Neuvillette returned to his office at Palais Mermonia, pausing outside to listen for any commotion. Hearing only silence, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly, Furina was unusually quiet today. She probably hadn't caused any trouble for him.
With this thought, Neuvillette pushed open the door and saw Furina sleeping on the sofa.
Though he hadn't expected her to share much of his workload, taking it easy was one thing, but slacking off in his office? That was going too far. Couldn't she consider his feelings as someone working around the clock?
Never mind, he thought. As long as she hasn't caused any trouble, it seems my earlier anxieties were unfounded.
Neuvillette shook his head and approached her.
"Lady Furina."
"Is it snack time already?"
Furina opened her drowsy eyes, gazing at Neuvillette's profile for a long moment before finally snapping out of her daze. She wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.
"Oh, it's you, Neuvillette!"
"You're finally back!"
"Let me tell you, I've been working so hard! I've already finished more than half of the tasks there!"
"Now you can't say I don't take my duties seriously. I've been putting in a real effort!"
Hearing Furina's words, Neuvillette's body trembled slightly, and the suppressed anxiety surged back into his heart.
As the saying goes, it's not Furina's laziness we fear, but her overzealousness!
Without hesitation, Neuvillette immediately turned back to his workstation and began reviewing the documents on his desk.
"Neuvillette, your reaction is excessive!" Furina snapped, her voice laced with anger at his blatant lack of trust. "For such a trivial task, even you could handle it! Entrusting it to me ensures absolute certainty!"
Neuvillette's eye twitched involuntarily as he examined the completely replaced documents, each containing only a few sparse words. Most were isolated numbers or nouns, rarely forming coherent sentences. He even found a document marked "Reviewed," its purpose utterly baffling.
Needless to say, given Furina's earlier remarks, these were undoubtedly her handiwork!
"Lady Furina!"
"What is it? No need for excessive praise—after all, I am the Hydro Archon. This is merely my duty... Ahem, I suddenly remembered the bedding needs airing. I'll go hang the blankets out to dry!"
Sensing the increasingly dangerous aura emanating from Neuvillette, Furina swiftly concocted an excuse and tried to escape.
Just then, the sky, which had been clear for a while, suddenly darkened with thick clouds again. But Furina, without so much as a backward glance, fled as fast as her legs could carry her.
"Lady Furina, why are you in such a hurry? Is something urgent?"
"Gotta go home and air out the blankets!"
The Melusine guarding the door couldn't help but call out to Furina as she saw her hurrying away. But Furina simply tossed back the answer and sprinted off without stopping.
"Huh?"
The Melusine gazed up at the sky, which looked ready to rain at any moment, then at Furina's retreating figure, unsure what to say.
At that moment, Neuvillette summoned her from inside the room.
"Are the original copies of these documents still available?"
"Monsieur Neuvillette, since these documents were highly confidential, they've already been destroyed..."
Neuvillette sighed softly. "Then have them rewrite the reports and submit them again."
"Yes, Monsieur Neuvillette!"
"To think Fontaine has already developed such concise, insightful, and rigorous formulas," Rene mused, flipping through the book before him amidst the surrounding clamor. "Truly, the times have changed!"
Jacob was still scratching his head, never having imagined the day would come when his own mind felt inadequate.
"Finished reading?"
Hearing the question from nearby, Rene replied slowly, "I've grasped the basic principles well enough, but I can sense the infinite variations within. It will likely take much longer to truly familiarize myself with them."
"Excellent. You truly live up to your reputation as a genius, Monsieur Rene."
"To grasp its intricacies so quickly? At the Academy, that speed would place you among the top learners."
"Just among the top?"
Rene paused, momentarily taken aback. Though he wasn't particularly competitive, he had always believed his talent was second only to Alain's. In their era, he and Alain had left other prodigies far behind, making those others—whom ordinary people considered geniuses—seem like mere mortals by comparison.
Yet now, Alva claimed there were at least several individuals at the Academy whose learning abilities surpassed his own. This revelation filled him with astonishment and a burgeoning sense of anticipation.
The collision of minds between geniuses often leads to deeper insights.
Especially now, as he was just beginning to delve into Clockwork Technology, he needed someone to guide him, someone who could help him quickly grasp its true essence.
"I never imagined there would be someone here with talent surpassing mine. I'll definitely need to find time to exchange ideas with them in the future."
Jacob, finally noticing the commotion, temporarily surfaced from his sea of advanced mathematics and spoke to Alva with a dismissive tone.
"Hmph! Rene is the most extraordinary genius I've ever met. No one could possibly surpass him!"
"You're just bragging!"
"Jacob."
Rene cut Jacob off before he could continue.
"My talent is only slightly above average. In such a vast world, there must be people with far greater abilities than mine. Besides, so many years have passed; this isn't our era anymore."
After saying this, Rene turned to Alva with a slightly apologetic tone.
"My apologies, Monsieur Alva. Jacob spoke carelessly. I hope you're not offended."
"Haha, no worries at all! This kind of thing happens all the time. Everyone here is used to it."
"All the time?"
"Exactly! Every genius who comes here believes their own talent is the most exceptional. Of course, that's the confidence and pride a true genius should have. I understand perfectly."
"Now that Monsieur Rene is generally familiar with the material, let's start with a simple practice problem."
With a swift flourish, Alva scribbled down calculations that filled an entire sheet of paper.
Just a glance at the symbols sent Jacob's head throbbing violently, dredging up painful memories of his struggles with advanced calculus. He felt like he was drowning in a sea of mathematics all over again.
"Alright, Monsieur Rene, since you're just starting with this subject, let's stop here for now."
After a while, Alva finally put down his pen and smiled as he placed the problem before Rene.
Rene stared at the "simple" exercise, at a loss for words.
Alva's concept of "simple" seemed utterly misguided. To Rene, solving this problem would be nearly impossible for an ordinary beginner.
But Rene was no ordinary beginner!
After about half an hour, Rene finally wrote the answer on the paper.
Meanwhile, Jacob, having clearly recognized his limits, decided to focus on being Rene's bodyguard and went to scout the rest of the Academy.
After double-checking his answers to ensure their accuracy, Rene nodded slightly, satisfied with his speed.
The questions were highly targeted, effectively reinforcing his understanding of the material.
Just as Rene was about to hand the answers to Alva for review, he noticed Alva was wearing an eye mask and earplugs, leaning back in his chair, fast asleep.
Rene glanced at the clock in the hall, confirming it was still working hours. He couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness at Alva's behavior.
Judging by how effortlessly Alva had drafted such a challenging problem earlier, he clearly possessed genuine talent. It seemed a waste for him to squander his gifts like this.
For Rene, with the Day of Prophecy looming, he wished he could split every minute in two. He couldn't stand seeing Alva slack off like this. Yet, given his subordinate position, he hesitated to say anything.
This wasn't the Narzissenkreuz Ordo, and he was no longer Master Narzissenkreuz.
In a sense, he was now Alva's assistant.
Rene shook his head in resignation, then glanced around at the boisterous atmosphere—where not a single word was being exchanged about scientific research—and couldn't help but feel a growing sense of unease about his future.
Had he made the right choice joining the Fontaine Research Institute?
In his eyes, these people lacked any sense of historical mission, seemingly content to drift through life, eating their fill and waiting for death.
Rene sighed softly, then turned his gaze to Alva and murmured, "Monsieur Alva, wake up."
When there was no response, Rene raised his voice slightly.
"Monsieur Alva!"
"What is it?"
Alva pushed his eye mask up to his forehead and looked at Rene with a puzzled expression. "Is Neuvillette back already?"
Rene rolled his eyes inwardly, took a deep breath, and patiently repeated, "Monsieur Alva, I've solved the problem you set."
"Is that so? Let me see."
Alva snatched the answer sheet from Rene's hand, glanced at it briefly, and then shook his head. "Wrong."
"Wrong?" Rene asked, puzzled. "Monsieur Alva, do you find fault with my answer? I've already checked it myself and can't find any errors."
"You checked it yourself? Then it's even more wrong!"
A question mark slowly materialized on Rene's forehead.
Seeing Rene's bewildered expression, Alva explained, "The answer itself is correct, but your solution is far too convoluted! Look at this entire section—you could have simply written 'From the given information...'! That way, even if there's a mistake, no one will dare question your answer. It's much safer."
Rene: "???"
"And all this below? Completely unnecessary. If someone can't understand it, that's their problem, not yours. You need to develop this good habit early on! If we follow every rule so rigidly, how much personal time will we have left?"
Rene: "???"
"Alright, if you understand, go get some rest. If not, keep thinking about it. We'll discuss the rest later. I need to catch up on sleep—I stayed up all night reading novels yesterday and barely slept."
With that, Alva pulled his eye mask back down, leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and prepared to drift off to sleep.
Rene could no longer contain himself and interrupted him.
"Monsieur Alva, I don't think this is right. It's work hours now, and we're getting paid. Taking the money but not working—doesn't that make you feel guilty?"
"Ah, you're still too young," Alva sighed, removing his eye mask again.
"Paid slacking off is the best!"
Rene was speechless.
"Besides, this isn't really slacking off. We're just getting into a better state of mind to tackle new work."
"As the saying goes, the more you slack off, the better your work will be..."
"There's no such saying!" Rene couldn't help but retort. Alva replied calmly,
"It's a recent one, Monsieur Rene. You might not have been following this kind of news."
Now Rene was truly stumped. He genuinely hadn't been keeping up with such matters, leaving him unable to directly refute Alva's claims.
"Besides, isn't it only fair that we do as much work as we're paid for?"
"The Academy only gets such a meager annual budget from the higher-ups. It's hard to do our best for them!"
"But I recall Monsieur Neuvillette offering ten times the overtime pay, didn't he?"
Rene was shocked by Alva's mercenary attitude, and the last shred of goodwill he'd felt for him vanished completely.
Without a genuine thirst for truth and exploration, even the most gifted mind is just another mediocrity.
"The overtime pay thing is true," Alva conceded. "We didn't expect Monsieur Neuvillette to be so generous this time."
Seeing Alva nod, Rene couldn't help but ask,
"Since Monsieur Neuvillette has offered such generous compensation, shouldn't everyone at the Academy be putting in some extra effort?" Rene urged in a calm voice, hoping to persuade Alva to reconsider.
"The Day of Prophecy is drawing ever closer. If we don't take action soon, the end might truly come."
Alva chuckled. "You make it sound so dire."
"Didn't I tell you? I work as much as I'm paid. Monsieur Neuvillette may have offered extra pay, but it's all overtime pay. We only get it if we work extra hours."
"Haven't you noticed? Everyone's rushing to finish their personal matters early, so they can come back fresh for the overtime shifts."
Rene fell silent.
Alva patted Rene's hand and spoke with fatherly gravity. "That's why I say you're still too young. The daily workload is so small. If we don't save some tasks for overtime to earn ten times the pay, we'd be fools among fools."
"Monsieur Rene, you still have much to learn..."
Just as Alva finished speaking, the hall clock struck the hour—time to clock out.
Rene suddenly sensed a dramatic shift in the man's aura. The previous languor had vanished, replaced by an almost arrogant air.
Alva strode briskly to the workbench and began manipulating the tools with lightning-fast precision.
The suddenness of this transformation left Rene completely dumbfounded.
What's more, Rene noticed the same shift in others around the room. Some had launched into academic discussions, while others immediately set to work.
Suddenly, the floor trembled, and the ceiling split open lengthwise, transforming the room into an open-air space.
"Final inspection time, everyone! Take your time and focus. Whether you earn an extra hour's pay at ten times the rate depends entirely on your performance!"
Rene steadied himself and glanced into the distance, spotting a massive, pitch-black cannon barrel rising from beneath the ground.
Holy crap! Rene thought. Holy crap!
Even without firing, the intricate patterns etched along the cannon's barrel sent a shiver down his spine.
These elaborate designs served a single, brutal purpose: to amplify the destructive force of its shells. Simple and brutal.
With such a caliber, the cannon's destructive power would be amplified to unimaginable levels.
What is Fontaine planning? he wondered. Are they declaring war on other nations? Or even Celestia itself?!
"What are you gawking at? That's Group Four's project, not ours."
"Even if you helped, they wouldn't give you a penny."
"Hurry up and lend a hand. We have our own project to finish."
Alva's impatient voice carried from the distance.
Rene desperately wanted to offer his help, even without pay, but considering his current precarious situation, he kept his mouth shut.
After one last wistful glance at the massive cannon, Rene reluctantly joined Alva, ready to assist with the construction of something called a "mobile phone."
Though it was supposed to be collaboration, Alva's hands moved so swiftly that Rene couldn't keep up. He was relegated to the role of a mere assistant, fetching materials and running errands.
Throughout the process, Alva explained the mechanics as he worked, but Rene, being completely new to Clockwork Technology, struggled to grasp the concepts immediately.
Nevertheless, Rene meticulously memorized Alva's explanations, planning to study them thoroughly later.
"Done."
Ten minutes later, Alva tossed a rectangular black box to Rene, then returned to his seat, yawned, and settled back down.
"Done?" Rene asked, completely bewildered, having barely grasped what had just happened.
"Yeah, the mobile phone's finished. Take it and test it out. Go slow, I'm catching up on sleep. Wake me when my four-hour overtime limit's up."
"Huh?!"
Rene was now utterly stunned.
Wait, wasn't this project supposed to take years?!
He'd thought being assigned to Group Two was for learning and gaining experience. Now it was finished?!
And Rene had personally witnessed Alva start from scratch, finishing in the last ten minutes of his shift, even taking the time to mentor him along the way.
Rene didn't understand, but he was deeply shaken...