Chapter 12
The moment Basilect cut through the air, we were back in that classroom-like place.
> “I called you because Aurelia produced the result I wanted, but…….”
Dragging out the end of his sentence, Perenustus pointed at my right hand and slumped his shoulders.
> “You’ve brought back something beyond the result.”
“What did I bring back…. What is this!”
As I turned my gaze to where Perenustus was pointing, I was horrified and shook my hand. My entire right arm, from the long, slender blade to my hand and shoulder, was completely covered in seamless silver.
“Th, this thing on my hand…. Is this Basilect?”
I asked Perenustus, but the silver texture seeping between my fingers vibrated and answered for him.
“Why… why did it attach?”
It didn’t feel heavy or cumbersome at all, like armor custom-made for my arm. It felt as natural as the joints of bone I’d had attached to my body since birth.
> ‘I’m losing my mind. I just grabbed the first thing I could to hit Silphy…….’
I slyly glanced at Leonas, the sword’s owner, and slightly turned my wrist to try and detach the sword.
Then Basilect stretched a sharp silver light along its keen blade and transformed into a round shield. The metal, vibrating finely as if enjoying my petrified shock, then gently wrapped around my skin.
> ‘It feels like putting my hand into a wave.’
Seeming to like that expression, Basilect squeezed my hand once and then smoothly melted into my skin.
“Hey, no! I just grabbed it to hit Silphy once! If it melts into me like this, it’ll look like I stole it!”
> “Stole it, what…. Basilect doesn’t even let itself be held by anyone it doesn’t acknowledge as master.”
“…Really?”
> “A sword that contains all polarities – sword and shield, destruction and protection – has accepted you as its master.”
Leonas looked at me with eyes mixed with envy and melancholy, explaining quietly.
> “Do you understand? From now on, you are Basilect’s master.”
“What the hell is she……?”
Vilatea, who had been staring at my right hand and my face, mumbled, rubbing her face vigorously. Having even mussed up her neatly styled hair, she turned toward Perenustus and pointed at me.
> “Is this the answer you wanted? Professor, I couldn’t even imagine that the correct answer to the assignment you gave us would be in this form.”
“My assignment was very clear from the beginning, Vilatea. What Aurelia knows, and how much she understands what she knows.”
Perenustus pointed at me like a teaching aid. Having lost even the momentum to be angry because of Basilect, I was bewildered and helplessly met the gazes directed at me.
“Now, let’s answer what you’ve learned by looking at Aurelia. Leonas first.”
“…She said she had access to the 『Compendium of Imperial Etiquette』, 『Understanding and Practice of Noble Society』, 『Introduction to Imperial Politics』, and other swordsmanship, magic, history books, and novels whose titles I didn’t hear.”
“What can you infer from just the revealed titles?”
> “That they are books that do not exist in the present era.”
“What? How can you be so sure?”
Vilatea cut off Leonas, who was answering without hesitation. Leonas looked at my now empty right hand and answered her.
“Because I’ve read not only every book in the Academy, but also every book that exists in the ‘worlds’ I’ve been inserted into. I memorize most things I see once, but I’ve never seen anything like those.”
Vilatea clicked her tongue and waited for Perenustus’s answer. Contrary to Vilatea’s hope that the professor would naturally crush his overconfident student, Perenustus nodded.
> “Correct. They are books forgotten so long ago that even I wondered if they ever existed. Especially, the 『Introduction to Imperial Politics』 contained truths that should not be known to humans, so all copies were destroyed.”
“Excuse me……?”
> “The 『Compendium of Imperial Etiquette』 was designated as a forbidden book because it was judged that humans mimicking the divine order and blurring the boundary between gods and emperors was not right. They say the boundary between divine order and human power must be strictly maintained.”
Silphy, who had been listening blankly to his words, suddenly let out an exclamation as if remembering something.
“Ah! Right! I remember! That 『Understanding and Practice of Noble Society』, that one too! It’s a book that was destroyed long ago for blasphemy!”
“Blasphemy?”
> “Yeah. The old men up there. Said that if the power structure of noble society was overly rationalized, humans might forget the authority of the gods and build their own order. Back then, Ren was in his prime, so he argued furiously with the old men, asking what kind of nonsense they were talking about regarding perfectly fine books.”
Silphy looked at Perenustus and smiled faintly, as if nostalgic. Without even glancing toward the neckless dragon, Perenustus raised his hand and pointed into the air. Where he pointed, two transparent test-tube-like objects appeared.
One was filled with a bright blue light, and the other, which seemed to have a faint red light flickering inside, was almost empty. Perenustus pointed to the test tube filled with bright light.
> “This blue light is the total quantity of comedy in the worlds I oversee. And this empty one is the total quantity of tragedy.”
Perenustus pointed to the slightly filled side of the tragic tube.
> “It was almost empty, but it filled up very slightly when you saw the destroyed village. It filled a little more when you saw yourself being stabbed by the villagers. And then.”
His icy blue eyes, carrying a strange thrill, looked at me.
> “Just now, while you were angry in the temple, the tragedy increased significantly.”
I looked at the red light his fingertip indicated. It was such a pitiful amount that it was hard to call it ‘significant.’
> “It means my world is being swayed by Aurelia’s emotions. How dare you. How insolent.”
Contrary to the word ‘insolent,’ Perenustus’s expression looked pleased. Leonas and Vilatea glanced at their professor, who looked very strange, and exchanged uneasy glances with their eyes. Silphy was also looking at me and Perenustus with an unusually serious expression.
“Ren. Just in case, I’m asking, but you… you’re not planning to do what I think you are, are you?”
> “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Perenustus answered with a sneer, clapped his hands together, and then abruptly thrust his face toward me.
“Aurelia.”
“…What.”
> “Since you seem to not understand at all, let me explain. You are the only human being who has learned all the knowledge that the old bast… no, the old gods destroyed because they didn’t want to reveal it to humans.”
“Excuseme?”
> “To add in case you misunderstand, I am not the one who gave the oracle to that high priest.”
“Then….”
> “It must have been those bastards who realized before I did that my Aurelia is an existence who has learned everything they wanted to hide.”
Perenustus, his eyes gleaming, stretched out his index finger and pointed to the sky. I was silent for a moment. Then, after staring at the test tubes for a long time, I opened my mouth.
“You said the world is currently frozen, right?”
> “Yes. Because a major error was found.”
“Then….”
Quickly organizing my thoughts, I put strength into my eyes and looked at his index finger still pointing to the sky.
> “If I balance that comedy-tragedy total quantity, will you restore my villagers and my village back to normal?”
Perenustus narrowed his eyes.
> “From what I see, you don’t like those above you very much, and it seems I should dislike the ones who made me like this too. And it looks like you’re thinking of using that to get me to do something.”
“My goodness. You do have that much sense.”
> “…My villagers were innocent; they were just swept up by me. I think I need at least this kind of condition to muster something like motivation and do what you want me to do.”
“And what do you think I want you to do?”
“I don’t know. Me.”
I shrugged and pointed to the test tube floating in the air.
> “I’m just going to try my best and be as miserable as I can. Since balancing this total quantity is supposedly the task entrusted to you.”
“…….”
> “Whatever you expect, I’ll do it faster than that, so just make sure my villagers can return to a normal village and live normally. As if I never existed.”
> “Hey! You don’t make a deal like that so easily!”
Vilatea, who had been communicating with Leonas with her eyes the whole time, urgently grabbed my arm. I pretended not to care, stared intently at the woman who was subtly kind to everyone, and gave a bitter smile.
“From the beginning, my goal was to save the village from the Silver Dragon. Like this, I’ve just ended up stirring up the villagers, ruining the village, and becoming nothing more than a burden on their minds.”
“No—”
“It’s not that it’s not, but right now, this is the only path I can take. Isn’t that right?”
I smiled bitterly and looked at Perenustus.
> “You get to study how someone like me can scratch up there by doing their utmost, and you also get to eliminate the ‘error’ that’s been giving you a headache. It seems like a decent deal.”
Perenustus just stared blankly at me for a long time without saying anything.
