Chapter 11 – The Melancholy of Alsfira Medis 1 –
Hi, I’m Fii. My real name is Alsfira Medis. I’m the eldest daughter of the Medis family, the most powerful and historic of the three great noble families. I am the most promising member of that Medis family. It’s no surprise that I’m the next head of the family, as I’ve been called the greatest genius ever in the history of alchemy. I was the youngest person ever to graduate from the Canovarian Alchemy Academy. And upon graduation, I also earned the Platinum class. After that, I worked as a teacher at the academy and quickly became the headmaster of the school.
It was a smooth sailing life. I don’t remember any particular hardship. I’ve worked hard in my own way. But I never felt like it was hard enough to die for, or that I was sick of it.
But that all changed when I met Elle. Yeah, it changed a lot.
Elweed Willis. A true genius who became the second Blue Stellar Class in the history of alchemy. It’s already been a long time since he was regarded as the greatest genius alchemist of all time. I have known him since the time he was a nobody. Or rather, he is my student.
As the headmaster, I have the job of managing the institute. I may teach a few classes, but I don’t have seminars like I used to. But when I saw Elle’s entrance exam scores, I knew I had no choice but to take charge of him.
「Ha ……? A perfect score?」
「Ye-yes, Medis-sensei. A perfect score. He got a perfect score on both paper and practical exams.」
The male teacher, who was the examiner, told me so. I thought he was joking at that time.
「Here are the exam results.」
With that said, I received the paper that summarized the exam results.
Basic Alchemy Theory: 100
Alchemy Attribute Theory: 100
Practical Alchemy: 100
It really is a perfect score. Eh? Really? Even I was able to score only 80% on the exam at that time.
「Hmm? Wait a minute……? What’s the passing score of the exam for this year?」
「It’s quite difficult this year, so the passing score is at 60.5%. The average score is below 50 percent.」
「Hmm…. a perfect score on that difficult exam?」
「Yes, a perfect score. He’s a genius, but there’s a problem…」
「Is it his behaviour or personality? It’s common for geniuses. Well, those aren’t that big of a deal, you know?」
「He’s from a farming family. 」
「…..E~ehhh? I can understand that he’s not from nobility……but from a farming family? There’s never been an alchemist from a farming family before, is there?」
「Yes there’s no one. Just him and his sister.」
「How’s about the sister?」
「The sister is normal. She scored in 60%-70%. She’s on the lower end of the passing class.」
「The sister is no problem, the question is….」
When I looked at the documents, I saw the name Elweed Willis. His background is normal. A pretty standard background. But it’s crazy to get a perfect score. Did he cheat?
「Any signs of cheating?」
「There isn’t one. And even if there was cheating, it wouldn’t be possible to do it on the spot.」
「I see, …… I understand. I’ll be the one to interview him. I’ll take care of it.」
「Yes. Thank you very much.」
Then the male teacher who came to tell me about the emergency left.
I pondered, “Should I allow this boy, Elweed Willis, to enroll in the school?” The score is too unusual. Even a total of 90% is just barely credible. But all perfect is nuts. Seriously, it’s nuts. I’m not sure if even I can get a perfect score on this exam either. It’s 90.5% at best. Even as I am now…
This academy has a formal interview before you can get in after getting a passing score on both the paper and the practical skills. Then, the student is assigned to a seminar based on his or her personality. Of course, I’ll listen to what they want, but I’ll make the final decision.
And that’s how I met Elle.
「Then, Elweed Willis-san. Please enter the room.」
「…..Excuse me.」
He bows his head and takes a seat at the desk in front of me. Yeah, he’s not an unusual person, it seems. Some of them can’t sit in a chair properly, but so far, he’s fine.
But by the way, he’s……cool. Oddly enough, he’s my type. His hair is lightly pigmented in platinum color. It’s about shoulder length and is smooth and silky. He also has quite a body; tall and fleshy. His sharp eyes don’t strike as too intimidating. For a fourteen years old, he’s quite mature-looking.
「Now, please tell me why do you want to enroll in this academy.」
This is just a formality. For the most part, as alchemists, we don’t expect anything, the search for truth ~ or the mission of the house ~ or anything else, either.
「I applied to enroll in this academy because I wanted to accomplish “The World’s Best Farmer Project”」
「“Wo-world’s Best Farmer Project?”」
「Yes. In short, I want to spread the word about my crops to the world.」
「Ummm……and what does that have to do with alchemy?」
「Alchemy makes it easier to breed crops. That’s what I’m here for. My parents told me I can’t do it, but I think I did rather well on the test. And the fact that I am in this interview means that I exceeded the passing score on the exam paper and practical skills, right?」
「E~e……so, that’s relatively well done?」(Fii)
「Yes, it’s relatively good.」 (Elle)
「I-I’m not supposed to say this, but would you like to know your score?」(Fii)
The truth is, I don’t disclose scores to students. But I wanted to check something.
「If you can tell me, please do so. I think feedback is important.」
「….you got a perfect score…」
「A perfect score, does that mean I got a perfect score for all three: Basic Alchemy Theory, Alchemy Attributes Theory, and Practical Alchemy Technique?」
「Yeah. Based on exam results.」
「I see…..I wasn’t sure that I got a perfect score.」
「What part of that made you unsure?」
「It’s about the Basic Alchemy formation and magic power. All the questions were written, so I thought I wrote too much, but I’m glad.」
「Ye-yeah……Unn……」
The problem he’s talking about was the part I made up. The relationship between alchemy and magic, which I had been studying since I was in school, was my major and my specialty. His descriptions were, to put it into words, was exactly what I was looking for. I was surprised that he described it in more depth than I did.
But then again, is it really all for crops? Really? There’s must be something behind this…..
「So, you came to this academy to breed crops?」
「My knowledge in alchemy is self-taught, and I was advised to learn from someone with expertise in this field. …… My parents said I should try taking the exam, and I’m relieved to have made it to this interview.」
「Your parents are farmers, right?」
「Yes, they are.」
「Can they use alchemy?」
「No, just me and my sister are the only ones in our family who can use alchemy.」
「I see.」
I don’t get it. How can all the children be able to use alchemy when they came from a farming family? Sometimes they are born out of the blue, but essentially alchemical abilities are inherited. That’s why the nobles want to be married to a better alchemist. Well, I can’t get married because I’m too good at it, right? Well, I’m not too strong… And this is not the time to be thinking about it! The question now is whether or not to admit this kid.
「Well, I can admit you to the academy. But you don’t have any kind of weird purpose, do you?」
「Of course. My body has been and will always be with the crops.」
「I-I see, yeah. Do your best from now on.」
「Yes!!」
「Mmm. Those pure eyes are a sign of your commitment to your goals. Well, it’ll be okay. If something goes wrong, I’ll take care of it. Surely he can’t be better than me?」
But thinking about it, he’ll be enrolled at the age of 14…. He’ll be the youngest ever…… This is going to be rough on the nobility, and the mystics and the theorists won’t be silent. Something might happen. Oh…..please don’t let anything happen……
And this will spectacularly betray me.
—–§§§—–
「Ha~a…」
Two years have passed since then. Just two years. A lot has happened. A lot has re~ally happened. Elle became known as soon as he entered the academy, and six months later, he became a platinum alchemist. And another six months later, or in other words, a year after he entered the school, he became a Blue Stellar Alchemist. 「Hey, Fii. Take a look at this paper. It’s relatively well done. 」, he said.
This doesn’t make sense anymore. It turns out that the result is a fully independent artificial intelligence that can create homunculus. But he’s the only one in the world who understands it.
I delivered it to Alchemy Society. But no matter how many platinum alchemists gathered there, they couldn’t understand. But he created a ‘crawling carrot’ that has a will, a simple communication skills, and works on its own. According to Elle, “There’s a trick to accessing Qualia and incorporating the alchemy formation. The intelligence itself seems to be a copy of mine that is split up into tiny bits”. I don’t know what that means. Like Qualia, copying the intelligence, or why and how the carrot is crawling. But this is undoubtedly a homunculus. It may seem silly at first glance, but it’s a homunculus. We decided to keep it under wraps that a homunculus was feasible, and decided to make Elle a Blue Stellar Class alchemist, and announced it to the world. The youngest and second Blue Stellar Class alchemist in history – Elweed Willis.
In truth, he could have graduated in a year, but since the conference for his thesis stretched to the middle of April, Elle would be in school for another year. But he’s taking it as a special student, so there’s no entrance and tuition fee. 「Can you stay for another year?」 I asked him. 「Hmm? Well, I’d like to do more research. One more year is just about right」, he said. Even I took five years to be experienced. In just two years… but I’ve already gotten used to him…
Elle’s love of crops has changed the history of alchemy. When I told him that he should be aware how great his Blue Stellar Class status is. 「Hmm. Well, I don’t care about class or anything else. As long as I can grow crops, that’s fine.」That’s all he would say.
But on the other hand, maybe this was the right thing to do. It’s just a lucky thing that this much talent isn’t being misused.
Yeah, let’s think that way. Yes…..a~ah, but I’m glad that Elle’s career path has been decided…
Tomorrow is the entrance ceremony. It’s also Elle’s debut as a teacher. After that, Elle and I are going to have a drink together. I’ll be free tomorrow… If I can just it finish tomorrow!
But, however, my struggles continued……O~ho~ho.