A Cornered Beast
I had to think. If I didn't move carefully now, I might not get another chance to choose later.
'For starters, it seems Conrad is involved...'
I kept an eye on Victor. However, there wasn't much I could do.
My time was limited, and my face was already too well-known. On top of that, Victor was sharper than I had anticipated.
Though my tailing wasn't perfect, there was no evidence of him contacting any other criminals I might recognize.
'And the guards... they're being passive.'
While the Academy's students came from various nations, the guards were locals—citizens of the Empire.
Selling drugs was certainly a lucrative business, but smuggling small quantities to sell to students couldn't generate that much money.
I met with Victor once or twice more to buy drugs, and I even watched him deal with others from a distance.
The goods he brought in from outside the Academy passed through the guards' checkpoints with ease, thanks to their strangely negligent inspections.
It wasn't bribery. If so, the culprit had to be a criminal with a status high enough to keep the imperial guards in check.
'Conrad...'
He handed off the dangerous, criminal work to Victor, while he lent money at exorbitant interest rates to the students who went broke because of it.
It was a pretty decent business model. When he and Victor crossed paths, they acted like strangers, but in hindsight, it was entirely possible that Victor was the only one kept in the dark.
'This is much more complicated than I thought...'
In the game, taking down the school's drug ring was nothing more than a side quest.
You would progress the case with a companion who had a decent 'Investigation' stat, bring along party members strong enough to beat student-level enemies, and defeat the boss. That was it.
But this world had already diverged from the one I knew. The conflict was rising to the surface before I could even form a proper party to fight.
I had to wrap this case up somehow before everything blew up.
The boy cradled the small wooden box in his arms as if it were a sacred relic, having barely managed to get his hands on it.
"I went through so much to get this. I can't waste it. I absolutely can't..."
While under the influence, he hadn't realized just how deeply he had sunk into this drug.
With this drug, he could cast the dark magic he previously couldn't. His mind cleared, and courage filled his chest.
The ideal version of himself that he always imagined—with this drug, he felt like he had actually become that person.
Class was in session, but he no longer had the luxury to pay attention.
He wanted to ration it. If his luck ran out, this might be the last time he ever got to use it.
'Should I have asked for money? Just a little bit...'
Wade had bought the drug too. Since it was the boy who had pointed him to the source, perhaps Wade would have rewarded him accordingly.
'...Or should I have just asked him to protect me?'
It was a pointless assumption. Conrad was the one tormenting him most relentlessly right now, but in the end, Conrad was just one of many.
Those who wielded the power of light did not view dark magic users as human, let alone fellow students.
They saw people like Katarin or Wade as wild beasts that might harm them if they approached carelessly. As for the rest, they saw them as talking goblins that dropped coins when beaten.
In the end, there was no choice but to grow strong. He had to become strong.
In the pitch-black warehouse, a tiny spark of light conjured by his dark magic flickered to life.
The flame swayed erratically, almost mirroring the boy's trembling form.
'Fabian. You can't do anything.'
The flame spoke the truth. The boy reflected on the pathetic state he was in.
He was nothing but a useless, helpless piece of trash who brought nothing but shame to his family.
He wanted to be stronger. He wanted to be proud.
He wasn't asking for much. He just wanted to be strong enough to not get bullied, just like the other "powerful" dark mages.
An Academy diploma was highly valuable. It was even more so for a dark mage.
It was proof that they could integrate into society.
"I have to... endure."
He opened the box. A faint aroma drifted out.
Fabian sprinkled the powder into a water bottle he had prepared beforehand.
The proper way to enjoy the drug was to let the powder steep in hot water, but Fabian didn't have the luxury to prepare such a thing.
Tears welled in his eyes. The urge in his head screamed at him to greedily dump the drug straight into his mouth.
At that moment, the door swung open.
'I—I should have locked it!'
"Whoa, he really is here. You piece of trash. What the hell are you doing in the corner?"
"He's a dark mage, so probably some evil plot... Wait, isn't this a drug?"
Several cadets barged roughly into the warehouse.
"Looks like it. There's no way he'd skip class just to sneak a drink, right?"
"This guy is out of his mind. You'd be better off stealing. Doing drugs inside the Academy, and during class hours?"
"Well, what do you expect from a dark mage bastard?"
"T-this is..."
Fabian tried to make an excuse, but he couldn't.
Because they weren't wrong. Or perhaps because he was too consumed by the urge to take the drug—knowing it was right within his reach—to even register their presence as an intrusion.
He couldn't hold out any longer. Fabian reached to drink the drug-infused water from the bottle.
But he wasn't allowed to do even that.
"Aaargh!"
"You bastard. Hey, do we look like a joke to you? He's trying to take drugs right in front of us!"
A cadet from the knight class kicked Fabian's wrist with brutal force.
"Please, just once, just once..."
His wrist bent in a direction it never should have. Yet, Fabian didn't even have the capacity to feel pain from something like that.
"He's a total wreck. Is this guy even human?"
"I think bringing my cat to class would be more dignified. All that talk about harmony and integration is just pretty words..."
One of the cadets stomped violently on Fabian's leg.
"AAAAAAARGH!!!"
"Hey, isn't that a bit much?"
The steel boot ground mercilessly into Fabian's leg.
"What are you so scared of? We caught a guy doing drugs on campus red-handed. If anyone asks, we'll just say he resisted and we had no choice."
"True. And if things get bad, the boss will cover for us."
They laughed and mocked Fabian, completely devoid of any sense of crisis.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Fabian crawled along the ground.
The drug-infused water from the bottle had already spilled, half of it pooling on the floor.
"What is this bastard doing?!"
Fabian sucked up the remaining liquid from the bottle. Then, he began to lick the water pooling on the floor.
"He's a literal dog. He's actually licking it!"
"Hey, this guy is seriously hooked."
The urge vanished from Fabian's mind. In its place, a crystal-clear rationality took over.
The first things he felt upon regaining his senses were shame and pain.
He was weak. Even if he hadn't taken the drugs, these people would have bullied him just the same.
If they had just happened to pass by him on the street, they wouldn't have gone out of their way to unlock a closed warehouse door.
"Shouldn't we stop him?"
"Why should we? His life is over anyway. Expulsion is a given... and then he'll probably live as a junkie for a bit before dying in a ditch."
Fabian accepted that they were right.
He had no future. The things he had planned, the things he had imagined, were already ruined.
Perhaps it had been that way from the very beginning.
He hated being treated as the family nuisance. When he said he was entering the Academy, the others had welcomed it with open arms.
They just didn't want him around. No one wanted him. He couldn't stay there forever.
Unless he achieved something outstanding that anyone would recognize—like his sister had—misery was his preordained fate.
"Ugh..."
The concentration was thick. The undissolved drug powder, mixed with dust, coated his tongue.
"Ah..."
From the start, he had set the wrong goal.
Wishing for a happy life was greed. It was an unattainable goal.
He needed a more realistic goal, a more actionable plan.
Once he accepted that, peace washed over him.
"..."
His tongue stopped licking the floor. Fabian slowly forced his creaking body upright.
He could no longer feel the screams of pain his entire body was sending to his brain. It was a relief, but at the same time, deeply tragic.
"What?"
"Hey, you should've just stayed down. You might've gotten beaten less—"
The cadet who was about to throw a punch at his face suddenly realized that a dark smoke was gripping his hand.
"Just... die. Please die."
This was power obtained through blood, through the suffering of countless beasts. There was no way happiness awaited at the end of it.
Having realized that, Fabian had undoubtedly grown stronger.
The resolve to sacrifice anything, the willingness to abandon cumbersome concepts like happiness or humanity.
And a mind made razor-sharp by the drug—all of it combined to make him immense.
"Just die already!!!"
Only then did Fabian truly find his power.