Chapter 92: Father (3)

Professor Moriarty was originally positioned as an ally in the original work.

Calling him an ally was actually a bit ambiguous.

Unlike the other characters, he only becomes an ally if certain conditions are met.

More precisely, there was a line he had to stay on to remain an ally.

If even one mistake was made, there existed a route where you were forced to cooperate with Professor Moriarty’s plans.

One route was simply receiving magical instruction from him.

Surprisingly, as a teacher or professor, Moriarty had quite a good reputation.

He knew that pushing people beyond a certain point only lowered efficiency.

So he assigned exactly that amount of work, and faithfully paid not only the basic stipend but extra allowances as well.

In return, the difficulty of the tasks was high. 

He instantly grasped a graduate student’s limits and capabilities and pushed them right up to that line.

In the sense that he never skimped on a graduate student’s money, he was a top-tier professor.

The problem began only if you caught Professor Moriarty’s eye.

The so-called corruption route.

From that moment on, Moriarty would become completely absorbed in research to revive his child.

Having discovered a talented individual, he would try to use their help to bring his daughter back.

That was where the focus lay.

What Evan recalled was the man’s single-minded purpose.

There were plenty of hints.

As if under a suggestion himself, Professor Moriarty kept repeating the same thing.

That he only wanted to see his child even once.

If that was the case, wouldn’t fulfilling that single wish be enough?

“It is impossible.”

“…I will not say it a third time.”

Professor Moriarty’s hand trembled violently.

He looked like he was forcibly holding back magic that wanted to burst out right that instant.

“Bring my daughter back right now—”

“If you could see your daughter even once, would that truly satisfy you?”

“……!”

His hand froze mid-motion.

Evan quietly spoke while looking at him.

“Royan.”

Royan nodded.

There was no need for further explanation. He was just too lazy for it.

“Your daughter is right beside you right now.”

“…What? Y-you’re lying…!”

“It’s true. She’s really sad. And she looks a lot like you. Only the eyes are different. Did she take after her mother?”

“!!!”

For the first time in his life, Professor Moriarty showed an intense reaction.

Even Evan couldn’t see souls.

He had simply believed Royan’s words and thrown out a huge bluff, yet it was working far better than expected.

“She’s… right beside me right now…?”

“Yeah.”

Professor Moriarty’s pupils shook wildly.

Psssh—

The black magic circles that had been floating around him scattered.

Professor Moriarty had dispersed the magic himself.

Like a madman, he jerked his head left and right.

“Where, where are you! Lati! Where are you!”

He really did look like a lunatic, seeing nothing yet acting that way.

Evan whispered ever so softly to Royan.

“…Royan. She’s really there, right?”

“Yeah. Can’t you see her, Evan?”

“No.”

That shouldn’t be possible… Royan muttered.

Then he whispered again.

Didn’t you set all this up, Evan?

?

Ah, right. I should use honorifics… anyway, you planned everything, didn’t you?

What the hell is he talking about?

Evan firmly denied it.

No.

Lapis and Frey said that if anything happens, it’s always because Evan planned it…

Me?

Evan was dumbfounded.

He kept getting dragged into incidents purely because of bad luck; what planning?

If anything, he just wanted to hide in some corner.

Tap.

At that moment, Royan lightly brushed against him.

Royan’s hand barely touched Evan.

In that instant—

Dad…

“?”

Evan’s head snapped around.

Just a moment ago, the space beside Professor Moriarty had been completely empty.

Now a girl was hopping up and down there.

Stop it, please stop…! My death was just an accident! You know that, Dad!

Wait, I can hear her too?

…Holy crap.

Behind Professor Moriarty.

A translucent figure floated in the air.

Ugh!

Evan nearly screamed without realizing it.

He forced his locked jaw muscles to move.

Thanks to his trademark blank expression, nothing showed on the outside, but cold sweat poured down his back.

She was really there?

A ghost? A spirit?

Well… fine.

He knew they existed.

There was black magic, there were zombies.

There was no reason ghosts couldn’t exist.

The problem was that he could see one!

…Could that be a special kind of golem that looks like a soul?

He even wondered if it might be a unique golem designed to resemble a spirit.

…No matter how he looked, it didn’t seem alive.

The translucent body flickered faintly, and the expression was unmistakably sad.

Dad… Dad!

The soul desperately called out to Professor Moriarty.

She reached for the hem of his clothes, but her hand simply passed through him.

Even knowing it wouldn’t grasp anything, Lati kept reaching out.

A voice close to a wail.

Professor Moriarty, unable to hear that wail, clutched his head.

“Kuugh… Ah, ah… Why… did I try necromancy…?”

His eyes shook with anxiety.

As if parroting someone else’s words, he muttered in confusion.

“No, no. I… I must bring my daughter back……”

He looked exactly like someone under powerful external suggestion.

Lati gazed at her father with despair, then reached out once more.

This time it wasn’t to grab him.

It was as if she were trying to confirm something.

Shhhhk.

Lati’s translucent body passed straight through Professor Moriarty.

In that moment, her eyes widened.

She had discovered something.

This is… suggestion? Why is something like this on Dad…?

Suggestion?

Evan quickly racked his brain.

Suggestion?

Was there something like that?

…He couldn’t remember.

Maybe there never was?

Lati hurriedly turned her head.

And met eyes with Evan, who was staring straight at her.

—!

He can really see me?

Lati decided there was no time to hesitate.

She flew straight toward Evan.

Y-you can see me, right? You can see me?

Uwaaaaagh!

A ghost is flying at me!

A ghost!

For a moment, the Korean blood remaining in his soul screamed to throw red beans or salt.

But he forcibly held it in.

He had to endure.

He had to endure…!

“…Yes.”

Evan gave the tiniest nod.

As expected! You knew everything and came here on purpose, didn’t you? Please say yes, please!

Lati begged desperately, as if trying to find any certainty on Evan’s expressionless face.

Of course, from Evan’s perspective, it was absurd.

No.

Know what?

Where did she even hear such nonsense?

Please help my dad! 

He’s under some strange suggestion! 

There used to be weird people who kept visiting him… I think it’s their doing!

“…Weird people?”

Hold on.

Something felt familiar.

The moment Evan opened his mouth, Lati poured out everything she knew, filled with hope.

Yes! They always wore pure white clothes… their faces hidden under hoods, so I don’t know who they were. 

After they came, Dad became even stranger. His obsession with reviving me grew worse…!

Pure white clothes.

Faces hidden by hoods.

Suggestion cast on Professor Moriarty.

The scattered pieces in Evan’s mind clicked into place.

…The White Shadow Cult?

A cult long said to have vanished into history.

They worshipped demons.

Their goal was to dye the entire world beneath the devil’s feet in pure “white.”

White meant purity.

To reach a place without any flaw, they sought new bodies.

They never hesitated to commit taboos in the process.

That was why they had once coveted forbidden arts like necromancy or homunculus creation.

No.

They were supposed to be unrelated characters.

Why were they suddenly appearing here…?

Shhhhh…

At that moment, the air in the laboratory turned ice-cold.

From within the darkness, an eerie presence slowly revealed itself and took shape.

Exactly as Lati had described.

Clad from head to toe in pure white robes, face hidden deep in shadow beneath the hood.

A high priest of the White Shadow Cult.

Or perhaps… an archbishop.

“There are too many pests.”

A low, frigid voice echoed from within the hood, like shards of ice clinking together.

“We spent a long time building this tower for our long-cherished wish. By exploiting the foolish paternal love of that man Moriarty, we came one step closer to the great evolution.”

The archbishop slowly turned his head toward Evan. 

A piercing gaze could be felt from the shadows beneath the hood.

“The glorious first step toward rebirth like a devil. That body should have become ours. Yet you dare ruin our plan? All you had to do was quietly create the vessel!”

Cold fury laced the archbishop’s voice.

He had watched with his own eyes as Professor Moriarty’s research neared success.

Only one person.

If only Evan had cooperated.

Yet Evan refused to the end, and the brainwashing on the professor began to waver.

Enraged, the archbishop had finally revealed himself.

“Failure is not tolerated. I will rip open your brain and take only your knowledge. Be grateful you can participate in the glorious evolution.”

Shhk.

The archbishop slowly raised his hand.

Beneath the pure white sleeve, bony fingers emerged. An ominous white mana began condensing at their tips.

“Disappear.”

Just as a white flash was about to fire toward Evan—

Crack—

Something shattered. No, it would be more accurate to say something was torn apart.

The magic the archbishop had been about to unleash dispersed powerlessly into the air.

And that wasn’t all.

The strange aura enveloping his body, the very thread of fate he possessed—it felt as though it was being forcibly twisted and ripped apart by something.

“Grahk?!”

The archbishop could not hide his shock.

This phenomenon—his power, his very existence being rejected—was something he had never experienced.

Impossible. 

My power is one that obeys fate…!

The power to twist fate.

A power received from the devil as a high priest and archbishop.

That was how he had been able to place suggestion even on the formidable Professor Moriarty.

So why did it not work on this mere underworld upstart?

Does he possess a fate greater than the professor? 

Impossible. Someone of that caliber couldn’t possibly be at the academy—

No way, Moriarty—

“Guh—!”

His thoughts ended there.

The archbishop’s face turned deathly pale.

He groped with both hands, then clutched his own throat.

“Ghk, khrrgh—”

Royan.

His eyes were still sleepy, yet they now carried something different from before.

Cold anger beyond mere laziness. 

Displeasure at someone daring to touch Evan.

Royan simply looked at the archbishop. He did nothing else.

Yet the archbishop suddenly found it hard to breathe. 

His chest tightened, his lungs shriveled.

His vision blurred, every bodily function ground to a halt.

As if every organ in his body had given up, unable to overcome extreme laziness.

What… is… this…

Even breathing.

Even existing.

A power that made both feel like the height of bothersome effort.

The Authority of Sloth.

Thud.

The archbishop of the White Shadow Cult collapsed to the floor without even a scream. He did not so much as twitch.

As though he had never existed in the first place, he perished meaninglessly.

……Huh?

Evan blinked.

It had happened far too quickly.

For a moment he even wondered, Is that guy a fake?

No… you were supposed to be famous.

That’s it?

It’s over?

The situation resolved so fast that Evan was left dumbfounded.

“Ugh… Uwaaaaa… Lati… Lati…!”

At that moment, Professor Moriarty collapsed.

Freed from the suggestion, hot tears poured endlessly from his eyes.

The madness that had ruled him vanished, leaving only the grief of a father who had lost his daughter.

He fell to the floor, sobbing only his daughter’s name.

Daad… Daaad…

Lati could no longer hold back and began wailing too.

Evan felt the urge to cover his ears against the crying coming from both sides.

Now the problem was…

How do I let him see this soul?

How was he supposed to let this father and daughter meet again?

No, before that—how was he going to clean up this whole situation? 

What about the archbishop’s corpse?

Could ordinary people even see souls?

His mind grew tangled.

BAM!

With a loud crash, the laboratory door was flung open.

“Professor!”

“What happened! Are you alright!”

Professors’ graduate students poured in.

They froze in horror at the disastrous scene inside the lab.

Their professor collapsed and sobbing, an unidentified corpse, Evan and Royan standing perfectly fine, and the body of a young girl inside a preservation tank…

As expected of graduate students, their brains worked quickly.

They assessed the situation in an instant.

One student frantically shouted and threw himself to the floor.

Terror and desperation filled his eyes.

“Please don’t kill our professor! Whatever you want, we’ll do anything—just please…”

…No.

I’m not a bad person.

I came to save you guys, you know?