The conversation paused for a moment. While Cain was changing his clothes, Satin pretended to stare at the ceiling. Satin didn’t think much of seeing another guy’s body, but Cain disliked it. Satin had looked without thinking a few times to which Cain reproached him for.
Cain put on his pajamas and returned to his bed. The two had been sitting on their respective beds while talking. Since the room wasn’t very big, it wasn’t difficult to have a conversation this way.
“Cain, I was thinking about something during dinner.”
“About?”
“How about using Rufus? We could wait for him to go outside.”
The school was located in the woods, so unless they could magically create food and supplies, they had to go to the village or town regularly.
Ever since Satin came here, no outsiders had visited. This means that the intervals between the trips were long. Therefore, the amount of supplies being transported on one trip must be a considerable amount.
Satin guessed that someone important like the teacher or Rufus would handle such large purchases. But it was unlikely that both of them would leave the kids alone together.
Before Satin could finish his explanation, Cain shook his head, “That hairball guy never goes out. I’ve never seen him leave.”
Satin’s eyes widened. If there’s no such contact with the outside world, then how does this school operate?
“Then where do they get food? They don’t have a vegetable garden here.”
“Contracted merchants would periodically bring food here.”
“Oh, so people do come here. Then what if we asked those people for help?”
“Doubt they’ll help, those people are only doing their jobs and in it for the money, they couldn’t care less about some orphaned kids.”
Cain didn't seem to like anyone, not just the teacher. He was indifferent to the other children as well.
'Has he never liked anyone in his life?'
Satin himself wasn’t particularly overflowing with love for humanity, but he did love his older sister. He would probably never meet anyone as wonderful as she was again.
At any rate, Satin knew what it felt like to love someone. The reason he could pretend to be kind in front of the children was all thanks to his sister.
Did Cain not have anyone like that? Despite being destined to save the world from villains, demon kings, and evil gods, how did things turn out this way?
‘Maybe he just hasn’t had the right opportunity yet.’
As Satin was lost in thought, a gruff question interrupted him, “What? Do you think I’m wrong?”
Satin pushed aside his curiosity and replied nonchalantly, "No, I was just thinking. Thinking of a way to use those people without them realizing they're being used."
While Satin and Cain were quietly plotting, Laigeis was in his study, reading records of past experiments, bringing back old memories, ones he hadn't thought about in a long time.
Laigeis was born in a city far from Cloverland. He had moved continuously since childhood, so he had no particular nostalgia for his hometown. The city most clearly etched in Laigeis' memory was where his master had died.
His master, a wizard, had died at quite a young age. Laigeis had been in his twenties at the time, so it was over forty years ago. His master must have been around fifty. Considering that most wizards live well and enjoy long lives, this was unusual.
It's unclear who exactly killed Laigeis' master, since it was a group that had attacked, so it was impossible to identify the one who dealt the fatal blow. Therefore, Laigeis simply remembered that the temple had killed his master.
‘How strange.’
He acted because he could, and he attempted because he thought he might succeed. He couldn;t understand why it was considered a crime.
‘Morality, rules, just what makes them so important?’
In any case, Laigeis survived by sheer luck. When the temple knights raided his master's study, Laigeis happened to be away on an errand for his master. When he returned, his master was already detained.
Laigeis chose to hide instead of stepping forward as an apprentice. And within a few days, rumors spread that a dark wizard had been executed.
After that, Laigeis inherited his master's research. It would have been ideal to retrieve all his master's research records, but the stubborn temple members had burned down the study. Perhaps they wanted to show the public the fate of a dark wizard.
‘Stubborn fools.’
Laigeis scavenged the ruins at night and managed to salvage a few records. Fortunately, a secret compartment in the floor survived the fire.
Since then, Laigeis had wandered through various cities, continuing his research. Over time, he reached his current situation. To avoid meeting the same fate as his master, Laigeis had set up several protective measures.
He publicly presented himself as a philanthropist and prepared secret escape routes. Conveniently, the mansion had an old waterway, so it wasn’t difficult to create a secret passage.
He thought he could now safely focus on his research.
‘What the hell am I doing wrong?’
Sometimes, unexpected results arise when working on formulas. If these unexpected results are useful, they become new magical discoveries; if not, they are still documented. Either way, it’s better than nothing happening at all.
The magic Laigeis used on Satin was not related to memory. However, the human mind is incredibly complex. Memory loss can occur as a side effect when tampering with the mind.
Seeing magical power, on the other hand, was definitely an unexpected result. It had nothing to do with the magic Laigeis intended to discover, but it was too valuable to ignore.
'If refined, it can be used again.'
It was a useful spell, more than useful, in fact,if Laigeis could be certain it was safe, he would want to use it on himself because it was that extraordinary.
'Seeing magical power. How enticing.'
If one could see magical power, the world would look entirely different. If one could detect even holy magic, there would be no need to worry about attacks from the temple, making it a true blessing for a researcher.
'The problem is the success rate.'
It succeeded on Satin but failed on Tim. The same formula produced different results. Instead of losing memory, Tim lost his reason. He didn't seem to see magical power either. He behaved like a reanimated corpse created by magic.
Why did such a difference occur?
A simple thought might suggest that Satin and Tim did not share the same conditions. They differed in age, build, and more importantly,
‘Innate talent.’
Satin had the talent of a wizard, while Tim did not. So, if the experiment were conducted on another child with the talent, would the same result occur?
'Stars. Waves. Blue. ○○. Eighteen. One. Desert. Dream. ×××. Faintness. Prayer. Ο.' Laigeis recited the formula used on Satin as he pondered.
Rufus's arm muscles bulged as he scrubbed a large cauldron. Satin couldn't help but frown, ‘is that something he’s born with?’
OO wasn’t particularly well-built, and Satin wasn’t much different. Although he was quite tall, his arms and legs were long and skinny.
‘I’m still growing, so we’ll see.’
He didn’t particularly want to have bulging muscles like Rufus. He just wanted to be strong enough not to appear weak. Not threatening, but not threatened either. That would be ideal.
"Got something to say?" Rufus put down the cauldron and looked at him. Sitting there in silence had apparently started to bother him. Satin thought Rufus didn’t mind since he hadn’t said anything until now.
Satin scratched his head and asked, “How did you meet the teacher?”
"The old man? It’s nothing interesting. I was just hired."
"So, you didn’t know him before he started the school?"
“That’s right.”
"What did you do before that?"
“Me?”
“Who else but you?”
Satin laughed lightly, and Rufus chuckled too. Rotating his right shoulder to relieve the stiffness from scrubbing the cauldron, he replied, "Greenfield. It's a small town west of Cloverland. Actually, calling it a town is a bit generous."
"Is that where you're from?"
"There weren't any jobs there. I came to Cloverland looking for work and ended up being hired by the old man."
"I see."
As Satin nodded, Rufus asked, "Why the sudden interest?"
"Just curious.” When Satin responded briefly, Rufus narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Satin avoided his gaze and added, “"I thought you might know something about the teacher."
There was no need to pretend he had no ulterior motives. He actually did, but he needed to make Rufus misunderstand his intentions, "I know even less than the other kids. At least for now."
“And?”
"I feel at a disadvantage. Like, I need to move to a better position."
"Competing with little kids, huh?" Rufus laughed lightly as he picked up another cauldron. Satin waited silently while listening to the scrubbing sounds. Soon, the noise stopped, “Are you worried?”
"I don't know. What kind of person was I before? Was I always this worried?"
"You seemed pretty normal, in my opinion."
Rufus, who seemed to respond half-heartedly, started scrubbing again, but Satin could tell he was listening to him. Occasionally, Rufus would stop and glance at Satin.
"You were pretty cunning."
"Me?"
"Not saying it was a bad thing. You were good at reading the kids and getting on the old man's good side."
"And now I'm just a half-wit."
"You'll get better. The old man probably understands that much. You two did get along well, after all."
Credits:
TL: Sajin
TL comments:
TL: IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER THE EXPERIMENTS AND STUFF WOW
