Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping.

The familiar ceiling of the storage room. The slightly warmer morning sunlight. Unresolved fatigue from staying up late writing that silly thesis last night.

After observing all of that, instead of throwing off the blanket and getting up, I closed my eyes again.

“……”

I try to recall the old days.

The days when I lived hand to mouth, begging for a living.

Back then, I felt three unbearable frustrations. Hunger, illiteracy, and time that simply refused to pass.

Sitting with an empty can in front of me, shouting “Spare a penny—” until my voice gave out, I would often feel as if time had stopped.

It’s because nothing ever changed. 

The sun seemed fixed in the sky, unmoving, and the number of coins in the can never increased.

I wasted five years like that.

When I first opened a major textbook at the start of my freshman winter semester, I was worried for a moment. What if the same thing happened again?

What if I lost interest in magic studies and felt frustrated with all of this?

It wasn’t like that.

Magic studies is like a vast and deep ocean. While I’ve had to wrap my head around it once or twice as I drifted into that sea, there was always the joy of avoiding reefs or discovering new continents.

In short, the path of magic studies was not unchanging.

Time passed incredibly quickly.

I opened my eyes.

I wasn’t leisurely enough to reminisce about the past.

After getting up from bed, I roughly tidied my bird’s nest hair.

The birds are chirping. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Now, I know that it’s the sound of nightingales singing.

February 26th.

The morning of the Frauzen Federal University of Magic’s degree conferment ceremony has dawned.

#February 26th. Clear.

“I’m heading out.”

“Have a good day.”

I left the entrance, seeing off Susan.

Trees with new buds but still bare, and the knife-like wind typical of Frauzen’s winter greeted me.

“…Ugh, it’s cold.”

My body shivered.

The late winter cold pierced through my coat, but I couldn’t stop walking just because of that.

Tightening my black scarf further, I took familiar steps.

Three years had passed since the day of the entrance ceremony.

Compared to back then, when I was utterly clumsy, I had now achieved remarkable growth.

As if to ask where the directionally challenged Eugene who occasionally got lost on the way to magic university had gone, my feet now naturally headed towards the right path, and I could now wear the once awkward suit without feeling out of place.

Of course…

…it’s not like there were no areas where I remained stagnant.

Well, these minor issues will be resolved gradually.

While I was lost in these trivial thoughts, the campus of the University of Magic suddenly spread out before me.

The grass field, bleached white due to winter, and the towering Gate of Knowledge. The university buildings lined up behind it.

It was a scene that now even evoked a sense of familiarity.

There was no time to indulge in sentiment for long. I hurriedly turned my steps towards the main field where the degree conferment ceremony was to be held.

As I was almost at the field, I spotted a familiar back.

I called out. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

“Hey, Werner!”

Then, a man wearing a black coat turned to look at me.

Werner Ross Diemann grinned.

“Eugene, eh? You’re late.”

“I’m right on time.”

“Hmm. Sometimes I think you have quite a shameless side. Don’t you agree?”

“Look who’s talking… Oh, the VIPs are all here already.”

I was about to retort about him being second to none in shamelessness, but looking at the situation, I roughly understood.

We are in the main field where preparations for the degree conferment ceremony are in full swing.

While it’s fine for students receiving degrees to arrive on time, in the case of VIPs who need to arrive early before the ceremony, they have already filled the platform.

I was also one of those who ‘needed to arrive early.’

Werner patted my back hard and said.

“Go on then, valedictorian.”

The degree conferment ceremony, that is, the graduation ceremony, wasn’t much different from the entrance ceremony.

…Meaning, it was boring.

“—I am proud of you all. Each and every one of you is a proud disciple of Jean-Pierre Auchlimé, the father of magic studies. I have no doubt that you will all become the pillars leading the future development of the Federation—”

The chancellor, with his genial impression, might be an excellent leader, but he was no orator.

None of the 700 or so graduates paid much attention to the speech that went on for a full 30 minutes, and some were even nodding off.

To begin with, conferring degrees is a tedious event where each student’s name is called out one by one.

There’s no way students whose heads are full of thoughts about the graduation celebration party could concentrate on degrees or anything else.

Perhaps that’s why.

“Next, we will proceed with conferring degrees to outstanding graduates.”

When the announcer said this, there was even a slight exclamation. Finally, the damn speech was over.

However, when the announcer continued to speak, silence fell over the audience.

“Valedictorian, Eugene Oslo. Please come up to the platform.”

Thump. Thump.

As I walked up the stairs to the platform, I thought.

This feels familiar.

This sensation of silence deepening with each step I climb…

It was an exact replay of the entrance ceremony.

Perhaps because the gazes of 700 people were fixed on me, my temples throbbed unnecessarily, but I stood on the platform with a detached smile.

The chancellor, whose hair had turned whiter in the three years that had passed, gestured to me.

This is something I’ve done before.

With a familiar gesture, I bowed my head in greeting, then shook hands with the chancellor.

The chancellor chuckled and opened his mouth.

“Student Eugene. Congratulations on your graduation. To think the valedictorian is an early graduate, you truly are exceptional.”

“Thank you.”

“Have you decided on your future path?”

At that question, someone’s words flashed through my mind.

“Yes. I’m thinking of continuing to study theoretical magic.”

“Hmm, I hear theoretical magic is being actively researched at schools in Berleu as well. Have you decided which research institute you’ll go to?”

A leisurely tone.

If it were me at the entrance ceremony, I would have just smiled and answered vaguely, but now I know.

The genial old man before me is the current chancellor of the Federal University of Magic.

The figure who has been in the chancellor position for five years after forcing the retirement of the previous authoritarian chancellor. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

If I had to say, he’s a figure at the head of the pro-Benjamin faction.

Information about my future plans would have already reached his ears.

I grinned and answered.

“How can you say that, Chancellor?”

“…Hoho! You’re quite different from the gray-haired student I remember from the entrance ceremony.”

The chancellor also responded with a laugh while his eyes gleamed as he continued in a whisper.

“The best scholars go to the best schools. Welcome to the Auchlimé Research Institute at the Federal University of Magic.”

“Thank you.”

“Also, the reinstatement of Professor Benjamin Oslo is progressing smoothly. So don’t worry and wait.”

“……!”

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

Being on the conferment ceremony platform, I had to try hard to hide my surprised expression.

Regardless, the chancellor just smiled gently.

“I’ve dragged this on too long. Come, get ready for the photo.”

“Ah, yes.”

Only then did I realize that the photographers and reporters were looking this way with awkward expressions.

I held up my degree certificate as naturally as possible while facing the front of the platform.

700 graduates were in front of me.

On the day of the entrance ceremony three years ago… 

Back then, I received fierce gazes from 700 people from exactly this spot.

But now, three years later, there’s hardly anyone at the Federal University of Magic who doesn’t know my gray hair.

When I received the contact to come up to the platform as an outstanding graduate at the degree conferment ceremony, I was secretly curious.

I wondered how those fierce gazes might have changed.

And now.

I found it difficult to discern their gazes.

Because all 700 were applauding.

“Okay, smile for the camera—!”

Amidst the countless hands clapping, I smiled in time with the photographer’s cue.

Three years after enrollment… About seven years since being taken in by Benjamin…

Finally, I had grasped the degree of magic studies (diploma) in my hands.

================================

#March 2nd. Clear.

About a week after the degree conferment ceremony…

I visited the university again.

Perhaps because the winter semester had ended, the campus was invariably empty, but there were exceptions.

The research building.

A place where undergraduates rarely visit and where there are even weird rumors that the magic lights never go out, day or night.

“Is this it?”

Here, at least, I could sense the presence of people. Quite a lot of them.

I stepped inside the building marked ‘3’ among the four towering buildings.

“……”

The atmosphere was different.

Usually, places where undergraduates stay are filled with vitality.

There are club promotion messages written on bulletin boards located here and there, or at least you can hear the sound of people chatting happily.

But the research building was different.

All doors were tightly closed.

The voices coming from beyond the doors were somehow stern, and unfamiliar equipment whose purpose was hard to guess was placed here and there in the corridors and on the stairs.

Just standing still was enough to make cold sweat flow.

This intensified with each flight of stairs I climbed.

By the time I reached the top floor of Research Building 3, my heart was pounding so loud that I worried others might hear it. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

But a smile deeper than usual was etched on my lips.

Finally.

Finally, I can do my research.

Every time I recalled this fact, an indescribable thrill washed over me.

It could also be the aftermath of excessive tension, but at least for this moment, it would be helpful.

I, covering my tension with excitement, stood in front of a tightly closed door.

[ Research Room 3 – 402 ]

This must be it. I hope I haven’t come to the wrong place.

After obsessively repeating such thoughts and checking the brass nameplate several times, I finally knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

In the suffocating silence, the sound of three knocks echoed.

There was no response.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, I counted the seconds in my mind. One, two, three……

When fifteen seconds had passed, and the corners of my mouth started to twitch…

Click—!

The door opened.