I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 30
A student raised their hand.
“Well… I believe it’s a concept that hasn’t been firmly established yet as common knowledge.”
“…….”
For a moment, I couldn’t grasp what they meant.
I’d surely published all of it in papers, hadn’t I?
But according to the students, roughly half of the knowledge I’d uncovered hadn’t been recognized as established fact.
I was speechless.
‘Still not accepted?’
The scientists here were clearly in the terminal stages of skepticism. I figured I could befriend Ernan and his companion—equally suspicious as they were—without breaking a sweat.
“Well, then what’s the use of Agrobacterium……? No, wait. Never mind. I’ll research those topics more thoroughly and publish them as papers soon. I was planning to talk about Transformation today, but things have gotten rather complicated.”
The last sentence was barely audible muttering.
‘I wondered why the more I spoke, the more subtle their expressions became.’
I’d clearly overestimated humanity.
Then again, it hadn’t been many years since DNA was discovered. In my previous life, it took roughly a century after DNA’s discovery before the double helix structure was identified—this world would probably follow a similar timeline.
Discovery and research would proceed very slowly over several decades.
‘No matter how much I spell it out for them.’
There were skeptics wary of radical ideas everywhere.
No matter how gradually I adjusted things and introduced knowledge from my past life to this world, untimeliness was inevitable.
Certain sharp-minded individuals sensed something unsettling in that radical pace of advancement. And from their mouths came the opinion: “That needs more research.”
‘I should have considered that.’
I’d lived isolated from the world recently, so I didn’t even know how the biological sciences community operated anymore.
‘Concepts that haven’t been established yet are just common sense from my perspective, so I end up speaking as if everyone already knows them.’
Nuclear DNA is Nuclear DNA.
Organellar DNA is Organellar DNA.
I’d brought this material thinking it was incredibly simple, but here we were.
Anyway, I managed to steady my wavering composure. And I pulled out something even easier than what I’d originally prepared to lecture on.
“Well then, today let’s share some knowledge about Mitochondria.”
* * *
After all the lectures were done, I had Red Bean Tea in the Chancellor’s office at Romen University.
Siren didn’t even have time to greet me.
‘He must have been called away by his presumed thesis advisor right after the lecture ended.’
I’d just finished a question-and-answer session with a few other students before being summoned to see the Chancellor.
The reason I, already holding a doctorate, was being called to see a Chancellor who seemed like he was eyeing undergraduates, and was now drinking this world’s version of Red Bean Tea—or coffee—was simple.
“I’m telling you, come to graduate school!”
I was truly being urged to enroll in a graduate program.
Tapping at the strawberries on the Shortcake with my fork on the Chancellor’s office table, I repeated something I’d already said a hundred times.
“I’ve told you, I don’t want to.”
“But why? Didn’t you say you were studying pharmacy? Then you should come to our university with fully equipped research facilities! You really should!”
“Research goes just fine without all that, honestly.”
Besides, getting another degree in a different field would just be a useless ornament.
When I said that, the Chancellor began wagging his extended index finger left and right.
Wag, wag.
“No, no. I’ve never asked you to get a master’s and doctorate. I’m just asking you to come to graduate school.”
“Oh.”
So this was his tactic now.
Since I was watching with interest, the Chancellor’s words came faster.
“All you have to do is sit there and do research. Just publish some papers here and there, and before you know it, your master’s and doctorate will come naturally. I just want you to come to our university! Our graduate school! That’s all!”
The Chancellor said I didn’t need to make any particular effort to earn degrees.
“And you know, as time passes, state-of-the-art facilities—wait, state-of-the-art facilities become increasingly necessary. There’s nowhere as good as our university, Fidellia.”
The moment the Chancellor learned I’d taken an interest in pharmacy after biology, his eyes glazed over with the thought of putting me to use. He was already dreaming of what incredible achievements I might accomplish and how much I’d elevate Romen University’s reputation.
‘What does a little reputation matter?’
Romen University was the only university in the Empire anyway.
With no competition, what could the Chancellor even—
‘Excessive?’
He was being excessive.
But what the Chancellor was doing now was utterly pointless. The reason I’d been able to achieve such accomplishments in biology was thanks to my memories from my past life.
Pharmacy?
I have no idea.
“I hear you’ve been starting a new relationship lately…… Ahem. So shouldn’t you come to our university even more? Your lover is a student of our university, right?”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
I furrowed my brow.
The Chancellor looked flustered at my darkening expression.
“Eh? What, what are you saying?”
“I have a lover?”
“Ahem, well. You see, the rumors are already all over. There’s no need to be shy about it now……”
“There are rumors?”
I’d been hearing so much nonsense lately that my head was pounding. That Ernan and I had finally gotten together, that I was adopting Rene, and then that we’d broken up because I wouldn’t become partners with him—it was all drums and cymbals, one thing after another.
From my experience up to now, I thought I could guess the identity of my supposed lover at this school.
‘Obvious.’
“Is this person’s name Siren by any chance?”
“Oh! So you finally admit it?”
Just as I thought.
I shook my head.
“It’s just a false rumor. Don’t believe it.”
“What?!”
The Chancellor recoiled in shock, then pressed his forehead with a withered expression.
“If that’s the case, your recruitment to graduate school……”
I keep telling him I’m not going, yet here he goes.
But the Chancellor recovered his spirits as quickly as he’d lost them.
“Still, it’s not entirely bad! I was wondering what would happen with Ernan Cleor if you found a new lover, but this old worry is finally lifting!”
“……What are you talking about now?”
“You really don’t read the gossip magazines?”
What is it with these Empire people—spouting propaganda from illegal organizations without a shred of conscience?
“It’s illegal.”
“Some lawbreaking comes with justice.”
“Blessed heavens……”
I’d been invoking the divine quite often these days, it seemed.
‘Perhaps I’ve heard too many strange things to keep my wits about me.’
While I stood bewildered, the Chancellor produced a stack of gossip magazines from somewhere and spread them before me—the moment when all my efforts to distance myself from, and forget, not just these magazines but all weeklies and dailies besides, came to nothing.
Yet I soon found myself grateful to the Chancellor.
Photographs of Ernan Cleor and Rene dominated the gossip magazine, taking up half the page space and appearing repeatedly.
Among them were shots with Rene’s face blown up enormous.
‘Shot from a distance, taken in secret—and whoever did it has quite the talent.’
I swore I would hunt down whoever had taken these photos.
Cradling my throbbing head in one hand, I scanned through the section featuring Rene.
And I repeated the name of the man who had burdened me with this worry, over and over in my mind.
‘Ernan.’
Ernan.
Ernan Cleor!
‘What in the world is he doing walking around like this?’
Does he not realize he’s being photographed by paparazzi? Is that why he struts about so brazenly?
As my temper grew unsettling, the Chancellor across from me fell silent and merely sipped his coffee.
But the “real” story wasn’t in that gossip magazine.
I pulled out the Corvaleaux Weekly that had been buried at the bottom of the stack.
Corvaleaux Weekly.
A major newspaper belonging to the Imperial Household and the most credible news outlet on the Continent.
Bearing the weight of its authority, it conveyed only verified facts and would never tolerate a false report.
And there, in that publication, was a prominently featured article:
《Duke Cleor and Countess Flora in ‘Custody Dispute’》
What the hell?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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