[V7C23] The Tale of a Monster Whose Obsession Is War
Translated by Jodas 7: To the NorthAfter persuading Rukiye’s father, Hütter cracked his shoulders as he ascended the stairs before knocking on the door of Headmaster Möbius’ room.
“Excuse me. Hütter, from the Guidance Office, here.”
“Come in.”
He heard a curt response from the other side of the door.
Hütter pasted the expression of a serious teacher on top of his tired old face, then opened the door.
Möbius was sitting at a table placed on the other end of the room. On the table, a map was spread out, outlining their route for the rest of the trip.
Hütter delivered his report from the doorway.
“Mr. Sorge has pulled back for the time being.”
“…I’ve heard about Mr. Sorge from Miriam. Was he not quite the pushy man?”
Rukiye’s father, Doruk Sorge, had forced his way into the Wedge Tower a little while back and demanded to have his daughter returned to him.
However, that was something that had occurred while Möbius was absent, so it was usually Assistant Headmaster Miriam and Guidance Office Director Hegelich who dealt with the situation.
Neither Assistant Headmaster Miriam nor Director Hegelich had been able to convince Doruk to do anything but try again the next day.
So, it seemed like Möbius was curious to know how Hütter managed to deal with him.
Persuading Doruk Sorge — Or rather, deceiving him — was a simple application of a con man’s speechcraft.
First, you throw in a long stream of information to fan the mark’s unease, giving them the impression that they’re ‘in a real tight spot at the moment.’ Basically, make them panic and get their thoughts to freeze up.
Then, you gently offer your hand. By emphasizing ‘I’ll help you’ and ‘I’ll take care of this for you,’ a person who’d already frozen up would take your hand without thinking.
With the disposition of a diligent teacher, Hütter gave a safe response.
“Once I explained the situation that Rukiye was in, Mr. Sorge showed his understanding.”
He chose not to mention that he made a big deal of emphasizing the name of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy.
In reality, were Doruk to forcefully drag Rukiye back home, the odds of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy coming after him were low. Not just low — just about zero.
While Möbius’ expression remained as stern as ever, his eyes softened a bit in response to Hütter’s words.
“…I see. You are a masterful persuader, then.”
Ever so slightly, Möbius lifted the corners of his mouth. He smiled in a way that rested somewhere between a bitter smile and a faint smile.
“To be honest, I’m relieved to have you with me. I’m no good at persuasion myself.”
(Ah, yeah. That tracks. This guy’s definitely not a talker. He’s more suited for showing up and waving a sword around.)
In the first place, even though they were chronically understaffed, the leader of this organization still spent way too much time fighting on the battlefield.
From the day Hütter took the job at the Wedge Tower to the present, it had been rarer for Möbius to be on campus than not.
Even now, Möbius was personally participating in the mission to retake Darwock.
(…I bet the only reason this guy has the top job at all is because he wields that Ancient Magical Artifact. For whatever reason, these mages put way too much emphasis on Ancient Magical Artifacts.)
At the moment, there were three Ancient Magical Artifacts in the Wedge Tower.
Headmaster Möbius’ ‘Ignatius, the Severer.’
Library Office Director Linke’s ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
And the Extermination Office’s Saint Helena’s ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam.’
If you had to choose between these three, then perhaps it was a prudent decision to have Möbius be the leader.
(…It’s not unusual for organizations like this, but their organizational structure is way behind the times.)
He wondered how Möbius felt when he acquired that Ancient Magical Artifact and when he accepted the post of Headmaster.
The man who stood at the pinnacle of the Wedge Tower turned to face Hütter and bowed his head with respect.
“I thank you for talking sense into Mr. Sorge, Mr. Hütter.”
“I have only done my job as a member of the Guidance Office. As Headmaster, you must surely be aware: as it stands, I cannot use illusions as I once could.”
As the price for acquiring the skill of chantless illusion magic, his body now suffered any time he attempted to utilize mana. — That tall tale he’d spun on the first day he arrived had surely reached Möbius’ ear by this point.
‘Of course, I couldn’t use illusions or magecraft at all to begin with. Don’t forget that, okay?’ Hütter made sure to give himself a mental reminder while, on the outside, he spoke with full sincerity.
“Precisely because I cannot be of any use on the battlefield, it is my duty to protect the Apprentices in this manner.”
‘So don’t go counting me as a combat asset, okay?! For real!’ — So went the desperate prayer of this con man.
“You are truly admirable, Mr. Hütter.”
Möbius leaned back a little bit and rested his back on the chair. Such behavior struck Hütter as a little odd.
Möbius was a little older than Hütter, a man in his mid forties or so. Despite that, his toned body and muscular face never showed any perceptible exhaustion. He always carried the solemnity befitting of a man at the pinnacle of the Wedge Tower.
And yet now, he looked unusually worn out.
“I… Have failed to protect many people, and allowed far too many to die. Some among those have been Apprentices.”
“Are you… Talking about the large-scale attack thirteen years ago?”
“You know of it?”
“All I know is that there was such a thing. I’ve heard quite a few people lost their lives that day.”
He’d done a little bit of research into that large-scale attack.
Thirteen years ago, a certain Greater Monster led a group of Lesser Monsters to make war against the humans.
Ordinarily, Monsters did not fight wars with other Monsters. War was a human thing.
That Greater Monster, who was obsessed with the idea of war, gathered an army of Lesser Monsters and declared war on the Wedge Tower.
…In the end, it became the bloodiest battle in the Wedge Tower’s history and countless mages lost their lives.
Among them, surely there were some who were just apprentices at the time.
(…And it was around this time that Otto lost his wife and soon-to-be-born child as well, wasn’t it?)
“That was the work of an evil and foolish Monster. Without knowing the first thing about war, he laughed that he wanted a war regardless and sicced those Monsters at us. Knowing full well that a Greater Monster would be walking to its death if he left the Crystal Territory, he wanted war, whatever the cost.”
Monsters occasionally held obsessions not for humans themselves, but for things that humans have created.
Be they artworks like jewelry or paintings, songs, or sculptures… Even things such as war were no different: creations of human minds and human hands.
Long ago, a certain Monster caught a glimpse of human warfare and fell in love, birthing a new twisted obsession.
—I want to have a war! I want to fight for myself the kind of war so devastating that the deaths pile up to become nothing but cruel, unfeeling numbers!
As such, that Monster decided to imitate war.
Imitate. Yes, it was but a mere imitation.
Unlike war between humans, this Monster had no goals of gaining money, land, or power.
He could have at least used some grudge as a pretext, but there wasn’t even that.
“A Monster’s obsession is a perverse thing. Some Monsters wish to eat, torment, or rape humans, while others hold obsessions that our minds fail to comprehend. And… It’s the latter type that are all the more terrifying.”
The obsessions that Lesser Monsters held towards humans were relatively easy to understand. They usually wanted to do something along the lines of eat, torment, or rape humans.
However, the Greater Monsters who could take human-like forms often had obsessions that took much more complicated forms.
(So basically, the more human-like they become, the more strange behaviors they pick up.)
The idea that the smarter ones were more of a pain to deal with remained true whether you were talking about humans or Monsters.
Then, the more annoying a Monster was, the more powerful it was. In that case, just how much of a pain in the ass must the King of Monsters be? He didn’t even want to entertain the thought.
“Mr. Hütter.”
Möbius sat up in his chair, then looked straight towards Hütter.
His gaze was direct and sincere.
“When the time comes, I want you to run away with the Apprentices. Go West. No matter what happens, the Monsters will not be able to cross the Western Wall.”
The Western Wall — He didn’t understand the details of it, but he knew there was some sort of barrier there.
To the West of the Wedge Tower, then stretching on towards the North, there was an invisible wall. Preventing only Monsters from passing, it was an absolute divider between humans and Monsters.
So long as that was in place, the Empire’s peace could be sustained.
“I will protect that wall with my life. No matter what happens. So… I leave the Apprentices in your care. Don’t let them die.”
A thought struck him.
A thought that, perhaps both whatever secret the Wedge Tower was protecting and the reason why Möbius held the role of Headmaster had something to do with that Wall.
That was what a con man’s instincts told him.