Chapter 152: Alchemy Class Minions

My class for the afternoon today is Alchemy class. This is something I was a bit excited about, but since I prioritized the classes I shared with Urania and the others, I didn’t have the opportunity to attend up until now. And, while I don’t want to think that this is the reason, the students, as well as the professors, are kneeling in wait right before my eyes.

「U-uhhh…… Everyone…..?」 「「We have been awaiting you! Meister!!」」

To my confused inquiry, the students and professors replied with perfect unison, only making me more confused. The people here right now are 14 students attending the alchemy class, 3 professors, and me, 18 in total. The alchemy class is even less popular than the earth attribute class.

There are several reasons for that, but the biggest one would be because the class is just plain in comparison. Generally, people that can use magic simply use magic without the assistance of magical tools. So magical tools exhibit only their value in granting the benefits of magic to the populace who can’t use magic. No one would spend several tens and hundreds of hours researching something that they won’t use.

Even the current royal family doesn’t seem to have much interest in the development of magical tools, so while there is an established research institution in the kingdom, the budget is tight and they don’t have enough people. Because of that, even if one studies alchemy in this Royal Magecraft Academy, their future will still lead to a thorny path. As such, no one would willingly come to a class like this.

Excluding some weirdos that is.

「M-m-m-meister! T-t-this! I-I-I-I made this……」 「Move! Meister! I have been greatly moved by your scatter-type thunder hand grenade! Please, grant me your guidance!」 「Don’t you try getting a head start! Meister! How did you do that thing with the mic during your representative speech!? I’ve never heard of anyone doing magic tool tuning in that short amount of time!」

For some reason, I was then made to sit on a fluffy single sofa that was prepared who-knows-when and served top grade tea and tea-cakes while being barraged with questions. How can I say this, every one of these guys has a pretty strong character. One guy asking for advice, one guy gushing about the magical tool I presented for the entrance exam, one guy really curious about how I tuned the magical tool back at the entrance ceremony, and more.

Even the three professors that should be in the position to stop this are mixed in with the students, asking me questions as well. At this point, I don’t even know who’s the professor and whose class this is. I only came here to learn in this class but before I knew it, I’m in a teaching position now.

「Meister! This is my paper concerning magic formulation! I would like to ask for your advice concerning magic formulation replication and magic activation configuration!」 「You there! Could you tell me about your study!?」

Among the barrage of questions, a certain student’s words caught my attention and I couldn’t help but grab him by the shoulders. In the contents of his question is the concept that serves as the basis of Urania’s magical tool『Grimoire』.

Let me talk about magic and magecraft here. I should have explained this in the past but the biggest difference between magic and magecraft lies in whether or not one can manipulate it themselves. The phenomena resulting from magecraft can only be specified prior. Once magecraft is cast, the spell can’t be stopped midway and the resulting phenomena can’t be changed. In contrast, as long as you have proper control of your magic, it can be stopped and freely manipulated.

While both magic and magecraft use magic power as an energy source, their activation processes are considerably different. Magic is done by gathering the magic power in your body, giving it meaning, and then releasing it outside the body. On the other hand, magecraft uses either spellcasting or magic circles to imbue an attribute and directionality to magic power.

The grimoire I gave to Urania is something that shoulders the “give it meaning” step. With continued usage, the user should be able to use magic without the grimoire eventually, but since Urania is currently the only one with a grimoire, I can’t do any experimenting in that regard.

Since the student council has a lot of mages now, I considered making more grimoire users, but there’s a bit of a problem with the mass production department. It’s just plain difficult to make a lot. And as I was troubled about that, this student came right in front of me showing a pretty solid thesis. The heavens are just telling me to do it at this point.

「Alright, here.」 「What? This is?」 「Magic Formulation Process Proxy Magical Tool Prototype Type 3, the The-hn Book.」

While it’s a book-type one, unlike the one I gave to Urania, this only has 10 pages. It can only store 5 types of magic and beyond that, it’ll overwrite the magic starting from the oldest one. It’s pretty thin compared to the grimoire, hence the name.

The name of the student that I gave it to is…… meh, why bother. I’ll just call him minion no.1. Rather, when I called him that, he was overjoyed. Why.1

「Meister! This is… this magic tool is revolutionary!」 「It’s a masterpiece…… A true beauty……」

For some reason, the minions have started worshipping the magical tool I gave. Like, it’s almost like some sort of cult ritual right now and that’s scary, so please stop. I’m gazing at them with a graceful smile and tea on one hand just so my lady mask doesn’t come off, but that just makes this look like a scene from a dubious religious painting.

「This would be the blueprint. This is the theoretical concept for the contents. There are some variant models as well, but let’s take it step-by-step. Let’s start with the mass production and testing of The-hn books. 」 「「「Yes!」」」

And thus, gaining 17 minions at my first attendance, I appropriated the alchemy class and acquired a magical tool assembly line.2