Anais had stayed up for two nights trying to figure out how the rock works. It was the very same rock she broke off from the teleportation device on the 50th world that they found in the dungeon.
Previously, she assumed it absorbs and releases energy like a magic crystal but that wasn't the case. She wasted a day doing tests that normally work for magic crystals. Instead of working like a pipe that takes in and releases water, she hypothesized that the rock itself generates the energy under certain conditions which the user can then use in various ways.
The problem is she had no way to test it or rather didn't know how to do it. Treating it like radioactive minerals might be the way to go but she doesn't have the equipment or knowledge to go through with it.
What's next? Seeking help from someone with more years' worth of experience in science is the best course of action. A little guidance would be wonderful right now.
Speaking of the teleportation gate, why is she so eager to create it on her own? Is it because Arnold asked her to? He's out of the picture now so she needed to get funding somewhere else.
Could it be she wants this? While teleportation is a fascinating thing that she was fortunate enough to experience, it always remained something alien to humanity, outside of magic, of course.
Perhaps she's after the achievement of being the first person in the current Holy Year to ever restore the lost art of teleportation?
As if she realized it herself, a vision of her looking up at Arthur, his back turned to her, always one step ahead, his figure framed in light, casting a long shadow that swallowed her whole.
She clenched her fists.
A knock snapped her out of her daze—
…
She stiffened at the sight of the person standing there. Even though he looked vastly different, there was no doubt about it—this is Arnold.
He walked past her and scanned the lab, spotting a peculiar rock on one of the tables with several smaller pieces laying around it. Lauran greeted Anais who was too stunned to speak before coming inside as well.
"You haven't forgotten the promise we made in the dungeon, right?" Arnold said while looking at the rock.
"…"
"I'm supposed to fund this little experiment of yours while retaining full rights and control to the finished product. And once we make duplicates, they will be distributed at a profit. But only I get to choose who gets the product and who doesn't."
"…I… I know…"
Finally, she squeezed out a reply but couldn't meet his eyes. They were cold and looked at her as if she was trash.
"Lauran."
"E-Eh?"
"Anais needs someone with a massive mana pool to conduct experiments to create a teleportation gate. That's where you come in. If you do this for me, I'll help you with your little assignment."
"But… What do you even know about divinity…?" she asked.
"Show me your notes. Anything that is left unsolved. I'll see if I can solve it for you."
"…" Lauran looked uncertain but took out her notebook and turned to a page, "An instrument is needed for the following problem. If I use the wrong one, the miasma could corrupt its materials and destroy the tool but if I use one that's too strong, I can't figure out the proper calculations needed to strip the energy down in fragments."
"So, it's almost like which instrument can contain a fire and gradually put out the heat?" Anais gave an observation.
"Yes, we need several of these tools to produce smaller variants of the spell Lady Freya expects us to cast. I can't afford to make sacrifices either because even the worst rated version of the tool costs a fortune."
"Why not ask a tower mage? They've been doing stuff like this for years."
"I can't… They're basically competition. Professor Adrianna wants to become Lady Freya's righthand and to do that, she needs to beat the others."
"…I see… But can he even do it?" Arnold felt Anais' gaze on him, "He's not exactly experienced in this field…"
"I don't know…"
'Ceru, I'll need your help here. I have a rudimentary understanding of divine magic items so help me fill in the blanks.' If she doesn't understand anything. He'll just use the system to help.
'Roger~' she clung to Arnold's neck and glanced at the book, 'Hm~ Hm~ A tool that uses divine power to kill energy particles! How interesting!'
'You know what they are, huh. As expected.'
Ceru is a reincarnation, after all. It's not that strange to consider that in her previous lives, she encountered similar problems.
"To calculate the amount of divine power needed to disperse this projected mass of miasma, you would need a… Hold on a second…"
Arnold suddenly leaned forward, his eyes scanning the notes quickly but really just listening to Ceru. Then, with a steady voice, he spoke all at once while jotting down some notes to help her later:
"You're trying to overpower unstable miasma with raw divine force from a [Sanctity Expulsion] magic item, but that'll only trigger a volatile reaction since it rips atoms apart to destroy dark energy—what you need is a low-output sanctification tool like the [Sanctifier Prism], which emits divine pulses instead of bursts, letting you disperse miasma gradually by syncing the pulse frequency with ambient mana density and anchoring the output with a divine catalyst so the corrupted particles are purified instead of destabilized, giving you more control over how much of the miasma you want to destroy. During the process, it will be like stripping away the bad parts of the energy without producing a volatile reaction, which makes it lose its entire structure and collapse into particles of nothing by the end."
He found Lauran and Anais staring at him with widened eyes.
He held the book out to Lauran, whose eyes grew more in size when she saw what he wrote down. [Sanctifier Prism] is a rank 2 magic item that the Tower gives out only if the assistants or students understand how to use them. [Sanctity Expulsion] is level 5 so Lauran definitely borrowed it from Adrianna.
"You don't need this magic tool for miasma, do you? We know more than enough about miasma to know which magic tool can break down its atoms until the energy loses stability. It's for demon energy since no other energies besides miasma and demon energy can be broken down by divinity." Arnold assumed.
"…." Lauran nodded slowly, "…How do you know all that?"
"That doesn't matter. Do we have a deal? I'm not forcing you to do this. You can go back to Four Eyes who seems to be infatuated with you."
"N-No, I don't think Kyle could help me anyway…"
'His goal is to get in your panties so even if he could, he will withhold a lot of things at first.' He didn't say that out loud. Ceru agreed with him.
"I'll do whatever you say! Please help me finish my assignment!" she blushed for some reason. Why is this girl so lewd, whispered Ceru in his ear as if she could read Lauran's thoughts.
Wait a second… Ceru could read his thoughts so maybe…?
"Alright, then like I said, I need you to help Anais build a—" he looked at his cousin, "—teleportation gate."
"Eh?!"
"Just listen." He grabbed the small rock from the bench nearby, "This piece of rock was once a part of a structure that allows instant teleportation between worlds just by inserting coordinates into the mechanism's terminal. It's one of the core components."
"That's how we were able to escape the dungeon… If it wasn't for Al…"
"Who made this… structure?" she examined the rock but it obviously looked like any ordinary rock unless certain conditions are met.
"Scholars from another era, probably centuries into the past." Arnold shrugged, "It's a miracle the machine still works."
"You said I have to help Miss Anais build a gate with this—I don't know the first thing about that…"
"Like I said, you're just the power source and will create the gates if the experiments are successful. You're also in charge of magic control."
She was about to say something but he cut her off, "Only you can do it."
'You have a freaking 99 intelligent stat after all.' Even Freya only has a 95 (her ceiling in the game) which isn't enough to control a teleportation gate made from external materials and not produced by the magic user.
On top of that, her mana is almost bottomless.
"…Okay."
"Your assignment, I'm assuming you need to finish that first, right?" Anais inquired.
"If there's anything else you need, come see me." Arnold placed a hand on her shoulder. For reason, he could feel her trembling.
"Y-Yes."
"And keep this a secret from my mother, not just me helping you with the assignment but the teleportation gate experiments as well."
"Isn't her expertise needed…?"
"No, we can do this on our own."
"What? You're going to help too? How?" Anais looked quite skeptical.
"I'll get involved at the right time."
"You sound like someone who knows how teleportation gates work."
He doesn't actually. He's not some jack-of-all-trades. If he was then he wouldn't be considering contacting Sylphiala to make him magic items.
"We should probably leave for the auditorium soon. Lauran, you go ahead. I need to have a chat with Anais alone." he could see Anais twitch when he glanced at her, "I'll come find you later. I need to check Luke's progress anyway."
"I understand. Then I'll be on my way…" Stiffly, she bowed before quickly leaving the room.
Their relationship was really awkward. How do you even go from master and slave to ordinary acquaintances?
'Should I check her Death Flag? No… I'll just ignore it.'
A meteor wouldn't be able to kill the current him anyway. He could withstand the vacuum of space and survived fighting on a moon.
Once Lauran left, there was a glaring silence where only droplets and the ticking of the clock could be heard.
'It's a rainy day, huh.' He glanced out the window.
"…I… I'm sorry…"
"…."
"For what happened… If I warned you sooner… S-Sabrina told me—"
"Where is your brother?"
"Al, I know what you want to do but—"
"Where is Arthur?"
Seeing as how he wasn't going to listen to her, she gave in quite easily, probably worried more about him than her brother. While their previous confrontation couldn't exactly be called a fight, it ended quite abruptly so she must think he was still too weak.
"The emperor invited him to the palace… He will most likely stay there until the emperor decides on a date to officially and publicly declare him successor to Promethius. Until that day comes, I am not even allowed to see him."
Arnold took a deep breath.
"Don't look at me with those eyes." Those words probably came out like cold disgust.
He had seen this defenseless and timid look several times over the years. It's her way of showing she's scared.
In his eyes, he found this mildly irritating because someone was underestimating him just from one exchange.
"Anais, do you… also hate me for what I did to Madilith?"
Slowly but surely, she shook her head.
"So, the reason you never warned me was because you care for your brother's love and acceptance more than you care about me?"
'That's an unfair question, Papa!'
He doesn't care.
"That's not… it…"
"Your brother is an impulsive, stubborn bastard who thinks saving the princess who asked for his help is more important than stopping an invasion that will destroy the whole kingdom. How do you think he would've handled Nuaria city's destruction? How many more lives would've been lost if he prioritized protecting one person? What about demons—how could he stop them while making sure everyone lives in the end? Will he run around like an idiot, killing everyone in danger, instead of facing the masterminds behind the invasions (Demon King and her Lords)? What happened in the dungeon was nothing compared to what is to come in the future—"
If I have to teach you that myself, I will not hesitate to do so—
He approached her slowly:
"He won't be able to save the innocent child being ripped apart by demons while a demon lord is rampaging in another part of the district and surrounding him will only be the screams of victims and cries of help. If he saw the demon lord standing on the other end of the street, killing thousands while also hearing a person trying to hold off a demon in the alley to his left or right—he wouldn't hesitate to run down that alley. Anyone would think that the demons would retreat when their leaders die. He thinks everyone is weak—why aren't you offended? He sees you as a sheep that needs to be protected from the wolves. In my eyes, Madilith was the wolf that would've killed all you sheep. How are you not disgusted by your brother's savior complex?"
"…." Her teary eyes swam around the room, unable to form any refutes.
"Someone as disgusting as your brother has the power of gods—do you realize the destruction that will follow his every step? What if a demon lord wants to exploit this weakness of his? Using you as bait? Arthur will be forced to choose between you and thousands of other people—"
He was asking this because that's what he would do to break someone like him, unable to tell when to just let things happen instead of interfering. Had he followed this simple step, Arnold wouldn't have died and left with this seething hatred that was so strong, it made him dizzy from frustration.
Punching a wall wouldn't be enough to release all this frustration. And just when he wanted to relax—
He leaned forward, feeling Anais' breath on his face, "Look at me when I'm talking to you. Your pig brother will leave the aftermath of that decision to you—you will be forced to carry that burden of thousands of lives until the day you accept it, something he is unable to do. He is an unfeeling child who cares more about what others think of him and how safe they are around him."
Love? Shirley was in for a world of disappointments and heartbreak once she realizes he cares more about being loved by everyone than genuinely romantic feelings he claims he has for her.
Hate? He can only loathe someone if they get in his way of obtaining everyone's love and admiration.
Hearing Arnold say all those things made Anais glare at him while the tears fell uncontrollably.
"Y-You're wrong!" She pushed him which didn't do much as she only crashed into the table behind her while he stood like a castle wall, "Arthur cares about everyone in this empire! He said he'll save the world from the Demon King and… and people like you! A-Ah, t-those aren't… my words…!"
Arnold sighed, as the fire raging in his heart faded for a bit.
He recalled a memory from years ago of young Anais standing between him and Arthur after he beat Arthur to the ground. She was so small back then but so determined to be there for her brother.
She wouldn't move no matter what he said and told him to leave Arthur alone.
In his fit of rage, he hit her—so hard that many of her teeth fell out. That guy didn't reach for his sister who was crying on the ground while her mouth was bleeding uncontrollably. Rather, he reached for his sword to challenge Arnold again.
He isn't that impulsive brat anymore who used violence to solve things so he spoke with a gentle voice.
"Your brother is anything but weak. He doesn't need your protection and doesn't love you as much as you love him."
"S-Shut upppp!!!! Just… just stop! You're lying! Arthur's not like that! He—he wants to protect everyone! He's trying his best! He's… he's not selfish!"
"No. He wants to be seen protecting everyone. There's a difference."
He is nothing like Luke, who would sacrifice himself just for the sake of humanity—and yet the Holy Sword chose him.
"You don't know him! You don't understand—!"
Her younger self overlapped with her current self in his eyes, the same crying face and wide mouth that could only shout nonsense fueled by emotion.
"…." With another sigh, he placed his hands in his pocket, eyes looking at her coldly.
Violence won't work, speaking from the heart won't work… then what will?
Ah, indifference. Indifference to how she felt because in the grand scheme of things, she was just a pebble while he was a mountain. And that pebble was trying to defend another pebble with all its might.
"Your blind loyalty to that pig will lead you down a road where you kill yourself over the burdens he will leave you with."
With a shrug, he turned to the door and began walking, "Not if he's dead before then."
He thought he could reason with her, create a crevice between their relationship but Anais was just as stubborn and foolish as her brother.
As such, the only reasonable thing to do was leave her alone. Whether something does happen to her, he doesn't care anymore.
The one time he tried to show sympathy to someone only to be met with stubbornness that pissed him off even more…
"W-Wait! What… What do you mean he'll be… dead?"
"…" he stopped then spoke quietly, "If you choose to stand in the way, Anais—"
He turned, "I will kill you too."
….
Time froze.
Anais didn't hear her breath anymore.
Her vision blurred.
Her legs gave out.
She dropped.
Not like a heroine swooning, but like a puppet whose strings had been violently cut.
Her palms scraped the floor.
Her mouth hung open but no sound came.
Her heartbeat—where was it?—lost in the roar of blood in her ears.
Just a moment ago, she thought he was being cruel.
But this… this wasn't cruelty.
This was hatred.
The kind that didn't care what her name was.
The kind that didn't flinch at killing someone who once smiled beside him.
And it was directed at her.
A single drop of sweat slid down her temple.
This wasn't fear.
This was paralysis.
And she knew it wasn't just his words that crushed her—it was the horrifying realization that he meant it.
Her lips trembled.
He would kill her.
Her brother's worst enemy would slaughter her, and she'd die clutching the name of a man who might not even mourn her, only care for revenge, thinking that his sister's spirit would be happy over that.
Unable to withstand the pure hatred that children were told in stories only the Demon King had for humanity—her vision darkened…