Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: The Genius Who Lost His Light (6)
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"Master..."
Thadd couldn't bring himself to speak. Was this Alpheas truly the same man he once knew? Humans hold onto hope because they don't know the future. But in Alpheas's memories, there was no hope. Any happy memory was buried under excruciating pain.
Alpheas closed his eyes again. A single tear trickled down his cheek.
"Master, are you all right?"
"Thank you, Thadd."
The gentle tone of his voice made Thadd let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you really okay?"
"Of course. I'm sorry for my harsh words to you. But that was the old me."
"No, not at all. I'm the one who should be sorry. I was worried something would happen to you, so I thought it might be better if you stayed as you were..."
Alpheas patted Thadd's shoulder.
"A decision fitting for you. Perhaps that would have been for the best."
"Master, then..."
Thadd grew anxious again. Maybe he should have stuck with his initial thought. For Alpheas, it might have been an escape that would never come again.
"Yes. They are memories I never wanted to recall. But..."
Alpheas gazed at Erina's portrait. A gentle smile formed on his lips as he remembered the moment he first met her at a ball and confessed his feelings.
"No matter how painful a life may be, there are times when one lives just to protect a single moment."
"I see."
Thadd was finally at ease. This was the same Alpheas, not a bit different from the man he knew.
The woman named Erina, who had shaken a man's entire life, was thus embedded in Alpheas's heart as both a source of pain and an unforgettable memory.
"Master, the one responsible for this is Arcane. Right now, Instructor Etella is..."
"I had a feeling from the moment I was attacked. This is no time for explanations. Let's move."
As Alpheas walked toward the door, Thadd followed. They had passed the first hurdle, but the real problem was just beginning. The entire student body was in Arcane's clutches.
'Please, let us not be too late.'
Having learned of Alpheas's past, Shirone and his friends were silent for a while. It was a shocking event and a love story so sad it made their hearts ache.
"To think something like that happened to the Headmaster..."
A Grade 4 certified mage and the headmaster of a prestigious academy. Anyone would have considered it a successful life. But hearing Arcane's story, the young Alpheas was truly incredible. A Gold Circle award winner who proved the theory of light quanta in his early twenties. The memory transfer experiment, in particular, was a progressive idea that the magical society was only now beginning to research.
"Alpheas was undoubtedly a genius. But he was weak. If only he had endured a little longer, the world would have been different. Yet he ruined everything over a trivial sentiment. I can never forgive that Alpheas."
Many thoughts crossed Shirone's mind. Arcane was a villain in the eyes of the world, but he was also a mage. At least in Erina's experiment, he had been nothing but an excellent assistant.
"Yes. The Headmaster destroying your data might have been hypocritical."
Arcane's killing intent had subsided, allowing Shirone to step a little closer.
"But I would have made the same choice."
"You say that even after seeing what became of Alpheas? Then again, a Grade 4 certification might seem impressive to you. But if you're swayed by emotions, you can never reach the top. Erina's death was unfortunate, but magic is magic. In that sense, Alpheas was unqualified."
Shirone shook his head. History would judge what was right, but Alpheas hadn't been swayed by emotions. At least, that's what he believed.
"If the experiment had continued, there would have been countless victims. You would have carried out human experiments without hesitation."
"I won't deny it. But the sacrifice of a few can save the many. Someone is bound to suffer anyway. Isn't it the duty of the intellect to save more people, even if it means accepting sacrifices? What if parents with a mentally handicapped child were standing before you? Could you still utter such sanctimonious words then?"
"I could."
Arcane frowned in displeasure. But Shirone wasn't just being stubborn.
"As you say, if the sacrifice of one person could save ten thousand, it would be a rational choice. Even so, I would not sacrifice that one person."
"Then ten thousand people will die."
"That can't be helped."
Shirone said with an unwavering gaze.
"Ten thousand people might die. But even if that happens, it's not a domain for us humans to interfere in. The very idea of weighing human lives is arrogant. Even if more people are sacrificed, we should just do what we can. If we do, a day might come when we can save ten thousand. What you're trying to do is no different from a dictator trying to stand above humanity."
Arcane realized that Shirone stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from him. Unwilling to sacrifice the few for the many? Some might call that good, but if such a situation actually occurred, not many would agree. Humans are beings who wander between good and evil, seeking what benefits them. But Shirone stood at the very edge of good. Both a cruel murderer and a saint who saved humanity are beyond human. And both were equally persecuted by the masses.
'Your life won't be easy either. Dying here might be a blessing for you.'
A mage chooses between good and evil based on intellect. To Arcane, who believed the efficiency of evil was what advanced humanity, Shirone was a future adversary whose bud had to be nipped.
"It seems we are of an incompatible sort. Regrettably, you'll have to die."
Shirone flinched and stepped back. Just moments ago, he had clearly felt Arcane's depleted energy, but now, he was exuding the aura of a true archmage.
"Surprised, brat? Magic is a mysterious thing."
According to research by the Magic Association, the mental fatigue a mage experiences when casting pure magic is said to be equivalent to that of an ordinary person concentrating on one task for 48 minutes.
But Arcane ignored such arithmetic calculations and drew up his power in an instant.
"Let's end this. There will be no pain."
Shadows erupted from Arcane's body, and a black curtain covered the sky. The people were horrified by its immense size. It was on a completely different scale from the Authority of Darkness that Canis had displayed.
When Arcane raised his right hand, the curtain coalesced into the shape of a fist. Shirone was genuinely impressed. Judging by the size of the fist, if it were to fall, it would obliterate half the basin.
'I can't block it. And I can't dodge it either.'
Quantifying the Authority of Darkness, the force exerted by a unit cube—one centimeter in length, width, and height—is approximately 0.1 N, slightly better than an ant's mandible. But when it exceeded hundreds of millions of units, it could sweep away everything on the ground with the immense force of a thousand tons.
"Stop this disgraceful display, Master."
The gazes of everyone in the basin turned to the cliff. Alpheas stood there with his hands behind his back. Then, a streak of light bent with a roar, and Thadd landed beside Alpheas.
"Instructor Thadd!"
Color returned to the faces of Shirone and his friends. The arrival of Alpheas and Thadd alone felt like they had gained an entire army. Thadd looked up at the Authority of Darkness and cast Fire Sun. A stream of flames shot up in a double helix, gathering into a massive fireball.
"Whoa..."
The surrounding landscape was bleached white by the light, making it impossible to even open one's eyes. But Arcane, using the power of dark magic, offset the light that could burn out a retina and stared straight at it.
"Hmm."
As he extended his palm toward the Fire Sun, the Authority of Darkness floating in the sky mimicked the motion, moving to grasp the giant fireball.
Sssssssssss!
Shirone shuddered. He had never heard something burn with such a colossal sound. As the world was plunged into darkness once more, Thadd scowled and converted his Spirit Zone to an offensive form.
"Tch! Annoying old geezer...!"
Alpheas raised a hand to stop him.
"That's enough, Thadd."
"But Master..."
"This is my business. Between me and Arcane. From here on, leave it to me."
Alpheas walked forward at a leisurely pace. In response, Arcane, having extinguished the Fire Sun, returned the lingering Authority of Darkness to its curtain form and spread it across the sky.
"You've gotten old, Alpheas. Then again, even a time mage is but a mere human before the years."
Alpheas ignored the greeting that was forty years in the making. At least for now... it wasn't the time for two foolish, dazed old men to settle the past. He walked past the hundreds of students, checked on the injured Iruki, Nade, and Shirone, and finally turned to Etella. Bruises, clearly from a clash with Arcane, were spreading across her pale skin.
"You've been through a lot, Etella. It's my fault for being unscrupulous. I can only say that I'm sorry."
"Not at all. I am the one who is sorry. I couldn't protect the students."
Alpheas shook his head. He had been bewildered when she, lacking in nothing—magic, physical arts, or mental discipline—had come for a teacher's interview. But today, he couldn't be prouder of his decision to hire her. If it weren't for her, the current situation where all the students were safe would not have been possible.
"Headmaster. Be careful."
Shirone said with a worried expression. He thought that if Arcane's energy was depleted, the Grade 4 certified Alpheas would have a decent chance. But the Arcane before them now was, without a doubt, in peak condition.
Alpheas gave a knowing smile with his eyes.
"Don't worry. There is no magic that defies the principle of equivalent exchange."
"But Arcane's mental energy was definitely..."
"Yes. It must have recovered. But that, too, is magic."
"Magic?"
"Abyss-type magic controls memories. It's a magic that Arcane created and one he wields best. Is that correct, Master?"
Arcane snorted.
"It seems you haven't gone senile. For your information, the magic used on you was Abyss Nova, which is incomparable to that. You've experienced its effects firsthand, so I don't need to explain."
"It was a splendid spell. Thanks to it, I was able to recall old memories, which was nice."
"Don't bluff. You ran away scared. I bet you were just blubbering and crying."
"You're absolutely right. But you've also grown much weaker since I last saw you, Master. To think you struggled so much against children a hundred years your junior that you had to cast Abyss Memory."
Arcane didn't get angry. If Alpheas was calm, so was he. A forty-year-old hatred couldn't be resolved with mere words.
Alpheas turned his head to Shirone, as if savoring the calm before the storm.
"Shirone. To cast a spell, you need a powerful burst of concentration. It's like using up the result of an hour's worth of a normal person's focus in a single second. That's why Arcane did this."
Alpheas said, tapping his temple with his index finger.
"He cast it on his own head. A spell to erase memories."
"Ah..."
So there was such a method. If you erased the memory of using your brain, the mental fatigue would disappear. Of course, it would inevitably cause a functional overload, but for a single use, it would be enough to recover one's mental energy.
Alpheas understood how Shirone felt. Viltor Arcane. A mage who had survived a hundred years on the battlefield with dark magic, a non-mainstream discipline. Regardless of their past grudge, he had no choice but to acknowledge his skill.
"Yes. It's a bold and brilliant technique. Arcane is a mage who lives in that kind of world. So you should remember this as well. One who doesn't even have a last resort can never be called a combat mage."