Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Remember Without Fail
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I debated whether it would be wiser to scrub away the magic circle and escape this inexplicable magical predicament, or to preserve the traces that could serve as evidence, as I slowly turned the faucet to lock it.
Even up to the very end, I wrestled intensely with the dilemma, but in the end, it proved to be a pointless worry.
The magic circle didn't wash away with water, and it was vivid enough to show through the new white shirt I'd just put on.
The moment I stepped out of the shower room, as expected, the elite dark wizard with sharp eyes—Theo—noticed it immediately.
"A magic circle?"
The fact that he didn't charge at me thinking, 'You've survived this far, but what a pity—now die!' already cleared him of strong suspicion as the true culprit.
Not only that, Theodor even pulled aside my shirt to inspect the pattern directly.
"Um—"
Water droplets were still dripping from my hair.
As he observed the magic circle while getting splashed by those droplets, Theodor's eyes trembled in bewilderment, darting back and forth between my face and the circle.
"What happened?"
A beat late, Arthur approached where we were.
I shrugged and pointed at Theodor, who looked like he was grabbing my collar.
"Seems like we need to calm him down first."
"Theo."
Arthur called out to Theodor, who was still staring piercingly at my face, and coaxed him back a step.
Thanks to that, Arthur must have caught sight of the remnant of the magic circle still on my chest.
"A magic circle?"
What an amusing déjà vu.
That is, if I weren't the star of this unfolding incident.
Since we couldn't stand there forever like this, I pushed the two of them back toward the tea table area, sat down with a thud myself.
The surroundings were neatly tidied up, unlike before I entered the shower room.
Upon closer look, Arthur seemed to have a bit of a tidiness obsession.
I gazed with admiring eyes at the major textbooks and writing tools aligned perfectly, the bookshelves without a speck of dust, then finally opened my mouth toward the two who were staring at me with lips pressed tight.
"…I was going to explain first, but young master Theodor beat me to it."
By now, Theodor was even breaking a cold sweat.
My heart raced inwardly, wondering if something had gone terribly wrong.
But the poker face honed as a merchant's son shone in this moment.
"After washing, I saw it wouldn't come off, so I checked, and this is what it was. I was debating whether to erase it quickly or leave it as evidence."
"What kind of magic is it?"
Even in the Crown of Thorns Class, not everyone seemed to have the same level of magical literacy.
At Arthur's question, Theodor kept his lips pressed, looking deep in thought.
Only after Arthur called "Theo" once more did Theodor snap out of it.
"'Remember without fail.'"
"…Huh?"
It was such an out-of-left-field remark, like he'd just woken from a dream.
But as if that were the answer, Arthur slowly leaned back deeply into his chair's backrest.
Rubbing his face tiredly with his fingers, Arthur said.
"I thought it was weird. No matter what, I couldn't make out what it said."
"……."
"Could you… explain it so I can understand?"
I had no choice but to put the brakes on the increasingly labyrinthine conversation between these magically gifted folks.
Then Theodor opened his mouth as if resolved.
"Magic circles have signatures. Standard ones don't need them, but for one's unique magic, there's the issue of plagiarism through reverse-engineering the formula…"
"……."
"To put it simply, you inscribe a code on the magic circle to bolster security against magical replication."
Our differing curricula made things inconvenient in moments like this.
I had no grounds to complain even if Theodor thought me a fool, but this formal young master continued without a hint of such disdain.
"But the strange thing is."
"Yeah, finally getting to the point."
"The signature on this magic circle is mine."
A confession from the true culprit?
In that instant, a lifetime of social graces drilled into my body and mind nearly faltered.
Whether my heart was pounding from tension, or influenced by the bewildered Theodor, a heavy air flowed, thick enough to feel its texture.
Theodor revealed his unease by repeatedly peeling his thumb away from and pressing it back to his interlocked fingers on his lap.
"…Possibility of it being stolen?"
"The key to decoding the cipher is only in my head."
"Naturally, no chance it was a random scribble that happened to match?"
"If so, it'd be an astonishing coincidence. Like a casual doodle perfectly matching Arma Cruise's fingerprint."
"……."
Theodor was convinced the magic circle on my chest was his.
The more so, the more complicated the incident grew.
"To sum up: you personally inscribed a magic circle with the message 'Remember without fail' on me when I was unconscious, right?"
"Logically speaking… yes."
Now Theodor seemed unsure of his own words.
No one in this room could provide an answer to that.
I decided to leave the unsolvable puzzle alone and tackle what I could.
"Alright. So, anyway, is it okay to just leave this magic circle as is?"
"It's inscribed with magic-use ink. It won't fade right away and will vanish once specific conditions are met."
"What conditions?"
"As it says: 'Remember without fail.'"
"Guess it'll never fade then."
Theodor had no recollection of what he'd done, so what was there to remember?
I pressed my hand against the flawlessly smooth magic circle, trying futilely to distract from my impatience.
On the bright side, at least what Theodor had left on my chest wasn't some ledger entry or a spicy pubescent diary rant about hating the world.
"It's fine to leave it, right?"
"It's already activated, and what's left is just a marker."
"One thing's clear at least. Got it."
As long as it didn't harm me much, there was no need to rack my brains over it anymore.
With little time left, wasting it fussing over the magic circle would be foolish.
Then Theodor, head bowed, lifted only his eyes to glance my way.
"That's it?"
"What?"
"The interrogation about my magic circle lingering on your body."
"You said you don't remember. So you're lying now that you do?"
"No."
"Then nothing to be done about it."
Arthur, who had been listening to our exchange, twitched an eyebrow.
I'd noticed Arthur quietly tuning in without interjecting, like a loyal hound circling Theodor's feet.
As if reading my imagination, Arthur shot me a glare.
"It's not like I'm trusting you without reason. I just don't doubt your innocence."
I wanted to say something cool like I'd decided to trust him based on his face alone, but truth be told, there were solid reasons for my stance.
One reason I didn't believe Theodor White had cast magic on me was Aegis Academy's rules.
[Academy Magic Prohibition Clause]
Magic majors, who possessed magical literacy and mostly became wizards after graduation, were strictly forbidden from using magic within the academy.
It wasn't left to students' consciences alone; detection magic permeated every corner, tight enough not to allow even a single hair's breadth.
"If you bypassed the academy's detection magic to cast on me, that'd be impressive. Consider it autographed—don't erase it, keep it."
It was my masterstroke joke, but Theodor didn't laugh.
Of course, I didn't find it funny either.
The real reason I believed Theodor wasn't lying was something else.
'Theodor before the eyepatch.'
In my mind, there were two Theodors.
One sat before me now, the other from my dream.
The one before I fired the gun, without the eyepatch.
Somehow the before and after felt swapped, two causes merging into one, but that was the only possibility I could think of now.
'Don't dwell on it.'
Theodor sat doll-like, quietly lost in his own thoughts.
I wanted to send him back to his dorm before it got any later, but he didn't seem likely to go on his own.
"Theo."
"……."
Night had fallen late, and the brooding Theodor showed no sign of moving.
Arthur pondered briefly, then pulled out the mattress from his own bed for Theodor, laying a blanket atop the hard iron frame for himself.
Arthur's dorm room, now a de facto triple, instantly felt cramped.
"Theo, time to sleep. Good night."
"Yeah, you too."
Whoosh.
Ignoring Theodor, who seemed unlikely to sleep anytime soon, Arthur washed his hands, splashed his face, extinguished the candles on both the desk and tea table, then lay down promptly.
I'd shaken off as much water as possible, but with my hair still damp, I leaned it against the sofa armrest.
"Hoo…"
Strands of my darkened golden-brown hair from the water barred my vision like iron bars.
Nightmares, murders, huddling in the corner of a near-stranger's dorm—all absurd situations, but regrettably, I still had one more worry.
'Things are more tangled than I thought.'
As time passed and events unfolded, the story led to one conclusion.
I was probably the one meant to die.
It wasn't hard to infer that.
For starters, my surviving the scene was odd.
If it were to frame me as the killer, the setup was too dramatic.
Dragging a staggering 180cm adult male into a scene already rife with likely traces of murder was bizarre.
In other words, symbolically lying on the altar amid all the circumstances, I was probably meant to meet death right there.
Rustle.
Just then, a belated rustling came—likely Theodor finally settling in, or perhaps Arthur Usher, who might not be asleep.
Goosebumps prickled my arms and forearms instantly. Was it the belated realization of my narrow escape, or the tension of bedding down with potential enemies? I couldn't tell.
'Right, there's another issue.'
I tried to breathe regularly, eyes closed to feign sleep while staying alert.
Why had Arthur acted that way?
I couldn't comprehend how Arthur Usher, clearly at the scene, was now cooperating as if oblivious.
