The Magic Academy's Physicist

Chapter 63: Black Death (10)

Chapter 63: Black Death (10)

I was born human, but lived like a machine.

No matter what I wanted, I would act like a robot in the process of achieving that goal. I could never shake off the feeling that I was being consumed as a part of the society in my day to day life.

I believed others would be the same. As such, I didn’t trust them as much as I didn’t trust myself. Honestly, it was hard for me to put on an amiable face for a stranger.

Yet the reason why I could endure this harsh world while being considerate toward others was because of money.

Money, or credit in English. Credit also meant trust.

It wasn’t some devout faith taught by religion or the trust that came from being as close as family.

The word credit was only effective when reason, logic, business, and needs fit together.

It didn’t need to be complicated. All I wanted was to receive as much as I gave, to just exchange superficial virtues and then go our own ways.

Also known as give-and-take. Unfortunately, this was a rule I learned from my family.

“Well, guess I should pay first.”

A gold coin was placed on my hand.

I stuck the money from the transmigrator deep into my pocket. Vermel’s gold and Lotte’s silvers let out a nice metallic ‘Clink’ as they knocked against each other.

“Half of it is for the license production of the pulse scroll, and the other half is for accompanying me.”

Vermel’s voice strangely shook as he said this. Though he was maintaining calm, he couldn’t totally hide that he was young.

I was certain that this elf was from the same homeland. On the other hand, this guy appeared only half-sure that I came from the same world. It was obvious without saying who had the vantage in this battle of information.

And my method for closing this gap in information was credits.

‘Since I don’t fully trust you yet, I’ll bridge this gap with currency.’ This was the social contract that Vermel and I just agreed to.

“I’ll be taking you down this way to catch beasts. Do you have any particular objections?”

I didn’t want some kind of ambiguous teamwork without credibility. Shaking my head, I lifted the manhole cover.

The inside of the sewage treatment plant. It was so dark that you couldn’t see even an inch ahead without light.

“Sorry, this is a terrible date course.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t be escorting anyone.”

We proceeded while making light jokes. It was our attempt at clearing some of this eerie atmosphere with some conversation.

“How much further do we have to go?”

“About twenty minutes.”

As expected of a sewage plant, one could tell how unsanitary it was from the atmosphere alone.

Polluted water flowed down the channel. Everynow and then, a lump of human-shaped cast iron floated into view. They must have just tossed them here because there weren’t sacks to put them in.

At least they didn’t chop them up before throwing them away. Ah, that one only has hands.

[... This is an announcement from the Imperial Disaster Management Headquarters. It has been found that it is meaningless to measure the incubation period of The Black Death, the subject of this infectious disease emergency.]

[As such, we urge everyone to practice thorough self-quarantine, and always be mindful that outbreak may unexpectedly occur at anyti?]

“The radio doesn’t even work from this point.”

The further we went in, the shittier the sanitation was. The awful smell of the sewers pierced my lung cells. At least I was wearing thick cloth; if it weren’t for this filter, then I might have fainted on the spot.

After a while of not talking, I got bored. So I spoke up first.

“Is the bastard who spread the plague really here?”

My reason for accompanying the transmigrator was simple.

To catch the culprit of the disease and beat the hell out of them.

This situation was supposed to stop once the original transmitter backed off. Since this was coming from the guy who knew the future, it couldn’t be wrong.

“That’s what Dr. Glyston is suspecting. There’s a lot of flying insects in sewage plants so it wouldn’t be completely off the mark.”

“Anyway, you said the guy’s a Cataclysm.”

“... Yeah.”

“Then are the two of us going to be enough?”

Come to think of it, this was something that only idiots who overestimate themselves would pull.

Two undergraduate students equipped with a few scrolls going into an underground waterway without the adults knowing to catch a Cataclysm that could possibly be here? It wouldn’t be strange at all to find them the next day as a neat pair of corpses.

Seemingly unable to come with an excuse, Vermel cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“... Anyway, it’s been a while since we’ve gone to school.”

“The state is a damn mess, too.”

Although it had only been three weeks since the Black Death spread, the state was functioning at half-capacity. Out of a population of millions, about 100 000 caught the plague, and from those about ten percent ironized and passed on from this life.

The two places relatively less affected were the palace and the Academy.

The palace was obvious, and no one had died at the Academy yet. It was probably the transmigrator running around busily and taking measures. He couldn’t have done anything about the deaths occurring outside of the school, though.

It was miserable.

Seriously, it was a damn depressing world.

If the Demon King were to resurrect at this point, then wouldn’t it be the end of humanity? It’d be a bit dangerous if something like that happened before I could get out.

“Is a nuke the only solution after all?”

“... What?”

Words that just slipped out. Vermel stopped walking at what I blurted.

“No, it’s just this thing.”

“What’s the problem?”

“One Cataclysm is capable of this much. Then wouldn’t the nation be doomed if two of them were to gather?”

If I were asked what genre this world was, my answer would be a dark fantasy. Even the predicament of a weaker country about to be colonized wouldn’t be this grim.

A long sigh came from the front. It was much longer than the sigh my parents heaved when I told them about ditching med school.

“That probably won’t be the case.”

“Yeah?”

That was unexpected. I thought they would come storming if they became vexed.

“Because those guys aren’t targeting humans or elves. It’s probably?”

Shwaaaa!

“What was that...?”

The ground shook violently. The waters sloshed along with the wave that first passed by.

“I think there’s something coming from over there.”

Something was wading through the waters this way. It was moving fast.

There was hollow thumping coming through the ceiling. A metallic sound as if a cat was running through the vents.

I automatically raised my staff.

Vermel turned the flashlight to the side. When he did, we finally saw the cause of the noise.

“Oh shoot....”

“... Fuck.”

There were six legs.

Two on the ceiling, two against the walls, the last two standing in the water.

In the center of the six radially-spread legs, there was a thick cocoon-like body. Its overall shape was that of a crane fly except it had three sets of wings on its back.

And the head which should have been on top of the body was coming out the front. In terms of a human, it was like having the head on the chest.

There were six of them. It was the exact same as the number of legs.

But the skull looked a lot like a human’s. No, it actually was human.

The teeth were crooked, with some of them having mutated to appear like the beak of a finch that had evolved to drink nectar from a cactus.

Above all, the thing was made of iron. You couldn’t call this a lifeform.

It must contain a cadmium sulfide (CdS) sensor or something because the creature slowed as soon as it was illuminated. But it didn’t make any movements to retreat.

After adjusting to the light, the thing sped up again.

“Run!”

Vermel shouted.

I tried to uppercut the creature in its lower jaw with my staff but the attempt failed spectacularly.

A miss. The Canf kid grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards.

“Uh, huh?”

“Are you crazy?”

With my wrist in hand, Vermel ran as fast as he could.

Boom, boom, boom. The steps wading through the water sent chills down my spine. If there weren’t any corners, we were going to be caught soon even if we ran at full speed. I swore everytime I looked back.

“You remember what I said earlier, right? Turn at that point up ahead!”

The underground channels had water gates installed to prevent the flooding of wastewater. By pulling the lever to lower these gates, we would be able to buy some time.

Panting, we reached the lever at the corner. The creature also realized what we were trying to do and charged at us with a shriek mixed with machine sounds. That voice also contained human speech.

Holy shit. Did it make that thing out of dead people? That Cataclysm?

It wasn’t easy to pull the lever with all the moss and pebbles stuck inside. Despite putting on most of the weight of two grown men... no, one man and a woman, the lever didn’t budge.

“Move back.”

Humans were tool-using creatures. I gripped my staff to maximize the moment of inertia.

Accelerating it without the help of magic, I hit the lever exactly on the tip and maximized the torque to the bottom.

The lever slammed down all the way from the huge amount of torque it suddenly received, and the chain slid up at the same time.

Bang! Right before the gate descended, we dashed into the side passage. It was close. A little later and we would’ve been screwed.

Three metal walls fell with one lever. Luckily, the beast was trapped in the middle where the path split three ways. Awful cries saying ‘save me’ could be heard from behind the gate.

The gate was designed sturdily enough to withstand immense water pressure so the creature wouldn’t be able to break it with its size. With hands on our knees, we took a moment to breathe.

“Will this do?”

“We can’t know yet.”

The back was now blocked. If an enemy appeared in front of us, we’d have to face it head-on.

I took out a Flare scroll just in case. Vermel also pulled out his staff grafted with a World Tree branch and began storing spells.

Tap, tap, tap.

“... Who is refusing our cleansing and running rampant like this?”

Forebodings were never wrong.

As the darkness lifted, an eight-foot¹ tall shadow was cast with an eerie glow.

In front of us, a man with a beak mask walked this way.

Footnotes

1. Actual unit used is 'cheok' (?) which is 33.3333 cm but close enough