Writing a Paper

Crescent Academy was quiet and peaceful at night. Curfew had long passed, and the entire academy was shrouded in darkness. Aside from a few ever-burning streetlamps in the square, only the flickering light from the headmaster's office still shone.

Rainer sat at his desk. He wasn't sleeping; he was focused intently on the work before him.

He picked up a quill. This writing tool popular in the Middle Ages needed to be constantly dipped in ink. At first, Rainer had worried about writing, but he soon discovered that this body had at least learned to read and write. The elegant script it produced was quite beautiful as well.

At first, Rainer had merely wanted to see whether he possessed any of the so-called benefits granted to transmigrators.

Usually, transmigrators came with cheats such as game systems, libraries in their minds, special talents, miraculous rings, brain chips, smartphones, idiotic goddesses, and the like. After confirming that he had no system, no special talent, and no special ring at his side, Rainer began to see whether he could copy books or songs.

He recalled the masterpieces of Earth. Before long, Rainer discovered that although he could remember Victor Hugo and the plot of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, he simply couldn't write them out from memory. As for songs, he could reproduce them by remembering the sheet music, but only simple ones. Asking him to compose a Fate Symphony would be a bit much.

"Looks like I don't have a golden finger."

Rainer sighed. Transmigration these days was getting more and more stingy.

Since the attempt had failed, he could only rely on his memories, studying as he wrote his paper.

Fortunately, this experiment was the simplest and most basic kind, so it didn't require much specialized knowledge.

Rainer first wrote the title of the paper on the parchment.

<Discussion of the Special Gas Produced During Limestone Heating Experiments and Several Questions Regarding Traditional Combustion Reaction Theory>.

Of course, he couldn't directly use some explosive title like "The Fallacy of Combustion Reactions," even if it was true. Rainer understood that academia was different from journalism. If he put forward such a shocking view from the start, there wouldn't be a single journal willing to publish his paper.

It might even be rejected during review for being too sensationalist.

So Rainer chose a gradual approach. He would begin with the basic experiment, then use the results to guide people toward acceptance step by step before finally presenting his argument.

Having finished the title, Rainer immediately began writing the introduction according to the format of papers on Earth.

"Abstract: A special gas produced during the heating of limestone to obtain Quicklime was discovered and its existence proven. Its properties were investigated through various alchemical methods."

Rainer had looked through several recent journals. Papers in this world had yet to develop the standardized format found on Earth. Everyone basically wrote according to their own preferences, though some imitated the styles of leading scholars. Naturally, Rainer chose the method he knew best.

"Should I be glad I don't have to translate this abstract into English?"

Rainer mocked himself. After finishing the abstract, he added several keywords.

Limestone, Quicklime, new substance, combustion reaction.

After writing those, Rainer began the first chapter and started drafting the paper in an orderly fashion.

"Chapter One: The Conversion of Limestone and Quicklime and Its Basic Experiments: As everyone knows, heating limestone is an extremely common process in everyday industrial production. Its product, Quicklime, can be used to manufacture several important raw materials needed for construction."

Rainer wrote quickly. On one hand, there was plenty to write about. Though he had no references, he didn't have to worry about duplicating anyone else's paper. On the other hand, it had truly been a long time since he had enjoyed the process of writing a paper with such clear thoughts.

Back in university, he had been a top student and should have qualified for graduate school recommendation. But changes in his family had forced him to begin working early and give up the academic path. As for being targeted at school, that was another story.

A few cat cries came from outside the window. Spring was already more than halfway over, and the nights had grown considerably warmer, though they still felt somewhat chilly. Yet Rainer didn't feel cold. Instead, it was as though a flame burned in his heart, spreading faint warmth through his body.

It wasn't until dawn had begun to break and a pale glow appeared in the east that Rainer finally set down his quill.

After counting, he found that he had written a full thirty pages.

Although the history of modern magic was only three hundred years old, magic in this world had already developed an academic atmosphere. To obtain academic points, one first had to send one's paper to the Tower of Rainbow, the magical center of this world.

Based on the submission procedures Rainer had found at the end of several journals, a paper that wished to be published would first be backed up in the Tower of Rainbow's vast archives. It would then undergo a duplication review. The review committee would use magic to determine whether the paper had been plagiarized or whether it covered material others had already researched. This process could last as long as a month.

After passing the duplication check, it would enter the evaluation stage. Papers would be submitted to different review committee members depending on their fields. Generally speaking, an ordinary paper would be reviewed by three members. If major disagreements arose, it would be submitted to higher-ranking members for examination until an evaluation was given. Depending on the paper, this process usually took one to five months.

Once the evaluation was received, the result would be sent to the author. The author could then submit it to major journals and obtain academic points. Generally, however, papers that received high evaluations would be solicited by prestigious journals after passing review. Of course, that was all for later.

Rainer checked his wording once more and stretched before rubbing his sleepy eyes. He took the paper and walked out of the office, only to unexpectedly run into Teacher Claire.

Teacher Claire was still dressed like a witch, though she held a black-and-white outfit in her hands. It was presumably this world's maid uniform.

"Good morning, Teacher Claire."

Rainer yawned, looking utterly lazy, causing Claire's brows to knit slightly.

"Headmaster, did you not go back to your room to sleep last night?"

She saw that the lights in the headmaster's office behind Rainer were still on and found it somewhat strange.

"Yeah, I got too absorbed in writing my paper. By the time I looked up, it was already this late. Ha—"

As he spoke, Rainer yawned again, then continued.

"Oh, right, Teacher Claire. This is the paper. Please give it to Charlotte and have her read it carefully. Tell her to mark anything she doesn't understand or finds problematic. Come find me in the office after dinner tonight. Um, if you're worried, you can come along too."

He stuffed the paper into Claire's hands, looking as though he intended to catch up on sleep.

"Of course, it'd be best if you fulfilled your promise as well."

Rainer added one last jab, glancing at the maid uniform in Claire's hands.

"You—"

Claire was momentarily stunned. She accepted the paper blankly. Only after Rainer swayed around the corner and disappeared did she come back to her senses. Somewhat angrily, she opened the thick stack of parchment in her hands.

"Discussion of the special gas produced during limestone heating experiments and so on... Don't tell me?"

The moment she read the title, she already had a bad feeling. After quickly flipping through the paper, Claire felt as though she could barely stand. Leaning against the wall, she couldn't believe what she had just seen.

"Such a rigorous, straightforward, and content-rich paper... that guy produced it in a single night? Isn't that practically cheating?"