Chapter 153
***
Immediately after Varheit disappeared.
I stared silently through the bars for a while.
It wasn't because of the lingering aftertaste of meeting the former master of the Life Mage Tower and my venomous senior fellow disciple.
Varheit was certainly dangerous, but there was something more urgent to deal with right now.
‘That means what I did was serious enough for Varheit to become obsessed with me.’
First, I had treated demon disease with black magic.
There wasn't any particular reason.
A doctor doesn't need a special reason to save a person's life.
The problem was cleaning up afterward.
I had been so happy about completing the cure for demon disease that I hadn't thought about the aftermath at all.
‘Father cleaned things up for me when it came to Freyja, but…….’
This time, there was no answer.
There were too many witnesses.
This wasn't a situation I could somehow resolve with my own power.
‘……How am I supposed to clean this up.’
Reality came crashing down on me belatedly.
After committing the deed without thinking about the aftermath at all!
‘Could I just insist that it doesn't matter because the patient was cured?’
The Mini Yulian in my head, playing the protagonist of a misunderstanding story, suggested it with a silly grin.
But the Mini Yulian in charge of my sense of reality wasn't going to let me off that easily this time.
‘Do you think that will work?’
In the end, I ran a few explanations through my head.
But every one of them was full of holes.
In the first place, there was nothing in this world less believable than saying, “I used black magic, and the person got better.”
How many times had black mages exploited that trick over the years?
They killed patients and turned them into undead, then conned people into believing their demon disease had been cured,
or controlled their minds to erase only their pain, then fled when the victims suddenly collapsed dead a few years later.
Countless nobles and commoners had squandered their fortunes after being deceived by black mages that way.
Would anyone really believe me if I stood before them and said, “My black magic isn't like that. It's a genuine treatment”?
‘They'll probably assume I used some trick to suppress the symptoms again.’
There was one more problem.
The demon disease I had treated this time—Crohn's disease—wasn't something that could be cured. It was a disease that had to be managed.
Just like diabetes.
In other words, although I had barely managed to save that patient this time, they had a high chance of relapsing within a few months.
How would the people around me interpret that?
‘They'll think I scammed them just like the other black mages.’
The trust and reputation I had built up until now?
Of course, they might provide a little cushioning.
But the problem was that they would only reduce a death sentence to life imprisonment, not lead to a complete exoneration.
It was a law of human society that even a tower built over a lifetime would come crashing down if you pulled out one wrong brick.
And I had just gleefully pulled out a very large brick.
‘……There really is no answer.’
I swallowed a sigh and sat down on the edge of the bed.
If I'd known this would happen, I should have come up with a way to explain it before committing the deed.
I had always prepared an alibi when making Viagra or penicillin.
This time, I had been too excited and overlooked it.
‘That bastard Babel should have helped me make an alibi instead of telling me about antibiotics after treatment.’
I was cursing the demon in my head for no good reason when—
“Older Brother.”
Freyja cautiously called out to me from the bed beside mine.
The silly, slack-jawed expression from earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Only then did she seem to realize how serious the situation was.
“What…… what will happen to us now?”
“Who knows.”
Freyja.
We're screwed.
I couldn't bring myself to say that, so I phrased it as indirectly as possible.
“For now, I suppose I should try mobilizing the connections I have.”
A few candidates immediately came to mind.
Prince Edmund, the countless nobles who owed Yulian a debt, and my father-in-law in the Inspectorate.
If we received these people's help, perhaps we could somehow avoid an actual prison sentence?
……It wasn't exactly an ideal use of one's connections, though.
‘Even if we avoid prison, it seems like our reputations are screwed…….’
Freyja's expression grew noticeably darker, as if she had guessed the gravity of the situation as well.
That was when the two of us fell into thought.
Click-clack, click-clack.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor.
A familiar silhouette appeared, walking with a slight tilt to one side.
Before long, Pericia appeared beyond the bars, one arm bound with silver thread.
“Miss Pericia!”
Freyja brightened and rushed to the bars.
It was a relief to see that she had returned safely.
Just as Varheit had said, it seemed that it had merely been dimensional travel.
“Is your arm all right? The one that was broken earlier…….”
“It will not interfere with my duties.”
“Even so, you should get it treated…….”
“It is fine. Since it was a clean break, treatment will not be difficult. I will have it treated once my escort duty is over.”
“That's not what I meant…….”
Freyja wilted at Pericia's impassive report.
That aside.
Pericia passed by Freyja and shifted her gaze to me.
“Professor.”
“I'm glad you're safe. I was worried.”
“……Are you not going to reproach me for my inadequacy?”
“It couldn't be helped.”
Varheit was like an event boss in a game.
The kind of being who only appeared near the end of the game, with a guaranteed defeat event waiting for you.
It would be unreasonable to blame Pericia for being incompetent because she couldn't defeat such a being.
It was a monster that had taken the Great Sage's right eye in the first place.
The fact that Pericia had gotten away with only losing her right arm was something to be grateful for.
“Besides, thanks to you wearing him down, we were able to avoid being harmed.”
“……Thank you for the consolation. However, having realized my shortcomings, I believe I must devote myself to further training.”
Pericia mixed a brief sigh into her next breath before getting to the main point.
“On my way back, I received a message from His Majesty.”
The moment she said that, Freyja dropped to her knees.
I belatedly knelt as well.
The moment I heard it was a message from the emperor, I reacted as a noble would.
Pericia cleared her throat and opened her mouth.
“Yulian Nihirit Schnabel, listen. You have done more than enough. I understand your concerns, so you need not worry.”
Apparently, the emperor had somehow grasped the entire situation I was in.
It wasn't surprising in a world with magic.
After delivering the message, Pericia announced in a matter-of-fact tone,
“The professor and the young lady will be released shortly. You may wait here until then. That is all.”
The moment I heard those words, the phrase ‘the power of the protagonist in a misunderstanding story’ came to mind.
‘Could it be……?’
Was luck going to solve the problem again?
There was certainly a possibility.
I had forgotten until just now, but I had always been lucky.
Once that thought reached me, a quiet chuckle escaped.
The anxiety I had felt moments ago suddenly seemed foolish.
‘Well, somehow it'll work out.’
I decided to take the easy way out and threw myself onto the bed.
Since things had turned out this way, I thought I might as well catch up on the sleep I'd been putting off.
***
The imperial capital, the Inspectorate.
It was where the investigation of nobles was its primary duty, and where the Empire's crimes and secrets converged.
If the Special Operations Bureau was where outsiders disturbing the Empire were quietly dealt with,
the Inspectorate was the department that dealt with insiders disturbing the Empire.
Especially treason, taboos, heresy, and defection.
Since it handled acts that directly threatened the safety of the imperial family, the department's authority was immense.
Those who worked there were careful enough even with the sound of their footsteps.
But the Inspectorate was different today.
The shadowy figures of inspectors hurried frantically up and down the corridors.
Among them was a man walking with a bundle of notebooks tucked under his arm.
Reinhold Krüger.
Head of Inspectorate Division 3.
His department's job was to dig into taboos and heretical acts connected to magic.
Click-clack, click-clack.
Amid the inspectors' hurried footsteps, only the click of Krüger's dress shoes sounded especially urgent.
He hurried into his office.
Click.
Then, after locking the door in case anyone tried to spy on him, he sat at his desk and spread out the fruits of his hunt.
—<Black Magic Incident Scenarios>
‘At last.’
A cold satisfaction flickered across Krüger's lips.
This notebook had been confiscated from the Nihirit Viscount family's country estate.
It was the research notebook of that young master, Yulian Nihirit.
‘Now I can finally investigate him.’
To Krüger, whose department handled heretical acts involving magic, Yulian had always been an eyesore.
A black mage who dared operate in the light of day with the military behind him! There had to be pitch-black treason lurking in his heart.
Krüger's instinct, honed through decades of investigating countless traitors, cried out that it was so.
But until now, Krüger had been unable to investigate Yulian.
He had tried several times, but Division 2 had blocked him every time.
‘Director Michael protected the brat too aggressively, so I couldn't investigate him.’
Division 2.
The department responsible for domestic information control and protecting key figures.
Because that department had placed Yulian under its protection, Krüger had been unable to conduct a detailed investigation into him.
The ‘upright’ Inspector Krüger found that fact infuriating.
‘How absurd. Inspectors, who should always remain incorruptible as a department directly under His Majesty, are blinded by personal feelings and coddle their son-in-law. And why are the other inspectors just standing by and watching?’
Come to think of it, Krüger didn't like Marquis Michael either.
To receive a marquisate at such a young age and even take a position in Division 2, which could be called a seat of power.
He disliked the fact that Michael had taken, in his thirties, a position Krüger could not reach even after devoting half his life to it.
That was why Krüger hated Michael.
At the same time, he disliked Yulian, the son-in-law whom Michael used his power to protect.
‘I warned them that it was dangerous from the moment he took the podium and began teaching those wet-behind-the-ears heroes that perilous object.’
Black magic was the sort of thing that made the world safer the fewer people knew about it.
And he was handing it out in a classroom.
Was he planning to turn this great Empire into a den of black mages?!
That was why, after hearing that Yulian had become a professor of black magic, Krüger lost sleep worrying about the Empire's safety.
It certainly wasn't because the more efficiently the heroes arrested black mages, the narrower the position of Division 3, which dealt with magic-related taboos, became.
In any case, Yulian was an eyesore to Krüger in more ways than one.
‘I thought that one day he'd collapse after becoming intoxicated by the power of black magic.’
But now, that was over.
Black magic was evil magic.
It was obvious that anyone who wielded it would fall into depravity.
It was magic that had even corrupted the Great Sage's noble disciple. How could Yulian possibly be an exception?
As if to confirm that thought, Yulian had caused an incident a few days ago.
When the Black Magic Tower had once shaken the world, the Church had suffered considerable damage as well.
The Church excommunicated the mages of the Life Mage Tower, and black magic consequently became the magic of heretics.
And yet, at the Mayer Clinic, the center of the Church and practically a symbol of peace transcending denominations, Yulian had used black magic on a patient.
And not just any patient—he had used it on a demon disease patient while the healers weren't looking!
Was there any heretical act more blatant than this?
As it happened, the higher-ups had also been pushing the investigation along.
He had received notice that Division 2's protection of key figures had been lifted.
On top of that came an official request for cooperation from the inquisitors.
Under these circumstances, even Director Michael couldn't protect his son-in-law.
Thanks to that, Krüger, the head of Division 3, happily led a search of Yulian's laboratory.
‘The investigation was a real headache.’
Yulian was a man who had no record of meeting anyone publicly.
Until he caught Prince Edmund's eye, he had lived as though he had cut himself off from the world.
There was nothing to uncover in his personal relationships, the foundation of any investigation.
Therefore, these notebooks were the only window into that man's mind.
Krüger turned the first page with an eager heart.
‘…….’
The moment he turned the first page, Krüger's eyebrow twitched.
Insulin.
The substance said to be extracted from the pancreases of livestock.
The miraculous drug that had saved countless diabetes patients.
The notebook was filled with a neatly written method of using that drug to commit murder.
<─ Inject insulin into the target to induce severe hypoglycemia.
For a target whose consciousness has become clouded, a single minor jinx curse that causes them to misstep is enough.
The trace of the curse is faint and will not be detected, and the autopsy can conclude that the death was caused by a fall or drowning in a bathtub…….>
Krüger knew of a paper based on this research notebook.
There was no way he could not.
Just last year, the Judicial Court had reopened investigations into the causes of death of nobles whose cases had been closed as falls or drownings over the past decade, based on this very theory.
And among them, they had ultimately uncovered three disguised murders using insulin.
The heinous family crimes committed to inherit titles were exposed to the world.
The case had thrown the Judicial Court into chaos at the time.
The rumors had even reached the Inspectorate, which had nothing to do with the judiciary.
And everyone knew that the starting point for solving the case had been Professor Yulian's paper.
A draft virtually identical to the original of that paper was now in the division chief's hands.
‘How did this man discover this method of murder…….’
Krüger unconsciously tightened his grip.
He felt a slight chill.
A mind capable of depicting such a method with this much precision—
Could belong not to the person who uncovered it, but to the person who first devised it.
Krüger soon transformed that chill into certainty.
‘As I thought, he really is dangerous.’
He turned to the next page.
This time, it was about thallium.
A recently discovered metal whose uses had begun attracting attention.
As expected, Yulian had written a draft paper about a black-magic scenario using that metal.
<Thallium's symptoms of poisoning resemble an epidemic so closely that it can be used to poison an entire family and disguise it as a contagious disease.
Especially now that penicillin has been developed, crimes using thallium are likely to become even more elaborate.
The criminal could cast an epidemic curse on himself, poison those around him with thallium, then treat himself with penicillin and stroll out of the investigation's net…….>
Ironically, this very incident had actually occurred a few months ago.
A merchant family's household in the west had been wiped out overnight. It was initially treated as an epidemic, but was later revealed to have been thallium poisoning.
This very paper had provided the Judicial Court with the basis for identifying the poisoning.
Because Yulian had written the paper before the criminal carried out the crime, the criminal had been arrested before he could poison all his rivals.
The division chief felt another chill as he read the draft.
‘For this to be a coincidence…… isn't it too strange?’
Come to think of it, Yulian's father was a judicial officer.
In other words, the more unsolved cases there were for his family to solve, the more they stood to gain.
If so, couldn't Yulian tell other people how to commit those crimes, then have his family expose them?
A thread of suspicion began to creep up on him.
Of course, reason whispered that this was a forced leap in logic.
Krüger himself vaguely knew that.
But he had already begun investigating Yulian.
It was an investigation he had forced through Division 2's barrier.
If it ended with the conclusion, “He is innocent,” the result would leave an indelible blemish on his career.
A ninety-percent arrest rate after indictment.
That was the figure recorded within Division 3 of the Inspectorate, and it could not be tarnished.
There could be no such blemish on Krüger's career.
That fact fanned the flames of his suspicion.
Before long, suspicion turned into his own certainty.
‘Even if…… even if this current case involving a taboo doesn't pan out.’
Krüger repeated to himself,
‘He has accumulated mountains of knowledge this dangerous. Someone like that is bound to cross the line someday. If so, tying him up now isn't shackling an innocent man. It's prevention.’
That plausible justification gently covered up his guilt.
Human beings rarely manage to look directly at the ugliness of their own hands.
They always had to attach a convincing label to it before they could finally grasp it.
Thinking that he ought to add this to his suspicions as well, Krüger continued turning the pages.
How much time had passed like that?
The more pages he turned, the more something began to feel wrong.
The notebook was full of black-magic or drug-based scenarios for disguised murders.
But as he went on, something other than the murder methods began to catch his eye.
In the same handwriting and with the same ink─ notes on how to save people were written alongside them.
How to prevent wounds from festering with a certain substance said to be extracted from blue mold.
Emergency measures to stop excessive bleeding in mothers giving birth.
Measures to preserve the body temperature of newborn babies who had come into the world prematurely, and so on.
Most of the pages described ways to kill people, but the notes contained reminders on how to save them.
As though he intended to research them later.
‘……Why was Yulian interested in treatment?’
Krüger was puzzled.
His doubts were deepening when—
Knock, knock, knock!
An urgent knock interrupted his thoughts.
The division chief put the notebook he was reading into a drawer and spoke toward the other side of the door.
“Come in.”
“D-Director!”
An inspector from Division 3 burst through the door without even knocking.
Before Krüger could ask what he wanted, the inspector hurriedly flipped through the notebook.
“Among the items confiscated from the country estate…… there was a safe, wasn't there? It had a seal of a far higher caliber than the others, but we just managed to open it…….”
“Did you bring it right away?”
“Didn't you tell me to bring it to you first, Director? That's why I'm delivering it in such a hurry.”
The subordinate, panting for breath, held out a bundle of notebooks.
“Here they are.”
Krüger's eyes flashed when he saw the old, battered notebook.
Yes.
While searching the country estate, the contents of that safe had continued to bother him.
It was a top-of-the-line alloy safe, the sort one would expect to see only in the finest marquis's house.
His instinct had whispered that there would be a clue to Yulian's misdeeds inside.
And now there was a notebook that had come from it!
‘Anyone could see that this is his weakness.’
He couldn't tell what the notebook was for.
It certainly couldn't be a research notebook.
The contents of the notebook probably differed according to its purpose.
If he had joined forces with black mages, it would contain a means of contacting them,
if he had conducted illegal experiments, it would be a grimoire,
and if he had advised criminals, it would be a ledger.
Krüger ordered his subordinate to leave, then immediately opened the old notebook.
And there, he found……
-<Table of Contents>
Quinine Development Method (Complete)
Insulin Development Method (Complete)
Penicillin Development Method (Complete)
Steroid Development Method (In Progress)
.
.
.
Important(!)
Viagra Development Method (Complete)
Statin Development Method (In Progress)
“……Huh?”
Krüger unwittingly let out a foolish sound at the feast of unfamiliar words.
It wasn't a list of murder methods.
Rather, it was a research notebook about ways to save people.
Judging by the contents, the notebook seemed to list drugs that had already been developed or were currently under development.
It felt as if it had been organized so that future descendants could easily read it.
That alone wasn't a problem.
If anything, it was almost noble.
The problem was…….
“Why does this look familiar?”
The order of the drugs was far too familiar.
Before long, his sense of incongruity gradually turned into anxiety.
In Krüger's mind, the scattered pieces began finding their places one by one.
Quinine. Insulin. Penicillin.
The miraculous drugs that had overturned the entire Empire over the past few years.
Their order─ matched the table of contents of this old notebook exactly.
‘No. That can't be.’
Krüger desperately shook his head.
There was such a thing as coincidence in the world.
Knock, knock, knock!
At that very moment, another urgent knock broke into his thoughts.
“Come in.”
This time, it wasn't his subordinate who opened the door and entered.
It was a messenger responsible for handling the Inspectorate's documents.
In his hand was an official document sealed with red wax.
“This is an urgent official document from the Inquisition Office.”
The Inquisition Office.
The very people who had pushed Krüger so forcefully to investigate Yulian a few days ago.
The investigation had been possible because, in addition to the notice lifting protection for a key figure, they had provided an official request for cooperation from the inquisitors.
‘What kind of cooperation are they asking for at a time like this…….’
Krüger tore open the seal without much concern.
Then, as he read the contents, his face gradually hardened.
─ Return all documents and items confiscated from the Nihirit Viscount family's country estate to the Inquisition Office immediately.
─ The aforementioned items are equivalent to holy relics under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition Office. Any delay or refusal to comply may be treated as the theft of a holy relic and punished severely.
“……What?”
A vacant sound escaped Krüger's mouth.
The theft of a holy relic?
It didn't even sound like a joke.
That was because the wording was not that of a polite request for cooperation.
Anyone could see that it was an unmistakable warning.
A command to keep his mouth shut and back off, delivered in an extremely threatening tone.
Krüger stood frozen, staring blankly while clutching the official document.
‘What in the world…….’
Only a few days ago, those people had been cooperating more enthusiastically than anyone.
They were the ones who had raged that Yulian had used black magic at the sacred Mayer Clinic,
and they were the ones who had lent a hand in lifting the protection on a key figure.
And now they were suddenly changing their attitude as if turning over their palms?
And so urgently, in a tone bordering on a threat?
They were like hunting dogs that had suddenly backed away with their prey within reach, after sharpening their fangs for days.
‘Why on earth…….’
His bewilderment lasted only a moment.
Krüger's gaze slowly returned to the old notebook spread across his desk.
Quinine. Insulin. Penicillin. Steroids.
The miraculous drugs that had overturned imperial medicine.
The list seemed to stare back at him like someone's résumé.
Only then did he remember.
Who had been the one to introduce these drugs to the world?
Who was the person the Church, transcending denominations, revered as a saint?
At that moment, something cold ran down Krüger's spine.
Why the inquisitors were so desperate to withdraw.
Why Marquis Michael of Division 2 had protected this man so fiercely. Why Yulian had met no one publicly and lived as if he had cut himself off from the world.
Everything was converging terrifyingly toward a single answer.
‘Surely not…….’
Krüger swallowed dryly.
With trembling hands, he opened the notebook's first page again.
The neat handwriting on old, battered paper, arranged as though for the benefit of future descendants.
The notebook packed with methods for saving people.
He thought he knew the identity of the man who had hidden it inside the safe like his most precious treasure.
‘The owner of this notebook…….’
“Good heavens…….”
Thud.
The official document slipped limply from Krüger's hand and fell to the floor.
A few days later, the position became vacant when the head of Inspectorate Division 3 resigned,
but no one paid attention because of the even greater news that came to light afterward.