Chapter 275 : Chapter 275
Chapter 275: Recruitment (4)
'It can't be.'
His mind denied it.
But his body was honest.
'I want to eat it.'
The urge was...... not all that intense.
It couldn't be, yet going by what he felt, the Sun was indifferent. Harad only drooled.
Not that the addictiveness had weakened.
On the contrary, it had deepened. It was simply that the drug before him was a weak one. A paltry, low-Rank heart......
'Heart?'
Harad's eyes snapped open.
The Capsule. From this object he'd never seen before, he was feeling the urge to predate. And it didn't end there. He was perceiving the Capsule as a low-Rank heart.
Like a wolf that has eaten many kills and knows the taste of each herbivore. That is a low-Rank heart, the instinct of one who had predated extensively was whispering.
"You've predated before?"
Then Albi spoke.
She looked somewhat surprised.
Albi's fingers took the Capsule back from Harad's palm. Harad swallowed his saliva and merely stared.
"The urge isn't strong. Once or twice at most?"
"I've done it until I was sick of it. The weak urge is because I hold it well."
And because he'd done it so much that this level of drug barely registered.
"Bravado won't work. People like that are never as composed as you."
But Albi didn't believe him.
She had reason not to. On the continent, Predation was not a common act.
"I'd suspected, and it really is Predation."
"A substitute. Real Predation is too barbaric, no?"
Beside him, Ellen nodded without thinking.
Because Predation was too barbaric, and its substitute was right here.
Harad kicked Ellen's knee hard under the table.
'As if anything that convenient exists.'
The only substitute for Predation was more Predation.
"I'd heard it was taboo."
"Ancient history."
Albi scoffed.
Fair enough.
The Liberation Tower of the past life had encouraged Predation.
Even the Rebellion Faction had once called it taboo.
Ocellin had once said that, but those words were now outdated.
"Everybody does it these days. It's just rare because the materials are scarce."
Continental mages were scarce.
True. But Harad had never used the word the way Albi did.
"No reason to refuse. It gives you power."
That woman was using it in the sense of prey.
"So easily and simply."
Albi popped the reclaimed Capsule into her own mouth. The reaction was imperceptible. Until a mage actually realized magic, the nature was unknowable.
But Albi's expression was thoroughly intuitive.
Her eyes glazed over. From slack lips, saliva stretched long.
'An amateur.'
The Capsule was a weak drug.
In heart terms, a low-Rank heart. And just that had Albi this intoxicated.
"You know, don't you? How blissful this act is."
Some time passed before Albi spoke, saliva still undried. Her wits hadn't fully returned.
"I wonder. Whether it's the same as what I know."
"It will be."
"It's a real heart inside?"
Albi grinned.
"Mage Harad. You're exceptional."
***
"I haven't heard of this before."
Harad murmured as though asking.
He meant it. In the past life, no such thing as a Capsule had existed.
"You know Rebellion Faction mages?"
"A few."
"But you wouldn't have heard. It's a recent classified development."
Same as the Otherworld.
The Liberation Tower too restricted information by Rank.
'But I didn't know either?'
That shouldn't be.
A recent classified development, Albi had said, but to the reverted Harad it was an old one.
At some point, the Otherworld and continent would be swept into war.
The Liberation Tower was part of that war.
'No reason it wouldn't be mass-produced. It would be put to good use.'
Predation's benefit was magical-power recovery and enhancement.
But the shortcut had limits. Efficiency was middling, and magical power alone didn't make one great.
Low-Rank hearts were used for recovery, not enhancement. The reason a Predator's magic lasted uncommonly long and often.
Harad, Cassion, and Eiga had all sustained Manifestations the same way.
'Small, and unlike a heart, the shelf life must be long. Seems undetectable to non-mages.'
Different from a heart.
A Capsule was safe in every sense. To say nothing of convenience.
If such a thing was already being researched, it would certainly be mass-produced for the future war.
And he would have seen it.
He'd killed more than a few Liberation Tower mages.
'There were none.'
An item absent from the Liberation Tower mages Harad had faced in the past life.
'A research that fails? Or a research that's newly arisen?'
If the latter, he had to intervene.
If the variable had a cause, it was the regression alone.
In truth, even if it were the former, he'd intervene.
Harad wanted to. In Ellen's words, because he damn well pleased.
He didn't have one, but Ellen seemed of the same mind.
Her body was rattling. Had Harad's hand not been on hers, she'd surely have drawn her sword.
"Understand, please. She's not a mage."
"Of course. Must be understanding. The illustrious Serzila."
Albi twitched for a moment, then smiled as though nothing had happened.
That demeanor was the same as the past life.
Albi was not a combat-capable mage.
'The guard standing behind her like a bodyguard is the fighter.'
The Liberation Tower valued Albi.
Yet assigning only one guard meant that man's ability was considerable.
No issue. Even without Harad, Ellen was here. This was Serzila in the first place.
If they wished, Albi and the man would never leave the North, even in death.
But then the Capsule's trail would vanish too.
'Capture alive? She's not the type to value her own life.'
Ellen's hand gripped Harad's tightly instead of the sword.
Meaning she'd leave this to Harad.
"Let's continue."
Harad spoke with a glistening face.
"You'll cede the tunnel in exchange for Capsules?"
Right now, Harad was a money-grubbing broker.
"How many?"
"Unexpectedly agreeable. I thought you'd ask for time to think."
"You came out swinging first. Only fair I do the same."
The Liberation Tower had abandoned revenge and chosen the tunnel.
"And the goods are tangible."
Harad smiled, looking down at Albi's fingers.
"Got more?"
"There will be, once the contract is sealed."
Albi grinned.
A thoroughly dreadful smile. Probably mirroring his own.
"A contract."
"Yes. A promise."
Albi extended her little finger.
She'd done it before. That gesture was the physical representation of the mage Albi's Origin.
"Too early for promises. I haven't even heard the terms."
Albi's eyes widened slightly.
"I believe both sides should be equal first. Not licking boots, but shaking hands."
"Could we possibly presume to."
Albi glanced at Ellen with a smile.
Serzila was the backer.
So she couldn't demand boot-licking.
Because who knew what Ellen might do otherwise.
For the Liberation Tower, which needed to maintain the tunnel, caution was paramount.
"Mage Harad, you and we are equals. At least regarding this promise of tunnels and Capsules."
Albi christened the promise.
"Is this promise too a secret more important than life?"
"Of course."
Albi smiled brightly.
Because with that, the magic had been realized.
Break it and die. Such a promise was carved into the heart.
What a mage trusted most was their Origin.
'And magic.'
Once, Isotta's heart had burst for breaking a promise, yet Albi had never come to verify in person.
Because she didn't doubt.
Promise. Albi was a mage who considered her own Origin and magic to be flawless.
"You know everything about the tunnel. What you already knew plus what I've told you. But I know nothing about the Capsule."
"You want me to strip bare equally?"
"Don't you want to?"
"I don't, but I will."
Albi laughed low.
From her bosom she drew one more Capsule.
Harad extended his palm, but Albi didn't hand it over.
"This Capsule is a prototype."
"A scam, then."
"Had it been, I wouldn't have said prototype."
With perfect magic in place, one could afford to be candid.
The Capsule pinched between two fingers swayed side to side.
"What sort of object does it seem?"
"The Capsule is a substance made by magic. A heart is stored inside. The seal is superb. Outside and inside are perfectly isolated. Others wouldn't even guess there's a heart inside, let alone recognize it as magic."
Albi's eyes went round.
"Exceptional."
"I hear that a lot."
"How do you think the heart was inserted?"
"Processed...... no, closer to compressed. Even the Otherworld has no convenient method for preserving hearts."
Albi's eyes glinted.
A mage's glint.
"The compression would be another mage's work. Grafted onto the Capsule. A novel notion. Whoever thought of it must have been well received."
"......"
"A prototype. Difficulties remain. What could they be. Hard to procure mages as material? If that were all, you wouldn't have brought it to me. You want land for research. Land safe from Empire and Church."
"You're truly exceptional, Mage Harad! You're qualified."
Albi clapped in admiration.
"Qualified for what?"
"To become a member of the Liberation Tower."
"Recruiting me?"
"That's right. I hadn't planned to, but you've tempted me."
Albi's eyes were burning several times brighter than at the start. Greed. The Otherworld coveted Origin. The Liberation Tower coveted ability too. Their environment was far harsher.
"Most of that is correct, Harad."
"What's wrong?"
"That part I like too. Truly deserving of the name mage."
Albi gripped the Capsule between index finger and thumb.
Pressed hard. Crack. A breaking sound.
"This is the body. What's inside isn't just the heart."
The Capsule was the person entire.
Inside was not only the heart but every organ.
"Not compressed and inserted, but made and then compressed."
Not shrinking a heart and putting it in, but making a person into a Capsule and then shrinking it.
Albi clapped again. Correct. Beneath the applause, a mischievous voice settled.
"A tremendous prototype. Enough for the Otherworld to take note."
Indeed.
A concept the Otherworld would not have thought of.
To conceive it in the first place required a mage who could turn a person into a Capsule.
'Born in the Otherworld, they'd be dead.'
In the Otherworld, where Predation was routine, that Origin was useless.
'In secret.'
Predation. No -- it was an idea possible only on the continent, where being a mage had to be hidden.
"You've staked everything. You're desperate to keep a line to the Otherworld."
"Whose fault is it that line nearly snapped."
Originally the line had been completed through the tunnel.
After the regression, the Capsule had taken that role instead.
"You're all right with this? What if I cut the line again."
"Your life would be cut. Yours and your woman's."
Albi pointed at Harad's and Ellen's hearts.
Only then did Harad realize his mistake.
"The promise. That was magic. Break it and the heart bursts, like Mage Isotta's......"
"Too late, exceptional Harad."
Albi smiled bitterly.
"Liberation Tower, 5th Rank, Albi who presides over Promise."
Ah.
Ellen opened her mouth as though it had just dawned on her.
Harad gently closed it for her.
Then spoke with a grave face.
"Ellen, we've been had."
Smack.
A light slap on her thigh, and Ellen received it with an even graver face.
"...... What do we do."
The emotion packed into that line was enormous.
Truly, a lifetime's worth of acting.
Harad gazed at Ellen and bit his lip.
After a long while, as though resolved, he spoke to Albi.
"I'll join. The Liberation Tower."