All the corpses stood up and their bodies forcibly returned back to their original state with a rather disgusting sound and stiffly walked towards their former coworkers.
"Follow them."
The black-haired man commanded and the movement block was released from the scholars.
*haaaa*
"What the...?!"
The first thing that the gold-haired scholar tried to do was to teleport away but his spell ended up being released and dispersed into mana before it could activate making him cry out in shock.
"If I was in your place, I would be thinking really hard about how to convince your torturers that you are useful for the kingdom of Bellcephora instead of trying to force my hand into killing you here and now."
"...!"
The black-haired man tilted his head with an indifferent expression on his face and he moved his hand so that the gold-haired scholar would realize that there was no escape...
...which the scholar indeed catch on to really fast and let himself be escorted by corpse puppets together with the remaining three people...
The black-haired young man walked to the archives and his expression turned miserable as the creepy magic device showering the room with a pink hue entered his vision.
"..."
The amaranth-haired girl slowly stood up, looking cautiously at him, but the black-haired youth didn't seem to pay any attention to her, so - just as she informed him earlier - she got to the cabinet and grabbed the contract that she came there for.
"...it's my fault..."
"...eh...?"
The black-haired young man whispered touching while touching the translucent part of the device, which ended up causing the girl to let out a surprised gasp as she was still way too wary about, well, the whole situation that just happened and was still ongoing.
"The crystal inside. It's an extremely rare one. Once it absorbs mana, it recreates it perfectly. An important person had a one-of-a-kind attribute that could dissolve all the other ones. The crystal's attribute is Roiso."
"...?"
The man explained although his explanation wasn't exactly clear for the girl hearing all of that for the first time.
"...Roiso? Is that the name of that person or the attribute...?"
"Yes."
The girl asked and the man nodded.
"..."
The amaranth-haired girl felt the urge to call him out for not making any sense, but she certainly didn't want to get on his bad side.
In the first place, she wasn't even sure whether or not was she on his good side now...
"Nothing that you said sounds to me as if you should feel guilty...?"
The girl wanted to leave but since she wasn't sure whether she could she decided to test the waters with some small talk.
"If it was just about the crystal turning into the same attribute as her it would be fine... but it's also where things got bad."
The young man said touching the translucent crystal with one hand and pressing his forehead to it.
"You see..."
***
"It's here. Be careful, if they realize that I brought someone else, they will realize that I'm not on their side. They might even kill that black-haired martial artist."
The red-haired middle-aged man stopped by the entrance to a rather small and unassuming cave and whispered sternly to the neon-pink-haired girl wearing a female school uniform of Aspakeony Academy with a brand new shining badge of a second-year student.
"Teacher Ikarveth, you have nothing to worry about. I will melt every single scum who dared to raise their hands against lord Zoemi...!"
The neon-pink-haired girl declared raising her trembling fist atop which neon-pink liquid began oozing out of her skin.
"Good. But do not forget what I already told you, student Auequas, that martial artist is being kept in an unconscious state so he isn't using his powers. I've learned that he is remarkably tough, but he still can get injured – you need to control yourself for his sake. And please do not forget that this facility is full of precious information about the traitors of our kingdom. You can save your beloved and I can snuff out the disgusting treachery in the ranks of the aristocracy!"
Ikarveth nodded in satisfaction but ended up reminding the neon-pink-haired girl to keep her cool.
"I understand... teacher... I must apologize to you. I misunderstood you the previous year..."
"Save your apology and gratefulness for when we both will achieve what we've set out to do, Miss Roiso."
The girl lowered her hands, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, and bowed her head to the red-haired man but he merely shook his hand dismissively focusing on the cave's entrance.
"You did contact your mother or the headmistress about this, right?"
Before he made his next move, Ikarveth asked without looking back.
"...ah... no... no I didn't... I'm sorry, I was so excited that a piece of information about lord Zoemi has surfaced that... I kind of... forgot..."
The man asked and Roiso fidgetted and stuttered realizing her mistakes.
"Haaa... I see. Well, I will figure something out so they will not worry~"
"Thank you, teacher!"
Ikarveth sighed and hummed reassuringly making the girl behind him gasp in relief...
...without seeing the wide satisfied grin on her teacher's face...
"Follow me and refrain from using magic as much as possible. You should be able to melt through the reinforced gate that will be in our way after we enter the hidden passage, but it will also give the scholars inside to get rid of all the evidence and possibly kill that martial artist."
The red-haired teacher wanted the girl one more time and entered the cave having to bend in half to fit in.
When inside, he pulled out a thin slab of brown mana stone covered with various runes and slid it halfway into an unassuming crack in the dry ground beneath his feet.
*KSHAH*
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ The thin slab started glowing and an outline of a trapdoor pushed the soil away revealing itself.
*clank*
Ikarveth took out the crystal slab and placed it on top of the trapdoor which caused it to open revealing a ladder leading underground.
The teacher and student nodded to each other – the red-haired man entered first and the neon-pink-haired girl followed him.
They followed a narrow passage lighted up by an occasional magic crystal lamp embedded into the wall until the passage opened up into a classroom-sized cave with a large and quite intimidating-looking gate with colorful mana stones embedded in it and inscribed with runes all over its surface.
"...a passive quality of your attribute makes most magic attacks against you ineffective, doesn't it...?"
Before entering the cave Ikarveth stopped and asked Roiso in a hushed voice.
"Yes. It's suppressed to that level now which means that pure-magic traps are of no threat to me. But if there are some traps that involved materials containing mana but not entirely composed of it, I would have to use a spell to protect myself from them... are you saying that there will be a security system involving that...?"
The neon-pink-haired girl confirmed the red-haired man's claim and asked tensing up.
"No. I was worried about a potential cave-in and rubble falling down on our heads."
"Oh, don't worry, like I said, that would be a problem only if I couldn't use magic. A cave-in would not happen without any tremors."
The man shook his head and motioned his chin towards the ceiling to which the girl reassured him with relief.
With that, the two of them entered the cave and approach the gate.
"Stand here and wait. To assure that they will not be able to destroy the evidence or harm that martial artist we have to have all of them in the experiment room before attacking them, so be ready to act at my signal – but not earlier!"
Ikarveth pointed at a spot by the wall right next to the gate and Roiso took the position instantly, pressing her back against the cold rock and staring intensely at the red-haired man.
"Now then."
Ikarveth nodded and reached out toward a seemingly random magic stone.
When he touched it the brown magic stone started to glow and...
*shhh*
"...?"
Without any warning, tiny pieces of rubble brushed against Roiso's shoulder, making her frown and glance up...
...just for her to notice a falling piece of rock twice the size of her head falling straight at her, far too late for her to react to it...!
*SLAM* *CRUNCH*
The sharp rock hit the girl's head dead-center and cracked her skull with no trouble at all.
"Gha....? Theachher..."
The girl's vision turned blurry before turning red as she stumbled to the side until finally succumbing to the injury and falling to the ground with wide open vacant eyes.
"...that was risky... Connect."
Ikarveth breathed out in relief, wiping the sweat off his forehead before taking putting his hand on a large green crystal and saying out loud.
"[It's me. I believe I owe somebody an apology, the trap might have been simple but it worked perfectly.]"
The red-haired man said with a satisfied grin glancing at the fallen neon-pink-haired girl while using the mana stone to communicate with the people inside the secret facility.
*HSHAAA*
A few moments later the gate opened with a menacing sound – seven people were already waiting there.
"See? I told you all that you overcomplicate the simplest task."
A brown-haired man smirked triumphantly walking past Ikarveth.
He grabbed the body of the neon-pink-haired girl and patted her side confidently.
"The same with the extraction of her attribute. We only need to do the same thing that we do with poisonous monsters – grind her up, add a formaldehyde solution, and submerged the appropriate mana crystal in it. Within two weeks we will be able to start experimenting on it."
The brown-haired man declared, confidently carrying the limp girl inside the facility.
"Everything ready then, I assume?"
"Of course! Ah~! I can't wait! A corrosion attribute! Imagine the enchanted gate that will be produced! The enchanters will be willing to pay anything for mana stones with that quality! Infinite funding!"
Ikarveth laughed and followed him inside to the cheers of the other scholars as the gate was closed, sealing the facility from the outside world...
***
"..."
The amaranth-haired girl stood there frozen in place staring at the disturbing mana device that instantly became a dozen times more horrible now that she was made aware of what – or who – it contained.
"Roiso would do anything for me and she was tricked into coming here with me as bait. I was the one who kept her powers sealed so she ended up getting killed and used like that because of me."
The black-haired man said in a hollow voice without stepping away from the device.
"It's laughable. I ended up losing my memory and didn't recover it for a few years. Even then I kept the power that was sealing Roiso's magic. I didn't know why I was doing it, but since it was strengthening one of my star powers I just did. If only I deactivated it..."
The young man continued with a guilt-struck expression.
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