic as a sense of smell, but it won't be good to twitch your nostrils so blatantly...”

“Aaaaaaah!”

Flora couldn't stand it and screamed.

Ludger looked genuinely clueless.

"Why are you screaming?"

“H-how come you say something about n-nostrils to a Lady! What a mannerless thing for you to say!"

"I'm talking about your habits. But I noticed because it was me. Be careful not to let others find out about it."

“Oh, my God. Really the worst…”

Flora murmured as if she was sick enough of Ludger.

Ludger sighed and rose from his seat, and then slowly approached Flora.

“D-don’t approach me! Pervert!”

"I don't know what kind of misunderstanding you have."

Ludger snatched away his frock coat that covered Flora.

Flap!

Ludger shook off his frock coat a few times in the air and hung it neatly on the hanger.

"You must have recovered properly since you can shout out that energetically. I will take my leave.”

“Pardon?”

"Can't you hear me saying that I will take my leave?"

‘What? Don’t tell me that it’s going to end with this?’

Flora asked Ludger as she was still suspicious of him.

“Aren’t you curious?”

“What do you mean?”

"About my unique physical type."

"Of perceiving magic itself with different senses, you said?"

“…Right.”

What could she hide already? Flora honestly nodded her head.

Magic synesthesia…

Flora was born with two of the five senses.

If it were another wizard, they would have turned their eyes upside down at this incredible physical type.

That was why Flora asked him in a worried voice.

“Never.”

But Ludger was different.

He answered in a determined voice.

“Pardon?”

"I don't care that you have such a physical type. If that’s the case, then that’s it.”

“What’s that…”

"However, it would be better for you not to tell others about that physical type. Wizards become very dangerous when they find out something they don't know."

Flora read something in Ludger's attitude.

He seemed to know about the magic synesthesia that she possessed.

* * *

* * *

“…”

Gulp.

Flora swallowed her saliva at Ludger's sincere warning.

At the same time, she had no choice but to think about it.

‘Why is he so calm? Did he happen to meet someone with a similar physical type as mine?’

It looked like that.

Otherwise, there was no way he could talk or act like he knew a lot about it.

"Do you happen to know anyone besides me, Professor? Someone with a similar physical type to mine."

“…”

Ludger didn’t give her an answer.

Instead, he raised his hand and pointed at the door of the professor's office.

It was to tell her to leave.

Flora wriggled her eyebrows at his action but didn't argue about it.

Because, for a moment, Ludger's face looked somewhat sad.

So she had no choice but to leave the professor's office without being able to ask him anything.

‘The professor knows. He must have met someone with this physical type other than me.’

So who on earth were they?

No, more than that, how did Ludger know that her physical type was dangerous if someone found out about it?

And the subtle expression he showed at the end…

‘Were they someone he knew?’

If so, she could understand Ludger's behavior.

He had an acquaintance who had a similar physical type to her, and his acquaintance was harmed.

Then who on earth was that person? A man? A woman?

If they were a woman, what was the relationship between the two of them?

‘No!’

Flora shook her head.

If she paid more attention to him, she thought her mind would be more complicated.

‘Yes. Just move on for today.’

As soon as she thought so, Flora suddenly had that thought.

‘But have I received any other awards as a substitute for the award points yet?’

Ludger had only shown the technique of Klein's bottle, but he had given her nothing else.

Because it was a problem that she had fainted in the first place.

Flora looked at the professor's office door again.

‘If I go back in now and ask for a reward…’

It was a bit like that, right?

‘Urgh. I’m also stupid. Why did I forget the most important thing because I was distracted by something else?’

Flora felt like wanting to tear her hair out.

But the time that had already passed was irreversible.

She had no choice but to step back, leaving her regrets behind.

Then someone from afar approached her with hurried steps.

No, to be precise, towards Ludger's office.

“Oh. You are?”

“Oh?”

Walking cautiously with an old book in her arms, she was a girl with an uncommon gray hair color.

‘Her name was Lynne, right?’

‘I remember.’

Flora was not very interested in others, but she remembered some special students among those who took the same class as her.

Lynne was also one of them.

At the beginning of the semester, she was at odds with a noble student, right?

But the commoner girl was so close to the third princess that the incident was overshadowed by that.

Moreover, her appearance was so beautiful that she was memorable even if Flora didn't want to know about her.

“Oh, you…”

Lynne recognized Flora and stopped her footsteps.

Flora Lumos, how could she not know her?

She was the most famous person amongst Sören's sophomores.

She was the daughter of Duke Lumos, someone who possessed a beautiful appearance and natural magic talent.

A senior who walked on her own adamant path, unlike her, who had no property magic and possessed non-property mana whose source was hard to discover.

But why on earth was someone like her in front of Ludger's office?

“…”

“…”

The two stared at each other in silence.

It was true that they were taking Ludger's class together, but they had almost never contacted each other other than that.

However, Flora had no choice but to be suspicious of why Lynne visited Ludger's professor's office, especially when looking at the book that she embraced so tightly.

Lynne was also wondering why an arrogant senior like Flora was standing in front of Ludger's office.

It was Flora who made a move first in that subtle and uncomfortable silence.

“Hmph.”

She passed by Lynne as if she were not interested in her.

After staring at Flora's back, Lynne recalled what she had come to the professor's room for.

‘Ah, right. The book!’

Now that she had read all the book's contents about non-property magic, she had come to return it to the owner of the book, Ludger.

Thinking so, Lynne gulped down before facing the door of the professor's office.

It was the moment when she was about to knock on the door after taking a deep breath.

“Come in. The door is open.”

Ludger's voice was heard from the inside.