Anomaly (2)
That bastard…
Yujin was spouting absolute nonsense.
Ellen gave him no reaction. He decided to watch just how much further the man would run his mouth.
“You refuse to open your mouth. Must mean you’ve got something to hide. Your own master has brought evidence, and you still intend to deny it?”
At Zack’s glance, Yujin drew a cloth pouch from his robes.
“What is that?”
Dore asked, eyeing the pouch Yujin had produced. Even at a glance, it radiated a sinister aura.
“A byproduct left over after Ellen performed black magic experiments—one he failed to dispose of properly. I, too, did not want to believe that my own disciple had been studying black magic. But once I found this, I could no longer doubt it.”
With a soft rustle, Yujin untied the pouch. A sphere saturated with black mana appeared within.
“Ahh—”
Everyone recoiled from the chill, eerie energy the black mana gave off.
“Ellen would never do that. I’ve watched him study countless times. Not once have I ever seen him studying anything like black magic.”
Kinber spoke up in Ellen’s defense. Zack only shook his head and cut in.
“I hear he spent his entire suspension living alone, keeping to himself.”
Zack pressed on without pause.
“Who goes around announcing that they’re studying black magic? What if he simply hid himself away to learn it?”
“That’s…”
Kinber had no real answer. He had seen Ellen studying often enough—but it was also true that Ellen frequently acted alone.
“I am innocent. During the suspension I did nothing but read books and study. This is—”
“Enough!”
Dore cut through the rising confusion before it could spiral further.
“That certainly looks like a byproduct of black magic at a glance. But how do you prove Ellen is the one who created it?”
As if he had been waiting for exactly that question, Yujin began to speak.
“This was recovered from the inn where Ellen stayed during his suspension. The innkeeper happened upon it while cleaning the room. If you search that room, you will likely find more residual byproducts still remaining. We also discovered the same substance in Ellen’s dormitory.”
Hah.
Ellen clicked his tongue inwardly. Charging forward with a clumsy defense right now would be a mistake. He had suspected Yujin of scheming—but he had never expected the man to come at him with this kind of backstab.
Now that he had been branded a student of black magic, he needed a complete way to break free of this situation. A half-baked excuse would only leave a permanent stain on his name for the rest of his life.
I need time. Time to dismantle Yujin completely.
He was merely an academy student. Yujin, by contrast, was a full-fledged mage. With that difference in standing, the only thing that could thoroughly refute Yujin was airtight physical proof.
“We will look into this matter more thoroughly for now. However, given that the circumstantial evidence against Ellen is strong, he will be remanded to the academy’s prison while the investigation proceeds.”
At Dore’s words, the faculty members stirred into motion.
“Stay calm, Ellen. Nothing has been decided yet. This is only temporary, for the investigation.”
The staff approached him carefully, trying to soothe him. His unbroken silence from the start had been deeply unsettling. If he chose to unleash magic now, the damage could be catastrophic.
“……”
Contrary to their fears, Ellen offered no resistance whatsoever.
Yujin. I underestimated that bastard. I thought a coward like him would never prepare something like this.
To overcome this crisis, he had to remain cold. In the present situation, no amount of denial would make anyone listen.
“Right. It’s just questioning. Just questioning.”
When Ellen held out his arms, the staff let out a collective breath of relief.
Clank.
Bang.
The iron bars slammed shut with a heavy crash. The jailer jangled his keys and retreated from Ellen’s sight.
They even mapped out my movements. This was planned down to the last detail. A man like Yujin could never have pulled this off alone.
Zack Chedleton’s face rose in Ellen’s mind. A mage he had never even seen in his previous life.
A man carrying the Chedleton name. He must have been the one pulling the strings.
Regret was useless now. By the time he had been brought down into the prison, Ellen had already recovered his full composure.
Ellen. Why is black magic treated as such a problem? In my day, the Magic Tower even maintained a separate research division for it.
Only once the people around them had gone did Proveng finally speak.
“I heard it was still that way until about seventy years ago. Then black magic was banned because of the black mage Net.”
Ellen glanced about, then lowered his voice so the jailer would not overhear.
Lord Net?
“You know that madman? He sacrificed every resident of an entire city for the sake of blood magic. After that, every Magic Tower on the continent banned not only blood magic, but its parent discipline—black magic—as well.”
Blood magic was a form of sorcery that further infused mana with human blood and souls. Its power was immense, but it demanded the sacrifice of countless human lives. Net was the mage who had turned every living person in a city into raw material for that art.
Hah. Of all people, he was the one who seemed closest to reaching the truth. How did he end up doing something like that?
Proveng himself had been a black mage. It was precisely because he was one that he had been able to complete his transformation into a Lich on the verge of execution. Black magic was not the pure evil the world claimed it to be. The only true difference was that it used darkness—the counterpart of the fundamental element of light. That was why black mana manifested when it was cast. In the past, the academy had even offered dedicated black magic courses. Its infamous reputation had been forced upon it solely because of its subordinate branch: blood magic.
“They say it was an unquenchable thirst for power. The Magic Towers never released the full details, though, so no one really knows the exact reason.”
Jingle.
The clatter of the jailer’s key ring rang out. Ellen snapped his mouth shut at once.
“This way.”
The jailer’s voice. Someone had arrived.
“So a commoner like you was only able to stand equal to me because of a filthy trick like this.”
Ellen’s expression twisted openly. The ones the jailer had brought were Rick Chedleton and Leonard.
“Isn’t this place off-limits to students?”
Ellen directed his complaint at the jailer.
“That’s not something a criminal like you gets to decide.”
Used the family name and money again, no doubt.
Ellen fixed Chedleton with a flat, cold stare.
“Didn’t I tell you to watch yourself, you little bastard? I knew you’d go down in one shot.”
Leonard sniped from the side.
“You’re dead the moment I walk out of here.”
At Ellen’s words, Leonard flinched and stepped back several paces. Meeting that gaze made the places he had been hit before start throbbing all over again.
“I have never researched black magic. Nothing has been decided yet, so I would ask you not to jump to conclusions.”
“Tsk tsk. Still nothing but a sharp tongue, right to the end. I only came to look at the state of you. Behind those bars you look every bit the worm you are.”
It was a blatant provocation. Ellen did not so much as stir. Losing his reason to a taunt once had been more than enough.
“Leonard. We’re leaving.”
Apparently displeased by that lack of reaction, Chedleton spun on his heel and headed for the exit.
“You’re never getting out of there for the rest of your life.”
Leonard, trailing after him, twisted his head back to throw the line at Ellen—then bolted before any answer could come.
Small fry, running their mouths.
Ellen found them utterly laughable.
Thud.
The moment they left, another visitor arrived at the cell.
Yujin himself.
“You truly were a promising disciple. But I still have to remain a mage, don’t I?”
“And for a man who claims that, what brings you all the way down here, Master?”
Ellen wanted nothing more than to put his fist straight through the face in front of him.
“You won’t receive too severe a sentence. Think of it as a master’s duty to his disciple. And you would do well not to entertain any thoughts of escaping. Not if you want no harm to come to your parents in Los.”
Grind.
Ellen had shrugged off Chedleton’s and Leonard’s taunts with ease. This, however, he could not endure.
Clang!
“You son of a bitch!”
Ellen seized the iron bars as if he meant to tear them apart.
“Then I’ll be going.”
Yujin turned away.
“Leave my parents out of this!”
Leaving those words behind him, Yujin walked out of the prison.
“Damn it.”
What became of him did not matter. But to threaten him by invoking his parents?
Yujin. I am going to smash you to pieces completely.