Greetings, Mister Principal

Chapter 172: Calling Card

Morale Support: Scherzo

Patreon: /ScherzoTranslations

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Calling Card:

Indulging in past misunderstandings and abandoning the future, I will come to your door in seven days to steal your distorted and meaningless pride. What is contained in this package is the prop I will use for a splendid performance. 

Phantom Thieves of Hearts [1]

On the letterhead, the content was written in a collage of newspaper texts. If it were at another time, Elymia would have thought it was a boring prank.

However, now trapped in captivity and receiving such a letter, Elymia couldn’t ignore it.

“Phantom Thieves of Hearts… if they could really steal the fate I was carrying, that wouldn’t sound so bad.”

Inside the package was a rolled-up stack of papers that unfolded as she opened it.

However, when she saw the text on it, Elymia frowned.

“A Study on Heredity, and a Report of the Continuity of the Albione’s Family Bloodline?”

She recognized each word separately, but when pieced together, the meaning became unclear.

However, with nothing else to do in the prison, and since the “Phantom Thieves of Hearts” claimed it was a tool for stealing hearts, Elymia thought there was no harm in taking a look.

With this thought in mind, Elymia began to read through the report.

The report started with hypotheses about genetic inheritance, introducing the concept of bloodline factors. It then confirmed the role of bloodline factors in generational inheritance through observations and experiments. The extremely detailed records of experiments with peas caught Elymia’s attention, even though she had never seen peas grow. Through the descriptions, she could understand the role of bloodline factors.

If the document had ended there, Elymia might have thought it was a paragraph copied from a thesis or a textbook. However, the following content regarding the Albione family bloodline left Elymia wide-eyed. She read each word carefully, afraid to miss any details.

After finishing reading, Elymia’s hands trembled. She didn’t hold it steady, and the stack of papers scattered on the ground. Without bothering to pick them up, Elymia’s eyes stared blankly as she muttered to herself.

“Is this true, Mom? Everything I’ve done is…”

…

Reiner quickly received a reply from Lord Preston.

Clearly, the legendary mage sensed from Reiner’s words that he indeed had a certain direction in his research. In the reply, Lord Preston acknowledged Reiner’s protection of his student and mentioned that during the Albione family wedding, most pure blooded families would send representatives to congratulate them. Reiner could choose to make his statement on that occasion.

Of course, Lord Preston himself wouldn’t go in person, but he promised to send one of his students as a witness to accompany Reiner to Berger City.

However, the legendary mage advised Reiner to proceed with further verification only if he had concrete tangible evidence, otherwise it might lead to uncontrollable consequences.

Finally, based on Reiner’s suggestions in the letter, Lord Preston conducted corresponding experiments and attached the results at the end of the letter.

Folding the letter, Reiner looked at the experiment table.

The original alchemy beakers and alcohol lamp had been replaced with high-precision optical microscopes and several petri dishes.

To generalize the heredity laws verified in peas to humans, Reiner needed to do two things. First, confirm the existence of bloodline factors on chromosomes. Second, prove that human and pea chromosomes were the same substance.

Actually, the second step didn’t require Reiner to do it personally. Through previous research by necromancers on cell structures, Reiner found that clear chromosome structures existed only during cell division. By using alchemical means to identify the elements in chromosomes of different species, they had concluded that the elements and their proportions were basically the same among different organisms.

From the experimental observations, it could be inferred that chromosomes shared similar substances across different species.

As for how to prove that bloodline factors existed on chromosomes, Reiner had some ideas.

Breeding fruit flies was a classic and straightforward method, but it took a bit too long. It took twelve days for a generation of fruit flies to mature, and obtaining the classic white-eyed fruit fly, which was a rare trait, depended on luck.

After consulting some references, Reiner found another unique creature in this world called the Moon Owl. As the name suggests, it was an owl.

They were a type of owl used for delivering letters. With a long history of breeding, there were complete written and illustrated records on Moon Owl breeding.

Reiner discovered that in male Moon Owls, some would have red eyes, while the majority had yellow eyes. Simultaneously, all female Moon Owls had yellow eyes, an inheritance pattern very similar to sex-linked inheritance.

After selecting a breeding record from a breeding facility, Reiner carefully examined it and finally found a description of the offspring of a red-eyed male and a yellow-eyed female. In all twelve descendants of these two Moon Owls, they all had yellow eyes, both male and female. This indicated that the red eye was a recessive trait, and the female yellow-eyed Moon Owl should be homozygous dominant.

In the 89 descendants of these twelve Moon Owls, the number of red-eyed Moon Owls was 22, with a ratio of 3:1 to yellow-eyed Moon Owls. Moreover, without exception, all red-eyed Moon Owls were male.

Necromancers had already discovered through research on various animals that there were subtle differences between the chromosomes of male and female individuals. Before, Reiner had asked Lord Preston to observe the cells of various creatures, including Moon Owls and humans. The results confirmed that the chromosomes of male and female individuals did indeed show differences.

For example, in humans, twenty-three pairs of chromosomes were similar between men and women, but only the last pair, known as the 23rd pair, showed differences. Women had two similar structures, while men had two different structures.

From these observations, it could be inferred that chromosome differences were directly related to gender, and the 23rd pair of chromosomes were called sex chromosomes.

This was Reiner’s gift to Lord Preston. Confirming the existence of sex chromosomes would certainly attract feedback from the world. Reiner, who didn’t have the conditions to carry out the experiment personally, handed it over to the legendary mage, which was considered a gesture of goodwill.

Once the type of chromosomes determining gender was confirmed, the remaining deductions were straightforward.

The bloodline factor that determines the Moon Owl’s red eyes is inherited along with gender, and the sex chromosomes determine gender. It could be easily inferred that the bloodline factor causing red eyes in Moon Owls resided on the sex chromosomes. By extension, bloodline factors determining other traits would also be on the chromosomes.

“Proof completed.”

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T/N:

[1] Persona 5 reference.