TYND 109

In the warm atmosphere, Harie suddenly sat down in a chair.

It meant he had something to discuss.

Theon had his subordinates clean up and sat across from him.

“Rothy, it’s late, so you should sleep. Ultje, take Rothy with you.”

“I want to stay here too.”

“He says he’ll stay.”

“Yes.”

Ultje withdrew. Harie glanced at the guard mage standing stiffly behind Rothy and subtly gave Theon a hint. However, Theon didn’t dismiss Naran as well. Harie opened his mouth.

“Now that a mage organization has been established, mages will gather, and as mages gather, magic towers will naturally increase as well. As someone who walked the path of magical political power before Your Grace, I’d advise that it’s best to avoid overly rapid development.”

“Wouldn’t Plant welcome this?”

“Even now, Your Grace has the youngest archmage at your disposal, and recently word has spread that you’ve even built friendly relations with the temple, so you’re receiving concentrated scrutiny from the central nobles. Do you want to strengthen that scrutiny?”

Harie wore a seemingly vicious smile.

However, that vicious smile soon melted away.

Whoosh.

It was because Rothy’s eyes had become teary.

“Sorry, Theon… because of me…”

“It’s not your fault.”

Theon patted Rothy while glaring at Harie.

Harie cleared his throat with a sheepish expression.

“Ahem. Of course, Your Grace would naturally be scrutinized as Archduke Palsen regardless of Lord Rothy’s existence.”

Even as Harie spoke, he wondered why he was saying such things to comfort Rothy.

Moreover, Rothy didn’t seem to be comforted.

“Archduke Palsen has protected the battlefield for 15 years, and if the North’s magic becomes stronger, it would be good for the empire, so why would they scrutinize him… Why don’t they understand Theon’s heart? It’s really sad…”

Theon embraced the increasingly dejected Rothy. Rothy buried his face sadly in Theon’s shoulder, then lifted his head as if something had suddenly occurred to him.

“You know what. Let’s tell people there’s no need to be wary. There are many bad people in the world, but there are just as many good people, and they probably don’t know that we’re good people. Let’s tell them we won’t do anything harmful to the empire.”

“If you’re beneficial, they’ll be wary of that too.”

“Why?”

“Because the empire is ruled by the emperor. When any one family’s power becomes too great, it means the emperor’s power becomes precarious. I would also be wary if another ducal house became related to an archmage and developed good relations with the temple.”

Harie thought Rothy would sob, saying “That’s too sad…” But Rothy thought for a moment and said,

“So it means healthy competition. I understand.”

Seeing him recognize and accept the necessity of scrutiny, Harie was reminded of a passage he had seen in Yolone Sirin’s research journal.

Rothy is like a blank sheet of paper. Not only is his hair white, but his mind is white too. His learning is so fast that it’s both fun and not fun to teach him. Once you tell him something, there’s no need to tell him again, so now there’s no magic left to teach him. Yesterday I taught him a magic that’s not needed for war. It’s the colorful soap bubble creation magic that minstrels commonly use during performances. Today I suddenly heard giggling sounds, and when I went to look, the child was playing with soap bubbles and his ferret in a corner of the laboratory…

Harie pulled out a booklet from inside his loose robe.

“Actually, apart from Rothiar, I was thinking of meeting Your Grace and Lord Rothy once. It seemed better to deliver this in person.”

“What’s this?”

“I’ve completely decoded Yolone Sirin’s research journal.”

Not only did Rothy’s eyes widen, but even Theon’s eyes enlarged slightly. It was a completely unexpected matter.

Harie placed the booklet on the table.

“It’s a decoded version, so please read it. It’s very interesting.”

Theon’s expression crumpled. He could tell without being told.

How could he call the process of Rothy’s suffering interesting, was he in his right mind to openly give this in front of Rothy, did he mean for him to suffer by reliving those terrible experimental processes…

“You… finally decoded this. Harie, will you share this with people…? And will you continue the experiments written here…? I hope you won’t.”

“What Lord Rothy is worried about won’t happen.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Plant has decided to withdraw from Living Magic stone. In fact, with this research journal, it’s impossible….”

Harie chuckled.

“There’s absolutely no room to continue the research.”

Rothy tilted his head with a “Huh?” Theon also seemed not to understand.

But Harie knew. After reading this journal, they would have no choice but to understand.

After establishing the secret laboratory, I first made a teleportation magic device.

I stored the magic stone and the child in the laboratory.

The child wasn’t afraid of me.

As if knowing I was the one who saved him from freezing to death in the snow, he looked up at me with round, bright eyes as soon as he woke up and smiled brightly.

His emerald gem-like eyes held no wariness, only innocent curiosity and friendliness.

I asked the child various things, but he didn’t seem to understand.

A child who couldn’t speak and seemed to have no memories. Had Seara really just picked up an unrelated ten-year-old child and placed him there?

I had to teach the child letters and words one by one. He was a smart child who learned quickly. And he also loved learning.

Once, after a difficult battle, I teleported to the laboratory to find the entire place littered with bundles of paper where the child had practiced writing.

Since we hadn’t started experiments yet, I had never troubled the child, but I was very angry and scolded him for the first time that day. The child was very surprised and covered himself with a blanket, trembling. I poured out harsh words toward that small bundle of blankets.

Later, while organizing the papers, I discovered what the child had been practicing: ‘Yolone Sirin’ and ‘Teacher.’

Living-magic stone injection experiment.

I thought a tedious and arduous process would follow. Even though Seara had prepared all the materials, my abilities had limits.

But the magic stone and the child succeeded on the first attempt.

It was a very natural and smooth fusion.

Of course, there was some minor resistance due to terrible pain during the process, but that resistance was so minimal it could be ignored.

However, there was one side effect.

The child who used to follow me around with affectionate round eyes now began to fear me.

When I called his name, he would hiccup and when I merely raised my hand, he would be greatly startled and hurriedly hide in a corner.

It must have hurt that much.

I need to completely eliminate the pain quickly.

The problem is that the process will likely cause severe pain again…

After continuing pain removal experiments for a while, it seems the child now completely dislikes me.

Just sensing my presence, he hides under the bed or burrows into corners. I had to forcibly drag the child out. The child struggled just a little but didn’t offer proper resistance. His obedient nature must be innate.

When this wariness continued for over a month, I eventually gave the child one of the smaller experimental animals to win back his heart.

It was a baby ferret, and the child seemed to like it, sleeping with it in his arms every day.

He seemed to have named it Chi-chi, so I gave him toys, saying they were for Chi-chi.

When I played well with the baby ferret using the toys, the child finally stopped hiding under the bed.

He’s really easy to handle.

I decided to send Rothy to war.

I had planned to send him from the beginning. If I hadn’t intended to send him out, I wouldn’t have taught him reading and speaking.

When I returned to the laboratory, Rothy had the expression of someone who had just awakened from a happy dream.

When I asked if it was that good, he answered that Theon was really cool.

Rothy had been watching the battlefield through my eyes via remote magic, developing one-sided familiarity with that Palsen fellow.

From now on, he’ll transform into me and face that guy even more directly, which already worries me.

I locked the test subjects in a specially treated prison and cast a barrier with my magic so sound wouldn’t carry, but Rothy’s magical abilities are so excellent that he simply erases my barriers.

No matter how much I scolded, got angry, hit him, and even subjected him to painful experiments under the pretext of pain removal, Rothy continued talking to the test subjects.

The test subjects were already near death when I picked them up, and became even more broken through experiments, so they can’t even speak properly. Even knowing they couldn’t put useless thoughts into Rothy’s head, I didn’t like how Rothy showed affection toward those things.

Because it made him realize I was committing terrible and vicious acts.

I am a sinner and this doesn’t change. Someday Rothy too must know that his teacher was a vicious criminal.

Rothy has such strong resistance to pain that he doesn’t feel pain even when releasing thousands of wion of magic power at once.

But today, Rothy felt pain.

I was conducting an experiment using a trimule… I still don’t know why he was in pain.

Since it’s the first living magic stone, I’ll probably discover unknown side effects often in the future.

I watched over the child who suffered all night.

I wanted to watch longer, but I couldn’t leave the barracks empty too long and had to return.

Lately, even though he was always a frequently ailing child, and it’s not like I’m seeing him suffer just once or twice.

Lately, every time I see him suffering, my heart feels like it’s burning up.

It must be because of the fear that losing the living magic stone would overturn the war where we’ve barely gained the upper hand.

There’s no other reason. There must be no other reason…