Chapter : 181

Sometimes, there were tricky dungeons that had entry conditions.

However, the fact that it was impossible even for Mordin, who had already entered and exited once, to re-enter meant—

“You’re saying a condition was set in that short time.”

Evan nodded as if agreeing with Mordin’s guess.

“We can just use analysis magic.”

There was one problem. While casting analysis magic, the caster becomes defenseless.

If Mordin were to suddenly attack during that time, and Iris joined in a coordinated assault, it would be practically impossible for Beatrice to hold them off alone.

“……”

As Beatrice’s gaze fell on him, Mordin subtly showed his one arm, which was not free due to being bound.

How could he even think of fighting back when his arm was constrained like this. Evan, who had been staring blankly at Mordin trying to prove his innocence in his own way, placed a hand on his neck.

Startled by Evan’s sudden action, Beatrice, who was watching from the side, tried to pull Evan’s arm away.

“Hey, I understand you’re angry, but you still can’t kill him, you know?”

“Are you seeing me as some shameless person who would kill an important witness, blinded by rage?”

“Ah.”

It was precisely because she knew Evan so well that she was even more anxious.

Maybe not now, but the Evan Lisitoel that Beatrice knew was a character who would have gone much further than that.

Even though he couldn’t have been completely unaware of her feelings, the person in question shamelessly kept his hand gripped on Mordin’s neck, shooting daggers with his eyes.

Why don’t you just make arrows with that glare? Beatrice barely swallowed her sarcasm.

“I will engrave a magic that will kill you the moment I wish it.”

Evan’s gaze was as cold as frost.

Even under that gaze, Mordin remained indifferent.

It was quite remarkable that he could remain silent even after fully receiving that glare.

Beatrice would never have been able to endure it.

As dense mana gathered at Evan’s fingertips, Mordin furrowed his brow, whether because it was hard to breathe or because he was unconsciously resisting the magic.

But even that was just a meaningless struggle before Evan’s overwhelming power.

In the end, just before Mordin could completely shake off Evan’s hand, Evan removed his hand himself.

On Mordin’s neck was not a red handprint, but the Brand of Four Souls, engraved with mana.

“Once everything is over, I will remove the brand myself.”

“…I’ll trust you.”

Although his face was full of mistrust, Mordin seemed to have accepted it to some extent as he slowly nodded his head.

After engraving the Brand of Four Souls, Evan, as promised, untied the rope binding Mordin.

The one-armed magician clenched and unclenched his fist a few times, staring blankly at Evan.

In the same situation of accompanying a hostile opponent, the ways the father and son handled it were so different.

There was no way Theo would know of a dangerous magic like the ‘Brand of Four Souls,’ which was used on prisoners of war, but he could have easily come up with a method that had a similar effect, yet he didn’t use it.

It was a difference in prudence, but at the same time, a difference in moderation.

“…You suddenly engraved the Brand of Four Souls, is your mana flow okay?”

Perhaps thinking that engraving the Brand of Four Souls was a bit too much, Beatrice cautiously approached Mordin and asked.

Mordin, the one directly involved, answered with an indifferent face.

“I can’t use magic.”

At Mordin’s insincere reply, Beatrice’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean, you can’t use magic?!”

“All my mana circuits are burned, there’s no way I can use magic.”

His mana circuits were burned.

Beatrice’s face turned deathly pale.

How on earth did that happen? Did Iris Viden damage his circuits when she kicked him out?

Was that the reason for his betrayal? No, he wasn’t the kind of man to betray someone just because his mana circuits were burned.

“No! You should have told me beforehand if you couldn’t use magic!”

Then I would have stopped you from doing something crazy like engraving the Brand of Four Souls!

Beatrice, in a complete panic, glared with wide eyes, grabbed Mordin’s one shoulder, and shook him.

“Is it completely irreversible?”

“It might be possible with the Golden Elixir.”

Evan muttered.

“Tsk, it’s hopeless.”

The Golden Elixir was incredibly rare. Moreover, it was too much of a waste to use it to restore the power of a criminal who wouldn’t be out of place if executed.

“Is there really no way at all?”

Beatrice asked, but immediately shut her mouth.

Even she thought it was an unreasonable question. If that were possible, people wouldn’t consider burned mana circuits an incurable disease in the first place.

“Useless.”

“I can still make alchemy potions.”

So you couldn’t say he was completely useless.

At the indifferent conversation between Evan and Mordin, Beatrice felt a few tears well up, wondering if she was the strange one.

Mordin extended his freed arm toward the dungeon entrance.

“……”

The dungeon rejected Mordin, who didn’t meet the condition, but it was a better reaction than the more violent one shown to Evan.

If he endured the pain and forced his way through, he would be able to break in.

“Beatrice.”

“Alright.”

Beatrice obediently complied and reached out her hand, but as expected, the reaction was so violent that she couldn’t even get her fingertips to touch it.

“This is so annoying!”

Unable to bear it, Beatrice threw a ball of pure white flame toward the dungeon entrance, but it scattered as soon as it touched the gate.

Alright, you want to go at it with me?

Beatrice’s eyes blazed with killing intent. Evan ignored her and instructed Mordin.

“Keep your hand on the entrance. I’ll use analysis magic through you.”

It was impossible for Evan and Beatrice, but with the level of resistance Mordin faced, even if he couldn’t enter, he should be able to make contact.

Beatrice, who had been throwing a few more fireballs, whipped her head around and shouted at Evan.

“You know that using another person as a medium for analysis magic can cause problems, right?”

“I can account for that much.”

At his confident reply, Beatrice was momentarily at a loss for words.

Was it really something one could so easily say they could ‘account for’?

“Is it possible?”

At Evan’s question, Mordin extended his one arm without a word.

The dungeon still rejected Mordin, but unlike Evan’s hand, which was violently pushed away, he was able to break through somehow.

With his hand still on the dungeon, which was crackling with lightning, Mordin cast the analysis magic.

Even in this moment, his arm was not just turning bright red from the lightning emitted by the dungeon, but was being grotesquely cooked.

Although he grimaced slightly from the pain, to Mordin, who clung to life, such trivial injuries were not of great importance.

A simple healing potion was enough for an injury of this level.

If it came down to it, I’ll just cut off the remaining arm. What’s the big deal.

Mordin, with a thought that would have made Beatrice faint, focused on the information flowing into him through Evan’s analysis magic.

“Ha.”

You’re still the same person.

Mordin, recalling Iris Viden’s smile, could no longer laugh.

Mordin, who had been unconcerned even with the pain of his skin burning from the lightning, pulled his arm away and spoke to Beatrice instead of the stone-faced Evan.

“The condition is simple. You must be a currently enrolled student of the Academy.”

“What the X-chin?”

Beatrice spat out a curse filled with genuine feeling, her voice raw.

This was blatantly—

“A demand for Lerwon.”

There was no other answer.

* * *

“I’m against it.”

Lilia, lying in bed, said firmly.

She had wondered what they were going to say, calling even Cecilia over, but to think it was a request to help rescue Theo by helping Lerwon.

“Now that the faculty is involved, you know it’s meaningless for us students to step in, right?”

“I know that! But we can still lend a hand, even if it’s a cat’s paw.”

“And there’s no reason for me to risk my life fighting Iris for a guy I’m not even that close to.”

“Lilia Bellone!”

Laurel, startled, called out her name.

“Even taking out all my personal feelings toward Lerwon, I’m still against it.”

Lilia was firm.

Her life was in danger. That was a truth without a shred of exaggeration, and Lilia hadn’t built enough of a friendship with Theo to risk her life for him.

“But, thanks to Theo—”

“I’m certainly grateful he saved Unni, but does that become a reason to risk my life to save him?”

“You….”

Laurel looked at Lilia with shocked eyes, as if asking how she could be like this.

At least the Lilia that Laurel knew wasn’t such a cold and heartless person to turn a blind eye when a junior from school was dying.

“Laurel, you say that because you don’t know what a crazy person Iris is.”

Just from the fragments Lilia had learned, Iris Viden had become someone who should not be crossed.

It was a welcome development that Lerwon was no longer being swayed by Iris Viden, but separate from that, she still didn’t have enough loyalty to risk her life to rescue him.

“Cecilia-sunbae!”

Laurel looked at Cecilia as if grabbing a lifeline.

Cecilia also remained silent, just staring intently at Lilia.

“Unni, if your reason for wanting to save Theo Lisitoel is simply to repay the debt of him saving your life, then give up.”

If that was the only reason, Lilia would not move.

If Lilia didn’t move, she couldn’t make Cecilia move either.

“Besides, I ended up using my secret technique, so I’m out of commission… what exactly are you asking of someone who can’t even walk on her own two feet?”

“Ah.”

Thanks to the magical girl’s secret technique, Lilia had gained muscle pain so severe it would be difficult to even lift a finger for three or four days.

She didn’t regret using the technique itself. If she hadn’t, it would have been difficult to subdue Lerwon.

“And, even after using the magical girl’s secret technique, I only barely managed to subdue Lerwon by taking advantage of an opening when he was off guard. Iris is an even greater monster than that.”

“……”

“What you’re doing right now, Laurel , is just asking us all to go die together. Do you get it now?”

“…Yeah.”

Seeing Laurel’s dejected and mumbling figure, Lilia’s heart ached for no reason.

She understood why she had come wanting to save Theo, but what couldn’t be done, couldn’t be done.

“The three of us, no, it would be difficult even with several people in perfect sync. You want to face that? You have big dreams.”

“You’re too cruel!”

“The decision to charge in while transformed as a magical girl is valid in itself, but it’s difficult for me, and as for Cecilia-sunbae—”

“Charging in recklessly is too dangerous.”

“I’m not saying we should charge in recklessly!”

Laurel shouted as if wronged, but Cecilia and Lilia were clearly filled with disbelief.

No matter how they thought about it, she had no clear plan.

“Besides, from my perspective, this would be defying my master. You are considering the backlash from that, aren’t you?”

At Lilia’s continued sharp and stinging remark, Laurel shed tears.

Making a mockery of how she had confidently said she was fine in front of Lerwon, she truly hadn’t expected to be rejected at the Lilia stage.

“If your physical condition is the problem, there’s a solution.”

Just then, Lerwon’s voice was heard from beyond the door.

“Unni, you didn’t lock him up?!”

At Lerwon’s appearance, Lilia was horrified and asked Laurel sharply.

Come to think of it, I forgot to put the handcuffs back on.

Oops! At Laurel’s startled expression, Lilia’s head throbbed. She was a senior and a sister she respected, but wasn’t this too much?

Lerwon threw a small bottle containing a golden potion toward Lilia.

Lilia, who had caught it casually, almost dropped the potion due to her muscle pain, and she held the small potion, which scattered a golden light, up to the lamp.

“What is this?”

“The Golden Elixir.”

At Lerwon’s indifferent answer, Lilia, who had been holding the potion with one hand, instantly clutched it tightly with both hands, and Laurel also quickly moved to Lilia’s side.

It was an instinctive choice made to catch it in case Lilia dropped it.

Even Cecilia, who rarely showed any expression, looked down at the golden potion in Lilia’s hand in surprise.

“The Golden Elixir? The elixir that I know? The one from the Imperial Treasury that’s now all used up?”

Lerwon, who nodded his head without a word, showed the small golden potions he had packed in his arms.

“The recipe for the Golden Elixir. I figured it out.”

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