Chapter 1112 – #264_The Fruits Of Research (3)
#1106
1.
Although it hasn’t been publicly announced yet, the two-week call-up for the researchers wasn’t without a plan.
When it comes to ‘Gates,’ Siwoo’s magical capabilities are unparalleled.
The very foundation of his self-generating magic, which can be purely attributed to Siwoo’s achievements, wasn’t it a magic that interfered with the Gate for the sake of escaping Gehenna?
Although it was a quick skim due to the urgency of the escape, he had also reviewed the materials Dorothy had brought to escape Hexennacht.
He had even directly invaded Hexennacht and used the Gate’s magic to cast large-scale spells.
Now that he has reached the 23rd tier, his perspective has changed, and he believed two weeks would be enough. The magic he used to kill Herja was an application of dimensional magic.
-Woong! Woong! Woooong!
This place is Border Town.
After roughly reviewing the Gate’s blueprint, Siwoo was directly interfering with the temporarily halted Gate, closely examining its magical structure.
He extended ribbon-like strands, akin to precision sensory organs, from the center of the circle. He stretched his magical senses to the rings submerged beneath the seawater and the rings arching high into the sky, absorbing the structure into his mind’s eye.
The witches, who had been peeking and gossiping, began to murmur.
“He’s doing that again today.”
“I heard the Hesed Society was in charge of repairing the Gate… It seems the Count is handling it himself?”
“Didn’t you know? He’s been like that for a week now.”
“But isn’t that dangerous?”
“Of course, it’s dangerous.”
Initially, there were many more, but after a week, the excitement had cooled down.
Nevertheless, the witches watched the precarious scene unfold before them, munching on popcorn as if they were watching a circus.
The Gate is more akin to a magical heavy equipment than an artifact. The amount of magical power consumed to maintain the Gate alone is enormous.
Therefore, directly interfering with an operating ‘Gate’ could lead to considerable danger.
If one were to touch something wrong and cause a backflow, they could be charred to a crisp, like being electrocuted by a high-voltage current.
“……”
However, such a sense of crisis was for the audience. Siwoo had already experienced controlling that enormous magical power.
In quiet contemplation, he compared the Gates of Hexennacht and Gehenna.
The Gate of Hexennacht is undoubtedly high-level magic, but it is merely a degraded copy of the Gate of Gehenna.
The Gate of Gehenna perfectly recreates the four seasons, climate, weather, vegetation, and natural phenomena, whereas the Gate of Hexennacht only recreates the dead of winter and an endless night.
Of course, maintaining such a pocket dimension semi-permanently is still an excellent feat of magic.
What impressed Siwoo the most when comparing the two Gates was that their structures were almost identical.
Despite being the original and a replica, the differences were as subtle as those between a natural diamond and a lab-grown diamond, only noticeable upon close inspection.
Even if 99.99% of the structure is similar, a 0.01% difference can lead to such a large gap in imperfection. This indirectly indicates how amazing the ‘Gate’ magic is and how difficult this ‘stabilization’ work is.
-Grrrrrrrrr!
The entire Gate glowed brightly, emitting vibrations as if a giant machine was operating.
The calm sea surface rippled violently, like a tuning fork had been placed in it.
“Oh, is this an enhancement success?”
“Is it really working?”
The onlookers exclaimed as they saw golden fractal patterns appearing inside the ring.
-Pshhhshhh!
After flickering repeatedly, it disappeared with a deflating sound.
“Oh dear. It seems like another failure.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be easy, would it? Honestly, it might take years.”
Having obtained sufficient samples, Siwoo left the onlookers’ comments behind and returned to the research building.
2.
There is no doubt that the witches of Gehenna are nobles and women before they are seekers of transcendent truth.
However, a week into the full-fledged project, the descriptions of ‘feminine’ and ‘elegant’ have long disappeared from the basic science research building.
Witches with bloodshot eyes, muttering and scribbling with pens.
Witches who have been wearing the same clothes for a week, their hair a mess.
The only sounds in the eerie silence were the scratching of fountain pens on paper and…
“Kieeeeeeeek!”
The occasional screech like a strange bird.
“I used the wrong variable in the calculation!!!!”
The witches, who had already lost their humanity, didn’t even glance at their colleague’s desperate scream, only checking if they were using the correct variables themselves.
“Good morning.”
However, the moment Siwoo entered, his coat fluttering, among the witches whose emotions had been worn away, these automatons recalled the emotion of ‘fear.’
“Good morning… That’s the seventh time you’ve said that… Ugh, my head…”
“Hic! Hicc!”
Siwoo immediately took out a piece of paper from his pocket and approached Daphne.
-Tap tap tap
“…Hmm, why is this like this again? Oh? Aha!”
Daphne, desperately not turning her gaze away despite the eerie footsteps approaching her, even added interjections to emphasize how busy and hardworking she was.
However, Siwoo was aware of the workload and processing speed of all the researchers.
Therefore, despite Daphne’s desperation, Siwoo placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Sob sob… sob sob…”
Daphne had a fit, then gave up and hung her head. The other researchers, witnessing their colleague’s tragedy, could only quietly shed tears, lamenting their own situation.
-Rub rub
“You’ve worked hard.”
Siwoo’s gentle voice penetrated Daphne’s ears.
“Your neck seems very stiff?”
“Yes… No, it’s okay… Thank you for your concern, Chairman…”
His hand gently massaged Daphne’s shoulders and neck over her clothes.
It could easily be mistaken for sexual harassment, but Siwoo was not a middle-aged manager with a potbelly and a receding hairline.
Daphne closed her eyes and muttered, ‘Ah, the Chairman’s noble hands are caressing my neck…’ enjoying the reward.
This was one of the few times that Chairman Shin Siwoo, who always kept his boundaries even in such a flower garden, would personally engage in physical contact.
It was like the last supper given to a death row inmate.
“Daphne, could you run this simulation? By 5 AM tomorrow.”
“Yesss…”
A simulation is a kind of theoretical mock experiment.
It involves inputting various variables into the magic formula of the Gate that Siwoo had created and calculating theoretical values.
Since there are no magic-handling computers or programs, it is naturally a manual task that requires a high degree of concentration, not allowing for even a single mistake.
“I’m counting on you.”
“I understand…”
Daphne, who had endured with the belief that there was no paradise to be found in escape, was unfortunately faced with the fact that there was a hell beneath hell.
In fact, there are hardly any witch groups that give such intense workloads.
In the first place, witches are more fickle and haughty than Bengal cats, known for their capricious nature.
However, no one complained to Siwoo or tried to quit.
“If the project is successful? I’ll treat you to the Rose Glass VVIP course. The madam there is my friend.”
“Bonuses? You can just take as much as you want.”
“Of course, we’ll have to upgrade your positions and titles.”
“I’ll also personally review your individual papers later.”
The various benefits that Shin Siwoo had promised were tempting, but…
“……”
It was because of his unwavering focus and passionate gaze as he concentrated on his work, immediately after returning from Border Town.
The forced march for a week already resembled a war zone.
It was a treacherous battlefield where the first witch to die from overwork might appear.
However, Commander Shin Siwoo did not just use his position as chairman or count to order others around.
Rather, he was at the forefront of the research, taking on more work than anyone else.
Even just by quantity, it was easily ten times more, and as the project leader, overseeing all the processes, the visible burden was not the only burden.
While the researchers only had to color one piece of the puzzle and get it checked, Shin Siwoo had to oversee the entire puzzle, drawing the picture and putting it together.
Being obsessed with something.
Forgoing the privileges of a leader, not being trapped in authoritarianism, and sharing difficulties and hardships with everyone else.
That was an undeniable quality of a chairman.
Such a quality instilled the following thoughts in those who followed him.
“He’s done it because he works like that…”
“Can I become like that too?”
“Our chairman is enduring without complaint, so I can’t be weak here.”
The witches gathered here had initially knocked on the doors of the basic science department because of Siwoo’s flashy appearance and career.
But now, to the researchers, Shin Siwoo was no longer a womanizing playboy, a rare male witch, or a young witch who hadn’t even been around for ten years.
Although he was very, very strict and scary, and he would throw an unbelievable amount of work at them with a smile…
He was a leader they wanted to be with as long as they were capable.
-Click
The door suddenly opened, and the expressions of the witches, who had been burning with academic fervor to the point that the indoor temperature rose by about 5 degrees, brightened.
“My love. It’s lunch.”
The witch who entered the research building, casting a long shadow, was the ‘Sword Witch.’
The researchers, who were initially afraid of her background, now liked Linne very much.
This was because Linne was a precious food truck that brought homemade lunch boxes, including the researchers’ portions, three times a day, every morning, noon, and evening.
The only rest they had was with a delicious lunch, so it was a ray of light for the researchers who were exhausted by the harsh schedule.
“Madam!”
“Our chairman really married well!”
“Is it Japanese food again today? Wow! Look how pretty the lunch box is! She’s truly the queen of support!”
“Chairman, you really need to treat your wife well.”
Even amidst the cheers of the hungry graduate students who had found a free, high-end food truck, Linne remained indifferent.
However, every time the words ‘Madam,’ ‘wife,’ ‘spouse,’ and ‘support’ were mentioned, her ears, which peeked out from her silky black hair, would turn slightly red.
