Chapter 23 : A mad scientist needs a laboratory

There is a principle called Heinrich’s Law.

It states that before a major incident occurs, there are always numerous small incidents and signs. This seems to be quite true.

‘Ha, what on earth is this…’

Having just experienced one of those “small” accidents myself, how could I deny it?

I wake up to find a missing wall. Beyond it, I can see the interior turned into a complete mess.

Hmm, I’m not entirely sure if this qualifies as a “small” accident. Compared to the entire building collapsing, losing one wall could be considered minor.

Looking closely, I notice a disheveled man buried among various experimental tools, fast asleep.

I always knew that lunatic would blow up the entire dormitory one day, but who would’ve guessed he’d cause such an accident in just one day?

I expected things to get chaotic, but this is ridiculous. What’s the deal with suddenly merging two rooms together?

And yet, from the way he’s sound asleep without a care in the world, it’s clear he has no idea what’s happened. With that, I stomped into the neighboring room to wake him up.

As I approached, I kicked aside the flasks scattered over him, revealing his face.

Spiky white hair, a skinny frame, and a lab coat draped over him—he was young, but he was destined to look like the quintessential mad scientist as he aged.

Even at his young age, the fact that he managed to nearly blow up the dormitory shows he already has the potential.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Hmm… Who is it?”

The man, groggy from sleep, slowly opened his eyes and met mine.

Still not fully awake, he stared blankly at me before suddenly flinching and jumping back.

“Wh-Who are you? How dare you set foot in the lab of the great Fran!”

His name, as he declared, was Fran.

And his family name? Kenschtein.

Yes, Fran Kenschtein. A parody of that famous name, Frankenstein.

How fitting for a mad scientist—his name is just as ridiculous as he is.

It seemed he hadn’t realized what he had done yet. Without a word, I pointed to the missing wall. Through it, my room—far cleaner compared to his clutter—was exposed in all its stark reality.

“Wha… what is that…?”

Fran stared at it, stunned, as if his mind had stopped processing. Once he seemed to grasp the situation, he promptly threw himself flat on the ground.

“I’m sorry! Please, can’t we keep this a secret?”

And so began his groveling.

How did the original Rudion respond to this? I don’t know, and I don’t care. My answer was already decided.

“No.”

“Please! Just reconsider for a moment…!”

Fran clung desperately to my firm reply.

But my decision was unwavering.

“It’s truly an honor to have someone as esteemed as Rudion living next door! I didn’t realize until now—what an incredible privilege!”

Realizing who I was, he began pouring out flattery in a desperate attempt to change my mind. However, my decision remained the same.

No. No way. Not happening. Move on.

Letting this slide? Absolutely not. If I ignored this incident, it would undoubtedly lead to a bigger disaster—like the entire dormitory collapsing.

To prevent that, this matter needed to be addressed properly. As a member of the student council, the solution was simple.

Report it to Alkine, make it public, and convene the disciplinary committee once again.

Then, seat Fran where Seria had been yesterday, and enjoy the process. Since he hadn’t caused any major damage yet, the punishment would likely be periodic supervision or the confiscation of his experimental tools.

“I promise, if I succeed in the future, I’ll dedicate my achievements to you, Rudion! I’ll even let you use all my creations for free, so please…”

Knowing what awaited him, Fran’s desperation was understandable.

And seeing him like that, a thought crossed my mind.

Is stopping his experiments really the right thing to do?

No, people like him only go crazier if you block them. It could even lead to the dormitory collapsing sooner.

Of course, I wasn’t tempted by the promise of glory and free creations.

To be honest, I was.

But think about it—how could I resist the chance to use the results of a mad scientist that even the original work never explored?

Before I knew it, I was leaning toward helping him.

So, what should I do?

After some thought, the answer became clear.

“Get ready for school.”

“There’s still about two hours until classes start… No, sir! I’ll get ready immediately!”

Yes, just follow me obediently.

If you listen to a veteran, good things come your way—even in your sleep. Just trust me and follow along.

After getting ready, we stepped out of the dormitory. The area was eerily quiet and empty.

It was still far too early for most students to be awake.

Dragging Fran out at such an hour, he hesitantly followed me, looking nervous. Though he had no idea where we were headed, he seemed increasingly anxious.

But I had no intention of being kind to someone who smashed my wall, so I kept silent.

Fran’s risky experiments in the dormitory stemmed from discrimination.

As a student assigned to the lower class, he didn’t receive proper support for his research.

Of course, the academy wasn’t to blame. The fault lay with Fran, who, despite being serious about his research, chose to come here instead of a research institute.

Ultimately, the dormitory explosion could be seen as the result of a lower-class student not having access to a proper space for experiments.

If Fran were given a proper location, he wouldn’t need to experiment in the dormitory, and the risk of its collapse would naturally disappear.

It was the perfect solution.

Now, I just needed to find him an appropriate space. Fortunately, the academy had plenty of unused areas.

Some buildings weren’t even utilized once throughout the entirety of the game’s storyline.

But that was in the game. Now that it was reality, those spaces might be in use.

I needed to find a building that was almost certainly unoccupied.

That’s where we were headed.

There was a building located in a remote corner untouched by human footsteps.

It seemed as if it had been abandoned midway through construction, forgotten, leaving me confident that no one lived there.

Of course, getting there required practically memorizing the arrangement of the dense forest’s trees, so I knew I’d be wandering around for a while. Still, there wasn’t a more fitting place for the current situation.

After walking for about 40 minutes, the building I was searching for finally came into view.

“We’re here.”

“…What is this place?”

It was a rather large wooden cabin.

In the game, it certainly existed but had no interactive elements—a mysterious structure.

As expected, there was no sign of life here.

Right. If anyone lived here, it would have to be a ghost.

…Thinking that made it scarier. I decided not to think about ghosts anymore.

Fran, who had been inspecting the random cabin, approached me hesitantly and said something strange.

“Could it be that you brought me here to bury me in the forest?”

“What do you take me for?”

I went out of my way to find an empty house for him out of pure goodwill, yet he thought I was going to kill him?

Though, considering his situation, it wasn’t that unreasonable.

He had made a mistake, wasn’t forgiven, and was dragged out into the dark forest for 40 minutes. Anyone might have similar thoughts in his shoes.

Oh… thinking about it like that, it’s a miracle he didn’t run away earlier.

But hey, I found him a house in the end, so that’s fine, isn’t it? I told him to experiment here instead of in the dormitory from now on.

Hearing that, his eyes sparkled as he stared at the cabin.

“Um… may I go inside and take a look?”

“Sure.”

He must have been curious about the interior, so I told him to go ahead. It’s not like it was my house anyway.

I, too, was curious about what was inside, so I casually followed him. After all, in the game, you couldn’t enter this place.

The inside of the cabin was cleaner than expected.

Or rather, it was completely empty, so there wasn’t much to be messy aside from the dust on the floor.

Of course, I kept this thought to myself. Who knows what might happen if I said it out loud?

While I was thinking about that, Fran, looking around the interior, began to speak excitedly, expressing how satisfied he was.

“With a space this big, I could finally perform experiments I’ve only been able to plan due to lack of room! Over here, I’ll set up that… and over there, I’ll…”

Midway, he started mumbling to himself about what experiments he’d do, and I stopped paying attention.

I patted his shoulder lightly to snap him out of it.

“Got it. Now let’s head back. If we leave now, we can make it back in time for class.”

“I suppose I should mark the path on the way back. It seems too hard to find this place again otherwise…”

“Do as you please.”

No one else seemed likely to come here anyway.

Even if someone saw the marks and found this place, it wouldn’t be my problem—it’d be Fran’s.

All I had to do was sit back and wait for him to complete whatever he was working on. That’s what you’d call a true idle game.