Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: Flu (3)
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At just that moment, Dylan was blocking the ears of the two kids charging toward him.
The only ones who had heard the story were me, Mary Jane, and Dylan.
“……Is there a source for that story?”
“There’s no rumor floating around here that has a source. However—”
“Dylan—let go!”
“My ears are gonna fall off!!”
Dylan hoisted one little kid onto his shoulder and the other onto his waist before returning to the table.
A dark emotion we’d never seen before was evident in his deeply troubled expression.
“It’s a fact that it’s already happened.”
Freed from Dylan, the little kids immediately clumped together again and rolled around the room.
They edged closer while subtly aware of me, only to retreat again, so I grabbed the smaller of the two who’d approached and sat her on my knee, and she quieted down.
“It might feel a bit persistent, but—are you two really not involved at all?”
“Yes, we’re not involved at all. I know what you’re worried about. There were so many unfortunate incidents between Hazard Island residents and academy cadets.”
“Then that’s a relief. Sorry for asking such an intrusive question. I almost lost a friend.”
“You really—”
At my words, Dylan suddenly lifted his head.
Then, out of nowhere, he made a deeply moved face.
‘Where in what I just said…’
The kid on my knee lost interest in our conversation, squirmed around, and eventually slipped out from under my arm.
I readjusted my posture and, after confirming the kids had passed through the kitchen and gone to the other side divided only by a log partition, said,
“Please tell me more about what you just mentioned.”
“Arthur. If you hear more, you won’t be able to back out.”
“I’ve had a gut feeling that the moment I came here, I was already caught up in the incident.”
Dylan let out a smirk.
Then he slowly rested his chin on the table and spoke.
“Elijah Allison said it. That you’re the Mark of Tribulation.”
“—Doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
“The Allison siblings are spot-on about that kind of thing. I used to just laugh it off, but damn, they’re good.”
Good at what?
It was unfair since I hadn’t chosen this tribulation myself.
Anyway, after a brief joke, Dylan turned serious again and said,
“Do you know why the professors ran away?”
“No. But I think there must have been signs we didn’t notice.”
“Sir James, the dedicated professor for Silver Chalice Class, we don’t know well, but Professor Melberry and Sir Norfolk are people we know.”
The two professors taught Aegis ancient language and magical mechanics theory, and they overlapped with Thorn Crown House.
And those two professors…
“They suffer from frequent stomach pains and nervous disorders. Extremely sensitive…”
“Yeah. So what the hell were those two doing to be under that much stress?”
“……”
The two professors’ flight, presumed to be from intense stress, and the rumor of a plague spreading from the academy.
A child in a dark room with rotting red skin and coughing fits that sounded like they were on their last breath.
The seemingly connected clues converged on one conclusion.
“Are you saying the two professors were involved in some suspicious research? More precisely, how did such a rumor start?”
“Most Hazard Island residents work at the academy. They’re just employees whose faces are hidden behind masks.”
In fact, the academy’s scale was far larger than the number of employees suggested.
No matter how talented or capable the employees were as warriors, they couldn’t manage an academy housing over a thousand people on their own.
Walking around the academy, you’d occasionally see guards or gardeners, but behind the scenes, there must have been far more laborers at work.
Plus, hadn’t I already witnessed the underground passages the employees used during the magical beast attack incident?
“Did the employees see it directly?”
“They don’t even know what they saw. I just pieced together stories I overheard by chance.”
“Ah…”
This explained why such an insidious rumor hadn’t spread widely.
To ordinary people like us, magic seems like creating something from nothing—a transcendent power. We can observe the act, but we can’t precisely grasp its meaning.
But Dylan?
Even though he’d transferred mid-way, he was still a full-fledged mage.
“It was definitely a debilitation experiment based on living organisms.”
“Debilitation experiment? Not enhancement?”
“The fundamental difference between enhancement and debilitation experiments is whether the combination becomes poison or medicine. Based on what the employee described, it was poison-mixing equipment.”
“……What the hell… We need to make this public right—”
For a split second, I almost said ‘make it public.’
No cadet has more experience with public scandals at Aegis Academy than I do.
The peculiar atmosphere of the academy—born from the rigid military school vibe and its isolation on the mainland—shone here.
“Circumstantially, the professors… were probably involved in suspicious experiments. But what worries me isn’t that.”
It was hard to continue speaking.
I glanced at the young child suffering in the shadows behind the cupboard before forcing the words out.
“There’s a possibility that something from the experiment leaked due to an accident.”
Even voicing the conclusion felt repulsive.
For the past dozen years I’d spent my youth at the academy, employees were armed, while professors—who had a duty to protect cadets—fled.
And now, on top of that, ‘biological’ debilitation experiments?
“Wait. What about the test subjects? What kind did they use?”
“No idea there, but at least not humans. Hazard Island residents know each other’s faces well enough.”
“Haa.”
Hazard Island has—murderers, unmarked magical beasts prowling due to the student council, mysterious cultists, and now signs of biological experiments.
‘What kind of messed-up island is this?’
My head hurt.
Problems I couldn’t have imagined last summer kept piling up one after another.
Now, the issue went beyond just the survival of me, Shirley, Judith, Theodore, and Arthur—it entangled the academy’s shady dealings.
“—Bigger problem than I thought. Is it okay to tell me this so easily?”
“Do you know why I tried to drag you into the classical culture club?”
“No idea—ah, no. Maybe I shouldn’t hear it.”
It’d just make my head noisier.
But at my non-refusal refusal, Dylan just smirked and said,
“Because I feel out of place with the academy’s system.”
“Everyone feels that way, don’t they?”
“No, you know exactly what I mean.”
“……”
The discomfort I felt at Aegis Academy.
It was that the strong personalities gathered on Hazard Island were ‘far more compliant with the system than expected.’
“Whew. So what do you want to do? I think we should at least tell Machina.”
“I’m not telling Machina. Reflecting on past experience, it’d just stir up trouble.”
At my words, Dylan shook his head firmly.
I’d thought it before, but Dylan was oddly hostile toward Machina.
Mary Jane, who’d been quietly listening to us, chimed in agreement.
“Dylan… Cadet Dylan has always been friendly with us employees, so we’ve been able to help each other in many ways. I don’t want to put him in more trouble.”
Dylan wasn’t just avoiding telling Machina to keep himself out of trouble, but either way, with all this information dumped on me, it was too much to nitpick every opinion from the parties involved.
‘More and more reasons to get off this island.’
Being surrounded by ocean meant, conversely, no escape routes.
The thought of reaching the mainland and seeking help from someone—my mother at least—had crossed my mind hundreds, thousands of times.
‘But what would I even say once I’m there?’
That there’s a monster in my head, so catch it?
Or that we all dreamed of dying in the future, so let’s prepare?
Absurd nonsense.
And if our enemies included not just the guardian angel but fellow humans, my story might vanish before even reaching the mainland.
Truly, without a trace.
“Got it. I’ll go along with what you two want. And I’ll help as much as I can.”
“That’s truly grateful, but you don’t need to go that far…”
“No, the academy’s corruption is my corruption too.”
The academy’s elegant facade was thanks to the bustling employees underground.
While we enjoyed their unseen labors freely, the employees might have become victims of the academy’s secret biological experiments.
Am I truly innocent in this incident?
Even if it was hypocritical, I wanted to ease my conscience a little.
“Arma Cruise is more straight-laced than he seems. Mary Jane, we shouldn’t overstay—let’s head out.”
“Oh, right. Sorry for barging in suddenly and pulling out a gun.”
“It’s really fine. Um, Dylan…”
Mary Jane stood, grabbed her empty bag from Dylan, and gave him a worried look.
It must have been a blow that a matter only they two knew had reached me.
Dylan flashed his trademark dimpled smile as if to say not to worry and stepped out of the cabin.
Leaving the whispering pair and the now-sleeping little kids behind, we trudged back along the path toward the academy.
“Is it definitely a plague? What’s the risk level?”
I asked the question I couldn’t bring myself to ask in the house with the patient.
Dylan walked ahead silently before answering.
“There was another patient with the same symptoms. And you saw it at Mary Jane’s house just now? One of the little kids was coughing suspiciously.”
“Couldn’t it just be flu symptoms? And we’ve been in contact with the kids—are we okay?”
“The disease is only spreading to children. Don’t know why, but probably a difference in immunity.”
“Then the other patient with the same symptoms is a kid too.”
“Yeah.”
As I listened to Dylan, I recalled Adam Peacock, the boy who’d collapsed from high fever and coughing just two days ago.