Chapter 53

When Shirone turned the cover, there was an article written along with an illustration of a female student he believed to be from the Advanced class.

The magazine mainly consisted of trivial stories and incidents, but that was the off-putting part. Someone had put in the work to find all of these things out.

“Wow.”

The most shocking thing was the illustrator’s drawing skills. It was as if the drawings were real.

‘Is this really done by one person?’

Every time Shirone turned a page, he awed in amazement.

‘Why make gossip magazines? With their skill, they could have been a renowned painter.’

Then he saw a familiar figure that made him stop turning the page.

“Huh?”

It was Amy Karmis.

Of course, she wasn’t drawn any worse than the others, but what caught Shirone’s eye was her daily routine.

The things she did during break and who she ate with, everything was written in detail.

Shirone couldn’t find his name.

“They really have nothing to do.”

Shirone felt strange hearing about her daily life in detail through someone else’s writing.

Nade read his mind.

“What are you so angry about? She ate with her classmates. She can choose to eat with other male students from the Advanced Class, no?”

Yiruki cackled.

“Can’t you tell just from Shiro’s personality? I don’t think they’re even dating. Hey, be honest with me. You guys haven’t even held hands yet, right?”

Shirone threw the book he was holding.

“Hmph, mind your own business. Anyways, stop looking into stuff like this. Let’s please do something productive. We’re still a research group. How can we be like this all day?”

Realizing that studying with them was out of the picture, Shirone decided to find something he could do with his friends.

“If so, why don’t we check out Nade’s invention? The list of patents of Nade the Wiz.”

Nade leaped to his feet.

“Right! There was that. Alright, Shirone. You will be really surprised, so look forward to it.”

Nade crawled back under the table. Shirone bent down, curious to see what was inside the garbage dump, and was surprised to see a safe concealed among the trash.

“Tada!”

Nade took something out, but nothing was visible to Shirone.

“What?”

Then, when Nade waved his arm, Shirone felt like the area around his hand was wavering based on a certain boundary.

“No way!”

“Haha! Yeah! It’s an invisibility cloak!”

An object that refracted light with electrical power and created an illusion that made it seem as if light passed through it.

“You really made it? This?”

Electric magic was often just used for or associated with lighting or electric attacks, but in reality, that field of magic was divided into many more branches and series.

One of them was the illusion branch that dealt with virtual vision. Nade created a magic weapon that had the same effect as the Invisibility magic that caused the transparency effect.

Though it wasn’t his original invention, being able to produce the invisible cloak required the ability of an incumbent professional.

“My dream is to become a magic engineer. Of course, compared to those expensive invisibility cloaks out in the market, this is nothing. The material is low quality, and not to mention the charging ability is insufficient. It only lasts an hour. But still, not bad, right?”

Nade put on the cloak. His figure disappeared

The quality of the invisibility cloak depended on the refractive index of light, and if it fell below 95%, it could not be considered invisible anymore. So even a 1% difference was the criterion for determining its technological prowess.

Currently, Nade’s item was not 99%, which was the industry’s best, but it had a high enough refractive index of light to be called transparent.

When Nade moved, a blurred boundary could be detected.

However, when he was standing still, the boundary was almost nonexistent

Shirone suddenly thought of something.

“You know, if you dumped that effort into studying, I’m sure you’d get much better grades.”

“Haha! Probably, but I’m happier when I make magic tools. Hold on, I have more stuff.”

Nade pulled something out from the safe again.

A miniature electric-powered carriage and holographic vision that made 2-D drawings into 3-D were also completed.

There were also flashbangs and smoke bombs that were Yiruki’s idea, but they were not unique enough to be on Nade’s patent list.

“And if you press this button…”

Shirone carefully observed Nade who blabbered on and on about his works. It was his first time seeing him so enthusiastic.

‘He’s not wasting his talent.’

It was true that they were problematic kids, but Nade and Yiruki had expertise ahead of any of their peers.

“The rotational speed per second for this carriage’s power plant is… Huh?”

Nade, who was so engrossed in explaining, felt the room suddenly shake and looked up at the ceiling.

The vibrations became worse, and when the horses stationed on top of the chessboard fell down, Yiruki went out to the hallway after having a realization.

“Damn it! Teacher! Teacher incoming! Get those things! Clean it up!”

“What? What’s happening?”

There wasn't any time to explain.

Nade hid the picture book as if he had done this a thousand times and just rammed the smoke bombs and the uncertified funds for the research group into the safe.

Finally, after all the items that violated the academy rules were ‘disposed’ of, Nade snatched Shirone and sat him on the sofa.

“Sit here! We’re in for questioning!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Estas’ engine system began to operate.

A red warning light flashed in the hallway. It announced that the research group would soon be summoned to the first floor.

“Teacher’s coming? Then why are we sitting down like this? Aren’t you going to greet them?”

Nade sat Shirone back down.

“Never mind that! Just act as if nothing happened. Everything’s normal. We weren’t doing anything, okay? If we get caught with things like the picture book or the smoke bomb, things won’t end with a simple probation.”

“Huh? O-Okay.”

Hearing the word “probation,” Shirone’s heart sank, but before he knew it, he calmed down.

Nade was tongue-tied at the insane switch speed, but at least one of his worries went away.

‘Shirone won’t make a mistake… I hope. The only thing left is to see which of the instructors will come in…’

After a final inspection of the room, Nade took a deep breath and sat on the sofa, crossing his legs.

‘Hah! Come at us.’

The eyes of the trio hardened.

“ …So annoying.”

Siena massaged her head which was wracked with a painful headache.

It took 3 minutes to move Estas’ warehouse to the first floor. It was more than enough time to not only clean up the area and hide any against-the-rule items, but also to make a run for it.

In the past, some instructors tried to infiltrate the laboratory without operating the engine system. However, all they did was lose their way and wander around for over an hour without being able to catch a glimpse of the laboratory. On the other hand, the members freely went in and out of the laboratory. It was natural for the instructors to get angry.

‘These shrewd weasels.’

She could somewhat make a guess of how they did it.

‘There must be an equation.’

Estas was built as a magic warehouse, but the manufacturing company along with the design layout were not disclosed.

She just found it absurd that a student 20 years ago had solved it and used it as a cover-up technique for the research group.

Siena folded her arms across her chest and tapped her feet against the ground until Estas’ form was completed.

‘The more I think about it, the more it annoys me. Why the heck is there a research group in this place? What am I supposed to do with these kids?’

That was why the Shadow Research Group was a problem.

If they were a simple delinquent circle like the Black Magician, they would have been easily controlled by the instructors, but the intellectual power of those hidden in the shadows were already outside of the academy’s palm.

PR/N: Victims of Black Magician would beg to differ.

And now, just by looking at the members of the Supernatural Psychic Science Research Group, Black Magician would be seen as a joke.

‘This is a ticking bomb. Considering their talents, if they decide to do something together, it’d definitely be huge. The problem is if an accident occurs… It could lead to the biggest accident in this academy’s history.’

The research group had very unique members.

Nade was average during class time, but he showed off his agility and nimbleness like no other while focusing on research-group related projects.

Yiruki. A troublemaker of Class 5. He was born with the Savant Syndrome.

Now, the star student of the academy, Shirone, had squeezed his way in between those two.

No matter how hard she tried to imagine them together, she couldn’t. So how were they able to get along so well together?

‘Was one talent attracting another? Well, I guess if it’s Nade and Yiruki, they could happily get along. But…’

The problem was that Shirone was in a dangerous state.

She had to prevent him, who awakened the Immortal Function, from falling into Overflow.

Ethella said he could overcome it himself, but there was always that one-in-a-million chance of something going wrong. It was better to be safe than sorry.

And if that one-in-a-million chance became a reality, then Shirone’s life would forever be changed.

While deep in thought, Estas stopped.

Without waiting a second more, Siena entered the warehouse and glared at the sign written ‘Supernatural Psychic Science Research Group.’ Then she slammed open the door.

“Cough! Cough!”

Through the crazy amount of dust, she saw three hazy figures. Shirone and his friends were sitting down.

As expected, they were smiling without showing any sign of surprise.

Of course, to Siena, this was a familiar sight.

The only difference was that all the little devils that she had conflicts with graduated, and a new member was there.

‘How come kids change into this whenever they join this research group? Seems even Shirone is not immune…’

Normally, Shirone would have greeted her with a smile, but right now he had the perfect poker face. She understood a little, but to say she wasn’t disappointed in the slightest would be a lie.

Next to Nade, who had an overconfident expression and sat with crossed legs, was Yiruki, who had his back flat against the chair like a delinquent.

“Hmph.”

Siena approached them with a snort. The atmosphere was enough to make any normal instructor walk right out the door exactly how they entered.

“Not even gonna greet your instructor?”

Nade gave a sniff.

“Guess we were too engrossed in our discussion and missed you there. Welcome.”

Nade’s relaxed appearance as the president was a complete shift from his usual quiet attitude in class.

The student’s research group, which was an autonomous organization, was very wary of instructor interference. Thanks to that wariness, however, they were able to rise to their current position as an axle of the magic academy community.

‘Hmph. Yeah? All right. You’re trying to say you guys are a research group, aren’t you? Fine, be that way. But today will mark the last page of your research group.’

Approval had already been given by the Instructor’s Committee.

Nade questioned.

“Anyways, what’s the big issue of the day? I’ve been keeping a low profile these days.”

“An official notice regarding your research group has been given. I came to tell you directly. Isn’t that what instructors should do?”

“Then please sit.”

Nade wiped the seat. His attitude showed no hint of a guilty conscience.

“Thank you. While you’re at it, why not provide a cup of tea?”

“You know, I would love to, but I don’t think you’d trust the tea we’d give you.”

Siena laughed.

She guessed that there was no cold water, let alone tea, in such a shabby warehouse.

Perhaps she didn’t hate these kids as much as the previous ones because they had such a witty way of talking.

“Alright. You successfully made me slightly nervous. I’ll get straight to the point. The Instructor’s Committee has decided. I would like for you guys to vacate this laboratory within a month.”

“WHAT?!”

All three pairs of eyes popped open.