I ran my ass off to catch up to Rosemary who had bolted.
I didn’t know how she could run that fast in a long dress. Did she have motors attached to her feet or sothing? Ah, yeah, I guess so.
“Wait, just stop for a minute!”
I called out to Rosemary who was dashing away. Her ultramarine hair swished as she turned around halfway.
“S-sis.”
Her face was pale, perhaps due to her claustrophobia. It was almost pitiful the way she was rolling her blank eyes this way and that to avoid my gaze. I was going to say sothing, then just sighed and pointed sowhere.
“Let’s go over there.”
Where I pointed was the amphitheater located on the north side of the Academy. Yeah, that sa amphitheater that Rosemary had half-destroyed with her attack at the entrance ceremony a few months ago. After that incident, the Earth Mages had sohow managed to finish the construction, and now it was back to its original form.
The back of this theater was a pretty decent place. Here, you could smoke mana grass without being caught by the profs–a hot spot known to most graduate students.
It was boring to do nothing but talk. Rosemary familiarly pulled out a pack of Goldenstein from her pocket and put one in my mouth. My head was floating from the bitter flavor of the different quality cigarette as soon as I took it.
I took a puff of smoke and waited. Rosemary was the first to speak.
“You can make a bomb like that at our place as well.”
Rosemary’s eyes were a little damp, appearing quite anxious just after that claustrophobic experience. She was exuding misery with the way she spoke in a tight voice like a crying child.
“We have better materials and equipnt at ho, and you could use the lab as much as you want.”
Right, ho. Ho, is it.
By ‘house’ she ant the Demon Castle, the place that the original owner of this body had decided not to return to if she could help it.
“You decided to research here at the Academy of humans even though it would’ve been better to do it at ho. I didn’t understand why you made that choice, so I insisted because I wanted to see what you were doing at the club. But if it’s to make a bomb like that.......”
This was the ti to cut her off. I transferred the cigarette in my mouth to my left hand and spoke.
“That’s a model.”
“Pardon...?”
“A model, literally.”
Rosemary looked at skeptically; I wouldn’t have believed so easily, either.
“It’s a given that we’re entering it for the art exhibit or invention contest, because I need to win so money.”
“Money? Why?”
Rosemary took a stance like she was willing to listen for the mont. Tis like these, it was really convenient to be in Aether’s body. If I had been anyone else, she would’ve said to not give her that bullshit and slit my neck with her staff. I’d have expected no less from Blueberry.
“I’m running out of the money I had saved up because of the poor economy. There isn’t a good way to make money so I need to do sothing like this at least to get funds.”
“Research funds?”
“As well as costs for necessities.”
At that, Rosemary let out a small ‘ah’, as she had been the one to destroy the economy of the Philiut Empire.
But soon, Rosemary’s expression changed as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“I can provide that money for you.”
She took it. That was quicker than expected.
“I was the one who ruined the economy. Large at is easier to digest when cut up into pieces, after all.”
“And I’m one of the people getting screwed by these murderous prices.”
“So whether it’s money for research or purchasing necessities, I can cover it for you. Rember what I said that ti at the café? I’m rich.”
It ant that the child of a re Duke–not the Emperor, the Minister of Finance, nor the Mint Director–had a hold on the economy of a nation this size. At this point, the Empire was nothing but a living corpse.
I suddenly felt bad for the Second Prince; the totality of power was ending in his generation. Regardless of what he had done to , this was sothing to be pitied.
“But, on the condition that you let us live.”
What kind of joke was this? Let them live? Did she think of as so maniacal slaughterer?
“I understand that you’re suffering from poverty because of . I’ll take this into account and do what’s needed so that it doesn’t inconvenience you anymore. However, I need you to help as much as I’m helping you.”
“And by help, you an to let you live?”
“Yes.”
Rosemary kept going as calmly as she could. Her tone was composed, unlike how she’d first started.
“A few days ago, you told that you had no intention of returning ho, which ans you’re still neutral. So even if you say that it’s a model, I can’t trust you. I’m sorry.”
“For what? That’s perfectly reasonable.”
“So I wanted to have so kind of insurance. Please don’t hand that bomb over to the humans. As long as there’s no harm done to our forces, we’ll leave the Empire alone until your research is done.”
It was a ticulous statent, since she was basically saying that she was going to decide the destruction of the Empire through .
“When you don’t even know what I’m researching?”
“You’ll do any research anyway. But I’m hoping that you won’t hurt the Demon Army, with that research or otherwise.”
This would force to choose..
I had promised Chairman Robespierre and his group that I’d complete the miniaturization of Flare as soon as possible. And among them was a professor by the na of Mössbayer, a spy that Rosemary had planted.
Then Rosemary would definitely know that I was conspiring with the chairman. If that was how far she was considering, then she’d be looking to tie down even if it was just a verbal promise.
Of course, verbal promises didn’t work most of the ti, aning that they didn’t need to be kept. Agreents should be made through contracts, no? By exchanging only words of promise, you were just setting yourself up for betrayal.
The problem was that Aether expected even these verbal promises to be honored.
Really, trying to keep promises in a society teeming with distrust and backstabbing... it was being a good person to put it nicely, and being a doormat to put it bluntly. Ah, wait. Were they the sa thing?
Anyway.
“Sure.”
“You promised, then.”
Linking our pinkies, Rosemary and I finished our cigarettes. My heart wavered for a mont when she smiled a little but I soon regained my composure.
Although I was in this body, my mind was that of a human; I shouldn’t be understanding a Beast with a different mindset.
And before that, my goal was to leave this world and return to Earth. In order to do so, I had to complete the magic research. Apparently, it was most likely that the Demon King would resurrect before I could finish, so developing the hydrogen bomb needed to be a high priority as well..
Unless Rosemary left the Demon Army, it might be inevitable that we cross staffs in the future.
I decided to pull myself together here.
“So, what do you need urgently? It might be better to get you the item itself rather than money.”
“True. There happens to be a spice that I’d been wanting to try again, in fact.”
“What is it?”
If she was curious, then I had to answer.
“Beryllium.”
It was pretty hard to get this in large quantities.
**Obtaining good rewards demanded solid effort.
It was the sa with living a good life. There was no growth in living a life without risks.
Just as a fruit needed to experience lots of frost to have a deeper taste, one had to be prepared to endure any kind of suffering to achieve the perfect happy ending. That was what was driving Verl up the foothills around the Academy.
“... Huu.”
He was out of breath but that didn’t stop him.
When he arrived at his destination, Verl kicked away the leaves piled on the ground. He then picked up a branch and drew a transmutation circle in that spot.
He imbued mana into the circle that he had drawn using the ground as a canvas. Now this area was protected by the Air. Paradoxically, if an Air Mage cast this kind of protection, it prevented any weathering or erosion. That ant that the circle could be preserved for months without losing that form.
“That’s the third one.”
As he stretched his tense back, the sound of cartilage grinding penetrated his spine. It felt stiff but nice.
There were a total of five locations that he needed to draw transmutation circles. Just two more places to go.
[Advanced Air Magic ─ Perfect Stealth]
It did take a lot of mana to maintain a high level magic, but it was bearable thinking that it was instant death the mont he released the stealth. Verl smoked through three, four of the cigarettes he’d bought from the market.
He couldn’t waste any ti even as he was replenishing his mana.
Verl yelled the magic word in his mind and as always, a translucent window appeared midair with a ‘paa’.
[Possibility of the Second Trial : 70.1%][Possibility of the Third Trial : 99.9%][Possibility of the Fourth Trial : 80.0%]Fuck , this can’t be real.
The situation wasn’t good. At this rate, there would be three Trials in a row this sester.
Even the First Trial ‘Black Death’ had been bad. If three of them occurred at the sa ti, then that would be the end.
He sohow had to skip at least one of them or ti it well so that they occurred sequentially. The Third Trial especially was pretty much going to happen so he had to go for lowering the possibilities of the Second or Fourth....
“Wait, why is the probability of the Fourth so high...?”
It had been 50% only a week ago, but now it was at 80%.
The Fourth Trial was related to Aether, an event that automatically triggered once Aether’s stress level went over 85 based on the System Window.
It was similar to the Seventeenth in that it had to do with the Corruption of the Golden Eyed.
This can’t happen no matter what....
If the Fourth was triggered, then the Seventeenth was guaranteed to happen. Then it would be the Eighteenth, the Twentieth, the Twenty-first and Twenty-second, even the Twenty-third.... Verl exhaled sharply. Even just thinking about it gave him the chills.
So he had to stop it. It was also the reason why he was going around the Academy connecting the points of each large magic circle. If he was prepared for the Third Trial, then the Fourth one shouldn’t trigger.
There was no ti to rest. Verl moved onto the next point.
So that he wouldn’t lose his only kinsn.
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