The moment Professor Georg took a step forward, all the dark mages around him collapsed.
And among them, I saw Yuna kneeling like me.
Well, it was that potent of a poisonous mist. Even fellow dark mages wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.
The only reason Yuna managed to survive was probably because the ones standing around him like guards were all stiff, like human mannequins.
“Well, sure. Your eye for detail passes.”
Professor Georg pulled back his hood just a few steps away from me. I had hoped otherwise, but the face beneath the hood was exactly as I expected.
Professor Georg.
I never imagined he would be connected to the Under Chain…
“…I thought you were at least someone I could trust, Professor.”
“Johan, you shouldn’t lie. Since when were we ever in a relationship where we could trust each other?”
“……”
“I was never someone worthy of trust to begin with.”
Come to think of it, I didn’t really know anything about Professor Georg.
I had only ever seen the side of him in the workshop, focused on research.
What exactly did I see in him that made me think he was someone I could trust?
“Professor. I learned a lot from you.”
“I know.”
“Not just alchemy, but also how the weak can survive. Back in my first year, I remember how you, who were even more frail than I was, tried to do something and kept getting pushed around.”
“I struggled pathetically. But I didn’t change anything. And I gave up on even that pretty quickly.”
When countless acts of terror were happening, Professor Georg tried to do something but failed every time.
If anything, he just became a burden.
After realizing that, he quietly stepped back and focused on making medicine.
He set up a base and tried to at least watch over us from there.
“At the very least, it’s because I saw that struggle that I am who I am now.”
“You’re giving me too much credit.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“I suppose. That’s why I was able to bring someone like you who’s taken down countless monsters to their knees.”
It’s always been like that.
Most of the time, it was something that didn’t care at all when the strong died.
An unexpected variable.
I wanted to become that kind of variable.
“You stood out too much.”
“I tried to stay hidden as much as possible, but it turned out like this.”
“When a mole stays underground, no one notices. But if it crawls out and starts tearing up the field, the farmer has no choice but to pay attention.”
I know.
That my visibility had gotten too high.
That’s why, this time, I left that role of being the variable to someone else. The reason I willingly stepped onto the stage and danced like a fool was for that very purpose.
But there was no need to tell the man in front of me that.
“I’m weak. Honestly, right now, I think I’d lose even to you.”
“That was already the case before.”
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
I didn’t realize it before, but this guy really knows how to get under people’s skin.
“So how do you think someone like me managed to defeat you all?”
Professor Georg stated with certainty that he had won. Judging by the current situation, it did seem that way.
Setting me aside, the fact that even Yuna had been poisoned was genuinely surprising.
“At this distance, even Ariel won’t be able to recklessly cast magic. You’ve probably figured it out by now, but the poison I released interferes with mana control.”
“I see.”
Ariel could still use magic even while poisoned.
In fact, she could wipe out this entire area even now.
The only reason she couldn’t act was because of how close I was to Professor Georg.
With the absurd amount of mana she possessed, controlling both the power and the range of her spells was inherently difficult.
More precisely, even if she believed she could control it, my presence would interfere.
She was being held back by even the slightest risk.
“The same goes for Yuna. She got too close to me, so the paralysis effect will be more pronounced.”
“How did you manage to poison Yuna? That couldn’t have been easy.”
“She used to visit my workshop often with you.”
Finding a poison effective on Yuna is nearly impossible.
She trained as an assassin and is highly knowledgeable about poisons.
Even if Professor Georg had been releasing small amounts of poison in the workshop, it wouldn’t have been enough to poison Yuna.
If anything, she would’ve developed resistance before ever being affected.
“There’s a saying: fight poison with poison. I just did the opposite. I used medicine to defeat medicine.”
“……”
“I experimented with all kinds of toxins. On you and Yuna. Of course, I never intended to kill you. As long as you could stamp your approval, that was enough.”
“It would’ve been less terrifying if you had actually intended to kill us.”
So even in those moments, he had still been planning to send me to university.
“I spread various substances and confirmed that you two were fine. Right… I figured out which resistances you originally had and which ones you developed later. I identified what kind of antibodies you carried.”
He used medicine to defeat medicine.
Only then did I understand how Professor Georg had managed to poison us.
“The toxin I released interacts with those antibodies. Without realizing it, your bodies were altered into ones that are especially vulnerable to this poison.”
“……”
“Do you feel betrayed? You said you trusted me, didn’t you? But look…I didn’t betray you. I intended this from the very beginning.”
Professor Georg approached.
Step by step, staggering slightly as he closed the distance.
Then he pulled out a syringe filled with a suspicious substance from his coat.
The liquid was purple. It was clearly dangerous at a glance.
But…
“Hmm?”
Professor Georg didn’t know.
That I had the Babel Gear.
A toxin that exploits antibodies? So what. The Babel Gear is essentially a cutting-edge analysis device.
It might take time to fully neutralize it, but making my body move again to some extent is easy.
“……”
I swung my sword at Professor Georg as he stepped within range. He probably hadn’t expected a sudden attack. Even if he had, there’s no way he could’ve judged my reach.
That’s only natural.
“Disgusting!”
The Babel Gear parasitizing my right arm can freely change its shape and length.
My arm extended to nearly three times its original length, whipping forward as I swung the blade.
A strike delivered at maximum range with maximum force. Sorry, but even if it doesn’t kill you, it’s going to hurt a lot.
But…
“Whoa, that startled me.”
My sword didn’t cut Professor Georg. As if I had misjudged the distance, the attack only brushed past him, leaving me stunned.
“My apologies.”
Only then did I check the sword in my hand again. The demonic sword that had been like a part of my body was already shattered to pieces the moment I swung it.
“I’m the one who made it. Did you really think I wouldn’t have built in at least that much of a safety measure?”
“……!”
A homunculus in the form of a sword, created by pouring in all kinds of alchemy.
I never imagined that the demonic sword, which had withstood attacks from powerful enemies, would break so easily.
Yeah… I lost.
Only then did I fully accept it.
I fell behind in preparation.
I lost in cunning.
The gap in information was too great.
“Still, you’ve learned to swing your sword without hesitation. That’s truly unfortunate, Johan.”
I belatedly tried to draw another sword from my waist.
But Professor Georg’s attack was faster.
“Ugh!”
A syringe pierced the back of my neck.
An unknown substance broke through my skin and spread through my veins.
I didn’t even have time to use the Babel Gear to neutralize it. My consciousness went dark in an instant, like being put under general anesthesia.
***
“Ghk!”
The first thought that came to mind when I opened my eyes was: I’m still alive.
My stiff body could now move relatively freely. Wondering if it had all been a dream, I touched the back of my neck, but I could feel the mark left by the needle.
He could’ve at least used a thinner needle. It hurt like hell.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
“Where is this…?”
“Relax. It’s not a prison.”
And that was true. I was still lying near the graves.
Yuna and Ariel were the same.
They hadn’t regained consciousness yet, but they seemed unharmed.
“What are you planning?”
“Planning… Honestly, I’m not sure myself. Unfortunately, I’m the indecisive type. I’m not very good at making choices.”
I checked my condition.
I wasn’t restrained, and my weapons hadn’t been taken.
I could get up right now and cut down Professor Georg if I wanted to.
“Johan, let me give you an example.”
“Which country’s way of speaking is it to give an example before telling the story?”
“The Empire’s way of speaking. What other countries are there in this world?”
“……”
“Well, just listen. Let’s say you come across a family while walking down the road. A very happy family. The young child is holding both parents’ hands, smiling brightly, and the parents are smiling too, as if delighted by their child.”
“Do they get killed?”
“I’m not finished yet. And why do you jump straight to something so extreme? That’s scary.”
“……”
“Anyway, there was a family like that. But then, what do you know? You recognized the father. He was the face on a wanted poster you happened to see last night. A heinous criminal who had murdered five people.”
“Even criminals must care about their own families.”
“Exactly.”
Professor Georg let out a short chuckle.
His reaction, like he’d heard an obvious answer, somehow irritated me.
“So, what would you do about that man?”
“Do I have to do anything? I’d just report it to the guards.”
“Right, that’s what you’d say. Honestly, that’s the natural response. Saying something like, ‘I’ll take the initiative and capture the criminal myself!’ only idiots say that.”
And yet, there are more of those idiots in the world than you’d expect.
“And yet, there are more of those idiots in the world than you’d expect.”
“……”
“Why? What is it?”
“Nothing. It just bothers me.”
The fact that he’d come to the same thought as me was deeply unsettling.
Now I was starting to doubt everything about the man in front of me.
There was the fact that he’d been found in a place like this, and that he had carefully planned for a long time to poison me.
How should I take this man? Is he still my teacher? Or an enemy I should oppose?
“Then what about the child who sees their father being taken away by the guards?”
“That depends on the person.”
“Right, they might think it couldn’t be helped, or they might feel sad. So let’s assume they think it couldn’t be helped. That would make the child a sensible and moral person who believes that those who commit crimes should be punished.”
“That’s a cold child.”
“I suppose you could see it that way. Anyway, let’s say it’s a child like that. Think about it again. What if it wasn’t you who found the wanted poster, but the child? Do you think that child could turn their own father in?”
“Who knows. Wouldn’t that depend on the person?”
“Then let’s take it a step further. What if they had to kill him?”
“……”
“Johan, you’ve probably figured it out by now, the child in that example is me. The Great Sage is my teacher. I know he’s in the wrong, but I can’t bring myself to stop him.”
I knew the Great Sage had gone astray. Even so, I hadn’t tried to stop him.
Professor Georg was a bystander. A cowardly, fearful bystander.
“I’ve always been indecisive. That’s why I stood in your way, and why I couldn’t bring myself to kill you.”
Professor Georg put a cigarette between his lips, but he didn’t light it.
He toyed with the match in his hand, hesitating whether to strike it or not. It was a perfect reflection of the indecisiveness he’d just described.
“I couldn’t stop you. And I couldn’t stop my teacher either.”
“Then what do you intend to do now?”
“As always, nothing. I won’t try to stop you, and I won’t try to stop my teacher. I’ll just shut my eyes and ears and cower.”
“I see.”
I brushed myself off and stood up.
I could understand how Professor Georg felt. That mindset was something I had once shared.
I knew how frightening it was to make a choice.
I also knew how easy it was to do nothing.
Trying to change something only to make it worse. That was what I feared.
So I did nothing.
No matter what you choose, regret always follows.
“Even so, Johan… he was my teacher.”
“……”
“I didn’t want to see myself cut down my own teacher with a blade I forged.”
I glanced at my now-lighter hip.
Of the two swords I once carried, only one remained.
The demonic sword was broken.
And so was the relationship between Professor Georg and me.
“Ollie is in the western district.”
“……”
“Melana mostly moves around the eastern side, Rick is at the far southwestern edge, Kedrick is straight ahead if you keep going, and Elian stays near the detention camp.”
Professor Georg did nothing. He always blamed himself for that. I used to think it was just an overreaction, but now it felt different.
“Thank you for telling me.”
He had watched everything from the Cradle.
He had seen students who overcame their miserable pasts and rose again and those who remained trapped in their past and fell into despair.
Because he had seen all of it,
He couldn’t do anything at all.
“Professor Georg.”
“Yes.”
“You’re a good person.”
“……”
He couldn’t abandon either side.
Being indecisive also meant being unable to cut anything away. It also meant being someone who felt more responsible for their actions than anyone else.
He was so cautious that he couldn’t do anything.
If Professor Georg had any fault, it was only that he wasn’t strong enough and that he cared too much.
“Make me another sword later, will you? How could you just break it like that? It wasn’t a sword you made alone. I need to be able to face Senior Jabir, don’t I?”
“……”
Professor Georg turned his back and said nothing.
I slung the two still-unconscious figures over my shoulders and moved on.
From behind me, I could hear someone crying. A grown man’s sobs.
“Man, maybe it’s because we’re near a graveyard, but there sure are a lot of sad people.”
For someone, that was a small mercy.
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