The conference room of the Masal residence.
In that place, where only a wooden round table sat forlornly, Lia blinked as she looked over the members of the “Deculein Assassination Team.”
From the left sat Gawain, Leo, Carlos, Ganesha, Dozmu, Laylie, and…… the crystal ball of Elesol the Red Coffin.
Saying she still could not fully trust them, she had sent only her crystal ball.
“……So what do we do now~?”
Ganesha asked with a bright smile.
“Should we just charge straight into Deculein’s mansion~?”
“For now, this is Deculein’s schedule.”
Lightly dismissing her ignorant proposal, Gawain held out a document. It was Deculein’s schedule, provided by Yeriel.
“It also serves as proof that Lady Yeriel has taken His Majesty the Emperor’s side.”
“…….”
For an instant, Ganesha’s face hardened coldly. She turned to Lia.
“Is that true? Yeriel is participating in this team?”
“Yes.”
Lia nodded for the moment. Ganesha asked again.
“Why?”
“……Pardon?”
“Do you still not know the reason?”
“That’s……”
Lia mumbled with her lips.
The reason—honestly, it was not as though she did not know. She knew the settings of Yeriel and Deculein.
Of course, the relationship between the two of them was not as terrible as in the original, but Yeriel probably did not like Deculein very much. Even if things had improved somewhat, it likely was not enough for her to prioritize the family over everything.
“Because if left alone, the family will fall?”
That was all Lia answered.
Deculein was the head of Yukline. Therefore, if he betrayed the Emperor, the entire family would end up betraying the Empire.
Yeriel would not want to bear such a risk. She would never have wanted it in the first place.
Especially in this situation, where Deculein had no grand cause and was instead cooperating with the Altar for reasons unknown.
For Yeriel, her entire world was “the family.”
“Lady Yeriel will regret it later~”
“Regret it?”
Lia asked back, pretending not to know.
“……But why did the Professor suddenly change~?”
Ganesha also pretended not to know as she chewed on dried squid. Chew, chew—working her jaw in dissatisfaction, she sank into thought.
Perhaps she was thinking about Yeriel’s origin and birth.
“…….”
Lia watched Ganesha’s reaction.
The Red Garnet Adventurers’ Party probably knew. Yeriel’s secret.
If Yeriel herself knew that secret, that alone would be reason enough for her to cooperate with them. If Deculein did not die, then she would.
Because Yeriel was not of the Yukline bloodline.
“……What could be the reason? Why would the Professor devote himself to the Altar and try to destroy the continent~?”
Ganesha murmured.
“Because he has lost too much already.”
Just then, the door flew open, and a commanding voice rang out.
Everyone in the conference room turned toward it.
“He has lost far too much.”
Yeriel.
The second daughter of Yukline and Deculein’s younger sister looked at them with an oddly venomous expression. She continued in a voice steeped in resentment.
“It wasn’t only his fiancée.”
Yeriel strode over and sat down. She spread out every newspaper from the recent days.
All of them had gossip about Deculein as their headlines.
The offensive from the Floating Island, which branded every paper he had submitted as plagiarism and denied, insulted, and condemned him as a fraudulent mage. The pro-Imperial press that joined in. The checks from various other noble houses, biting at him as though they had been waiting for his disgrace to be exposed.
“You may think it’s nothing more than trivial public opinion.”
Yeriel twisted the corner of her mouth with a snort.
“But not to Deculein.”
A personality obsessively attached to outward appearances—public reputation, status, position, social standing, and face.
That was Deculein.
At least, that was the Deculein known to the world.
“That’s why he wants to take everything back. The person, the magic, his own dignity…… all of it.”
Lia silently looked at Yeriel.
Ganesha, however, turned her gaze away from Yeriel with an expression that seemed dissatisfied—or perhaps sorrowful.
“……I see.”
Lia replied, thinking over her own thoughts about Deculein.
What he desired, what he wanted, and why he was becoming a villain.
As a villain, what kind of ending was he trying to reach?
Regrettably, she could not tell everyone those thoughts.
Whether they were true or false aside, the moment she revealed them, she would be going against Deculein’s will.
She would be going against his words: “Continue pursuing me.”
She would ruin his plan.
So Lia merely glossed over it like this.
“Well, it is Deculein. I guess that could be the case.”
Of course, all of this could be one of Deculein’s tricks.
Deculein might in fact truly be cooperating with the Altar, truly aiming to destroy the continent, and truly have joined hands with god. To prevent anyone from discovering that, he might be making use of his own psychology in reverse.
Thus Lia’s heart was still in that transitional state.
She still stood at a crossroads.
Not quite distrust, yet not enough to be called trust—Deculein’s true nature……
Would probably only be revealed at the very end.
“Then, welcome, Lady Yeriel. Welcome to working with us.”
Lia smiled brightly and offered Yeriel a handshake.
* * *
In the chairman’s office of the Imperial Magic Tower, I was reading a letter. They were Yeriel’s sentences, delivered through magical correspondence paper.
[I attended, just as you said. I made you out to be a complete villain.]
Matters were proceeding exactly as I had thought…… no, as “we” had thought.
Because Yeriel knew me well, she did not resist the flow. She did not try to revive some utterly useless sibling affection, nor did she throw a tantrum saying she did not want to do it.
On the contrary, she would prepare faithfully.
In the original work, she was a vicious and relentless sort who murdered Deculein with poison, so within a month, the “reputation” I desired would be created.
[Continue reporting.]
I was about to cut off contact with that businesslike sentence, when suddenly—
I picked up the quill I had been about to set down and added a short sentence.
[……Do not doubt yourself. You are doing well.]
—Professor.
A voice suddenly surfaced.
I hurriedly turned the correspondence paper over. Pretending to be calm, I looked at the crystal sphere on the desk.
—Head Professor Ruina and Mage Ihelm are on the move.
It was Yuli’s report.
“……Is that so.”
At the moment, she was at the university. Yuli was, after all, there under the identity of Yuri, an Imperial Knight.
—Yes. The two of them are certainly not related to the “Altar.” Rather, as though chasing the Altar’s backing, they are searching through the underground of the Magic Tower. The new professors are with them as well.
This was the work of sorting allies from enemies, jade from filth.
Ironically, I would become an enemy to my allies, and an ally to my enemies.
“Keep watching, and there’s no need to report verbally. The scenes you see are shown to me as well. It is a crystal ball with linked vision.”
—Yes. But is everything all right?
“……For the thirteenth time, I answer: I’m fine.”
Whenever she had the chance, she asked whether everything was all right. As if a child had been left alone by the water.
—I am worried because you went alone. Of course, I know that right now, I am the only person you can trust, Professor.
“I told you, didn’t I? My magical skill at present is far superior to before.”
I fiddled with the handle of the demonwood staff.
A “circuit” had been implanted into this staff. It was a kind of magic crystal core.
There was no doubt about its performance.
“……They are the circuits of the ones I killed.”
The execution officers of the Floating Island. I still possessed their corpses. I had someone obtain them first, before the Floating Island could collect them.
Since the corpses had been torn into countless pieces, it had taken some effort to gather the materials, but I had succeeded in separately extracting the shredded blood vessels and circuits and implanting them into the staff.
[Snowflake Stone Staff Deeply Steeped in Grudge and Curse]
Thanks to that, my staff had been given the extremely negative name of “Grudge and Curse.”
For reference, a “curse” was the most vicious status abnormality in this world. After all, what had driven Yuli toward an incurable death was a “curse.”
An ordinary human could not curse someone, and a person who had been cursed generally could not survive.
It was not for nothing that Sophien had derided her own authority as a curse.
“My magic is purer than it has ever been.”
Of course, more than ninety percent of it was thanks to equipment, but anyway.
To briefly list only the effects written on this staff:
—The quality of mana operated through this staff increases by 1 grade.
—Mana Capacity [6,666/6,666]
—Magic calculation speed amplified by 66%.
—Snowflake Stone Understanding 100%.
Despite being a staff, its mana capacity was greater than mine; the staff understood and calculated magic on its own; it had completely understood snowflake stone…… In any case, even putting all those things aside, none of them could surpass the first line.
The quality of mana increased by 1 grade.
By merely using this staff, I could operate 2nd-grade mana, which placed me on the same level as Adrienne.
The price paid for obtaining all these tremendous effects was only a single line of curse.
—The user suffers from the status abnormality “Curse of Grudge.”
Of course, as stated earlier, a curse was the worst status abnormality in the world, but precisely because the status abnormality called a curse was the price, such tremendous effects were possible.
Furthermore, the Curse of Grudge was a curse of the mind, not the body.
If it affected the body, that might be one thing, but my mental fortitude would not be overwhelmed by a mere curse.
Whatever soul’s curse it might be, to me, it was merely cute.
……Die, die, die, die, die.
I only needed to ignore the voice that sometimes whispered like that. Ah, not all curses were that one-dimensional; it was simply that the only curse left after piercing through my mental fortitude amounted to that much.
—Professor. Right now, Professor Ruina and Mage Ihelm are entering the basement of the Magic Tower library.
Just in time came Yuli’s report. Ruina and Ihelm were entering the underground of the Magic Tower library—the Altar’s cavern.
“I will go. You stand by there.”
Gripping the staff, I rose from my seat.
* * *
……In the underground of the Imperial University Magic Tower, another ecosystem was being created. It was another temple, built by the university’s professors, mages, and knights who had devoted themselves to the Altar.
They prayed to god in this underground place, and in return, they were bestowed with elixir. The elixir granted them “talent.”
A secret medicine through which knights could become stronger, and professors could become smarter……
“Shh!”
Ruina placed a finger to her lips.
Following behind her, Ihelm frowned while reading the Altar’s scripture.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Shh! Shh!”
“That sound is louder, you know.”
This was a dark passage. Ruina and Ihelm had followed the rumors of the Magic Tower and come beneath the Imperial University Magic Tower library.
“They’re bold. To dare build a facility like this under the Empire’s Magic Tower library……”
“It must mean their influence has grown that much.”
This place, as distant as a long cavern, had only the candles on both sides of the wall for light.
In that faint and precarious place, Ruina and Ihelm were trying to dig out the root threatening the foundation of the Imperial University.
“Wait.”
Sssssss……
At that moment, a ghastly mist settled low.
Clackclackclackclackclackclack——
As though detecting intruders, a group of skeletons rose with the sound of bones knocking together.
“Hmm…… That magic and those skeletons. I’ve seen them somewhere before.”
Looking at them, Ihelm scratched the back of his neck. Ruina also clenched her teeth.
“You’re right. Coincidentally, so have I. I saw them in our university’s Magic Tower.”
It was magic of the university’s Magic Tower.
In other words, it was the magic of one of the “professors” of this Magic Tower.
They knew the name too.
It was Relin.
That insane fat professor had, in the end, betrayed them……
Step—
At that instant, a clear footstep rang out from behind them.
The backs of Ihelm and Ruina rose with a shiver.
The two of them hurriedly turned around.
“……!”
And both wore expressions of shock.
A certain man stood there, looking at them.
“Deculein…… Chairman?”
Deculein.
He looked from Ruina to Ihelm in turn, then muttered with perfect nonchalance.
“What a curious place. Was there such a place in the university Magic Tower?”
Then, at the sight of him smiling for some reason, Ruina gulped. A primal, instinctive fear prickled at her throat like goosebumps, and cold sweat ran down her temples.
“Wouldn’t you agree, Ruina? Ihelm?”
Deculein asked them that in return, but the two of them remained silent.
For quite a long while—until the clackclackclackclack of the skeletons’ rattling drew near them…….