I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 830 - Side Story 103: Mirror World (1)

The world changes.

Even things that appear unchanging and fixed at a glance also change. It's just that the change is so slow that we fail to detect it.

The years that humans live are nothing more than a twinkling instant in the history of stars being born and dying.

But that is why humans change rapidly, and create beauty within that brilliance.

The civilization they have built up is proof of that.

One god disliked the way humans were, and wanted to lock them in a cage and make them live their entire lives without progress.

But now that the cage has been broken, the world was experiencing suppressed changes rushing in at a rapid pace like a bursting dam.

The thing developing most distinctively was magic.

Every moment, mages strive to develop and create new magic, better magic.

In the process, countless people fall without seeing the light, but in the ashes thus accumulated, flames tend to bloom.

The flame that rises fueled by talent, though small and flickering at first.

At some point when you come to your senses, it becomes like a lighthouse illuminating the path ahead.

But such cases are extremely rare to find.

Not only are geniuses worthy of being counted in a century not commonly seen, but even among such geniuses, only those who are particularly outstanding can change magic for the better.

"Oppa! I'm here!"

And now one of those geniuses had come to visit Rudger's office.

Looking at Rene who appeared cheerfully wearing a pure white gown, Rudger adjusted his frameless glasses.

" Rene. Didn't I tell you to contact me in advance if you're going to visit? It's troublesome even for me if you suddenly appear like this."

"Oh come on. I came thinking you'd be in your personal office around this time, diligently grading student assignment reports."

"How do you even know my academic schedule? Well, I suppose it is that obvious."

A teacher's schedule doesn't differ much anyway.

Especially for a teacher in charge of a special class like Rudger, since classes weren't frequent, they would often be stuck in the office for the rest of the time.

If it were another teacher, they would have used the spare time to return to their quarters to rest, or do other external activities.

But in Rudger's case, since he had such a strong sense of responsibility for his work, he rarely left the office.

The reason Rene came with such confidence was because she knew all these facts.

Rudger took off the glasses he was wearing.

He wasn't wearing them because his eyesight was bad. These were also artifacts, so he just favored them because they played a role in relieving eye fatigue.

"You seem quite excited for someone who suddenly came to visit."

Rudger examined Rene's expression.

It had been a while since she had visited like this, and moreover, her expression was full of a sense of accomplishment from achieving something.

"Ah, did it show that much?"

"You're so eager to tell me something right away, how could I not notice. Seeing that you came like this, did you come up with an improvement for the magic you mentioned that day?"

"Correct! Ehehe. I was going to tell you as a surprise, but as expected of you, oppa. You're quick to notice."

"If you suddenly appeared after being holed up in a room for months without a word until now, there must be a reason for it."

Right. Several months had already passed since that day.

The rumors about the Hyperborea continent had also faded among people after a considerable amount of time had passed.

Rather, it was being treated as a forbidden zone that humans should absolutely never visit.

Apparently, the ruins and forests there were actually monster lairs and traps to lure people out.

Perhaps because of that, people's attention turned elsewhere. In a world that changed moment by moment, interesting elements worth paying attention to appeared constantly.

"Actually, I came to talk to you about that. Ah, do you have time now?"

"Yes. I was just finishing up my work anyway."

Of course, there was also the fact that Rene had aimed for that timing.

"That's good then! Have you had a meal yet?"

"Now that you mention it, is it already lunchtime? I haven't eaten yet."

"Do you have plans?"

"Nothing in particular. As usual, I'll go eat at the cafeteria."

Normally he would have eaten with other teachers, but now everyone was busy with classes and assignments, so the timing to meet hadn't worked out.

Rudger didn't particularly mind eating alone, so he didn't care much about it.

"Ah, it's good that you don't have prior plans."

Rene said with a smile.

"Let's go eat together. I have a regular restaurant I go to often."

"Hmm. Well, I have nothing to do, so let's do that. It would be a bit awkward to have this conversation here anyway."

"Yay, great! Shall we go right away then?"

Rene extended her hand to Rudger.

Rudger stared at Rene's hand with a blank gaze, then met her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh my. I'm telling you to hold my hand."

"Hold it?"

"We need to go straight to the restaurant, don't we?"

In other words, she was saying they should fly there directly with spatial movement magic.

Although he wondered if they necessarily had to hold hands for that, Rene snatched Rudger's hand before such questions could arise.

The moment he felt warmth along with a soft touch on his palm was brief.

"Then, we're going right now!"

With an energetic voice, mana dances.

The spatial magic power that gently wrapped around their bodies interfered with the coordinates, twisting the axis thus, the two leaped across space.

The scenery changed from a familiar place to an unfamiliar one.

The place they arrived at was a city they had never seen before.

"It's not the capital. Where is this?"

"Ah. It's a village called Gertingken on the outskirts of the Empire."

"A village."

It certainly wasn't large enough to be called a city. A bit bigger than to be called countryside, there was also a somewhat pastoral feeling.

"There's a good restaurant here."

"You did well to find a place like this."

"If you keep yourself holed up in a workshop doing magic research all the time, you go crazy. At times like that, you need to relieve stress well for your mental health. Look at Julia. She went weird, didn't she?"

Hmm. Since she gave a clear example, he couldn't refute it at all.

"I usually eat delicious things. How wonderful is it to have a sweet dessert after a meal?"

Rudger chuckled.

Still, he was relieved that she wasn't just immersing herself in magic research and harming her health.

"While eating out, I've been going around looking for restaurants that seem delicious. It doesn't matter how far away they are. Space isn't a constraint for me."

"I see. Don't tell me you even go outside the Empire?"

"Uh, um. Sometimes?"

"So you do go."

He thought there might be diplomatic problems if an incident occurred, but if it was Rene, she would probably handle it well on her own.

-Ding-a-ling

He followed Rene and opened the door into the shop. The bell sound welcomed them both.

"Oh my. It's the young lady from before."

"Can we eat today?"

A woman in her 40s who appeared to be the shop owner welcomed the two.

"Of course."

"Then a table for two!"

"Hoho. As many as you like. Is that person behind you your boyfriend? My goodness, he's really handsome."

"Oh my. Auntie."

Rene blushed and laughed as if embarrassed.

Rudger sat down with Rene at an empty seat.

As the words "good restaurant" weren't wrong, the shop was quite crowded with customers.

Fortunately, there was a seat prepared for the two. On the second floor by the window, it was a good seat where the street could be seen at a glance.

"We're lucky!"

Rene said while quickly removing the "Reserved" sign placed on the seat without letting Rudger catch her.

Of course, Rudger had already seen it, but he didn't bother to point it out.

"The view is nice. I didn't know there was a place like this in the Empire."

"Right? You should go out and wander around more often too, oppa."

"I've traveled around the entire continent more than you."

"Not those dangerous and huge places. There are so many places like this where you can find small pleasures and beauty."

Rudger didn't deny those words.

Visiting only famous places wasn't all there was to traveling.

Sometimes, these familiar yet somehow unfamiliar villages where people just live could be more helpful for one's sensibilities.

"Right. When I have time later, I should wander around different places."

"I can guide you. It's lonely to go alone. If we go together, it will definitely be more fun."

Rudger stared intently at Rene. Her face was flushed red. It was a kind of flirting, done with some courage.

"Here. Have a cup of tea before your meal."

The shop owner approached and placed warm tea in front of them both.

She held the tray to her chest, then winked at Rene.

"So. Rene, have you made progress on your magic research?"

"Of course I have! That's why I came to see you."

As soon as the topic was changed, Rene’s eyes sparkled like a fish in water.

"You know that device I showed you back then? It's finally complete."

"Wasn't it still a prototype?"

"I've already passed that stage. Safety management is also secure. There are still a few preparations left before announcing it publicly, but that won't be long either."

Rene chatted away, introducing the device she had created, the mirror-hypercube.

Another name for it was mirror world.

It was a name attached as a draft, but it had essentially solidified as this name.

"This isn't just a device for crossing space, for coordinate movement. Rather, it's something much more high-dimensional than that."

With an explanation going this far, Rudger couldn't help but be interested.

He too was a mage. Though he was currently teaching students, his passion for pursuing knowledge yielded to no one.

"What are you trying to do with it?"

"This is, well, you can literally see other dimensions. You know the Crystal Corridor you made? Imaginary space has twisted spacetime, right? And within it, the world branches out into countless paths. This device is, so to speak, a device that can observe and at the same time go to that world."

Rudger recalled the Crystal Corridor.

It was a magical device he had devised to go to Earth.

Although it was destroyed because of Lumensis, even amid that, there was a part that remained vividly in his memory.

Specifically, it was his past self reflected inside the corridor.

As they crossed the corridor, Rudger's appearance reflected there gradually became younger.

That is, his self from different time axes was reflected on the corridor's wall surface, which was no different from a mirror.

Rene had also seen that scene.

"You said you finished verifying its stability too. Have you actually tested it?"

"First, I tested it with an experimental rat. The rat placed in the mirror world disappeared for a short time."

According to observation results from various devices, it went beyond just the appearance disappearing—its very existence disappeared from this world.

"And when it came back, something quite surprising happened. The rat was holding a strange nut seed that no one had given it."

"A nut seed."

"When we recovered and examined it, don't be surprised. It turned out to be a seed from a completely new plant group that doesn't exist at all on the continent right now."

In other words, the experimental rat crossed over to another dimension and brought back a seed from there.

This was an amazing thing.

Just discovering a new continent had people's attention burning hot. Though it has cooled down now, if a similar event occurred, it would be enough to gather the attention of the entire continent.

In the midst of that, if Rene's mirror world was announced and it became possible to go to other dimensions.

"However, wouldn't that not be much different from the 'door' I made?"

The 'door' was also a passage to go to another world.

Though it was currently connected to Earth, if the coordinates were changed, going to other worlds wasn't impossible either.

"No way. It's different from the door. The door only plays the role of a passage, but the mirror world is more comprehensive. You don't even need to know the coordinates in advance. The device finds them on its own."

Rene's words were correct.

The door was meaningful as a device that crossed dimensions, but it came with difficult conditions.

'Because observing a world whose coordinates you don't know comes first.'

Being able to go to Earth was possible purely because Rudger was from Earth.

Going to other worlds was as slim as swimming in the vast ocean to find an island. Moreover, you had to find an island where people lived.

If Rene's words were true, the mirror world was a device that was a much higher compatible version than the door.

"And before announcing it, I came because I wanted to show it to you, oppa."

Rene said with a beaming smile.

"Do you want to check it out together, just the two of us?"