“Another day…”
The bright blue skies signified yet another dawn.
The orange hue settling at the horizon was extremely addictive to see, at least to the boy.
His appearance held no notable features.
He is someone who wouldn’t be picked out in a crowd.
He was neither ugly nor handsome, nor did he possess any sort of unique temperament.
The boy was the incarnation of mundane, bearing similar appearances to most of the people on this planet.
The sense of tranquility in his eyes gradually disappeared at the sun’s rise.
He sighed softly, relishing the momentary peace he was into.
‘I hadn’t even graduated…’
A wry smile appeared on his face as he recalled his memories.
Prior to this world, he had lived another life.
He was a first-year college student who took on Electrical Engineering.
He hadn’t been cursed by the massively convoluted circuits in the course’s later years when he got into a car accident.
A madwoman did a counter-flow and ended up crashing into his car, ending in his death.
Recalling the memories of the accident made Sirius’ head ache.
Sudden death sounded good on paper.
There was no suffering.
But when reincarnation is added, it turns into a memory that sends chills down the spine.
It could be compared to having an accident in one’s dreams, but worse.
The recollection of his past life reminded him of something.
His talents.
Sirius’ reincarnation into this world came with three talents.
Each talent is divided into colors—from white to prismatic.
It was a ‘cheat’ of sorts.
He did not know anything else beyond it.
Unfortunately for him, his luck sucked.
The three talents he obtained weren’t heaven-defying, nor could they allow him to steamroll everything.
First was the [Chef] talent, rated Blue; the next level after White.
Second was the botched version of [Heaven Rewards Hard Work], named [Heaven Sometimes Rewards Hard Work].
It is rated Green, the next level after Blue.
Finally, there was the most useless white-rated talent, [Ordinary].
It served no purpose other than to make him unnoticeable in crowds.
He is neither handsome nor ugly, smart nor dumb.
He sits at the most perfect balance in the middle.
‘A background character…’
Admittedly, Sirius didn’t want to accept such an identity.
Others reincarnate and become heroes who save the world from the demon king, yet here he was, reincarnating to become the same average person from his past life.
This led to a crazy outburst in his academic performance in this life.
He started learning at an early age, becoming dubbed as a ‘Genius’ amongst his peers (i.e., eight-year-olds).
Sirius enjoyed the treatment befitting his title, skipping high school and going straight to college altogether.
The [Heaven Sometimes Rewards Hard Work] talent works just like the original.
It is akin to a proficiency panel that allows him to learn things by doing them repeatedly.
If he wrote mathematical equations and stuff he does not understand, random bursts of inspiration and understanding would come despite mindlessly writing them.
There are two catches to this talent.
One, if the topic he focuses on is too complex for his current level, the resulting understanding would be a less complex version of it.
Sirius still wouldn’t be able to understand it, hence he has to select topics that aren’t too far for the current him.
The other was the keyword “sometimes”.
It is not guaranteed to work.
Sirius brutally grinded this talent of his for six years to reach the master’s level in his chosen degree.
The erratic chances of it activating are frustrating enough, not to mention this world’s higher standards compared to his past life.
The masteral degree of his past life is only a graduate degree in this world.
The talent made Sirius’ life a bit easier, but not convenient.
He did not waste time whenever his talent didn’t activate.
He tried to learn himself, though the difficulty of studying without it was there.
Just to enjoy the treatment he hadn’t experienced in his past life, he sacrificed years of his childhood to gain recognition.
Now that he has reached this point, he is enjoying it.
‘Oh, right…’
Sirius suddenly remembered his thesis mentor’s instructions.
Another ‘genius’ will serve as his co-instructor.
His mentor chose her because of their similar ages.
He hastily prepared before arriving at his instructor’s office.
The university’s silence was gradually broken by the influx of arriving students.
Everyone who went past him is accustomed to this point.
It wasn’t rare to see child prodigies appear every now and then.
This world’s sole government body is the “Federation”.
The planet they inhabited is roughly the same as Earth—an oceanic planet.
It is currently the era of talent explosion.
With proper governance, reduced poverty, and added incentives for those struggling financially, educational opportunities rose sharply.
Many people had the chance to study.
The ‘talents’ all around the world, which should have been buried, were dug up by this huge monolithic body.
It was a huge contrast to Sirius’ past life which was plagued with wars, political tension, and a doomed economy.
‘I wonder what she’ll look like…’
He expected another ‘prodigy’ at his age, just that they are genuine prodigies, completely unlike him who relied on an early headstart and a barely-functioning ability.
Sirius’ thoughts did not last long as the scent of books mingled with the sandalwood greeted his nose as soon as he opened the office door.
A large bookshelf presented itself to his right.
The desk situated at the center of the room was stacked with documents.
Sunlight seeped through the tall glass window beneath the desk, the metal nameplate atop it letting off a shimmer.
It did not differ much from his past life’s offices.
Opposite his mentor’s desk sat a girl around his age.
Her long brown hair reached up to her waist.
The dark black beret she wore hung limply atop her head.
When she turned to his direction, her amethyst-like pupils shone brilliantly.
It was at this exact moment that time stopped for Sirius.
The world lost its brilliance… its color.
Only she remained the most brilliant, overshadowing everything else.
‘How can someone like her exist..?’
*****
Honkai Star Rail.
A game Sirius had played in his passing.
He treated his dailies as a three-minute task.
He was a sucker for its story ever since Penacony, playing up to version 4.3 prior to his death.
There was no way he would not recognize the girl beside him.
‘Madam Herta, the universe’s inimitable beauty.’
Sirius always treated Herta Glazers in-game as some sort of weird, over-exaggerated fanatics.
How can someone lose their bearing just by seeing a person?
That was until now.
Herta’s looks are ten… no, a thousand times more exaggerated in-game.
Her eyes glowed like real amethysts, emitting an aura of mystique and beauty.
The small, black-violet dress was filled with purple ribbons that tied the outfit against her slender build.
One thing was certain: line art ultimately cannot compare with reality.
Sirius ended up losing his bearings.
“T-the mentor shouldn’t arrive for now. W-would you like to have the tour now?”
“Mn.”
She put away the book she was reading, readily agreeing to his words.
Seeing her waiting for him to stand up, Sirius awkwardly did so.
He forcibly suppressed the waves in his chest as they left the office.
Having rehearsed it once, Sirius is confident he could give the university’s best impression to his mentor’s ‘co-instructor’ he hasn’t met.
However, it was Herta he was guiding.
His performance was far from optimal, having mental blocks here and then.
His lost composure soon turned into anxious thoughts.
‘She wouldn’t have a bad impression because of this, no..?’
‘I screwed up.
How did I end up here?’
‘Can I reverse time and do it again properly..?’
No visible reaction appeared on her face except for slight curiosity.
It was satisfied as soon as they reached the facilities, leaving Herta with her default resting (flat) face.
Sirius did not have the leisure to think of a genius’ oddities, locking in to conclude his job properly.
Fortunately, he succeeded.
The latter half of his time as a guide was done to excellent standards.
He no longer stuttered and faced any mental blocks.
The two returned to the mentor’s office after an hour-long tour.
Sirius’ sigh of relief happened to be a few notches louder, catching Herta’s ears.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Her words made him freeze.
“It seems you are troubled because of me. Care to tell why?”
Feeling the stinging gaze at the back of his head, Sirius felt obligated to face it.
And so he did.
‘What reason should I tell?
That she’s unrealistically beautiful to the point I lost my composure?
That sounds very pathetic!’
It wasn’t due to any romantic thoughts that he panicked.
Herta is so darningly beautiful that it felt intimidating to interact with her.
Such was the problem Sirius faced.
‘No, no, it’s too awkward… and cringe.’
Though he had a feeling Herta would nod at his words of praise, he felt it was too cringy.
He would rather shoot himself in the head than let out these poetic, but strangely fitting words, inside his mind.
In the end, he resorted to making up a lie…
His first lie.
“I am socially anxious. I-I’m sorry if this affected you.”
“I see…”
Herta did not bother digging deeper into this average-looking ‘senior’ of hers.
She returned to her comfort zone and began reading another book.
Seeing this made Sirius feel more relieved.
The two spent the entire afternoon inside the office.
Tacit silence remained between them.
It wasn’t until their mentor, a bespectacled white-haired man in his fifties, that it changed.
“Miss Herta will be my assistant instructor until she finishes her doctoral papers.”
“…”
His mentor’s respectful tone was automatically ignored in Sirius’ ears.
His heart dropped as he heard the words ‘doctoral papers’.
Papers.
Not singular.
Plural.
From her appearance alone, she is way younger than him.
He could not imagine there was someone capable of doing so.
‘Madam Herta, future member of the Genius Society…’
He reached the answer himself.
Herta is an illimitable genius.
It shouldn’t have come off as surprising to have her finish a doctorate degree in under eight years.
“Sirius, I will be leaving her to you. If you have any questions, you can try asking Miss Herta while I am gone. She has already finished several doctoral degrees, which should be helpful to your thesis.”
“…”
Another shock came out right after Sirius barely processed with the last one.
‘Just how many…’
These words remained stuck in his throat.
“I… understand.”
Today marked the day his life took another turn.
*****
Herta was in a completely different league right after she was born.
She could speak, read, and write the moment she came out of the womb.
Things that were treated as world-class mathematical problems turned into elementary school papers in her presence.
From her birth up to five years later, her academic attainments surpassed most throughout the world.
She was hailed as the Federation’s brightest gem, the monstrous genius who would advance their civilization’s progress all by herself.
It was normal for her to meet other ‘geniuses’.
Each had their own self-esteem, believing themselves to be special.
With no exceptions, everyone wound up broken ever since they met Herta.
Their prided academic attainment honed through years of work was but child’s play in her eyes.
Whatever they learned, Herta also learns at a much faster pace.
All of their life’s hard work being compressed into a single month, if not days, left them questioning the meaning of their existence.
As such, Herta was all too accustomed to the look sported by Sirius.
It was nothing more than someone doubting their lives.
Nobody dared to clash against Herta after one confrontation, much less ask for her assistance.
It was why she is seen not as a person, but as an idol.
An inviolable goddess.
An unapproachable witch who knows and adapts to all the knowledge in the world.
Herta expected nothing from Sirius… until he bravely presented the draft of his master’s thesis.
“Miss Herta, do you have time for consultation?”
She was sure Sirius was broken by her mere existence.
It had been so since she could remember.
No one stood up after being pushed down to the pits of self-doubt and questioning.
Herta saw it in his eyes.
The way he looked at her contained fear, but most importantly, the will to prove something.
It completely contradicted the ‘weak’ personality she pasted atop his forehead.
Curiosity took root in the mind of the genius.
How could someone like him exist?
Pressed for answers as well as having a playful mentality, Herta took his thesis.
‘How far will you go..?’