Broken Possessors of Infinite Regression Academy

ㅡKnock knock knock knock knock!

Ingrid, who was deeply immersed in the improvement of wide-area magical formulas, paused her work when she heard urgent knocking at the door. She glanced at the clock. The numbers now indicated it was evening. Who could be so rude at this hour? Ingrid frowned slightly and spoke softly.

“Come in.”

“Professor Ingrid!”

A staff member rushed into the room.

“What’s the matter?”

“The magic stone golem! The magic stone golem broke during sparring!”

“What?”

Ingrid unconsciously stood up, her mind racing. The magic stone golem broke? And during sparring? About to ask how such a thing happened, Ingrid suddenly changed her question as a thought occurred to her.

“Could it be that the person who broke it is a student, named Mira Crate?”

“How did you know?”

The staff member’s eyes widened. It was obvious what the answer would be.

“Yes, Mira Crate, the youngest son of the Crates. Professor Jake mentioned that the student broke one of the magic stone golems during sparring.”

Upon receiving the confirmation, Ingrid sat back down in her chair. If that was the case, then there was no need to worry. She had wasted her emotions for no reason. Ingrid waved her hand dismissively.

“You don’t need to worry about it.”

“But, Professor, the magic stone golem broke. Are you sure it’s okay?”

“The Sword Saint understands. She already said from the beginning. Even if the golem breaks, the palace will fully support the repair costs, so don’t worry. The chairman got upset, saying that Bellium Academy isn’t that poor.”

“That’s true, but…”

Ingrid waved off the hesitant staff member and then buried herself back in her chair.

‘He was right.’

The Sword Saint had given her special instructions when providing the magic stone golems for sparring. The instructions were not to be surprised even if Mira Crate broke the golem.

She had been confident that the student had the ability to do so. When asked how she could be so sure, she mentioned a few points of suspicion. In the end, she didn’t hear what those points were.

‘Didn’t she mention that her disciple might be able to enter the academy soon?’

She had said that her disciple, who had miraculously returned to being human after spending several years as a monster, was currently focused on rehabilitation training. It was truly characteristic of the Sword Saint to pursue such goals.

“Where… how badly is it damaged…”

Ingrid, who had received a report on the destruction of the magic stone golem, turned the first page. She let out a small sigh of admiration.

It was a report written by Professor Jake. It described how Mira Crate, barely visible even to Jake’s eyes as a professor, moved at such a speed that he severed the wrist of the magic stone golem and destroyed the core during sparring.

‘He destroyed the core of a magic stone golem that the Royal Guard used for sparring?’

Even setting aside the fact that they would have to create a new one, the thickness of the chestplate alone, originally designed not to be broken, made it an item beyond imagination.

How could he destroy it in less than a second?

‘It feels like I can hear Valera scolding me from here.’

Although there wasn’t a single cheap part to the magic stone golem, the price of the core was particularly exorbitant. Not only was its structure different from that of a regular golem’s core, but it couldn’t be simply created with mana.

Was it just expensive? The process of creating it was also extremely complex. It wasn’t like the Archmages had been just slightly tweaking the design they made hundreds of years ago.

But to shatter that precious item along with the magic stone golem, Ingrid hesitated on how to accept this fact. Even though she had received the Sword Saint’s instructions.

“Professor, are you there? It’s Priscilla Agnes.”

As Ingrid was pondering a solution while reading the report that made her head spin despite receiving prior instructions, she heard the sound of knocking on the door again.

“You may come in.”

With permission granted, Priscilla cautiously entered the room, holding a bunch of parchment papers. Ingrid, surprised by the unexpected visitor and unexpected items, put down the report she had been reading.

“Why have you come, Agnes?”

“I’ve come up with a new core for the magic stone golem. Could you possibly inspect it, Professor?”

“A core for the magic stone golem?”

Ingrid, through years of experience, barely managed to hide her surprise on the surface. Even the Grand Magicians wouldn’t dare to touch the structure of an item that had been so far untouchable.

“Please just take a look at it. I’m asking for your opinion.”

Priscilla, who placed a stack of parchment on her desk, bowing politely. Ingrid sighed.

“Agnes, since it’s something you’ve brought, I’ll take a look, but keep in mind that if someone else had brought it, I would have sent it back without a second thought as nonsense.”

Ingrid said with an unimpressed expression.

“I understand. Thank you for your consideration,” Priscilla replied.

Ingrid unfolded the parchment with an expression of concern. Although she had greased the wheels by agreeing to look at it since it was brought by Priscilla, she didn’t have high expectations. The recent talk among the second-year professors had been about Priscilla’s attitude. Her frequency of skipping lectures had increased significantly since moving up to the second year. While her grades remained perfect, the attitude reversal had become a topic of concern.

Of course, there were professors who didn’t care whether students attended lectures as long as their grades were good. Ingrid was one of them.

However, as Ingrid read through the design on the parchment, her eyes widened in disbelief with each passing moment.

“This… what…”

“How is it, Professor?”

“You could put this into action right away. This is unbelievable. The structure has become more complex, but the process of making it has actually become simpler, and in doing so, the mana efficiency of the magic stone has increased by over 30%?”

Ingrid’s hands trembled as she held the parchment that directly challenged all the knowledge she had accumulated. Priscilla added a final touch.

“I’ve been skipping a lot of lectures lately. I did this to test it out.”

The gossip about Priscilla’s behavior among the second-year professors vanished from Ingrid’s mind like melting snow in spring. Instead, it was replaced by admiration and praise for Priscilla’s genius.

‘…… Did you really think of this? Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to doubt you, but did you co-create it or did one person…….’

Priscilla smiled a little at Ingrid’s rambling.

The man who was her light, her sun, her warmth, her saviour, her everything, should have taken full credit for this achievement, but Priscilla was having none of it.

“It was Mira who opened up the possibilities.”

For her happiness is his happiness.

.

.

–

The plan was halfway successful.

The defeated gemstone golem was transported to the imperial palace, along with its hastily scraped shards, to be fitted with a new core and tested, while the students gave me the ‘why are you so Strong?’ look.

Considering they hadn’t even had their midterms yet, it was a pretty successful transformation. Priscilla’s image was also flipped 180 degrees.

But it was only halfway successful because Priscilla blurted out that I was the original architect of Core, not her.

I was summoned to Ingrid and had to listen to her ramblings with my eyes half closed.

She was even more excited than when he was explaining how to improve the AoE spell formula.

That said, the difference between a spell that has no use outside of battle and a golem that can make your life so much better if you just tweak its gem efficiency is pretty significant.

In the original, they were too worried about the extinction of humans to even think about using the improved cores in everyday life.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I don’t need all that stuff, and if you’re happy, I’m happy, which is why I said you did it.”

“That’s…… No, never mind.”

I was going to attribute it to be only  Priscilla’s work, but the new core wasn’t ours after all, it was the work of future archmages.

I was going to give it to Priscilla as a very small reward for being trapped in this world for so long.

Priscilla, who should have been the one to earn the fame, was smiling with genuine happiness as she left all her achievements to me, and I couldn’t say anything to her.

‘Next time, I’ll just do it myself.’

I realised that I would have to chew the food myself and shove it down her throat before she would eat it.

As it turned out, the lecture on the Wizarding Arts was replaced by another professor. Ingrid had no choice but to run to the palace and stormed out with the plans.

“Hey, Mira, are you free this weekend?”

And, somehow, this was going to be much bigger than I thought.

“Or we can put it off until another time, I know you have to study for your midterms.”

Ten days or so later, with only four days left before the midterms began, Priscilla suddenly said.

“I’m almost done studying for my exams, so I’m sure I can find the time, but why?”

“Dad wants to see you.”