Chapter 22: Weekend in the Lab

It was the first weekend since the academy started.

But there was no time to rest. Once you take a break, it becomes tempting to keep resting, because that’s human nature.

Moreover, today Karvald Austri planned to visit Professor Radvisin Prodrake, who was in charge of the Aether Trait Enhancement Lecture.

‘He was quite the talkative person, so I’m sure he’ll take up a lot of my time.’

• Interest

With that in mind, he woke up early at dawn and ate breakfast alone at an early hour.

Afterward, he headed straight to the personal training ground, where he did some light physical exercise followed by whip handling practice.

Whenever his body grew tired, he would lean against the wall, sit down, and read various study materials he had brought with him to the academy.

As his stamina recovered, he would stand up and repeat the cycle of moving and resting.

· Beep, beep, beep.

Immersed deeply in training, the Aether Alarm Clock rang with an electronic beep, signaling that it was already 9:30.

He had arrived around 5:30, so four hours had already passed.

Having fulfilled his training goal for the day, it was now time to visit Professor Radvisin.

‘First, I should take a shower!’

Renting the personal training ground at Valhalla Academy required quite a sum of money.

Karvald came from a wealthy family, so he received a generous allowance for maintaining his dignity, meaning he had no trouble affording it.

The original protagonist, Reysir Daudabina, on the other hand, couldn’t bring himself to ask his guardian for that money and so never used the personal training ground.

Even if the guardian had offered to pay, Reysir would probably have refused out of embarrassment, citing the availability of the shared training grounds as a reason.

‘There’s no way those shared grounds are enough.’

The personal training ground was worth every penny.

Unlike the shared training grounds where Aether use was restricted for safety due to multiple students using them simultaneously, this place employed Aether Engineering technology that absorbed impacts.

So even if you used Aether recklessly, it was safe.

Plus, you could secretly hone your secret techniques.

That wasn’t all.

Each personal training ground came fully equipped with shower facilities, and on the first floor of the Tower of Training, there was a place to leave laundry.

If you handed over your sweat-soaked clothes and towels in a basket, they would be washed, ironed, and delivered to your dorm room early the next morning.

‘With such value, how could anyone say they don’t need it?’

Thinking how wonderful money was, Karvald stripped off his training clothes and put them in the laundry basket before heading into the shower room.

After washing thoroughly, he changed into his school uniform he had brought along.

Since he was going to ask for help from the professor, it was only proper to wear proper student attire.

“Is it already ten o’clock…? At this rate, it shouldn’t be rude to visit the lab.”

He checked the time again while tidying his still-damp hair.

Though it was the weekend and he wondered if barging into the lab at 10 a.m. was acceptable, he reasoned that simply being in the lab meant the professor was working, so it should be fine.

‘Professor Radvisin himself said that his lab is always open to students.’

He locked the door with the key he was given when applying to rent the training ground, handed over his laundry, and left the Tower of Training to head toward the Research Wing.

As expected, Professor Radvisin did not hesitate.

No sooner had Karvald knocked on the lab door than he heard an invitation to enter.

When he opened the door and stepped inside, the professor glanced at his face and said,

“Next time, you don’t need to knock; just come right in.”

How much did he want someone to talk to him that he said something like that?

Anticipating a storm of nonstop chatter, Karvald nervously lingered by the door until the professor gestured for him to come closer.

When he approached, the professor piled a bunch of research papers in front of him.

“Read these, gather the information, and organize it.”

“L…?”

“There’s an empty seat over there. You can sit and work. Use the stationery on that side.”

“Oh… yes…”

He had thought the invitation was to chat with students anytime, but now it seemed the professor wanted help with his work.

He could only ask questions or seek help after completing the tasks assigned.

Karvald had assumed all he needed to do was listen and respond appropriately while the professor talked, but a bigger trial than expected had arrived.

‘But gathering and organizing multiple papers… how does one even do that?’

Readers who have followed carefully would know that Karvald never even entered university.

So he had never done anything like this before.

He was quite at a loss, but didn’t dare ask how to proceed.

‘I’m wearing my school uniform, complete with the red tie marking me as a first-year. The professor must expect that organizing research papers is basic knowledge a noble-born should naturally have.’

Even if the papers contained professional terms the professor needed for research, with unfamiliar jargon everywhere, the sheer number of documents meant that reading through would help him naturally pick up some understanding.

By carefully reading the context, he could at least tell whether a sentence was important or not.

‘But what should I focus on when organizing? There must be something common among these papers that’s why I’m asked to consolidate them…’

He decided to quickly skim the table of contents and introductions first.

That should help him grasp the core keywords.

If after reading all the tables of contents and introductions he still had no clue, he would give up and ask the professor.

Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary.

After jotting down the keywords from each paper, the answer became clear.

‘Professor Radvisin’s next research topic is the correlation between Aether color and trait, isn’t it?’

Ah, of all things.

Karvald couldn’t help but sigh.

And with good reason, as he already knew this problem had no definitive answer.

Fire-attribute Aether tended to be red, water-attribute Aether tended to be blue, and so on.

In the world of Nas-e, there were indeed cases where Aether’s trait and color harmonized perfectly.

But those cases were rare. Especially the more abstract the trait, the less likely the colors matched.

Because Senna, the author of Nas-e, wrote it that way.

Some used water-attribute Aether but had blue, others light green, and there were even people with orange Aether.

This discrepancy sparked questions in the comments section.

The original author replied,

[senna: For main and supporting characters, I usually assign colors matching their abilities. But if it overlaps with existing characters or no suitable color comes to mind, I print a color wheel and spin a roulette to decide. Extras are decided by roulette from the start.]

Since the creator of this world spun a roulette to decide Aether colors, there could be no actual correlation.

That was why Karvald couldn’t help but sigh when he realized Professor Radvisin’s thesis topic.

‘In a world with half-baked settings, scholars’ research is just a series of dead ends…!’

Having himself created sloppy settings before, Karvald felt a twinge of guilt and reflection.

He firmly resolved never to become a scholar or professor.

And just then, someone appeared in the lab who reinforced this decision.

“Gwaaaarrr…”

A male student with dark circles down to his cheekbones entered, making zombie-like noises.

Karvald immediately recognized him as a research student pursuing a master’s degree.

He knew by the tie color.

Valhalla Academy students wore ties rotating through red, blue, green, yellow, and orange from first to fifth years.

The current fifth-year students wearing orange ties would graduate this year, so the new first-years next year would wear orange, then yellow the year after, then green, then blue, and so forth.

Research students, however, had tie colors assigned by degree regardless of enrollment year.

Dark blue ties indicated master’s students; purple tied students were pursuing doctorates.

Valhalla Academy’s ties were like a rainbow.

“Uh? Uh…”

The master’s research student looked briefly confused upon seeing Karvald, then gave a pitying expression as if seeing a poor soul.

He lightly patted Karvald’s shoulder before going to sit at a desk piled high with books and documents.

‘What was that about? That gesture of his!’

Karvald was puzzled by the unexplained sympathy but knew this was no time to dwell on it.

There was still a long way to go. He hadn’t even started reading the body of the papers, let alone organize their contents.

Putting aside the question, he checked the parts about Aether color and began reading the papers the professor had handed over.

‘I know this is pointless, but I have to do it since I was told to.’

Reading through various speculations and forced hypotheses on the irregularity of Aether colors, Karvald felt sorry for the professors who had written them.

So many people had documented their futile efforts.

Why was Professor Radvisin intent on repeating the same fruitless path?

‘Do scholars blindly believe that if they dig hard enough, they will one day uncover the truth, causing them to chase empty dreams?’

Just as Karvald doubted whether it was right to help the professor with this pointless research, a purple-tied female research student entered.

“Uwaaarrr…”

Like the earlier master’s student, she made zombie-like sounds, though hers were slightly exaggerated.

Her dark circles extended down to her jawline.

Research life must truly be grueling.

After enduring that, the best they could do was analyze random roulette patterns to create meaning out of nothing.

Karvald swore never to become a research student.

“Ugh? Uh, waaaar…”

The doctoral student looked at Karvald for a moment, then tilted her head as if wondering, ‘Does this have nothing to do with me?’

She sat down at the most chaotic desk in the lab and buried herself in papers.

Both the bachelor’s and doctoral research students seemed to accept Karvald’s presence here quickly.

Apparently, Professor Radvisin had not been assigning paper organization tasks to ordinary students just once or twice.

“New recruit, can you make some coffee? If you don’t know how to use the Aether Espresso Machine, open the drawer in that desk. The manual should be inside.”

“Uwaaaarrr…”

“Uhh, uh…”

After Radvisin’s only coherent sentence, the two research students responded with zombie noises.

Karvald guessed they were asking for coffee too.

Looking around the lab, he spotted the espresso machine neatly stored in a corner.

‘They even have something like this…? If I had known, I would’ve bought one sooner. I’ve been bothering myself making coffee the hand-drip way until now.’

No need to read the manual.

The Aether Espresso Machine was structured exactly like the home espresso machine Karvald used in his original world.

He had made coffee with such a machine even the day before his possession.

It was good information and timely too, as he was starting to need a caffeine fix.

So, with the intention of making his own, he gladly brewed espresso for all four of them.

“Would plain espresso do?”

“I’d like an iced Americano, please.”

“Ah, ah…”

“Ahhh…”

Karvald transformed the freshly brewed espresso into four iced Americanos.

He used ice from the Aether Mini Ice Maker, which no longer surprised him.