Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Implanting the Mana Circuits
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I let out a groan on the bed.
It wasn’t that I’d declared to Erfs that I wouldn’t become a mage and was being tortured for it.
The old man had placed his hand on my chest and was infusing mana into me.
Congenital mana deficiency wasn’t a disease where mana wasn’t produced in the body.
Living creatures have pathways through which mana flows, like blood vessels, and these are called circuits.
I simply didn’t have any of these circuits.
That’s why the mana formed in my heart evaporated without circulating through my body, making it impossible to use magic—or so Nob AI had kindly explained.
Right now, the old man was creating circuits in my body.
“Pain is unavoidable when laying down the paths.”
“I’ll endure it...”
Sweat beaded on Erfs’s cheeks.
“Ugh... urk...”
Suddenly, a fierce pain shot through my chest.
My breathing cut off abruptly.
The unpleasant sensation of someone clutching my heart lingered for a while.
For a moment, I nearly lost consciousness.
Confirming my condition had worsened, Erfs halted the procedure.
“We’ll have to stop here for today.”
“Haa, haa... What was that just now...?”
“Creating circuits puts a strain on the heart. That pain was inevitable.”
Cold sweat trickled down.
“Normal people have between 100 and 150 circuits.”
And he’d only laid down ten this time.
“At least 120 are needed. Your mana quality is higher than average. There’s no issue now, but if crystallization occurs later, you could die.”
The number one cause of death for those with congenital mana deficiency.
Crystallization, apparently.
Mana that doesn’t circulate in the body can, with extremely bad luck, turn to stone, piercing the heart or blocking blood vessels and killing you.
This was information even Nob AI didn’t know.
If I hadn’t solved the Millennium Problem...
I’d probably have died a miserable death, so I felt a spark of anger.
“There are only three mages in the kingdom who can cure congenital mana deficiency, myself included. Even for a noble, it’s not easy to get treatment.”
Implanting artificial circuits into someone’s heart consumed a tremendous amount of mana.
It also required advanced knowledge of magic and the human body, so most mages couldn’t handle it.
Indeed, Erfs, who had been full of energy moments ago, now looked thoroughly fatigued.
“By the way, if you’re willing, the Red Tower is always ready...!!”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m even prepared to adopt you as my son...!!”
“I’ll gratefully accept the sentiment.”
Damn, why are you doing this?
Still, if I’d had a cheerful, lively grandfather like Erfs as a dad instead of Porto...
Life might have been more enjoyable than it is now.
I buttoned up my dress shirt.
Only then did the old man put his own top back on. What is this, a men’s changing room?
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
“Hm!?”
“Do you know about my sister, Your Excellency?”
He had investigated me beforehand.
“You’re asking about Haniel’s physical condition?”
“Yes.”
Erfs seemed to know quite a bit about my second sister too.
“I’ll be frank. Even I don’t know the exact cause.”
“......”
Erfs gave the same answer as Nob AI.
After awakening to my past life, the first thing I did was read every book in the estate’s library.
It was partly to train Nob AI, but the biggest reason was to find a way to address Haniel’s condition.
She was my one and only family.
Haniel and I came from the same mother’s womb.
From a young age, she had filled the void left by our deceased mother.
When Felix bullied me and I cried, she was the only one in this estate who reached out and held me.
Though after she fell ill, she spent most of her time sleeping in bed, making it hard to even see her.
It felt awkward now.
But she was so special to me that my first thought upon getting Nob AI was, ‘Maybe I can cure my sister’s illness with this.’
“Do you have any research materials or books on medicine, Your Excellency? Any field is fine—the more, the better. Name your price, and I’ll compensate you later.”
I had nothing to offer now, but I had Nob AI.
The Millennium Problems totaled seven.
I’d solved one, leaving six, but anyway, I could earn big money anytime.
I had the means to compensate.
“I don’t have any now, but I can procure them. You must be very close to your sister.”
“She’s my only family.”
Erfs spoke with a kindly expression.
“I have no intention of taking money from a young scholar in need of knowledge.”
“......”
In my view, Erfs was a good-natured old man.
“Thank you.”
I bowed politely.
“No need to stand on such ceremony. I’m a mage, not a noble.”
That was a problem.
“I always show full respect to those who offer kindness.”
Nob AI was currently controlling my body, after all.
And so, my deal with Erfs concluded successfully.
‘Is this what it feels like to have mana circulating in my body?’
It was an amazing sensation.
My whole body brimmed with vitality.
It was still less than a normal person’s, but I could feel the mana cycling within me.
‘Next time, twenty.’
I’d have to visit the Red Tower once a month from now on.
『From today, User can now use magic!!』
The more circuits in my body, the more magic the AI could wield.
***
“Welcome back, young master. Did the conversation go well?”
“Yeah.”
Dalpi bowed her head.
“Welcome back, Young Master. You must be tired.”
Aria had been waiting for me too.
“The professor worked hard as well.”
“Then I’ll escort you back to the academy.”
Aria and I returned to Tristy Academy.
Dalpi headed off to retrieve the stored carriage.
Before leaving, Aria gave me a courteous bow.
There was an inexplicable wariness in her eyes—different from how she looked at Porto.
It left me a bit flustered.
When Dalpi returned with the carriage, I asked her.
Of course, in my usual demeanor.
“Why is the professor suddenly looking at me like I’m some scary boss?”
“Who knows. She gave me 200,000 credits to pass to you, so maybe she just wants to make a good impression?”
Oh, money.
But somehow...
“Tsk.”
It was a huge sum, yet it felt like pocket change.
Probably because I’d nearly gotten 100 million credits earlier.
“Let’s split it.”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course.”
And so we returned to the estate.
***
Erfs gazed at the remaining refreshments.
He spent his whole life avoiding sweets and carbs, so eating snacks was a rare occurrence for him.
Ester’s maid had prepared them diligently, considering his 15 years of age.
The boy hadn’t touched a single bite.
Maybe I should’ve brought egg whites and potatoes instead.
He didn’t like leaving food, so he shoved the remaining snacks into his mouth.
‘What a waste of talent.’
Ester Tristy had naturally seemed destined to be a mage.
Never before had there been a boy with such talent.
It hadn’t been announced publicly yet, but in that short time, Ester had achieved something monumental.
‘Young Master Ester has dismantled the barrier on the Necronomicon.’
‘The time Young Master Ester spent interpreting the incantation was just one week. Factoring in mailing time, it was even shorter.’
‘It was a barrier so complex that not only demon mages but even our legacy-level mages couldn’t solve it.’
The Tome of Death, stored in the Marsh of Lions.
The Necronomicon was a grimoire inscribed with the taboo of resurrecting the dead.
One of the worst relics, imbued with a curse so sinister it could poison an entire region with poison gas.
Its mere existence could animate corpses.
It had been sealed in the Marsh of Lions until signs emerged that demons were infiltrating the kingdom to steal it.
The kingdom hurriedly mobilized the Steel Lion Knights to recover the Necronomicon.
However, the barrier sealing it was special.
One could tell from the incantation forming the barrier.
It was different from the magic our mages had studied.
‘Ancient magic.’
Magic used by ancestors in ancient times.
A remnant of the forgotten past in the modern era.
If asked why no one remembered it now, the answer was simple.
Compared to modern magic, ancient magic was primitive.
In Erfs’s view, ancient magic was inefficient, crude, difficult, and unrefined.
Lacking the processes of efficiency and optimization, it was heavy, rough, and convoluted.
The results were miraculous trash compared to the effort invested.
Yet, paradoxically, that made it hard to interpret.
He stared at the utterly botched incantation of the barrier.
“To think a genius who could solve this in such a short time refuses to become a mage...”
Erfs looked at the solution to Hellfire Recreation.
He was captivated by the boy’s skill.
Ester’s answer was utterly perfect.
Both the Millennium Problem and the method to interpret and destroy the barrier.
All of it was beautiful.
At 70 years old, he had never seen such a beautiful incantation in his life.
It was the realm of pure ‘truth,’ forged from reason and rationality.
Erfs had fallen for the demon of magic.
“......”
Why did he refuse to become a mage?
The Tower Master activated the communication orb.
“Aria.”
“Yes... Did you call for me...?”
“Were you sleeping?”
“No. I just got off work...”
Aria replied in a voice thick with exhaustion.
“Ester Tristy says he won’t walk the path of a mage.”
He was a being who could revolutionize the world of magic.
“I can’t understand it.”
Aria sighed softly.
“I can.”
“What?”
“According to his maid, Ester Tristy has some grand and important goal.”
A grand and important goal—what could it be?
Erfs clenched his fist and asked.
“What is it?”
“All his maid and I know is that fact alone.”
It was a rotten pun.
Erfs scowled, about to yell, then closed his mouth at Aria’s follow-up.
“How could a mere mortal read a genius’s thoughts?”
“......”
Erfs recalled his conversation with Ester.
-Magic is just a means to me. The heir exam I’m going through now is the same. Everything is merely a tool for my purposes.
“......”
Erfs swallowed a groan.
“Erfs... I fear Ester because I can’t understand him.”
Like death, disease, the cosmos, or the deep sea.
Humans fear the unknown they can’t control.
It was instinctual terror.
To Aria, Ester Tristy was such an existence.
A genius who solved the Necronomicon’s barrier and the Millennium Problem in one go.
Had there ever been a mage who achieved such feats at the tender age of 15?
No, there hadn’t.
Aria was certain no one like that would appear in the future either.
If such a one-of-a-kind genius harbored ill intentions...
What calamity might befall us?
“This is just a hypothesis, but if Ester’s great purpose were directed against the Justina Kingdom...”
“Enough.”
Erfs cut Aria off.
“That was excessive speculation.”
Still, Aria couldn’t hide her unease.
“He’s been persecuted by his family. It wouldn’t be strange if he harbored dark thoughts. He’s human before he’s a genius. With terrorist groups like ‘Wonderland’ out there, we can’t be 100% sure.”
Erfs closed his eyes.
He too couldn’t read Ester’s mind, that much was true.
The only thing he could read there was his feelings for his sister.
“Aria.”
“Yes.”
“Summon the priests and doctors I know to the tower tomorrow. We need to discuss Haniel Tristy’s condition.”
He didn’t understand Ester.
But if his sister were to die, even by some slim chance...
“Understood.”
The possibility of horrific consequences—unimaginable horrors—would rise.
The thought suddenly struck him.