[109] Back to Everyday Life (4)
"So what exactly do you want me to do? How does admitting we were brainwashed change anything?"
"Well… you two would be acquitted."
Kanis went pale. He had followed Arkein into Inferno and helped a criminal escape. He had put hundreds of students at the Magic Academy in mortal danger. Even if he wasn't the ringleader, acquittal was the last thing he expected.
"Acquitted…? Us?"
"Oh, yes. If you acknowledge the brainwashing, that's what happens. Right now the Association is focusing on the possibility of brainwashing."
Admit it and you're free. Free to go. Both he and Arin could walk away and start new lives as if nothing had happened.
For once Kanis felt his blood run cold. Above all, the Association's judgment was strange. Why would they insist on releasing people who'd aided a criminal's escape?
"Oh, and one more thing."
Sakiri rifled through a file as if she'd just remembered something. Maybe she had; Arin couldn't read this investigator's emotions, after all.
"Arkein's personal lawyer sent official documents. They requested anonymity, but the notarization is complete. Look these over. His will, inventory of assets, and inheritance papers."
"A will?"
Sakiri pushed the papers across the table as if no explanation were needed.
With trembling hands, Kanis checked each page. Arkein's will was plain—simply lists of matters to be handled after his death, written in a steady hand.
One line stood out.
[Document] All assets bequeathed to Kanis.
'Master….'
It didn't change the fact that Arkein had never seemed warm or that he'd secretly looked after his disciples. He was the kind of man who pushed his convictions without apology; he'd been honest in how he treated Kanis.
Arkein proved it with his will. A man who didn't care for a disciple's life still considered Kanis his only student.
Kanis set down the will and checked the inventory.
Real estate, including various dungeons; physical items like magical apparatus; expensive artifacts and rare herbs; and sums deposited in banks were all listed neatly.
'1, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000…'
Kanis tallied the total shown at the end.
'4.8 billion gold…'
An amount befitting a grand mage like Arkein who'd accumulated wealth over 150 years. Kanis still couldn't grasp the situation. First they suddenly said he'd be acquitted, and now they were telling him he was the heir to 4.8 billion gold.
Sakiri scratched her head awkwardly.
"But there's a problem. Arkein leaving the inheritance to you probably came from his recognition of you as his disciple. But the Association views brainwashing as the implantation of a false self. They think Kanis was deceived by Arkein. No sane person would commit such a heinous act otherwise. That's why the Association is inclined to consider acquittal. However…"
"You won't inherit? Because I'm not Arkein's disciple?"
For the first time Sakiri showed a gentle expression. Of course her tone didn't soften even a hair's breadth.
"Yes. That's exactly it. The person Arkein bequeathed to was the brainwashed Kanis, not the unbrainwashed Kanis. Eventually that money will be treated as illicit funds and reclaimed by the Association. Before that happens, they want to hear Kanis's position. If you admit you were brainwashed, you'll be acquitted. All we need is your signature."
Sakiri handed over one more document. Kanis looked at it with hollow eyes.
A renunciation of inheritance.
Admit you were brainwashed and you'll be found not guilty. You were merely a victim used by Arkein. But if he did that, the fortune Arkein left would go to others.
In the end, the Association had chosen the 4.8 billion gold over arresting two rookies.
"We could give you time, but it might work against you at trial. It raises suspicion about the voluntariness of the crime. Does that make sense? Of course they were brainwashed. Otherwise Kanis and Arin wouldn't have committed those crimes, would they?"
His mind went blank. He hadn't been afraid of dying in battle. But now the investigator said they were innocent. They had clearly done something terrible, yet they were told otherwise.
'This place is no different from Ladum.'
The outside world wasn't a sunlit greenhouse either. It was a battlefield where massive desires swirled under the guise of law.
When Kanis hesitated, Sakiri clicked her tongue and stood.
"All right, I'll give you some time. About an hour—"
"I'll sign."
Kanis, knees half-bent, stopped in his tracks. He sat back down and smiled faintly.
"Good decision. Here…."
Sakiri handed him the fountain pen she used. Kanis wrote his name in the signature field of the renunciation.
The pen scratched across the paper. Sakiri accepted it with a pleased look and reviewed the document.
"Congratulations on your freedom. It's over, and you made the right choice. If you'd hired a lawyer, things would have gotten more complicated."
A lawyer. He hadn't even considered it. Should he have?
No—Sakiri hadn't lied.
If the Association were easy to deal with, they wouldn't have bothered bringing out a renunciation in the first place.
"What do we do now?"
"Well, for now you leave. You're free."
Kanis and Arin had been made into mere pawns. But Sakiri seemed uninterested—she gathered the documents and turned to go.
"Where do we go for release procedures…?"
"There aren't any. You just leave."
Her tone was like dismissing an annoying door-to-door salesman. Kanis understood the truth.
From the start the Association hadn't cared about them. They'd only spent the two hours needed to reclaim Arkein's assets.
More humiliating than wounded pride was the helplessness before the Association's power. He felt how great a man Arkein had been—one who had faced nations of the continent head-on—by the sheer force the Association wielded.
Kanis calmed himself. It was obvious now. He was a battle mage. He knew how to fight, so there was no reason to hesitate.
"Hey, you."
Sakiri turned at the doorway.
"Did you call me?"
"You're a mage too, right?"
"Hm, you could say that. All Association staff are mages, after all."
"What rank?"
"Certified Rank 5, if you must know."
Kanis pictured his opponent's level. The Association's investigator was a certified Rank 5—that was the kind of person she was.
"I won't end here. I won't sit down and stay that way."
"Very well. You should. I'll be going then."
"I'll make you my subordinate someday, mark my words."
Sakiri paused with her hand on the doorknob. After a moment she turned back to Kanis and gave a narrow smile.
"You'll have to study hard. Frankly, competition for places like this is fierce. But if that day ever comes…."
Sakiri placed her right hand over her chest.
"Then I'll be counting on you."
Kanis didn't react to the investigator's unexpected courtesy. He only realized how thoroughly pragmatic she was. A small bow didn't cost anything. After all, no one knows the future.
When Sakiri left, Arin smiled at Kanis. Being acquitted wasn't a bad thing. Better to inherit 4.8 billion gold than to rot in prison for life.
"Kanis, you made the right choice."
"There are… a lot of strong people out there."
Kanis's lips twitched. With a new goal, his heart raced as fiercely as when he first met Arkein.
"Arin, let's get stronger."
"Mm…."
Arin watched the door Sakiri had walked through. Kanis would come back here someday. This wasn't their end, so she could move toward the future.
Sakiri headed straight to the Inspector's Office. Compared to the gravity of the situation, the paperwork was handled easily. Arkein's death had been decisive. There had been no legal conflict, and Alpheas's admission of wrongdoing had been a key factor.
The Inspector's Office was an elegant room with a marble floor. The man called the Iron Inspector—legend of Inspection Division 3—stood with his hands behind his back, looking out the window.
"Inspector, here are the approval documents for this case."
"Leave them on the desk."
Sakiri set the file on the desk. Normally she would have left, but curiosity got the better of her and she turned back at the door.
"Is the Alpheas matter all right as it stands?"
"Why? Do you think higher-ups will complain?"
"A six-month suspension of teaching credentials is on the lenient side, but I don't think there'll be pushback. It was forty years ago, there was no intent to cause grievous harm, and converting 4.8 billion gold into bail seems like a reasonable settlement."
"Then why ask?"
He asked as if the answer were expected. Sakiri felt she'd needlessly scratched at a sore and tasted regret. But since she'd brought it up, retracting it would be a blunder.
"I wondered if there was some element of atonement involved."
The Inspector was silent for a long moment. Then he slowly turned and looked at Sakiri.
"We did Alpheas a wrong, I admit. But I've never judged a criminal's punishment based on personal feelings."
"Sorry. That was a slip of the tongue."
"Just go."
She hurried out of the Inspector's Office, flustered. He might be notorious for harsh interrogations, but within the Association he too was a mage who had to watch his superiors.
The Inspector opened the file, carefully reviewed the documents, then took a fountain pen and placed his signature. A flood of memories passed through his mind. He was an old man with white hair now, but when he thought back, the jaw he'd been struck on at Alpheas's house still throbbed.
"Tch. Should've taken a gift at the time."
He had never returned to see Alpheas after that mistake with Erina, but he'd never forgiven himself for losing.
Yet over forty years, photonic theory had evolved and innovated, still changing the world even now.
He had no choice but to admit how brilliant Alpheas had been.
"Kukuku. A late gift, then. The Gold Circle truly was yours."
The Inspector carved his signature into the document.
Ardiano Sarof.
End-of-Term Report Card (1)
The most nerve-wracking time for Magic Academy students had come: the end of term. Half a year's work was compressed onto a single sheet. Promotion or failure was decided by a merciless cutoff line.
Alpheas had been suspended from teaching by the Association for six months. The legal effect would begin next term, and the eldest current teacher, Koli, was serving as acting principal.
Alpheas straightened from weeding the flower beds and smiled. His adorable students were approaching in the distance—Shirone, Iruki, Nade. They were notorious troublemakers no one at the school failed to know, but precisely because of that, they were children with hopeful futures.
"Hello, Principal."
"Hoho. I told you not to call me principal. I'm just an old man doing a bit of busywork at the moment."
"Aww. In just half a year you'll be principal again."
Alpheas simply laughed. He was grateful to his students for their support, and at the same time felt undeserving.