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Chapter 4
Rosia stood in front of the Archeological Magic Tools research lab.
Ten minutes had already passed while she was fiercely debating whether to knock or not, her hand half-raised. In the end, she clutched her head and squatted down right there.
The research building hallway was silent. Since all classes were over, it was the time when everyone would have happily gone home, except for a few research students crying while clinging to overtime work.
If there were passersby or some background noise, she would have knocked immediately without hesitation. But because she was all alone in this long hallway, all sorts of distracting thoughts crept in, making her hesitate repeatedly. That was the problem.
She glanced up and stared at the wooden door that showed signs of age.
It was a plausible assumption, so just in case, she pressed her ear to the door. But suspiciously enough, she couldn’t hear a thing.
A heavy sigh escaped through her parted lips.
She fixed her gaze on the floor and took a deep breath.
Just as she was steeling her resolve, the door suddenly opened in front of her. She looked up with a bewildered expression. As soon as she met the golden eyes looking down at her emotionlessly, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“Don’t you know how to knock? Why are you pacing back and forth out there like a lunatic? It’s distracting.”
“Well, I thought no one was here…”
Rosia reflexively mumbled an excuse. However, he pretended not to hear and turned around, disappearing into the lab. Rubbing her warm cheeks, she stood up and awkwardly followed him.
She had visited professors’ offices when choosing her major, but this was her first time in a research lab. Seeing how research students always walked around looking like half-corpses with their energy drained, she had inwardly imagined a messy place cluttered with all sorts of things, but it wasn’t like that at all.
“Wow…”
The first thing that caught her eye was the glass display cases lining the walls. Inside, old magic tools that clearly showed the traces of time were displayed by type, making her feel like she was in a museum or an antique shop.
Rosia approached the display case as if possessed without realizing it. Since she usually enjoyed looking around at things, she couldn’t just ignore it and pass by.
“I’m warning you in advance: don’t touch anything.”
“Ah, yes.”
The cold voice stabbing the back of her head snapped her back to reality. She immediately turned away from the display case.
After that, the only accessible place seemed to be the large desk doubling as a workbench in the center of the lab. In the meantime, the Senior was sitting at the desk, working while wearing glasses with a magnifying lens attached.
He didn’t tell her to sit, but standing there idly felt awkward. Just as she was about to take a seat opposite him, she felt a vibration in her pocket. Startled, she took it out and saw the badge she received on the first day of ‘Understanding Others’. It seemed the paired badge within range was recognized and had started recording the time.
Whether it did or not, he didn’t even spare her a glance. Rosia gauged his mood before cautiously speaking up.
“Um, Senior. About our Group Project…”
“Don’t talk to me. Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Ah, yes…”
Feeling resentful, she glanced up and glared at him. She came here for the assignment, yet she couldn’t even talk about it.
Leaving like this felt like a waste of the trip. Moreover, due to the class rule requiring group members to meet and spend time together, she couldn’t leave. So, having no choice, she decided to watch him work.
His two hands, clad in white gloves, moved busily. The Senior picked up tweezers and carefully inserted them into an old wooden box about the size of two palms put together. What he took out was none other than a crude doll.
It was hard to tell what kind of doll it was due to the thick layer of dust. The Senior must have thought the same, as he immediately took out a small brush from a cylindrical tool case and dusted it off.
Then, a faded crown decorating its head came into view. While she gauged the object’s purpose, the Senior placed the princess doll on a white cotton cloth.
Besides the doll, parts with unknown uses were arranged neatly, reminiscent of a biological anatomy chart.
Instead of taking other parts out of the box immediately, he grabbed a pencil and started drawing something on the paper next to the cloth. She couldn’t see it clearly, but it looked like a structural diagram or a disassembly chart of the magic tool.
Rosia quietly observed the Senior repeating similar tasks after that. Since she was facing the celebrity of the Faculty of Magic this closely, she was inwardly fascinated.
Even though two years had passed since he graduated from the undergraduate program, there were still plenty of notorious stories about him passed down as legends. Naturally, experiences related to his sharp tongue or rude attitude were the most common, followed by the dark side behind the praise of him being a genius.
Among them, there was a rumor that the Senior usually ignored and looked down on the Faculty of Magic students. Saying they were stupid and not on his level. Furthermore, there were whispers that although he was born with the skills and talent others desperately desired, he actually had no interest or passion for magic whatsoever.
It was a statement that drew the ire of students who studied themselves to death after working hard to get in, so it remained in her memory for a long time. Of course, she didn’t naively believe all those rumors.
But hearing it repeatedly, it seemed to have been vaguely imprinted in her mind. Seeing how she found his serious, expert-like attitude toward his work unexpected proved that.
It was an unpopular major even among the Magic Tool derivatives, and she heard that while it was welcomed by a few wealthy collectors, Mages actually avoided it because of the manual labor that tested one’s patience.
Labs wanting to take him must have been lined up. She heard that even now, professors from other majors occasionally visited to debate with him and get their own answers. The reason the professors visited personally was that the research students wouldn’t deal with them or just ignored them…
“What are you looking at?”
She was blankly watching the Senior’s repetitive work when a blunt voice suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts. He looked up and sent a sharp, warning glare.
“You said you were busy, so I was waiting…”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than stare at someone working?”
A slight hint of contempt lingered in his eyes. Being treated like a pervert out of nowhere made annoyance surge instantly.
“I only have work to do if I go to the practice room.”
In fact, since it was her graduating year, assignments kindly given by professors from the first week of the new semester and studies for the graduation exam were piling up, but her pride wouldn’t let her say that. Also, since classes just ended, she needed to rest well to have the energy to do assignments at night.
“Practice room? You, what’s your major?”
Her internal grumbling was cut short when the Senior asked with an unusual expression. Not only that, but he even took off his glasses and gloves and placed them on the side of the desk.
“Potion Making… Why?”
“Ah, potions.”
A strangely disapproving gaze swept her up and down.
“Your grades?”
His interrogation didn’t end there. As soon as she received the question, Rosia straightened her back and lifted her chin. Because she was in the upper ranks, which she was quite proud of!
“A-minus.”
“Minus?”
The Senior raised one eyebrow and scoffed. An ‘A’ prefix meant she did damn well! Although she couldn’t dream of a plus because of some monsters who seemed ready to bury their bones in potion making, getting an A was still something.
“Just how bad do you have to be to get a minus attached?”
“Excuse me? What’s wrong with a minus? I’m still in the top ranks, you know.”
“You’re in the top ranks? The level of Potion Making in our faculty has really dropped.”
Unable to hold back, Rosia raised her eyes and glared at him. However, only a sneer calling her ridiculous returned, making her feel even worse.
“Well, it’s actually good that your grades are in that shape. I was worried about what I would do to kill time with a kid like you for a year.”
