Chương 42: Human nature
POV Julian Kingscrown
Two months after the start of classes at Xyrus Academy.
Time remaining for admission to the academy eight months.
"What do you think, Cynthia?" I said, showing her the initial draft of the project to make the bodies of non-mages capable of increasing.
"It's fascinating, an idea that only someone with a vision of mana as peculiar as yours could think of," she said quite impressed by what she was reading.
"Well, it was a pretty hard idea to find and in fact it hasn't even been executed, so we don't really know if it will work," I replied.
"Even so, the premise you imagined is something to be proud of, combining the process of awakening the Alacryan runes, with a fake core created by a mana imprint of your own, thus forcing the creation of mana veins and channels is simply something out of the ordinary," she replied without stopping praising me.
"Although it has its limitations," I retorted.
"It's true that it doesn't have something like the growth stages like normal cores and it only allows you to manipulate pure mana, since it doesn't have the necessary processing to apply elemental magic, but if this works it will help many non-mages of Dicathen to survive and level the playing field with Alacrya, besides you haven't thought about trying it with the awakened mages to see what effects it has, right?" she said with an interested voice.
"There are still many things to test to be sure of its effects and consequences, but we need test subjects," I replied with a solemn voice and a gloomy look.
Cynthia saw my face with concern and said, "I would like to be the person who gathers the test subjects."
"No, this is my idea and I will carry it out with my own hands," I replied with the firmest tone I could muster.
"Haaafff, I'm not going to get into this matter if that's what you want, but I want you to remember that both Gideon and I are with you, supporting you, I'll be waiting for you to do this together. We're on the same side in this." She spoke in a kind tone, giving me a reassuring smile.
I looked at her somewhat surprised by her statement that helped me relax and replied, "Thank you very much, Cynthia."
It's true, if I can't carry this alone, I can ask for help from Cynthia and Gideon who are behind me supporting me.
After that I left her office, heading towards the Elshire woods to kidnap bandits and slavers, I had already asked for an approximate location of each of the beasts in the forest, to make this as fast as possible.
I felt sick to my stomach thinking about the idea of experimenting with humans, but I knew they weren't exactly good people, so I wasn't going to stop and I wasn't going to hesitate.
Although they weren't the culprits of the situation that was going to happen in the future, their help would give us the opportunity to save many more lives during the war. With those thoughts in my mind I reaffirmed my resolution as I left the Academy through the back door.
----------------------------------------------------------POV Cynthia Goodsky
I waited for Julian to leave the office to release all the tension I had in my hands and when I heard the crunch coming from the lock.
I opened them, I had several nail marks embedded in them bleeding, I felt frustrated, a child who doesn't even have half my age, is running non-stop to save the people of this continent, reaching the point of staining his hands with the filth of this world.
Is this some kind of Karma? Would it have been different if I had been the person who took the step forward to fight against Alacrya? Is it appropriate for a boy of that age to carry this kind of burden on his shoulders? Hundreds of thoughts were running through my head and everything was about Julian.
A person of his age taking on all kinds of responsibilities, while taking a step forward to keep them safe and the most painful thing is that no one sees him and no one will thank him.
On the contrary, when many people find out everything he did, he could be called a monster, cruel and inhuman and even arrogant.
He will be condemned to the scrutiny of all his actions, from not having informed the continent before the invasion. Going through the fact of starting conflicts with them and reaching the experiments with humans that he is about to do.
No matter how much we convince ourselves that it is for a greater good, our actions may not be the right ones and may put people in even more danger.
But this is the path he decided to take and I, as perhaps the only person in the world who understands his situation, will guide his path, I will make him see that he has a person who will tell him where to walk, no matter how damaged the path he took is, I will simply give him directions to cross it.
But I can't become his support when he can't walk, nor will I be the person who manages to put a brake on him when he goes too fast, nor will I be the person you long to meet at the end of your journey, that only belongs to the people you appreciate and those who appreciate you.
And even if I become one of those people you hope to see at the end of your path, throughout your journey I will only be your guide to prevent you from losing your way.
----------------------------------------------------------POV Julian Kingscrown
"Gideon, can you hear me?" I asked through the green ring as I moved over the Elenoir forest mounted on the frost hawk, his name was Beira.
Most of my beasts had reached class A and some like Rex and Ingram had already reached class S, so I was satisfied with their growth.
Every day they are closer to choosing their bond, while they grew up they were with me observing all the people around me, so most of them have already decided who they will be, but some have not even seen someone of their interest.
"Boy, is something wrong?" Taking me out of my thoughts, I heard Gideon's tired voice.
For the last four months he has been running with my orders, so if before he looked like a zombie, now he looks like an alien, but he apparently enjoys what he does, so I couldn't urge him to relax a little.
"No, I just wanted to know the status of the equipment and if it's ready to use" I asked to know the status of the artifact capable of making the mana impressions.
"Yes, it's completely ready to start the tests, just remember to tie them up and gag them well" he replied.
"I understand, I'll use the teleportation artifact to take them to the shelter in the middle of the clearings where you are, by the way, is Cynthia with you?" I asked.
"Yes, she's here, but she's upset because you didn't let her capture test subjects with you" Gideon replied.
"I wanted to do this on my own as a kind of test for myself, I need to get used to this kind of thing and this project is giving me the right excuse to do it," I replied.
"I'm sorry you have to get used to this, you shouldn't have to carry this kind of responsibility on your shoulders" Gideon said in a somber tone.
"You know, since I started my journey, I always knew this day would eventually come, I knew I couldn't pretend to win a war without killing people or spilling blood, so don't worry, I've been prepared to take on this kind of thing from the beginning" I replied firmly.
Gideon's answer didn't come right away, I just heard for a long time the icy wind of the forest at night hitting my face.
Until finally I heard the melancholic tone of the Artificer again, "take care and stay safe".
After that the connection between rings was cut off, I immediately put aside any kind of negative thought I had in my mind and focused on the slavers.
I arrived at the area indicated by the beasts, where there was a decent amount of slavers and elves captured to be sold.
I observed their behavior for some time to know exactly where the slaves were and sent Dryas in his spiritual form to see if there was anything I was missing, then I waited for the right moment to attack them.
Initially, I covered the wagons where the slaves were, with a thick ice formation in the shape of a dome to keep them safe and not turn them into hostages, besides that the noises that were about to be produced were not heard.
When I saw that the spell was completed, I summoned several hundred vines and directed them towards them.
"Hey guys wake up" said one of the slavers in a scared tone.
"We're under attack," shouted one of his companions.
"Quick, take your weapons and find the culprit" said someone coming out of the tent in a rough tone.
But before they could even move, hundreds of vines covered their camp and began to break their bodies or cores, incapacitating them in the most painful way possible.
"Arrgggghhh help, my arm, my arm" said someone breaking into a painful cry.
"It hurts, it hurts, damn it, someone help me" shouted another in a tearful and pitiful tone as he grabbed his leg, which was now in an unnatural position.
"I didn't want to do this, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" said another in a scared tone as he tried to escape.
I ignored their pleas, what I was doing was cruel, but it would be hypocritical to look at them with pity now after what I planned to do with them.
All that was heard in the forest were screams of terror, in a symphony of pure despair and fear, enhancing the ugliness of this world, being a perfect companion for a night as dark as today's.
----------------------------------------------------------POV Gideon
"Are those all?" I asked, looking at about twenty unconscious and chained people on the wall of the cave.
"Yes, although they look injured or mistreated, they have been minimally healed to continue with the tests" Julian replied solemnly.
I approached them with a circular-shaped artifact, connected to a mana source outside the room.
Cynthia, who entered after me, gave Julian a nod with a gloomy face and followed me to one of the test subjects.
We both waited until Julian approached, Cynthia activated a sound barrier around us and the prisoner.
"Julian, you don't have to be here for this, you've done more than enough by giving all your knowledge" she said, looking at him sideways.
"This is my proposal, so I will see its consequences to the end, besides I will be able to prevent more people from dying if I observe the process directly" he replied as his eyes changed from their usual red to multicolored.
For a moment I got lost in those eyes, his gaze looked like a cluster of stars shining in the night or even one of the aurora phenomena that happen every ten years.
But I couldn't keep admiring them, snapping out of my stupor, I saw beyond his gaze and for the first time I thought I saw the soul of a person, determination, guilt, anger, sadness, resignation... a whirlwind of emotions could be seen in his gaze.
Reasonably, I knew that the boy shouldn't be here watching what was going to happen, but deep down I knew I couldn't do that. The light in his eyes was so clear and bright.
It was a light full of determination, with fears and insecurities, but one that was willing to move forward.
I couldn't deny his presence here and it seems that Cynthia couldn't either, so we both looked at the test subject, and immediately started the process for the mana imprint.
"Where do we place it?" I asked my two companions.
"He's a non-mage, so we should try it on his solar plexus and see what happens" Julian replied.
"I agree," Cynthia confirmed.
I proceeded to move his body slightly to show his back in our direction and put the artifact on the spot and turned it on.
A reverberation of mana was felt for a few seconds that I had the artifact on his back, then I removed it and observed.
We saw how the mark began to glow in a crystalline blue-white tone, forming a circle on his skin, like a kind of tattoo and not long after we heard screams.
"Arrrghhhhh, stop it, stop it, make it stop," the man in front of us begged.
We all had grim looks, but we didn't stop the process or help him, we didn't even answer his words, on his face you could see the pain he was feeling and in his eyes you could see his fear of us.
Still no one paid attention to his laments, Cynthia completely ignored his pitiful state and Julian seemed to be seeing something that we couldn't, I, on the other hand, turned off all my emotions.
I didn't feel any real empathy for him and although I knew that what we were doing was inhuman, it was something that would eventually happen, either with these people or prisoners brought under the order of some of the kings of Dicathen.
That's why I tried not to worry too much, even so the feeling is unpleasant.
After the screams stopped, we saw his lifeless body with the mana imprint destroyed.
"We need to reduce the output power for the mana imprint artifact" Cynthia said.
"I agree, their bodies will end up destroying themselves from the inside, if we don't control the amount of mana they receive" this time it was Julian who spoke.
"I'll see what I can do," I said as I stood up and left the room.
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