C97
“Master….”
Thad hesitated to speak up. Was Alpheas truly the Alpheas of the past? Humans have hope because they do not know the future. But there was no hope in Alpheas's memories. Any happy memories were buried under terrible pain.
Alpheas closed his eyes again. A drop of tears flowed down.
"Master, are you alright?"
“Thank you, Thad.”
Thad let out a sigh of relief at the gentle tone.
"Are you really okay?"
"Of course. I'm sorry for speaking harshly to you earlier. But that's who I used to be.”
"No, I'm sorry. I thought Master might have made a mistake and wished Master had stayed the same..."
Alpheas patted Thad's shoulder.
"It was a reasonable judgment. Maybe it would have been better that way."
“Master, then….”
Thad became anxious again. Maybe he should have pushed on as he initially thought. It must have been an opportunity for escape that would never come again for Alpheas.
"Yes. It's a memory I never want to recall. But……."
Alpheas looked at Erina's portrait. Recalling the moment he met her at the first ball and confessed his love, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
“No matter how painful life is, there are cases where you live to protect just one moment."
"Yes."
Thad was finally relieved. Alpheas was Alpheas, no different from the old one.
The woman named Erina, who had shaken Alpheas's entire life, held a place in his heart as painful but unforgettable memories.
"Master, the one who caused this incident is Arcane. Currently, Teacher Ethella is..."
"I had a feeling since the moment it happened. This is not the time for explanations. Let's get moving."
As Alpheas walked to the door, Thad followed. They had overcome the first hurdle, but the real problem began now. The entire student was caught in Arcane's clutches.
'Please, we must not be too late.'
To Infinity (1)
After learning about Alpheas' past, Shirone and the others were silent for a while. It was such a shocking event and a heart-wrenching love story.
"I never knew that such a thing happened to our principal..."
A certified 4th rank mage and the principal of a prestigious magic school. Anyone would thought it was a successful life no matter how they saw it. However, if one listen to Arcane's story, Alpheas had been truly remarkable. A Gold Circle award winner for proving the theory of light particles at a young age, and his memory transfer experiment was a progressive idea that had only recently been researched in the magic community.
“Obviously, Alpheas was a genius. But he was weak. The world would have been different if he had only endured a little. But a little affection ruined everything. I can never forgive such Alpheas.”
Shirone had many thoughts. Arcane was a villain recognized by the world but was also a mage. At least in Erina's experiment, he was merely a great helper.
"Perhaps. It might be hypocritical for Principal Alpheas to have destroyed your research."
As Arcane's hostility had softened, Shirone could get a little closer.
“But I would have made the same choice.”
"Can you still say that after seeing what happened to Alpheas? Well, I suppose a certified 4th rank mage might seem impressive to you. However, you can't reach the highest position if you're swayed by emotions. Erina's death was unfortunate, but magic is magic. In that sense, Alpheas was unqualified."
Shirone shook his head. History will tell you what was right, but Alpheas was not swayed by emotion. At least he thought so.
"If the experiment had continued, there would have been many more victims. You wouldn't hesitate to perform human experiments."
"I won't deny that. But if you can save many by sacrificing a few, it's worth it. Someone has to suffer anyway. Isn't it the duty of the intelligences to save more people even at the cost of sacrifice? If you had parents with a mentally disabled child in front of you, what would you do? Could you still be so hypocritical?"
"I could."
Arcane grimaced in discomfort. But Shirone wasn't being stubborn.
“As you said, if 10,000 people can be saved by sacrificing one person, it would be a reasonable choice. But even so, I wouldn't sacrifice that one person."
"Then ten thousand people will die."
"That's inevitable."
Shirone said with a firm look.
"Ten thousand people may die. However, even if such a situation arises, it is not an area that we as humans can intervene in. The very 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 a dictator trying to rise above humanity."
Tags:
Infinite Mage (Novel)
