"I see." Cyril nodded without any emotion on his face.
His calmness spread to Monty as his angry expression slowly deflated. The student meekly looked to the floor, observing the little stones on the ground.
Cyril walked closer to Albert and crouched down, observing him with curiosity.
"Why are you searching for the stone here?"
"Thorne, you don't understand what you are messing with-"
"Lapis asked you to find a pitch-black stone."
"How did you...?"
Albert's face quickly lost all its anger, leaving surprise.
Without waiting for him to recover, Cyril pressed on. He leaned closer and put a palm closer to his neck in a threatening manner.
"Why does Lapis think the stone is here? Did they tell you this?"
"N-no, I-"
"Do you know what that stone is?"
"...No, I don't."
"It's a bomb."
"...!"
Albert's face paled at Cyril's cold voice. The energy in his brown eyes slowly dissipated as they became weaker and weaker.
"A bomb...?"
Lapis and a bomb in a single sentence couldn't mean anything good. They were likely to strike sites through which manaveins travel across the city, where regular people work.
Quickly Albert shook his head, trying to recover.
"To make the world a better place, sacrifices have to be made. It's just how it is," he muttered as if reciting an inspirational quote.
"Huh. We got a real terrorist in the making here."
Rhamn rubbed her chin, crouching near Cyril. Her smart suit added to the feeling of two detectives interrogating a suspect that Cyril now vaguely felt.
"It's fun."
Cyril ignored her, staring Albert in the eyes.
"So, you don't mind sacrificing other people. What about yourself?"
"...I am ready for it. If that's what it takes..." he mumbled with a confused expression, his eyes wandering.
"Now, put more pressure on him! Target his family! He'll break soon enough!"
Rhamn pointed at the pale Albert, fully getting into the role.
Before this class III student managed to get his thoughts in order, Cyril put his palm on Albert's shoulder, making him flinch.
"I'm having my doubts. Are you really ready for this?" Cyril whispered in a calm manner, as if genuinely asking.
"Tell me if I am wrong, but..." He subtly glanced at Rhamn mid-sentence. "Guard captain, district seventeen."
"...your father is a guard captain, right? From district seventeen. It must've been hard to reach that position despite being a commoner."
Albert's eyes, which fruitlessly wandered around the park at night, suddenly froze, his pupils constricting into dots.
"I wonder how the Empire would react when they find out his son is a member of Lapis... Say, do you have a big family?"
Albert's already pale face paled significantly more. The Empire was a powerful country, abundant with resources and able to solve most problems through the wonder of magic. However, what it wasn't was merciful, especially to those who lacked a family name.
"Being stripped of his job would be considered the best-case scenario, I suppose. But since you are ready for that..." Cyril got up on his feet, as if ready to go.
"No! Wait!" Albert suddenly struggled to move his head.
His hands and feet were still unresponsive, but he desperately flailed his head after Cyril, as if to stop him with his teeth.
"Don't go- Don't tell anyone, please!"
On his feet, Cyril calmly looked at Albert's eyes, making him shudder into silence. The student had fear written all over his face, any sign of the earlier passion completely missing now.
"Success!"
"Who told you to search for the stone? Why?" Cyril crossed his arms, coldly looking down.
"It was a hooded man I met in the bar! He promised crystals in exchange! I don't know what or why, but he seemed sure it's in Ailanthus." Albert desperately uttered in a single breath.
"If I were to find anything, I was supposed to return to that bar, alone."
"That's all I know! I've been recruited through a crier on the street. I've only been with them for a few days! I am not a real Lapis member, please!"
Cyril contemplated for a second, looking down on his panicked face.
That's that. Nothing groundbreaking. He is just a grunt after all.
"Useless! Why did we bother... At least it was fun."
"Just don't do anything foolish in the future." Cyril shook his head and took a step back.
Albert breathed a sigh of relief, then attempted to get up. However, his limbs still refused to move.
"Eh... Can- can you allow me to move?"
"Allow you to move?" Cyril tilted his head with confusion, staring at him as if he had said something ridiculous.
"That weird attack your butterfly did that paralyzed me. Can you, like, reverse it?"
"..."
Oh.
It seems there was a slight misunderstanding. Selene, from whom he originally saw a similar move, could truly paralyze people at will. However, due to their inexperience, they weren't capable of reproducing that effect. It is a technique unknown to them right now.
But what he did know was a little bit of biology and a technique to deal precise cuts through mana. So, he simply cut muscles and joints to stop humans from moving.
That worked just fine in the world of advanced healing magic but proved awkward under Albert's hope-filled eyes.
"...Let me see what I can do."
Albert's face twitched as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead.
...
I should learn healing magic in the future.
Cyril contemplated as he waited with crossed arms.
"Good idea. There's also a spell healers know that scans the body, right? That would be really useful to me."
Unfortunately, he didn't possess the ability to help Albert deal with his small issue, but they did have an idea.
"Let's just leave. Not our problem."
No, we received Ambrosia for this. Might as well do it properly.
Another idea.
Cyril told Morpho to quickly fly back to his dorm and grab one of the healing potions there.
He happened to have some from a month ago or so. All aspiring martial artists keep a few healing potions at hand for emergencies and use them quite frequently.
However, since mana potions could essentially work the same for him, he had no more need for healing potions, leading to them gathering dust in his dorm.
Lucky for Albert, who at the moment blankly stared at the night sky, not a single limb of his moving.
As they quietly waited, someone's heartbeat began beating louder. A frail student approached Cyril after he remained silent for a minute.
"Excuse me... But what about me? Albert attacked me, tricked me! I don't want for him to just go free!" Monty angrily muttered.
His back was lowered, his gaze aimed at the ground, but Monty still complained without fail.
"What gave this pipsqueak the courage?"
Perhaps feeling Rhamn's ultra-menacing glare, the student took a step back but then muttered again.
"I want justice!"