To find the eccentric magic scholar who changed his skin every day and indulged in all manner of bizarre behavior.
Under the circumstances, however, there was no denying that no scholar was better suited to play an active role.
By the way, do you know where the ■■ mentioned in the previous story was found?
No, you damn fool!
The troublesome scholar had not been defending this place at all. Instead, he had tried to flee on his own, only to be captured by the enemy...
To be precise, he had successfully escaped beyond the collapsed barrier, but a member of the Magic Tower lying in wait outside caught him, and he reportedly lost all four of his tentacles in the process.
The scholars worked together to rescue the captive ■■.
The atmosphere afterward, however, was anything but pleasant.
How ridiculous!
No matter how shameless you are, how could you possibly run away in the middle of all this without even knowing what's happening?
Hey, instead of dissecting the brain of a dead enemy, why don't we crack open your head first?
You crazy b*stard!
The proud scholar of the Academic Hall had never imagined his life would be threatened for a reason like this.
A wave of outrage erupted around him.
Only a short time had passed since the Great War, so concepts such as morality and duty had not yet faded from society. The scholars gathered in the room all began berating him at once.
Hng.
The fugitive himself was embarrassed by the situation as well.
■■, a descendant of a minor noble family, came from a lineage that had belonged to the Academic Hall for generations. Yet unlike his ancestors, who had risked their lives to halt the Beta species' advance, he had fled to save himself—and had been caught in the act.
Hng.
Naturally, there was little for him to feel proud of.
Still, simply sitting there with his mouth shut while everyone scolded him felt somewhat unfair from his perspective.
W, why are you all being so harsh over something like this? Strictly speaking, I'm not even on your side—I've devoted everything to the nation!
Today, the unknown scholar was wrapped in pitch-black, opaque leather as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The only reason I joined the Academic Hall was because they offered me experimental equipment. In truth, I serve the ruler of this nation, so of course I had to preserve my life! If I die, who's going to run the country? Who's going to look after the people's welfare?
Flap, flap.
The scholar, whose severed tentacles had only just begun to regrow at their roots after the Magic Tower's attack, waved them indignantly.
But no one present paid the eccentric's excuses any attention.
This was an emergency.
No one had the spare energy to waste on something as trivial as an emotional outburst.
Besides, at the most basic level, everyone simply found a coward like him unpleasant to look at.
Even with his body in that condition, he barely took down any enemies at all.
At that moment, the green war hero looked at the other scholar and briefly thought to himself.
If I'd known things would turn out like this, I shouldn't have listened to that orange one's advice.
The innate mana within his body.
The magical attributes he was capable of controlling.
Even his accomplishments—such as developing a potion that could regenerate severed tentacles by drawing on knowledge passed down through his family—
all of it seemed insignificant in the hero's eyes.
There was an unmistakable limit.
No matter how many times he considered it, he simply could not imagine this weak eccentric ever defeating him.
In truth, it was not only this oddball.
Most Alphauri he had encountered throughout his life had been the same.
Ever since childhood, he had possessed an almost baseless confidence in his own strength.
For some reason, whenever he met one of his compatriots, he never felt as though he might lose.
And whenever he actually fought someone, reality had always proven that confidence justified.
Weak—
if strength were the only problem, that might have been one thing.
But considering that he ran the moment the battle began, he clearly lacked courage as well.
A mage who had never truly distinguished himself despite the countless opportunities to earn achievements during the Great War.
At this point, perhaps this eccentric Alphauri had earned his present position through something like wrestling or a game of tag.
As a result of this incident, the green mage completely dismissed the scholar before him as unworthy.
Fortunately for the eccentric, however, the stars were merciful.
Apparently, even a world-class fool could possess a hidden talent or two if one dug deeply enough.
Well, anyway. You're still regenerating your tentacles, so there probably isn't much else you can do right now. Why don't you spend all that spare time talking to me, ■■?
Conversation?
Unfortunately for you, I happen to need a little help.
The green mage quickly composed himself and got straight to the point.
The direction the conversation took afterward, however, was entirely unexpected.
Ah, so what the war hero means is... you want to extract useful information from the brains of these enemy bastards?
He had arrived in such a miserable condition that no one expected much from him.
And yet, eccentric or not, he was still a member of the Academic Hall.
In his own peculiar field, he was one of the very best.
Of course it's possible.
What?
I already have a technique for extracting memories from the brain of a corpse. It comes from my usual field of research. The memories will be very, very fragmented, though.
Oh.
Well, I've dissected biological brains thousands of times, so that's hardly the issue. The problem is that the spell itself is only half-complete. If I want to stabilize it enough for reliable use, I'll need roughly 800 more experiments.
The assistant wrapped in bizarre leather spoke casually.
But then again, our Academic Hall happens to have the third most magically gifted individual in the entire nation.
So do we really need to worry about that?
Hmm.
If you want the information, cooperate with my experiment.
All you need to do is pour your mana into the magic circle I've already drawn.
Just 800 times.
Wait.
Wouldn't that mean I'd get to see the structure of your formation?
Well...
To be honest, I'm not exactly thrilled about sharing a technique that contains the essence of my family's secrets.
But if it's you, I don't mind.
?
Bring the enemy corpses and follow me immediately.
If they're in good enough condition, we may be able to extract memories from more than eight stages of their lives.
Huh.
Could a sorcerer-scholar really be this willing to reveal his research?
Everyone present was startled by the eccentric's words.
One of them even asked whether they might come along as well, since the magic circle was apparently being shown so freely.
The answer they received was ice-cold.
Leave.
What benefit would this country gain from me sharing information with someone like you?
I'm only allowing that green compatriot to observe the entire process because he's a great hero of the war.
...
If someone that talented absorbs my knowledge, he may produce even greater results in the future.
The scholar, who until then had never openly voiced his feelings, finally revealed what he thought of the deep-sea mage.
It was surprisingly respectful.
Almost affectionate admiration.
This is partly a personal favor, so don't assume I'll treat everyone the same way.
You're talking too much!
You're the one who was dragging your tentacles behind you while running away earlier!
Coward!
Th, that was my mistake, so could you please let it go already...
Then the discussion is over. Why are we wasting time instead of working?
■■ and ■■.
At last, the two scholars of the Academy joined forces.
As long as they had a functioning brain, they too could steal information just as the Magic Tower had.
At first, the members of the Academy did not believe the eccentric's claim.
But once they witnessed the results themselves, every one of them fell silent.
Everyone, bring your tuning forks!
Make sure they can store plenty of sound. Hurry!
The eccentric scholar, previously known for little more than his leatherwork, performed several dark spells whose structures were so obscured that the incantations were nearly impossible to make out.
And before long, he truly succeeded in extracting memories from the dead.
What that eccentric had been hiding all this time—
was a technique that caused the countless sounds stored in another being's brain to scatter randomly into the surrounding water.
A chaotic flood of noise spread through the ocean depths.
There are screams mixed in with all kinds of other sounds, so it'll probably take a while to sort out anything useful...
Where is this?
Through that process, the Academy obtained a tremendous amount of information.
①The locations of the scattered hideouts used by those who had fled.
②The type of barrier protecting the enemy nation's main Magic Tower.
It was a goldmine.
Now that they had uncovered this many secrets, there was no longer any reason to sit around the Academy sucking on their tentacles.
Do you know what the green mage did next?
***
A few days later.
The middle waters of a neighboring nation.
When reduced to their essentials, the events that followed were little more than a succession of straightforward victories.
So there was no need to make the explanation of what happened in this new stretch of sea unnecessarily complicated.
First—
the Magic Tower fell.
The institution known as the Magic Tower in the enemy nation was, quite literally, an enormous tower several kilometers tall, stretching between the upper and middle layers of the ocean.
Then, one day, it suddenly cracked apart.
Its side burst open.
And the entire structure collapsed in an ugly heap.
Naturally, this major event was connected to the green war hero, whose name was simple enough.
Kwaaah!
No—no invitation! How in the world did you get through this barrier?!
With the help of his eccentric compatriot specializing in biotechnology, it had taken three days to extract information from the invaders.
After that, by analyzing the escape patterns of the Magic Tower members who had stolen the Academy's treasures, it took roughly four more days to turn everything discovered inside an underground cave into fresh experimental subjects.
Please spare me!
Would you spare a thief after what you did?
While hunting down the fleeing members of the Magic Tower, the future Archmage candidate discovered several Alphauri from his own homeland.
It turned out that criminals from the foreign nation had been kidnapping children from his country as casually as one might hunt wild animals.
Poor.
Uneducated.
And weak on top of that.
Did they really abduct the children of families this pitiful?
Even the last scraps of my sympathy are disappearing.
The green scholar's blood darkened for a moment.
He was burning with anger.
If you're going to use the bodies of our own people, you should at least get their consent first!
And at the absolute minimum, you should honor one of the deceased's wishes in good faith!
Hiik!
That's the bare minimum line we should be expected to uphold, isn't it?
Huh?
Had an alien from another planet witnessed the scene, they might have found the direction of the man's outrage slightly peculiar.
After all, those who volunteered for biological experimentation were usually people desperate enough to sell their own flesh and bones just to feed their families.
Whatever the reason, however—
he was unusually furious.
But if this becomes normal—if people start kidnapping the weak without even compensating them properly—then eventually every scholar will lose public trust!
And in the end, I'll be the one who suffers!
Can you take responsibility for that?
Damn it, you b*stards!
I've already been struggling because I don't have enough samples! My golem research has been crawling along because of it!
Wha, what are you talking about? You lunatic—Aaagh!
What followed was savage violence.
But since the other side had started all of this, revenge on this scale was practically justice.
You filthy creatures from the neighboring waters!
I'll make sure this unethical experimental system never even crosses your minds again!
For the reasons described above, several days later, the green mage personally crossed the border and headed for the enemy nation's main Magic Tower.
He had concluded that unless the Magic Tower itself was destroyed, the fundamentally rotten ideology at the heart of the organization would inevitably produce similar atrocities again.
Without warning, the god of war descended upon the tower with overwhelming force.
It did not take long for him to personally destroy every weapon he could find inside.
Magic books.
Anvils.
Crystal spheres.
Everything.
No! My data! All the work I put into it...!
Kyaaa!
The tools I spent thirty years collecting!
Any unfortunate enemy foolish enough to stand in his way was torn apart.
The enemy nation's secret weapon—brainwashing magic—was rendered completely useless after a single glance from the master of the craft.
My—my shell! My body's shell!
Why can't I breathe...
My magic won't come out!
At the training center, they say that battles between mages resemble the relationship between living creatures and disease.
Magical warfare develops much like vaccines do.
One side produces a powerful spell.
The enemy struggles to analyze it.
Once the unique threat of that spell is neutralized, another weapon emerges to take its place.
This back-and-forth usually takes at least several months.
This time, however, the green mage simply crushed everything before him.
The new form of [Mana Burn], personally refined by the deep-sea being, possessed such an intricate structure that reproducing it remained difficult even after witnessing it several times.
At the height of his power, ■■ was not someone who could be stopped through mere strength.
So, to summarize.
Hey!
Whoever's in charge, get out here!
The translucent mage roared.
The Alphauri of the West were astonishingly powerful.
Even when every member of the Magic Tower attacked him together, he merely laughed in contempt and trampled his way through the building.
And yet, despite all that—
that very mage was now shouting in desperation.
Ugh, damn it.
Let's run.
And so, the enemy was defeated without ever managing to mount a meaningful resistance...
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