124 – Fire Moths (5)

Watching the cultists being captured by the golems one by one, Eltman started calculating in his head. Of course, the calculation here was purely about money, not about the future.

Losses now, gains in the future. No matter how strong Eltman was, it was impossible to make the golem completely undamaged in a battle between these superhumans. However, he did not lose his smile, and of course it was because the gains outweighed the losses.

He hesitated to view people simply as money for a while, but after doing these calculations several times, they no longer looked like people. As I let go of the hesitation, I no longer feel the reluctance I felt before. Maybe it was because it was after fighting them once.

“Is it almost over now?”

Heh heh…

creepy-!

At Eltman’s self-talk, the cultists captured by him shuddered.

It was because Eltman’s voice as he looked at them contained magic that was like indescribable madness. Even though it came from a subject completely different from their lives, it was a fact that listeners could not distinguish.

As long as they were caught by Eltman anyway, even if he didn’t directly take their lives, their fate was the same. What the imperial family detested and hated the most was the act of worshiping a foreign god.

The last person who fought back was captured by the golem, and the battle that took place here ended with Eltman’s victory.

“Hmm…”

Eltman took a look inside the messy building.

The battle between the superhumans who surpassed humans was bloody, and the aftermath was the same. Most of the furniture and interior walls that were originally placed here were broken. The flooring and wallpaper are scarred and torn here and there, so only the outer wall is intact, and there is no such thing as a haunted house.

Even though you worked like that, you didn’t break down.

Even though he knew that there was a barrier on the outer wall of the building, Eltman was deeply impressed by this fact.

The fact that this building can survive now means that the barrier is functioning properly. The perfection of the barrier followed the skill of the practitioner, so it also meant that the person who installed the barrier had excellent skills.

“I thought I gave it quite a bit of strength, but it’s unexpected. Well, it’s a good thing for me.”

Eltman was only a little disfigured, but he looked at the exterior of the building and thought hard to himself. Being strong means that you have a high status in the school, and the higher the status, the greater the reward when you catch it.

Perhaps the reward for catching that one person was more than the total of all the people here, so the joy of it was greater than the worry that things might not go as planned.

Perhaps trying to ruin Eltman’s expectations, one of the cultists captured by him screamed at him.

“Right now, have a good laugh. The Bishop will come soon enough to beat you to pieces!! I bet you, Eltman, don’t know his skills either. So, didn’t you get along with him closer than we did?”

“Ah, sure, the professor is an excellent wizard. But, on the other hand, he also knows my skills differently than you do, so maybe he didn’t come out like this? You stupid fool. Until now, where is the bishop and what is he doing? Don’t you know what the fact that he didn’t come out really means?”

The pagans who were making noise at Eltman’s words fell silent.

They knew why the bishop was not here.

No matter how much money Eltman was, he was someone who knew what was more important compared to his own life. His actions are always made within certain calculations. There would be a difference between the bishop at the time of releasing the divine power and the person he knew, but as if they were all caught in the hands of Eltman, that much of an error was expected.

The bishop must have avoided his seat like this because he knew the difference between him and him. Lombard, who had nothing to say, servilely lowered his head and spoke to Eltman.

“Sah, save me… At this rate, we’ll all die. Don’t you know how cruel the imperial family is to the pagans?”

At those words, his purple eyes, which had been cold as ice, shook slightly.

But that was all. The affection he had had with Eltman, whom he had let go of since they locked him up. He replied in the same tone as before to the pagan, Lombardy, who begged for his life.

“If you knew that. You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Ashes, if it’s wealth, I’ll give you whatever you want. Just let me live. You can do that. If only you would close your eyes here…”

“4th floor, Block 227, Block B.”

“!!!!”

“Did you think I wouldn’t know. I already know everything about the source of your slush funds and other assets. Even if you didn’t say that, I was going to take care of everything later. I don’t have much left over anyway. Thank you for supporting me and being my friend. Thanks to you, I was able to continue my research without being lonely. It’s all thanks to you.”

At Eltman’s thank you, they were stunned for a moment and couldn’t say anything, but soon they gave up and began to criticize him at the end. Eltman no longer listened to them. There was nothing left to say to them.

“Goodbye.”

He said his final goodbyes, left one of the golems he had brought with him to watch, and left. His battle isn’t over yet.

The president and the bishop never showed up, but Eltman could tell that he was still inside the building. At least, he must have been thinking of buying as much time as possible until the imperial army broke through the barrier and invaded. It was still safer to hide inside this building than to run outside.

But that doesn’t change the fact that he can go outside at any time. If, by chance, he changed his mind to run away due to the previous battle, things would become quite troublesome from Eltman’s point of view.

“I must hurry.”

He moved his steps, recalling the structure of the building he had looked at before.

***

“Is it over?”

A man muttered so in the darkness without a lamp.

The vibrations that echoed through the building were no longer felt. It meant that their battle was over. The man stretched out his hand toward the door leading outside without hesitation, even though he had been here since the battle broke out.

There was no need to check who won. It didn’t matter to him who the winner was. Sensing a commotion in the building, the imperial army would soon come here, and the man had to get out of here.

“I wish I could have bought a little more time, but… well, it worked.

Thinking of Eltman running rampant above, he pushed the door open. The man who watched him knew best how excellent his skills were. After all, it was he who called him to the academy to help with his research in the first place.

The alchemy professor who called Eltman to the academy. Philippus Parkel, he was the owner of this building.

Even though he thought he had reached the pinnacle in his field, Eltman’s talent was beyond imagination. With the exception of the golden pagoda owner, everyone was talented enough to instill feelings of jealousy in the men they thought were subordinate to them.

He knew so well about Eltman’s skills, so he had no intention of taking the loss by confronting him. It’s not that he doesn’t have the confidence to win, but since his goal was survival, he didn’t like wasting his energy.

“It was quite a fun time. Eltman Edelweiss. I will not forget your hard work.”

The man who muttered to himself as he gazed at the ceiling climbed the stairs beyond the door. It was an escape made in preparation for a time like now. Even if you can’t leave Luden, there are many ways to live if you get out of here.

You won’t be able to do anything for a while, but as long as you’re alive, support from the church will come someday. Until then, all you have to do is hold your breath and hide.

“That’s a bit of a waste. The title of professor at the academy. It was a position I really liked.”

Parkel expressed his regret and hurriedly climbed the stairs.

It was a comfortable position in many ways in that I could use talented students for research at will, and support for research came naturally even if I was still, but now it is all a thing of the past. Now I am just a fugitive. I had to get out of here to live.

You can see the end of a long, long staircase.

When he opened the exit door, the cool night air greeted him. It’s not wide, but looking at the open alley, it seemed that the cramped feeling of walking through the long and narrow aisles was blown away. The exit was quite far from the building, so the imperial army wouldn’t be able to immediately pursue it, so all they had to do was move to the safe house they had prepared in advance.

“Look, Damien. I told you you were coming out here, right?”

“Certainly I didn’t have to worry about where he was.”

He shuddered at the unexpected voice.

I turned my head and looked at the place where the voice came from, and there was a man and a woman standing in an alley. A white silver-haired girl glistening in the moonlight and a boy with golden eyes shining in the dark. How many people in the empire have such characteristics?

Knowing the identity of the two who appeared in front of him, Farkel immediately took a stance.

The silver girl laughed at him and said to the boy next to her.

“Damian. Promise.”

“…”

“Appointment.”

“…OK.”

A boy reluctantly responds to the girl’s demands. It was a question and answer that Parkel, who was watching this, could not understand at all, but the thought of him was erased from his mind in an instant. After the conversation between the two, all he could see was a white beam of light filling his vision.