CH 6

A certain problem child entered into the laboratory I belonged to.

Sawadi Schenker, 11 years old, male.

He’s a male but his aptitude for offensive magic is lower than the allowable limit but that doesn’t matter.

There are a certain number of people every year who have no aptitude for magic at all.

The problem is that this boy is at the top of his class when it comes to support magic and he’s even better compared to senior students.

He can’t even reduce a bundle of straw to ashes with his fire arrow but there is a record of him having generated an entire spine, which was incredibly difficult to regenerate using healing magic, of a condemned criminal during a magic exercise.

To be honest, I can only think that he was born with the wrong gender.

If he had been born a woman, he might have even been a saintess of the Sacred Solace of Indigent…

In any case, even though he’s a problem child, the only problem about him is his aptitude and gender which is not really a big deal.

The real problem children are ones like Mudran, the living doll, and Godrey, the gluttonous…

However, the important thing now is that I, Chris Holden, am in charge of mentoring this problem child.

Since I will be mentoring him, I need to spend a few years with him.

I don’t want my career to be damaged by a problem child as I plan to get promoted and go to the royal capital as a researcher.

-0-

「Oh, you’re here.」

「Good morning, senpai.」

The problem child arrived on time.

The last time he came to greet me, he was on time too.

I wondered if his family had given him an expensive pocket watch.

I also want one with a bird engraved on it but when I asked my father for one….he said I should wait until my birthday.

My father doesn’t understand the subtleties of a woman’s heart and my mother just got used to it.

Oh, I got sidetracked.

The problem child seemed to have waited for me as he sat down on a desk at the corner of the laboratory.

「By the way, why did you decide to aspire to be a magic researcher?」

「I was interested in cheap labor.」

「Right, you came from a merchant family.」

I like frank people.

Merchants have a clear purpose and are easy to understand.

Magic is not something that can easily turn something to gold but it is much better than a student who is just looking to see what’s happening in the world.

「Look, today, I’m going to teach you the basics of making a homunculus. Only when you can create your own will make you eligible to start a research.」

「Yes, senpai.」

「First, prepare a flat bottomed test tube. That’s where we’ll put our materials to.」

「Yes.」

「Morning glory, hairy plants, spongy water.」

「Put the morning glory and the hairy plant around the spongy water.」

He’s trying his best to imitate me but that won’t be easy.

You need to fail many times to learn.

「Flour, rat’s heart, magic crystal.」

「Any kind of magic crystal?」

「The lowest rank is acceptable. This one is from a herbivorous wolf.」

「I see.」

You are taking notes.

I’m impressed. These days, there are many students who don’t take notes and make mistakes based on their assumptions.

「Let’s continue. Refined salt, flying centipede’s blood, cinnamon, root of dragon’s beard flower, white sugar.」

「Fumu fumu」

「Then, pour distilled water around the top and….use fusion magic straight from top to bottom. Then, from the bottom, draw the number eight counter going around to the left of the bottom all the way to the top.」

As I did so, the contents of the test tube dissolved away and a blue-skinned humanoid being, a homunculus, crawled out of the liquid that had gathered at the bottom.

However, the homunculus was stuck on the wall of the test tube and it was not moving. I’m not sure if I poorly distributed something but it’s not very energetic.

「I’m done too!」

「What!?」

The flat bottomed test tube he lifted up was inhabited by a noisy and rampaging homunculus, one size bigger than mine.

This can’t be!

This is not that simple!

「Have you ever done this experiment before?」

「No, this is my first time.」

「Then, how did you know the formula for fusion magic?」

「I copied senpai.」

He said it as if it was the most natural thing to do but that’s quite hard.

An eleven-year-old kid can get honor just from being able to convert magical elements into multiple attribute magical elements.

「Wood was 40, water was 30, earth was 23, fire was 5, and 1 each from dark and light, right? The conversion of magical elements was very detailed and easy to understand.」

「You mean to say that you copied it just by watching it once?」

「Yeah. Isn’t that the very basic?」

That’s right, but my reply became impossibly small and distinct…..

The out-of-standard problem child laughed carefreely as he waved the test tube with homunculus in it.