Episode 99. diffel (1)

rattle-

When the door of the magic engineering elevator closed, me and Mel inside… . To be precise, there were only three left, including Meriel.

I wonder if I was the only professor trying to enter the room already, the elevator reached the 13th floor at once without picking up other guests.

In the meantime, we haven’t had any conversation.

Outside, Mel, who skillfully introduced me and Dana to the surrounding facilities, suddenly shut up, and I watched through the mirror as Meriel lifted her toes and looked down into his pockets.

Meriel, who had been snooping around Mel a few times, spoke to me.

“There is no sign of reluctance yet.”

Instead of nodding, I looked at her eyes in the mirror and thought.

‘If it’s Meriel, it must be like that. It’s sharp enough that even Professor Telvin can detect it.’

Last winter, when Professor Telvin first came to me about Inna’s criminal case.

She had warned me when she noticed that he was approaching my office unnoticed.

‘Thanks to that, Telvin still thinks I’m a Rang and has a good sense… .’

First of all, she is a spirit bound to me, but it was possible because she was baptized by Elma and completely washed away her ghosts, and her specs matched those of the guardian spirit.

When I was fighting information warfare in the office, I received a lot of help from Elma, who can move around freely anywhere on campus.

Like now, when I had to step into a crisis myself, I had to borrow Meriel’s power to protect me.

“be careful. He might have a colleague.”

As she said, she didn’t let go of her tension, and she got off the elevator and stepped onto the red carpet in the hallway.

The dark hallway was so narrow and long that I couldn’t see the end clearly.

Without Meriel by her side, she would have never thought of stepping in, following Mel in the thin darkness without a word.

“Professor Ian, as a researcher of the same Bible, there is something I really want to ask you, could you please answer?”

He gradually slowed down his pace and finally stopped and asked me.

“Do you think that the existence of a creator deprives people of their freedom? Would humans be more free if it had not been for the Bible?”

The empty hallway, where not even the cleaners were visible, was filled with silence so that even the sound of shoes could not be heard because of the carpet on the floor.

In silence, I thought over the question he posed in a trembling voice, and answered clearly.

“Nope. It will be difficult to find an era where humans are as free as now when Elma is manifesting in Kiruna.”

“… .”

“This is an era in which individuals choose a church with a doctrine that suits them and pray. Religion must also have become one of the options given to humans.”

To Mel who nodded, I kept replying.

“Currently, theology is in a hurry to maintain the number of followers who are dwindling due to shamanism, but thanks to the goddess leaving evidence of existence in Kiruna, it has not disappeared into the dark side of history or lost its authority.”

However, if the existence of the creator god or the Bible is denied by magicians, the cathedral will lose its place and disappear.

“Elma never forced people to believe. It was also the humans who started following Elma at the mercy of the Creator God, who extended it to humans without a guardian spirit.”

“… !”

“However, Elma did not reject it and became a resting place for humans to trust and rely on… . I’m afraid that the greed of the magicians is taking away the freedom of humans to choose their faith. I wonder if it’s not much different from the past when theology suppressed sorcery.”

“ah… .”

“If magicians truly pursue human freedom, shouldn’t they reduce their desire to approach magisterically as much as the fields covered by theology? That is why I oppose mana reductionism.”

“Then, Kegar’s offer to recruit Eclipse is-”

“Of course I declined. The same goes for Professor Dana, who was next to me.”

I added to him who finally opened his dark face.

“So, I am not your enemy.”

“I… . Perhaps-“

Before he could even speak, the silver-haired vampires hiding in the darkness of the hallway grabbed their necks and rolled on the floor.

“Kuh… . Kuk… !”

“Su, breath-”

Leaving behind Mel, who looked down at them with a stunned face, I crouched down behind Meriel, who was glaring at them.

“Let it be. You should be good at identifying friends and family from now on.”

“Sheesh.”

* * *

“The different races consider their guardian spirits to be the reason for their existence. In other words, the theory of mana reduction to bring down the authority of God to the bottom is a reckless act that could lead to a war between humans and other races.”

In the dimly lit room, where only milky sunlight filtered through the curtains, Mel spoke to me.

“And, if theology collapses, there will be no force to check the rampage of magism. When an anti-ethical experiment is carried out in the name of truth-seeking and freedom-seeking, it will be difficult for magicians belonging to the same faction to criticize and correct it.”

The problem was that the majority of Rubedo-level scholars, who were unaware of this fact, were encouraging research on mana reduction theory, rather than banning it.

“Since 7 of them have joined the Eclipse, mana reduction theory has now become a major research subject for the Imperial Society.”

Eclipse, a newly established research organization within the Imperial Society.

Mel said that in order to stop them, he gathered scholars with the same intentions and formed a death squad, informed the different races of the existence and danger of Eclipse and sought their cooperation.

I looked at the silver-haired woman who was sitting as the representative of the vampires for a moment and then nodded.

“If you are in a situation where you have to confront the main pillars that move the Imperial Academy… . Certainly, there must have been no way to oppose it other than to attract outside forces.”

“Yeah. That is also why we tried to contact Professor Ian, who is not a member of the academy but has a great influence.”

Eclipse was able to have such a strong force because the support of Seryl, the most influential candidate for the next emperor, played a major role.

It must have been that his thoughts had spread in the direction that he needed the help of Frill, which has recently emerged as an alternative to Seryl for moderate nobles.

She seems to have thought that if she recruited me, her teacher, into the death squad, she would be able to check Seril, who moves freely as if she had placed the Imperial Academy under her command… .

“Originally, I wanted to tell you this story on the train to the first tower, but… . I never thought that Kegar would play.”

From their point of view, it became impossible to know whether I had accepted or rejected the offer to recruit Eclipse.

After listening to that, I sorted out the situation.

“Is that why you lured me into the hallway where the vampires were infiltrating and conducted a guiding newspaper?”

“… sorry. It was such a difficult situation that the members of the association were secretly losing their lives, so I had no choice but to be cautious.”

It was something I expected to some extent from the time I was asked by him, so I wasn’t too offended about that part.

“still… . There are still questions.”

I said looking at a vampire who was still holding a red mark on his neck.

“Why did you want to attack me when I showed no hostility?”

“… It’s embarrassing, but it looks like one of our platoon members tried to test you. I’ve been educating myself that outward magic isn’t everything… . I apologize once again.”

Silver hair washed by moonlight and a coat as black as the midnight sky.

A warden who punishes vampires who commit crimes and hunts down fallen kin… . It was the symbol of the Deepel Hunter.

“Greetings. This is the 2nd Platoon Leader of the Dipel Hunting Club, Warden Lewen.”

* * *

“To begin with, the current vampire society is in unprecedented chaos.”

‘Come to think of it, then… .’

When I heard about the conversation between Charlotte and Ale from Elma, I remember hearing that the atmosphere inside Esca Castle was unusual.

Having instructed the platoon members not to let anyone outside eavesdrop on this conversation, she whispered to me.

“Recently, without any signs… . It is because the number of Dipel has skyrocketed.”

“How serious can you be-”

“Our platoon hunted over 20 Dipels last month alone.”

“… Do you mean that much?”

If the extremely low incidence of Diffel increases, the trusting relationships that vampires have built over a long period of time with other races will collapse at once.

No matter how much vampires contribute greatly to the demonic war and constantly atone, no one will try to get close to them with the risk of turning into monsters at any moment.

“A more serious problem is… . Since last winter, Dipel has also been occurring inside Esca Castle. This is the first time since the establishment of Esca Castle.”

“Are you saying that a high-ranking vampire who receives blood from a blood donor is corrupted? No way… .”

“Yeah. Even among our Wardens, we’re starting to see some defelizers.”

The person who was close to me until yesterday suddenly reveals it to me today. Dippel is coming out of the aristocratic family that had been a voice in the Vampire Council until a few months ago.

Due to this, the whole family is completely ruined, so things are happening frequently.

“If this situation continues, the race of vampires will disappear from the world within a few years.”

Relations with other races are also a problem, but vampires are also losing trust among themselves.

Such as finding and accusing each other’s dipels in the council, or lower vampires not obeying the warden’s orders.

Everyone is standing up… . Lewen is also said to be struggling to control the platoon members.

“It’s because I’m lacking. I have no face to see the professor.”

“It’s okay if you stop apologizing. By the way, the situation is much more serious than I thought.”

“The fate of the race is being shaken. Our platoon was tasked with hunting down Dipels and investigating this mysterious phenomenon. And… . Working with Mr. Mel, we were finally able to get to the bottom of this tragedy.”

“that’s… .”

“Mana reduction theory. There must have been a problem with Esca-sama because of the theory created to make the divinity fall.”

Rewen said in a confident voice.

“The period when Mana Reduction Theory was adopted as the mainstream theory of the Imperial Society is almost the same as the period when Dipel surged.”

“So, research proving the mana reduction theory… . It is understandable to some extent that the current Diffel is the cause of indiscriminate occurrence.”

“That’s right. However, the reason we risked our lives to infiltrate the festival of the Imperial Society without permission is not just to prove it.”

“… ?”

“We tenaciously followed the research activities of Eclipse, especially Kegar. As a result, not only vampires… . Because I had to discover something that would shake the foundations of the world.”

She got up and took my hand with her black-gloved hand.

“There is a saying that it is better to see once than hear a hundred times. It would be better to go now when everyone is busy with other professors’ entertainment.”