Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: Figures (3)
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Arin had been starving for three days. And as a price for her three days of hunger, Canis hadn't eaten a thing for twenty.
‘*Pant! Pant! I did it! It’s mine! I got the bread!*’
Canis sprinted frantically down the alley. Only after shaking his pursuers did he lean his back against a wall and catch his breath.
His consciousness was fading, the only sensation left was the gnawing hunger. He couldn't even remember how long it had been since he'd last eaten.
In that moment, a single piece of bread caught his eye.
With eyes tinged with madness, Canis gulped.
I want to eat it. I want to put this in my mouth.
‘*That’s right, I need my strength for Arin to live. It’s okay to eat this much. Arin can hold on for a few more days.*’
The thought seemed brilliant, a stroke of genius.
Could there be a more rational idea? First, eat this, then use the remaining strength to find more food. That would solve everything.
Canis opened his jaw and brought the bread to his lips. Saliva, once dry, now flooded his mouth like a torrent, and his hands trembled.
“Kugh!”
Canis squeezed his eyes shut and tucked the bread into his coat. It was all a lie. What kind of strength could he possibly gain from a single piece of bread like this?
‘*I have to endure. It doesn’t matter if my body breaks down. But if my mind collapses, it’s over.*’
Like a man who had lost his mind, Canis scanned his surroundings. He was even considering filling his stomach with rocks.
He crawled toward a pile of feces someone had left at the alley's entrance. And before a single thought could form, he reached out and shoved it into his mouth.
“Ugh! Blech!”
His tongue, his mouth, his stomach—his entire body was rejecting it. But Canis swallowed it down.
Better than rocks.
Shit was better than rocks.
After wrestling with his stomach for a long while, Canis returned to their hideout with feeble steps. He still felt nauseous, but the moment he saw Arin, he put on a bright expression and held out the bread.
“Arin, ta-da! Look what I found.”
“Oh, for real? Wow, you’re amazing.”
“Haha, I’ve got the hang of it now. I’ll be able to get a lot more from now on. Hurry up and eat.”
Arin gazed at the bread with mournful eyes. She desperately wanted to go out and find food with him, but for a woman to go outside in Radum was a suicidal act.
She had never spoken to anyone other than Canis. Thanks to that, she had developed social anxiety, but what did that matter? At least she hadn't ended up as someone's meal, passing through their digestive tract.
“You eat some too, Canis.”
“I’m fine. I’ve been scavenging things here and there while I was out. I found a huge centipede earlier, got some nutrients from that. You can’t eat stuff like that, so you need to eat this.”
“I told you, I can eat it too. When are you going to stop treating me like a child?”
Canis grasped Arin’s shoulders, his eyes full of affection.
“Arin, I know. You’re a brave girl. But you can’t. Do you know what I mean? The only reason I can endure this hellish Radum is because I can at least feed you like a proper human being. If you became like me, I might just go insane. So please, eat.”
She had heard these words dozens of times before. And whenever he said this, Arin would always pretend to give in and take a bite of the bread.
But this time was different.
With trembling eyes, Arin looked at the corner of Canis’s mouth. Something was smeared there, and it gave off a smell.
“Canis, you… what did you eat?”
Canis was flustered like never before.
“Huh? Ahaha! It’s cake. I was licking up some cream that fell, must have gotten some on me. Sorry for not telling you. I was just so hungry…!”
*Slap!*
Canis’s head whipped to the side. He had been beaten countless times by the back-alley thugs, but never in his life had a slap hurt this much.
“A-Arin…”
Arin’s expression was terrifying, a look Canis had never seen before.
“You bastard… How could you do this to me! Am I your livestock? Are you raising me? And then you tell me to eat this? What the hell am I to you!”
“Arin, it’s not like that! This is a punishment for me! It has nothing to do with you!”
“I don’t need any of it! I don’t need this crap!”
Arin threw the bread to the ground. Watching the bread roll in the dust, Canis turned his head with an angry expression.
“Arin! What are you doing! Do you know how I got…!”
Arin pulled Canis’s face toward her and kissed him. As she licked away the substance on his lips, tears streamed from her eyes.
It was not a sweet kiss. Nor was it a beautiful exchange of emotion between two human beings. It was merely an act of pity between two creatures whose very existence was a sin.
Only then did Canis realize what he had eaten. For the first time in his life, tears streamed down his face. A lifetime of suppressed sorrow burst forth all at once.
“*Sob! H-huuuh…!*”
“Don’t you ever do that again. If you do it one more time, I can’t stay by your side anymore.”
“I’m sorry, Arin. Don’t leave me. You’re my only family. You’re my entire reason for living.”
“I know. Let’s live, Canis. We have to survive.”
Overwhelmed with sorrow, Canis couldn't even answer, just nodded his head repeatedly. But Arin didn't forgive him. Not until that day, Canis had eaten every last crumb of the bread that had fallen on the floor.
Canis recounted his past calmly, as if reciting someone else’s life story.
“We lived in hell. But our master saved us from that place. He gave us food, gave me the power to protect Arin, and even gave us Harvest, the quintessence of dark magic.”
Everyone’s gaze turned to Harvest. The magical creature, usually talkative, remained silent this time.
“I understand.”
Shirone said.
“I understand the life you’ve lived. But that doesn’t justify killing people. Living a harder life than others doesn’t make doing bad things right.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I'm not defending myself; I'm trying to teach you. To show you how shallow the justice you believe in is, how hypocritical the world you live in is. It wasn’t your so-called noble justice that saved Arin and me. I’m simply acting on what I believe.”
“You can’t gain anything by hurting people. If you don’t first try to understand the other person, your own past can never be comforted.”
“Heh! Comforted? You’re spouting foolishness to the very end. Shall I tell you the situation right now? My master is going to wipe this entire academy off the map. And that includes your friends.”
“No. You can’t hurt anyone. Except yourself.”
As Shirone floated a photon on his hand, Harvest spread its flat palm to shield Canis's front. But as if that wasn't enough, it extended its other arm to envelop him.
“What are you doing, Harvy? You don’t need to be so scared.”
“Dangerous. His aura is strange.”
Canis snorted. He had already gauged Shirone’s skill during their battle in the forest. For a magic academy student, he was decent material, but in the end, he was just a flower raised in a greenhouse.
“Hmph. In any case, to me…”
Canis’s expression went blank. The Photon Cannon floating above his palm was vibrating at a terrifying speed. Its power was far greater than the one he had used in the forest. But considering the severity of his injuries, it was unlikely he had been hiding his true strength.
‘*What in the world? To have this kind of ability and yet…*’
Canis and Harvest’s analysis was mostly correct. But there was one fact they had overlooked: Shirone was an Unlocker who had opened the Infinite Domain.
“This is your last chance. Release the mind control.”
Canis’s face contorted. The fact that he could no longer underestimate Shirone wounded his pride.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Even if I die, I will follow my master’s will. You can’t break my conviction.”
Shirone’s gaze turned icy. The power of the Photon Cannon, enhanced by the Immortal Function, was on a completely different level than before.
He didn't want to kill anyone. But if Canis intended to harm the students, he would have no choice.
“Restore everyone’s memories. If you don’t…”
The Photon Cannon erupted with light, transforming into a sphere of blindingly cold, white brilliance.
“I’ll have no choice but to hurt you.”
***
Thadd, who was casting photonization magic on Alpheas’s head, already had his forehead drenched in a cold sweat. Viltor Arcane. An irritating man, but the power of the spell he had cast was beyond imagination.
‘*Hoo. Such powerful mind control. This would still be effective even in this day and age.*’
At first, he thought it would be easy. Even if Viltor had received the title of Archmage, a full forty years had passed. Magic had evolved by several generations, and dark magic had fallen by the wayside.
But Abyss Nova was an intricate concentration of knowledge so complex that even Thadd, a beneficiary of cutting-edge magic, couldn't analyze it.
Twenty minutes later, he finally felt the energy of light begin to penetrate the core of the darkness. From that point, Thadd pushed the light in with his utmost mental fortitude. The veil of darkness lifted, and Alpheas's memories began to unfold brilliantly, following the flow of light.
***
Forty years ago. The capital, Bashuka.
The Kingdom of Tormia was swept up in an unprecedented magic craze. The 12th king, Adolf XII, unlike his predecessors who revered military might, was full of intellectual charm and had a benevolent nature.
Upon his coronation, he separated the magic department, which had been confined to military matters, and gathered numerous talented individuals.
Talent from the provinces and even foreign countries came to study in Bashuka, and thanks to them, the capital’s streets overflowed daily with the voices of intellect.
It was a common sight to see fresh-faced mages, just graduated from the academy, gathered in pubs debating from broad daylight.
Gypsy-style clothing with bold primary colors was in vogue.
For women, hair short enough to reveal the neckline was a symbol of intellect. In contrast, men’s hair grew down to their waists.
In the pubs, factions formed over academic disputes, and it wasn't uncommon for trivial fistfights to break out, leading to participants being dragged away by the guards.
If one were to name the most famous pub in Bashuka, it would be the rustic tavern, ‘Home of the Ancient Gods.’
A huge hall with over 200 tables. On the central lectern, people constantly went up to preach their magical views.
All sorts of sounds converged, and the topics of conversation were diverse.
Magical debates were the mainstay, but the Home of the Ancient Gods was also a place where gossip circulating among the nobles was created in real-time.
It was an age of romance.
That was how Alpheas remembered his golden youth.
“Oh my, girls! He’s here, he’s here! Sir Alpheas is coming!”
As one woman made a fuss at the pub’s entrance, the women at the tables let out shrieks and turned toward the door.
“Hello, ladies! This place is as boisterous as ever today!”
A handsome young man with blond hair reaching his waist, Alpheas, entered the Home of the Ancient Gods. Beside him was a young man with a buzz cut, far removed from the current trend. It was Rian’s grandfather, Ogent Klumpf.
It was unlikely that Klumpf, a swordsman, had cast an invisibility spell, but the women treated him as such, flocking to Alpheas.
“We’ve been waiting, Sir Alpheas! What kind of magic will you teach us today?”
“First, I need to wet my throat. My tongue gets stiff if it’s not soaked in alcohol.”
“Hahaha! Oh, that’s hilarious. Sir Alpheas, you’re so funny.”
His current students would probably boo and call it lame, but back then, Alpheas was so popular that anything he said was a hit.
The scion of a First-Class family, a genius who graduated at the top of his class from the magic academy, and on top of that, blessed with handsome looks and sophistication—was there any woman in the world who could dislike him?
The men, on the other hand, glared at Alpheas with displeasure. Even those who weren't petty enough to be jealous of others had a sour look when speaking of Alpheas, which showed just how much public resentment he garnered from the male population.
The Light of the Mirh Family.
That was Alpheas's official title at the time, but among those who knew him, he had another nickname.
Alpheas the Arrogant.