Part 2 Chapter 93
My father immediately stood up, eyes bloodshot, and lunged at me. But he was quickly restrained by Niké.
“Ughhh!”
He didn’t say anything, but my father might have realized something.
The gears of tragedy had started turning not from the day Ryan was chased away, but from the day I was sent to him.
“Did you finally realize who the final boss was?”
As my father tried to lunge at me like a beast, Ryan calmly approached, smirking.
“Why are you acting like this toward my daughter, father?”
“Ugh, ugh, ughhh!”
“Even when you’re dying, you’re still making a fuss.”
Ryan seemed to be enjoying it. He pulled me into his arms, shaking his chin in mockery in front of my father.
“Take them all down and escort them!”
Niké gave the command, and the royal knights quickly swarmed in.
“Hey, brothers, take care of the bodies! I’ll personally handle the funeral, alright~?”
“Ahhh! Ahhh!”
Ryan scratched at my father until the very end. Even as he was dragged away, my father continued to glare at me and cursed.
“Ahhh! Save me! Save me, please!”
Even Diana, who had been hiding, cried out.
“Wait, wait! I didn’t do anything that would deserve this kind of death!”
Bridget, bound along with her, and even the Bassenberg retainers…
None of them died right there. They were all dragged out, screaming and struggling.
“This bastard’s so damn calm.”
Ryan muttered. As Gabriel was being dragged out without any resistance, he turned back with a bright smile.
“Ryan, why are you letting them live?”
“Let them live?”
“Haha, no.”
Gabriel grinned.
“You’re planning to kill them in a more terrible way, aren’t you?”
“……”
Ryan fell silent.
“I’ve never been tortured before, I’m looking forward to it!”
“Shut up, hurry up!”
When Gabriel was finally dragged out, the meeting room fell silent.
The long, long revenge had come to an end.
Ryan stood at the center of the wreckage, where blood had swept through, and let out a deep sigh.
I watched his face, not knowing what he was thinking, and quietly asked.
“Are you relieved?”
Ryan paused for a moment, then, with a small smile, said,
“It’s not bad.”
***
On a sunny autumn day.
At the Zedo, the Imperial Academy.
The students gathered to attend the first regular class of the new semester, titled “The Basics of Magic Extraction,” following the revival of the Magic Engineering Department.
As soon as the class registration opened, all forty spots were filled in just three minutes, making it a highly popular lecture.
In fact, the students were more interested in something else than the content of the lecture.
The professor who was teaching this class.
Rivan Belger.
A man with white hair stood at the podium, writing his name on the blackboard.
With his lean physique and a perfectly fitted black suit, contrasted by his snowy, sharp bob haircut, he looked like a striking figure.
Unlike the rumors about being a terrifying magic engineer who developed weapons against monsters, he was a surprisingly handsome and well-dressed gentleman.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Professor Rivan Belger, and I’ll be teaching the ‘Basics of Magic Extraction’ for this semester.”
He smiled brightly with his mysterious green eyes.
“Haha, a professor teaching on the first day is probably not very popular, right? I imagine most of you came for me rather than the class content, so how about I take some personal questions first?”
Upon hearing this, hands shot up eagerly, as if they had been waiting for the opportunity.
Rivan pointed at one of the students.
“Thank you, Thomas Lyon. I’ve heard that you have a criminal record, is that true?”
“Well now, you’re going straight for the spicy questions.”
Rivan nodded, a small smile on his face.
“That’s right.”
He openly admitted it, and the classroom fell silent.
“Sixteen years ago, all the professors in the Magic Engineering Department were sentenced to death for conducting illegal experiments. I was one of them. I was only eleven years old at the time. Thanks to the minor protection law, I was spared execution, but I served eleven years in prison in Abissus and was released.”
The students were horrified by the revelation of his past.
“I wasn’t involved in the illegal experiments, but I couldn’t prove it, so I had to serve my sentence. Since there’s no evidence and so much time has passed, reopening the case is impossible, so I still have a criminal record on paper.”
Rivan shrugged nonchalantly.
“Of course, believe it or not. If any of you can’t accept learning from a criminal, I’ll respect that and you can leave the classroom right now.”
But no one moved.
After all, the students had all known the rumors about their professor when they signed up.
“Haha, I’m glad no one’s actually leaving. I might have been hurt.”
Rivan’s lighthearted words drew laughter from all around.
“But what exactly was the experiment you were involved in?”
Thomas, the student who had asked the first question, asked again, prompting Rivan to pause.
After thinking for a moment, he casually responded.
“It was an experiment to implant the abilities of a special abilities user into a regular person, essentially a transfer of abilities experiment.”
The students couldn’t help but gasp.
The concept of special abilities was unfamiliar to them. Most of them were noble heirs who had only ever held a pen, so the idea was entirely foreign.
The monster incidents that occurred on the continent every six months and the special abilities used to subdue them…
It all seemed so distant and strange to them.
However, the story of the now-extinct Bassenberg family was well known to anyone from Zedo.
“The people of the Bassenberg family were all special abilities users, weren’t they?”
Someone asked, and Rivan nodded.
“That’s correct. Special abilities create an imbalance of power, leading to many social issues. Until now, Bassenberg used its overwhelming strength to threaten the imperial throne, but it was ultimately wiped out.”
“Professor! Then, could the professors who were executed be seen as having conducted the experiment for a noble cause?”
A brave student spoke up.
“If the experiment to transfer abilities had succeeded, it could have ended the monopoly of power and prevented the abuse of special abilities!”
“Well, the dead professors probably thought they were working for a noble cause…”
Rivan’s face darkened slightly.
“But the experiment was conducted using highly unethical methods.”
Rivan’s expression shifted as he continued.
“Long ago, wizards existed, and their source of magic was ‘blood.’ Special abilities are very similar to magic. Essentially, the transfer of abilities experiment was based on the assumption that the blood and body of special abilities users could be the source of their power.”
The students were horrified by the idea.
“Do you have a sense of what the experiment might have entailed?”
“Professor, then wouldn’t it be possible to create magic tools that contain the power of special abilities, just like extracting magic from magic stones to make weapons?”
“Oh, that’s a very good idea! What’s your name, student?”
“Oliver Moyen.”
“Excellent, Oliver. That’s exactly what I was thinking. What I regret about the experiments I conducted was precisely that point. Instead of implanting special abilities into the body, I wondered if it might have been better to focus on creating magical tools after extracting abilities…”
“Isn’t it still possible?”
Someone asked, and a hush fell over the room.
The student who had spoken looked around before nervously speaking.
“…I heard that the execution date for the members of the Bassenberg family hasn’t been set yet. Wouldn’t it benefit society if they were used as test subjects for the experiment? It seems like you, Professor, have the knowledge to carry out the experiment.”
“Criminals also have human rights.”
Rivan responded firmly.
“Just because they are criminals, we cannot strip them of their dignity and human rights. We cannot force them into experiments by taking away their physical freedom.”
The basic rights of humans should still apply to criminals.
That was a societal agreement.
“We must always prioritize moral values and respect the rights and welfare of the test subjects in our experiments. That’s what experimental ethics are all about.”
Rivan’s conviction was unwavering.
The students thought to themselves.
It was clear that he would never participate in unethical experiments for a noble cause.
He must have suffered greatly from his unfair past.
“I, as a researcher, strictly adhere to experimental ethics.”
The young professor stated firmly.
Oh, no experimental ethics~~~
“No human rights for criminals~~”
Rivan, in a white lab coat, hummed to himself as he put on gloves.
In the basement of the Belger estate in Zedo.
Rivan’s secret laboratory.
A middle-aged man with a miserable appearance sat there.
Edgar Bassenberg, in a prison jumpsuit.
To prevent self-harm, he had a muzzle in his mouth, and there were numerous needle marks all over his forearms.
Rivan looked at him with no trace of pity or compassion.
Just…
Bang, bang, bang!
At the urgent knocking sound, Rivan tilted his head and opened the laboratory door slightly.
“Oh, Bania!”
It was Bania.
“Eh! Our Bani Bani~? What brings you here?”
“You’re here! Right now! Upstairs!”
“Who?”
“Father!”
Father?
Bania’s father must mean…
The Emperor of the Empire.
“Oh my god!!!”
Rivan was horrified.
