Chapter 234 : Chapter 234
Chapter 234: Agitation (3)
There were four theories.
There could be more, but those were what Harad could think of immediately.
Of course, Seria acknowledged nothing.
She glared at Harad with murderous eyes. It was a more vicious atmosphere than agitation, but in the end, it was not agitation.
"No matter how much you deny it, it is true that I am special."
"……"
Seria could not deny that fact.
Because she herself was the evidence. No matter how much fire he showed, even when mentioning Laan, Seria did not become agitated.
The problem was not faith but being a Mage.
"There must be some connection. If there is, the Church would know."
Harad did not simply pass it off as coincidence or a matter of Seria's constitution.
She had become Ellen's friend, and she was not driven mad only toward the Mage closest to that Ellen.
That was too convenient a story.
"It is more than worth confirming."
Because he took Embers and all fire resembled the sun.
That it was a variable caused by that, Harad was half-convinced.
Originally, Origins could only be inferred to be the sun through Projection or Manifestation.
'It changes when one knows it is the sun.'
In his past life, he had never shown the sun to priests.
At that time, Harad had been in a position where he must not be a Mage.
'Do other priests also react that way?'
Harad wanted to go out to the continent and show his magic to priests.
'Would they do it if I asked to be kidnapped?'
Harad recalled Intelligence Bureau Director Benus.
As he stroked his chin like that, his eyes met Seria's. It was a displeased face.
He had merely diagnosed her condition and guessed the cause.
Seria wanted a solution.
"I will explain treating my Predation and your agitation as the same thing."
"Yes. I understand."
Seria nodded.
Having heard the explanation, Seria too was feeling the similarity between agitation and Predation.
"First of all, you are more severe than I am."
"What?"
"I do not react to the hearts of those who are not Mages. But you do."
Harad only reacted to the hearts of Magical Beasts or Mages.
Seria also reacted to suspects.
To explain it with Predation, she had become an addict to the degree of drooling even over the hearts of those who were not Mages.
"But your situation is worse than mine. Magical Beasts and Mages are rare, but suspects are lying around on the street."
Substituting Harad, it was as if hearts were hanging in clusters like fruit wherever he went.
"A method of suppression."
Seria's eyes sparkled.
Harad scratched his chin.
"There is none."
"……?"
"If there were such a thing, I would have done it first."
Ellen nodded beside them.
"How does Harad manage it?"
Seria asked accusingly.
"Normally I endure. Before withdrawal symptoms burst out, I go to eat."
Harad gestured toward the north with his chin.
There was so much to eat at the border.
Unless deliberately fasting, occasions to go to the border arose before withdrawal phenomena.
"Ah. I say eat, but normally I burn and absorb with fire."
"If you cannot eat, does a phenomenon similar to agitation also occur to Harad?"
Harad nodded.
"Probably I would go mad. I have never been unable to eat to that extent. Since severe heart addicts quench their thirst with cannibalism."
It was similar to Seria reacting to suspects.
In Mage terms, Seria was a severe heart addict.
"……Does that mean I must live like that for my entire life?"
"We get better when we become 6th Rank. When we subjugate our Origin. Of course, most reach their limit before that and die."
"……"
"There is no 6th Rank for priests."
It was pitying eyes.
Whether directed at Harad or at herself. Harad thought it was both.
"The method of suppression or solution would also be different."
"……"
"Perhaps the method too."
They were merely similar.
In the end, they would not be exactly the same.
Looking up close, trees are similar.
The appearance of bark is more or less the same.
Looking from afar, differences emerge.
The branches are different, the leaves are different.
'Driven mad by hearts. Driven mad by demons.'
Predate, kill, and the symptoms improve.
'Also driven mad by suspects. For us to be like that, the degree of addiction must become extremely severe.'
Crocodile. The Kubel of his past life had been close to a madman.
He had only killed Mages, and knights and priests. The former was addiction, the latter was revenge for Shura.
'He never ate the hearts of civilians.'
To become addicted to that degree, the hearts predated would have to be tremendous.
'She killed that many? More than the Kubel of the past life?'
Harad stared intently at Seria.
Her nickname was the guillotine, to be sure.
But that had exaggerated aspects.
Seria was not much older than Ellen.
'At that age?'
She killed more than the Kubel of his past life?
'That cannot be.'
If so, her nickname should have been something related to massacre, not guillotine.
"How many have you killed? All combined."
"……"
"You can roughly lump them together."
"……It exceeds several dozen."
Seria said with her head deeply lowered.
Because it was a number mixing Mages and suspects.
"Fifty?"
"……"
"Below then."
It did not exceed fifty.
"Merely."
There was no way she would be so addicted to that degree.
"It is not that the addiction became severe."
Her heel lifted slightly.
The shadow bulged out. Jis seemed to have felt the same strangeness.
'Upon seeing Jis, Seria tried to become agitated. When Jis disappeared, she became comfortable.'
In Harad's terms, it was as if he had been drooling profusely upon seeing a heart, then the desire disappeared when the heart vanished.
'It does not make sense.'
It would be right to chase after the vanished heart somehow.
That was the proper attitude of an addict.
'Is it that reality is not what matters?'
If she does not perceive a demon, she also does not become agitated.
But she does toward suspects.
Even though they are not demons.
It meant the subject was Seria.
'But ideology is unrelated.'
She knows demons can become neighbors.
Yet Seria becomes agitated even toward good Mages.
'Mages are indeed the problem.'
She needed to go one step further from there.
"By any chance, even if you kill a suspect who is not a Mage, do you regain your senses? Do you obtain the same pleasure?"
"……That is correct."
Seria hesitated, then answered.
That was a sin. A sin she must atone for in the future.
To Harad, it was an answer.
'Jis and I go mad when we see a heart.'
That heart is real.
We drool only when it is before our eyes.
Not Seria.
A suspect may not be a Mage.
It meant she went mad over something that did not exist.
"Addiction is not the problem."
"……?"
"You have become addicted, but you have not gone mad to the degree of coveting those who are not Mages."
To do so, the number killed would have to be tremendous.
A guillotine is a tool that culls those to be executed.
Seria's mistakes or executions did not even exceed a mere fifty.
"You go mad from the thought itself of being a Mage."
The Mage before her eyes is not the problem.
The Mage inside Seria's head is the problem.
"The Mage in your imagination drives you mad."
"……"
"You go mad from mere suspicion, and you regain your senses only by killing. It is closer to mental illness than addiction."
She is not a severe addict.
Seria was close to a severe mental patient.
"Or perhaps a curse."
Or she was similar to Jis.
She cannot tolerate Mages.
Harad thought Seria had received such a curse.
'It cannot truly be mental illness.'
Agitation manifested after her first demon killing.
The cause would be Divine power.
'She said it was baptism.'
That had become a curse for Seria.
"For certain. That would rather be better."
Being driven mad by imagination was better than being driven mad by reality.
At least Harad thought so.
"The mind can be overcome, they say."
The North was quite fond of such worn-out common sense.
If you dislike bugs, feed them bugs.
Until they like them.
If you fear wolves, fight wolves.
Until you kill the wolf.
"It is a famous saying."
"I am hearing it for the first time."
"In the North. Do not tell me you thought it foolish?"
"How could that be?"
Seria hastily relaxed her look of finding it foolish.
Beside them, Ellen was proud.
The Elaine of his past life and Ellen both loved the ignorant North.
It was the reason why, while teaching magic to knights, he must leave ignorance in other aspects.
"I could not properly introduce him earlier. This is 2nd Knights Commander Cassion."
Harad brought Cassion to the backyard of his Annex.
"I am Priestess Seria."
Seria greeted him while making the Holy sign.
"2nd Knights Commander."
Cassion crossed his arms.
His face was openly annoyed.
"The Sword Master of the Great Barrier……"
"He is a Mage."
"What?"
"Cassion is a Mage."
Seria blinked with her mouth open.
The Sword Master Serzila boasted of was a Mage.
To Seria's ears, it was nonsense.
"Crazy bastard."
However, Cassion beside them, genuinely angry, was sufficient to transform into a suspect.
Cassion lunged at Harad.
It was not magic. It would be because of Seria. Harad caught Cassion's fist without difficulty. While twisting that wrist, he pressed Cassion's back.
The eyes of Cassion, subdued in an instant, widened.
Harad placed his face beside him and spoke as if whispering.
"A Mage of a precious Origin that can disguise Aura."
"……"
"So at first, even Serzila did not know well. Except the Grand Duke."
"……"
"Perhaps on the continent too, there may be Mages pretending to be knights."
"……Demon!"
Then Seria reacted.
Even though Cassion had not implemented magic.
Because the Cassion in her imagination had become a Mage.
"Crazy bastard. Are you insane?"
Cassion growled beside him.
"You are the only suitable opponent."
"For what?"
"A Mage who can face her without getting hurt."
"I am the 2nd Knights Commander."
"Ellen suggested it."
"Let go. I must calm that priest."
Cassion became obedient in an instant.
"What should I do?"
"Let her burst your head. Cutting your neck is also fine."
Then she would regenerate.
Seria would return to her right mind.
"And then?"
"Show magic to make her agitated again."
"And?"
"Burst her head. Cutting her neck is also fine."
"……And drive her mad again?"
In short, repetitive drilling.
"You are clever indeed."
Cassion became clever when he became a Mage.
"You crazy bastard."
Cassion said as if sighing.
"This is the Inner Fortress."
"I have already received the Grand Duke's permission."
"Until when should I repeat it?"
"Until just before death?"
"Until Divine power runs out. I shall perform splendidly."
Cassion drew his sword.
"Demon!"
Seria charged.
She aimed precisely at Cassion alone. Harad subtly moved away. It was beside Ellen.
"Did you really get permission?"
Ellen whispered.
"No."
"But is it okay to do this?"
"It is fine."
Because Ellen was here.
"If it were not okay, a stop would have come. The Inner Fortress is under the Grand Duke's jurisdiction."
Aura of Grand Duke Aratus lurked in and dominated the Inner Fortress.
If it had been displeasing, a reaction would have come already.
"Silence is affirmation."
"Still, would it not be better to tell him before doing it?"
Harad tilted his head.
Ellen was being timid today.
'It is Ellen.'
She would lose to Elaine or Grand Duke Aratus, but Ellen would win.
"He might think badly of you."
"Ah."
Ellen was not worried about this situation but about Harad who created this situation.
"I will just go tell him."
Permission was easy.
If Ellen went, Grand Duke Aratus would permit it.
No, in fact, it was already no different from having received permission. The Grand Duke's silence was proof of that.
Actually, such thoughts had not occurred to him.
His body moved of its own accord.
"Ellen."
When he called, Ellen opened her mouth.
It was an opportunity.
Harad pressed their lips together. He also inserted his tongue slightly.
It was a brief moment, and it was gentle rather than violent. At least Harad thought so. When he pulled his lips away, saliva connected thinly, then broke.
"I apologize. My body was itching."
"……"
"I still do not know what it tastes like."
Ellen's mouth was open, but no voice came out.
She did not even blink. She had frozen like stone while looking at Harad.
It was then that the air in the Inner Fortress became heavy.
His entire body creaked. His feet dug into the cold, hard ground.
It was not the air but Grand Duke Aratus's Aura.
"He is watching after all."
Grand Duke Aratus had become agitated.