The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 145: The Physical Exam (5)

I thought I had avoided a crisis.

I hated myself for becoming lax, thinking that it was going to be fine once I got through the blood draw somehow. I shouldn’t have let my guard down until the end.

“The highest is around 80, and lowest is around 40.......”

“That’s an extremely low blood pressure.”

“But your pulse is over 170 beats per minute.”

What in the world?

Hearing what Sephia said, Rosemary’s eyes filled with urgency.

“S-sis.”

Rosemary wordlessly moved her mouth as if she hadn’t expected this either.

80/40/170. These were ridiculous numbers even to a normal person.

“Aether.... How are you alive...?”

My blood pressure was low, but my heart was going thump thump thump thump like I’d run a marathon or something. I thought my heart was a two-cylinder but it turned out to be an eight-cylinder that was inefficient as hell.

“Listen to me carefully. Do you know what’s happening right now?”

“N-no.”

I didn’t know either.

I didn’t know why this happened.

“Your body is very unusual. To give you an example, it’s like pumping air into a punctured tube.”

Oh.

“What should we do? Should we perform a complete exam?”

“For now... we should.”

It was the worst case scenario.

If they did an in-depth check, then I might get discovered. No, I was going to get caught for sure. I had no idea what to do in this situation so my head was even more scrambled than usual.

My gaze rolled side-to-side even without turning my head, and my vision kept going out of focus like I had astigmatism.

“S-sis.”

“.......”

“Just wait for a minute.”

Rosemary swiftly brought the clinical pathologist from downstairs.

“What is it?”

It was the young man named Weible who’d performed a fake blood draw on me earlier.

Weible subtly smelled of cigarettes; he must have gone for a smoke.

“This student’s blood pressure is abnormal?”

“Yes.”

Weible put a hand to his forehead and sighed.

“How could that be.”

“I’m telling the truth, it’s really weird. Professor Glyston took several measurements and the results were all similar.”

“No, it’s an error for sure.”

“I-is it...?”

With just a few words from the rookie pathologist, the chaotic atmosphere of the exam room began to settle.

“What were the numbers?”

“80/40/170.”

“Then the monitor must be broken, or you measured wrong.”

“But....”

“Those numbers mean that the vessels are broken, which would have caused a problem during the blood draw as well. But there wasn’t any issue, right?”

“R-right.”

Doctor Sephia nodded unconsciously; it was an unnatural movement.

Until just a moment ago, she was greatly shocked by my blood pressure, but now she was listening to Weible with much more calm. It was as if she was entranced by something.

“If it’s 80/40/170, then this student should’ve already passed out. Look at her. Her complexion is normal and she’s walking around just fine, no?”

His words had the power to make even a veteran healer agreeable. Including Sephia, everyone looked like they accepted what Weible was saying.

Yeah, this atmosphere was something that I’d experienced a few times before.

I got it now. The man in front of me wasn’t human.

“Please wait, I will take it again.”

The doppelgänger in human skin brought a different monitor.

He put the cuff on my right arm, and turned the monitor towards him so that others couldn’t see. No one objected to why he did that.

Shhk, shhk–with a few pumps, my arm was squeezed then released.

“110 over 80, and the pulse is 90 beats per minute. It’s normal.”

“Haa, of course it is.”

“You must have been quite tired, Doctor Glyston. Weren’t you on-call yesterday?”

“I-is that why...? Ahaha.... Making mistakes like this.......”

Doctor Sephia brushed back her wavy bangs and smiled sheepishly.

Now that this was over, the clinical pathologists who’d been worried for me returned to their positions. The students who were gathered out of curiosity also lost interest and dispersed. Everything was resolved ‘naturally’.

“Well, that happened.”

Rosemary ran a hand down her chest with a sigh.

“Could you lend me your ear for a second?”

“What is it.”

“......If you don’t want to get caught, then you should wrap things up quickly and come back. Everyone at home is on your side.”

“.......”

I didn’t respond to the sudden request to return home.

I neither nodded nor shook my head.

For now, I was busy trying to calm my trembling heart.

**

That night.

After returning to the palace, Prince Klion suddenly took a bottle of wine and started drinking from it.

“Your Highness, the noble assembly will be taking place soon, so drinking....”

“Ahh, shut up! Get out of here!!”

A few servants were concerned about the drinking not reflecting well on him, but he dismissed all of them. The palace maids who witnessed him like this would probably go around cursing him as the ‘miscreant Prince’.

They could do as they liked.

“Ahem, che.”

He was well aware of how ambiguous a position he was in the palace.

His brother with lots of connections had been thrown into prison by the Beasts, and he, the womanizer, was in this state.

“What a miserable life.”

Even so, how could he be treated by his peers like someone who didn’t exist?

He gulped down the liquid on the rocks in one go and swallowed a sweet burp.

It was uncouth behavior like a cow regurgitating. In his drunkenness, Klion opened the window and brrrr’d.

“Was the noble assembly tomorrow?”

A soft moonlit halo shone through the gold-painted window frame. Watching the bright yellow moon suddenly gave him the idea that he’d like the dress code to be yellow for the banquet.

Trickle.

Klion held the moon in his glass. It wasn’t a full moon but what could he do?

The moon waned when it became full. If it had been a full moon reflected in his glass, then he would’ve bemoaned how it was reminiscent of the soon-to-fall Empire. Wasn’t a half-moon better, then? Moods were up to the person’s interpretation, after all.

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With a bitter smile, Klion lifted his lowered head.

“Hm...?”

The moon was gone.

Klion rubbed his eyes. He squinted, wondering what was happening, then focused his gaze on a single spot.

A man was standing on the windowsill.

What...?

A man wearing a thick, black robe who was looking down at him. Upon closer look, his face was also covered by a metal mask.

It was a weird fashion. However, Klion didn’t even blink an eye and asked in a low voice.

“Who are you?”

“Shh.”

The man casually stepped into the Prince’s chamber. It was insolent, but Klion only made a displeased face instead of threatening loudly as usual.

This was a wise decision.

“It’s me, Vermel Horde.”

“Horde? Ah, indeed.”

He recognized him from the voice.

The rather ridiculous fashion belonged to the elf international student.

The one who’d freed him from the Beast’s manipulation. They had built some trust through communicating here and there over the months. No longer brainwashed, Klion’s social skills were at least above average so it was no hardship on his part to have a smooth conversation with Vermel.

“May I sit here?”

“I give you my personal permission.”

Klion quickly locked the door to his room. With this, no one would be able to enter.

“Take this.”

Vermel handed him a scroll like he’d been waiting. Taking the brainwash protection scroll, Klion sank into the luxurious sofa and locked his hands together.

“I heard that you withdrew as soon as the second semester started.”

“It’s true. I became a target of the Beasts.”

“...I see. Lady Blanton is out to kill you, then?”

“That’s exactly it.”

Vermel looked around, his uneasiness bleeding through the mask.

He couldn’t help it. A Calamity or something beyond that was too much for someone who was yet a student of the Academy to handle.

“Relax. There’s no one who would come here at this time.”

“I can’t. The Duke’s daughter can monitor any place remotely. It’s dangerous here, too.”

“...Then I suppose it’s best to talk quickly and separate.”

Vermel nodded and held out something–a white pill.

“This is...?”

“I suggest you give this to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Is it something to eat?”

“It’s a kind of poison.”

‘The Primacy of Deterioration’. As a beverage base chemical, it was an item that made the consumer fall sick for a week.

“You want me to give this to my father...?”

At the mention of poison, Klion just stared. He looked as if he couldn’t understand.

“It’ll be the noble assembly soon.”

“And?”

“Duke Blanton and his daughter will be there as well. Do you know what I’m trying to say?”

A deep sigh escaped Klion’s throat.

The noble assembly was held once every four years, and all nobles and their children who saw to state matters attended it.

The Four Grand Dukes especially were to attend. Since it was a place where overlords who  normally ruled over a part of the great Empire came together, there would be a temporary administrative asymmetry.

It was the perfect time for the Beasts to pull something big.

“I say poison, but its only function is to temporarily cause fatigue. Give this to your father, and do whatever you can to stop things from getting out of control by running the meeting in his place.”

He certainly had a point.

Currently, the highest ranking person after his father was himself. No matter what Duke Blanton attempted, there would at least be a slight chance that he backed off if Klion stopped him.

Still, still.

“That can’t happen.”

“Why?”

“It goes against the hierarchy.”

The highest Imperial authority was his father. All power came from the Emperor.

“If rumors go around that I tried to poison my father, what will happen to me then!”

“That’s never going to happen.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I’m going to make it that way.”

It was pitiful reasoning, but his voice was full of determination. Klion couldn’t speak for a moment.

“...A-as well. What guarantee do you have that this pill will only last for a week?”

“Does it look like I’m trying to assassinate His Majesty?”

“I can’t say that for sure.”

Vermel shook his head.

“The reason why the Beasts have been quiet so far is because they were able to control the head of the Empire as they wished. If someone goes and murders His Majesty in that kind of situation, what do you think will happen?”

“They’ll enthrone a new Emperor.”

“Who?”

“.......”

Again, he couldn’t speak.

Using a good excuse, the Beasts had already locked up his older brother, the First Prince, in the dungeon. It was because he was much more resistant to their brainwashing.

Klion, too, had been freed from mind control, and there was no way that the Beasts didn’t know this. So sink or swim, he was playing a miscreant and waiting for the right time.

But.

What if they decided that they couldn’t appoint either him or his brother, who were of legitimate blood, as king....

“If His Majesty passes, it’s over for the Empire.”

Like demolishing a purposeless building, they might just devastate the Empire that was deemed worthless. Some scholars called this process ‘deconstruction’.

“Once they proceed with deconstruction, the Empire will instantly crumble. All the nobles will die. The people will suffer. Every mage in Tilette will be taken to the Demon Castle and become the human equivalent of mana grass. The army will naturally fall, and all the territories will belong to the Beasts.”

After the Empire collapsed, where would be next?

“You know that the Bruglium Falls are at the borders of Kaurelia, right?”

“...The Elemental Realm.”

The entrance leading to the garden of the Elementals was going to be directly exposed. Without a doubt, the next target of the Beasts’ was the Elemental Realm.

Klion let out a sigh that was deeper and darker than ever. Either way, it was a grim choice.

“Shoot, there’s no time.”

Adjusting his iron mask, Vermel hurriedly stepped onto the windowsill. Before taking leave, he spoke one last time.

“If you do as I ask, then I’ll do my best to help you. But the choice is up to you, because you’re the only one who can do this.”

Then Vermel left. Klion’s hand held the white pill that he had given him.

A beverage base, was it? Then it was to be taken by dissolving into water.

“Father....”

Was he going to defend his honor and dignity and be eaten away by the Beasts?

Or was he going to throw them away and take the risk of trusting the words of an elf from another nation?

He continued to struggle until the sun rose. The cool glass turned lukewarm with the setting of the moon.

Then suddenly.

Wait. Do I even have any honor or dignity to lose at this point?

A brilliant excuse flashed across his mind.

I’m a miscreant.