CICN 36

Chapter 36

Seraphina knew Professor Malles well.

Despite having produced countless students, he never maintained close relationships with them.

Still, the students didn’t dislike him.

They understood his single-minded devotion to mathematics.

Besides, his refusal to build personal ties was his way of avoiding pointless factional conflicts—he just wanted to focus solely on his research.

To be honest, he was a man of upright character and unyielding will, a rare sight among today’s professors.

That’s why, even though Seraphina often called him “the old man,” she held deep respect for him.

But now, the person she thought would never ask for a favor in his life had come to see her in person.

‘What’s going on?’

Seraphina grew tense and waited for Professor Malles to speak.

“I want to know more about a student,” he said.

“If it’s about that, you can just ask the administration office…”

“You think I don’t know that?! But that would take too long! I want to know now!”

Malles slammed his palm on the table in frustration.

“Who on earth is this student that you can’t even wait a little?” Seraphina asked, irritated but curious about the student who had the notoriously impatient professor so riled up.

And more importantly—why?

This was the same professor who claimed seeing his former students, now deans, was too burdensome and preferred to avoid meetings altogether. And now he’d come all the way to her himself?

“Ebi. Ebi Elden, that’s the kid. Very small. Come to think of it, isn’t admission to the Gifted Academy supposed to start at age seven? That child looks no more than five. And she’s so scrawny, she’s even cleaning up after herself…”

“Okay, okay, could you quiet down for a second?” Seraphina cut off Malles, who seemed ready to go on forever.

“She’s kind of a hot topic this year.”

“Why? Is she that smart?”

“She’s smart, but more importantly… she was chosen by His Majesty, the Emperor.”

Seraphina then briefly explained how Ebi had come to be admitted.

“It’s not like he hand-picked her or anything, it was more like…”

“Ha! How shameless. If he selected her, then he should take responsibility!”

“What more do you expect him to do? When she went missing recently, he even granted permission for magic use inside the palace and lent us magic stones!”

“Wait, missing? Just what kind of mess is this academy running here?! And you call yourself a dean?!”

“But we found her, didn’t we?!”

“Still… No, forget it. So she’s from an orphanage, huh. Must’ve lost her parents during the war. How tragic.”

Seraphina stared at her teary-eyed mentor, half in disbelief.

“Why are you acting like this? Didn’t you say you were going to retire next year? That means some other professor will be teaching her, so why the fuss—”

“What nonsense! Retire?! I still have much to do!”

Just recently, he had grumbled that he’d be returning to his hometown to focus on research, saying there was nothing more to do at the academy.

“What do you mean ‘much to do’?”

“I’m planning to rewrite Advanced Mathematics. Make it more approachable, so even kids can follow the logic and understand the theorems properly.”

“…Excuse me?!”

Seraphina’s voice rose in disbelief.

Advanced Mathematics was not only the official textbook used at the academy, but also in every academic institution in the empire.

It was considered Professor Malles’ greatest achievement.

Before that, the curriculum relied on mathematics books written centuries ago.

However, as new formulas and theorems were discovered, there had been increasing talk among scholars about the need for a new, modernized textbook.

“But who would’ve taken on such an enormous and tedious task?”

“Sure, it would bring fame, but just agreeing on the basic theorems to include would be a nightmare. And writing up clean, textbook-level proofs isn’t easy either…”

Malles had been the one to take it on.

The result, Advanced Mathematics, had propelled the empire’s mathematical standards by several levels.

Of course, it had its drawbacks.

It only included the bare minimum explanations. Although the theorems were well-organized, it was extremely difficult to study from.

In short, Advanced Mathematics was not a self-study book. It required a teacher to explain it.

That’s why people had asked Malles repeatedly over the years:

Wouldn’t he consider releasing a more user-friendly version?

But each time, Professor Malles had resolutely refused.

“My book is perfect! If you don’t understand it, you just aren’t working hard enough!”

The more people asked, the more stubborn he became.

For nearly twenty years, he’d been firm about not making a revised edition. Everyone had given up hope.

Until now.

“The new edition should have a brighter cover. And we’ve had new proofs discovered since then, so those must go in. The original ones need more detailed and gentle explanations. Maybe I should even add cute illustrations throughout—kids would love that, wouldn’t they?”

Seraphina stared blankly at the enthusiastic Malles.

Who is this man? Is this really my stubborn old mentor?

“In any case, if I’m going to do all this… Let’s see. If Ebi’s going to graduate from the academy, it’ll take at least eight years, so I suppose I’ll have to keep working for another eight. Hoho.”

While recalculating his retirement plan, Malles suddenly remembered something.

“By the way, who’s Ebi’s guardian?”

“A professor named Sian Roschen.”

“Who? Where is this person?”

“Well, that’s the thing…”

After returning the magic stones following the incident with Ebi, Seraphina had heard about the situation from the Minister of the Interior.

He had randomly assigned a professor registered in name only to serve as Ebi’s guardian.

In truth, this professor wasn’t even at the academy. But Seraphina dared not say that. Malles would surely demand to be made her guardian immediately and cause a scene.

‘No way would changing what the minister decided go smoothly…’

So she gave a vague answer.

“There’s this quiet professor. As you know, there are lots of people eyeing that position for personal gain, so we picked someone without ambition. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“What do you mean, don’t worry?! If they don’t have ambition, that’s a bigger problem. A strong guardian is essential for a student’s future!”

“…You’re not wrong, but hearing that from you is just weird.”

Her mentor despised politics and the flattery that came with it.

He had refused to be anyone’s guardian before, no matter how often people begged him.

Above all, he avoided getting involved in other people’s lives—yet here he was, sounding like a completely different person.

“But it’s not something you can change easily. There are qualifications, and…”

“Please! I have a better résumé than anyone!”

“…But the student’s opinion matters, too. If Ebi Elden doesn’t want it, we can’t change it.”

“That’s something we can solve by persuading her, starting now! Anyway—ah, one more thing. Are there any classrooms left in the main building?”

“Why do you need a classroom?”

“She walks such a long distance every day… It’s just heartbreaking…”

“You’re the one who chose that classroom. So students would struggle to get there and give up.”

Seraphina shot him a cold glare. Malles turned his head away.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, give me a classroom in the main building.”

“There probably aren’t any left.”

Professors competed fiercely for classrooms close to the main building.

The closer the classroom, the greater the professor’s influence—that’s how it worked. Naturally, all the prime spots were already taken.

“I’ll look for something at least a little closer.”

“Yes, yes, please do. By the way, you said the student’s preference matters… Hmm.”

Malles fell deep into thought.

‘Now that I think about it… gift-giving season for guardians is coming up.’

If that random professor was assigned just to fill the spot, they probably wouldn’t care much about giving gifts.

They’d likely just send something simple out of formality.

‘If I give her something bigger and better, it’s only natural that the child’s affection will shift toward me.’

Malles smiled smugly.

Whoever this Sian Roschen was, there was no way he’d send a gift that Ebi would like.