Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: The Secret of Blooming and the Vow of Revenge
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107
4
“Haha… We could designate today as the Kingdom’s Anti-Drug Day……!”
Derhrit opened the door to the lab, flushed with a strange fervor.
His eyes were sunken, making him look like he might collapse at any moment, yet he was expending energy like that.
It wasn’t hard to understand.
After all, he had analyzed the Blooming I secretly took from Viper’s hideout and obtained meaningful, decisive results.
Having produced visible outcomes, he must be feeling like dancing from a researcher’s perspective.
“Not only did we prove that the key ingredient in Blooming is Apenbru, but we also uncovered the mechanism of its effects. Who would’ve thought the particles of refined Apenbru would adhere to living creatures’ blood vessels!”
According to what Derhrit had discovered, the primary mechanism of Blooming was its special property of adhering to blood vessels.
Once ingested, Blooming sticks to the blood vessels, accelerating blood flow and thereby circulating its effects more rapidly.
The awakening agent that drove Micaen berserk must have been inspired by this principle.
The problem was that the particles adhering to the blood vessels didn’t come off.
Once attached, the particles fixed themselves to the blood vessels as firmly as if rooting into the ground.
This process caused excruciating pain, but consuming Blooming transformed that pain into pleasure.
The more it was consumed, the stronger the effects became, but the duration shortened.
Regular consumption led to accumulation of particles, increasing pain to the point of shock death or blocked blood vessels resulting in fatality.
Those pioneers calmly peddled this poison.
It was revolting just that they sold it, but there were plenty of cases where they deliberately addicted customers—from back alleys to commoners—to lure them in.
Mixing Blooming secretly into tavern drinks was basic, and in extreme cases, they injected water-dissolved Blooming indiscriminately.
Disgusting scum.
Recalling what they had done made my teeth grind.
“But is it really okay? Announcing you as the discoverer.”
Derhrit adjusted his glasses and asked.
I nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“It’s thanks to you, Professor.”
“You’re too humble. I did the experiments, but you made the biggest contribution to the discovery.”
“I only provided the clue. You’re the one who made the discovery. No matter how brilliant the inspiration, without skill, it’s just a fleeting spark. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say this discovery is 99% your effort. I’m just the 1% inspiration.”
Please, I hope Derhrit gets some reward or medal.
A academy professor like him could handle any backlash from publicizing this on his own.
I didn’t need either.
I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention.
I already had a headache dealing with the pioneers.
Pulling more aggro here might bring cardinals—two or three of them—knocking on my door.
Well, the cardinals were busy with their own affairs and didn’t get along perfectly, so the chances were slim… but still, standing out wasn’t good.
With that sentiment, I did my best to yield the credit.
Pushed relentlessly by me, Derhrit smacked his lips awkwardly and patted my shoulder.
“Seeing you insist this much, it looks like you’ll yield it no matter what I say. Fine. I’ll announce it under my name. But if you need help next time, just say the word anytime.”
“Yes, understood.”
Derhrit’s help.
As an outstanding alchemist, I might ask for it someday.
For today, I greeted him and left the lab behind.
Crossing the corridor dyed in sunset, I reviewed a few matters.
The corrupt ledgers, the intel on Blooming—all prepared.
“All that’s left is for Kiriakos to decide how to proceed.”
The question that started this plan had somehow become the finale.
I set out to find Kiriakos to hear his answer.
5
“How to proceed, huh.”
Kiriakos murmured, sitting side by side with me on a bench along a secluded walkway.
His violet eyes, gazing at the sky shifting from sunset to navy, remained vacant.
“I still don’t know what to think of the Ballato Family…”
“……”
“But the fact that Viper drove my brothers to their deaths remains unchanged. This survivor must avenge their souls.”
“You’re going to fight Viper for that?”
Kiriakos merely nodded silently.
As if that were his revenge.
I couldn’t readily respond to his vacant eyes holding the darkening sky.
Once, for the Ballato Family; now, for his fallen hound brothers—ultimately, Kiriakos was declaring he would fight for those already dead in the past.
That directly contradicted Micaen’s dying words.
Her final plea to live freely, barely suppressing her rampaging mind… surely meant to shake off the remnants of the past.
Her last words probably stemmed from her own regrets.
Micaen had betrayed the organization to get revenge on Kandat Ballato, the boss of the Ballato Family.
I didn’t know the full details, but as a result, the Ballato Family lost its leadership and self-destructed.
Who knew how many sacrifices it took to reach that point.
One thing was certain: it required no small number of them.
If the Ballato Family collapsed, it wouldn’t just be Kandat Ballato dying.
Those under him… hounds like Micaen or Kiriakos would all be cast into peril.
Anyone could see that.
Micaen couldn’t have been unaware.
Yet she chose revenge.
What remained for Micaen afterward, I couldn’t know.
Unable to know what life she lived, I couldn’t say for sure.
But if I dared guess, she hadn’t reclaimed her past happy life.
That’s why she left those final words to Kiriakos: live freely, beyond revenge.
“You have no intention of abandoning revenge?”
“…Micaen’s last words?”
I nodded silently.
Kiriakos lowered his head and fiddled with his hands.
“I can easily guess what frame of mind Micaen was in when she left those words. I know that the end of revenge awaits only empty void.”
“If you know…”
“I know, but I can’t just forget like this. If even I forget, who will remember my fallen brothers? Who will honor their souls? Who will right their wrongs?”
There were no answers to his questions.
They just circled back endlessly.
Kiriakos clenched his empty hand into a fist.
“Giving up wouldn’t be hard. It’ll torment me for a while. I’ll suffer guilt for fleeing as the sole survivor. But eventually, I’ll forget. Memories erode, pain fades, and someday I’ll turn from the past without even guilt.”
His fist trembled with force, seeming infinitely frail for some reason.
“I fear that moment. The moment their names don’t come to mind instantly, when I can’t recall their faces, when I no longer feel longing—that terrifies me.”
His voice, spilling out at the twilight-night boundary, brimmed with raw desperation.
“…So even if emptiness follows revenge, I don’t care. The hatred carved into my bones and indelible scars will follow me lifelong. If I can remember my brothers while caressing those wounds, that’s enough.”
That conclusion felt like a curse.
A curse clinging lifelong, impossible to shake.
Yet I could somewhat empathize with Kiriakos’s feelings.
I was the same.
When my parents passed, I thought I’d never escape that grief.
But battered by reality, in days of harsh survival, I forgot the sorrow at some point.
Even if longing or sadness surged occasionally, such days grew rarer.
Humans are adaptive creatures.
Eternal loss doesn’t exist.
It resurfaces briefly, but eventually, we adapt.
That moment is both blessing and terror.
Kiriakos would never accept it, even if etched into his bones.
“…Understood. If that’s your wish, senior, I can’t say anything.”
Anything more would be overstepping.
Still, there was something I had to say.
“Please don’t vanish silently after finishing your revenge.”
In the original story, Kiriakos completed his revenge and disappeared without a trace.
But I had no intention of letting him go quietly.
Initially, I planned to keep him close to resolve incidents… but circumstances changed.
“I’ll make you happy for sure, so stay.”
Emptiness meant there was something to fill.
I wouldn’t let Kiriakos meet his end in vacancy.
6
“…Why did it turn out like this?”
The next morning.
As I clutched my head unwittingly and muttered, Noel tilted his head while dipping his quill in ink.
“Why did what…? Differentiating the area of a circle naturally gives the circumference, doesn’t it…?”
“Oh, my friend! You know factoring but not differentiation! It’s okay, it’s okay! You can live without knowing stuff like this!”
Ethan grinned brightly beside Noel.
Living was fine, but graduating the academy might be a problem.
That smile, devoid of worries, was enviable…
“No, not that—why midterms…?”
“Because it’s midterm season…?”
Such a clear answer, Noel.
Like hometowns being home, or water coming out when tilting a smart bottle…
“Something’s seriously wrong.”
Why was it already midterm season, and why was I studying in the library?
I didn’t know about the former, but the latter I did.
I’d been dragged straight here by Ethan on my way out of the dorms.
Louis was busy job-hunting, so Noel and Leon had been roped in instead.
“Any wrong answers?”
Leon asked, checking his own textbook.
Yes, there was a problem.
The problem that I hadn’t studied at all.
Right after classes started, a week’s medical leave, then all focus on eradicating Viper.
No time to study.
The issue: one failing grade meant immediate expulsion.
A single fail couldn’t be erased until graduation.
Meaning, out of the remaining 7 semesters—14 exams total—I couldn’t fail even once.
Difficulty too high?
At least Runes, Elemental Magic, and Swordsmanship I could pass without studying, thankfully…
Alchemy had too much to memorize: ingredient quantities, properties, potion brewing times, processes, etc.—I hadn’t gotten it all.
Tracking? Couldn’t even recall the content.
In short, I was doomed.
Could I cram it all now…?
“You seemed busy lately. Didn’t study?”
“Something like that…”
“What happened?”
How to explain this.
It was long, complicated, and involved Kiriakos’s privacy.
Cutting parts out would make explanation impossible.
“Well… stuff happened. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“I see.”
Leon dropped his gaze back to his textbook without a word.
Sigh, I turned to my basic tracking practice problems.
Let’s see… tracking via footprints, changes due to temperature and humidity variations.
What’s this… Option 3 seems plausible……
“You got that one wrong.”
Leon pointed it out right as I checked the answer.
His voice sank oddly, like a cold dagger flying and embedding.
He wasn’t usually like this.
Did something upset him…?