It’s an Academic Fact That Rankers Are Model Students – Chapter 181

Chapter 181: The thesis that Instigates Fire/Disaster (2)

” Wa, waaaa……! “

Twinkle! Crackle!

Clink! Clank!

What Merde had placed on the table was a bag of gold coins.

Ezeri’s pupils turn into the letter L, signifying liyan, as she salivates.

Why is she salivating again?

Because there’s nothing sweeter than money!

Merde says with a triumphant grin.

” Heh. 1 billion liyan worth of gold coins. “

” O, One billion……! “

One billion liyan!

This much money would be enough to buy a house around the capital, if not right in the middle of it!

It’s enough money to buy more than five sets of S-class wings from Edesmeg-Zenbez!

Gulp.

Ezeri swallows her saliva, or rather, her money-tinged drool.

Merde, with her lips still curled upwards, continues speaking.

” I’ve also brought the conversion application so you can convert it right away when you go to the church. All except for one section. “

Merde takes out the conversion application form that was placed at the very bottom of the pile of gold coins and hands it to Ezeri.

Then, she points her index finger at a section of the paper.

『________ (Signature)』

” Now. Just write Ezeri Capirus here and sign it, and all these gold coins are yours. 1 billion liyan, don’t you want it? Money is always right. “

” Yes…… Money is always right…… Huh?! “

Swish! (Sssk sssk! – sound of wiping)

Ezeri comes to her senses and quickly wipes away the drool that was about to escape her mouth.

Then, she pretends to be angry.

” How dare you think I would fall for such blatant materialism……?! There are many things in the world that are more important than money! “

” Such as? “

” Uh, well, that is…… Honor? Pride? “

” And there’s love. “

” Ugh…… “

Ezeri’s body stiffens again.

This embarrassing feeling.

But it’s not a bad feeling.

Sigh.

Merde places another piece of paper on the table.

It was a salary contract, but it wasn’t an ordinary one.

『Salary Contract

━Arc-en-Ciel-

……

━7. Friend Referral Clause

Clause 7-1. ______ shall be granted additional special rights……』

” I’ve been thinking about a new business model lately, and I’d like to try it out on you. Have you heard of friend referrals? “

” ……No. “

How could she have heard of it if she wasn’t told about it?

Merde adds, as if she expected that response.

” You join our Arc-en-Ciel first and start working. Then, you recommend this magic tower to your friend, telling them it’s a great place and giving it a 5-star rating. If your friend then joins the tower with you as their referrer, we’ll give both you and your friend an additional bonus on top of your salary. “

This is friend referral.

A simple yet powerful business model.

” Huh. Are you asking me to sell my friend? Using money and me as bait? “

Thinking that she’s trying to buy her, including that person, with money.

Ezeri forces a laugh and shakes her head.

” You should give up. Kyung-joon is not the kind of person who would join somewhere just for money. “

Ezeri pushes the liyan conversion application form and the salary contract back to Merde and says firmly.

” Friend referral or 1 billion, I’m sorry. “

Ezeri immediately rejects Merde’s offer……

” For your information, the incentive for friend referral is 9 billion liyan, limited to Kyung-joon. “

” Now that I think about it, that friend of mine really liked money. “

……It was too much money to refuse.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

<V.O.FE. Club Member>

▼Photo Liner (NPC)

Voice of Fairy-Elven.

Also known as V.O.FE, it’s the newspaper club of Fairy-Elven Magic Academy.

Tada!

One male member of the club runs down the hallway of the Scroll Department.

The place he left behind was an empty classroom in the Scroll Department.

Or rather, what he thought was an empty classroom wasn’t empty at all.

‘T, This is a scoop……!’

Photo Liner, he was eavesdropping on the conversation between Ezeri and Merde.

He didn’t mean to.

He was just wandering around as usual, looking for a scoop, when he happened to overhear them in what he thought was an empty classroom.

Looking at it this way, it was intentional.

Anyway.

‘1 billion…… No, 10 billion liyan……!’

The important thing was that Ezeri was being scouted by the Grand Magic Tower Arc-en-Ciel for 10 billion liyan!

This was huge news.

These days, with the job market being so tough, even if you manage to finish your doctorate, it’s reality that you can’t even earn a starting salary of 100 million liyan, but 10 billion liyan?!

‘And she’s a student who hasn’t even graduated with a master’s degree for over 5 years……!’

No matter how difficult the master’s and doctoral qualifying exams at Fairy-Elven Magic Academy are, failing the master’s exam every time for over 5 years means you have no talent.

That’s why Ezeri was known, whether she knew it or not, as the eternal master’s student within the Scroll Department.

But today, something completely unexpected happened.

Actually, there were signs of this beforehand.

‘The rumors that were going around after she passed the master’s exam, they were true!’

After Ezeri passed the master’s qualifying exams, there were rumors circulating for a while.

That Ezeri had made tremendous progress in scroll studies.

Of course, it was very brief.

The story died down and disappeared without a trace before it could even spread as a proper rumor.

As if someone had deliberately intervened to make it so.

Only Photo Liner was suspicious of this, but the other V.O.FE members didn’t pay much attention to it, saying it was too much of a conspiracy theory. They thought that even Ezeri should have been able to pass her master’s degree in 5 years since she was a magic academy student.

But it turned out they were wrong and he was right.

The proof was what he had just overheard and secretly recorded with magic!

” This month’s hot topic is mine!! “

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

The Fael Newspaper, circulated and distributed only within Fairy-Elven Magic Academy.

On the front page, the following article was published in large font:

『From the Magic Academy~ The Fa. el. News!』

『Ezeri Capirus! Scouted by the Grand Magic Tower Arc-en-Ciel for a whopping 10 billion liyan?!』

『Ezeri Capirus, who had been unable to escape the title of eternal master’s student for over 5 years, was offered a whopping 10 billion liyan (1 billion liyan upfront, followed by 9 billion liyan conditionally) by Merde Adivite, who highly valued her thesis ‘Grammatical Restructuring of Scroll Rune Language for Magic Memory Stone Substitution in Refrigerant Compression within Heat Pumps and Verification of Its Efficiency and Practical Feasibility’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘heat pump’) which she presented during this summer’s qualifying exams.

Yesterday at 4 PM. ‘Ezeri Capirus’, a master’s graduate of the Scroll Department, had an unofficial meeting with ‘Merde Adivite’, CMO of the Grand Magic Tower Arc-en-Ciel, after the graduation ceremony…… (Omitted)……It is said that ‘Kyung-joon’, an otherworlder, provided the key idea for the heat pump thesis and that they were able to complete the thesis together.

…… (Omitted)……

There have been several scout offers from various magic towers so far, but this is the first time in at least several hundred years that a master’s graduate, not even a doctoral graduate, has been scouted with an offer of 10 billion liyan.

Currently, we have requested separate interviews with Arc-en-Ciel and Ezeri Capirus, but they have not responded, and Professor Frankel, the Representative of the Scroll Department, is not expressing any position on the current situation, only saying that it is as it is.』

The students’ reactions to the article varied widely, from positive to negative.

” This is V.O.FE! Can we have a quick interview with you? “

A member of the Fael University Newspaper Club asked a passing student, trying to interview them about their reaction to the article.

” What do you think about the 10 billion liyan scouting offer in the Scroll Department? “

The students’ reactions were generally like this:

” What? A 10 billion liyan scouting offer? In the Scroll Department? Not the Magic Tool Department? “

First, there were students who couldn’t easily believe that a 10 billion liyan scouting offer came from the Scroll Department, not the Magic Tool Department.

” Ah, I saw that article this morning. I thought it was amazing. Even though it’s the Scroll Department, it’s still Fael University. “

(※Fael University: Abbreviation of Fairy-Elven Magic Academy.)

Some students felt a sense of belonging to their school, thinking that even though it was the Scroll Department, it was still Fael University.

” Sob sob! Something like this happened in our Scroll Department! “

The students of the Scroll Department, who were most directly affected by the 10 billion liyan scouting offer, even cried during the interview.

……Let’s move on from the Scroll Department for now.

Anyway, most students reacted positively to the fact that the value of their school’s students was so highly evaluated.

Of course, not all students reacted positively to the scouting news.

Naturally, there were negative reactions as well.

<Representative of the Magic Tool Department>

▼Zot Kalisberg (NPC)

” Ugh…… It’s because of people who just chase money and run off to magic towers that the university’s performance is like this these days. “

Zot Kalisberg.

As the representative of the Magic Tool Department, he expressed a very negative opinion about the 10 billion liyan scouting offer in the Scroll Department.

” Well, I understand that it must be good news for the Scroll Department, which has seen more than half of its graduates abandon their majors and fry wyverns for the past 100 years or so, but if you’re really thinking about the future of the department, it’s better to go on to a doctorate. “

Zot’s opinion continued.

” Honestly, I don’t think the Scroll Department should be happy about being scouted for 10 billion liyan. It doesn’t matter if our Magic Tool Department loses a few talents to scouting because we have so many, but they’re losing a talent that only appears once every few hundred years to a magic tower? “

It was nice to call it scouting, but the Scroll Department, or rather, Fael University, was no different from having a talent worth 10 billion liyan stolen by the Grand Magic Tower Arc-en-Ciel.

Of course, Zot Kalisberg didn’t express such a negative opinion because he was truly worried about the magic academy.

In the first place, he was very unhappy that such a scouting offer was made to the Scroll Department, not the Magic Tool Department.

However, his pride would never allow him to admit that he was envious.

When you can’t admit you’re envious because of your pride, but you know it’s a really great thing, there’s a method that people often use.

” The Scroll Department is incompetent, aren’t they? If it were our department, we would never let a talent worth 10 billion liyan be taken away from us. I guess this shows the level of the Scroll Department. “

Somehow, belittle the object of envy!

This way, you can protect your pride and alleviate the inferiority complex that has been bothering you.

And there was a perfect target for this in the 10 billion liyan scouting article.

” In the first place, the person they co-authored the research with is an otherworlder…… a human, right? A human. “

The existence of Kyung-joon was a very good excuse to criticize the 10 billion liyan scouting incident.

Because Kyung-joon was neither an elf nor a fairy.

He was a human.

Zot said, bringing the recording magic tool closer to his face.

” No matter how high a human’s mana aptitude is, it’s only on par with an average elf. They’re no match for the elves of Fael University, who are among the top 1% of elves. Most of the humans currently at Fael University are exchange students, not even official students, and their skills are poor. An otherworlder, who is no different from those humans, provided the key idea for the thesis? This is really fishy. It stinks! “

.

.

.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

While Zot from the magic academy was busy badmouthing Kyung-joon, whom he had never even met, saying he was suspicious.

” Ugh……! K, Kyung-joon-nim! What did you bring this time?! It really stinks! “

Ceram from Study Villa was pinching his nose, saying it really did stink.

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