Chapter 242: Butterfly Effect (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 242: Butterfly Effect (2)
I quickly readied myself and headed straight to the warp terminal inside the Academy. At the terminal, a female secretary and a male escort stood side by side behind Medea. I had seen the secretary's face a few times coming and going, but the man was a unfamiliar face.
"We greet the Heavenly Sword!"
As the two gave me a crisp salute, I gave them a short nod in return. I was used to this kind of protocol by now.
"Sorry for calling you out so early in the morning, Geomma..."
Medea let out a deep, heavy sigh.
"What's the purpose of going all the way to Antarctica?" I asked, shaking my head slightly. Because the destination had been so shocking, I hadn't actually asked why we were going in the first place.
"Ah, well..."
Medea hesitated and hummed softly, seemingly finding it hard to speak. At that moment, the female secretary standing to Medea's left answered in her place.
"Forgive my presumption, but allow me to speak on her behalf."
My left eyebrow twitched.
"You can drop the formal 'forgive my presumption' routine. Overly stiff protocol becomes burdensome for the listener."
"That cannot be allowed."
The female secretary shook her head firmly, her eyes resolute. The man beside her nudged her ribs, but she didn't budge and poured out her words.
"I am addressing the Hero of the Joaquin Disaster, the youngest Seven Stars Hero, the Hope of Humanity, Lord Heavenly Sword! Even this degree of etiquette is the bare minimum in your presence. Should you ever deem me impolite, I shall commit suicide to—!"
"Get to the point."
"Yes, sir."
The female secretary snapped her hands behind her back and fixed her eyes at a 45-degree angle ahead. In that posture, like a soldier reporting to a superior, she opened her mouth.
"As you may have heard from the Principal, our destination is Antarctica, the southernmost point of the Earth. Furthermore, the purpose of this sudden journey is the head of the Hero Association and the Principal's biological father, Victor Poi—"
"I'll explain the rest. I'm the one who called him, and the person guaranteed to be a nuisance all day is my dad."
Medea brushed her hair back and waved the secretary off.
"A-Ah, no, Principal! I should be the one to—"
"I'm already tired as it is. So please don't make me say it twice, okay? I'm asking nicely."
Medea spoke with a mix of gentle tone and subtle warning. The female secretary reluctantly bit her lip.
"I obey."
A faint bead of blood seeped between her upper teeth. Medea failed to notice it, but the male escort rolled his eyes nervously. By the looks of it, the secretary outranked the escort.
That aside, this world really is convenient. Visiting Antarctica like taking a stroll around the neighborhood.
Back on Earth without subspace warps, traveling to Antarctica was said to cost quite a bit of money. I remembered hearing that one of my first master's wishes was 'sea fishing in Antarctica.' The minimum cost was around 30 to 40 million won. But here we were, traveling without paying a single cent.
Saved myself some cash.
If that old man knew about this, he'd be green with envy.
"Like my secretary said, my dad, Victor Poison, is currently residing in Antarctica. So we're going to see him. I begged him to come to the Academy instead, but the old man claimed he gets homesick the moment he leaves his house and refused. Then he started shouting and fuming, throwing a fit about wanting to meet you, Geomma."
I stood dazed for a moment. Just those few sentences contained two shocking facts already.
The fact that the Association President was living in Antarctica, and that he wanted to see me.
Which one should I be surprised by first?
Meanwhile, Medea grumbled with a pout.
"I honestly wondered if he was getting senile. Sigh, but what choice do I have? It's been decades since Victor Poison showed his face. And popping up specifically to meet someone is even more unheard of. So it's clearly no ordinary matter."
"I see."
Whenever a member of the Poison family shows up, something goes down. What kind of family are they? Medea's voice, steeped in exhaustion, sounded strangely pathetic.
"I thought calling you over the weekend would be too shameless, so I called you Monday morning instead. Oh, right! Almost forgot. Before we step into the warp, do you want to take these first?"
Medea held out two pills. A red pill in her right hand, a blue pill in her left. A scene from the classic sci-fi movie The Mtrix* flashed through my mind.
"Our destination is Antarctica. If you go dressed in just a padded coat like that, you'll freeze to death in seconds, you know?"
"That makes sense."
Medea pinched the pills between her thumb and index finger to show them.
"That's why I prepared these! This red pill has heat-insulating properties. It traps your body heat inside. To put it simply, as long as you have this pill, you won't freeze to death in any extreme cold environment!"
She spoke with gusto.
"Conversely, even if you go to a hot region, it allows you to maintain a constant body temperature."
Internal organs, unlike the rest of the body, cannot be trained. Therefore, humans fall helplessly before disease. Even superhumans who must fight demons are no exception.
The environment of the Demon Realm Gehenna was harsh and arid. The weather changed wildly from moment to moment. On top of that, toxic elements called magi floated through the air.
Thus, every element of the Demon Realm tormented humans.
The only way to build immunity against environmental changes and diseases was adaptation. Coincidentally, the same applied to magic power.
But acquiring both was impossible. Magic power and human physiology possessed inherently contradictory natures.
Yet humanity was not one to sit idly sucking their thumbs. On Earth, at least, humans were the lords of creation at the pinnacle of the apex.
Brilliant scholars sought a way.
If only we could do something about even one of these two...
Faced with a choice between the two, the research team chose the former—environment and disease research. From then on, they put their heads together and squeezed out their collective intelligence.
For the heroes, the hope of humanity fighting against demons.
On the white-coated battlefield of their laboratories, they fought their own war for years.
And the fruit of those efforts was these brilliantly gleaming red and blue pills.
Heroes aren't the only ones fighting.
Each position was its own battlefield. Everyone shared the burden of the Human-Demon War equally.
Yet the nobles oppress and trample others simply because they're superhumans, all to solidify the privileges they hold.
The difference between a hero and an ordinary person was merely the presence or absence of a Blessing, yet that single factor created a stark gap in social status and treatment.
Swine who have no gratitude whatsoever for the hard work of ordinary people.
I thought this was human arrogance, and perhaps why the demons had been gaining the upper hand recently.
When even joining forces wouldn't be enough.
I smiled bitterly and looked back at Medea.
"This blue pill protects against all sorts of diseases. For your information, Antarctica's harsh cold creates an environment where most viruses can't survive, right? Even so, occasionally there are vicious ones that survive. What do you think happens if you catch one of those? You'd be sick for days on end. And if you somehow brought back a severe contagious disease? The whole world could fall into a full-blown pandemic."
"So this pill blocks all diseases?"
"That's right. As long as you take it in advance, it prevents 99.99% of diseases."
"The people who made this are amazing. It's practically a cure-all."
Was it thanks to the existence of Blessings, or because it was the year 2034? The scientific capabilities of this world were even more innovative than Earth's.
"Impressive, isn't it? The unit cost is pretty high, so it hasn't been widely distributed yet. Still, just creating a medicine like this means the researchers deserve immense respect. In a way, they'll end up saving far more people than us heroes."
Medea smiled brightly with joy as she continued.
"And as expected, our Geomma is so thoughtful."
"Huh?"
"Most people just marvel at the pills without giving a thought to the creators. But you immediately thought of the research team. This is why I can't stop singing your praises whenever I see you!"
How should I put it?
This is embarrassing.
Being showered with praise like this over a casual remark made me feel like an infant.
I gulped down the two pills handed to me at once. Following the sensation of foreign objects sliding down my throat...
Oh.
I rubbed my forearm. Though there were no visible signs, I could feel it: the essence of cutting-edge pharmacology spreading to every corner of my body.
Next, the secretary, the escort, and Medea took theirs in turn. The man repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hands.
He shouted in an energetic voice.
"O-Oh! So this is Morpheus, the legendary miracle drug... There's a reason it costs 2 billion won a pop!"
I blinked. I wondered if I had misheard. 2 billion?
"Excuse me. You're saying the pills we just swallowed cost 2 billion?"
"To be precise, it is 2 billion won per pill, Lord Heavenly Sword. Since we swallowed two simultaneously, we just consumed 4 billion won worth! Whew—thanks to you, Lord Heavenly Sword, I get to enjoy such luxury! As you command!"
I reflexively scanned everyone's faces. The secretary, the escort, the Principal, and me—the four of us...
A dry laugh escaped my lips.
Saved myself some cash? No, far from it.
We had swallowed roughly 16 billion won before our journey even started.
If my first master saw this, he'd be clutching his stomach and laughing hysterically.
"Dammit."
* * *
No sooner had we set off than we arrived in Antarctica. Honestly, the word 'departure' felt meaningless, considering stepping into the warp put us right at our destination.
"So this is Antarctica."
Pure white.
That was my first impression. It looked as if the top of a blank canvas had been painted bluish-gray. Jagged mountain ridges rose intermittently above the pure white horizon.
It was a fantastical landscape that looked like a scene cut out of a dream with scissors. Since my body temperature was completely normal, the sense of reality felt somewhat muted.
It really isn't cold at all, though.
Though my breath puffed out with every exhale, my hands and feet weren't cold. Naturally, my fingers didn't freeze or turn red either.
These pills are insane.
Sensing a gaze, I turned my head. In the distance, I saw a black and white mass flailing about. It was a colony of penguins. Sliding on their bellies against the ice, they were plunging into the sea.
"Kkek—?"
Sensing our presence, a few turned their heads and tilted them at us. Just as I was thinking their dopey expressions were quite cute—
One of the penguins broke away from its group. It waddled over in our direction, its orange webbed feet stamping footprints onto the white ice.
Plop, plop, plop, plop.
I had heard that penguins were curious animals. Even upon seeing humans for the first time, they approached without hesitation.
...However, that penguin.
"Isn't that thing way too big?"
The male escort spoke up. Just as he said, its size was unusual. Beside him, the female secretary muttered with an incredulous look.
"An Emperor... Penguin...?"
Probably not.
Whatever its rank in the hierarchy, that thing couldn't possibly be a normal penguin. It was the size of a grown human.
Yet calling it a magical beast felt off because it looked too much like a penguin. Besides, if it were a beast, mingling with a colony of penguins in the first place would be bizarre.
"..."
Until now, the Principal had remained silent. Though quiet, her complexion was rapidly souring.
Soon, the penguin came to a halt right before us. The extreme polar wind of minus 76 degrees Celsius whipped between the penguin and our group.
Swoooosh.
The wind was chilly and eerie. The atmosphere escalated like a duel scene in a Western film right before drawing guns. Instead of tumbleweeds rolling across dirt, a snow flurry blew across the ice.
Medea furrowed her brow and exhaled a puff of white mist. She spoke irritably.
"Why don't you cut the joke around here? How much shame are you trying to bring upon your daughter in front of everyone?"
Slide.
The next moment, the penguin raised both wings and grabbed the back of its own neck. Then, grunting, it twisted its neck from side to side.
Its body and head began to separate. At that bizarre sight, not a single person could open their mouth.
Pop!
With a cheerful sound, the penguin head came clean off. Subsequently, like a Russian Matryoshka doll, a new head sprouted from within. It was the face of a handsome young man with green hair.
"Phew!"
As if feeling stifled, the handsome young man exhaled with a refreshed expression. He shook out his green hair, scattering sweat. The droplets instantly froze and clattered to the ground.
Watching from afar, the penguin colony broke into utter chaos.
"Kkek—! Kkek—! Kkek—!"
They flapped their wings and pointed at him, seemingly expressing their utter betrayal toward this human-faced penguin.
The most striking reaction came from a penguin that appeared to be female. Round tears welled up in her big eyes, as if she had just experienced a heartbreaking breakup.
Regardless, the human-faced bird unzipped the stomach of the suit. It was the moment an avian creature evolved into a primate.
"Victor Poison. A marine biologist by profession, and a man freeloading as the head of the Hero Association on the side."
The human-faced bird—the Association President—tucked the penguin mask under his right armpit and greeted us.
"Heavenly Sword, I've been waiting for you until my head nearly popped off! I haven't felt this way in over a century, haha!"
"..."
Seeing as he literally popped his head off, that wasn't just a figure of speech.
"I've prepared a gift for you, Heavenly Sword. After all, you traveled all this way! It's a rare treasure, so I'm sure it'll be to your liking."
"Ah, right..."
A genial smile stretched across the Association President's face.
"Now! Let's move elsewhere first. It's getting a bit noisy here."
The Association President took the lead and guided us. We followed behind with awkward steps. Behind us, the weeping of the female penguin echoed across Antarctica.