This Novel is not my Chapter 21: A Research Student? (1)

It's the first weekend since the Academy sester began.

But I couldn't rest, because once a person starts resting, they want to keep resting.

Moreover, today I planned to visit Professor Radvisin, who taught the Ether Attribute Enhancent lecture.

'He's incredibly talkative, so he's definitely going to eat up a lot of my ti.'

So I woke up at dawn and ate breakfast alone early in the morning.

Afterward, I headed straight to the personal training grounds, did so light physical training, and practiced using the whip.

Whenever I got tired, I leaned against the wall and read through the various study materials I had brought with to the Academy.

Then, once my stamina recovered, I got back up and trained again, repeating the process.

—Beep, beep, beep.

As I imrsed myself in training, the Ether alarm clock emitted an electronic tone, announcing that it was 9:30.

I had arrived around 5:30, so four hours had already passed.

I had completed today's target training ti, so it was ti to et Professor Radvisin.

'First, a shower.'

Renting a personal training ground at Valhalla Academy cost a considerable amount of money.

Since Karvaldr ca from a wealthy family, he received a generous ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) allowance to maintain appearances, so it wasn't a burden.

But the original protagonist, Reisir, couldn't use a personal training ground because he couldn't ask his guardian for the money.

Even if his guardian had offered to pay the rental fee, he probably would have refused, saying it was unnecessary since there was a public training ground.

'As if it's unnecessary.'

The personal training grounds were well worth the expensive price.

Unlike the public training grounds, where Ether usage was restricted for safety reasons since many students trained there together, these facilities were equipped with Ether Engineering technology designed to absorb shock, allowing unrestricted Ether usage.

You could even secretly refine your hidden techniques here.

And that wasn't all.

Every personal training ground ca fully equipped with a shower, and there was a laundry service on the first floor of the Training Tower.

If you placed your sweat-soaked clothes and towels into the basket and handed them over, they would be washed, ironed, and delivered to the front of your dorm room early the next morning.

'At this point, how could anyone call it unnecessary?'

Thinking once again that money really was a wonderful thing, I took off my training clothes, tossed them into the laundry basket, and stepped into the shower.

After thoroughly washing up, I changed into the Academy uniform I had brought with .

Since I was going to ask a professor for help, dressing properly as a student seed appropriate.

"Is it ten already...? I suppose visiting a research lab at this hour isn't too rude."

I checked the ti again while absentmindedly touching my still damp hair.

The thought did briefly cross my mind whether it was acceptable to barge into a research lab at ten in the morning on a weekend rather than a weekday.

But if he was already in the lab, then that ant he was working anyway, so it was probably fine.

'Besides, Professor Radvisin himself said that his lab is always open to students.'

After locking the training ground with the key I had received when renting it and dropping off the laundry, I left the Training Tower and headed toward the research building.

As expected, Professor Radvisin was a man of his word.

The mont I knocked on the door to his laboratory, a voice imdiately called for to co in.

And when I opened the door and stepped inside, he looked at and said this.

"From now on, you can just co in without knocking."

How desperately did he need soone to talk to in order to say sothing like that?

Expecting an endless storm of chatter, I stood stiffly near the door in nervous anticipation, but the professor simply gestured for to co closer.

So I approached him.

Then he handed a thick stack of research papers.

"Read these, compile them, and organize them for ."

"Pardon...?"

"There's an empty seat over there. Sit there and work. You can use the writing utensils here."

"Ah... yes..."

I thought he had invited students to visit freely because he wanted people to talk to, but apparently he had just wanted to share the workload.

Did I have to finish the tasks he assigned before I could ask questions or request help?

I had assud I would rely need to listen to the professor talk and occasionally respond, but a far greater ordeal than expected had descended upon .

'But how exactly am I supposed to compile and organize research papers...?'

As diligent readers who had made it this far would already know, I had never even attended university.

Naturally, I had never done anything remotely like this before.

It felt awkward, but asking how to do it would have been even more awkward.

'I'm literally wearing the school uniform right now. I'm even wearing the red necktie that marks as a first-year student. And despite that, the professor assigned this task. Which ans that in this world, compiling and organizing research materials must be considered a basic skill for children of noble families.'

The papers were filled with specialized terminology I didn't understand.

Still, since there were many of them, I figured I would naturally begin to understand so of the terminology as I read through them.

And by carefully following the context, I should be able to identify the important sections.

'But what exactly am I supposed to organize? Since he asked to compile them, they must all share so kind of common topic...'

First, I decided to skim through the tables of contents and introductions to identify the major keywords.

If I still couldn't understand the common the after reading all of them, I planned to give up and ask the professor directly.

Thankfully, that wasn't necessary.

Once I began writing down and organizing the keywords from each paper, the answer quickly beca obvious.

'Is Professor Radvisin planning to make the relationship between Ether colors and attributes the subject of his next thesis?'

Ah, of all things to research.

I couldn't help sighing.

I already knew there was no answer to this problem.

In the world of 《NaSE》, there certainly were cases where Ether colors harmonized with their attributes, such as fire attribute Ether appearing reddish or water attribute Ether appearing bluish.

But there were far more cases where they didn't match, especially when the attributes were conceptual in nature.

Why?

Because Senna, the author of 《NaSE》, had written the setting that way.

Even among people using the exact sa water attribute Ether, one person's Ether might be blue, another's pale green, and there had even been soone whose Ether was orange.

Naturally, readers had raised questions about this in the comnts.

And the original author had replied...

[ senna : For main and supporting characters, I usually try to give them colors that suit their abilities. But if the color overlaps with another character, or if I can't think of a suitable one, I print out a color wheel and spin a roulette wheel I made myself. Extras get assigned through roulette from the start. ]

That had been the answer.

If the very author who created this world determined Ether colors by spinning a roulette wheel, then there was no way any aningful correlation could exist.

That was why I couldn't help sighing the mont I figured out Professor Radvisin's thesis topic.

'The research conducted by scholars in a world built on randomly improvised settings is just an endless sequence of futile efforts...!'

Since I myself had improvised settings countless tis before, I felt both guilty and reflective.

And I ca to the firm conclusion that I should absolutely never beco either a professor or a scholar.

At that mont, a being entered the laboratory that solidified that decision even further.

"Gwooooh..."

A male student with dark circles hanging all the way down to his cheekbones shuffled inside while making zombie-like noises.

I recognized him imdiately as a master's program research student.

His necktie color made it obvious.

At Valhalla Academy, students from first through fifth year wore neckties colored red, blue, green, yellow, and orange respectively.

The current fifth-years wearing orange ties would graduate this year, aning next year's freshn would wear orange as well.

The freshn after that would wear yellow, then green, then blue, and so on.

Research students, however, wore neckties based on their degree program regardless of enrollnt year.

Navy blue for master's students.

Purple for doctoral students.

That's right.

The neckties at Valhalla Academy were rainbow-colored.

"Huh? Uh oh..."

The master's student stared at in confusion for a mont before suddenly looking at with pity.

Then he lightly patted my shoulder and walked over to a desk piled high with books and docunts.

'What was that just now?'

That inexplicable pity left bewildered, but this wasn't the ti to dwell on it.

I still had a long way to go.

I hadn't even begun reading the main contents of the papers yet, let alone organizing them.

So I set aside my questions and continued reading through the papers the professor had handed , focusing specifically on the sections discussing Ether color.

'I know this is ultimately pointless... but what else can I do after being told to do it?'

As I read through countless theories and forced hypotheses attempting to explain Ether colors that inherently had no rules or patterns, I began feeling pity for the professors who had written them.

So many people had devoted themselves to recording utterly futile efforts.

So why was Professor Radvisin following the sa path?

'Do scholars continue chasing aningless dreams because they believe that if they dig deeply enough, they'll eventually uncover the truth?'

Just as I was beginning to question whether it was truly right for soone like , who already knew the truth, to help Professor Radvisin in his futile efforts—

Another person entered the laboratory.

"Ughhh..."

This ti it was a female doctoral research student wearing a purple necktie.

Like the previous student, she shuffled in while making zombie noises, and if I exaggerated a little, the dark circles beneath her eyes practically reached her chin.

The lives of research students really must be miserable.

And after surviving all that suffering, what awaited them was more research devoted to forcing nonexistent aning out of patterns generated by a random roulette wheel.

At that mont, I firmly decided that I would never beco a research student.

"Huh? Uh, woooh..."

After seeing my face, the doctoral student tilted her head for a mont before quickly adopting an expression that seed to say, 'Well, not my problem.'

Then she sat down at the ssiest desk in the laboratory and buried herself beneath docunts.

Both the master's student and the doctoral student accepted my presence here surprisingly quickly.

Apparently this wasn't the first ti Professor Radvisin had made an ordinary student organize research papers.

"Newcor, could you make so coffee? If you don't know how to use the Ether espresso machine, try opening the drawer of that desk over there. There should be a manual inside."

"Ughh..."

"Guh, guh..."

After Radvisin, the only person in the room still speaking like a human, finished talking, the two research students added their own zombie-like noises.

I assud they were asking for coffee too.

Looking around the laboratory, I quickly spotted an espresso machine neatly placed in one corner.

'They have sothing like this here...? If I'd known, I would've bought one ages ago. I've been wasting ti making hand-drip coffee all this ti for nothing.'

There was no need to look at the manual.

The Ether espresso machine was structurally identical to the ho espresso machine from my previous world.

In fact, I had made coffee using a machine like this the very day before I got possessed.

I had just learned sothing useful, and it was about ti I got so caffeine into my own system anyway.

So I willingly brewed enough espresso for four people, planning to make my own as well.

"Should I just serve the espresso as it is?"

"I'll take an iced aricano."

"Ah, aaah..."

"Aaaah..."

I turned the freshly brewed espresso into four iced aricanos.

For the record, I got the ice from an Ether mini ice maker, though at this point, nothing about this world surprised anymore.