Chapter 15: The Greatest Achievement of the Year
THE entire affair was dealt with in secret, and Professor Einz left the Academy as summer arrived. Publicly, she left because she was transferred to a military unit, but in reality she was just returning to her official position.
Her replacement assistant professor hadn’t been selected yet. After what had happened, they were taking their time to pick a professor of legitimate neutral standing.
Every time Mia passed by the empty prep room, she was reminded of the woman who had befriended her with her dignified figure and gentle purple eyes hidden behind blue spectacles. She had showed up with numerous sweets for every day they slaved away in the library. With each painful memory, a coldness touched Mia’s heart despite the warm summer weather.
Professor Einz’s kindness had all been a farce so she could wiggle her way into Mia’s life to obtain information and maintain the status quo. Till the very end, she had refused to apologize and likely never would. Sacrificing a few to protect the many was a worthwhile inevitability—that’s what her sense of justice told her.
Then with my own sense of justice, I’ll do the exact opposite. Mia wasn’t so arrogant as to claim that she wanted to save everyone ailed in the world, but she would do her best to offer a hand to those nearby who were seeking help. Her aid wouldn’t be limited to her mom.
If our nation is going to abandon Demon Claw patients to death after subjecting them to it, then I’ll be the one to save them. Someday, for sure. Mia clenched her fists and looked up at the broad sky, where blue peeked through the thick layer of smog set adrift by summer winds.
✦ ✦ ✦
SUMMER came suddenly, and with it, the sun stayed blazing in the sky for the longest hours making it so gas powered lamps ceased to run throughout the day. With the arrival of summer came the Summer Solstice Celebration. The auditorium was packed with the entire student body, but the air was relatively bearable because mage students used wind spells to cool the room down in addition to the massive gear-powered fans.
Isea Royal Academy’s faculty had clarified in a school-wide announcement, and in their individual classes, that Mia and her team were free of infection, but students still kept their distance. A ring of empty chairs surrounded them wherever they sat. But once today was over, students leave the Academy to enjoy summer break. As gossip was said to last only seventy-five days before the next juicy scandal, Mia was optimistic that things would return to normal in due time.
Or perhaps it was because something else on her mind was far more important than how people she had never even cared about thought of her.
Competition results were set to be announced during the assembly. Before revealing the winners, the faculty announced who had earned the best grades of each class year. Henrik had scored “Perfect” in every subject, securing him as the top of the first-year students. Mia couldn’t compare to him in all subjects combined, but she maintained her seat as the top student in the Pharmacology Department.
Then there was Felix and Mathias, who had scored horribly with Pass or Fail marks for every subject outside of their Grand Plan. Fortunately for them, they both narrowly escaped being held back a year. They owed that to their Grand Plan, which had earned the sole Perfect grade in their year. Had the two not teamed up with Henrik and Mia, they would’ve very likely failed the year.
“And here I was thinking you were just pretending to be bad at everything. I’m ashamed as one of your citizens,” Henrik taunted.
“I’m ashamed as your caretaker too,” Mathias agreed.
“Mathias, you don’t get to say that.”
Mia gave a strained smile at their sharp-tongued banter just as the auditorium filled with excited chatter. They were about to announce the competition results everyone was dying to know.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Her heart started to hammer wildly, her blood coursed anxiously through her veins. Her entire body was at the mercy of her heart’s tempo. Feeling dizzy, Mia slammed her eyes shut.
Calm down. We received a Perfect score. We’ll be fine!
Applause erupted in the distance. But not a fragment of her friends’ previously amiable mood was left. They neither clapped nor made a peep.
Unnerved, Mia cracked her eyes open, to be dumbfounded by what the grinding, steam-powered projectors in the back had projected onto the wall in front of them. Mia and her teammates’ names were absent from the list of winners. In their place was a row of upperclassmen’s names.
No matter how many times she blinked and rubbed at her eyes, the dimly lit list didn’t change. Mia pinched her cheek—if this was a dream, she wanted to wake up. But her hopes fell flat, as each pinch to her cheek, hand, and arm left only physical pain to accompany her mental anguish.
“…This is a bad…joke…right?”
President Strickler stood on the stage that was raised several feet off the auditorium floor by a gear-controlled crank. As the chief director of the competition, he stroked his curled mustache and cleared his throat with an air of importance, drawing the students’ attention.
“Ahem. The competition this time had many excellent papers to choose from, and it was an unexpectedly close contest, but this is what we decided on after careful deliberation.” He read the names off a paper with a smile. By the time he had read the name of almost every winner, Mia lost the will to continue standing and crouched on the ground.
…It didn’t work. It didn’t work! Mom—
“Mia,” all three of her teammates nervously called her name. She wanted to cry because she knew they were trying to figure out how to comfort her.
I’m sorry, guys. I put you through a lot, and it didn’t result in anything…
“Finally,” President Strickler said in a noticeably louder voice. The chatter stopped again. Surprised, Mia lifted her head, and her eyes met his. The usual smile was gone from his face, which was strange because she had only ever seen him smile. His image changed completely when he was expressionless, as if he were another person altogether. “Mia Baumann, Felix Keyserling, Henrik Vigant, and Mathias Weiss, please come to the stage,” he ordered in a harsh voice.
Mia leapt from her crouched position like a lit firework. Her teammates gave her a nudge to take the lead towards the stage. Making her way over, she carefully stepped onto a platform that creaked as its gears were cranked to elevate it to the stage’s height.
What’s going on? What the heck is going to happen?! I sure hope they aren’t going to berate us in front of the entire school for infiltrating the Sanatorium! What other reason would they have to call her team to the stage?
As she was withdrawing inside her mind, President Strickler suddenly grinned. It was the grin of a child who had succeeded in pulling off a prank.
“Their Grand Plan was an investigation into Demon Claw’s infectiousness. They are still just first-years, and their content lacked the expertise to win… However, they earned our highest regard for an ingenious topic that delved into a subject no one had ever tackled and for their resilient zeal that withstood the most relentless guidance…and so, every member of the Academy’s faculty and I, as the president, have decided to back them! We hope all our students will learn from their passion and embrace their studies just as fervently! A round of applause!”
The auditorium stirred. Students looked at each other questioningly. Then one clap, and another, crisply echoed above the sound of the whirring projector. Then all at once, a roaring round of applause consumed the auditorium in a raging downpour. Mia couldn’t stop from shaking and instinctively held onto Felix’s hand.
Professor Rueger brought them their special certificate with an even wider smile. “Will the representative of your team step forward?”
Mia looked at Felix, Henrik, and then Mathias. They all smiled at her, signaling for her to step forward.
“B-But…are you sure you’re okay with me?”
“Who else would it be?” Henrik gave her back a small nudge.
She took a step forward to receive the special certificate from Professor Rueger. Neatly embossed in golden letters read, “Isea Royal Academy’s Special Award.”
Professor Rueger addressed her, “You’ve gained irreplaceable friends. That is the greatest achievement you’ve made this year.” His face flushed as he continued, “Many processes go into developing a new medicine. Not all of them can be accomplished by the Pharmacology Department alone. Once you create a medicine, you have to conduct clinical studies on people after you succeed with animal testing. During your clinical trials you’ll need to clear daunting legal procedures. And above all else, the medicine you want to create is intimately connected to magic. Naturally, your research requires all departments: pharmacology, medicine, law, and magic to succeed! I’m excited to see what outrageous things will come of this. The Royal Academy will cover all funding for your project and absolutely won’t succumb to the military’s pressure. So go as far as you can possibly go!”
Powerful determination lit his eyes as he gazed at her. “Let’s fight them together, my little comrade.”
They had successfully climbed over an impossibly high wall, and that wall had become a stepping-stone for the next towering wall. Professor Rueger was solidifying the foundations for their climb to even higher places in the future.
What a reassuring and mighty ally we’ve gained. Mia firmly shook the hand he offered her.