Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Episode 96
EP23 - Hand (6)
A current runs through my mind.
He's not listening to me at all anymore?
His words held a hint. Perhaps Balmung had always been afflicted by the [Stigmata] like a curse, and Betelgeuse had been partially controlling it.
What briefly came to mind was the Hidden Dragon Society's inability to control the department, and their desire to use me for control.
I have no intention of playing along with their schemes, but someone had to quell this situation, whoever it was.
“……A ‘Command’? Chief Betelgeuse.”
I asked amidst the commotion. Betelgeuse nodded lightly.
I see.
It makes sense. [Stigmata] are greatly influenced by will. Because stars read a person's will.
If I follow that line of thought, there was only one thing I could do here and now.
I took a step forward.
“Huh? Professor Dante?”
The gazes of the members shifted to me.
“Professor Dante, where are you going….”
“Whoa? Don’t go, Professor! It’s dangerous…!”
The Discipline Department members who recognized me shouted. They were the ones who had been anxious when I clashed with the organization members earlier.
“Senior Professor Dante! Don’t go near him!”
The Director, who was receiving healing magic on his stabbed chest, also urgently tried to stop me.
“We’ve called the emergency standby team’s [Nameless]…! Chief Betelgeuse…! Please stop him…!”
He thought I was an unruly professor and even involved Betelgeuse.
The Nameless are useless.
Those mechanical dolls won't solve this. If they could, Betelgeuse would have done it.
Balmung is no different from a bomb right now. The situation cannot be rectified by sheer force.
The answer lies with Balmung.
If he snaps out of it himself, the [Stigmata] will lose their power.
“Krrrk…!”
I knelt before Balmung, who was groaning, head bowed before the iron bars, clutching his chest.
“Get lost! Do you want to die!?”
He was half out of his mind. His shouts, his gaze, were not properly processed by the computational unit in his head. Even his thought [Script] was broken and wavering.
“I said get lost!!”
However, he let out a roar at something unfamiliar approaching him.
He seemed ready to lunge at me like before.
From now on, I had to issue a ‘Command’ to Balmung.
But what should I say to him?
Wait? Sit? No. Those are ‘Commands’ to control a Beast-person that cannot wait or is too excited to control itself.
He is emotional and uncontrolled right now. But this state is fundamentally different from a Beast-person whose hindquarters are twitching with a prey in front of them.
“Get lost!!!”
And this aggression was also directed at the Discipline Department members who had protected him.
At that point, I found the answer.
The only way to save Balmung.
* * *
I once saw a post online.
It was about how pitiful it is for dogs and cats to become ‘livestock,’ losing their freedom and living bound to humans.
And that post had become a point of contention.
Is losing freedom and living bound to humans an unhappy thing?
Well. It’s hard to say.
Because I am neither an expert nor livestock.
If you call a Graduate Student a professor’s livestock, you’ll get stabbed.
However, the words were intriguing, so I looked through various papers and found an interesting hypothesis.
Becoming livestock is called ‘domestication.’
Domestication.
It occurs when both animals and humans desire it.
While there are no clear criteria in academia, they generally mention three conditions.
The first is ‘mutualism.’
It means living together because they benefit each other.
Long ago, humans probably gave leftover food to dogs, and dogs protected humans from intruders.
I hovered around Elise to get Star Fragments. Elise followed me when I gave her bones. We were in mutualism.
The third is ‘co-evolution.’
It is when living together for a long time influences each other's genes.
For example, a dog's eye muscles changed freely after meeting humans.
Unlike wolves, dogs can move the muscles around their eyes to smile or look sad.
The reason people feel, "He's smiling now!" is because the dog is actually smiling.
I mentioned the third condition first because Balmung's problem stems from the second.
The second is ‘taming.’
Taming means becoming a relationship where neither party harms the other.
In other words, it's similar to ‘socialization.’
A master lacking social skills kicks a dog. A dog lacking social skills bites its master.
“You are forever responsible for what you have tamed.”
—This line from a certain fox.
It means that I, who lived with wildness, have now become a being that does not intend to harm or be harmed by you, so you must take responsibility for making me this way.
But why should only animals do this good thing?
Humans should do it too.
That’s why the concept of ‘self-domestication’ arises.
It refers to the process by which humans suppress their animalistic instincts and adapt to society.
And almost all modern humans are domesticated, livestock.
Humanity, which only thought of killing each other with swords in the BC era,
now cries and is hurt by a single KakaoTalk message from their room.
Some call this becoming weak.
That is wrong.
It is becoming better at living.
……That was the hypothesis of a certain expert.
Following this line of reasoning, I suddenly remembered something.
‘Ah.’
A forgotten memory surfaced.
I remembered how to control the Nibelung family in a game’s side story. Specific choices and methodologies.
‘Alpha Dog Story.’
Balmung has forgotten taming, so I intend to help him regain it. In a way that is halfway between beast and human.
Only then will the ‘Command’ have meaning.
‘……But, to use this method, strength must clash with strength first.’
I estimated Balmung’s stats and calculated the stats I would need in front of him.
Thus, I raised my [Stats].
< It costs 253 Star Fragments. Do you wish to invest? >
< Investment complete. >
< [Strength] +101.0 >
< [Agility] +173.0 >
< [Stamina] +34.0 >
< [Mana] +50.0 >
< [Willpower] +60.0 >
< Overall Combat Power: 170,573 → 183,113 (▲12,540) >
< Star Fragments owned: 155.5 (▼253) >
A powerful exhilaration spread from somewhere in my brain through my blood vessels, finally surging through my entire body.
Now I too possess decent combat power and a physical body.
I finally used what I had saved and cherished.
It wasn't a waste.
Because I plan to make him work hard and earn it back.
⋮
Kang Kang, a Discipline Department member, was tense. Professor Dante was approaching Balmung, who had turned into a beast.
“P-Professor…. Professor…!!”
Senior Professor Dante Hiacapo,
was very favorable to the Discipline Department among the professors.
And he had actually worked with the Discipline Department several times.
After the Joaquin incident, he even gave Ilman Hika as a treat for a company dinner. So, many members of the Discipline Department liked Dante.
“It’s okay, I’m fine.”
“No, Professor Dante…! If you go in…!!”
So, Kang Kang tried to stop him but was held back by other members. They said, ‘Let’s watch.’ The senior members said.
The situation that even the Discipline Department, the Wilhelm Family, and even Department Head Betelgeuse couldn't handle.
There was a strange hope that perhaps Professor Dante could—
However, when Professor Dante suddenly lifted the latch of the iron bars, they began to tense up again.
‘Uh…?’
Does he mean he’s going inside?
That thing is attacking people right now?
Amidst everyone’s concern, Professor Dante entered without a care and knelt down.
“Krrrk…! Krrrk…!!”
The [Curse] intensified, and Balmung, no longer able to even speak human language, unleashed a menacing glare.
Dante extended his hand before him.
“Balmung. Hand.”
The members doubted their eyes.
Asking for a hand from someone going insane?
Indeed, the action didn't work, and Balmung lunged at Dante like a beast bursting forth.
At that moment, Dante moved greatly.
A fist struck his jaw. He rotated his waist and precisely blew his jaw away. Balmung was sent flying about 4 meters and slammed into the wall.
CRASH-!!
The members were aghast at this, as it was an unimaginably brutal punch.
Even after exerting such violence, Professor Dante approached Balmung expressionlessly.
Then he crouched down again before the fallen Balmung.
“Balmung. Hand.”
But it was futile.
“Krrrk, Kraraak!!”
Balmung, howling like a wolf, lunged at Dante again, this time much faster than before. So fast it was hard to follow with the eyes.
At this moment, dark mana sprouted from Balmung’s hand, turning into claws, and precisely aimed for Dante’s head.
CLANG!!
However, it was an [Illusion Magic], and Dante, who had appeared at some point, drove his elbow vertically into the head of Balmung, who was staggering from the large movement.
KWA-AAAH ─ !
Like a bomb exploding. Balmung was slammed into the ground. The sound echoed through the Administration Bureau’s walls, chillingly.
His mouth split open, his cheek tore. Those who knew how to look realized Balmung’s jawbone was damaged.
A bone-chilling scene.
Perhaps, it felt like too much. A scene of brutal violence.
But the person involved, Professor Dante, remained inorganic. As if he were looking at split firewood after chopping it. Treating it like an inanimate object.
He just approached and knelt down.
“Balmung. Hand.”
But Balmung didn’t listen.
KAAK!! Letting out a monstrous cry, he lunged again with his staggering body.
Thus, three, four, five times, Dante hit, kicked, and stomped on Balmung, continuously cornering him. The more he did, the louder Balmung’s heartbeat grew.
Those who could see the curse realized that Balmung’s curse was worsening.
‘Is that method correct?’
‘H-he might die like this…!’
He had attacked his colleagues just moments ago, but he was still a polite and diligent student. He was the only student in the Hidden Dragon Society who was favorable to the Discipline Department.
The fact that such a person was being beaten to death pained everyone’s heart.
THWACK!!
Kicked again, with broken ribs, Balmung slammed his head on the floor and groaned.
Dante approached and knelt down.
“Balmung.”
Krrrk…. Letting out a guttural sound, Balmung looked up at him. Ready to lunge again.
But Professor Dante did not waver in the slightest. He spoke calmly.
“No matter how much you scream, lunge, or try to hurt me, it’s all useless.”
“Kraraak!!”
This time, the attack landed. His claws lightly scraped Dante’s neck, tearing the skin. SCRAPE!
THUD!
But Balmung was immediately slammed onto the floor as Dante pressed down on his neck with all his might. Dante did not flinch even as wounds opened on his body.
“I can do this as many times as needed.”
Balmung continued to twitch as if having a seizure. Trying to escape somehow, to attack him, bite him, kill him. But Dante did not yield.
“I will repeat it a hundred times, a thousand times.”
However, the Professor said,
“If I ask for your hand, you must give me your hand.”
Balmung let out a monstrous cry. Even Professor Dante was now using all his strength. But despite his shaking breath, his voice remained clear and metallic.
“If you bite me, I will bite you back. If you show me kindness, I will show you kindness too.”
The pressing force pushed against each other. Balmung struggled like he was on fire, but the Professor coldly pressed down.
“Whether you are young, a child of a noble family, a pitiable soul cursed, none of that matters here.”
It was then. A part of his claws scratched Dante’s cheek. SLASH!! Blood spurted. But again, Dante did not react.
“I will not compromise with your wildness. If you have entered human society, you must show that you have been tamed.”
At this moment, someone felt that Professor Dante was growling with human lips.
“Show kindness to humans. You Nibelung pup.”
In that gap, Balmung suddenly rose again as if having a seizure. But Professor Dante, like flowing water, tripped him and knocked him down.
“Balmung.”
At the end of it, Professor Dante extended his hand.
“Hand.”
⋮
The power struggle between Balmung and the Professor continued. Blood splattered. Something broke. They were gradually damaging each other. But no one could stop the situation, nor could they look away.
Someone ran to Betelgeuse midway and asked what that violence meant. Betelgeuse simply explained the relationship between [Curse], [Stigmata], and ‘Command.’ Then the members realized that Dante was throwing himself into danger to save Balmung.
Fortunately, at some point, Balmung’s resistance began to weaken noticeably. However, it looked like it was because of the severe bleeding. He even looked like he was dying. From this point on, they could only trust Professor Dante.
With his teeth grinding as if they would break, at the end of everyone’s anxious wait.
A miracle happened in an instant.
‘Oh…!!’
‘Finally…!’
Balmung slowly brought his hand over Dante’s.
Looking up at him with bruised eyes.
‘His hand is rising!’
‘He’s letting go! He’s letting go of his hand!’
The members rushed to the iron bars and pressed against them. They did so even though their hands hadn't touched yet.
As his hand finally came close enough to touch.
The members shouted and asked.
“B-Balmung!!”
“Professor! Is that guy… okay!?”
The Professor did not answer.
He just looked down at Balmung.
But everyone there realized. That was Balmung finding himself again, and his will pushing away the [Black Darkness Fortress] Stigmata.
As if to prove it, the dark energy that filled Balmung’s body began to disappear as if washed away.
“Huh?! W-wow, it’s here! It’s the medical team!”
“Medical team over there!! This way!”
“Professor…! Professor, are you alright?!”
As the surroundings became noisy,
his slow hand finally reached Dante’s.
His dejected eyes looked up at the Professor.
His gaze lowered like a dog that had broken a ceramic vase.
“Professor… I……”
At that moment, the Professor’s large hand touched his head.
“Good boy.”
He hugged his blood-soaked head.
As a human embraces a loyal dog.
“Well done.”
┃ Relationship Stat increased: Balmung [70] (▲35)
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 35