Bleap
patreon
Chapter 61
🕑 Added 2025-08-27 14:25:22 +0000 UTCThe Professor moved a finger to his lips and gave a barely noticeable shake of his head before I finished. He wandered over to the doorway before tapping his finger against the frame several times. He repeated the same with the windows, and even the fireplace nestled in a corner.
He then politely asked Maio and Islo to leave.
"As this is a matter considering a member of my family, I request some privacy as one of the Twelve Lords."
Maio's pale face reddened. "And the one your sister killed is-...!"
Islo quickly covered his mouth with a hand, and dragged the struggling boy away. That may or may not have been a direct consequence of me threatening violence by putting a finger against my neck while the professor was talking.
"Alright, proceed."
I crossed my arms, observing his handiwork. "For how great you are at teaching them, your own spells suck."
He'd set up a rudimentary sound-proof bounded field, but the spell was so terribly made that it was already falling apart.
"Hasn't anyone taught you not to point out other people's shortcomings so bluntly?" The Professor pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.
"My mom did say something about that a while back. But, you have to call things out as you see them. People don't grow if you coddle them all the time... And, no one would get pissed off if I was nice about it."
The Professor was... wholly unamused. He held a hand towards the corpse.
"Oh yeah, right. The caster is-"
Maio tried to barge in but Gray held the door shut. The little guy held no chance of overcoming her when it came to physical power.
"It's Byron. Her father." I pursed my lips. "It's crazy to think, but then I remember he's a magus. Maybe he's covering for someone else?"
The Professor put a hand to his chin and immediately fell into deep thought like usual. Fortunately for my sanity, there was a person in the room that was a lot more expressive and didn't just decide to run through the possibilities within their own head.
"That's horrible." Gray murmured. "Her own father..."
"They're magus. Don't tell me your family wasn't messed up either."
My fellow disciple went quiet at that, ducking her head. After a pregnant pause, she nodded weakly, "My parents were... the same. I was hit... often. It changed after this... No, it's nothing."
Why was everyone and their mother so keen on abusing children in this world? I'd come across less people with normal parents then I had those whose families or caretakers regularly abused them for the smallest reasons.
I put a hand on her shoulder, smiling innocently, "As your boy, let me give them a good kick in the teeth some day."
"That's not-... I don't-" Confusion crossed her face, "What does 'your boy' mean?"
"Homie. Pal. Buddy. Frend. Those words feel a bit too sappy though."
She lowered her head, "Okay."
Unfortunately, the Professor spoke up before I could tease her further.
"There is no perpetrator. This isn't a murder at all."
"How so, Mr. Sherlock?" I chirped, truly curious about his theory.
"In the first place, it isn't so uncommon for the children of magi to collapse under the pressure and rigorous training. They are considered the property of their parents. Gray, she came to you and Reines seeking asylum for her younger sister, Estella, right? Or well, whoever it was acting in her place since she was dead before you even arrived at the unveiling."
"Yes. She wanted Miss Reines to hide her sister."
"So, she died days before under the training from her father and then was cut up to make it look like a murder. Reines was just a convenient scapegoat to turn the loss into a more favourable... outcome."
Woah. That was an extremely contrived scheme, but, I expected nothing less from a magus. It was completely psychotic, for one to piece up his own daughter and use her as a card to win political favours but... it was the most obvious course of action for a magus from the Department of Creation.
The real issue, for me, was that these were the people I intended to align myself with. The so-called Democratic Faction. Altruism wasn't even the issue here, it was that if he could do this to his own daughter, there was a definite chance they'd just as easily do the same or worse to me and mine given the chance.
Yeah... magi really weren't trustworthy at all. Most of them, at least. I needed to seriously rethink things.
Gray tilted her head. "But, we saw her at the party. It was definitely her."
"Hm, that's what confuses me too. Since the event was already announced, he had to present both Princesses... yet one was already dead."
I held up a hand at that since the answer was an easy one. "Illusion magic? That's gotta be it."
Waver furrowed his brow, even more thoughtful. In that moment, the professor really did look like a detective in the middle of an investigation, just moments away from having a 'Eureka' moment.
"Something on that level... it shouldn't be accomplishable by..."
"How about a Grand?" I offered calmly.
"Miss Touko? Ah..." He fisted his palm. "I see. That's how it is. Alright, let's go confront her immediately."
I held up my hand again. "What about the second 'murder'? The dead maid, Regina, was it?"
There was no such easy explanation for her murder. Perhaps Byron was indeed the one to kill that girl, to keep things under wraps. Or maybe it was someone else. I had no way to know when I hadn't even seen the body.
"After Adra, and how you identified the corpse, I researched modern autopsy since it seemed like the sort of thing that would be convenient."
"No, you were just being a nerd."
The Professor narrowed his eyes, unamused. "Anyway, I did get the chance to observe that body in detail. The definitely murder took place last night. It was a crime of passion rather than anything methodical too. Too hasty. Too brutal. She was killed through suffocation. Someone choked her to death... strangely, there were no signs of struggle. It may have been an acquaintance."
Yeah, I had no clue.
Noting my oblivious face, the Professor continued. "There were also signs of surgery, and she was deaf, not naturally, or it would be difficult to tell. Her eardrums were surgically rendered ineffective."
"Just like the Princess of Gold we met." Gray said in a hushed whisper, more from disbelief than anything else. When both of us looked at her, the ashen-haired girl shrank under the attention. "I mean, she told us she was deaf so I thought-"
One sister was blind. One was deaf. Wait a second...
I quickly stepped back over to the preserved corpse and raised my aviators briefly.
"Same thing here. Induced deafness."
Byron... If he could do it to one sister... then Estella's blindness was also a product of-
"Hm, I see. It's not so common for magi to seal away one of the five senses to enhance the rest. Considering that one sister was designed to highlight the other, it's not so unreasonable for him to do something like this."
I regretted saving Lord Byron Valualeta Iselma from Atrum Galliasta's wrath. But, that aside, it was good that I had been brought here. It allowed me to see firsthand the kind of people I was thinking of signing up with.
I wondered if that kind of respect was really worth it.
Or well, maybe I was the one at fault for not growing accustomed to typical modus operandi of nearly all magi... and yet, people like Luviagelita and the Professor existed. I knew for a fact that none of the El-Melloi classroom were like this either.
It was just these old splodgy cunts.
"Henry. This is his home. His family. As frustrating as it is, we have no right to do anything."
He was right, I knew. So, I made a compromise.
"If the blind one asks me for help, I'm not saying no."
I wasn't the picture of virtue, no, I was a massive asshole. But, it was impossible to be faced with someone asking for help I could easily provide and do nothing. I aimed to be the strongest, doing what I wanted to was only natural.
"That'll have to be enough then. Let's go. I suspect I've figured out what happened."
There was no denying my curiosity, so I followed.
-
"Uh... yeah. I don't remember anything."
Touko Aozaki answered with an easy shrug, leaning on the table between us. The fiery-haired Grand made no effort to hide her amusement, and even went so far as to steeple her hands like some old secretive villain.
"Yes, they hired me. But, I don't recall what for. Maybe wiping my memory was part of the agreement? It does seem like the kind of thing they'd do."
We were in one of the numerous dining halls in the Tower of the Sun, and the woman had been enjoying some well-done steak with red wine when all of us dropped in to interrogate her. She even blew a kiss my way.
"What about the surgery? I know you've already investigated the body." Waver took a seat across from her, seemingly not the slightest bit intimidated by the fact that this woman could probably murder a hundred of him in the blink of an eye. "Your skill with fleshcrafting and puppetry is well-known so you could easily tell-"
"Mm-hm. Losing is a nasty feeling so I wanted to be done with this place quickly..." She slowly put her fork in her mouth. "Definitely my handiwork with that maid. I guess, now that you think about it, she did resemble the Princess of Gold a lot there, right? Or, at least, the corpse of the princess."
...
...
This woman was so unserious it was inspiring. She knew no one could do anything to her and thus did not give a single fuck about the consequences of her actions, saying and doing whatever she wanted. Even now, she was technically betraying her client.
No, in fact, she just casually gave away the whole bloody game.
Even someone as late as me could easily tell that she was hired to replicate the features of the deceased Princess of Gold in the dead maid so as to save face. She definitely succeeded too, judging by the mass confusion among the attendees of the social event.
"Oh hey, that means they wanted me to... well, you don't need me to say it, right?" She gracefully cut up her steak. "Ah, I wonder who killed that maid girl, then. I mean, was there really any need to? Maybe it was Reines, ignorantly intending to cripple a rival family-"
"It wasn't her. No, that girl probably intended on agreeing to their request for asylum with the El-Melloi."
She didn't really seem like the kind of person to help someone out of kindness, especially not in such a politically sensitive case but... Gray's fervent nods made me re-think that.
"I don't get why we need to prove anything else here. It's not our business. Reines is already absolved if we confront Byron." I cut in with a wave of my hand. "If you want to get to the bottom of it all, I'm all for it but... there'd be no real point."
The Professor hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right, even so, I think I've worked out who killed the maid too."
...What the fuck?
"How?"
Was he Near or L. Lawliet or something? There were no clues whatsoever for that murder. But then again, it wasn't as though I was paying any real attention to the whole ordeal. My mind was too busy tinkering with Blue, Red and Infinity on the side to note anything other than what was right in front of me.
He turned to leave, patting my shoulder as he walked by, "That Henry... is why I'm your teacher."
Damn his aura-farming ass. His coat even fluttered behind him.
"I think he just styled on you." Touko whistled.
"Yeah, he did. The guy's way too cool."
I followed my Professor like a proper side character.
"Gray, tell Reines to gather everyone in the lobby."
"Yes. Professor."
"Henry, I'll need you to protect me, just in case."
...
...
"You got it."
I needed to do something insane lest this man delegate me to being a side character in my own show.
-
Hope you enjoyed.
Please, leave a comment.
Comments
Bleap
Yeah I remember that π€. It was 4th on the list Teacher you want to sleep with most.
Bleap
Bro dropping slang left and right not knowing it makes him look crazy. Fortunately, being a tweaker is what's normal for magi. Waver's aura farming really does go insane sometimes, genuinely, and he's so insanely competent Nasu had to nerf him with shit circuits or he'd probably be a Grand or a Magician or something
SRWilson MR
Henry still needs a lot of experience if he wants to aura farm like Waver. The boy had one of the best direct influences, Alexander the Great. Also, yes, Waver is the most popular teacher among the students. It helps that magus families in general are horrible, and Waver is probably the first authority figure in their lives who truly cares about them as individuals and their dreams. Daddy issues at it finest. Look at the sisters; their own father has no problem killing or crippling them if it's what's best for the family. Psychological torture also comes into the equation. It's always good to see Gray realize that Henry is a friend. I laugh at him using modern-day slang about 20 years ago.
Kevin Valentin
I mean I remember reading somewhere that Waver in universe won most popular teacher people want to sleep with. So yeah his aura farming is off the charts.
