The Magic Academy's Physicist

Chapter 192: Corruption (1)

Chapter 192: Corruption (1)

Aether took a direct blast from the water cannon.

Splash, the water fell onto her shoulders.

It was a powerful strike. A normal person would have gone flying from the water pressure alone.

However.

Grip.

Aether gripped her staff tighter. She grit her teeth and endured on the spot.

Her shoes dug deep into the ground. Her hair was soaked by the rain. The hands holding the staff were hot like baked potatoes. Like that, she took the water that poured for a while by herself.

Aether twisted her body like a broken wooden puppet.

In the meantime, Freyr and Heerlein strengthened the barrier. Thanks to that, Tortoise’s last ditch effort didn’t cause any significant damage to the survivors.

That guy, how is she planning to deal with the aftermath.......

She ran out to save him. He worried for Aether. Vermel desperately forced his eyes open as they kept trying to close.

[SYSTEM : The Second and Third Trials have been successfully completed.]

[SYSTEM : WARNING. The probability of the Fourth Trial occurring is approaching 90%.]

It was Trial after Trial. He was sick of it, but Vermel thought about what he had to do next.

This is the fork in the road....

If he got past this, then he’d be able to catch a break for the second semester. He couldn’t faint yet, but his body wasn’t listening to him.

The symptoms were worse than when he got beaten up by Aether. It was a miracle that he was still moving, even. He might die if he didn’t get to the hospital immediately.

“Urghhh....”

He had to get up. He had to repay her for saving him a moment ago.

Most of all, the contract.

? The two of us are on the same side, until we defeat the Demon King. Okay?

? What do you mean what do we do after that? It’s up to you if you stay here or not. I’m going back to have some gukbap1.

For you. And for me.

He had to carry out the business they shared for both of them.

Vermel pulled himself up on his arms. A bunch of muscles screamed at him. His brain yelled for him to please stay put. But he didn’t listen and gathered himself.

Thwack! Just then, he got struck by something.

“......Ah.”

The back of his head.

It was a direct hit in the cervical spine. He got struck by some kind of club.

Ah, no.

He didn’t know who hit him, and was unable to think that far. Vermel only looked straight ahead.

Before he knew it, he was surrounded by people and couldn’t see. The sound of murmurs broke through the high-pitched whine in his ears.

If I, pass out here....

His thoughts stopped there.

**The situation settled slowly but surely. The people snapped to their senses and looked around.

The corpses that had been walking around collapsed with the death of Tortoise. The steam on the ground gradually faded as well.

There was only one person left–a girl who was standing firm after being hit by Tortoise’s stream of water.

“Aether!”

Heerlein shouted. She ran out as soon as the rain stopped, Freyr following suit.

“M-miss! Are you alright?”

Someone asked in the distance. There was no answer.

It stopped raining before they knew it, but the sunlight hadn’t come back yet. The world was still dark and cloudy.

Still.

The people were relieved. The survivors came out from under the eaves, reassured. Splash, splash. They walked on a corpse every three steps, mostly ones who had turned into Beasts.

It wasn’t completely over. They now had to pull it together and clean up the mess.

With the fear having passed, two emotions brewed in the hearts of the people.

One was the sadness of losing family, and the other was resentment at having become a victim of this whole tragedy.

Why did this happen? Those who lost their family and lovers cried out. Some began sobbing. Everyone wandered inside the Academy in search of their family who had become a Beast corpse.

A fair number of wanderers approached Aether. She was the last one who had been hit by the rain. In the front, at that. They meant to see if she was still alive, why she had saved them from that last danger.

“Uhh....”

The first one to arrive was Heerlein. She saw Aether from the front and let out a faint sound.

“...Is it all over.”

The girl spoke heavily, then lifted her head slightly.

“H-how is this.......”

The people stumbled back in shock.

The girl’s face, her body, were fine.

Her skin didn’t turn silver. Her eyes didn’t go blind or melt, either.

Really, truly. She was abnormally without a single injury. It looked like she’d been shot by a water gun, not a cannon.

It wasn’t wrong.

Four Heavens.

The four Beasts who were the Demon King’s closest advisors.

To them, this kind of water cannon was no different from a shower. The Four Heavens could even take a water bullet from an Elite Elemental to the face. In other words, water attacks were useless against Aether if it wasn’t by the highest-ranking Elemental.

It was something difficult to understand for those who didn’t know anything.

The water that had turned people into Beasts.

The turtle that had smashed several buildings.

That she was fine after being hit by Vanta Tortoise’s attack. It shouldn’t have been possible.

“M-monster.”

The people staggered backwards.

And.

Screaming.

“It’s a monsteeeeer!!”

“Th-there was another Beast?”

“A humanoid! There was another humanoid kind!”

“Her eyes are scary, Mommy!”

Squelch! Aether popped her foot out of the mud, and also squeezed some of the rainwater out of her hair.

“A-Aether.......”

Just then, Heerlein touched her shoulder. It was something she did without thinking.

“Ugh!”

But Heerlein was forced to remove her hand right away. Stinging pain. Her hand that got wet with the rainwater turned gray.

“See, she’s the only one who’s fine. She’s a Beast, I tell you!”

“Then isn’t she more powerful than the turtle that just died?”

“Of course...! Th-that’s...!”

Everyone’s gazes focused on her.

Some with terrified eyes. Some greatly shocked. And others with burning anger. All who had experienced ‘Steam Rain’ glared at the girl with each of their own emotions.

Caught, am I.

She knew this would happen one day. Aether pulled out the staff that had been stuck in the ground.

It was a simple action, but perhaps assuming that it was an attack, the people ran away in alarm.

“A-Aether....”

The only ones who stayed were Freyr and Professor Heerlein.

“S-say something. You aren’t, right? You’re not a monster. You’re not a Beast!”

“I’m....”

Freyr fumed, unable to hold back her anger. It wasn’t directed at Aether.

The people shouted from afar.

“Kid, get away from that thing! It’s a monster!”

“Don’t call my friend a monster!”

“Isn’t that child a Beast as well? Or perhaps supported them.”

“No way, you human bastards?!!”

Huup! Freyr shut her mouth without thinking.

She was Youko; she technically belonged to the ‘canine family’.

To the Youko, ‘bitch’ as well as ‘human bastard’ were curses. Freyr had accidentally blurted it out in her rage.

“Human bastard...? Just called us ‘human bastard’, did you?”

“N-no! That came out wrong! I’m sorry, so...!”

“I knew she was a Beast, too...! What are the mages doing! If you’re living off our tax money, then hurry up and deal with things like this!”

Aether glanced around. Her mind was racing.

‘Aether’ had given everyone a total of a thousand opportunities. And each time, humans made mistakes.

They stole money and ran saying that she’d be blessed if she joined the religion of the Goddess. She thought they were kind for serving soup on the streets but then they attempted to violate her. One had claimed to be her friend, even making a pinky promise, but turned out to be the front of a human trafficking ring.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine betrayals. At this point, she was used to all sorts of backstabbing.

So she waited with leisure and observed.

This one will see what they will do in a situation like this.

She knew that it didn’t matter what she said here. People had a strong tendency to believe speculations made up at the scene as fact. Their trust in her was probably broken already.

As such, she had to she had to take the chance with the help of the relationships that she’d built until now. Heerlein, Freyr and Vermel. She had to decide whether or not to take control of the situation with the words of those who were close to ‘me’. They weren’t trustworthy, to be honest, but one last time.

Did the elf faint.

Aether glanced where Vermel had fainted. Erika and Merilda were in tears as they supported him.

- Merilda! Use the Song of Healing!

He’s too injured! It won’t be enough to wake him up right now!

–was what she heard.

Aether didn’t focus on their conversation, but stayed calm in this situation and looked around.

Found you.

She spotted her target with eagle eyes.

An instigator was still left.

“Anyone, just get rid of them!”

“Allow me.”

A balding middle-aged man stepped forward at the people’s demands.

“Oh, aren’t you Professor Mössbayer?”

“The one who once destroyed the Youko on the eastern front......!”

Mössbayer. A spy for the Beasts who’d been around since the time Vermel was playing hide-and-seek with Rosemary.

His body was that of a human, but his mind had long since joined the Demon Army. He had committed betrayal.

The reason? Simple.

? You want to become like us?

? Yes, I’ll do whatever you ask. So please grant me eternal life...!

? Alright. Just in case, you know what’ll happen if you do something shady like act as a double agent or anything, right?

? Y-yes! Of course!

He envied the life of steel that didn’t rust, the body of iron and blood that didn’t break down in the storms of time.

Mössbayer looked up to eternity as a machine.

I thought things were going wrong, but what luck!

Mössbayer didn’t know who Aether was. He just thought of her as someone who was getting in the Beasts’ way by making Flare.

And so he just listened to Rosemary and watched the chairman’s faction that she was in.

Of course he did, as he knew Rosemary to be strict about personal relationships. When his boss had been following Aether around going ‘sis, sis’, Mössbayer, who had been watching from afar, had thought Rosemary was only acting.

And that was the case now as well.

I don’t know how she’s still alive and well after being hit by that, but.... Well, I guess Golden-Eyeds are all like that.

Mössbayer grinned, yellow teeth flashing.

Anyway, if I corner that girl, then Quartus will think better of me, no? Yes, of course she will!

He pulled out his staff. He was still human so he could use magic without a problem.

“Professor Heerlein, get away from there before you get hurt!”

“Are you insane, Viscount? I dare you to even touch a hair on my students’ heads!”

Heerlein pulled Freyr and Aether to her with both arms. One hand was turning silver, but it didn’t matter.

Chewing on her lip, Heerlein spoke.

Footnotes

1. Rice in soup