Sis, Save Me (5)
Sis, Save Me (5)
I sprinted after Rosemary with everything I had to catch her.
I couldn't figure out how she ran that fast in a long skirt. Had she mounted a motor on her feet or something? Oh. She probably had, actually.
"Wait, stop right there!"
Rosemary, who had been darting away like an arrow, halted at my shout. Her navy-blue hair rustled as she spun around halfway.
"Oh, Sis."
Rosemary's face was pale, probably from the claustrophobia. The sight of her rolling her unfocused eyes around, avoiding my gaze, was pitiful. I was about to say something, but then I let out a heavy sigh and jabbed a finger toward the empty air.
"Let's go over there."
I pointed to the open-air theater located in the northern part of the academy. The same open-air theater Rosemary had half-destroyed during her attack at the entrance ceremony a few months ago. Thanks to the earth mages who had somehow finished repairs immediately after the incident, it had now regained its original appearance.
The back of this open-air theater was a decent spot. You could smoke mana cigarettes here hidden from the professors' eyes. It was a hot place that everyone in the know among the graduate students knew about.
Just talking left my mouth bored. Rosemary, acting out of habit, pulled a Goldenstein from her pocket and placed a cigarette between my lips. As soon as I put it in my mouth, the distinctly bitter taste of high-quality tobacco made my head swim.
I held a mouthful of smoke and waited. Rosemary was the first to speak.
"You could make a bomb like that at our house."
A trace of moisture had gathered in Rosemary's eyes. She seemed very anxious, probably because she had just experienced claustrophobia. The way she spoke in a choked voice, like a whimpering child, betrayed her misery.
"If you go home, there are much better materials and tools. You can use the laboratory as much as you want."
Right. Home. Home, she said.
Home was a figurative term for the Demon King's castle. It was the place the original owner of this body had decided never to return to under almost any circumstances.
"Even though researching at home would be better, you chose to research at this human academy. I really didn't understand why you made that choice. That's why I was so stubborn about finding out what you were doing in the club. But if you're making a bomb like that......."
Now was the right moment to cut her off. I switched the cigarette I'd been holding to my left hand and opened my mouth.
"That's a model."
"Excuse me...?"
"I said it's literally a model."
Rosemary stared at me with an expression that clearly said she didn't believe it. Understandable. I wouldn't have believed it easily either.
"Submitting it to the art exhibition or the invention competition is a done deal. I need to make a little money off of it."
"Money? Why do you need money?"
Rosemary took a stance of at least hearing me out. At times like this, Aether's body was really convenient. If it were anyone else, she'd have slit their throat with a staff for talking nonsense. Blueberry would have done that and more.
"The imperial economy is in bad shape, so the money I saved up is draining fast. I don't have a proper means of earning money, so I have to raise funds somehow, even with something like this."
"Research funds?"
"Including daily necessities."
At my words, Rosemary let out a short, mournful "Ah." After all, she was the one who had wrecked the Philiut Empire's economy.
But Rosemary soon changed her expression completely, as if it were no big deal.
"I can support you with money instead, Sis."
She bit. Faster than I expected.
"I'm the one who wrecked the imperial economy. Big fish have to be cut into small pieces to be easier to eat later."
"I'm suffering helplessly from that murderous inflation too, you know."
"So what I'm saying is, I can take care of everything, whether it's research funds or money for buying daily necessities. I told you at the dessert cafe last time. I have a lot of money."
It meant that the child of a mere ducal house, not the emperor, not the finance minister, not the mint director, held the economy of such a large nation in her grip. At this point, the empire was practically a walking corpse.
Suddenly, I began to feel sorry for the Second Prince. Why, wasn't the totality of power being cut off in his generation? What he did to me aside, this was genuinely pitiful.
"Provided that you save us."
I wondered what kind of joke this was. Asking to be saved out of nowhere. Did she see me as some kind of rampaging slaughterer?
"I understand that you are suffering from financial hardship because of my fault. I'll take that into account and adjust things so I don't cause you any inconvenience. But as much as I help you, you have to help me too."
"And this helping you, you mean saving you?"
"Yes."
Rosemary continued as calmly as she could. Unlike the very beginning, her tone was composed.
"Not long ago, you said that you had no plans to return home. In other words, you're still neutral for now. That's why even when you told me that bomb was a model, I couldn't bring myself to believe it. I'm sorry."
"What's there to be sorry for? It's a reasonable inference."
"So I want to hold this as the bare minimum of insurance. Please make sure that bomb doesn't end up in human hands. As long as it doesn't harm our army, I can give the empire a grace period until your research is finished."
It was a meticulous statement. It was practically the same as saying she would decide the empire's destruction with me as the medium.
"Do you know what kind of research I'm doing?"
"You would do any kind of research, I'm sure. However, I only hope that, including that research, it doesn't cause harm to the Demon King army."
Given the situation, a choice was being forced upon me.
I had boasted to Chairman Robespierre and his associates that I would finish the flare miniaturization as early as possible. And there was a professor named Mössbauer in that group. That professor was a spy Rosemary had planted.
Surely Rosemary knew I was secretly communicating with the chairman. If she had considered that far, she was intent on binding me, even with just a verbal promise.
Of course, the vast majority of such verbal promises were utterly worthless. It meant you didn't have to keep them. Contracts should be done with written agreements, shouldn't they? Exchanging empty promises with words alone was the perfect setup for getting stabbed in the back.
The problem was that Aether accepted even such verbal promises as something she naturally had to keep.
Trying to keep a promise in a harsh society where distrust and betrayal were the norm. To put it nicely, she was kind. To put it badly, she was a pushover. Ah, no. Were those the same expression?
Anyway.
"Sure, why not."
"Is that a promise?"
Rosemary and I hooked our pinkies as we finished our cigarettes. My heart softened for a moment at the sight of her smiling quietly, but I soon regained my composure.
However much this body might be, the mind was human. I couldn't understand demons with a different system of thought.
And before that, I had the objective of leaving this world and returning to Earth. To go to Earth, I had to complete my research in the Magic Arts. Since there was a high possibility the Demon King would be resurrected before I could finish that research, I also had to prioritize the hydrogen bomb development.
Unless Rosemary quit the Demon King army, that is. Facing each other with staves in the future might already be a foregone conclusion.
I decided to steel my resolve here.
"So, what's your most urgent daily necessity? If possible, I think providing it in kind would be more convenient than giving you money."
"Right. Coincidentally, there's a spice I've been wanting to eat again."
"What is it?"
If you asked, I had to answer.
"Beryllium."
It was really hard to get this stuff in large quantities.
**
Obtaining a good reward required effort that was just as solid.
The same went for living a good life. There was no growth in a life without any risk.
Just as fruit had to endure frost for its flavor to deepen, one had to be prepared to endure any pain to reach a perfect and happy ending. That was the mindset Vermel had as he climbed the foothills around the academy.
"...Hoo."
He was completely out of breath. Yet he didn't stop.
Arriving at the predetermined point, Vermel kicked away the fallen leaves piled on the ground with his foot. Then he picked up a branch and began drawing a transmutation formation on that spot.
He channeled mana into the transmutation formation he had drawn using the earth as his canvas. From then on, this sector would receive the protection of the air. Paradoxically, when an air magic mage cast protection in this way, weathering and erosion wouldn't occur. It meant the transmutation formation could be preserved for more than several months without losing its shape.
"That's the third one."
As he straightened his stiff back, the sound of cartilage interlocking shot through his spine. It was a stiff yet refreshing sensation.
There were five locations in total where he had to draw the transmutation formations. Only two more to go.
[High-Grade Air Magic — Perfect Stealth]
Keeping a high-tier spell continuously active caused severe mana waste, no doubt. But since releasing the stealth would mean instant death, it was bearable. Vermel lit three or four mana cigarettes he had bought at the market in quick succession.
He couldn't waste time even while replenishing his mana.
Vermel silently called out the magic words in his head. Then, as always, a semi-transparent window popped into the air with a chime.
[Second Trial Occurrence Probability: 70.1%]
[Third Trial Occurrence Probability: 99.9%]
[Fourth Trial Occurrence Probability: 80.0%]
'I'm going crazy.'
The situation was bad. At this rate, he was going to get hit with three back-to-back trials this semester.
The First Trial, the 'Black Death,' had already been that rough. If three of them blew up at the same time this time, it would truly be the end with nothing he could do.
He had to somehow skip at least one, or time them well and induce them to trigger sequentially. Especially since the Third Trial was almost certain to occur, he had to steer toward lowering the probability of the Second or Fourth....
"What the hell. Why is the probability of the Fourth so high...?"
Clearly, just a week ago it had been 50%, but it had crept up to 80% before he knew it.
The Fourth Trial was a trial related to Aether. Based on the system window, it was an event that automatically triggered if Aether's stress level exceeded 85.
It was similar to the 17th in that it was a trial related to the corruption of the Gold-Eye Tribe.
'This one really can't go off....'
If the Fourth went off, the 17th would definitely go off. Then the 18th would go off, the 20th would go off, the 21st, the 22nd, the 23rd.... Vermel swallowed a dry huff of breath. Just imagining it made him dizzy.
So he had to stop it. This was why Vermel was going around the academy connecting each point of the grand magic circle. Because if the Third Trial was prepared for, the Fourth would most likely not activate.
There was no time for rest. Vermel moved his steps toward the next point.
So that he wouldn't lose his one and only compatriot.