Never Die Villain

"Why are you suddenly interested in Professor Antoine?"

Vera could only raise an eyebrow at Ilya’s sudden question. They had been talking about something entirely different only moments ago, so his decision to bring up Antoine seemingly out of nowhere naturally caught her attention.

"Just because? I heard he runs a research facility."

"Runs a facility?" Vera scoffed. "More like he pays other people to do the work and then claims credit for it. He’s not much different from a businessman."

"Kind of like the guy who invented the light bulb?"

"What the hell is a light bulb?"

"Never mind."

Ilya considered Vera’s words, choosing to ignore the fact that light bulbs clearly didn’t exist in this world. The more he heard about Antoine, the more difficult the man became to understand, especially when every person seemed to have a completely different impression of him.

From Solenne’s rather extensive digging, Antoine appeared to be a competent researcher who had spent years expanding SkyRune Lab and involving himself in numerous fields of Rune Tech.

Yet from Vera’s perspective, he was closer to a businessman who gathered talented people under him, financed their research, and attached his name to whatever they accomplished.

Perhaps both were true.

Antoine could be a capable researcher while still relying heavily on the people working for him, and running an entire research institute probably left little room for him to personally involve himself in every project anyway.

Still, the difference between the two impressions bothered Ilya, because he was beginning to realize that there were far more layers to Antoine than he had initially thought.

"Hmm. But if you really want to know, Professor Antoine runs a research program through the academy."

"A research program?"

"Mhm. SkyRune Lab has had an agreement with the academy for years." Vera rested her cheek against one hand. "They occasionally take students in for research observation, assistant work, practical credit, things like that. It depends on what the laboratory needs at the time."

"You can actually work at SkyRune Lab as a student?"

"Temporarily." Vera nodded. "Don’t imagine you’ll be given your own laboratory and allowed to play around with ancient Rune Tech. Most students end up assisting researchers, organizing materials, observing experiments, recording results, or doing whatever menial work nobody else wants to waste time on."

"That still sounds useful."

"For you, maybe." Vera shrugged. "Most of the people who apply are upper-years trying to get research experience before graduating. Second-years sometimes get accepted too, but I don’t remember seeing many first-years."

"Many? So it isn’t prohibited..."

Vera looked at him.

"...Of course that’s what you picked up on." She sighed before leaning back in her chair. "No, there isn’t some rule saying first-years can’t participate. It’s just uncommon because most of you don’t know enough to be useful yet."

Ilya ignored the insult.

That was almost too convenient.

He had been wondering how he could investigate Antoine any further without doing something as stupid as following the man around or asking Solenne to dig through increasingly private information.

If SkyRune Lab already accepted students from the academy, however, then there was a perfectly legitimate way for him to get inside the facility himself.

"When do applications open?"

Vera narrowed her eyes. "Ilya."

"What?"

"Show me your fingers for a second."

Ilya frowned but removed his gloves and held out his hand as she asked. Only then did he take a proper look at his fingers and notice just how brittle his nails had become, with several of them beginning to crack near the edges.

"You’re focusing on the wrong thing." Vera looked from his fingers back to him. "Save yourself first. Do you seriously think you have that much time left?"

"I know, Senior." Ilya slipped his gloves back on. "But listen, Rune Tech is lost-civilization technology, right?"

"Right...?"

"Then perhaps they have something that could accommodate my condition. Humanity barely understands most of what they left behind, so who knows what SkyRune Lab has recovered or what they’ve managed to reproduce? If there’s even a chance that something there could help stabilize Niflheim, I think it’s worth looking."

"If it were that easy, most Fallen Wizards would have survived longer than a year after falling. But as you already know, no one has ever made it that long, and as for you, it’s been nearly half a year since we discovered you had fallen."

She reached over and tapped his gloved hand.

"How much time do you think you have left?"

"...I don’t know."

"Exactly. Neither do I." Vera leaned back in her seat. "Maybe you have another six months. Maybe three. Maybe Niflheim accelerates next week, and suddenly we realize all of our estimates were worthless."

Ilya fell quiet.

He knew she was right. The changes had become increasingly difficult to ignore lately, from his whitening hair to his declining resistance to the cold, and now even his nails were showing signs that his body was being affected.

"But that’s exactly why I can’t afford to ignore anything that might help."

Vera’s eyes narrowed.

"I’m still going to train. I’m still going to study my Domain, practice my circulation, and do everything you tell me to do." Ilya met her eyes. "But if I spend whatever time I have left betting everything on one solution, and it turns out we were wrong, then I’m dead anyway."

"...."

"So I want another option."

Vera remained silent, but Ilya could tell she understood what he meant.

SkyRune Lab might have nothing for him.

Its researchers might take one look at Niflheim and tell him that Rune Tech was just as useless against a Fallen Wizard as every other method humanity had tried before, but Ilya would rather hear that answer himself than die wondering whether something in that facility could have bought him more time.

Eventually, Vera sighed.

"Fine. I’ll tell you what I know about the program."

Vera pointed at him before he could get too pleased with himself.

"But your training comes first. The best way to fight against a Fallen Domain before it completely consumes you is to understand it as thoroughly as you possibly can."

She lowered her hand, her expression turning serious again.

"You’re lucky you’ve barely scratched the surface of magic, Ilya. If you’d spent years developing your magic before Niflheim started consuming you, you would’ve progressed much faster, and you probably would’ve died much sooner than you think."

"Understood."

"And put your gloves back on properly."

"They’re already on."

"Then stop taking them off."

Ilya looked down at his hands.

"...You’re becoming awfully motherly lately, Senior."

"...."

Vera kicked him under the table.

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