Ch. 133
Volume 2
Chapter 57 : Mercury
“His heart was torn out...”
Selicia stared at the gaping, savage hole in the corpse’s chest, her expression growing darker and darker.
“That was the direct cause of death?”
“Probably, but we cannot be one hundred percent certain.”
The bald middle-aged man said,
“We performed a rough examination of the body. Other than the hole in the chest, we could not find any other external injuries, so our preliminary judgment is that the victim died from having his heart torn out. However, since the body has not yet undergone a detailed autopsy, we cannot rule out the possibility that he first died from poison or a curse.”
“There are far too many ways to kill someone without leaving external wounds, so there is no need to dwell on that. What I want to know more is how his heart was torn out.”
Selicia pulled on a pair of gloves and gently lifted the torn clothing over the dead man’s chest, examining that gruesome hole.
“These marks were probably not made by any kind of weapon, were they?”
“No...”
The middle-aged man paused, and a trace of fear had already entered his voice.
“Our initial judgment is that it was done with bare hands. Someone ripped his heart out alive with their bare hands.”
“A magical beast?”
“A human.”
The middle-aged man said,
“And from the marks, our preliminary conclusion is that it may have been a woman.”
“A woman...” Selicia’s gaze grew grave.
“I remember there has always been a rumor circulating in the Lower City, has there not? About a heart-ripping siren who seduces men on nights of the full moon, then tears out their hearts and eats them.”
Selicia glanced at the pitch-black sky.
“The weather is poor, but judging by the date, tonight truly is a full moon night. Which means... that rumor may actually be true?”
“T-There is indeed such a rumor.”
The bald middle-aged man wiped his forehead with greater and greater force and frequency, enough to make one worry that he might accidentally rip out the few pitiful strands of hair still clinging to his scalp.
“But the Lower City is full of every kind of person imaginable. It is far too chaotic. Every day, there are at least dozens of corpses dragged out of alleyways and gutters, so we have never been able to confirm whether the rumor is real.”
“Whether it is real or not, it is at least a lead.”
“Yes, yes, we will investigate it immediately.”
“What other information is there?”
“N-None for the moment.”
The middle-aged man said with a trembling voice,
“By the time we arrived, the heavy rain had already washed almost every trace away. And since the murderer did not even use a weapon, it is truly difficult to find any other clues.”
“So we can only start with the victim himself?”
Selicia lowered her eyes, her gaze moving over the corpse again and again.
It was no wonder the middle-aged man looked as though he were going bald from stress.
A rainy night, murder, a heart torn out, the son of a count, and even a city legend that made people blanch at the mention of it—mishandle any one of these, and he could lose not only his hat, but perhaps his life as well.
“You may withdraw first.”
But just then, Selicia seemed to notice something and suddenly spoke.
“Huh? W-We are not investigating anymore?”
The middle-aged man froze.
“This is no longer within the scope of what you can handle.”
Selicia looked toward the victim’s hand.
Because of rigor mortis, that bloodless hand was twisted like the claw of a frozen chicken, as though he had been desperately trying to seize something at the very moment of death.
And within the nails of those twisted fingers, where traces of blood still faintly seeped through, Selicia saw something different.
Scales.
Black, fine scales.
Like the scales of a snake.
“Snakefolk...”
As though she had thought of something, a flash of cold light passed through Selicia’s eyes, and she murmured softly.
...
...
“What... is this?”
Teacher Mera obviously was not about to take out a hammer and drill and start remodeling Muen like some mad scientist from a story.
Instead, she brought him before what looked like a lake filled with mercury.
No.
Rather than a lake, it would be more accurate to call it a gigantic well beyond description.
“This is the Silver Well.”
Mera pointed toward it and said,
“It is both the foundation of the academy and the cage suppressing that thing.”
“That thing?”
“I know your curiosity is strong, but I advise you not to ask too much about that thing before you become a Crowned One.”
Mera shot Muen a cold glance, and he promptly shut his mouth.
“Then if we are not here to tour a prison and receive a moral education lecture, what are we doing here?”
“Of course I am strengthening you.”
“Strengthening me?”
“If you are to become the vessel of the Eternal Clock, then the most important thing is that you, the foundation, must be stable enough.”
Mera said,“So I am going to strengthen you to a certain degree, so that you can develop resistance to a law as complex as time.”
“Resistance?”
“To put it simply, I am going to make you more durable.”
“Durable?”
Muen grew even more confused.
“Why do you question every little thing?” Teacher Mera could not help rolling her eyes.
“Because I do not know anything.”
“Honestly...”
Mera sighed and, wearing an expression that clearly said How did I end up with such a foolish disciple, pointed toward the Mercury Well.
“Forget it. Do not overthink anything. Just jump in.”
“Oh, so I just have to jump in... Jump in my ass!”
Muen roared in horror,
“No one can just jump into a place like that! That is mercury! It is poisonous!”
“Although I do not know what kind of mercury you understand it to be, in alchemy, pure Mercury is one of the fundamental elements that make up all things.”
“I see.”
Muen let out a sigh of relief at those words.
As long as it was not the sort of mercury he understood, that was fine.
“But it really is highly toxic, so I hope you do not die too quickly.”
“Huh?”
Before Muen could react, the moment he turned his head, he saw Teacher Mera’s fair little foot rapidly enlarging in his vision.
‘Huh’ what? Get in there already!”
The impatient Teacher Mera leaped up and sent Muen flying into the well with a loli dropkick.
“Damn it!”
Feeling the sharp pain in his cheek from the kick, along with the intense nausea brought by the sensation of weightlessness, Muen could not help letting out a miserable scream in midair.
“Why does a damned anti-gravity skirt setting exist in real life too?!”
...
Muen fell into the Mercury Well.
It was like plunging into mud. In an instant, his entire body was wrapped in thick, flowing liquid.
Muen instinctively held his breath.
But that endless mercury seemed to possess a will of its own. It surged madly into his body through his nostrils, through his ear canals, through his pores, through every opening through which it could invade him.
Agonizing pain struck in an instant.
Right after that, Muen felt the mercury begin to erode his body bit by bit, spreading rapidly like ink dropped into clear water.
And every place touched by the mercury seemed to pass through countless years in an instant, rotting away into drifting dust.
“Use the fire.”
Teacher Mera’s voice rang beside his ear.
Without a trace of hesitation, Muen opened his eyes.
In those pale blue eyes, fire suddenly flared to life.
The flames of the King of Withering were both flames of death that burned all things away, and flames of vitality that brought forth new life.
That was why, even after taking a direct blow from a Crowned One, he had not died.
Under the burning of those flames, Muen’s ruined flesh rapidly regenerated, and that newborn flesh seemed to carry a sheen like mercury.
But it brought him no deliverance.
Because the erosion of the mercury continued, as though it would never end.
The searing pain of flesh rotting away, and the itching of limbs regenerating, like countless ants gnawing at him.
Two utterly different sensations, yet both terrifying beyond measure, assaulted Muen’s consciousness without pause.
Had it been anyone else, they likely would have gone mad already.
But—
“You... think... I am... afraid of you?!”
Surrounded by endless mercury, Muen’s face twisted savagely as he forced out a beast-like roar through clenched teeth.
“I have already experienced death countless times... and you think I would fear this?”
Then Muen opened his mouth and gulped down even more mercury, mouthful after mouthful.
It was like splashing cold water into boiling oil.
Two immense forces that could never coexist crashed violently together inside his body.
—If he was going to chase excitement, then he would carry it through to the very end!
...
...
“Yes, yes, just like that!”
Watching the changes occurring in Muen’s body beneath the endless flood of mercury, excitement shone even in Mera’s vivid crimson eyes.
“The flames of the King of Withering merely accelerate the process and raise your chances of survival by ten percent.”
“The only thing you can truly rely on is yourself, Muen Campbell!”
“Only with such a powerful will can you one day truly grasp that supreme authority!”
“And only then... will you be able to help me achieve that final goal.”