Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Vajrayana (5)
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“Are we picking sides like a bunch of kids? I'm serious. I'm not about to let them take Shirone.”
Amira looked incredulous. The desire to protect a friend was admirable, but they were only from the advanced class. There was no way they could fight against a group composed mostly of graduating seniors.
“Just because everyone's been coddling you, you think you're something special? Do you really think you can win against us?”
Led by Amira, the entire protest group entered their Spirit Zones. The powerful presence of the graduating seniors' zones washed over Nade and Iruki through their shared senses.
‘Heh heh heh. Heheheheh.’
Watching their standoff, Fermi secretly shook with laughter. The whole situation was hilarious.
‘That's right. Fight. Go on, fight. Destroy each other to your heart's content.’
Fermi knew that all profit was generated from chaos and conflict. In that sense, war was the ultimate blue ocean. After all, the accumulation of wealth is impossible unless the few winners exploit the many losers.
Fermi knew how to win a war. You just had to purge all emotion. Humanity's ultimate weakness was emotion. The one who exploits the emotions of others rules the world.
‘Grieve. Rage. Scream that you alone are right. That's how you raise the stakes. And of course, I'll be the one to take the entire pot.’
From the infirmary, Shina's gaze, which had been surveying the scene, locked onto Fermi.
‘This is all your doing, isn't it? You wretched bastard.’
Anger surged within her, but she couldn't condemn him. Fermi's philosophy was not a shallow one. It was even possible that Fermi was exploiting Shirone's situation.
Alpheas came to Shina's side.
“It seems there's nothing more we can do.”
“Headmaster.”
“This seems to be as far as we can go. Accept the student council's demands.”
Amy cried out.
“Headmaster! You can't! What about Shirone?”
“Amy, I am sorry.”
“How could you do this! You know, don't you, Headmaster! You know Shirone isn't dead yet!”
“No. The truth is, I don't really know.”
Shocked, Amy froze. Alpheas placed a hand on her shoulder and said,
“Amy, no one truly knows Shirone's condition. We are merely holding on to our belief. I, too, believe that Shirone will return.”
“Then why…”
“But look. Now even students with no connection to this are fighting, aren't they? How it came to this is no longer important. I cannot stand by and let my students fight one another any longer.
To Alpheas, the other students were just as precious as Shirone. And now, those very students were deploying their Spirit Zones to kill one another. In a situation like this, to side only with Shirone would be selfish.
“I will go down and tell them myself. Inform Shirone's parents and have them begin the funeral arrangements. We will discuss the matter of disciplinary action afterward.”
Amy's strength gave out, and she sank into a chair. Seriel approached her, her eyes welling with tears.
“Amy, what are we going to do? Shirone… Shirone is…”
Amy felt the same. In the end, Shirone hadn't come back. The moment Alpheas admitted it, it felt as though Shirone had vanished from her own heart.
“Shirone…”
The atmosphere in front of the building was about to explode. Everyone had their Spirit Zone deployed; any one of them could unleash deadly magic at a moment's notice.
Doubt crept back into Amira's mind. Was this truly the right path? Could aiming Spirit Zones at fellow students and preparing to cast lethal magic truly be justified by any logic?
She chewed on her lip, her gaze shifting between Nade and Iruki. Nade was already poised for battle, but Iruki looked like he might still be open to talk.
“You're Iruki, right? The Servant user.”
Iruki didn't answer.
“Do we really have to do this? Your friend is too emotional. But you're different, aren't you?”
“Sorry, but I'm being emotional right now, too.”
“That's a lie. No, even if it's not, it doesn't matter. You know the truth, don't you? Do you really think your friend is alive? Is that the conclusion you've reached?”
“Hmm, a conclusion, you say. In that case, there's only one answer.”
Iruki, who had lowered his gaze in thought, looked up and glared at Amira.
“Shirone is not dead.”
Nade turned to Iruki, a look of surprise on his face. He couldn't understand the sudden change of heart from the very person who, just moments ago in the infirmary, had insisted Shirone was dead.
“Iruki, you…”
Iruki continued to stare straight ahead. Amira's disappointment deepened. She had pinned her hopes on him, considering him the most rational person in the academy, but he was just another hot-headed kid from the advanced class after all.
“If you truly believe that, then I assume you have some logic to convince us?”
“Of course.”
Amira blinked. This was something she'd have to hear to believe.
“Then present your evidence. Why do you think Shirone is alive?”
“Because it's four o'clock… Let's just leave it at that for now.”
Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.
The clock tower bell chimed.
Iruki could tell the time without looking at a clock because he was a Servant. The method was simple: he just had to count off the seconds from a specific point in time.
Nade suddenly understood why Iruki had been so quiet lately.
‘He's been counting the seconds. But since when?’
Amira stared blankly at the clock tower. Then, with a sudden realization, she snapped her head back.
“Now I get it. You're just insane. What does the time have to do with Shirone's death?”
Iruki didn't answer. He had accounted for a small margin of error, but this was taking much longer than expected.
‘Four o'clock and seven seconds. Eight. Nine. What in the world are they doing?’
Amira made up her mind. Her judgment had been correct. Trying to reason with the emotional Nade and the clearly insane Iruki was a complete waste of time.
“We're taking Shirone. Let's see how long you can last against the graduating class.”
As the aura of the academy's top students washed over him, killing intent flared in Nade's eyes. Just then, a voice, not quite familiar but recognizable, spoke up.
“Looks like you're all having fun. Mind if I join in? This sort of thing is my specialty, you know.”
Everyone looked around, but the speaker was nowhere to be seen. A moment later, two figures, a man and a woman, rose up from the building's shadow. It was Canis and Arin.
Amira's eyes flashed with anger.
“You two! How dare you show your faces here! I'll have you restrained immediately!”
“Be my guest, if you think you can. Not that I was planning to run.”
Canis snorted in response and walked over to Iruki.
Iruki's brow furrowed in annoyance.
“You're late.”
“You said to be here by four, didn't you?”
“You're twenty-seven seconds late.”
Canis felt a surge of anger but forced it down. In any case, settling his debt was the priority.
“Here. The thing you asked for.”
Iruki quickly took the papers from Canis and began flipping through them. A puzzled Nade peered over his shoulder.
“Iruki, what is that?”
“A report from Dragon Thunder. I took a tissue sample from Shirone and sent it to them.”
“What? When did you do that? No, more importantly, how did it get here from the capital in five days?”
It was a four-day trip by carriage one way. On top of that, Dragon Thunder would have needed time for the analysis, which meant the actual round trip had to have been completed in under forty-eight hours.
“I asked Canis. He knows the geography of Bashka inside and out.”
Canis ground his teeth, recalling the ordeal. He'd made it in time, but it had been a journey that courted death. He traveled by carriage during the day and used Dark Port at night. He was faster at night, but he'd lost consciousness more than once from pushing his magic to its absolute limit.
“Anyway, with this, my debt to Shirone is paid.”
Canis didn't feel particularly sorry about Shirone's death. But as Arcane's student, he felt a shred of responsibility for Shirone being sacrificed because of his master's atrocities.
“Well, that's none of my business. In any case, I'll be sure to tell Shirone you said so.”
As the situation took a strange turn, Amira grew uneasy. Especially since Dragon Thunder was the kingdom's most prestigious organization, and its director was Iruki's father.
“What is this, some kind of trick? Do you think we'll back down just because you're a Mercodine?”
The name Mercodine was certainly intimidating. But the families of the students gathered here were far from insignificant. If they pressed their numbers, it was a power struggle they had a chance of winning.
“Don't worry about that. I used an alias. If my name were on it, there's no telling what kind of strings the old man would pull. What's more important is the content of this report, isn't it?”
“Hmph! What's written in there? Some magic spell to bring the dead back to life?”
Iruki held up the report and began to read from the first page.
“Title: A Report on the Immortal Function and the Cessation of Biological Activity.”
Hearing the title, the protestors flinched and fell silent. On the third floor, everyone in the infirmary also strained to hear Iruki's next words.
“Analysis of the subject's tissue sample. Conclusion: Non-dynamic state of suspended animation. No organic degradation characteristic of decomposition was found in the sample, which was collected twenty-four hours after the time of death. See attached data.”
Iruki turned to the next page.
“Based on the aforementioned data, while the subject's biological activity can be considered to have ceased, it is unreasonable to extrapolate this state to a complete cessation of function—that is, an absence of life.”
Iruki stressed the point, as if this were the crucial passage.
“Dragon Thunder classifies cardiac arrest into three categories. First, a state in which the heart's function has ceased. Second, a state in which the heart's function has temporarily ceased. Third, a state in which the heart has not ceased to function but appears to have done so.”
Amira cried out, incredulous.
“What kind of nonsense is that? The first case is one thing, but the others are impossible!”
As if expecting that response, Iruki turned to the next page.
“Case examples. While an organism can be considered deceased when its cardiac function has ceased, in cases involving the Immortal Function, two new possibilities arise.”
In the now-silent atmosphere, Iruki's voice rose.
“Case 1: In the event that a subject's mental expansion is delayed by an extraordinary event, the physical body may temporarily cease all function until the mind reaches its conclusion. See attached report.”
Iruki nodded as if in agreement with the text and read the next part.
“Case 2: Even after mental expansion is complete, a temporal discrepancy may exist between the subject and an outside observer. In other words, a state in which vital signs are normal, but cannot be detected externally due to a spatiotemporal barrier. See attached report.”
Feeling no need to read any further, Iruki flipped through the remaining pages to the final section.
“Based on the above magi-scientific findings, the subject—that is, the person currently lying in the infirmary…”
He held the Dragon Thunder report out for the protestors to see.
“Shirone cannot, under any circumstances, be considered deceased.”
The protestors, who had been so vocal until now, were completely silent. As mages themselves, they knew. No one could refute the findings of Dragon Thunder.
“Iruki. When on earth did you…”
Iruki glanced back at the dazed Nade and let out a small smirk.
“So? What do you think of my method for bringing back the dead?”
Nade looked away sheepishly. So there really was a way. A way to bring back the dead. While everyone else was lost in grief, clinging to vain hope, Iruki had been fighting this battle all by himself.
“Here. See for yourself.”
Iruki handed the report to Amira. She took it without a word and examined the first page. The official seal of Dragon Thunder was stamped there, clear as day.
Any further protest was meaningless. The kingdom's highest academic institution had just proven the instructors' judgment correct. Even if they filed a formal complaint, the courts would almost certainly side with the academy.
“You've been through a lot, Amira.”
Alpheas appeared at the entrance of the building.
“Headmaster.”