Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins

The entrance of the Oslo family is exceedingly ordinary. Unlike a grand mansion where one must pass through several doors, here, you simply insert the key into the keyhole and turn it to open the door immediately.

Family members just need to use a key to open the entrance, and even for visitors, if they have an appointment for a certain date and time, they only need to lightly knock on the front door.

In other words…

Bang, bang, bang―

There was only one type of person who would knock on the door so roughly.

An uninvited guest.

Clink.

Susan put down the sloshing teacup.

“…..”

Her brow furrowed.

This was Susan, who would smile and gently admonish even when the mischievous twins were causing chaos in the house. Hardening her expression was Susan’s maximum method of expressing negative sentiment. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Although unpleasant, one cannot ignore a guest.

Finally, Susan slightly opened the front door and spoke.

“What is your business?”

“Good morning, Mrs. Oslo.”

A well-groomed gentleman removed his hat and paid his respects.

Outwardly, he was a well-dressed gentleman. He probably was a truly refined gentleman in reality. Such an appearance and mannerisms are not created overnight.

However, Susan was no longer deceived by this.

His gaze.

The man’s gaze was scanning the interior of the house beyond Susan.

He opened his mouth.

“It’s an honor to visit the home of such renowned geniuses. Ah, excuse me. I’m late with my introduction. I am…”

“I’m sorry, but could you state your business first?”

“Hmm. It seems the conversation will be lengthy. If I may, Mrs. Oslo, would you allow me to come inside?”

“No.”

At the firm refusal, the gentleman’s expression crumpled. Though he quickly restored his features to those of a gentle gentleman, it was already too late.

Susan spoke without hiding her displeasure.

“Would you please state your business.”

“…I understand. Perhaps you wouldn’t consider enrolling your daughter, Miss Ellie Oslo, in our school?”

“Enrollment?”

“Yes. I would very much like to have Ellie at the school newly established in Oslovya two years ago. Ellie is a talent that the field of biology cannot afford to lose. Our school prides itself on being able to nurture your daughter into the next Dr. Darwin! *1“

Facing the gentleman who was speaking passionately, Susan swallowed.

Here we go again.

This wasn’t the first time. Such people had been pestering them since Louise was about Lena’s age.

She was also well-versed in dealing with this. Susan thought. I need to chase him away quickly before the twins wake up from their nap.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot send my young daughter all the way to Oslovya. Thank you for the offer, but I must decline.”

“Ellie is a genius. Even notable naturalists are amazed by her memory! Please don’t choose a path that wastes her talent.”

“Genius…”

It was a convenient word.

Did this gentleman know? If you strip away all the modifiers like ‘child of genius collector Benjamin Oslo’ and ‘young genius with unbelievable memory,’ he was simply advising sending a ten-year-old child to a distant land.

Although she expressed her refusal several more times, the gentleman did not back down.

Usually, people would leave after being told no a couple of times, but this one was particularly persistent.

It seemed that speaking calmly wouldn’t resolve the situation; Susan was about to dismiss him more firmly when…

“…Yawn. Vis, itor?”

A child with bright blonde hair rubbed her eyes and hugged Susan from behind.

The sight was undeniably adorable, but the timing wasn’t right.

The gentleman’s eyes flashed.

He seemed to have judged that trying to persuade Susan further would be meaningless. In an instant, he crouched down, held out his hand to the child, and said:

“Are you Ellie? It’s an honor to meet a young genius. Come, let’s shake hands.”

“…?”

“Why, why are you like that?”

Meanwhile, the man was perplexed. He had been told that Ellie Oslo was certainly an outgoing young child.

The child before him seemed far from ‘outgoing’ no matter how you looked at it.

Far from shaking hands, the child hid behind her mother’s back and peeked out, which seemed strange somehow.

When the man tried to show a friendly smile, the child finally blinked her clear emerald eyes and said:

“I’m not Ellie, I’m Sally.”

“Sally?”

“Ellie is my sister.”

Simultaneously, a word flashed through the man’s mind. Twins.

Mistaking someone’s identity is rude, even if the subject is a young child, so normally, an apology would have immediately sprung from the man’s lips.

But not now. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Where was this place? This was the home of the family of none other than the genius collector Benjamin Oslo.

A house full of geniuses in various fields, like Louise Ehrlich, the youngest professor at the Frauzen Federal University of Magic, or Dorothy Oslo, a young officer.

Even Ellie Oslo, who was just over ten years old, was known to everyone as proof of this family’s exceptional nature.

But Sally Oslo.

The man had never heard that name before.

Doesn’t that mean she’s an undiscovered gem of a talent?!

He had already been desperately trying to recruit talent for the development of the school. He immediately began to focus on assessing the talent before him.

“Sally, I see. Are you also a genius like Ellie?”

“…Pardon?”

Sally tilted her head, which was peeking out.

The man realized his question was inappropriate. He quickly rephrased using vocabulary suitable for a young child.

“No, I’m sorry. What are you interested in, Sally? Is it biology like your twin sister, or magic studies like your eldest sister? What field do you like?”

“…I.”

This time, the question seemed appropriate.

Having relaxed somewhat, Sally rubbed her eyes but answered clearly.

“I like reading books.”

“What kind of books? Law books, perhaps?”

“Um… poetry collections… or novels?”

The bright blonde child answered thus.

It was an answer not much different from others her age.

Coming from a family that produced such unique talents, he had expected an answer like law books or university textbooks.

The man repeated with a slightly puzzled expression.

“Is that all?”

Right after, Susan forcefully pushed him out, saying there was nothing he couldn’t say to a child, so the man had to leave the front door immediately.

An unexpected commotion had broken out in broad daylight. As even passersby’s gazes began to gather, he couldn’t even beg.

And.

Sally clearly saw, even in her sleepy state.

The moment she said she liked poetry and novels, a distinct disappointment settled in the eyes of that nameless mister.

#February 2nd. Slightly cloudy.

Weekend. When the clock’s hour hand had passed noon, but the sun was still wandering the sky, making it too early to call it evening.

So, it’s around two or three in the afternoon.

This happened to be Sally’s favorite time of day.

Rustle. Rustle.

Pages turn in the cozy silence. The crackling embers and flickering flames from the fireplace, along with the sound of turning pages, created an exquisite trio.

In her hands was the novel she had received from Eugene at the New Year’s party.

It was so interesting that even though she was turning the pages for the seventh time after already finishing it six times, a faint smile still lingered on Sally’s lips.

The pastoral sounds of preparing ingredients could be heard from the kitchen, and her noisy twin sister was deep in her afternoon nap.

Her older siblings, with almost a ten-year age gap between them, were naturally busy with their own affairs.

This time belonged entirely to Sally.

Yes, it was, so to speak, a paradise for reading.

Her smile deepened. As she happened to have the spacious sofa all to herself, she even hummed and wiggled her ankles this way and that.

As she turned another page…

“…Uh.”

Sally narrowed her eyes.

There was a jarring word. Not a scene or a sentence, but a word.

[ Welcome! I am the king of the fantasy kingdom of Oz and a great genius wizard… ]

Her green eyes refused to move past the printed word ‘genius.’ This was despite having read the book six times already.

She closed the book, half dazed.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened.

It was the same when reading poetry, novels, essays, plays, and even the difficult, thick books she had secretly stolen from Louise’s room. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

‘Genius.’ The moment that word appeared, her vision narrowed, and she lost the will to read further. Her chest also felt tight.

This unidentified symptom had started about a week ago, right after her conversation with that strange gentleman.

If she were an ordinary child, she might have shuddered briefly at the inexplicable discomfort before looking for a new interest, but Sally was different.

“…Unconscious inferiority complex? Or just an awkward word recognition phenomenon?”

For Sally, whose vocabulary was exceptional, this symptom wasn’t just some inexplicable discomfort.

“…Hmm. I don’t know. I’ll ask.”

For Sally, who loved reading to no end, options like ‘not reading books’ simply didn’t exist.

She had to solve this somehow.

Although Sally loved to sleep and enjoyed moving sluggishly, right now, when she might lose her beloved reading, she was full of determination.

With that resolve, she took a step.

Problems related to geniuses should be asked to geniuses.

Coincidentally, there were many geniuses around Sally.

First, number one.

She climbed the stairs with a firm resolve. She thought about how to wake her sleeping other half.

That first attempt ended in magnificent failure.

“?!?!”

Thud.

Ellie, who had suddenly fallen out of bed, looked at Sally with spinning eyes.

Sally wasn’t the type of person to wait quietly until her sister regained consciousness. She immediately asked her question.

“…Ellie.”

“Huh? What?”

“Are you a genius, sis?”

The gap between vocabulary and eloquence that years of reading activity couldn’t fill inevitably showed its power.

Meanwhile, Ellie had just surfaced from dreamland to reality as if she had washed her face with ice water in winter. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Therefore, instead of speaking, Ellie opened her mouth, and instead of answering, she let the words flow out.

“You’re saying I’m a genius?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Why?”

“Some mister said so. Then, what’s different between you and me?”

“We’re not different! We’re twins!”

“…”

“Besides, why did you wake me up when I was sleeping?! I’m sleepy!”

Sally gave up on the conversation instead of trying to bring her sister back to her senses.

In fact, even if she were in her right mind, it wouldn’t have been much different. Ellie Oslo was a strange person who could remember the scientific name of an unknown insect while forgetting obvious propositions like ‘snowmen melt.’

No, is it because of such strangeness that she’s called a genius?

If so, maybe it’s fortunate that she herself isn’t a genius…

Having advanced her thoughts that far, Sally shook her head.

It was too early to jump to conclusions.

Leaving the still-bewildered Ellie behind, she headed to the next room. It was an adventure to where the second genius resided.

T/N

Dr. Darwin is what I assume to be a reference to Charles Darwin, the famous evolutionary biologist.