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As someone walked up onto the podium, the lecture hall quieted down and all eyes were focused on them.

Marian was a little, no, quite shocked. The person who had come up on stage was a rather young woman.

She was so different from the vague image she had in her mind of a genius engineer. Dressed in a lab coat and sporting dark circles under her eyes, she was a beauty with long, curly hair that was unmistakably rare.

‘Could it be that the Doctor Brown I only heard about is a woman?’

Most of the people were in shock, causing a stir in the lecture hall.

Heinkel Headmaster stroked his beard, tilting his head in confusion, while Schurz also furrowed his brow, showing a look of skepticism.

At that moment, the woman in the lab coat, receiving all the attention, hunched her shoulders and grasped the voice amplification magic tool tightly.

Then, in a trembling voice, she cautiously opened her mouth.

“D-Doctor Brown… has not yet arrived at the lecture hall.”

“Huh?”

“What did you say?”

The murmuring from the crowd grew louder.

Marian was just as confused. She understood that the woman before her was not Doctor Brown, but if Doctor Brown hadn’t arrived yet, what would happen to today’s lecture? Were they really going to have to go back like this?

As the murmurs from the crowd grew, the woman on the podium made a face that showed how tremendously burdened she felt and continued speaking in a shaking voice.

“If you could just wait a moment, she will arrive shortly. So, I kindly ask for your understanding… We are doing our best to find her….”

Someone among the students sitting in the lecture hall raised their voice.

“Wait a minute. What do you mean ‘finding’ her? Are you saying she just disappeared without a word before the lecture?”

“Huh?! I-I didn’t mean to say that…! It’s definitely not like that, I’m sure Doctor has some circumstances… so if you could just wait a little longer….”

Unfortunately, despite her voice being amplified, it was too small and unclear. Thus, most of the people couldn’t focus on her words and began talking among themselves.

What if the lecture got canceled? Even if she’s a genius engineer, isn’t this a bit too much? There are so many people waiting, is it not a problem to not keep promises? It feels like a waste of effort to have come here….

Dissatisfaction turned into anger, and that anger was directed toward the absent Doctor Brown.

If it was just a slight delay, they could wait, but the fact that she had vanished with no contact meant they were being asked to wait indefinitely for someone whose arrival was uncertain.

As people’s reactions became more intense, Heinkel Headmaster’s expression, who had organized this lecture, gradually stiffened.

Just as Marian and a few students glanced around with anxious expressions, suddenly, a loud banging noise echoed from somewhere.

It was the sound of a window in the ceiling of the lecture hall being flung open.

“Hee hee hee! I think I might be a bit late!”

Along with the voice of a bizarrely talkative man, a much louder sound rang out like a roar.

That sound resembled the cry of a dragon or perhaps the howling of a storm.

The rough and thunderous noise drew everyone’s gaze upward, and they were able to see.

A middle-aged man was descending from the sky, carrying a massive machine on his back. The huge noise was the sound of the machine’s motor.

Most of the people didn’t know it was Doctor Brown’s temporary invention called the ‘magic jetpack,’ but they could tell it was an unfamiliar object they had never seen before.

At that moment, the curly-haired woman, who had been blankly staring at the ceiling, finally spoke up.

“D-Doctor Brown has arrived! Please give her a warm round of applause…!”

“Wowwww!!”

In that instant, the notion of Doctor Brown’s tardiness completely vanished from everyone’s minds. They reacted more intensely to Doctor Brown’s unique entrance and the unprecedented object.

Of course, while coming down, the machine alternated between rising and falling rapidly, and at one point, it trembled and emitted black smoke, giving a precarious appearance, but in the end, the Doctor landed safely on the podium.

“Oh dear. Sorry for making you wait. Hee hee, I couldn’t help it; I was busy preparing for the lecture. That thing is just so stubborn….”

‘That thing?’

Marian briefly wondered who the Doctor was referring to.

-Rattle rattle rattle!

“Ugh! It must be still in the prototype stage; it’s causing trouble. Needs to be stabilized more.”

Doctor Brown set the machine he had been carrying on the ground and sprinkled white powder on the now even smokier machine. Instantly, the trembling device quieted down and came to a complete stop.

With a cheerful smile, he looked around the lecture hall.

“Even if I don’t really feel like it, let’s go ahead and start this lecture.”

*

“They claim to be modern intellectuals, but they’re all just well-mannered idiots. They’re trapped in superficial knowledge and completely miss fundamental values and creativity. We must not be confined by the existing educational system but rather exhibit originality and creativity that transcends conventional thinking!”

Doctor Brown’s lecture was, to put it simply, very intense.

“What difference remains if you stop thinking? Isn’t the current Empire no different from a blind man’s paradise? The advancement of technology and science is the revolutionary means to achieve true progress for humanity, yet most don’t realize this. What good does it do to create magnificent technology? Nobles only see it as a game of money and power! It’s like cooking a stew with the finest fish and using renowned Eastern tea to make milk soup!”

Throughout the lecture, Doctor Brown passionately raised his voice.

At that age, it was astonishing to see how much energy he still possessed.

“It makes no difference whether it’s the imperial family or the administration! The aim of giving me money is the same! It’s not about pure technological advancement, it’s just-”

The faces of the people sitting in the lecture hall turned pale in an instant.

They looked scared, worried that attending the lecture in this place might lead them to be dragged away by the intelligence agency.

Fortunately, the curly-haired woman appropriately interrupted Doctor Brown’s speech.

“D-Doctor Brown! That’s enough! You can’t say any more!”

“Huh? My assistant is making a fuss. It can’t be helped; I’ll leave it at that…”

Doctor Brown, interrupted in the midst of his fervent speech, looked disappointed. He cleared his throat briefly and continued speaking.

“In that sense, there’s a genius I acknowledge. A true genius with proper creativity that humanity has never reached. You there, red-haired student. Who do you think it might be?”

“Me? Huh? Me?”

Marian, suddenly called out, was taken by surprise and replied.

She pondered for a moment, and with uncertain voice, she responded.

“Um….”

To be honest, the first person that came to Marian’s mind was her grandfather.

Marquis Kalstein, during the last war, saved 90% of the allied forces from total annihilation and created an opportunity for a counterattack. Additionally, he successfully conducted numerous operations and was evaluated as a genius of military strategy.

This wasn’t praise due to her family ties; it was an objective evaluation, and that really was the case.

However, mentioning her grandfather’s name in such a setting would be akin to gilding her own face, and Marian felt a bit embarrassed about it. So she purposely pretended not to know and spoke.

“Well, I’m not sure….”

“Hmph. It looks like you thought of something… if you don’t know, that’s fine.”

At that moment, Schurz next to Marian raised his hand. When Doctor Brown motioned for him to speak, Schurz nodded and calmly opened his mouth.

“Are you referring to the Philion Grand Empire?”

“Hee hee hee! Ah, here’s a friend who read my mind correctly. Yes, that’s correct.”

Doctor Brown turned to the lecture hall with a deep smile.

“The great Emperor who created the current Empire. Everything we live and enjoy has already been touched by his influence. The tram, the radio, the airship… all of them are merely ideas that Philion Grand Empire thought of before he died, realized hundreds of years later.”

That was certainly a fact acknowledged by most of the Empire.

It was said that the history of the continent was divided into before and after the emergence of Philion Grand Empire, underscoring the tremendous impact he had on the continent.

Beyond founding a single empire after ending an era of turmoil, he brought about significant changes in the continent’s culture and lifestyle.

During the lecture, a student raised his hand. Without being permitted to speak, he unexpectedly opened his mouth and posed a question to the Doctor.

“Doctor, didn’t you think of making weapons with such technology? With Philion Grand Empire’s ideas and your technological prowess, wouldn’t it have been possible to create tremendous weaponry and win the war earlier?”

“…Hmm. What’s your name?”

“Diamond White third-year, Quel von Kaitel.”

The Diamond White student, clad in a white cloak, proudly stood up to introduce himself. Marian also recognized him as the eldest son from a rather illustrious noble family she had met a few times in society.

Doctor Brown stroked his sparse beard and answered with a serious expression.

“Yes, that could have happened. While it hasn’t been publicly disclosed, Philion Grand Empire left behind ideas for weapons before he died, and those are still held by the imperial family. I have read through them.”

“If that’s so—”

“However, I have no interest in weapons. I’ve never thought of making them and I won’t in the future.”

Doctor Brown replied with a dispassionate expression.

“Guns, bombs… creating those will just mean aiming at fellow humans. Humanity can currently kill thousands upon thousands at once with magic. What I’m doing merely increases that number to hundreds of thousands, millions.”

Doctor Brown firmly asserted.

“I’ve discovered true value in the process of creation. Just as creating moving trains and flying ships is much more enjoyable and valuable than challenging what humanity previously thought was impossible. In that sense—”

Doctor Brown took a communication device for video transmission out of his pocket. When he activated it, a magically projected screen appeared at the back of the lecture hall, displaying some footage in front of everyone.

“Hee hee hee! I have prepared a special demonstration for everyone gathered here today. The first prototype of my new invention following the airship!”

Marian couldn’t believe her eyes as she recognized a familiar figure in the video.

There, Instructor Ion was sitting atop a hefty machine equipped with two wheels.

-“Ha….”

In the footage, Instructor Ion was letting out a deep sigh with a very stiff expression.

 

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