"Master..."
Thad hesitated to speak. Was Alpeas truly the Alpeas from the past? Humans hold onto hope because they do not know the future. But there was no hope in Alpeas' memories. Any happy memories were buried under terrible pain.
Alpeas closed his eyes again. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Master, are you alright?"
"Thank you, Thad."
Thad let out a sigh of relief at the kind tone.
"Are you really okay?"
"Of course. I'm sorry for speaking harshly earlier. But that's how I used to be."
"No, I'm sorry. I thought Master might have made a mistake and wished that the Master had remained the same..."
Alpheas patted Thad's shoulder.
"It was a reasonable judgment. Perhaps it might have been better that way."
"Master, then..."
Thad grew restless again. Perhaps he should have moved forward as he had initially thought. It must have been an escape opportunity that would never present itself to Alpeas again.
"Yes. It's a memory I don't want to recall. But..."
Alpeas glanced at Erina's portrait. Remembering the moment he met her at the first dance and confessed his love, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"As painful as life may be, there are instances where you live to protect just one moment."
"Yes."
Thad finally felt relieved. Alpeas was Alpeas, no different from before.
The woman named Erina, who had shaken Alpeas' entire life, occupied a place in his heart as a painful yet unforgettable memory.
"Master, the one responsible for this incident is Arcane. Currently, Professor Ethella is..."
"I had a feeling from the moment it happened. It's not the time for explanations. Let's get moving."
As Alpeas walked towards the door, Thad followed. They had overcome the first obstacle, but the real problem was starting now. All the students were trapped in Arcane's clutches.
'Please, let's not be too late.'
***
After learning about Alpeas' past, Shirone and the others fell silent for a while. It was such a shocking event and such a heartbreaking love story.
"I didn't know our Director had gone through something like that..."
A certified fourth-rank mage and director of a prestigious magic academy. Anyone would think it was a successful life, no matter how you looked at it. However, upon hearing Arcane's story, Alpeas had truly stood out. A Gold Circle award winner for demonstrating the theory of light particles at an early age, and his memory transfer experiment was a progressive idea that had only been recently investigated in the magical community.
"Obviously, Alpeas was a genius. But he was weak. The world would have been different if he had held on a little. But a little affection ruined everything. I'll never forgive an Alpeas like that."
Shirone had many thoughts. Arcane was a villain recognized by the world, but he was also a mage. At least in Erina's experiment, he was simply a great assistant.
"Maybe. It might be hypocritical for Director Alpeas to have destroyed your research."
As Arcane's hostility had softened, Shirone could approach a bit more.
"But I would have made the same decision."
"Can you still say that after seeing what happened to Alpeas? Well, I guess a certified fourth-rank mage might seem impressive to you. However, you cannot reach the highest position if you let emotions cloud your judgment. Erina's death was unfortunate, but magic is magic. In that sense, Alpeas wasn't qualified."
Shirone shook his head. History might tell what was right, but Alpeas wasn't someone who acted on emotions. At least, that's what he believed.
"If the experiment had continued, there would have been many more victims. You wouldn't hesitate to conduct human experiments."
"I don't deny that. But if you can save many by sacrificing a few, it's worth it. Anyway, someone has to suffer. Isn't it the duty of intelligent people to save more people even at the cost of sacrifices? If you were faced with parents with a mentally disabled child, what would you do? Could you still be so hypocritical?"
"I could."
Arcane grimaced uncomfortably. But Shirone wasn't being stubborn.
"As you said, if 10,000 people can be saved by sacrificing one, it would be a reasonable choice. But even so, I wouldn't sacrifice that one person."
"Then ten thousand will die."
"That's inevitable."
Shirone said firmly.
"Ten thousand people may die. However, even if such a situation occurs, it is not an area where we, as humans, can intervene. The mere idea of weighing human lives is arrogant. We just have to do what we can, even if more people have to suffer. Then the day will come when we can save 10,000 people. What you're trying to do is no different from what a dictator would do in trying to rise above humanity."
Arcane realized Shirone was at his breaking point. Not being able to sacrifice a few for the majority? Some would call it virtuous, but in reality, not many people would accept it in such a situation. Humans are beings that wander between what benefits them between good and evil. But Shirone was at the extreme end of virtue. Both the cruel murderer and the saint who saved humanity are inhuman. And both were equally shunned by the public.
'Your life won't be peaceful either. Even dying here could be a blessing for you.'
Mages choose between good and evil based on their intellect. For Arcane, who believes that the efficiency of evil advances humanity, Shirone is a future enemy that needs to be eradicated.
"We are not ones who can get along. It's a shame, but I have to kill you."
Shirone stepped back. He had clearly felt that Arcane's power was declining until a moment ago, but now he exuded the energy of a true Archmage.
"Surprised, kid? Magic is something mysterious."
According to research by the Magic Association, the mental fatigue of a mage casting pure magic is equivalent to that of a normal person focusing on a single task for 48 minutes.
However, Arcane ignored such mental calculations and quickly regained his strength.
"Let's end this. There won't be any pain."
A shadow emerged from Arcane's body and a black curtain covered the sky. People were amazed at its enormous size. It was different in scale from the Darkness Power that Kanis displayed.
When Arcane raised his right hand, the curtain gathered into a fist. Shirone was truly astonished. Judging by the size of the fists, half of the earth could disappear.
'I can't stop it. I can't avoid it.'
If the Darkness Power is quantified, the force exerted by the unit cube (width, length, height 1 cm) is approximately 0.1 N, which is slightly better than that of an ant's jaw joint. However, when it reached the billion unit, it could sweep away everything on the ground with a tremendous force of a thousand tons.
"Stop this disaster, Master."
All eyes in the area turned towards the cliff. Alpeas stood up with his hands behind his back. Then, a roaring ray of light bent and twisted, and Thad landed beside Alpeas.
"Professor Thad!"
The color returned to Shirone's group's faces. The mere arrival of Alpeas and Thad made them feel as if they had gained a myriad of reinforcements. Thad looked towards the Power of Darkness and cast a Fire Line. The stream of flames emerged in the form of a double helix and gathered into a huge fireball.
"Wow..."
When the surrounding landscape turned white, they couldn't even open their eyes. However, Arcane countered the light burning their retinas with the power of dark magic and stared straight ahead.
"Hmm."
As he extended his palm towards the Fire Line, the floating power of darkness mimicked the movement and grabbed the enormous fireball.
Sssss!
Shirone shuddered. It was the first time he had heard something burning with such a colossal sound. As the world plunged back into darkness, Thad frowned and transformed the Spiritual Zone into an offensive form.
"Damn it! Annoying old man...!"
Alpeas raised his hand to stop him.
"That's enough, Thad."
"But Master..."
"It's my business. It's between Arcane and me. Leave it to me from now on."
Alpeas moved forward nonchalantly. Then, Arcane also deployed the darkness, which had extinguished the Fire Line, once again in the form of a curtain and spread it across the sky.
"You've aged, Alpeas. Well, even the time mage is just a human facing time."
Alpeas ignored the first greeting in 40 years. At least, not yet... It wasn't time for old fools and whimsical grudges to clear the air. Passing between hundreds of students, glancing at the injured Eruki, Neid, and Shirone, he looked back at Ethella one last time. It was clear that she had already fought against Arcane because numerous bruises spread across her pale skin.
"You've worked hard, Ethella. It's because I'm immoral. I can only apologize."
"No, I'm sorry. I couldn't save the students."
Alpeas shook his head. When Ethella, who mastered magic, martial arts, and mental arts, came for an interview as a teacher, he was perplexed. But today, he couldn't be prouder of his decision to hire her. If it hadn't been for her, all the students wouldn't have been safe.
"Director, please be careful."
Shirone said with a worried expression. If it was Arcane, whose energy was depleted, he considered that Alpeas, a certified fourth-rank mage, could handle him. However, it was undeniable that Arcane was now in his best condition.
Alpeas smiled as if he already knew.
"Don't worry. There's no magic that violates the principle of equivalent exchange."
"But Arcane's mental strength is definitely..."
"Yes, it has recovered. But that's also magic."
"Magic?"
"Abyss Magic controls memories. It was created by Arcane and is the magic he uses best. Isn't that right, Master?"
Arcane snorted.
"It seems you're still not senile. By the way, the magic you suffered is an unmatched magic called Abyss Nova. There's no need to explain the effect since you've experienced it yourself."
"It was great magic. Thanks to that, it was nice to be able to reminisce old memories."
"Don't boast. You were probably so scared that you ran away. You probably cried your eyes out."
"You got that right. But it seems you've weakened while I wasn't looking, Master. Fighting so much against kids who are 100 years younger than you, even having to cast Abyss Memory."
Arcane wasn't angry. When Alpeas was calm, he was too. Forty years of resentment couldn't be resolved with words alone.
Alpeas turned his head towards Shirone as if enjoying the glow of the night before the storm.
"Shirone. To cast magic, you need strong momentary concentration. It's like using the concentration of a normal person accumulated in an hour, in just one second. That's why Arcane did this."
Alpeas tapped his temple with his index finger and said.
"It was cast on his own head. The magic to erase memories."
"Ah..."
There was a way. If the memory of using the brain was erased, the mental fatigue would disappear. Of course, it was inevitable to overload functionally, but occasionally, it would be enough to restore mental strength.
Alpeas understood Shirone's feelings. Vilthor Arcane. He was a mage who persisted on the battlefield for 100 years with unconventional dark magic. Regardless of past resentments, his skills had to be acknowledged.
"That's right. It's a bold and brilliant technique. Arcane is a mage who lives in such a world. So remember this too. A person who doesn't have a last resort can never be called a battle mage."