Chapter 97
*
[Aftermath of the Russell Count family's simultaneous-death incident]
Rustle.
As soon as I read the headline, I folded the newspaper in half.
‘I don’t like this.’
Along with the headline I had just folded away, a disturbing rumor had recently been circulating at the Academy.
It was the rumor that I was the mastermind behind the Russell Count family's tragedy.
I wasn't exactly fond of that situation.
“You don't seem to like it.”
Clack.
Pericia placed tea on the desk in front of me.
Unlike when she had been in the capital, she was wearing a business suit instead of her military uniform.
“You don't like the rumors about the Academy?”
“Do you happen to have a unique magic that reads minds?”
“No. It's the result of observing you over the past year while I was taking your place, sir.”
She set down her own tea and sat across from me.
“What part of the rumor do you dislike?”
“You say that as if you'd change it for me.”
“Sir Yulian's image is directly tied to the image of Dark Magic Defense Arts. Since Dark Magic Defense Arts is currently a military priority, we need to avoid damaging its image from the outset. So if false rumors spread, we'll have to step in as well.”
The elf woman said, lightly swirling the teacup near the tip of her nose.
“However, since we have found no errors in the current rumor, we are not intervening.”
“There is an error, though.”
The rumor spreading through the Academy about me was utterly absurd.
“Isn't it a bit much to say I can kill someone with nothing but a letter if I set my mind to it?”
Naturally, that was a false rumor.
It’s not like I’m Moriarty or anything.
How could a single letter decide a person’s life and death?
I was, at most, just a slightly unusual trauma surgeon from the 21st century.
I didn't have that talent, and besides, there was no way a person capable of something like that existed in the world in the first place.
“I won't deny that my letter played a decisive role in this incident, but saying I intended it seems to have a misleading ring to it.”
Of course, I could guess why things had turned out this way.
That damned power of misunderstanding.
Sometimes it was great, but other times it would develop in directions I didn't want.
This was probably one of those cases, too.
But Pericia seemed to think differently.
“I also checked the contents of the letter. Wasn't that your intent from the moment you sent it?”
She tilted her head.
“I thought you had intended it from the moment you spoke to the Russell young master. Weren't you interested because of Lady Charlotte?”
“No.”
The matter with the Russell young master was a coincidence.
“I only spoke to him because his fingernails were a textbook case of chronic arsenic poisoning during class.”
I only later found out that he had had an unsavory incident with Charlotte.
“He happened to mention his father, so I invited him to dinner to check his usual environment.”
“I heard it at the meal as well. You asked about your family members' digestive symptoms, did you not?”
“You remember that.”
At the dinner I had prepared myself, I asked the Russell young master about his family's digestion.
To that, the young master replied as follows.
— “My father and mother have poor digestion.”
As soon as I heard that, I changed my question.
— “I heard you have brothers.”
— “Yes. I have two older brothers.”
— “Then do those two have any digestive symptoms?”
— “Well, they're busy, so I don't get to see them often, and we rarely eat together.”
As soon as I heard that, I immediately suspected the two brothers.
If every family member showed poisoning symptoms, that would be an accident.
But if it skipped only those two, then it wasn't an accident.
Only after confirming that the couple's bedroom wasn't green was I half convinced.
That one of the two brothers was the culprit.
“At the time, I had narrowed the culprit down to the eldest and second sons. Arsenic powder is often called inheritance powder, because it is frequently used in killing one's own kin.”
Arsenic’s notoriety was high here, too—not just in my previous life.
Being a superhuman didn't mean poison wouldn't work.
If you poisoned them slowly over a long period, even superhumans were helpless all the same.
Because it was especially hard to detect, it was often used in wine.
“So I sent a letter to the count’s house through the third son.”
The contents were nothing special.
The count’s house was in danger right now.
It looked like someone was trying to use arsenic to poison the head of the house.
Remove any green objects in the house as quickly as possible, and feed the wines to rats.
I will soon send a parcel containing tools and methods for tracing arsenic traces.
Lastly, be sure to share this letter with every member of the family.
That was the gist of it.
“The culprit had been secretly poisoning the family for decades in order to inherit. When all that effort was on the verge of coming to nothing, there was no way the culprit would stay still.”
“No matter how you look at it, you provoked the culprit into making a move, didn't you?”
I shook my head.
As the saying goes, the same words can sound different depending on how they're spoken.
“Hear me out to the end. While the Russell young master was sending a letter to the family, I secretly sent another letter to the head of the house as urgent news.”
The letter sent only to the head of the house said that on the day the panicked culprit tried to poison the family with arsenic,
he should drink the antidote made according to the recipe I provided.
“The culprit will try to poison the head of the house even if it has to strain itself to do so. But if that happens over and over, it's impossible not to be discovered. In the meantime, the head of the house should endure it with the antidote and share the antidote with those he trusts.”
The possibility that the two sons would kill each other was not my intention.
Of course, I had considered the possibility.
Since I had no evidence, it was only a vague guess.
In the first place, that part was for the head of the house to decide, so I left the rest to him.
“All I did was give the head of the house the choice of whom to save and whom not to save. It was the head of the house who finally decided to cast the two sons out of the fold.”
I still remembered the contents of the letter.
“The letter I sent to the head of the house only described how to save lives. There wasn't a single line telling him whom to suspect.”
So this was a coincidence.
I certainly hadn't intended it.
“Didn't the investigating authorities also close the case with no charges due to insufficient evidence?”
….
Pericia's brow furrowed.
She looked like she had a lot she wanted to say.
“If you say so, sir… understood. We'll go with that.”
Pericia was the first to look away.
But there was still something I needed to point out.
Then what about my reputation?
“So, what about the rumors concerning me?”
“As it happens, I had something to tell you about that, sir. The military and the department we're under have suggested using this incident.”
“This incident?”
“Yes. We want to publicize on a grand scale that you were the first to uncover the traces of dark magic involved in this incident, and award you a commendation.”
“A commendation….”
That was a pretty good idea.
If I received a commendation and overlaid that image on top of the rumor, the negative image would likely be diluted quite a bit.
However, there was one thing that bothered me.
“Isn't it a bit excessive to receive a commendation for just this one case?”
“Actually, the commendation is only the beginning. The military and the department we're under are reviewing a plan to announce Sir Yulian's name every time a similar incident occurs in the future.”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It seems the military wants to turn Sir Yulian into the absolute enemy of dark mages.”
As I thought.
There was no way the military would hand things out for no reason.
For the world to change, it always needs a hero.
It looked like the military intended to make me that hero.
“There is a reason for it. The Dark Magic Defense Arts you're teaching are clearly a necessary field. The Empire has already recognized that, and the military has decided to go ahead with it. But the problem is obvious.”
She lightly traced the rim of the teacup with her finger.
“Teaching defense methods ultimately means teaching, to some extent, the structure of attack methods as well. When students gather in numbers, at least one of them will inevitably try to abuse it—whether out of curiosity, a desire for power, resentment, or simple stupidity.”
I couldn't argue with that.
To teach how to block a sword, you have to explain how a sword moves.
To neutralize poison, you have to know how poison works.
Dark Magic Defense Arts were the same.
As you ward off darkness, you learn how darkness works.
The problem is that among those who learn that method, someone will inevitably try to use what they learned.
“That is why a deterrent is needed.”
So that's why they wanted to make me into such a figure.
The dark mages' Big Brother? Or their designated bully?
In any case, they wanted to instill in dark mages—and the students taking my class—the fear that they couldn't use dark magic secretly while I was around.
It was enough to get me pretty fired up just hearing it.
And as the protagonist, it was a goal worth pursuing in its own way.
There was just one problem.
“But doesn't that make me that much more at risk?”
Until the image of an absolute nemesis was established.
I would end up accepting countless challenges.
Who knows how sturdy a fortress is if it has never withstood a siege?
Therefore, if I was going to build that image, I needed to get entangled with dark mages often.
Until when?
Until the day they tuck their tails and run on their own.
Naturally, it was insane and dangerous.
And Pericia seemed fully aware of that danger as well.
“Yes. I understand your concern. It would be shameless of us to ask for Sir Yulian's sacrifice empty-handed. So 'our side' has prepared a few rewards for you.”
She took a list of rewards from inside her coat.
<The Nikhirit family elevated to viscount status>
<Promotion for Father, the magistrate>
<Tax cuts for Director Shun and the merchant guild>
<Imperial supply of elixirs>
…
The list went on endlessly.
“This is….”
“These are the rewards we've prepared. And these are only for this incident; additional ones will be added every time Sir Yulian gets entangled with a dark mage from here on out.”
….
Every one of them was an unprecedented reward.
But among all those rewards, one stood out the most.
<Relocate the Schnabel couple's graves to the national heroes' cemetery>
“… This?”
“Ah, it's a little awkward to call something like this a reward, isn't it?”
“No. Rather, it's an honor far too great for me.”
I thought of my parents' graves.
The two of them had gone missing on the southern front and returned after seven years.
They were now buried in the graves of the Nikhirit family's retainers.
Because when they were alive, they had been healers, so they had no family grave or anything like that, and they hadn't left behind much wealth.
Normally, in cases like this, one would be buried in the communal cemetery at Civitas Square.
But the Nikhirit family head could not allow his friend, and the biological father of his adopted son, to be buried in Civitas Square.
Because even there, the gravekeeper would dig up corpses whenever he felt like it, and there was no way those bodies could ever end up in a dark mage's hands.
But they couldn't bury outsiders in the Nikhirit family grave, either.
After compromise, my birth parents were buried in the grave outside Sanctum Hill where the retainers were laid to rest.
But…
“A grave for national heroes… I don't know where to put myself.”
National heroes.
To think my birth parents could be buried side by side with the pillars of the Empire recognized by the Imperial family.
Maybe I'm a Confucian after all.
More than the earlier rewards, this one felt far more valuable.
“You don't have to refuse. You have now become a very important person to our Empire. The chance of dark mages finding you because of perception alteration is low, but there's still a chance, however small. And...”
Pericia trailed off.
“… I also do not want the benefactors of my people to be insulted.”
“Pardon?”
“Let me speak of something a little different. The south is the homeland of us elves. In that demon-infested land lies a forest where the World Tree once stood. When elves come of age, tradition says they cross that barrier and follow the traces of that World Tree. Many young elves lose their lives in the process. So ensuring that the southern front is liberated, so that the young elves can safely complete their pilgrimage, has also been one of our deepest wishes.”
Pericia brushed a finger along the teacup.
“And twenty years ago, the Schnabel couple saved the lives of many elves on the southern front. Even when most healers retreated to the rear, they stayed until the very end with my people.”
“….”
“And their son cured the fever that tormented elves in the south the most. It has been a long time since that frightening disease, once called the curse of the forest, came to be known as malaria.”
Pfft.
Pericia smiled.
“I pushed the grave relocation through using the main family's authority. It's a small thing, but I hope you like it.”
“… Thank you.”
“I'm the one who's sorry. I can finally do it now.”
She placed the empty cup on the tray.
“Of course, you don't have to accept the medal after receiving these rewards. We respect Sir Yulian's wishes.”
“No, I'll accept the medal.”
They were showing this much sincerity.
How could I not live up to their expectations?
In the first place, it was impossible not to become famous.
Partly because I was the protagonist of a misunderstanding story, and partly because I had done so many things up to now.
So I figured it would be better to take everything they were offering and leave with a clean conscience.
“The medal ceremony will be held at the Academy in a week.”
The Academy was also a military school.
There was nothing strange about a professor receiving a medal here.
“What will your schedule be until then, Sir Yulian?”
“Now that you mention it, class is only once a week.”
Dark Magic Defense Arts class was originally held four times a week.
That's because it was taught once each to first-, second-, third-, and fourth-years.
But right now, second-years weren't being taught.
Since the lecture was only created this year, there was no way to teach second-years who hadn't even learned first-year basics yet.
Naturally, the upper years weren't being taught either.
So the lecture was only once a week.
“The treatment center won't be built until next year, so you'll have plenty of free time this year.”
Originally, I had arranged the schedule so I could teach class and then supervise practical training while also doing rounds at Director Shun's clinic in the time between lectures.
But the treatment center wasn't finished yet.
I had way too much free time.
“So you're doing research until next week?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“Pericia. Could you impersonate me starting this year?”
“I've observed you enough now, so yes. Do you have something to take care of in the capital?”
“Well…”
When you said the graves were being relocated, it came to mind.
“Before the relocation, I was thinking of visiting my parents' graves for the first time in a while.”
***
That night.
On the outskirts of the capital, far from the Academy.
H Sector, where all criminals and exiles gathered.
A sinister sound echoed through the abandoned quarry there.
Gurgle—gurgle.
A place untouched by the city's gaslight or chimney smoke.
In the middle of the quarry pit, lit only by the faint full moon blurred by smog.
Several men were crawling on the dirt floor.
No, even crawling might no longer be the right word.
“Hiiiii—!”
One man's arm swelled up from the inside like pudding as he screamed.
A viscous thing burst out—too thick to be called string, too greasy to be called flesh.
If I had to describe it, it was something close to a tentacle.
The filthy life-form born in the man's right arm left his body and crawled across the ground.
“Hh… h-hh, uhh… uhhhh…”
Another man's body was already unraveling from his mouth outward.
His lips stretched, and the stretched lips turned into a black cord that wrapped around his own throat.
Wherever you looked in the pit, countless tentacle-like things were grotesquely violating the men.
In the very center of that hellish chaos.
One man shouted.
“S-Seeker…! Why are you attacking us? Is it the elders’ will? Isn't this a bit much just for taking responsibility for the failure with the Russell Count family?”
Where the man's shout was directed, there stood a man gazing endlessly at the full moon.
A priest dragging a black, worn cassock across the ground and devoutly holding a scripture wrapped in leather covers.
The priest's slit eyes turned toward the man who had been crawling on the ground and shouting.
“What are you talking about?”
“We carried out everything the elders ordered! Didn't they just tell us to go in as guests of the Russell Count and help the two brothers? Wasn't the goal to take hold of the count's house and control it?”
“Indeed, that is what the elders commanded.”
“Then why are you purging us! Yulian! If it hadn't been for that man, we'd have counted it as a success! The elders agreed to leave that part unspoken as well…”
“Ah, you're mistaken.”
The slit-eyed priest scratched his cheek.
“This isn't a purge.”
“What?”
“How should I put it… personal research? A ritual? Ah. Praying would be the right word.”
“What kind of insane…”
The man couldn't finish his sentence.
Whether he could or not, it didn't matter.
The slit-eyed priest turned his gaze back to the moonlight and murmured.
“Without blasphemy, there is no awe, and without darkness, there can be no light.”
He then spoke to those who had once been husks for the tentacles crawling along the floor.
“You are now enjoying the honor of joining the steepest slope on the path to enlightenment, so should you not be delighted?”
His voice was drenched in ecstasy as he said it.
Before long, in the middle of the scene where the tentacles were writhing,
the priest shouted toward the moon.
“Goddess of the moon. Beneath this bright moon, your faithful servant has so insulted your creations.”
Something bubbled up from the dirt floor.
A sound of indescribable mucus-like squelching echoed over the priest's voice.
“On the full-moon night you said should be the holiest of nights. Here, on this very ground where your temple once stood! Under your light, I have so insulted you!”
He took a step forward.
“Quickly, bring divine punishment upon this filthy servant!”
…
Silence fell.
It was a long, long silence.
The sticky sounds of the two men on the dirt floor as they lost their final human forms drifted away along the still grain of that silence.
Far away, a cricket chirped once from the shade of some nameless blade of grass.
Chirp. Chirp.
Chirp. Chirp.
Silence again.
The Seeker slowly lowered both hands.
He looked at the lines in his palms.
The moonlight twisted once over them.
He let out a sigh.
Then,
Wham.
He slammed the scripture he was holding down onto a passing tentacle.
With that alone, the tentacles filling the square burst apart with dying screams.
“—Hiiik!”
….
The Seeker hugged the scripture to his chest and slowly raised his head again to look at the full moon.
“O gods. Surely this much blasphemy is still not enough.”
Chirp.
“However, I will not give up. On that day—the day the most faithful couple was brutally slain—a single doubt took root in my faith in you. Until I obtain your answer, I will not stop this quest.”
His gaze remained fixed on the full moon.
“Even if it is through your fervor rather than your mercy, I will eventually hear your answer.”
His hand clenched once around the scripture he held to his chest.
The leather cover deformed slightly in his palm.
“Why this world had to be one in which those so faithful and noble martyrs were humiliated in such a swamp, and for what sin.”