Chapter 08.2: “Illogical Heat or the Condensation Spilled by an Equation”
The air in the magic analysis room was dominated by the ozone smell expelled by precision instruments and the heavy bass of cooling fans.
Pale blue hologram monitors cast a cold tint over my glasses‚ and at the edge of my vision the pocket watch that should have been burned out flickered ominously with blood-red digital numbers.
“88 days 10 hours 05 minutes”
“…So this is the cruel ‘price of victory’ that Aria-kun bargained for‚ using Iris-san’s life as fuel.”
My five fingers had stopped typing on the keyboard in midair.
The calculation results were merciless. The ‘overkill’ at the Fourth Training Grounds the other day. That single strike Aria-kun unleashed burned through “about eighteen hours” of Iris-san’s life in just a few seconds.
Once called a prodigy of theoretical magic‚ he had turned even his own life into a conductor’s baton and unfolded something beyond the boundaries of formulae—his own personal “Undefined Region.”
“…The computer is crying. No‚ perhaps the one crying is the ‘correct answer’ I’ve always believed in.”
The waveform displayed on the monitor was already a mass of noise that surpassed the domain of magical theory.
Each time Iris-san’s “Golden Resonance” was shaved away‚ the fingertips of Aria-kun’s hands became stained with a ‘white’ so intense that they seemed to lose all sensation. In front of the graph that visualized it painfully clearly‚ I brushed aside my disordered bangs without even noticing that I had buttoned my lab coat wrong by one button.
The sensation of my thin shirt faintly sticking to my back in the late-night heat felt terribly unpleasant.
—Suddenly‚ the air behind me sank as if weighed down physically.
A bottomless presence of shadow that seemed to swallow even the hum of the fans.
When I turned around‚ Aria-kun was standing there as though he had dragged the darkness of the corridor in with him. The moonlight illuminated his fingertips‚ already bearing a sickly whiteness and trembling faintly.
“…The analysis is complete. If you have the resolve to ‘confirm’ the result‚ I’ll present it.”
“…I’ll just process it as an observation result. It’s the path I chose. I want it engraved accurately—as numbers.”
His voice had no temperature. Though standing at the edge of despair‚ his eyes were eerily clear.
“This number‚ ‘88 days.’ …For something carved out by your fingertips‚ it’s terribly ‘inefficient.’”
“…I know it’s inefficient. Even so—I ‘chose’ it that way.”
Aria-kun answered without changing his expression.
“I want you to calculate what comes next. The ‘shortest route’ for us to run through at maximum speed… before we burn our lives away.”
A quiet declaration‚ yet one pregnant with madness.
I averted my gaze from him and unfolded a new window in the air. There was not the beautiful theoretical formula left behind by his mother‚ Lady Reina‚ but an enormous mass of encrypted‚ sealed data stagnating like muddy water.
“If it’s the shortest route‚ I’ve already calculated it. However‚ it’s not the path of the ‘correct answer.’ Lady Reina’s theory was too perfect. That’s exactly why she threw all the noise outside her formula away as ‘errors’ into the trash. …Just like this.”
My five fingers flicked through the data in the air at high speed‚ forcibly prying open the sealed dark region—the “Discarded Region (Trash).”
“The discarded region… You’re saying the ‘undefined element’ that can destroy the system is there?”
“Yes. With the proper procedure—an algorithm—you can’t defeat Solan-kun’s absolute ‘100%.’ But the ‘barbarian solution’ that shatters the system physically beyond its limit value is sleeping here. …This.”
What I dragged out was the structural blueprint of the “Uncharted Old-Style Magic Testing Grounds” sealed deep beneath the academy. And the record of the “Ancient Heart Fragment” abandoned there—a catalyst with overload tolerance that temporarily takes on the self-destruction of magical power.
“If you use this‚ you can temporarily reduce the ‘whitening’ of your fingertips and the burn efficiency of Iris-san’s life. …However‚ the survival probability until obtaining it is 0.03%.”
“0.03%. …Statistically insignificant. Just the domain of an accident—an error.”
“Yes‚ an accident. And you will become an ‘irregular event’ that intentionally causes that accident. For someone like me who reveres theory‚ it’s a strategy that puts an ‘unacceptable load’ on the calculation circuits.”
Inside the pocket of my lab coat‚ I clenched my chilled fingertips tightly. A mountain of ‘immeasurable errors’ abandoned by Lady Reina and scorned by Solan.
“Kotone… You too will fall into the path of a ‘failed work’ as my observer?”
“Don’t misunderstand. As an analyst‚ I simply want to prove an unexplained bug—a miracle. …Besides‚ my system isn’t obedient enough to silently accept the ending—the dead end—brought by a ‘correct answer’ that’s merely beautiful.”
“…Understood. The ‘barbarian solution’ you proposed—I’ll overload it perfectly with these fingertips of mine.”
Aria-kun nodded quietly—and at that moment—
The heavy door of the analysis room was kicked open violently from outside.
“Hey! Before you fry your brains pulling an all-nighter‚ pour this into your stomachs!”
The ozone smell was violently swept away as the powerful aroma of miso filled the room. It was Linne-san.
“…Linne-san. That is a clear act of destruction—terrorism—against the air-conditioning system of this space.”
“Shut up! Analysis is fine and all‚ but I’m going to steam-sterilize your brain cells with the steam from this five-times-concentrated miso!”
Linne-san’s five fingers slammed a thermos onto my desk. The contents had already lost the dignity of a liquid—refusing convection‚ a ‘high-viscosity black hole.’
“…That highly concentrated sodium crystal mass will cause fatal salt damage to my analysis server’s cooling fans.”
Ignoring my protest‚ Aria-kun looked down at the dark matter and slightly moved his brow.
“…Linne. This salt concentration fluctuates just below the threshold of a lethal dose for humans. The nutritional efficiency is extremely low. However‚ ingestion is possible.”
“Whether it’s inefficient or whatever‚ just drink it! Let the heat punch your organs directly while it’s hot!”
With a cup forcibly pressed into his hands by Linne-san‚ Aria-kun poured the ‘dark matter’ down his throat without changing expression.
The physical heat and violent salt content forcibly revived his fading biological reactions—something I could clearly observe in the numerical values on my hologram monitor.
However—only the fingertips of Aria-kun’s hands remained the same deathlike ‘white‚’ cold and transparent no matter how much heat flowed into his organs.
Even with Linne-san’s overwhelming heat‚ the chill of the abyss he had stepped into could not be completely wiped away.
Then Linne-san noticed the tattered cuff of Aria-kun’s sleeve‚ naturally grabbed his wrist‚ and took out sewing tools.
“Hold still. You keep staring at the sky‚ Aria‚ so your clothes are getting left behind.”
“…Sorry. I had excluded the wear rate of cloth in battle from my calculations.”
“It’s fine. No matter how ‘white’ you get‚ I’ll stitch you to this ground with this thread. …Don’t think you can escape even if you die!”
Prick‚ prick. The sound of a needle passing through cloth.
The absolute-zero logic of the analysis room was being physically overwritten by the muddy ‘reality’ she brought in.
“…That ‘illogical heat’ you bring. My computer cannot define it… but it seems to be the strongest ‘physical anchor’ tying this abnormal equation—this team—to the present world.”
“Kotone-san‚ stop saying complicated stuff and drink this and wipe your glasses! Your eyes are getting scary from staying up all night!”
“…Understood. To secure the resolution of my vision.”
I accepted the offered cup and poured its violent heat into the back of my throat.
…Internal temperature‚ plus 0.4 degrees. Cause: Linne-san’s ‘illogical heat.’ Honestly‚ it’s beyond analysis.
“Hey now‚ what’s all this noise in the analysis room so early in the morning?”
“I heard Lady Linne shouting… Aria-dono‚ are you alright!?”
From the wide-open door‚ Cross-kun and Liam-kun peeked inside. They must have come after hearing the commotion.
Seeing them‚ I tapped the keyboard at my hand.
“Perfect timing. Since everyone is here‚ let’s move to the phase of logical resolution. Liam-kun‚ Cross-kun—I’ve just sent the structural blueprint and route data for the ‘Old-Style Magic Testing Grounds’ to your terminals.”
“…An underground testing ground? This is a sealed designated area.”
“Yes. Officially‚ it’s an environmental survey of an uncharted zone. In reality‚ it’s a muddy smash-and-grab to raise the survival probability from 0.03% to 0.04%.”
I pushed up my glasses and looked over everyone.
“Tomorrow morning—meaning in a few hours—conduct the final confirmation in Aria-kun’s room and then begin the operation immediately.”
“Roger! Whether it’s theft or system destruction‚ I’ll break in first with my shield!”
“I’ll light up the underground darkness with the glossy shine of my pecs!”
Watching the two of them clash their fists enthusiastically‚ I let out an exasperated sigh.
As Aria-kun and the others left the room without hesitation‚ I quietly grabbed Linne-san’s arm as she walked last and stopped her.
“…Kotone-san?”
“Linne-san. That drug you brought earlier—the five-times miso—you still have some left in the thermos‚ right?”
“Y-yeah. Plenty. …Why?”
With the hologram light behind me‚ I spoke in a voice only she could hear.
“If underground he looks like he’s about to fall into the abyss—system down. …If my equations can’t make it in time‚ then with that ‘illogical heat’ of yours‚ physically drag him back to this side.”
Linne-san widened her eyes for a moment‚ but quickly nodded strongly and tapped the thermos.
“…Of course. I’ll hammer it into him at the cellular level that he doesn’t have time to be despairing!”
Watching her reliable back as she left‚ the thick soundproof door closed completely.
Absolute silence returned to the magic analysis room.
All that remained was the nihilistic bass of the cooling fans from the precision machines and the merciless red numbers counting down toward the operation beginning in the morning.
I removed my silver-rimmed glasses‚ heavy with fatigue‚ and pressed the corner of my eyes with my fingers.
The afterglow of the hologram burned into my retina flickered as irregular noise‚ disturbing my thoughts.
“…0.03%. No matter which statistics textbook you open‚ that number is defined as nothing but ‘death.’”
A cold monologue fell into the empty room.
On the main monitor‚ the waveform data from when Aria-kun stepped into an unknown region—a singularity—was flashing like a mad electrocardiogram.
It was by no means a beautiful score of salvation.
It was a destructive self-canceling loop that could exist only by burning out his own biological hardware and consuming the precious girl’s time as fuel—a visualization of a boy’s voiceless scream.
My five fingers struck the keyboard with a faint tremor.
The calculation system clearly predicted Aria-kun’s biological magical circuit exceeding its allowable load by over 400%—in other words‚ the complete collapse of his body‚ a meltdown—and kept endlessly spitting out the error code: “Abort Operation.”
Pure logic could calculate only two characters: “Total Annihilation.”
Even so‚ my fingers unconsciously continued typing override codes to stretch their survival probability even by a fraction of a second.
“…Lady Reina. This discarded region—the trash—you threw away as ‘imperfect errors.’ …Perhaps here‚ an ‘illogical heat’ that equations cannot measure is still smoldering.”
Suddenly‚ I looked at my own fingertips‚ which had stopped above the keyboard.
They were not like Aria-kun’s painfully pale ‘white.’
Because of the friction heat from high-load typing and the violent heat of the ‘five-times miso’ Linne-san had left behind‚ a faint redness had appeared at my fingertips.
This was the temperature of a living human. The muddy mass of reality that systems cannot measure.
“The mission of an analyst is to prove unexplained phenomena. …In that case—”
I stared at the pale blue light of the monitor.
“I’ll observe until the very end. The moment when you crazy irregularities—these bugs—break perfect silence and output a ‘new correct answer’ called a miracle.”
I was just about to put my glasses back on when it happened.
The resolution of my vision suddenly blurred.
A single drop of physical moisture overflowed‚ ran down my cold cheek‚ and fell onto the collar of my lab coat.
The hologram’s light illuminated that first and last noise spilled by the equation—a tear—coldly and beautifully like a diamond.
“…No abnormality in internal temperature. It’s just… condensation in the system.”
Murmuring as if to convince myself‚ I put my glasses back on.
Equations do not lie.
But the moment that surpasses equations—right now‚ I was trying to believe in it more strongly than anyone else.
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