Charlotte's Weakness
If someone asked me who at the Academy made me the most tense, I wouldn't hesitate for a second—I'd name Sayulcheon.
The reason was simple.
She was a complete superhuman, a perfect hexagon with no shortfall in any direction.
Her personal martial prowess ranked among the highest in the entire world, and as if to prove it, she had distinguished herself on the Destroyed Kingdom subjugation frontlines, seizing near-absolute power and fame in the process.
That's why I put a lot of thought into this beforehand.
I figured that if I just casually brought up anything related to Charlotte, there was a high chance Sayulcheon wouldn't take my words at face value.
After all, Charlotte was a colleague she had watched over for years side by side, while I had known her for less than a month.
I'd be lucky if she didn't just tell me to shut up and throw me out.
So I had prepared several things to persuade Sayulcheon.
"Very well. First, it would be best if we shared the information each of us knows."
And now, all those preparations had scattered into uselessness.
It might sound like bad news at first glance, but for me, nothing could have been better.
Not only for Charlotte's case—I could also expect tremendous help for everything I planned to do going forward.
"Do you know the name of their organization?"
In the question, laced with a hint of curiosity, I could feel Sayulcheon's intent.
It was so blatant that pretending not to notice would have been more suspicious—I almost laughed out loud.
As thorough as ever.
The intent behind the question was simple and clear.
Was I really someone she could join hands with?
Now that she'd caught me turning James into a Philosopher's Stone, was I just playing along to weasel out of a disadvantageous situation?
She was basically testing me with that kind of calculation.
"Of course I know."
And the way to dispel that suspicion was simple.
Give her the answer she wanted—tell her the name of the organization whose tail she'd stepped on, the one I was trying to wipe out.
"Johar."
The shadowy mastermind that treated the Green Forest Dawn Society and the Hohenheim family like limbs, the one who had planned every incident that had happened so far and every one yet to come.
"Is that answer enough for you?"
"Hah."
At the precise name, Sayulcheon's faint smile took on a faintly ominous air.
But that ominousness was directed at Johar, not me, so I waited a moment for her to rein in her presence.
"Impressive. You've only been in Arca for a short while, and you've already dug that deep."
Having doused her aura, Sayulcheon offered a quiet word of admiration.
I shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
"I'm from the Destroyed Kingdom, after all."
"……That's right. If it's you, coming from the Destroyed Kingdom, that would make sense."
Destroyed Kingdom origin.
At those words, Sayulcheon's eyes widened as if she'd realized something, and she let out a soft laugh.
Seeing the reaction I'd expected, I let out a small chuckle of my own.
There are still plenty of parts I don't know because I possessed this body before the game story fully ended, but at least I know where those Johar bastards originally came from.
You could call it Johar's home base.
The region where they mostly operated and caused incidents was usually Arca.
Their claws reached into other countries too, but about seven out of ten of their activities concentrated on Arca.
But that didn't mean Johar was an organization that first sprang up in Arca.
They're from the Destroyed Kingdom, after all.
There isn't that much publicly known about Johar.
But among the few things that have come to light are their goal and what sparked that goal.
Explaining it in full would take a while, but it can be summed up in a few words.
As I was reviewing that content in my head, a dizzying possibility flashed through my mind.
"Ah! Please don't misunderstand. I'm not some lunatic who gets enchanted looking at Abyss rifts."
Thinking Sayulcheon might get the wrong idea, I waved my hands and gave her a heads-up in advance.
Lunatics enchanted by Abyss rifts.
That was exactly what Johar was—a gathering of those kinds of people.
"Heh. No need to worry. If I'd sensed their aura on you, I would have tried to subdue you without a word of discussion."
"Haha, I see."
I laughed awkwardly and wiped away a faint sheen of cold sweat.
That peculiar, eerie aura Johar used.
What Sayulcheon meant was probably the power of the Abyss.
Of course I'd never learned that kind of power, and I had no intention of learning it.
I already had alchemy—a powerful, convenient force. Why would I bother mastering something so dangerously risky?
The problem is that those kinds of bastards actually exist.
A sigh slipped out on its own.
The Johar crowd were genuine madmen.
Leaving individual good or evil aside, the very scale of their thinking was different.
Looking at the Abyss's erosion that had blended their own country into pulp like fruit in a blender, they felt attraction toward that destructive power instead.
It was an emotional response most people couldn't empathize with unless they were mentally ill.
"Instructor Ryu, may I ask one question?"
"As many as you like."
I readily nodded at Sayulcheon's offer to ask.
Since we were going to fight Johar together anyway, it was better to build goodwill by cooperating willingly while sharing information.
"Judging by how you handled James Baker, I assume you intend to eradicate the Johar lot?"
"Of course."
As if piercing the gap in my thoughts, Sayulcheon threw a more personal question than I'd expected.
"Then, can you tell me why you intend to eradicate Johar?"
"Why, you ask?"
It was an extremely personal question, and from a certain perspective, completely meaningless.
It wasn't even particularly efficient.
In the time it took to ask something like that, she should have been asking how much I knew and how I planned to move going forward.
"Yes. Other information we can learn in due time, but that much I need to hear right now."
But rather than those practical points, Sayulcheon showed greater interest in how I had become entangled with Johar.
I fell silent for a moment.
I had never moved with some grand purpose before.
There was something I needed, and since it wasn't in my hands yet, I had rushed to fill that lack.
I happened to run into Jerie, and to save her I wiped out the Green Forest Dawn Society.
I became Charlotte's coworker, so I planned to clean up the Hohenheim family so she could live her own life.
Perhaps it was the way of life I'd held even before falling into this world.
Rather than racing toward a clear, definite goal, I cleared the problems right in front of me one by one.
Johar was the same.
When I was about to wipe out the Green Forest Dawn Society and settle the Hohenheim family, those bastards had conveniently stuck their heads out from behind.
I was going to have to deal with them someday anyway, and since they'd left a trail so blatantly, I reached out.
But.
Giving that honest answer to Sayulcheon right now would be a bad move.
What she wanted was a story with enough causal weight that I had no choice but to oppose Johar.
"It started as a coincidence."
"A coincidence?"
I quickly sketched out a plausible story in my head.
"How did someone like James Baker—lacking both skill and attitude—end up as a teaching assistant?"
Sayulcheon's brow twitched.
Everyone just let it slide, but it was an open secret that James Baker wasn't teaching assistant material.
So I used that as the starting point to forge a connection between myself and Johar.
"I looked into it personally to find out the reason."
"And did you find anything?"
"Of course."
I had never actually investigated anything, but at least the information was solidly in my head.
It was information mentioned in the main story, so it was harder to forget than to remember.
"Teaching Assistant James Baker had ties to the Hohenheim family. The family probably used external pressure to order Instructor Charlotte to take him on as her assistant."
As I spoke, I carefully watched Sayulcheon's reaction.
I need to pull the flow of conversation over to my side around here.
What I'd just explained wasn't the Johar information she'd asked for.
It was just part of the process of approaching Johar through James—something I could cut short and move past.
If she could read the context of the conversation, she'd know that next would come the story of Johar colluding with the Hohenheim family.
Sayulcheon, who already knew about the relationship between the Hohenheim family and Johar long ago, didn't need me to spell it out.
But Sayulcheon couldn't let even those few brief words pass.
Even knowing what would come next, she deliberately opened her mouth.
"Nonsense."
"Pardon?"
I tilted my head as if I had no idea why she was reacting that way.
Sayulcheon's expression had hardened, and she was looking at me with sharp, wide eyes as if she meant to cut me down.
If a gaze could have physical force, my body would have been sliced to pieces a dozen times over by now.
Of course I wasn't flustered.
The reaction Sayulcheon was showing right now was proof that the flow of conversation was shifting exactly as I intended.
"Instructor Charlotte would never yield to such pathetic external pressure. She's not the kind of person who would even glance at a scheme like that."
"That's what you'd like to believe. Instructor Charlotte is more fragile than you think."
In a certain sense, Charlotte was enough of a genius at acting that you could call her one.
She thoroughly performed the Charlotte van Hohenheim that others wanted, hiding her true self.
I was certain that no one on this continent truly knew what kind of person Charlotte was.
"If you can't believe me, go confirm it yourself, and once you're sure, we can meet again."
I stirred the mana in my body and lightly flicked my fingers.
Even if it was just the dregs of James's mana still lingering in me, under the influence of my Gift it was much easier to manipulate.
And the barrier Sayulcheon had put up scattered.
"The barrier…?!"
"And please, lower your expectations a little."
Sayulcheon had a peculiar personality trait.
She acknowledged those who had climbed to the same level as herself, and she was convinced that if she could do something, they could of course do it too.
You could call that trust if you wanted to put a positive spin on it, but sometimes it became a fixed idea that overestimated the other person.
And once a fixed idea took root—whether it elevated or diminished someone—you could no longer see that person's true face, hidden behind the stereotype.
"Not everyone is as strong as you."
"Are you saying Instructor Charlotte is weak?"
Thinking I was insulting Charlotte, Sayulcheon poured a somewhat threatening presence toward me and lowered her voice.
I could understand.
Sayulcheon had no way of knowing what kind of person Charlotte van Hohenheim was, or what environment and what people she had grown up among.
"I'll put it this way: the person is in a precarious state."
If Sayulcheon was as quick on the uptake as I thought, she would carefully chew over my words.
And once she reached a conclusion, she would go find Charlotte herself and confirm the 'weakness' I had spoken of.
The recognition of someone she has built friendship with over long years, someone she can always trust and rely on.
That was exactly what Charlotte needed right now, and unfortunately, as a newly hired instructor, there was nothing I could do to provide it.
"I'll be going now. I need to finish preparing the midterm exam questions."
With that, I turned my back on Sayulcheon.
As I wordlessly walked away from her, an eleven-digit number suddenly floated up in my mind.
No—it would be more accurate to say I heard it.
"……This is this officer's contact information. If anything further arises that requires discussion, contact me."
"Understood, Instructor Sayulcheon."
Passing a contact number by voice transmission?
I allowed myself a small smile and left the place.
I had to prepare for the academy's classic midterm incident that would unfold in the coming midterms.
I think I'm going to need some Philosopher's Stones.
A high-quality Homunculus needs a core to match.
To procure the materials I needed, I headed toward the industrial district for the first time in a while.