Chapter 42
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Stepping Stones (1)
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Saturday morning. The suite room at Parascal's only four-star hotel. The handler, Asilen, is reporting to the association.
"...Nothing much happened. Except for the Dispel."
There were only two participants in the video conference taking place on her laptop.
One was herself, the handler,
"Dispel. An unpredictable mana phenomenon, so we'll exclude it."
And the other was Theia Esil, the external advisor for this year's College Board and the supervisor dispatched to handle the situation.
A mana phenomenon had popped up out of nowhere during the College Board, leading to this unnecessary one-on-one meeting.
"However. I heard some freak was spotted."
"To be precise, it was traces."
Asilen shrugged as she replied.
"By the time we found it, most of the body had been eaten by a bear."
"A freak taken down by a bear. Due to the special circumstances of the Dispel. That's convincing."
The knights and investigators who had been dispatched had come to the same conclusion, and in an environment where mana couldn't be used at all, a bear truly became the apex predator.
"Why was the freak there in the first place—"
"He was on the run. I heard from the underworld liaison that he couldn't pay for his surgery."
It was a common story. Guys who got augmentation surgery in the underworld come up to the surface thinking they'll live lives of luxury.
Like, "I'm a total badass down in the underworld, so I'll be the continent's strongest?!" That kind of rosy delusion.
The reality was the opposite.
A freak who surfaced to the upper world—that is, the continent—was seen as a violation of the Gentlemen's Agreement and got exterminated without question.
"I see. Handler Asilen, we won't hold you responsible for your duty to monitor and manage. It's actually the university association's negligence for failing to detect an intruder in the test area."
Theia was saying "It's not your fault, it's the association's" in the most convoluted way possible when—
Bling-!
Asilen's smartphone rang. She jumped in surprise and turned it off on the desk. She swallowed hard and glanced at the monitor.
"..."
Theia's eyes had already turned icy.
I'm screwed.
She'd poked the young boss's sore spot.
"I'm in the middle of a report. And on duty. Phone on silent. That's basic, isn't it?"
"...I'm sorry. I'm an investigator, you see. So... an important warrant came in."
Asilen was a third-class active knight and also an investigator for the university association.
The university association was too massive to be just an "association," so it had its own internal organizations for various purposes, and parliament tolerated it. Asilen belonged to the investigations department.
"Must be a very important warrant. It had better be. Absolutely."
Under the young boss's intimidation, Asilen cautiously checked the message.
Fortunately, it was pretty— no, enormously important news.
"'Noah Lusille'... apparently."
Noah Lusille.
A serial killer who murdered a whopping 77 people, and a top-tier felon who escaped from Recordak XIII a year ago.
It was a report from the underworld liaison claiming to have spotted him.
"That qualifies."
Fortunately, even Theia Esil acknowledged it as a big name. Of course—the "Demon of Mirinae" who once set the whole world abuzz.
Asilen let out a sigh of relief.
"Then can I go grade the reports now?"
"Go ahead. This meeting's over."
Click.
Theia hung up first.
"...Ugh, bossy types. Always tells me to go but hangs up first."
Asilen shook her head and picked up the reports. She flipped through the stacks of 22 papers.
"Must've been tough~"
It had been a total disaster, as expected. Most teams had concluded the mana's attribute was "water," and their reasoning was flimsy at best.
"What goblin crap is this?"
One team had even written nonsense about spotting goblins on the mountain.
Scribble-scribble.
As Asilen graded with her red pen, a certain name caught her eye.
"Oh? These kids?"
Sion Askal. The guy who'd gotten handler's discretion points for the paper airplane observation, but showed up alone for the team project.
Asilen opened his report with interest.
[◆ Mana
: The mana concentration in Mist Mountain's air is over three times the continental average, and it's estimated to contain an ethereal energy...
(Omitted)
...Therefore, this mist is not a phenomenon composed of moisture. It's mana infused with ethereal essence. In other words, a byproduct of the spores released by mushrooms mixing with the atmospheric mana.]
"Oho~ They figured it out right away?"
Mist Mountain was the hardest exploration site. Figuring out the "ethereal" property was tough enough, but linking it to fungi was the killer point.
[Yet the beasts and monsters of Mist Mountain all feed primarily on mushrooms. They may already be infected with the spores.]
They'd even caught the spore infection.
It was almost identical to what professional association staff had investigated. A guy with a D- average acing the College Board like this? What a weird character.
[◆ Dispel]
The report even covered "Dispel," which wasn't relevant to the exploration and didn't need analysis.
Asilen read it anyway.
[First, fungi possess the will of the ethereal. It is no different from "consciousness." They can think and act like humans.]
Flip. She turned the page.
[I saw the Dispel site. Natural mana had formed a special magical force, and spores were mixed within it. In short, Mist Mountain's fungi were clearly involved in the mana phenomenon known as Dispel—and capable of being so.]
She read on with growing fascination.
[But why didn't they stop the Dispel? Why did they instead become part of nature and trigger it?]
[I hypothesize it's because they are alive.]
Asilen's eyebrow twitched slightly.
[The fungi have made the mountain's ecosystem their own. But their consciousness wasn't satisfied there. They wanted to prosper further, so they released spores. So their spores could spread beyond the mountain and establish roots in other regions...]
[However, the mana concentration outside Mist Mountain is infinitely lower than inside. Thus, the spores withered the moment they left the mountain, trapped as mist without escaping. That's why the mountain is shrouded in fog.]
Sion Askal had reasoned why Mist Mountain became what it was.
Quite convincingly.
[The conscious collective may have realized it then. That they were eternally confined here. That their world was limited to this cramped mountain. That once saturation was reached, only suffocation awaited.]
Hmm— Asilen sighed softly as she read.
[Thus, before such a slow death, they destroyed themselves.]
Now the final page of the report.
[Therefore, the Dispel was not merely a coincidence of nature.]
[It was their self-initiated method of suicide.]
[Rather than dying slowly, they sought to announce their existence to the world. Ironically, through the self-destructive mana phenomenon of Dispel, they proved their consciousness and right to self-determination...]
"...Suicide, huh."
Asilen murmured softly. It was a damn intriguing report. For a freshman, it even gave the handler food for thought.
"Good job."
This one deserved to be selected as a top model answer. The kind tutoring companies would use in College Board practice books.
"Congratulations."
Asilen drew a big circle over the entire report.
Full marks.
Saturday. A precious weekend where I could lounge in bed.
I'm suffering from growing pains.
My joints feel twisted 360 degrees, and my skin like it's tearing. What if my organs rip next?
Ding-
A text came in then. I painfully stretched my creaking arm to grab my smartphone.
[Sent you the first draft, so check it out.]
"What first draft?"
Squinting, I saw it was an unknown number.
Ding-
[Gotta present it next Tuesday, so memorize it.]
But I could tell who it was from the tone.
Elise.
"This crazy woman's banging on the window out of nowhere..."
I'm dying of pain here. I tossed the phone aside and burrowed back into bed.
That's when the door opened.
"Hey. You okay?"
It was Beltos Elder. He held a paper bag in one hand.
"...What's that?"
"Painkillers."
"Oh?"
Painkillers. Was Beltos Elder the type to express emotions so straightforwardly?
"How'd you know? That I'm hurting."
Of course, they wouldn't help. This wasn't pain you could endure with mere painkillers.
If this were before my regression, I'd have passed out already. I'm holding on with mental fortitude.
"Heard a lost puppy whimpering all the way underground."
"...Yeah?"
I scratched the back of my neck and eyed the painkillers. Plain-old tarilenol.
Ding-
[Memorized it? Why no reply after reading?]
Elise again. I ignored it.
Beltos Elder asked.
"You planning to live here forever?"
"Well... until I get caught?"
If school finds out, I'll get a monthly rental then. Rent feels wasteful now.
"But it's nice here, right? I built it well."
My room was kinda winter cabin style. Recycled logs, so not the prettiest, but it had bed, table, chair, fireplace—all the necessities.
"...Better than the basement."
Beltos Elder turned away in a huff. I chuckled and tore open the painkillers.
Might help a little, who knows.
Ding-
[EasyCash customer. Rider dispatched to collect item!]
[Arriving at designated location in 1 hour 37 minutes.]
Dark web alert for mandragora pickup.
Can't just sit here then.
I blew Perion into the tarilenol pills. To amplify the pain relief effect.
"Feels a bit iffy..."
Using Perion indirectly like this should have way fewer side effects than direct body application.
Crunch.
I chewed two pills and got up.
"...Let's go."
It hurt like hell getting into casual clothes, but the meds kicked in quick. After 10 minutes, I could walk decently.
Ding-
[Hello? I asked if you've memorized it?]
I read and ignored Elise's message.
Kedillac Hills, the rich neighborhood 40 minutes by bus from Endex.
I'm sitting on a park bench there, quietly catching my breath.
Hands in pockets, hood up, watching the wealthy folks walking dogs or jogging while I wait.
[Rider nearby!]
With the alert, heavy footsteps approached.
Thud.
The presence drawing near, stepping on the ground.
I casually leaned into the bench. I pointed at the mandragora's triple vacuum-sealed box with a finger. Whoever approached silently sat beside me and slipped it into a paper bag.
A literal paper bag. Like one for a sandwich, that size.
The box fit perfectly inside.
Dark web rider perks, I guess.
He fiddled with his phone and quietly left.
Ding-
[Rider has collected item!]
The dark web's core was anonymity, honesty, and the system. Anonymity and honesty seem opposed, but they mesh within the system.
The app itself is the underworld's "system" bridging them. In 5-6 years, it'd skyrocket into a massive black corp.
In that sense, I'm a bit of a pioneer. As of 2013, the app was only two years old.
[Hey]
A text came. Elise again.
[I've asked a million times if you've memorized it.]
[No reply?]
Three hours of read-ignoring. Elise hates read-ignores more than unread, so I'm deliberately doing what she hates.
I went to pocket the phone again.
[I asked if you've memorized it!!!!!!!]
Lots of exclamation points. She's pissed.
I smirked and replied.
[Why should I follow your script?]
Ding-
Instant response.
[Replying awfully fast now. Then why don't you make it? You think I wanna work with some no-talent brat?]
I fired back sharply.
[ㅗ]
"That crazy bastard!"
"...?"
At the same time, an enraged voice echoed from somewhere in the park.
I looked over. There was Elise in tracksuit.
She grumbled and fiddled with her fingers.
Ding-
[Are you insane? Don't cooperate and it's your loss. With your iffy College Board scores, you gotta nail the liberal arts at least...]
I picked up a small pebble. Flick. Tossed it her way. It arced and plink—
It nailed Elise's crown perfectly.
"...Huh?"
Elise looked up. She glanced around at innocent trees and the clear sky, stumbling a bit.
I threw another pebble.
Plink.
"Ow, what...?"
She tilted her head blankly, then spotted me a beat late.
"Over here."
I waved and pulled down my hood.
"Since we're meeting, let's do it now. What'm I supposed to memorize?"
In that instant, Elise's face turned ferociously demonic.