Forbidden Question
Forbidden Question
I slipped out of the ballroom where the splendid waltz melody and nauseating stench of champagne had been reverberating.
The academy's night air was bitingly cold, enough to pierce one's lungs, but that coolness was actually more familiar and comfortable to me.
As I opened the door to the old dormitory room, a familiar warmth rushed at me from the darkness.
"......"
Maybe it was because she'd been trembling in anxiety throughout the ball. The moment I stepped inside, Ines burrowed into my chest like a wild animal.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, held her in my arms, and let her listen to the heavy thumping of my heart.
Not long after, Ines's ragged breathing settled into a steady, soft puffing sound.
But tonight, I had no intention of staying quietly in the dormitory.
I carefully laid Ines down on the bed and unbuttoned the shirt of my uniform I was wearing.
I took off the shirt—steeped in my scent, sweat, and a faint smell of blood—and pressed it firmly into her arms.
Even in her sleep, Ines clutched my shirt like a lifeline, hugging it tightly and rubbing her cheek against it.
Until I returned, this scent would serve as a cradle to barely hold onto her empty consciousness.
'I don't have much time.'
I threw on a plain T-shirt hanging on the wall, then strapped two survival daggers and the academy's standard-issue longsword to my belt.
The academy's north back gate.
The blind spot with the least patrol from the guard force, directly adjacent to the monster forest outside the barrier.
In the thick darkness there, someone was trembling like an aspen leaf.
"You're late, you crazy bastard..."
Erden, who'd spotted me, muttered nervously, his lips quivering. His murky eyes held a grotesque mix of fear toward me and an uncontrollable scholarly madness for real combat.
Instead of answering, I casually looked him up and down.
"I didn't expect you to come to the hunting ground in a dress."
"What? This isn't a dress, it's the traditional robe of mages— Agh!"
Jjiiik-!
Before Erden could even finish his sentence, I roughly tore apart the hem of his old mage robe that hung all the way down to his ankles. The fabric scraps covering below his knees were ripped off pitifully.
"You, you— my precious robe...!"
"The moment a goblin in the bushes steps on your hem and yanks, your brilliant head will be rolling on the ground."
Erden's mouth opened and closed in indignation, but I didn't even give him time to pick up the torn robe pieces.
"Follow me. If you don't want your throat bitten out by a monster, don't stray outside a one-meter radius from me."
With that dry command, I bypassed the barrier's surveillance magic circle and threw myself into the forest. Erden gulped and hurriedly followed behind me.
The forest outside the barrier is a hell where even breathing is a struggle for greenhouse flowers.
The stench of rotting leaf litter piercing the nose, the fishy scent of beasts, and pitch-black darkness where enemies could spring out at any moment.
"Huff, huff..."
We'd only walked a little over twenty minutes, but Erden, clinging right to my back, was already breathing at his limit. His white hand gripping his staff was trembling violently, pale as a ghost.
Sseureureuk-.
That was when it happened. From between the dense bushes surrounding us on all sides, a dry rustling of leaves echoed rhythmically.
"...They're here."
Dozens of red gleams flashed in the darkness.
What burst out along with a disgusting stench of blood was a pack of low-grade monsters specialized in pack hunting—Blood Wolves.
Their numbers, exceeding twenty, instantly cut off our escape route and narrowed the encirclement.
"Wh-what the hell! Th-this many at once...!"
Erden recoiled and raised his staff. But due to extreme terror, his lips quivered so badly he couldn't even begin a proper casting (incantation).
Clicking my tongue, I stopped precisely one meter in front of Erden.
"Don't close your eyes. Start your incantation. Compressed fire explosion within a ten-meter range. I'll give you three seconds to complete the spell."
My dry, confident voice struck Erden's ear.
"Kuaaaaah!"
The moment the largest alpha wolf roared, dozens of wolves from all sides leaped at us simultaneously. Sharp claws and beastly maws tore through the air toward us.
"I-Ignis...!"
Just as Erden was about to squeeze his eyes shut, my sword drew a silver arc through the air.
Seogeok-!
Kwajik.
I didn't perform any flashy sword dance. There was no need.
I only targeted the attacks pouring toward the one-meter radius around Erden, who stood behind me, cutting them down with minimal movement.
I smacked the left-side wolf's jaw joint with the flat of my blade, twisting its trajectory.
I stomped on the front knee joint of the wolf leaping from the right with my boot heel, breaking it.
For the ones charging from the front, I drove my pommel into their foreheads without hesitation, shattering their brains.
"Kiyaaang!"
"Keung!"
In an instant, five or six wolves crashed to the ground, spraying fountains of blood. Vivid red blood poured down like rain all around, but thanks to my perfectly calculated sword arcs, not a single drop splattered onto Erden behind me.
"...!"
Erden's murky eyes widened in shock.
A shield.
A perfect, overwhelming wall with no margin for error, no sign of being breached.
The 'absolute vanguard' he had craved for years while stuck in the corner of the academy training grounds was now reaping wolf heads right before his eyes.
Where fear had vanished, only the joy of real combat and a surging scholarly madness remained.
"...Coalesce, flames of annihilation!"
The suppressed incantation burst from Erden's lips.
Mana from the surroundings was explosively sucked into the tip of his staff, forming a small but extremely compressed bloody-red fireball.
As I'd pointed out at the ball, he had narrowed the range of effect and maximized lethality—an unstable but deadly sphere of destruction.
"Fire."
When I lowered my body and cleared the path, Erden giggled like a madman and swung his staff.
"Burn to ash, you garbage!"
Kwaaaaang-!
With an ear-splitting roar, a corner of the forest lit up as bright as day.
The compressed fire explosion swept perfectly across a ten-meter radius forward.
A terrible wave of heat seared past me, almost singeing my bangs, and the dozen or so wolves that had been charging at us turned into black charcoal in a single blow without even a scream.
Tadak, tadadak.
Between the burning tree trunks, the nauseating smell of charred meat hung in the air.
The remaining few wolves tucked their tails at the horrific death of their comrades and fled into the darkness.
"Hah, haah...! Di-di you see that?! My theory was right! Three seconds is enough! Hahahahaha!"
Erden collapsed to the ground, still gripping his staff, laughing like a maniac.
I kicked a wolf carcass with lingering embers and ran the numbers in my head.
Incantation speed: pass. Power and destructive force: overwhelming.
That madman's desk-bound theories held up perfectly in real combat—they were the real deal.
With this, his value as a 'turret' was proven.
But that alone wasn't enough.
To get him to dissect Ines's brain structure, I needed to confirm he wasn't just a coward with good firepower.
Kung-.
Kung-.
At that moment, heavy footsteps began shaking the forest floor from a distance. Thick trees snapped with a crash, and a massive figure blocked the moonlight.
"Wha, what...?"
Erden's laughter, filled with joy, cut off abruptly.
Attracted by the blood scent of the Blood Wolves and the magical energy wave of the fire, a high-ranking monster lurking deep in the forest had emerged.
A Mutant Troll.
Its body was 1.5 times larger than an ordinary troll, and its skin had hardened like rock.
"Kuaaaaaah!"
The troll roared, swinging a club as thick as a barrel.
Under that overwhelming pressure, Erden's legs completely gave out. His hand gripping the staff trembled uncontrollably and then began to convulse.
"Wh-what the hell. It's a mutant... we can't take that down. Run, let's run..."
Erden stepped back.
But the troll's murky eyes, ignoring me blocking its path, locked precisely onto Erden in the rear, who was emitting magical power.
"Kuaaak!"
The troll leaped high into the air.
A house-sized shadow fell over Erden's head, and the massive club came down mercilessly toward his crown.
It was a speed I could easily block.
If I pushed off the ground half a beat faster, I could deflect the troll's club and sever its wrist joint.
But I didn't move.
I intentionally relaxed the grip on my sword and cast a cold gaze at Erden, who had collapsed behind me.
This is the final interview.
If, faced with this overwhelming fear of death, he turned out to be a coward who abandoned his shield and ran to save himself...
Then he had no value as a tool.
If so, before his head was crushed by that club, I planned to cut his throat myself.
"A-ah, aaah...!"
The shadow completely swallowed Erden.
The crotch of Erden's pants became wet. He had pissed himself.
But.
Even as his eyes rolled back in extreme terror, this madman did not turn his back to flee.
"Die, dieeeee-!"
Instead, biting his lip until it bled, he raised his staff vertically in both hands toward the troll's descending face.
"Explode, you fucking shitty bastard!"
Kwaaaaang-!
Just before the club could crush Erden's head.
A point-blank fire explosion, squeezed from the tip of Erden's staff, slammed directly into the troll's face.
"Kugegeuaaaaagh!"
The troll, its face skin melting and eyes bursting, screamed and swung its club wildly through the air.
Along with the beast's terrible pain, the club grazed Erden's cheek by a hair's breadth and slammed into the ground.
A deafening Kwaang-! sound burst, and dust erupted.
Interview over.
I pushed off the ground.
Leaping through the dust cloud, I used the blind troll's thick thigh as a springboard to launch myself once more.
A perfect blind spot—the top of its head.
Adding my full weight, I drove the longsword deep into the gap in the troll's skull, through the hole of its destroyed eye socket.
Puuk-!
Then I twisted the hilt roughly, completely mashing its brain.
The massive body of the Mutant Troll, known for its terrible regenerative ability, crumbled like a great tree without putting up even a single resistance, shaking the ground.
Kung-!
In the blood-scented forest.
Beside the troll's corpse, Erden sat blankly, gasping for air.
His whole body was drenched in sweat and piss, but a grotesque smirk hung at the corner of his mouth.
I pulled the sword out of the troll's head and flicked the blood off.
"You pass."
At my dry declaration, Erden looked up at me with dull eyes.
"Your head is useful. I've confirmed you have the guts of a beast that doesn't run even in a crisis."
"Hah, haah... y-you crazy bastard. You deliberately blocked late back there, didn't you...? I almost died!"
Erden spat out a resentful curse, but I didn't reply. Instead, I split open the troll's solar plexus and dug out a blue mana stone the size of an adult's fist.
Enough value to keep Ines fed on premium meat for a solid month.
I shoved the bloodstained mana stone into my pocket and looked down at Erden, still sitting on the ground.
I'd grabbed him by the scruff, shaken him out thoroughly, and the verification was complete.
Now it was time to put this useful tool to real work.
"That's enough for earning your keep. Now it's time to earn your head's worth."
Piercing him with my emotionless eyes, I threw out the 'first request' I hadn't made at the ball.
"Investigate whether holy power can, conversely, destroy a human's reason and brain structure."
"...What?"
Erden's breath stopped.
For a moment, even the silence of the forest swarming with beasts seemed to freeze.
"Wh-what did you just say?"
The Church's sublime power, the sacred holy power that saves the world.
An extremely blasphemous and heretical question, assuming it to be a weapon of slaughter and a terrible tool of torture that destroys the human brain.
Erden's already pale face turned even whiter.
He seemed terrified, crawling backward on the ground as he shrieked in a hoarse voice.
"Y-you crazy bastard...! Do you even know what your question means?! Even I, a heretic, wouldn't think of such a disgusting concept! If you're found out, the Inquisition will burn you alive before your bones can even be collected!"
I hadn't meant for him to give an answer right away.
There was no way a low-grade mage, stuck in a corner of the academy with only theories and no shield, could have insight into the essence of holy power, the Church's exclusive power.
"Hah, haah...! Besides, I've never personally experienced or analyzed that disgusting power called holy power! My information is completely zero! There's no way I can answer such a crazy question right now!"
Erden gasped and spat.
But.
Even as he poured out curses and trembled in fear, a grotesque change was happening deep in Erden's murky eyes.
Assuming holy power as a weapon and torture implement—a terrible but perfect reversal of divine logic.
The toxic 'intellectual curiosity' unique to a genius mage began to ominously bloom, gnawing away at the instinct of fear.
An unknown territory.
The very fact that information was insufficient was actually fueling this madman's starved desire for exploration.
His lips, quivering in fear, now contorted into a twisted grin.
"...Crazy bastard. You're truly, thoroughly insane."
Even as he trembled in fear and spewed insults, the same eyes flashed with fierce curiosity for forbidden knowledge.
He had taken the bait perfectly.
This madman would now, without anyone telling him to, crave the 'opportunity to analyze holy power' to satisfy his scholarly appetite.
I gave a silent, cold smile toward the trembling Erden.
In the pitch-black forest outside the barrier, where the stench of blood and the smell of burning permeated the air, the most ominous and perfect deal between a hunting dog and a madman was being completed.