Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Meeting God (2)
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“Shirone…”
Amy clutched Shirone’s hand, her eyes swollen from crying. The teachers were too preoccupied to visit. Or perhaps, they had already accepted the fact that Shirone was dead.
But Amy shook her head in denial. She couldn't believe Shirone was gone. It was more than just obsession; there were too many unanswered questions.
Nade offered words of comfort.
“Don’t worry, Amy. Shirone will come back.”
“That’s right. It doesn't make any sense. Why would he die? If casting Mass Teleport was going to kill him, it shouldn't have activated in the first place. Something strange must have happened to him.”
Iruki frowned in disapproval. He’d also stayed by Shirone’s side all night, but there was nothing more foolish in the world than mistaking the dead for the living.
“By that logic, Arcane should have survived too. You can die just from casting a spell.”
“This is different from Arcane’s situation! Shirone fully activated his Immortal Function. It has nothing to do with a decline in brain function!”
“He still exceeded his capacity. Humans can die from any number of variables. What matters is whether he’s dead or alive, not why he died. That’s not a rational line of thought.”
Nade scowled. Even if it was true, there were things you just didn’t say in front of someone’s girlfriend. Just as he was about to retort, Amy approached Iruki with cold eyes.
“You haven’t changed a bit. Still a jerk.”
Iruki watched Amy, his chin resting on his hand. Her eyes were burning red.
‘A Carmis. I suppose Red Eyes would grant her immunity to mental-type magic.’
Red Eyes were a famous trait on the continent. The only thing that could breach their minds was something like Anti-Magic, so it made sense that she had escaped the Abyss Nova. But his thoughts went no further. He looked away, losing interest.
“Blaming others just because you’re in a bad mood is a bad habit.”
“No. You’re the one ruining the mood. What’s wrong with you? Are you really Shirone’s friend? How can you think he’s dead?”
“I don’t think he might be dead. I said he is dead.”
“That’s even worse! And who do you think you are, a Class Five, talking to me like that?”
“If you don’t like it, report me to the student council. I’ll just take the punishment.”
Amy couldn’t hold back any longer. She grabbed Iruki by the collar and lifted him effortlessly with the power of Schema. Iruki’s feet left the ground.
“Say that again. But you’d better say it right this time.”
“Oh, how terrifying.”
There was no emotion in Iruki’s eyes. He simply looked down at Amy with an empty gaze. But Amy was the type to act recklessly when provoked.
“Repeat after me. Shirone is not dead. Otherwise, you’ll be lying right next to him.”
“Shirone is dead.”
“Shirone is not dead! Hurry up and repeat it!”
“I said, Shirone is dead.”
Amy’s Red Eyes flickered. Using her eidetic memory to calculate the punch's trajectory, she aimed for Iruki's third and fourth teeth. But Iruki’s expression didn’t change. Seeing the deceleration, he knew it was meant to stop right before his lips.
As expected, Amy stopped her motion just before impact. Watching her fist, filled with pent-up anger, tremble, Iruki said dryly,
“Ah, what a relief.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! You despicable Servant. A person like you wouldn’t even understand why I stopped my fist.”
Amy couldn’t bring herself to hit Iruki. No matter how much she hated him, he was still Shirone’s friend.
“The meaning behind stopping your fist? Something about wasting your energy, perhaps?”
Sparks flew from Amy’s eyes.
“So, you’re still going to say Shirone is dead with that mouth of yours? You know what? People like you don’t deserve to have friends.”
“Perhaps. But you do?”
“What did you say? This bastard…!”
Amy yanked his collar again and raised her fist. For the first time, Iruki scowled and shoved her hand away.
“Tsk, damn it!”
As Amy shook her hand out, Iruki walked over to the bed and pointed at Shirone.
“You’re the pathetic ones. Does he really look alive to you? He’s not breathing, and his heart has stopped! And yet you spout nonsense about how he must be alive or that something strange must have happened. What kind of friends are you!”
“Then what am I supposed to do! What do you want me to do when Shirone is like this!”
“Then think, damn it!”
Iruki shouted, more agitated than he had ever been.
“Do you think saying he’s alive will bring a dead person back to life? If you have the energy to spew such crap, then use it to think of a way to bring the dead back to life!”
Amy bit her lip, searching for a reply, but eventually realized he was right and hung her head, dejected. Iruki was right. Mathematically, Shirone was dead.
Nade spoke with a sad expression.
“I know what you mean. But Iruki, how can we save him? A way to bring back the dead… that’s impossible.”
“Hmph, that’s the limit of your thinking.”
Iruki stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Silence filled the infirmary. As Amy sat in a chair and covered her face, Nade tried to console her.
“Amy. Don’t hate him too much. Iruki’s just frustrated, that’s all.”
“Forget it. I don’t even want to think about a guy like that. Telling me to think of a way to revive the dead? Why doesn’t he realize that hurts even more?”
Nade couldn’t answer. It might have been typical Iruki behavior, but it was true that today, he felt resentful toward his friend.
After leaving the infirmary, Iruki walked down the hall and frowned. The two people he least wanted to see were waiting for him. Canis was leaning against the wall, and Arin was looking around anxiously, unable to find a place for her gaze.
As the masterminds of this incident, they should have been under strict surveillance, but the situation was too chaotic for anyone to spare them any attention.
Of course, Iruki had no mental capacity to deal with them either. If they had intended to run, they would have done so long ago. Not that they could escape the eyes of the Magic Association.
“Did you come to rub salt in the wound? Or to apologize, now of all times?”
Canis pushed himself off the wall.
“Both. Came to rub salt in the wound and to apologize. Dying in battle is one thing, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Shirone was sacrificed for something so meaningless. But it seems I've picked a bad time.”
He must have overheard the fight with Amy from outside. Annoyed at having shown such a pathetic side of himself, Iruki scratched his head.
“Good thinking. You won’t get a warm welcome if you go in now. The girl in there will probably break your legs first. Anyway, good luck with that. I’m leaving.”
Canis followed Iruki with his eyes as he walked past.
“I don’t care about that. When I said it was a bad time, I meant the opportunity is gone. What’s the point of apologizing to a dead man?”
Iruki stopped and turned to glare fiercely at Canis.
“What?”
“I completely agree with you. Dead is dead. Seeing them make a fuss over a corpse made me lose all desire to apologize.”
Iruki paused for a moment, then let out a scoff.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve for someone who just came back from the dead. Whose idea was that? Yours? Or your shadow’s?”
“…Are you trying to start a fight right here?”
“Shirone, from my perspective, is a rather bothersome friend.”
Canis’s brow furrowed at Iruki’s sudden change of topic.
“The truth is, I’m a very strange and twisted person. So I decided to place restraints on myself. In a way, Shirone is like a lock for me.”
“Hmph. A weak-minded notion.”
“You think so? Well, I might not have thought this way if it weren't for Shirone. In any case, that Shirone is gone now. So I’d appreciate it if you watched your mouth from now on.”
Arin flinched back, sensing something from Iruki.
“Because I’m different from Shirone. If I put my mind to it, I can do any crazy thing I want. So you’d better pray that Shirone comes back to life to stop me.”
Sparks began to flash in Iruki’s eyes as he stared down Canis. They were sparks generated in his cerebrum, visible through his pupils.
“If this is the end for Shirone, I’ll kill you first, no matter what it takes.”
Canis’s mental channel opened, and Harvest’s brainwaves came through.
-Canis, this is a warning level. We’ve been targeted.
-I know. We already knew he was a Servant.
-It’s more than that. His processing speed is incredibly fast. Calculating based on the movement of his Spirit Zone, I estimate he’s at least 10,000 times faster than our mental channel.
Canis couldn’t believe it. His exchange of thoughts with Harvest was faster than the speed of thought itself. To be 10,000 times faster than that was a speed beyond human comprehension.
-What level is that?
-It’s enough information to analyze every event occurring in a city over three seconds. We need a special strategy to face him. But we’re criminals right now. Causing trouble here will only make our situation worse.
Canis didn’t want to back down. This stubbornness was why he had been chosen as Arcane’s top disciple, but the timing was poor. As Harvest desperately tried to dissuade him, Arin stepped in.
“But doesn’t that mean you also believe Shirone isn’t dead?”
Iruki’s Spirit Zone vanished. Arin, who had been witnessing his killing intent through her First Sight, finally felt like she could breathe again. Iruki composed himself. He had to be colder than anyone. The fools in the infirmary were enough emotional baggage.
“Shirone is dead. If you don’t accept the facts, you can’t find a solution. I’m just thinking rationally.”
“No. You believe Shirone is alive. Perhaps even more so than the two people in that room.”
Iruki scowled. A Servant’s greatest strength was calculating the causality of events. There was no room for illogical emotions to interfere.
“What do you know about me?”
“I have an ability called First Sight. I perceive all things as if seeing them for the first time. That’s why I can’t remember the forms of things. They look different every time.”
“So? What about it?”
“I can see your emotions. In a completely different form than how others see them.”
“I’m fine. Dead is dead. There’s no room for emotion.”
“No. You’re not.”
Arin shook her head.
“Because right now, you’re crying with such a sad expression on your face.”
Iruki couldn’t answer.
Before her First Sight, a hundred words were useless.
That night.
The door to the infirmary opened slowly.
Amy, exhausted from crying, had collapsed on a cot, while Nade was dozing in a chair in the corner.
Iruki approached Shirone. Sleeping and being dead felt entirely different. Seeing Shirone’s cold, still face, he felt his world collapsing.
In the morning, the teachers would come to check on Shirone. They’d probably embalm him before holding a funeral, but if that happened, there would be no way to save him.
Iruki steeled his emotions and took out a scalpel he had hidden in his clothes.
‘I will save you, no matter what.’
He checked on Amy and Nade, but they showed no signs of waking. It was to be expected after two days of extreme stress. Only then did Iruki raise the scalpel.
The blade, glinting in the moonlight, pierced Shirone’s skin.
