Chapter 37

Chapter 37

“My lady, what do the x and y stand for?” asked a male student wearing glasses.

“They are the answers I am trying to find using this technique,” I explained. “The x and y are placeholder values I’m trying to find using this formula. That means a and b are constants.”

The crowd stared at me with deep shock.

Of course, they’re shocked. As far as I could tell, variables were not a known concept in this world. Variables were unknown values that were commonly represented in my world with letters like x and y. Since there was no concept of an unknown here, there were far more steps needed to arrive at a solution. If x and y were used as placeholders for both the answer one needed to find as well as a changing value, it wasn’t too difficult to find a pattern.

This was a matter of wisdom, rather than knowledge—and as it happened, I was an engineering student with a brain chock full of the wisdom of my contemporaries. To think all those theorems I forced myself to memorize would come in handy after all… Life truly was unpredictable. In the meantime, the professors were gaping at me with amazement, jaws hanging open.

“To think such a complex equation could be arranged in that manner! That is so simplistic and elegant, I am at a loss for words.”

“If we use values in the modified formula, we can skip multiple steps in the calculation needed to arrive at the solution! Isn’t this the most stunning thing you’ve ever seen?”

“It’s so amazing, it’s almost too hard to believe. I think the silver dragon itself would turn in its grave if it learned of this.”

“That’s the Seymours for you! And to think that she was able to prove her magical genius, even though she doesn’t possess any sensitivity to mana herself! She is truly deserving of her family name.”

“This work will be very useful to battle mages in particular since casting speed is very important to them.”

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Since they were some of the Academy’s greatest scholars, the professors easily grasped the concept of variables almost immediately. They were all busily working to wrap their brains around the equation on the blackboard.

After I’d provided the proof, I donned my most insidious smile—the one I’d practiced in front of the mirror—and cracked my neck. “Does this dispel any of your doubts? Honestly, I’m still rather upset.”

Eyes flashing venomously, I nodded subtly to a lady standing off to the side—the same girl I’d given instructions to in advance. It was Arin Ocelot, the girl I’d saved from being bullied behind the school building. Now my faithful slave—that is to say, my vassal—bravely stepped onto the stage and approached the dean and the vice dean.

“Arin Ocelot?”

“Do you have something you’d like to say?”

As it turned out, she was an exemplary student and had earned the deep affection and trust of the professors, which had been why that bully of a man had felt so inferior to her.

“I… I have some information I’d like to share. I was passing behind the Department of Magic building when I overheard some men talking by accident.” She shared how William and the young idiot nobles had plotted to blow this incident out of proportion, slandering Duke Seymour while they were at it.

Though Arin looked innocent and naive, she always kept an ear to the ground wherever she went. She had been the one to bring me all sorts of juicy tidbits to help keep track of how things were unfolding within the department.

She’s like a squirrel scurrying about gathering acorns. This new accusation was the perfect fuel to the already raging flames of my anger.

“William Lemont! How dare you use me to try and discredit my father!” I yelled.

William, who was already half out of his mind with worry, only blanched and trembled more. A Seymour had been ganged up on by her department classmates and the Academy itself before she could even present her amazing discovery to the public. What was more, they had attempted to smear her house in the process. The magnitude of the offense was unprecedented. Even the stern vice dean was sending nervous glances my way now.

“My father is a generous man and he may see fit to overlook this offense, but I’m different.”

“What do you mean, my lady?” Dean Vert asked, a puzzled look on his face.

“Lord William and everyone else who paid insult to me should be held responsible for what happens next,” I declared ominously before leaving the hall.

* * *

Word of the inquiry spread like wildfire among the mages. No one had ever even entertained the possibility that the formula devised by the ancient archmage Simeon, considered to be an unassailable truth and perfect in its composition, could be modified. Thanks to the chattering of the many that had been in the audience, the new formula spread throughout the Department of Magic and even eventually reached the Magic Tower.

“Well, well. This is really quite remarkable. Who would have thought!” exclaimed a mage from within the tower, casting a spell instantly while skipping the complicated and irksome calculations that should have preceded it. “To think that troublemaker from the House of Seymour would end up coming up with something so innovative! Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?”

“She can’t use mana at all. She’s got to compensate for that somehow.”

That was when one of their colleagues stepped into the training room which was awash with faster, more powerful versions of various spells. He looked aghast. “Hey! You can’t just use the formula Lady Deborah came up with like that!”

“Why not?”

“You really don’t know? Well, you’ll learn soon enough.”

The mage who ignored his warning and continued using the formula outside the tower soon received a warning letter sealed by the Imperial Department of Justice.

“This is a warning regarding the violation of a patent and an order that no further infringement will be tolerated. Unfortunately, we have confirmed that the recipient of this notice has been found in violation of a patent held by one Lady Deborah Seymour. You are ordered to cease use immediately and comply with the demands of the patent’s owner.”

The mage who had received the message squinted at the letter as he read on.

“Fine: Thirty gold”

“Monthly charge: seven silver, ninety-nine coopers”

“What’s a monthly charge?”

“What do you think? It’s all in there. If you want to keep using the formula, you have to pay Lady Deborah a monthly fee. If you use it without paying, you’ll be fined by the Department of Justice, just like you have been. They call it a ‘subscription system,’” a colleague said, putting a cigarette in his mouth with a wry smile on his face. This was all thanks to William Lemont and Professor Kyle, who had angered the already bad-tempered Lady Deborah, those idiots.

They had really outdone themselves. Kyle had dared to call a Seymour a leech and that moron William had taken aim at the master of the Magic Tower of all people. No one now dared complain about the new system.

“Subscription?” asked the mage, who would now have to pay a huge fine.

“As you can see, Lady Deborah was quite upset and therefore patented her technique.”

To any who complained, she’d coldly responded with these words: “If you want to use it, you have to pay for it.”

“At least we’re allowed to use the formula if we pay only seven silver a month. That’s a pittance, all things considered.”

“What do you mean?”

“The House of Lemont and a handful of others who displeased the lady have been blacklisted—they’re not allowed to use the formula at all, even if they pay.”

“My goodness.”

* * *

Money and justice were raining down. I gained seven new subscribers for my formula today. I smiled in satisfaction to myself.

I have Professor Kyle and William Lemont to thank for this. Frankly, no one had ever tried to patent a magical formula before. I hadn’t known things would end up going so well.

* * *

Three weeks ago. It was on the day Duke Seymour had gifted me a pile of gems that I got the idea to make money using my formula. From my conversation with him, I’d learned that the speed at which one could solve an equation was directly linked to the speed at which they could then cast magical spells. Though the formula was revolutionary in this world, I couldn’t use mana—that meant I couldn’t make use of it.

I’m not telling anyone about this. What would I gain from it? If I presented it to the public, the Academy would perhaps stop thinking of me as a nepotism baby who’d only gotten in by merit of my family connections, but it was battle mages like Rozard who would benefit the most. I couldn’t stand it.

The thought alone makes me sick. At first, they would praise me for the discovery, but before long they would forget that gratefulness and just behave as though the formula had been theirs all along.

Damn it, there goes my great discovery. I went to bed that night in a foul mood and had a nightmare in which I was chased by a hundred gazelles.

Save me!

Then a golden rope fell from the sky with the word “patent” written up and down its length. I was reaching for it when I woke up and immediately shot out of bed.

“That’s it! A patent!” If I could take out a patent on the formula, it would become my cash cow. But were patents even a thing in the empire? Just to be sure, I went over to Maison as soon as my classes were over that day.