Never Die Villain

"To keep it simple, Professor Antoine is the head researcher of SkyRune Lab. Have you heard of them?"

"...."

Ilya had come across the name here and there, mostly in published articles and the occasional reference inside his textbooks.

To put it simply, SkyRune Lab was both a research institute and a corporation, although compared to the major institutions operating throughout the Empire, it was still relatively small.

Its primary field was Rune Tech, but that description covered such an absurdly broad range of subjects that it hardly explained what the people working there actually did.

Ancient machinery, energy systems, magical engineering, communication technology, transportation, artificial constructs, weapons, and countless other fields fell somewhere under its umbrella.

Some of its researchers focused almost entirely on understanding recovered artifacts, while others studied whatever principles could be understood from them and attempted to reproduce the same results using modern magic and engineering.

Rune Tech itself was already used throughout the continent, but humanity’s understanding of it remained largely superficial, as most of the knowledge behind the technology had been lost along with the civilization that created it several centuries ago.

Even the things humanity had successfully reproduced were often crude imitations of the originals, which was why institutes like SkyRune Lab existed in the first place.

"And Professor Antoine is the current head of the facility. Apparently, he’s been involved with SkyRune Lab for most of his academic career, although that isn’t particularly surprising once you know his family history."

"Family history?"

"His parents, Claudine Chastellain and Anthony Chastellain, were researchers as well." Solenne glanced toward him. "Very accomplished ones, actually. I found their names in several old records while looking into the laboratory."

Ilya raised an eyebrow. "Were they part of SkyRune Lab?"

"Not exactly. SkyRune Lab, as it exists today, came later, although Professor Antoine inherited a large portion of their research and eventually built upon it."

Solenne paused, apparently trying to remember the details she had read.

"From what I could find, his parents specialized in ancient propulsion systems, high-altitude Rune Tech, and atmospheric research."

"High-altitude?"

"Mhm. There was apparently an accident around thirty years ago during one of their experiments." Solenne’s expression became slightly more serious. "Both of them died, along with several other researchers involved in the test, and much of the project was abandoned afterward."

"...."

Ilya had known that Rune Tech could be absurdly advanced, but the sheer variety of fields associated with it still surprised him whenever he encountered something new.

Rune-powered trains and artificial lighting existed throughout the continent, while communication devices and more sophisticated applications were expensive enough to remain luxuries or tools reserved for people whose professions actually required them.

Even then, everything humanity currently possessed amounted to fragments of what the lost civilization had once been capable of creating.

"And Antoine continued their research?"

"Some of it." Solenne shrugged. "That’s where things become difficult to follow. He inherited their work, but SkyRune Lab doesn’t specialize in any single field anymore. Professor Antoine spent years gathering researchers from completely different disciplines, and the institute gradually expanded into what it is today."

That interested Ilya considerably more.

"So he built the laboratory around himself?"

"More or less, although I wouldn’t phrase it that way." Solenne smiled. "SkyRune Lab has dozens of independent projects running at any given time, and Professor Antoine apparently gives his researchers an unusual amount of freedom. As long as they can justify what they’re working on and produce something worthwhile, he generally lets them pursue whatever interests them."

Ilya leaned back against the bench.

That explained why he had encountered the institute’s name in completely unrelated material before.

One article might cite a SkyRune researcher studying ancient energy storage, while another referenced someone from the same institute working on magical communication, and there had been several instances when Ilya hadn’t even realized they belonged to the same organization.

"They sound successful."

"In research? Very." Solenne raised one finger. "Financially, however, things become more complicated."

"Ah."

"SkyRune Lab produces plenty of useful technology, and several of their patents are worth quite a lot of money. They also cooperate with the military on certain projects, although naturally I couldn’t access much about those."

Solenne raised another finger.

"The problem is that they spend money almost as quickly as they make it."

"...That sounds like researchers."

"You say that as though you aren’t becoming one."

"I’m a student."

"For now."

Ilya ignored that. "So that’s why the Vernet Consortium finances them?"

"Partially." Solenne nodded. "My family has invested in SkyRune Lab for years. We finance several of their projects, handle the commercial distribution of some technologies developed there, and apparently provide materials they would have difficulty acquiring on their own."

That arrangement made considerably more sense than Ilya had initially expected.

The Vernets gained access to valuable Rune Tech and whatever commercial applications emerged from the laboratory, while SkyRune Lab received the enormous amount of capital and material support necessary to keep its researchers working.

There was still one thing that bothered him, however.

"And Professor Antoine’s personal loan?"

"That’s the strange part."

Solenne opened the notebook again, although there was obviously nothing about Antoine written inside it. She seemed to do it simply to occupy her hands while thinking.

"SkyRune Lab itself borrowing money isn’t unusual. Research institutes do that constantly, especially when they’re working with Rune Tech."

Solenne glanced toward him.

"But Professor Antoine has borrowed a fairly large amount separately from the laboratory, and I couldn’t find anything explaining what he needed it for."

"How large?"

"Large enough that I noticed."

"...."

Coming from the daughter of the Vernet Mercantile Consortium, that was probably saying something.

Antoine was already destined to become involved in a major incident sometime in the future, and now Ilya had learned that the man was privately borrowing enormous amounts of money despite already directing an institute financed by one of the wealthiest organizations in the world.

It might have meant nothing.

Still, it was the first actual lead he had.

"Can you find out what he’s spending it on?"

"Possibly, but that would be harder." Solenne tilted her head. "I can look through ordinary investment records without anyone caring, but if you want me digging through the private finances of one of our borrowers, eventually someone is going to ask why."

"Then don’t push it."

"Oh?"

"If you can find something without causing trouble, tell me. Otherwise, leave it alone." Ilya leaned back against the bench. "I don’t need you getting questioned by your family because of something I asked."

Solenne looked at him for a second before smiling.

"My, how considerate. But now I’m even more curious. Why are you so interested in Professor Antoine all of a sudden?"

"Maybe I wanted to join SkyRune Lab?"

"Is that so?" Solenne narrowed her eyes slightly, clearly unconvinced. "Well, you seem pretty smart yourself, so I suppose they might take you. I don’t believe you, though."

"...Give me the benefit of the doubt?"

"Hee-hee. Of course. A merchant should always value her clients, after all, so I’ll pretend I believe whatever excuse you give me."

Solenne hugged the notebook against her chest and smiled.

"Although..."

Solenne leaned slightly toward him.

"If you really do end up joining SkyRune Lab someday, remember who helped you first."

Their conversation continued for a little while after that. It was only after several more exchanges that Ilya remembered there was something else he had been meaning to ask her.

"By the way, Solenne, I need you to look into something else for me."

"If it’s within my reach, sure." Solenne tilted her head. "My, you’re starting to treat me like some kind of informant now."

"...I don’t know many other people with as many connections as you."

"Oh?" Solenne’s smile immediately widened. "That makes me pretty special to you, then?"

"Very special."

"...."

Solenne blinked several times before awkwardly clearing her throat and tucking another strand of hair behind her ear. Whatever response she had expected from him, it clearly had not been something so straightforward.

"What is it?" she asked.

Ilya had been thinking about this for some time now. After he left the Knight Department, his group of friends had been targeted immediately, and the more he thought about the timing, the harder it became to dismiss it as a coincidence.

They had never been particularly popular in the first place, and people had certainly bothered them before, but no one had ever gone far enough to truly cross the line.

According to Gustav, the reason had been simple. Because Ilya was there, and regardless of what anyone thought about him personally, very few students were stupid enough to seriously target people who regularly spent their time with a Belozersky.

Yet the moment Ilya left, that restraint disappeared.

Charles had been targeted in the Knight Department, while Angela had been driven out of the Magic Department during the first week of the semester. Two different Departments, two different groups of people, yet both had happened shortly after Ilya stopped being around them.

If Ilya’s conjecture was correct, then there might have been someone pulling the strings behind it all.

Someone had either been waiting for the opportunity to target his friends once he was gone, or perhaps his friends had never been the real targets in the first place.

"You want me to find out who started spreading the rumors about you?"

Ilya nodded. "You know about the rumors, right?"

"I mean, it’d be a lie if I said I didn’t..." Solenne hesitated before giving him a small shrug. "Pretty much everyone has heard something about you by now."

"Do you believe them?"

"...Not really?" Solenne tilted her head as though the answer should have been obvious. "I thought it was stupid in the first place to judge your entire character based on a few words from strangers, especially when half the people repeating those rumors probably don’t even know where they came from."

"That’s exactly the problem."

Ilya leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees.

"Everyone knows them, but nobody seems to know who started them."

"...."

"And I want to know."

Ilya had always hated those rumors. The subtle bullying that followed it had made his entire first semester utterly miserable, and while Ilya and the rest of his group had somehow ended up with reputations as delinquents and bullies.

Someone had deliberately painted them that way.

By the time Ilya realized how widespread they had become, there was hardly anything he could say without people simply treating his denial as another reason to dislike him.

And now, after what had happened to Charles and Angela, Ilya could no longer convince himself that it was something worth ignoring.

His fingers slowly curled against his knees.

"I want to know which bastard started all of this."

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