Chapter 1124 – #267_Daily Life of the Magic Society(3) – DeepL
#1118
1.
Early in the morning, the Hesed Hall was as busy as a cattle market.
The convention hall, a converted ballroom, was barely big enough to hold five hundred people, and the rest of the academy was as crowded as a rush-hour subway, filled with the most beautiful women in the city.
“Wait! Watch out over there!”
“Over here!”
The witches, who wore long dresses to make themselves pretty, were running around and crying as they tried to avoid stepping on the hem of their dresses.
Once they had managed to escape the crowd, the witches wiped the sweat from their brow in the cool of late fall and talked about Dorando.
“Ugh, this is crazy, I didn’t realize there were so many people.”
“That’s how much attention you’re getting. I’m glad you came an hour early, there’s already no room in the guestbook.”
“No, what’s the interim report….”
“We’re here, too.”
The project undertaken by the Hesed Society is the ‘complete restoration of the gate’ ordered by the immigration office.
The reason why the building is so crowded today is because it’s the day of the project’s interim report.
As the project is funded by the Gehenna City Hall, the key players involved are gathering to review the feasibility of the project.
But if you’re wondering, “Does a midterm report on a research project usually attract such a witchy crowd?” the answer is no.
Gehenna is an honor-based trust society.
It’s suicidal to try to siphon off research funds or shake down budgets with bogus results.
There’s no need to have a bunch of watchdogs, because no one with any sense would choose to sully their children’s children for generations for the sake of a few bucks.
Not only that, but it’s incredibly boring because it’s just a bunch of conversations that you can’t understand unless you’re an expert in the field.
As a result, they tend to be a “league of their own,” with only the researchers involved in the study and the experts from the relevant organizations arguing.
But now, Xiu is a new generation idol who has caught Gehenna’s attention.
“What if I don’t understand the announcement? I’ll just go ogle the handsome, athletic, hotshot earl.”
“There’s also a ball to follow, do you think the president will be dancing tonight?”
At this point, the Dotegi Market is the result of witches visiting a concert who don’t really care if the gate is restored or not.
“What else is there to do in such a small place?”
“You don’t have much sense.”
Among the witches milling about, either expressing interest or grumbling, were some shrewdly maneuvering men.
“Witch, would you do me the honor of escorting me?”
“How cute, what’s your name?”
“Esther, would you like another martini?”
“Gee, just when I needed one. Whoa, quick thinking.”
The servers, in their immaculate tuxedos, were doing a great job of serving drinks and making things easier for everyone.
They are the hosts of Rose Glass, hired by Xiu.
Trained by Takasho in impeccable aristocratic etiquette, the hosts were eager to help the disgruntled witches.
For an hour, many witches suffered like travelers with the wrong date.
Finally, it was time for the intermission.
The crowd was three times larger than expected, and Sharon pulled out all the stops.
With all the windows along one wall of the convention hall open and new chairs arranged out into the garden to accommodate a total of 800 witches, the interim report began.
“President Xin Xiu will preside over the interim report.”
As Xiu stood on the lectern, sporting her usual attire, the atmosphere in the room was like a muted idol concert.
The cheers of “Milky Xin Xiu!” and “I love my brother!!!!!!!” may not continue, but the eyes are glazed over.
Everyone is excited because Xin Xiu is the most popular person in Gehenna these days.
Count Xinxiu will make another splash.
Xinxiu, that horny little bastard, kicking ass.
“…….”
Xiu stood at the lectern, unable to help himself.
He hadn’t expected to see the Duchess of Erelim sitting in the very front row of seats, right next to the VVIP seats reserved for institutional officials and experts of the ‘Moon’.
Her all-white figure looked like a stern, unforgiving spirit in Xiu’s eyes.
He doesn’t know why, but he’s cursing this seat to be the seat of jibak.
“Huh.”
Xiu took a short, deep breath to steady himself.
“Hello, I’m Xin Xiu, president of the Hessian Society and head of the Department of Foundations.”
But.
That’s not going to happen today.
2.
Xiu did not disappoint the expectations of many witches.
Or, to be more precise, he didn’t disappoint the expectations of “pah”.
“Our research team from the Department of Fundamentals has completed the foundation of the ‘Complete Restoration of the Gate’ project, at least in theory.”
From Xu’s first words, the chairman lost his composure.
There have been several efforts to repair the Gate over the past few decades.
Gehenna’s raw meat had brought scholars together, and one of the attempts was a joint collaboration between the Qin Lie Qin Ming Society and the Emerald Tablet.
The result was a temporary fix for the door’s incompleteness, though not a complete repair.
However, it was a bit of a surprise to hear a new organization say “theoretically fully restorable” just over a month after being awarded the contract.
The Erelim Society, with its superior intelligence, had already guessed at the information (and even then, it was faster than expected), but not the other witches.
The reaction was explosive.
Here’s an exaggeration.
“Wow, I thought she was going to have an accident.”
“Count Xinxiu doesn’t send letters in error. The recipient just gets the wrong letter. Count Xinxiu once counted to infinity. Twice. Xinxiu was not born by his mother. He fulfilled the mission of conception with his own hands. 911 is the number to call in times of crisis….”
“If anyone asks you about the future of Gehenna, raise your head and let them see Count Xinxiu.”
“Just grab me by the hair once….”
Each one is a whisper, but with hundreds of heads, it becomes a roar, but these responses were not mainstream public opinion.
Gehenna witches are a people who celebrate mystery but are also paradoxically common sense.
Magic is built on a foundation of common sense, not mystery.
Count Shin takes down the Great Witch with less resistance than a superconductor.
Even the words of the Society’s president, Xin Xiu, who hits the jackpot with everything he touches, can’t help but be skeptical of feats that defy “common sense.
“You want to inflate the research capacity of the Hesed Society?”
“From what I’ve heard, the workload in the basic department is murderous, so you’re ignorantly shuffling people around to make a pretense of accomplishment?”
“I want to be nice, but hmm, what can I say….”
Including those witches, I could not help but be dumbfounded by the situation at hand.
“Well, before we get into the nitty gritty of the project, let’s start with some basic information about dimensional magic.”
Xin Xiu suddenly began to lecture.
Dimensional magic formulas proved to be impossible to utilize at a higher level unless one was at the level of Kether.
Naturally, the basic concepts and approaches are nauseatingly difficult and follow their own laws.
Only the witches at the immigration office that oversees the gate, and those who have participated in the research consortium in the past, have a fragmentary understanding.
However, one of the first things Xiu did when she was hired was to standardize a unique system of magic used in dimensional spells.
Simply put, she translated the Latin treatise into English and taught it to the researchers.
He presented the work to the chairman in the form of a lecture to keep the researchers happy.
“Ideal. Here’s a reinterpretation of the dimensional magic formula in a grammar as close to common magic as possible.”
As you can see, presenting research-for-hire projects is deeply specialized and very, very boring for non-specialists.
It’s a nirvana of talking about things that only they know, dozing off for a while, waking up, and then talking about more difficult things that only they know, ad infinitum.
So Xiu’s introduction to the basic concepts was enough to grab the audience’s attention.
“Does everyone understand?”
“…….”
Despite her efforts, few witches understood immediately.
The lecture was dense and friendly, but it was also very advanced.
Some parts were even bizarre enough to feel like a cult, and unconventional enough to defy mainstream discourse.
But what is a witch?
They are witches who are more obsessed with consuming magical knowledge than diabetics who have run out of sugar.
Expecting to see a handsome chef’s face and a half-assed cold meal (i.e., an expert discussion), the witches took a bite out of the “Introduction to Dimensional Magic Formulas – Following the Standardized Interpretation” offal that was unceremoniously served to them.
“What the hell, that’s a totally heretical interpretation, yum yum.”
“Do you think it’s all the same meat when it’s roasted over a fire and comes out maiyar? What do you make with offal?”
The witches savored Chef Hsin-Hsiu’s giblets, chewing on them with their molars and rolling them on their tongues.
It was an unfamiliar dish that they had never eaten before, but it tasted better than cold, hoarse rice.
“Oooh, what does this taste like?!”
“Well, it’s kind of cheerful and a little weird, and I wonder if I can eat this…. It’s delicious!”
Most of the witches have been eating first-class steaks all their lives, but they quickly recognize the value.
The first bite will leave you scratching your head, the second will open your eyes, and the third will leave you wondering, “Is this really for free?
Xin Xiu’s understanding of the Dimensional Magic Formula was beyond superficial, to the point where he could teach it.
He could be called the God of Offal.
After this preliminary work, the interim report on the research contract would not be in a league of its own.
The audience, not just the experts invited to watch the Hessian Society sink or swim, would begin to understand the basic outline of the project.
Xinxiu’s reasoning for giving the lecture away for free seems obvious.
“…It’s how confident I am.”
“As a bonus, it’s PR for the Hessian Society lecture. Isn’t this more advanced than I thought?”
“What do you mean, it’s a full-fledged lecture that you can’t even pay for! It’s blasphemous!”
Yes, it is.
Xiu was going to use this opportunity as a triple XP copy event to level up the Hesed Society.
