“……Chairman.”
Luina looked at Deculein. Deculein was calm. Like some traveler, he strode along, looking around with interest.
“So this was the sort of facility it was. Not very clean.”
His voice was strangely cold. Ihelm and Luina unconsciously backed away, watching the killing intent before and behind them.
Behind them was Deculein; in front, the skeletons.
“But what brings you underground?”
Deculein asked first. Luina swallowed and answered.
“There were traces of an altar beneath the Magic Tower, and there have been numerous suspicious reports and phenomena of demonic energy.”
“And?”
“And……”
As if frustrated by Luina’s hesitation, Ihelm answered in her stead.
“The stench of professors is thick here. The stench of weaklings who sold their souls to the altar.”
Sniff, sniff—watching Ihelm deliberately smell the air, Deculein nodded.
“So it would seem.”
“Right. Deculein, you must know as well.”
Ihelm continued.
“There are many professors at the Imperial University whose skill and ability have risen at a bizarrely steep rate. Especially middle-aged professors who had already stagnated. The secret will be here.”
—And what is the problem with that?
Just then, a voice slithered in from the darkness like a snake.
Ihelm and Luina looked that way at the same time.
“Could it not be that we grew through our own efforts?”
The one who muttered that—the magic professor—was Relin. Still plump, he wore a sly smile as he looked back and forth between Luina and Ihelm.
“This place is not as impure as the two of you imagine. On the contrary, it is a sacred ground of scholarship. Here, we discussed together, trained together, tempered ourselves, and succeeded in raising our ability as mages by one level.”
Luina bit her lip.
Right now, Relin’s rank was certainly different. From the mana of a man who had once been no more than an ordinary professor, she could now feel, however faintly, even traces of demonic energy.
However, Luina’s dismay was not because of that.
“……‘The two of you.’”
Luina said that and glared at Relin.
The “two of you” Relin spoke of probably meant only herself and Ihelm.
Then the person not included among those “two” was……
“Still, the environment needs some refinement, Relin.”
Deculein. He muttered calmly as he approached and placed a hand on Luina’s shoulder.
Relin also smiled with satisfaction and answered.
“Yes. We will do so from now on.”
Luina gritted her teeth.
“……Just what are you—”
At that moment, a thought about his life crackled through her mind like static. To be precise, a thought about his “lifespan.”
……Deculein did not have long to live.
At a guess, perhaps a year at most.
No, perhaps even shorter than that.
Whatever the case, it did not matter when that remaining life would end.
If Deculein was cooperating with the altar, then being terminally ill was, in and of itself, more than enough “motive.” If he devoted himself to the altar and obeyed the so-called god, he could escape a death that was not far off.
“What are you staring at?”
Deculein twisted the corner of his mouth into a faint smirk. Luina’s gaze had been that obvious.
“Don’t tell me…… you.”
She took one step back and warmed up her mana.
“Do not even attempt something you will regret.”
At that instant, the mana of snowflake obsidian scattered, freezing Luina and Ihelm’s bodies.
Craaaaaack——
The two mages, their eyes wide with shock, were now frozen cold as statues. Relin giggled as he looked at them, then approached Deculein and bowed his head.
Deculein said,
“Put them underground. Alive.”
“……Pardon?”
Relin’s eyes rounded. He became the servile Relin of before again, smiling broadly as he earnestly pleaded with Deculein.
“Would it not be better to kill them?”
“There is no reason to kill them.”
“Pardon? No. These two are quite dangerous. If we leave them alive—”
At that, Deculein turned to look at Relin. Killing intent wavered in his gaze.
“Relin. Since when did you start talking back to me?”
“…….”
“At the university, at the altar, even at the Imperial Palace. You are endlessly beneath me.”
Each and every word weighed down on Relin’s shoulders. Not only Relin’s—it struck at the heart of the many professors who would be listening to this from not far away underground.
“Remember this. It seems you all ran from me because you disliked me.”
Deculein placed a hand on Relin’s shoulder.
“You cannot escape me.”
He continued, staring at him as though he would pluck out his eyes with his bare hands.
“Until you die…… No. Even after you die.”
A smile rose to Deculein’s lips. A smile as dense as a snake, ominous and dangerous.
“The name Deculein will be lodged in your hearts.”
“……Yes.”
Relin swallowed hard and answered.
* * *
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the imperial capital. Masal’s official residence.
On its roof, Yeriel was looking up at the dark night sky.
Twinkle, twinkle. Twinkle, twinkle. The brilliantly shining stars felt needlessly sorrowful. Forlorn, and plaintive.
The light that came from the stars seemed like tears shed by them.
“……Oppa.”
Yeriel spoke the word “oppa.”
When she was young, Deculein disliked it, so she could not call him that; now, it was a title she could not use because she herself disliked it.
No, rather than disliking it, it felt as though thorns sprouted on her tongue.
“Oppa.”
Calling him once more, Yeriel licked her lips with her tongue.
No thorns sprouted on her tongue, but instead, it felt as though a needle that had sprouted in a corner of her heart was pricking her again and again.
“…….”
Yeriel hugged her knees with both arms. She buried her face between them.
……She knew everything.
What Deculein wanted. What he was trying to do.
What would be at the end of the path he walked.
There was no way she did not know.
That was why it hurt even more.
Because Deculein was trying to sacrifice himself completely. Because he was trying to burn himself like firewood to protect her, and to protect this continent.
“……I know everything.”
Even knowing that, it hurt that she could not tell anyone.
Even knowing that, it saddened her to denounce Deculein as an evil person.
“What do you know?”
A voice suddenly rose from beneath the roof. Startled, Yeriel looked down.
Gawain, Lia, Leo, and Carlos. One knight, one woman, and two children were looking up at her.
“……I mean I’ve already seen through what Deculein is trying to do.”
Yeriel glossed it over like that. Gawain nodded with a rather stiff face, and Lia tossed a crystal orb to her.
“It’s the orb of the Jeokgwe tribe. They said they have something they want to say to you.”
“……Really?”
Yeriel accepted it for now. Then, bzzzt—she glanced at the four of them. It meant she wanted them to leave.
“Okay~ Kids, let’s go.”
After the four left, the night sky became quiet again.
Yeriel looked at the Jeokgwe crystal orb.
Ahem.
A needless cough to loosen her tension.
After that, she spoke to her “kin.”
“What.”
—What happened?
It was Elesol’s voice. Elesol originally could neither hear nor speak, but whether she had developed some kind of magic recently, she had become able to speak in a strange voice like some mechanical sound.
“What do you mean, what happened?”
—Why are you there?
“…….”
Elesol already knew.
Perhaps, on this continent, only Elesol knew.
The “true” relationship between herself and Deculein.
—What are you plotting?
“……What plotting? I’m going to help too. With killing Deculein.”
Yeriel said that.
“Deculein has to die.”
Deculein had to die.
Even Deculein himself wished for that.
Yeriel did not want it, but she could not break Deculein’s stubbornness.
No one in this world could turn back his will.
—But—
“It’s because of that, isn’t it? At Reccordak. When you threatened us.”
—…….
“It’s because I’m the same race as you, isn’t it?”
Yeriel twisted the corner of her mouth into a faint smile. It was a sorrowful smile.
“That, apparently, was all a lie.”
—…….
Elesol fell silent. Yeriel continued in a trembling voice.
“Because if I got other ideas, something terrible would happen. Because it would put a blemish on Yukline’s standing.”
This was a paper Deculein had instructed her to speak from. Among the countless lines in that script, this was what Yeriel had chosen.
“He knew I was Jeokgwe and still left me alone, and even pretended to love me—all of it was for the family.”
As she said that, tears gathered in Yeriel’s eyes.
There was no need to act. Tears simply flowed naturally.
—If that were so, he could simply have killed you long ago.
Elesol said. Yeriel gave a small smile.
“Even my death would have been a blemish on the family. But probably not from now on. From now on, Deculein will try to kill me too. He’s already found evidence.”
In order to become a true villain, Deculein would move. His movements would be drastic. Fierce and forceful.
Like waves, like a rhinoceros, like a volcano.
“……So you be careful too.”
Yeriel looked at the crystal orb. The crystal orb said nothing.
“Because Deculein hates the Jeokgwe.”
Drop by drop, her tears fell. They beaded on the roof and left tiny traces.
“Because Deculein…… will kill all of you.”
And because he will save all of you.
Unable to finish those final words, Yeriel wept silently.
As though every blade in the world were stabbing her heart, because that agony and fear were sorrowful, she trembled and cried.
—……I understand.
Elesol interpreted Yeriel’s current state quite differently. She took it simply as Yeriel having been betrayed by her elder brother and weeping sorrowfully because of it.
All according to Deculein’s design.
—Rest. We too will soon come there.
Elesol ended the communication.
However, Yeriel’s tears did not stop.
For a rather long while, she pondered her past and her future, suffering over the sight of Deculein’s impending fall……
“Ah, I’m seriously going crazy.”
Until the sky brightened a little.
Only until dawn broke, and blue mist rose.
She cried.
And as she cried, she put her heart in order.
* * *
Beneath the Magic Tower.
A space personally built by the professors of the Magic Tower who had devoted themselves to the altar, commonly known as the “chapel.”
There, I was looking back and forth between Luina and Ihelm.
“…….”
“…….”
The two of them, each with venomous eyes, glared at me while their mouths and hands were bound by magic restraints.
“Does anyone have an opinion?”
I asked that and turned my head. There were professors there, including Relin and Siare, who had recently built up conspicuous achievements with the help of the “spirit fluid.”
“Killing them would be……”
“Keeping them alive will be useful in many ways.”
Thud—!
I struck the ground with my cane.
“If we are to tear out their circuits and make magic crystal cores, they will be fresher alive.”
“……!”
Luina and Ihelm’s eyes widened in horror.
But there was no need to be so surprised. To begin with, a magic crystal core was made by taking a part of the body and creating a living, moving magical organism.
And the “human body” was included in the body.
“Do you have any intention of devoting yourselves to the altar?”
I asked Luina and Ihelm. The two calmly shook their heads.
“……Then it cannot be helped. We will have no choice but to turn you into magic crystal cores.”
A good attitude.
As expected, these two were trustworthy.
Though I never thought I would come to trust Ihelm.
“Lock them in the prison. Be careful not to endanger their lives. They will become good materials.”
As I said that, I made a small flaw in the “magic restraints.”
So that they could escape, or so that they could obtain evidence from this place.
“Yes!”
Relin sprang to his feet and dragged them away.
……Three hours later.
Inside the underground prison.
Luina was moving her entire body, rubbing her handcuffs against the floor.
“You think that’ll come off?”
Ihelm, who had been watching her for a while, spoke as if frustrated.
“Hey. You think that’ll work? Those are magic restraints. You think rubbing them on the floor a little will get them off?”
“Oh, then what? Do we die like this? With all our circuits ripped out?”
“We can’t let that happen, but that’s not it. It looks like you’re rubbing your body against the floor or something.”
So what? In this situation, you’re worried about how it looks?
Luina pursed her lips and once again rubbed the handcuffs behind her back against the floor.
As if he would not concern himself with her, Ihelm clicked his tongue and muttered.
“……Still. This is a shock. To think that bastard Deculein devoted himself to the altar too.”
“I actually think it makes sense because it’s Deculein.”
“What are you talking about? What do you know about Deculein?”
“I know him well. Better than you.”
Rub—rub—at her movements, which looked as though she were rubbing her rear against the floor, Ihelm grimaced and averted his eyes again.
Luina said,
“Deculein will die soon. He’s terminally ill.”
“……What?”
“Most terminal patients devote themselves to religion. No one curses them for being weak. Rather, it’s only natural, and very pitiful.”
Rub—rub—
Luina continued rubbing her body.
“Ah, damn it. I’m telling you, that’s an artifact Deculein made. Stop rubbing it like—”
At that moment.
Snap—!
A very cheap-sounding noise of something breaking.
“Huh?!”
Ihelm’s eyes opened wide, and Luina likewise looked down at both her arms with round eyes. To be exact, she looked at her wrists, which had been bound by the handcuffs.
In that state, she muttered blankly,
“……They came off?”
“Hey! Get mine off too!”
Ihelm quickly turned his back to her.
Luina ignored him and stood up alone. Then, peering outside the prison bars, she spoke in a very small voice.
“Shh. There are a lot of altar people here. So for now, I’ll check the situation alone. You stay tied up.”
“What? Hey. Are you doing this because I nagged you? Untie me—”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Luina checked her body.
She had clearly been frozen by snowflake obsidian, but thankfully she was fine. That must mean Deculein’s words about using her as material for a “magic crystal core” had been true.
“Anyway. We were caught thanks to Deculein, and we lived thanks to Deculein.”
“Oh, fine, just untie me, will you?”
She had thought they were going to die for sure.
Luina fiddled with her wrist and said,
“Fine. I’ll untie you, so let’s move quietly.”
With sharply emitted mana, she sliced through Ihelm’s handcuffs.
Tuk—!
After gathering up the severed magic restraints, the two looked beyond the iron bars.
Two dozing guards, and five skeletons.
A number they could handle well enough.
“……Can you do it?”
“Of course.”
The two nodded to each other, then quietly prepared their magic.
……Not even imagining the existence of “Deculein,” watching them from somewhere far away.