Chapter 78: Research
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 78: Research
After washing off the sweat from my morning training, Regina, who had been waiting for me in the living room, immediately latched onto me.
“Good morning.”
“Uh… good morning?”
“Then, I will begin today’s observation.”
She spoke politely, then quietly followed me around, observing my every move. She didn’t jot down any of her personal opinions. If I did something she couldn’t understand, she would ask me directly about its meaning.
Considering her behavior a few days ago, this was a huge improvement; she was like a completely different person. Something must have changed in her heart while she was cooped up.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“You weren’t like this before. You followed me to the bathroom and tried to write down every useless detail…”
“I realized there was no need for that. In the first place, information like how much you urinate or how often you use the restroom has little to do with your constitution.”
“Well, that’s true…”
The fact that she, who used to just record everything indiscriminately, had changed so completely in a few days and was now speaking so rationally—it filled me with a sense of awe. The reason for this feeling was simple.
If before she had felt like a mere copy machine, now she felt like a professional and intelligent researcher.
That intellectual aura that professional women exude, that unique confidence that overwhelms others…
“So—from today, I have decided to record only what is absolutely necessary.”
“…Right, well. That’s good for me.”
“Thank you for your understanding. In that spirit—”
Regina quickly approached and placed a hand on my chest. My pounding heart laid its rhythm bare before her.
Exposing my most dangerous vital point felt like I was baring my entire being. She looked up at me cautiously, her soft lips—
“Stooooop! What are you two doing!?”
As we were getting close in the living room first thing in the morning, an interruption came swiftly. I glanced up to see my teacher pointing an accusatory finger at us.
Her face was red and she was panting. I smiled lightly and greeted her.
“Good morning, Teacher.”
“Yohan! What were you just doing!?”
“What was I doing…? Just some recording.”
“What kind of recording is that! With your hand on his chest! And! Staring at his lips so intently! Huh!?”
At her words, I pressed my lips together. Did I do that? I couldn’t quite remember. But I couldn’t keep doing something my teacher hated, so I quickly moved away from Regina.
Only then did my teacher let out a sigh of relief. As if that wasn’t enough, she threw her arms around me and began to glare fiercely at Regina.
“Listen here! I know about your contract, but there was nothing like this in it! Don’t even think about laying a hand on Yohan! Got it!?”
“…I am well aware. I have no such intention.”
“Someone with no such intention was just groping him a moment ago!”
Hearing my teacher’s outburst, Regina nodded meekly and admitted to her actions.
“You’re right. I wonder why I did that.”
“…Don’t tell me. You weren’t even aware of it?”
“A curious reaction. Perhaps this is the power of his constitution…”
Regina began to stare at me with sparkling eyes.
Like a girl who had just fallen in love—
“No!”
My teacher shouted and promptly dragged me into her room. Alone in the room with just the two of us, she let out a careful breath and looked at me.
“…Yohan is mine. I’ll protect you. So—”
You can’t let your eyes wander to other women, okay?
Evangeline spoke, gazing at me intently.
I met her gaze without a word and slowly nodded.
She liked to scribble things down.
She liked to record information.
She loved the act of putting pen to paper, of leaving a record of something she had discovered.
The fact that this habit stemmed from her curse didn’t matter much. What did the catalyst matter? Just as it didn’t matter how one started using drugs, the reason she began recording was also unimportant.
That was how Regina Star became the librarian of the Great Library.
Librarian and master, the sole producer of its books.
She had needed the help of other witches to achieve this, but her magic had shown her the whereabouts of the witches needed to create the library.
Because of that, she had never felt any inconvenience. Until now, that is.
‘I want to write…’
A false emotion welled up. A fabricated fake, a low-quality, vulgar emotion. A curse that defiled her purity.
Regina recalled Yohan’s words. She must have become a being that merely copied instead of recorded, just as he’d said, because she was tainted by this pitch-black filth.
At some point, she had been contaminated. The fake had devalued the real. That fact pained her heart terribly.
‘I want to write…’
Fortunately, there was a way to remove this curse she might never have noticed otherwise. She thought of Yohan, deep in her heart. Just thinking about him washed away the curse that had so deeply stained her soul.
Her mind, always stained by the obsession to write something, was bleached white. No matter what she imagined, the dark, clinging desire to record did not surface.
Paradoxically, the first thing that came to mind in the freedom that followed was also the desire to record. She wanted to record something. But this was her pure motive, untainted by blackness.
‘Yohan.’
She wanted to record him. She wished for it with a completely pure heart.
Her magic didn’t work on him, but she didn’t care.
To satisfy this white, pure longing, she couldn’t rely on something like magic. She, too, had to return to a pure state.
“Shall we?”
After rubbing her face to clear her head, she put on her monocle and cautiously left the room. Yohan was waiting.
Her aspiration. The object of her desire. Her dream, and the hope of all witches.
Recording was truly a tedious and terrible task.
I learned that fact firsthand.
“…Are we still not done?”
“We are almost finished.”
I had already been emitting waves of magic power for ten minutes. A man using magic was an extremely rare case. Regina had determined that the secret to my constitution might lie there.
She immediately requested that I emit my magic power, and I did as she wished, draining it all. I had never realized until today just how difficult it was to stand still and do nothing but release magic power.
‘This feels more like training than I thought…’
Sweat poured down my body. I felt as if all the stamina was being plundered from me. My limbs began to tremble, and I finally stopped releasing my magic power.
When I stopped, Regina stared at me intently, as if asking why I had quit.
“What is the matter?”
“…It’s hard.”
“Hard? You stopped releasing magic power for such a simple reason? You can do more. Do not worry. No one has ever died from releasing their magic power before.”
“No, in the first place, why are we even doing this?”
When I asked out of genuine curiosity, Regina fell into thought for a moment before cautiously beginning to explain the reason.
“First, we need to determine if the magic power you possess is truly your own.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“People who have been kidnapped and experimented on by witches, or monsters that absorb magic power from nature, cannot generate magic power on their own. They are different from witches, who generate their own. We need to confirm if you fall into the same category.”
The monsters I had defeated and Ludwig, who had been chosen by the immortal witch. Both were beings who wielded magic power without being witches.
But the magic they possessed was not their own. Ludwig used the magic he received from the immortal witch, and the monsters absorbed it from nature.
This was different from witches, who produced their own magic power. Regina was currently suspecting that the magic inside my body might belong to someone else.
“And—draining your magic power is essential to learn about your constitution.”
“My constitution? Ah, this curse-nullifying one… What does that have to do with magic power?”
“By determining whether you can still ignore curses without magic power, or if the curse nullification fails when you have none, we can know whether your ability is a result of your magic power, or if your magic power is a result of your ability.”
“…That’s really complicated.”
“This is basic. In fact, it’s strange that the other witches never conducted such an experiment on you until now.”
Well, of course. There was no way my teacher would subject me to something like this torture. Meaninglessly releasing magic power until it was depleted was an act of self-harm akin to torture.
It was something only a person like Regina, who saw me as a record and treated me with cold detachment, could possibly do.
In any case, realizing there was a proper reason for this seemingly useless act, I endured the pain and continued to release my magic power until it was finally all gone.
“Ah—”
My head started spinning. As I staggered and collapsed to the floor, Regina approached and met my eyes.
“How is it…? Is the curse… lifted?”
“…Yes. It still works even without magic power. —Just like a witch.”
Regina said, helping me lie down. Following her touch, I lay on the floor and looked up at the spinning sky, feeling a powerful wave of dizziness.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” I whispered. Regina supported my head with her lap and blocked the sky with her chest.
The nausea subsided. But at the same time, another part of me began to rise.
“Ah…”
“How curious. Are you aroused by someone like me?”
“…Shut up.”
Men get erections when they’re in pain.
I made that excuse and turned my head away.