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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Divide.
Why hadn’t I thought of this approach from the beginning?
– Write a two-dimensional single formula combining the cores of the fire and ice systems.
I had been too fixated on drawing it in two dimensions until now.
Three dimensions are essentially nothing more than layers of two-dimensional images stacked on top of each other.
If you could build 3D by stacking 2D, the reverse should also be possible.
Express 3D by cutting it into a series of 2D representations.
It was a problem that could have been solved earlier if I had approached it mathematically.
“Thank you, Trie! Thank you so much!”
“Huh? I’m all sweaty!”
Without realizing it, I had tightly hugged Trie.
Trie, who always felt like a mountain, felt strangely light today.
I lifted her up and spun her around…
“I’m dying of embarrassment, Teacher…”
“…”
Only then did I notice the stares around us.
I put Trie, who was covering her face with both hands, back down and turned away, clearing my throat.
I felt like I could die of embarrassment too…
“W-what’s going on, Schlus?”
“I think I’ve solved the problem. Thanks to Trie’s help.”
“What…?”
Ainz’s expression changed strangely, why did he suddenly look so shocked?
“I-I haven’t even found a clue yet!”
“Ainz. I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it? Ask me anything!”
He seemed to have become depressed for not being able to help solve the problem I had posed, but there was still one thing only Ainz could do.
“Could you escort me to the dormitory?”
“Escort? What kind of escort do you need inside the school?”
“Just in case.”
“If that’s all, I can do it anytime. You’re my lifesaver after all.”
Ainz said confidently, pounding his chest.
Despite appearances, Ainz was also the heir to the Wiegenstein family, one of the three great magic houses.
He was as valuable, or even more so, than Erica.
With this guy, I should be able to get home safely without risk of attack.
“What? Escort? If that’s the case, I want in too!”
“Who are you?”
“‘You’? Why are you suddenly speaking informally?”
“Who are you, miss?”
“The tournament winner. I think I’m more suited for escort duty than a weakling who got eliminated in the first round of 32.”
“That’s because my opponent was Schlus!”
“Anyway…”
“And why do you keep speaking informally?!”
I didn’t think I’d seen these two talk much before yet somehow, they seemed to have become quite close.
Although their level of conversation didn’t seem to go beyond elementary school level.
Still, it was good news that they were getting closer.
Trie was unrivaled in close combat and Ainz could fire superior magic in terms of firepower.
If the two worked well together, they could become a powerful combo.
As for me… well, I was mediocre in both magic and close combat, so I guess I’d just dance between the two of them.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. We just walked together.”
“That was enough.”
Walking with Ainz and Trie, I was able to reach the Chairman’s dormitory without any threats.
I had been on edge just in case, and although I felt some gazes watching us along the way, no one ended up attacking us.
Even if a few crazy guys had attacked, Trie would have repelled them all anyway.
“Thank you too, Trie.”
“Ahaha, it’s nothing. But you know…”
“…?”
“I didn’t know you had such a weapon, Teacher. If I had known, I would have given you a different gift…”
Trie smiled awkwardly.
Ah. She was talking about Vafe.
“Real swords have many advantages too. The sword you gave me will definitely be needed as well.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Vafe wasn’t an all-purpose light sword that could be taken out and put back into the palm at any time…
First of all, Vafe couldn’t leave my right hand.
Whether it was bound to my right arm or what, no matter how much I tried to move it to my left hand, it wouldn’t work, and above all, the big disadvantage was that I couldn’t even take it out unless I activated my internal circuits.
“I see. I was worried I had given you a useless gift.”
“That’s not possible.”
“You said the Elemental Magic exam was still ongoing? I hope you do well on the remaining exam!”
“Thank you.”
After sending Ainz and Trie off, I returned straight to the mansion.
As expected, Emilia greeted me today too, neat and upright as always.
Having someone at home every time I returned made me feel at ease.
I wondered if this was why everyone got married, probably the reason for divorce was the same too.
“I’ll be in the training room.”
“Mr. Hainkel! Wait a moment!”
“Yes? Oof…”
As I turned around, a spoon flew towards me.
I almost reflexively dodged it, but instead I received the spoon in my mouth.
This was… risotto?
“It’s dinner. Don’t skip meals again, take this in with you and eat.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
She used to tell me to eat before going in, but since I kept ignoring her and going in hungry, it seemed she had given up now.
I realized how stubborn I had been for Emilia, who insisted meals should only be eaten at the table, to back down like this.
The risotto tasted really good.
It was obvious it would get cold as I concentrated, but that didn’t matter.
Emilia’s food was delicious even when cold.
“Mr. Hainkel.”
“Yes?”
“Um… Would it be a bother if I came in with you?”
“No. Do you want to come in?”
“Uh, what? Really?”
Emilia momentarily made a stupid expression.
Her act of being flustered was superb.
“Yes! I want to come in!”
Well, she must have been curious about what this bastard Schlus was doing for hours once he holed up inside.
Since all I had to do today was focus on the exam questions, there was nothing sensitive to show.
If I had to nitpick, maybe the exam questions being leaked to the Intelligence Agency?
“I’ll just be quiet like a folding screen.”
“That would be helpful.”
After entering the training room, Emilia went to a corner and really stood still without moving.
At first, she glanced at me occasionally, which was distracting, but later I even forgot Emilia was there.
She made absolutely no sound or movement.
Wouldn’t her legs cramp up like that?
‘Let’s solve the problem quickly.’
I took a spoonful of risotto and focused on the exam paper again.
Combining the cores of the fire and ice systems itself was simple.
Although it was three-dimensional, it was certainly possible to break it down and express it as a series of two-dimensional images.
The problem was that this was an infinitely inefficient process.
There would be countless 2D cross-sections, making it too wide horizontally.
It would result in a product that was just big but utterly useless, worse than trash.
‘I don’t think this is what they expected.’
I couldn’t believe this was the answer to a question posed by Ludwig, who loved such beautiful formulas.
Maybe Ludwig had a different correct answer in mind, and I was just using a trick right now, but it didn’t matter.
Ludwig would probably be irritated when he saw it, but he couldn’t mark it wrong as long as it satisfied all the requirements of the question.
‘This is just grunt work.’
The process of breaking down 3D into 2D was quite tedious.
It was just repeating relatively simple calculations almost infinitely.
After working on the formula for a long time, I picked up the spoon and put it in my mouth, only then realizing.
“Ah.”
Quite a lot of time had passed.
The rice grains were cold.
Only then did I remember that I had forgotten about Emilia’s presence, and I looked up abruptly at where she had been standing.
Emilia was still there.
Still in the same posture, motionless.
Like a statue.
Suddenly, a wave of embarrassment washed over me.
Until now, I had acted as if Emilia wasn’t there, as if I were alone.
I wondered if I had shown any embarrassing behavior.
I couldn’t even remember what I had done.
Arum once told me that when I was deeply focused, I used to mutter curses…
I suddenly worried that I might have looked like a madman cursing at thin air.
“Yaaawn… I’ll go to sleep now, Mr. Hainkel.”
“Go ahead. It wasn’t much to see, was it? It must have been quite boring.”
“No. It was nice to see a different side of Mr. Hainkel.”
“…”
I was at a loss for words at Emilia’s chuckling response.
There must be countless men in this world who have fallen for that smile, but I was newly realizing the fact that right now, that smile was directed only at me.
Right now, there was only Emilia and me here.
No information could leak out of this barrier.
Then, if I pounced on Emilia right now…
‘Should I really implant it. The self-destruct formula.’
I felt the urge to open her heart and engrave a self-destruct formula.
It was a lie I had told to control Hertlocker, but this was an opportunity to make it reality.
Unlike at the beginning, I now had confidence in my ability to subdue Emilia by force.
If I engraved a formula on Emilia’s heart, I wouldn’t have to worry about being stabbed in my sleep anymore, and I could control Hertlocker more easily.
It was a method with no apparent downsides.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. You must be tired from standing. Go upstairs and rest.”
“Hehe, alright. I can’t tell you not to overdo it during exam period… but please don’t overdo it to the point of collapsing!”
“I’ll do that.”
“And don’t be surprised if I’m not here tomorrow morning. I’ll probably be out grocery shopping.”
I let Emilia go.
There would be many more opportunities to be alone with Emilia inside this barrier in the future.
So there was no need to rush.
There was no need to forcibly take action, ignoring this confusing feeling.
“Why. Why am I wavering?”
But those were all excuses.
Excuses derived later to fit the outcome I had already decided.
I… didn’t want to hurt Emilia.
I didn’t want to break even the very thin relationship of trust with her.
I had come to regard the character from the novel I wrote as a person.
“Get a grip. Damn it…”
I needed to pull myself together.
Emilia, and every other character, were ultimately just tools.
Tools to be used for me, to see the ending of this novel.
Tools to send me back to my original world.
They were things I would eventually discard, things I would have to part with someday.
There was no need for us to share affection.
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Thanks to the idea provided by Trie, I was able to solve question 8 quite easily.
Although the answer sheet became quite messy…
Next was the turn to use the ability I had saved up.
Today, except for the 1 second I used when fighting Ainz, I hadn’t used ‘Selection and Concentration’ at all.
I could invest all of the remaining 4 seconds in solving problems.
‘Selection and Concentration. Use 4 seconds on computational power.’
Of course, increased computational power didn’t suddenly raise my intelligence, making formulas I couldn’t draw before suddenly pop into my mind.
It just made my calculation speed insanely fast.
So if the problem conditions were given, even if I didn’t know the exact answer, if I drew all possible formulas that satisfied those conditions…
“Bingo.”
The answer was bound to come out inevitably.
Normally, using such a method would be impossible even if you stayed up for days and nights, but with computational power exceeding 100 stats, this became possible.
A method of checking all possible cases…
I never thought I’d end up solving problems with such a brute force method.
“Done. Up to number 9.”
Just before the ability ran out, I obtained the answer at a precarious timing.
And then, at an amazing timing, it passed 12 o’clock, and the time limit for ‘Selection and Concentration’ increased back to 5 seconds.
Then shall I challenge the last problem, number 10?
“Argh…”
Damn.
Just looking at it, the number of cases was astronomical.
The probability of finding the answer was slim even if I poured all 5 seconds of ability into it.
So it would be better for me to use my head a bit more to narrow down the conditions…
Since the submission deadline was until 9 AM anyway, maybe I should stay up all night and try a little harder.
After concentrating on the exam paper for a while…
“Ah.”
I touched the cold bowl and lost my focus.
“Ngh…”
Since I was already distracted, I decided to do some stretching.
Checking the clock, fortunately it was still 6 AM.
It was a clock I had urgently procured recently to avoid missing the midterm exam submission time.
It was already time for the sun to rise outside.
I wondered if the diligent Emilia had gone grocery shopping by now.
“Wait a minute.”
At that moment, I came to my senses.
I rolled up the exam paper, tucked it into my inner pocket, and rushed out hurriedly.
Damn.
Why hadn’t I thought of this until now?
The quest window popped up, as if trying to rub it in.
Damn it.
I’m screwed.
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[Shit bruv this story is gettin spicy af]
Dang
Wot?