A Villain's Will to Survive novel Chapter 275

Chapter 275: Your Responsibility (1)

The magical expo was divided into three halls—the Basic Hall, the Intermediate Hall, and the Grand Hall. Placement was usually based on the supervising mage’s rank, but if an evaluation received high marks, it could be promoted even from the Basic Hall, and I was one of the judges responsible for those evaluations.

"Professor, weren’t you one of the judges?" Epherene asked, scratching her cheek as she followed me into the judges’ private waiting room.

“I was,” I replied with a nod.

Of course, I hadn’t planned on participating at first.

“However.”

I broke off speaking and turned my attention to the materials I had purchased from the Ashes, which were far too rare and valuable to be handled in a place as ordinary as this waiting room.

“... However?” Epherene repeated.

“Where is Quay?”

“Oh, he said he wanted to meet people, so he went off to have a look around by himself.”

I frowned slightly.

“He will be around—just said he wanted to watch people for a while,” Epherene added, trying to explain.

"How are you certain of that?" I inquired.

“Because he told me, and...”

If Quay had said it with his own mouth, I had no reason to doubt it, as he wasn’t the type to say what he didn’t mean.

“I think he might be into me.”

I tilted my head for a moment, completely at a loss for words.

“I’m not making this up. He really said he wanted to earn my trust, and—”

“That’s enough. We are returning to the Mage Tower of the Empire for the time being,” I interrupted.

“Sorry? To the Mage Tower? Right now?”

“Indeed.”

“How...”

I placed my hand on the full-length mirror standing in the center of the waiting room, its surface shimmering as the reflection changed to show somewhere else entirely instead of the waiting room. It had taken a massive four thousand mana just to establish the Mirror Passage, but even so, I felt proud, as that was proof of my progress with mana.

“Hold on to my coat.”

“... Your coat, Professor?”

“Indeed.”

Epherene hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the hem of my coat, and I stepped into the mirror with her.

Hummmmm—

A strange resonance brushed against my ears, the world tilted beneath my feet, and when the distortion faded and I looked around, I found myself once again standing in Head Professor Deculein’s office on the 77th floor of the Mage Tower—a room empty of all but memory, waiting just for me.

At that moment...

“Bleeeeegh—!” Epherene gagged, bent over, and vomited onto the floor.

***

“It’s a mirror spell—one of my properties,” I said, arranging the materials across the laboratory bench within the Laboratory, one of many facilities on the Head Professor’s 77th floor.

“... I still feel sick,” Epherene muttered, her face buried in the table, stomach churning.

The Mage Tower of the Imperial University housed a variety of facilities, including the Laboratory, which I rarely used myself since experiments were usually left to my two assistants, Epherene and Drent.

For comparison, Louina had thirty-three under her—assistant professors and assistants combined.

“What are you going to do with those?” Epherene asked, her skin still flushed a strange shade of purple.

“I’m going to craft a core to reduce the volcanic damage in Yuren and take these,” I replied, tossing three mana stones to Epherene. “They’ve been applied with a revised transformation formula. You should be able to handle them again.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll give it a try,” Epherene replied, nodding.

“Very well.”

I began by inspecting the materials arranged across the laboratory bench—Kraken’s Tentacle Pad, Blood of the Dark Troll, Devil’s Claw, and the Heart of Memeren—each a rare drop only obtainable from boss monsters.

Whoooosh—

First, I focused on the Kraken’s Tentacle Pad, applying Telekinesis to hold it in place while casting the Extraction spell to draw out only its essential compound. Only a few drops of ink came from the tentacle pad, which I transferred into a glass vial.

“But, Professor,” Epherene said, glancing at me with a pout. “Do you really have to keep that scarf on?”

“Why should that concern you?”

“It just looks a little much, and we are indoors.”

I pulled the scarf off my neck.

“... That’s better. I’ll get started now,” Epherene said.

Then...

Tick, tock— Tick, tock— Tick, tock— Tick, tock—

The ticking of the wooden pocket watch sped up, and I moved in rhythm with it—grinding the Devil’s Claw into a fine powder, then sending a flow of mana into the Heart of Memeren to make it beat once more.

Thump, thump—

While it pulsed beneath my fingers, I made the incision.

Shreek—

“Hmm.”

The cardiac muscle parted beneath the incision, revealing the structure within—an intricate web of vessels and shimmering membranes of the heart.

“... How tedious,” I muttered.

I clicked my tongue and guided the scalpel with Telekinesis, reconstructing the vessels inside the heart in a transformation of veins and arteries into a living magical circuit—drawn with the precision of a spell from the Study of Art Magic, demanding extreme focus and absolute control bordering on obsession.

Tick, tock—

Tick, tock—

Tick, tock—

I had lost all sense of time, hours folding into moments, and when I finally stepped back, the core stood complete in my hands. I checked my watch—five hours had slipped by, and I had only five hundred mana left.

“That should be enough to...”

Next came the infusion of Kraken’s Ink, Powdered Devil’s Claw, Blood of the Dark Troll, and my remaining mana—all combined and flowed into the heart’s vessels.

Thump—!

At that moment, the heart gave a sudden beat, and tentacles burst from its surface, writhing wildly as if it had come back to life on its own.

“Professor, I’m also finished... eugh. What is that? It actually looks gross,” Epherene asked.

“It’s the demonic core Decalane designed—or rather, a demonic being,” I replied.

Tap—

I tapped its center with the Wood Steel, and the demonic core responded—tentacles snapping to life and thrashing with instinctive fury.

“It looks like it’s angry. Hey, what are you exactly? Are you trying to strangle us or something? ... But wait a second,” Epherene said with a chuckle, poking the tentacle with a finger, then turning back to me. “Professor, you’re planning to present this? At the expo? This monstrous thing?”

Slap—!

The tentacle snapped through the air and whipped across Epherene’s face.

“Ouch! What is wrong with you?! Hit me again and you’re dead to me!”

“... It’s composed of demonic beast material—its very essence is demonic energy. That alone makes it violent and repulsive. I have no intention of displaying it like this to the public,” I replied.

Just looking at the demonic core stirred something primal in me—a wave of revulsion so intense I wanted to destroy it on the spot.

“There is still one more step left,” I said, signaling to Epherene.

“Yes, here it is,” Epherene replied, handing over the mana stone.

“Hmm?”

The transformed mana stone was far more refined than I expected, once rugged and uneven to the touch but now smooth and polished—gleaming like black obsidian.

“I ran it for a year instead of three months. But what are you going to do with it?” Epherene asked.

"This mana stone is applied with a transformation formula that purifies demonic energy into mana. Therefore..."

Thunk—!

I drove the mana stone into the center of the demonic core, which instantly shuddered violently, flailing its tentacles thrashing in what seemed like pain and releasing a wave of deep crimson demonic energy.

However, the resistance lasted only a moment.

“It’s turning blue!” Epherene shouted.

Like a response to Epherene’s shout, the demonic energy seeping from the core gradually turned blue as the thrashing tentacles slowed and then stilled completely into silence.

“Whoa...”

The mana stone transformed the demonic energy within the core into pure mana, changing its grotesque form as the tentacles dissolved and left a crystalline blue, radiant core with a single ring orbiting it like a miniature Saturn.

“This is the product of Decalane’s Study of Art Magic—Magicore. That name should do,” I said.

All that remained was to apply it with the Midas Touch—and then the core would be complete.

“Wow...” Epherene murmured, mouth slightly open in wonder. “But what would you even use this for?”

“Assign a single purpose to it, and it will learn and act accordingly. Its first task will be to contain Yuren’s volcano, and after that, it will be my entry to the expo,” I replied.

"I see, this will definitely turn the whole expo upside down."

What should have taken a year was brought to completion in just a week—all because of Epherene—and Decalane’s legacy would no doubt shake even in this world.

“Then we’ll stay in the Empire tonight and return tomorrow.”

“... Sorry? We’re not going back right away? Not through the Mirror Passage or whatever it was called?”

I shook my head.

I was out of mana—Iron Man helped speed up recovery, of course, but after burning through it studying the Holy Language yesterday and working on the Magicore today, I was completely drained.

“... Are you not feeling well, Professor?” Epherene asked.

Epherene is unnecessarily perceptive about things like this sometimes, I thought.

“... Are you okay?”

As night deepened, Epherene’s voice took on the weight of worry—an emotion I had no desire to face, much less hear spoken aloud.

“I am fine,” I replied.

“No, Professor. I can see the future—remember?”

Whether she realized it or not, Epherene brought her hands to her chest.

“You die in that future, Professor,” Epherene added, looking up at me with sorrow. “... Are you really, really okay?”

“You are arrogant, Epherene,” I replied, shaking my head.

I was out of mana—but that didn’t mean I was dying. Far from it, I could survive for decades in this state, having survived the Demon’s Mirror with a heart that had already stopped—that was the power of Iron Man—and if anything, my body was now in dangerously good condition.

“... Sorry?”

But, in the end—when this world reached its conclusion and the main quest played out—the future waiting for me was, more than likely, just as Epherene had worried.

However, even if that fate waited for me at the end...

“I won’t accept my death so easily, and I do not name what you saw in the future as my fate.”

Epherene remained silent.

"... Oh," Epherene murmured and gave a nod of understanding.

Plop—

“... Oh.”

It seems I am in mana exhaustion as well, I thought.

“... Wow, everything’s clear in my head, but I can’t move. This feels really strange,” Epherene said, as if talking in a daze.

“Oh, oh, oh?! W-What are you dooooing—?!”

Why am I doing that damned thing people call a bridal carry on this fool—

“Oh—yes, Elder Jektaine,” Louina said, blinking in surprise as she turned toward the familiar voice, not expecting to see a Round Table elder here at the expo.

Among the three pillars of the Magical Realm—the Floating Island, the Mage Tower, and the Round Table—the Round Table’s elders were more often than not boomers who got grumpy unless one showered them with overwhelming respect, Louina thought.

“Shh, lower your voice.”

“Oh... yes, Elder Jektaine,”

What the hell is he talking about, Louina thought, narrowing her eyes.