Chapter 90: A drop in the Ocean

Over the span of the last few months, did Alem already notice something had been wrong with him?

Ever since he got this mission on this school to find and kill the fingers, something was off.

No, that wasn’t it; he remembers the moment it started exactly, but who was standing there is missing from his memory.

No, that wasn’t it either; it felt more like his body didn’t want to tell him who had been there at this moment.

It was just before the first week of school was going to start when a maniac killer had been going around in school murdering students.

He himself had tried to find him, but his efforts had been meaningless in the face of such a short time span.

In the end he had to hope for the diamond students to solve the case.

But why didn’t he help? Why did he decide to stay back and wait? He just didn’t feel like it.

He remembers standing at the main street filled with students, just finishing some last preparations before classes start.

There had been a rumor going around of multiple students from the lower classes dying mysteriously last night.

But he didn’t pay them too much attention; if anything had happened, Principal Yumoth would’ve told him. After all, he had been the one to get him to join this operation.

But someone caught his attention; a single person moved through the crowd. Even though he couldn’t remember his face, it felt like it had burned itself into his mind.

He watched the person position himself in the middle of the crowd and announce something even if he couldn’t remember the exact words.

Ever since this moment, everything seemed to go wrong; he broke off his contact with Yumoth, not even wanting to hear more mission details.

He felt like he hated them for some reason; in all his life, before, he had never felt such a deep hatred towards anyone before.

Not the one who killed his loved ones, not even when he was rejected from the holy church due to his heritage.

Right now it felt like all his respect and admiration for the principal had been turned around into pure hatred.

But his behavior had been even more strange after, as just after the first great event had ended, tragically somebody contacted him.

A letter directed towards him was sent to his room; normally he would’ve instantly told Yumoth or destroyed it himself.

But in that moment he just didn’t feel like it; instead, he opened it on his own. It had been an invitation towards a certain location just directly outside of the university grounds.

Even though his mind was telling him to inform somebody else what was happening, his heart was screaming, otherwise trapping him in a path he couldn’t understand.

Standing inside the forest just outside, they had already been two people waiting for him there. One he didn’t want to remember; the other one was a tall elderly man with bluish hair.

It had been some kind of recruitment to which he had agreed without even asking what it was exactly.

Since then he had gotten some weird horn to communicate with them whenever it had been needed.

And throughout the weeks he had gotten more and more letters and even medical reports of some artificial life forms created by magic.

His new goal had become to research a special experiment known as Qwenz, a forced human spirit fusion attending the school grounds.

The creation wasn’t much older than two years, but he could already watch it crumbling into pieces.

He wanted to watch its performance against other powerful students, but before he could, the higher-ups from the university were forcing him to prepare an event for his classes.

And during those times, he first met him, Steven Bright. At this point he had mostly heard rumors about him and his ruthless and cowardly behavior.

But the person standing in front of him inside the classroom wasn’t at all like everyone had said; his mana alone seemed to push away the hatred inside his body.

It had felt like it was the first time he had been allowed to breathe again, as if something deep and dark inside of him was being pushed away.

For a single second he thought that terrible curse had been lifted from his body, as he wanted to make his way towards the principal to tell him what was happening to his body.

But just after leaving the room, it hit him again, this time much worse than before. Fighting against it with all his willpower, he walked forward.

Through the university corridors, step by step, resisting his painful heart and tricking feelings as much as he could.

Each step was more gruesome than the last, but the short moment of happiness had showed him what he had been fighting for until this moment.

As he fought his way towards the main office, feeling like he was carrying a whole mountain on his back.

Just as he was about to knock and seek help, the door opened in front of him.

As a familiar elderly man stepped outside, his blueish hair hung down his side.

Alem could only remember a single sentence coming from the man’s mouth. "Oh welcome, Professor Alem," followed by a barely audible whisper. ’’Our great lord needs you.’’

A single sentence had broken him completely, as all his emotions were purred towards his... no, a person calling himself the great lord.

Instead of pain, he had only trust and loyalty left inside his body, and without even knowing it, he had stepped away from the principal’s door.

He had been so close to freeing himself, but he could remember himself at that moment.

Stepping inside that room didn’t feel like freedom; instead, following the mysterious man seemed much more like the truth to him.

He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed it back then.

The person he next to the great lord had been, Ornos, the secondborn of the Frostes.

The future lord of the noble family.

Everything after he would’ve wished to describe as a trance, but it really wasn’t; he had been awfully aware of what he was going through.

But the person handling those choices just wasn’t the same as it had been in the past.

He remembers watching the fight between Mr. Bright and the subject... no, just Qwenz with disappointment at the result.

Their experiment had failed miserably, not even standing a chance against somebody barely able to use any kind of magic.

For a single second he thought about walking up to Steven once more and asking him for help.

But then the other second he stood there confused, why would he have needed help? He was feeling good, not even amazing.

There hadn’t been a single cell in his body telling him whatever he was doing was wrong in any way or shape.

Afterwards, he remembers returning to his own dorm just to find another letter waiting inside for him.

Inside were two documents waiting for him, the first being a magical report about an artificial spirit created by the royal family.

And the other being a map of a gigantic ship with a few instructions leading him to a special room inside of it.

He had felt it; he knew in that moment whatever was inside that room was much more important than his own life.

And the price to obtaining it had been even more simple; it was his life.

During an experimental research failure, he had been forced to contact Ornos, who also told him another thing.

Steven Bright was a member of the fingers under the codename S, who was going to infiltrate and hand him a bomb to open the safety vault.

That’s why he had moved down to the machine room to find him, only to find out he had been following him the entire time.

After he had brought the death of Qwenz just to create enough of a distraction to be able to find the royal chamber.

He had allowed Steven to follow him there.

As he had to watch his body execute the unexpected guards.

Revealing his mission to the young student.

He could already feel the curse coming undone in his presence.

But there hadn’t been enough time.

In the end he couldn’t stop himself from taking the bomb into his hand.

Until a blinding light engulfed the entirety of the ship.

He thought it would be painful.

But in reality he felt nothing.

As the light disappeared, he only then realized he was underwater.

He tried to swim for a single moment but couldn’t feel either his legs or arms.

Both were probably completely destroyed from the explosion.

As water started filling up his lungs.

His mind was clearer than ever.

He had failed as a teacher.

He had abandoned his mission for his own desires.

He wished he could’ve seen her once more.

But soon he would.

Drifting deeper into the darkness of the water.

He was long gone.