Vol 3 Chapter 49.2 – Boyhood – Spring at Age 13

In her one hundred and fifty years of life, Lady Agrippina de Staal, daughter of a baron, had walked a mostly smooth and easy journey.

She was blessed with a father who commanded untold riches and numerous estates, was born a member of a long-lived species that does not age past its prime, and was gifted with immense magical power and a pair of “Eyes” that were exceptional even among her kind.

A background that could only be described as blatant favoritism from the gods, combined with a personality that spared no effort if it meant an easier life down the road—these gifts weren’t just doubled, but multiplied many times over.

The long-lived are a rare species that doesn’t try to pull rank based on their years. While they might mention their age as a sort of benchmark, they never boast, “I have lived for X hundred years.” At most, they might bring it up to lend credibility to their own experiences when lecturing mortals.

This is all because their bodies, which never weaken from their prime, still show their limits quite readily. Therefore, the exceptional have been exceptional since they were young, and the mediocre remain mediocre, even considering the inherent power of their species. Sure, accumulated experience is significant, but when two of the long-lived fight to the death, the outcome is almost always decided by the speed of their mental calculations.

No matter how good a driver you are, you can’t beat a sports car in a family sedan. The truly intelligent can overpower difficult situations with prediction and imagination, without needing to accumulate experience.

Therefore, though she has lived for one hundred and fifty years, she takes no particular pride in her age—though she might use it to tease her apprentice—and has little experience with failure and few occasions where she was backed into a corner. The closest was probably twenty years ago, when Lady Reisen became genuinely enraged with her and forced her to choose between going out for fieldwork or fighting a “no-holds-barred” duel.

She had always handled things well. But that was only within the scope of her own actions affecting herself.

Now, she is not alone. She is responsible for an emotionally unstable disciple and an apprentice who is a walking block of uncertainty, liable to do anything if you take your eyes off him. And she, for the simple-minded reason of “it would surely be more interesting this way,” has thrown all sorts of things to the wind.

At this very moment, the bill for all her fun was coming due. As if the world itself were screaming that one must not receive more than what one has paid for.

“Ah, welcome. What’s this, no need to be so tense. I am but a simple professor, unaffiliated with any faction.”

Before the single, powerful presence seated in front of her, Agrippina’s mind spun its wheels for what felt like the dozenth time that day, wondering how in the world it had come to this.

The weight of the being seated before her was immeasurable. A member of the vampire species who, while enjoying the board game of politics, was also responsible for the maintenance of the board itself: the economy. Her encounter with Duke Martin Werner von Oerstreich, who once bore the title of Emperor and now called himself a professor, was a completely unexpected event.

“Come, have a seat. For now, I am the host of this gathering, and as you are a researcher, it is my place, by status, to receive you.”

“Um, what is this gathering for, exactly…?”

“Sit, my lady.”

Y-Yes, sir! Agrippina replied with a stiffness unimaginable from her usual self and lowered herself onto the fine sofa. The seat, calculated with an almost obsessive paranoia for balance and comfort, would normally have provided a wonderful sitting experience. At this moment, however, it felt about as comfortable as a torture chair studded with countless steel spikes.

Why me? Of all people, why did I have to get called over by this nuclear landmine—a man the current Emperor begged with a deathly pale face, “The academic factions are already a handful, please don’t drag political struggles into this”—of all people?

Duke von Oerstreich was not only an avid researcher of magic who published many papers, but he was also famous as a philanthropist who took great interest in the academic world and gave “gifts” to scholars he favored. However, he was a gentleman who kept his distance from the factions, loving research and progress for their own sake.

Why on a day that was supposed to start out so perfectly pleasant did I have to run into such a rare character? The young lady, who had spread so much chaos and selfishness, was now, for the first time, on the verge of being smacked in the face by it herself.

“Well then, how about we chat a bit before the main topic? After learning of you, my lady, I read some of your papers, and they are a collection of truly wonderful content. I had to doubt my own memory, thinking it must be some kind of joke that they haven’t been debated in academic circles.”

“Um, well, about that…”

Of course they haven’t. I only wrote them to fulfill the bare minimum obligation; I never once actively threw them into the ring for debate or sought opinions on them. I’m saving my real theories, bottling them up deep, deep down, to be revealed only when the time is right.

“For now, regarding this one.”

Seeing the copy of the paper prepared for her, Agrippina braced herself. This was going to be a long haul. As a long-lived being herself, she knew full well that when an immortal gets fixated on something they care about, they’re liable to forget to eat or sleep and completely ignore the circumstances of the other party.

And the pockets of a lady, for all intents and purposes born and raised in a monarchy, did not contain the courage required to interrupt the ramblings of a man who was once Emperor…