"Um, Professor Dez, so does that mean...... I passed the exam?"

  Dez, who had been rambling on, suddenly choked up, his voice cutting off mid-sentence.

  He then widened his eyes and stared at Hulim.

  "Pass? You didn’t just pass—you get a perfect score! No, forget the exam—it’s irrelevant now!!!"

  "Student Hulim, you’ll publish it, right?! You’ll publish this magic circle, won’t you?!"

  "Huh? Publish it? I never thought about that......"

  "How can you not think about it!!?"

  At this moment, Dez exuded an unyielding aura.

  "How could you keep such a significant achievement to yourself?! Student Hulim, don’t let your work go unnoticed!"

  "Uh, it’s not that I......"

  "Please, you must publish it! I’ll arrange everything. This is an achievement that will change society—we can’t let it be buried!"

  "......Alright, Professor Dez. I’ll let it be published."

  Hulim replied helplessly, giving in.

  "That’s the spirit! Student Hulim, truly worthy of being the greatest genius in a thousand years! I’m sure this journal will be a pivotal step in forging your legend!"

  Wait, is it really that exaggerated?

  This isn’t even a particularly powerful magic circle. I have plenty of more impressive ones......

  "Alright! No time to waste! Something this extraordinary must be known to the world immediately! Student Hulim, let’s go publish this achievement now! Tomorrow, scholars all over the world will see it!"

  With that, Dez was about to rush off with Hulim in tow.

  "Wait, Professor Dez—tomorrow? That’s too soon?! Doesn’t submitting a manuscript take time?"

  "Submit? Who needs to submit? I’m the editor-in-chief of the magic journal—I make the rules! We’ll just add it to tomorrow’s issue. Or maybe......"

  Dez paused to think.

  "Let’s postpone the other articles and give this its own special section?"

  "Yes! Perfect! That’s settled!!!"

  No, no, no! That’s not how it works!

  ......

  The next day.

  "This is amazing, Hulim!"

  Alicia exclaimed, holding the newly released magic journal.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  This issue’s journal featured only one magical achievement.

  Yet this single piece of content caused a sensation as soon as it came out, and journal sales were skyrocketing.

  "Don’t mention it. I never thought it would turn out like this......"

  Hulim said helplessly.

  In the end, Professor Dez had gone through with it.

  Even though he was an old man, he ran faster than a young person when excited. He’d rushed to revise the journal right before it went to print—apparently, he’d even worked overtime last night to get the revised version printed......

  It wouldn’t be long before this journal spread across the world......

  "I don’t get it," Miko said, looking confused.

  "I thought Hulim just went to take a make-up exam for Magic Circle Studies? How did it end up as a standalone journal issue?"

  "Don’t ask me—it’s all Professor Dez’s doing."

  "Huh? Why?"

  "I said don’t ask me......"

  "Hulim, but this is really incredible!"

  Alicia read through the journal again carefully.

  "Even though I’m not an expert in Magic Circle Studies, I can tell this magic circle that freely adjusts magic element concentration will change society. With it, we’ll finally be able to fully control and utilize the free-flowing magic elements in nature—something that..."

  "Only the glorious ancient eras could achieve!"

  "Huh?! Really?!"

  Miko’s eyes widened in shock.

  "Did Hulim publish something that amazing?!"

  "Um," Alicia said helplessly, "Miko, I think you should learn more about academic subjects......"

  "I can’t! Those circles and lines make my head spin—I can’t learn any of it!"

  Miko groaned, holding her head.

  "Circles and lines? Miko, don’t treat magic circles like doodles!"

  "What else can I do?!"

  Miko stuck her tongue out at Hulim.

  "I just can’t learn them!"

  "You...... Fine......"

  Hulim gave up trying to persuade Miko. Miko was a talent who relied on intuition—getting her to study basic theories was impossible.

  "Speaking of which......"

  Putting Miko aside, Hulim turned to Alicia and asked,

  "Enough about me. Alicia, how’s that matter going?"

  "That matter? Ah...... Sir Filkorn’s case?"

  Alicia set down the journal.

  "We have a result."

  "Regarding that bill—our investigators didn’t find the original bill Filkorn signed at the restaurant."

  "Didn’t find it? Hmm, that’s expected...... Did you find out who took it?"

  Alicia shook her head.

  "No leads on their identity."

  "Martina interrogated all the restaurant staff. According to their statements, the manager on duty that day couldn’t make it due to an emergency, so he hired a temporary manager to replace him."

  "And according to the staff, all the day’s bills passed through this temporary manager’s hands. We can infer that this person most likely slipped a forged bill into the mix, then took it back after Filkorn signed it."

  "Furthermore......"

  "This temporary manager disappeared completely the next day—nowhere to be found. The original manager knew nothing about it; he’d slept through the entire day for no reason."

  "I see. That’s pretty standard......"

  Hulim wasn’t surprised by the outcome.

  "But——"

  "Is this level of investigation enough?"

  "Yes, it is."

  "???"

  Miko looked back and forth between Alicia and Hulim, confused.

  "What are you talking about? Haven’t you found the real culprit yet? Why is the investigation enough?"

  "......"

  "Stop staring at me like that! It makes me feel like an idiot!"

  Even though Hulim wanted to say "You kind of are," she held back when she saw Miko looking close to tears.

  Instead, she explained:

  "Miko, while the restaurant staff’s testimonies can’t fully prove Filkorn’s innocence, they’re enough to cast doubt on the case. You understand that, right?"

  Miko thought for a moment.

  "Ah, I guess so!"

  "Exactly. So that’s all we need."

  "Huh?"

  Miko looked even more confused.

  "But earlier you said," Hulim continued, "convicting a member of the Imperial Guard Knights requires absolute, irrefutable evidence!"

  "Now that the evidence against Mr. Filkorn is questionable, it will be even harder to convict him. Plus, the Emperor never believed the accusation in the first place. So it won’t be long before Mr. Filkorn is reinstated."

  "Ah! I get it now!"

  Miko clapped her hands in realization.

  But then she muttered under her breath:

  "Imperial nobles are so complicated. Why make things so messy? The Federation is better—if you’re guilty, you get arrested; if not, you’re free. All this suspension and ‘presumed innocent due to insufficient evidence’ stuff gives me a headache......"

  "......"

  Ignoring Miko’s muttering, Hulim asked Alicia again:

  "Alicia, so who exactly did this?"