Rather than persuade Sarkegaar, I simply threatened him. I couldn’t hide the fact that I valued Ellen, so I had no other choice but to threaten Sarkegaar with my own life on the line.

With that, he wouldn’t be able to lay his hands on Ellen.

I didn’t think he’d be willing to call my bluff, but the truth about Ellen had come to light.

Although Sarkegaar wouldn’t do anything to her, he could still decide to monitor her without my notice.

Sarkegaar would keep a close eye on her. If Ellen happened to find out who I was and ended up trying to do anything to me, there was a good chance that he would make a move.

Eleris didn’t ask me anything for the moment because the situation got a bit complicated.

Sarkegaar went back with both anxiety and fear in his heart, and so did Eleris.

That wasn’t the end.

I was back to square one, and I had to somehow come up with an excuse for Aaron Mede’s death.

To be honest, rather than me, it was Ellen and Harriet that caused it.

Those two actually ended up fighting him in his own house. Of course, it was also them who spread the Antimagic Field and chased after him.

It wasn’t actually me who killed him, so I didn’t have anything to confess.

However, I was a lot more reluctant to tell anyone that I had contact with a wizard of the Black Order. They would, of course, oppose the crazy things I was planning, and they didn’t even know that Aaron Mede was a member of the Black Order.

I felt a little strange when I heard how Ellen had gotten to that point.

It might have been possible to cover up Aaron Mede’s death, but that would still leave Harriet and Ellen under scrutiny.

Since Aaron Mede died after those two went at Mr. Mustrang’s recommendation, it was inevitable that people would notice the probable connection between Aaron Mede’s death and those two’s intervention.

If we couldn’t hide it, then it would be best to reveal it.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there were no living employees in Aaron Mede’s mansion—they were all controlled by homunculi to begin with.

Ellen and Harriet went to Aaron Mede’s mansion and saw a lot of inhumane experiments on various life forms being carried out, and that was why Aaron Mede tried to kill them, but the situation reversed.

I was going to explain it a bit like that.

“You want me to take care of it?”

“You’re not asking me to do that, are you?”

Bertus smirked with his arms crossed at my request.

“Just when I was wondering what other big trouble you’ve been causing, now it has to do with chimeras and homunculi? Your life sure is eventful. It’s certainly a bit annoying to get involved now.”

“It’s not my fault this time, okay? He tried to kill me.”

“Regardless of whether you were in the right or not, this is a difficult problem to solve.”

“…That’s true.”

In the end, only Bertus or Charlotte were capable of wrapping up the problem in such a way. What I said wasn’t far from the truth because Aaron Mede actually tried to kill Ellen and Harriet, not to even mention how he tried to kill me before that.

I thought about telling him about the Black Order, but I stopped myself from doing that. One could come to the conclusion that Aaron Mede was somehow involved with them just by looking at his underground lab.

“It sure is disgusting. I can’t believe a Temple teacher was doing such things. Just what are wizards…?”

Bertus clicked his tongue in contempt. He seemed majorly annoyed that there were people like that among the teachers of Temple.

“It would have been taken care of even without you requesting this of me, so you should just stop worrying.”

“What about the others?”

“You three won’t even be investigated. There’s nothing good about this incident getting revealed.”

It wouldn’t be good for Temple’s image if the fact that one of their teachers was involved in many taboo experiments, human experiments being one of them, was revealed.

The incident would get covered up, Aaron Mede would just be considered a missing person, and all the problems involving him, including his assassination attempts, would just get buried with him.

Those in power would put it all to rest before it even reached them so that they could avoid a troublesome situation.

That, at least, seemed to be a constant in both worlds.

Regardless of my wishes, the case would disappear once and for all.

Quest Complete – Assassination Threat

You acquired the characteristic ‘Qi Sense’.

With that, the assassination event that made my blood run cold for quite some time came to an end.

Characteristic : Qi sense

Description : A characteristic that lets you detect threats to the host—from small ones to life-threatening ones. It’s an ability that supports you in battle and lets you detect killing intent at the same time. Risk factors can be sensed and identified in advance.

The feeling is abstract and not absolute.

Characteristic quests usually gave out great rewards, and the same rang true that time as well.

***

The incident was settled. No, it wasn’t completely resolved yet, but I passed the task over to Bertus, so it would be taken care of on its own.

The stage of the incident was outside of the Imperial Capital, and there were no eyewitnesses because it happened inside the mansion, which meant there was nothing to worry about.

I just had to sort out the rest.

I heard all about how Ellen and Harriet found Aaron Mede, however, I only heard about it, and I hadn’t organized the information yet.

I first went to look for Harriet.

She wasn’t in the Magic Research Society’s clubhouse or the magic research laboratory inside our dormitory, but she was in her own room.

“Hey.”

“…”

Harriet looked pretty pale.

“Let’s talk.”

“Okay…”

Harriet carefully opened the door.

“Do you want to come in?”

Normally, she would never let me in, but she looked worse for wear.

She hadn’t actually killed anyone, but what she saw must have been horrifying.

Whatever she saw, it would have far exceeded her imagination. Just hearing about it was a lot different from seeing it with one’s own eyes.

Sitting across from each other at a table, Harriet was clearly only looking at the empty table.

Originally, I wanted to get angry at her and ask her why she did something so dangerous. Just as those two had a lot to say to me, I had a lot to say to them as well.

“Why… Would someone even make something like that?”

“…”

“There is no need for such things. A worm that can manipulate people, and beings made by mixing humans and beasts… Just why? Why would anyone need to make such things?”

Chimeras…

When Harriet saw the things Ellen had cut down, she seemed close to a mental breakdown.

She was appalled by the wizard’s twisted malice.

“Reinhardt…”

“Yeah.”

“This time, I know… that you didn’t mean to get involved in this…”

Harriet was shaking and carefully grabbed my hand.

“These things… These scary things… Could you not get involved in them anymore? I’m so scared… I can’t understand it… I don’t care about anything else… Fighting with the other students is fine, but… these kinds of things… can’t you just stay away from them?”

Harriet shivered before eventually bursting into tears.

“I… I’m afraid that you’re drifting too far away from me. No, I’m scared because it seems like you’re already too far gone…”

I was far too calm in the midst of that situation, and Harriet seemed to be afraid of that as well.

“I’d like that as well.”

Harriet’s hands were sweating as they held my own.

“I’ll try.”

That was a lie.

They were words that could only be seen as a lie, and she also recognized them as such.

I had no other choice.

* * *

* * *

In the dormitory…

When I went to see Ellen in the training room, it was already midnight.

Harriet was able to clean up the bloodstains on us with her purifying magic, so we were able to return to Temple without arousing suspicion.

It was just Ellen and me in the training room. Ellen didn’t say anything and just looked at me.

-Kachak

Ellen silently locked the door to the training room.

I had an inkling as to why she did that.

“Summon it.”

“…What?”

“Tiamata.”

-Chiing…

Ellen summoned Lament into her right hand.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Ellen stared at me with her dark-blue eyes.

“Do it.”

I summoned Tiamata into my right hand.

Ellen jumped towards me, her body enveloped in blue flames.

-Pierce!

I tried to strengthen my body to its limits, but in just a matter of seconds, Tiamata escaped my grasp and Ellen’s Lament was placed against my neck.

It was an overwhelming difference in skill.

Did she want to show me that?

“…”

Ellen’s eyes were seething with anger.

“I might have died without Harriet’s help.”

Even Ellen, in her magic-strengthened state, could have died inside that alchemist’s house without Harriet’s Antimagic Field. Ellen spoke calmly.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

Ellen, who didn’t know that I was accompanied by Sarkegaar and Eleris, couldn’t help but be angry.

-Kang!

Not knowing how to vent her anger, Ellen threw Lament to the floor of the training room.

The Holy Artifact rolled on the ground like a piece of trash.

“I told you not to do anything dangerous!” Ellen shouted.

“I… Just how many times… How many times did I tell you? I told you so often. Why?… Just why…? Why?”

Ellen trembled.

Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

“Why are you always doing these kinds of things… Why…?”

She thought I would have died if she and Harriet hadn’t arrived first, and Ellen was right with that assumption.

If I had gone alone, I would have died.

Ellen was bound to feel frustrated because I couldn’t tell her about my situation.

She couldn’t help but think that I was a madman who couldn’t control his desire for revenge.

Ellen wept as she held my hand.

“You should have taken that gray-haired aunty with you. Just why did you… Why did you go there all by yourself?”

It seemed like not taking Loyar with me was a mistake on my part.

Ellen felt like she was about to go crazy because I got involved in something dangerous. She had to feel like I was continuously crossing the line without even knowing where the line was.

It just seemed too much to bear for her.

“Are you angry?”

“Yes. I’m angry.”

Ellen looked at me, her eyes bloodshot.

“Then do you think I’m not angry?”

“…”

Just as Ellen had said…

Had it not been for Harriet, Ellen would have been killed in that alchemist’s mansion. She would have died without even getting to fight due to all of the magic traps.

Ellen was mistaken in thinking that I was the one who was lucky to still be alive.

It was Ellen…

Sarkegaar had found out about Ellen.

If I hadn’t threatened him with my life, Sarkegaar would have killed her right away, and she still wasn’t safe enough for me to not worry.

She was exposed to a long-term threat.

Just as Ellen was angry, so was I. I couldn’t even blame Ellen for it because she put herself in danger for my sake.

Even still…

I could’ve done it all on my own.

Just why?

My heart skipped a beat when I saw Ellen coming out of the secret doorway of Aaron Mede’s mansion.

Why is she there?

She’s still alive, though.

How did she get there?

What if she dies like this?

Sarkegaar saw Ellen.

What should I do?

Just what should I do?

My rationality almost flew away because so many different thoughts were tangled up in my head.

However, I couldn’t tell Ellen all that.

I couldn’t tell her that she had exposed herself to danger and that she would be threatened in the future as well because of it.

“I’m stronger than you.”

Ellen glared at me as she spoke.

“Does that mean that you can’t die?”

“No, but I can protect myself far better than you can.”

She was right.

But…

Even if I took Sarkegaar knowing about Ellen out of the equation, it was still true that Ellen and Harriet overdid it.

At that point, no matter how strong Ellen was, she was still below Loyar, and no matter how strong Harriet was, she was still inferior to Eleris.

They recklessly fought with their lives on the line without even completely knowing their opponent’s capabilities.

I was pissed off.

I was more than capable of taking care of it, but they thought I shouldn’t.

Someday, all of them might get thrown into the fiery pits of battle, so there was no need to go through those kinds of things beforehand.

However, a more fundamental question arose in my mind…

If Ellen became a Swordmaster and Harriet became an Archmage…

Would I be willing to let them risk their lives for me?

I didn’t think so.

“I’m grateful that you said that you were willing to risk your life for me, but you really don’t have to.”

I had no other choice but to speak coldly.

“Do you want me to watch you die? You could have… told me what you were thinking at least. You could have told me what you were going to do. We could have talked about it, and then… we could have gone together…”

Ellen had no intention of backing down. It was something I couldn’t talk to her about. I couldn’t even tell Sarkegaar why I specifically named Aaron Mede as the culprit, so there was no way I could have convinced Ellen.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“…”

Just as I didn’t tell Ellen anything, Ellen went to investigate herself without telling me anything as well.

Ellen and I were the same, in the end.

We couldn’t tell each other because we were afraid that, if we told each other, neither of us would have let the other actually do it.

We didn’t tell each other because we thought the other would jump right into danger without knowing just how dangerous it was.

I could have lied by telling her that I wouldn’t do anything dangerous anymore, but she wouldn’t have believed me. Actually, I was about to get involved in something even more dangerous.

“I see, no matter what I say, it’s no use.”

Ellen looked as if she had given up.

She couldn’t convince me. I wouldn’t live like I did if simple words could shake my resolve.

“If you die, then I’ll die as well,” Ellen warned me.

“If you put your life in danger, that means you’ll also put mine in danger. Keep that in mind.”

Was she warning or threatening me?

It was a warning, maybe a threat, but in the end, it was nothing much.

They were just words that came and went.

However, wasn’t that what life was all about as well?

“That’s my line.”

I returned those words right back to her. Ellen stared at me. I wanted to have the last word, so she seemed angry in a different sense than before.

Ellen sent Lament back and picked up her training sword while throwing one toward me as well.

“Listen…”

Ellen pointed her training sword at me.

“If you’re planning on overdoing it with that weak body of yours, you should practice a lot more.”

Ellen’s provocation didn’t really work on me.

I was actually weak, after all.

“Yes.”

-Kakang!

Ellen rushed at me, and I parried her sword,

I saw many emotions swirling in Ellen’s eyes as she was scanning me to find any openings.

In the end, the practice that day didn’t go that well.

It wasn’t actually practice—it was just a fight.

-Ching!

“Kuhk!”

It seemed we realized that speaking anymore would just leave permanent scars on our hearts. It was something we couldn’t ever undo.

Rather than hurting each other’s hearts, we chose to break our bodies instead.

Of course, it was my body that got hurt more.