Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Saint in the Blue (2)
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“Perfect timing. We can’t hold any discussion without this person. The one who would know the most about this incident—the [Artificial Soul Circulation Device]—is none other than Sir Reynolds.”
“Cadet Arma Cruise!”
“Yes, I’m here. Everyone can hear me from this spot.”
To appear at ease, I straightened my back and walked toward the altar as slowly as possible.
The artificial chandelier’s light was pushing back the bluish moonlight.
Between the light and the light, in that subtle position, stood a half-mat-sized altar for the Creation God Egis.
“Then please take a seat, Sir Reynolds.”
“You’re violating every procedure right now.”
Sir Reynolds’s furious eyes turned toward me.
Back in my childhood days, I had attended this academy as meekly as possible to avoid getting on his bad side.
He already saw me as a thorn in his eye, a headache of a student who got in through special privileges, and there were plenty of other ways I could irk his nerves...
But what was the point of it all now?
Last night, as I pondered over and over whether Ms. Colette might not come, I had reached only one conclusion.
‘My enrollment wasn’t a major loss for Sir Reynolds.’
Thinking that way only made me pity my mother, who had spent a fortune to get me into this academy.
“......”
I quietly gazed down at the altar covered in wax drippings and ashes.
Divinity does not fall.
With that belief, this altar—drenched in Cale Ace’s blood—had been wiped clean of blood and left as is.
Even so, to me, it was nothing more than the scene of the crime.
That day, me standing with blood all over me, back to the moonlight. And me now, draped in a shroud, standing beneath the pouring moonlight.
The essence hadn’t changed at all—hadn’t it?—but the me from that day when all the turmoil began and the me now were worlds apart.
“A halo shines.”
Someone whispered.
It was probably not a hallucination, but real.
This chapel had been designed that way.
The priest of the Creation God Egis, master of this chapel, always stood before this altar.
Every design and device to make the priest standing before the altar appear more authoritative and dignified was infused into this place.
“Sir Reynolds. Then allow me one question.”
“I have one for you too. You’re brimming with confidence right now. The assurance that you’ve bested me is fueling your arrogance.”
“......”
I silently endured Sir Reynolds’s venomous sneer, fueled by his excitement.
Without realizing it, he was digging his own grave.
“Is that so.”
At my response, Sir Reynolds grew even angrier and began snorting.
-Tap, tap, tap!
At the same time, he flicked the pipe he held behind his back, making it clink against his ring.
-Clank!
In an instant, a group of armed retainers surged in from outside the chapel.
“What in the world is this?”
The first to react sharply was the black magic major from Thorn Crown Class.
He looked hot-blooded at a glance, and at the retainers’ appearance, veins were already bulging in his neck.
At the same time, as if endorsing his action, several more cadets rose from their seats.
-Creeeak...
A beat later, Judith stood up.
Judith deliberately shoved her chair to make the chapel seat scrape loudly, drawing all eyes to her.
“The chapel is neutral ground. But you know that the side who strikes first is at an absolute disadvantage, right?”
“Is that something you dare say to me, the Chancellor?”
“I don’t think it’s something to dare say, but it doesn’t seem like something I can’t say either.”
At Judith’s words, Sir Reynolds finally exploded.
He swung the pipe in his hand wide, pointing its end at me.
“Drag him out! What are you waiting for?!”
The retainers, following Sir Reynolds’s command, hurried forward in orderly ranks and confronted me.
The menacing aura emanating from them was definitely not that of ordinary people.
But that was all.
For the past ten years or so, I had lived among immature mages and warriors who didn’t even know the first letter of “magic.”
My life’s trajectory thus far was far too rugged to cower now at their ferocious presence.
“You can drag me out if you must, but even then, an explanation for what happened is in order.”
I snapped my fingers to summon Sherry, who had been waiting in the tool room.
Sherry kicked the door open with her foot, arms full of that device wrapped tightly in black cloth, and entered the chapel.
“This is the Artificial Soul Circulation Device—the star of the indictment.”
-Shing!
One of the retainers watching the situation drew his sword.
With Sherry’s entrance, the tension that had peaked now shifted into active confrontation.
“Sir Reynolds! We can no longer tolerate any more of your arbitrary actions.”
Taking the retainer’s drawn sword as a signal, the cadets of the student council, arrayed in the shadows, came swarming in.
Dressed in black and suppressing their presence, they numbered far more than expected.
The grooves reflecting the moonlight hinted that they were in full readiness.
“!!”
Choosing the chapel as the venue for the indictment was also to our advantage.
The chapel was already packed with people.
Moreover, filled not with underclassmen but with upperclassmen who had reached adulthood, at my request—and the student council cadets had been waiting, encircling the inside and outside of the building even before the observers arrived.
On top of that, most of the cadets filling this place were favorable to me.
“I believe neither side wants to resort to force.”
I deliberately spoke with my back to Sir Reynolds.
Some omissions can become strategy.
The cadets in the chapel, presuming my unseen expression, showed increasing signs of excitement.
‘Has Makina Christie been handling guys like these...’
Even the slightest waver becomes a ripple of agitation.
The sharp tension drifting between the retainers and cadets was intensifying further.
“Then let’s begin the verification. Sir Reynolds, if you interfere with this ‘verification’ from now on, I will formally refer you to the military tribunal.”
“You insolent fools...”
Sir Reynolds’s beard trembled violently.
I decided to drive the wedge with the “good information” I had heard from Dylan.
“You have a reason not to be referred to the military tribunal, don’t you, Sir Reynolds? You’re a pensioner. Any form of disciplinary action would cut off your pension.”
“Are you threatening me right now?”
“If you’ve committed no crime, how is that a threat? If you’re innocent, Sir Reynolds, I see no problem at all.”
At my words, Makina—who had been treating Sir Reynolds with polite decorum until now—grinned openly, as if finding the situation amusing, without hiding her expression.
Makina, who had been watching me, fully removed the black cloth ambiguously draped over the circulation device.
Then she smiled at Sherry as if making a request.
“......”
“We need to start the verification. There doesn’t seem to be any cadet here who can handle this machine as well as Cadet Spencer.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Sherry began connecting the circulation device, following the demonstrations we had practiced together many times, though her expression was far from pleased.
I watched her and began the explanation in time with her hand movements.
“Pipes to draw blood must be installed around the main pump, so we need to use this entire wall of the chapel. The two blood subjects receive fresh blood divided at both ends of this pump.”
The device still had no filtration system attached.
It was a grotesque contraption that merely divided human bodily byproducts for no reason.
“This is its completed form, and by the time blood flows through this ‘external artificial blood vessel’...”
I pulled out a short, small pipe with a whistle-like valve attached beneath the one with the sub-pump, not the main.
“According to them, they receive [Comforting Fresh Air].”
As I mimed putting the valve to my lips, the cadets—who had been watching my every action hypersensitively—buzzed.
Some had already guessed what was inside and its role.
“Now that I think about it—judging from my recent frequent visits to the infirmary more than anyone—this must contain some powerful hallucinogenic substance.”
My body was recovering, but my memories from the sanatorium were hazy and obedient.
The memories lost after Logan’s death were traces of psychological trauma.
Yet here, demonstrating the circulation device, I was gradually recovering those lost memories.
“Sherry, raise this pipe a bit higher.”
“Ah, yes. This is pretty complicated and tricky...”
Sherry glanced at me sideways and quickly used the rest of the chapel wall to install all the remaining pipes.
The complex artificial blood vessels, resembling parts of a woodwind instrument, crisscrossed the wall—non-functional machinery alone, yet imposing.
“At the scene of Cadet Cale Ace’s murder, I was sprawled there drugged, right? Just a sudden thought.”
“From the records of the scene, yes.”
As the installation of the circulation device neared completion, Makina wore an even deeper, inscrutable smile.
“Do you think Cadet Cale Ace was also a victim of this device?”
“No. I don’t think Cadet Cale Ace was sacrificed to this device. If anything, the one who nearly was...”
I trailed off without realizing it. By now, anyone would think the same.
That perhaps Cadet Cale Ace had been hooked up to this device, had his blood drained, and died.
But I believed no such thing could have happened.
Because Cale Ace was not your typical academy cadet.
“I heard from Cadet White of Thorn Crown Class that black mages have some resistance to potions, right? That goes for Black Lily and Silver Chalice too, doesn’t it? The basic magic curriculum is similar.”
“Yes.”
“For Cale Ace to be hit with suspicious drugs like me, become unconscious, and hang from this machine until excessive bleeding— it’s hard to believe. If it were me hanging from it, maybe.”
I pulled a pipe from the completed machine and mimed inserting it into my arm.
“This magic tool is a very sensitive device. It comes loose with the slightest movement. If Cadet Cale Ace’s limbs had been bound, that might be different—”
“There were no binding marks.”
Makina smoothly lent strength to my words.
“But, Student Council President Makina Christie. What form did my bloodstains at the scene take?”
“—Minute spatter stains presumed to have spurted from a syringe.”