Chapter 396

My mind went completely blank. A person. He wanted to create a person. What on earth… did I just hear? In other words…

Helga Brandt looked at me with a smile full of quiet confidence.

“I know it’s a bit early.”

“Th-…”

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

“This goes way beyond a bit ‘early.’ You’re saying you want to have a ch—… I mean, create a person with my mana?”

“It’s only something I’ve been thinking about. You’re German, for one. And among everyone I’ve met, your mana and your abilities are unmatched. Aside from the kleptomania, you seem to have a good personality.”

“Aside from that?”

“I like your face, too.”

I fought the urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him.

Create a person… with my mana? I’d thought I could take anything he threw at me without being surprised, but that resolve shattered instantly. Worse, he had no intention of backing down. Forcing a smile, I shook my head.

“If you keep looking, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of faces you like.”

“No.”

“…Right.”

Of course not. You’re after my mana.

I stared blankly at the first floor for a while before realizing Mecklenburg wasn’t anywhere in sight. Somehow, I managed to speak.

“Say…”

“Yes?”

“The friend I came here with is German too. On top of that, he’s of West Slavic descent, so I’d say he’d make an ideal choice for producing your successor.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Right. I’d tried to distance myself from the whole thing by blurting out nonsense, and he shut it down immediately. Keeping the smile on my face despite feeling completely dead inside, I launched into my argument with absolute confidence.

“Well, maybe it doesn’t. But I still think Mr. Clemens Schmidt would be a better match. No kleptomania, plenty of mana, and while I can’t say much about his personality… his face should be to your liking too.”

Sorry, Albert. But no matter how I look at it, this isn’t for me. Let New Humans stick with New Humans. He’d probably take it a lot better than I would. Resting his arms on the railing and his chin on one hand, Helga Brandt quietly watched me.

“You don’t have kleptomania, though. You said you came because you wanted to know me. Besides, because of that letter, you thought you had my unspoken permission.”

“That’s a completely separate issue from producing a successor. If I had to recommend someone, it’d be Clemens Schmidt.”

I nodded to myself without meeting his eyes. The truth was, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t put any life into my expression.

Helga Brandt stepped closer.

“And you?”

I caught the faint scent of violets. My eyes flicked to the collar of his shirt before returning to his face.

“……..”

“Not someone else’s opinion. What do you want?”

“Wake up.”

I nudged Mecklenburg in the side with my foot, where he was sprawled out on the stairs. After throwing up a soundproofing spell and a quick concealment spell, he blinked a few times, rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling, then frowned and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Ugh… mmph…!”

“What now? Letting that guy trail after me wasn’t enough—you’ve got a hangover too?”

I hadn’t expected him to actually keep Helga occupied in the first place. Smiling, I grabbed his jacket and hauled him upright. Mecklenburg swatted at my hand, apparently unable to breathe properly.

“N-No, that’s not it. I… I normally don’t get drunk…”

“I know. You can hold your liquor. Someone probably slipped you a sleeping pill this time.”

The only Mecklenburg I’d ever drunk with was the twenty-five-year-old version, not the eighteen-year-old one—but I doubted there’d be much difference.

At the mention of a sleeping pill, Mecklenburg’s eyes widened. I kicked his feet into place so he’d stop wobbling, then dusted off his wrinkled clothes.

“That’s why I came to wake you up myself. You should be thanking me.”

“…Sorry. I wasn’t much help.”

Well, would you look at that? I looked at him, surprised, then shrugged.

“So how’d you end up drinking something that was drugged?”

“…I don’t know. Everything was happening at once. A bunch of people kept talking to me, I already had a couple of drinks in my hands… Someone even shoved a glass right up to my mouth.”

“And you just drank whatever people handed you? You’re way too gullible.”

“……..”

Mecklenburg flinched and frowned.

“…No one’s ever handed me a drugged drink before. And it’s not like we’re living in the Middle Ages. Who even does something like that?”

Apparently someone in Russia was still doing exactly that well into the 20th century. But that wasn’t what mattered right now. I looked him straight in the eye and spoke seriously.

“Albert.”

“What?”

“If someone asked to have a child with you, what would you think?”

“…I’m still in high school. I’m a little young to be donating mana…”

“Say you’re an adult.”

“First I’d check whether our families had a mana contract before. If we did, I’d return what I’d received. If not… well, if I got to create one and they got to create one too, I guess it’d be fair.”

“Oh, really? Then, Albert, why don’t you mix half your mana with your friend who supposedly looks like me and make the strongest mage in the world? I bet they’d be insan—”

“What?! No! That’s horri—… I mean, no! He’s a really good friend, but… that’s a completely different thing!”

‘Look at him trying to backpedal now.’

Mecklenburg flailed for a second, clamped a hand over his mouth, threw both hands out in disbelief, then grabbed his head. His expression was priceless.

I’d never had a conversation like this with anyone before, so I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react. But now I understood one thing for certain. Producing an heir really was just business. Even so, nobody wants to do business with a jerk. Especially when they’re the one expected to raise the child until adulthood.

Looking at it from an Old Human perspective, I shouldn’t assume love had anything to do with producing an heir. After all, even among Old Human royalty—where political marriages made up ninety percent of all marriages—it wasn’t uncommon for couples to have mutual respect without ever falling in love.

Even so, it seemed only natural that people wouldn’t want to share their mana with someone they couldn’t even tolerate as a person. And in a case like Helga Brandt’s, where there weren’t even any ties between our families and he suddenly proposed producing an heir… even New Humans would find that shocking.

I took a deep breath before speaking calmly.

“All right, Albert. I’m going to have a child.”

“Ha! Just a second ago you were acting all obsessed with your stud—… what?”

Mecklenburg’s eyes went wide. His jaw slowly dropped. A frigid silence settled between us. He grabbed my shoulders hard enough to feel like they’d snap.

“…With who?! Since when?! Why?! What the hell?! Have you lost your mind?!”

He shoved his face right up to mine, baring his teeth. I frowned, smacked his hands away, and snapped at him.

“Quiet. Just calm down for a second.”

“What kind of insane thing are you saying? With that face, you’re actually going to… You misspoke, didn’t you? Tell me you misspoke.”

Mecklenburg had me by the collar now, lowering his voice. I looked into his eyes, which somehow seemed even more orange than before, and shook my head.

“Unfortunately, it’s real.”

“Stop lying.”

It was the coldest I’d ever heard eighteen-year-old Albert Mecklenburg speak.

“No matter how much you dislike me, there are jokes you can make and jokes you can’t. I already knew from school that you had a habit of saying whatever came into your head, but—”

I smacked his mouth shut and glared at him. He immediately realized he’d gone too far, his expression flickering between panic and guilt.

It’s fine. I’d accepted that kind of judgment the moment I decided on Lukas Müller’s persona.

Letting out a long sigh, I said, “I’m serious. I’m going to have one with Helga Brandt. More accurately, he was the one who proposed it.”

“……..”

The reality of it finally seemed to sink in. Mecklenburg slowly let go of my collar. He stared at me blankly before whispering, “You’re in high school.”

“I know.”

“…Your genes are going to spread even further? That’s horrifying.”

“‘Your genes’? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And is that really the important part? Does any of this make sense to you?”

“Didn’t you agree to it? What do you expect me to do?”

Mecklenburg snapped back at me. I shook my head firmly.

“No. I turned him down and recommended you instead. And somehow we still ended up here.”

“You recommended who to what?”

“The point is, it wasn’t entirely my choice. Listen carefully. They’re Pleroma. The same cultists we ran into before. Even the one who slipped something into your drink was one of them. Why do you think they want my mana?”

“……..”

“Do you really think making an heir is their actual goal? Well? What do you think?”

Mecklenburg stayed silent for a long moment before shaking his head.

“No. They’ve got something else planned.”

“Exactly. I even told him you’d be a perfectly good candidate except for your personality, and that he should use your mana instead. He still refused. Which means he’s after me specifically. Or he decided my mana is stronger.”

“……..”

The moment I mentioned my mana being stronger, Mecklenburg clamped his mouth shut. That cold look crept back into his eyes, so I shoved my hands into my pockets, leaned against the wall, and let out a dry laugh. Ah, whatever. Let’s just see where this goes.

“So, want to have the kid instead? I can tell them your mana reserves are bigger than mine.”

“Have you lost your mind?!”

“You’re the one who needs to get a grip. Look, I’ve never been taught any of this. How do New Humans actually make a person?”

“…How should I know? Still… first, you’d hire a lawyer and a cultivator.”

“And then?”

“You calculate what combination and ratio of mana will produce the best result. The cultivator specializes in synthesis and helps with that, but they can’t be held responsible if the outcome is bad. The final decision is yours, so you have to think it through yourself. Then you spend a few months negotiating, draw up the contract, and extract your blood and mana. They need a huge amount, so it won’t be easy.”

“What I want to know is how they extract the mana. Do you just… whoosh, like this?”

I stretched out my arm the way I normally did when casting magic. Mecklenburg frowned.

“If you do it like that, it’s way too diluted. It’ll disperse into the air within minutes.”

“So how do you do it? Do you cut yourself open and stick some artifact in there or something?”

“There’s supposed to be a box-like device that straps onto your arm. It’s divided into compartments, and it collects the mana coming out of your body, then stores it in a vacuum. At least, that’s how I understand it. I’ve only read about it. Some people even use one big enough to fit an entire person inside.”

“Then if you’re drawing mana out through one arm, what happens to all the mana leaking out through your other arm and your legs?”

“That’s why some people use one shaped like a coffin and climb inside. If you don’t want to do that, you wear suppressors.”

They call them suppressors, but they’re basically restraints.

I nodded. At least none of this involved any Old Human methods.

‘Simple enough, I suppose.’

Though, judging by Mecklenburg’s expression, it clearly wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He wet his lips, then asked in a tense voice, “So… what now? Are you really going to let Helga Brandt use your mana for his heir?”

I shrugged and got ready to leave the Extra Chapter. There was something I needed to prepare outside.

Before I left, I asked one last question.

“About that drink you had earlier. Do you remember what it was? More importantly… who handed it to you?”

Clack.

“You’re awake.”

Had it been about an hour since that absurd turn of events? Inside the Extra Chapter, that was.

I glanced at Mecklenburg, who was slumped on the sofa, then looked down at Helga Brandt as he opened his eyes on the bed. I shut the document I’d been reading with a snap. Still trying to make sense of the situation, Helga Brandt frowned.

“…?”

“Oh, you suddenly collapsed while drinking wine. I wasn’t sure where to take you, so I brought you here in a hurry.”

I sat beside him, putting on a concerned expression. The corners of Helga’s mouth stiffened for a brief moment before relaxing again.

“I see. I suppose I drank a little too much myself. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“It was nothing.”

At our exchange, Mecklenburg almost let out a sigh before catching himself. I smiled, making a point not to look his way. Helga tilted his head, suspicion still lingering beneath his calm expression.

“But earlier, I…”

“Yes. You said you wanted to create an heir using my mana. I told you I was willing. If you’re asking about the very last thing we said, I asked where we should go now that I’d made up my mind.”

Nothing had changed. Before he had a chance to relocate his office, I needed to wrap everything up as quickly as possible. The only difference now was that it was up to me to decide what to do and how to do it. Putting on a slightly hesitant look, I asked, “We’ll need to extract the mana first, right? How does that work? Do you know the procedure?”

“…You want to do it now?”

“You said you needed my mana. I’ll be back in Germany in a week, so wouldn’t it be better to finish everything while we have the chance?”

I tilted my head as I looked at him.

“Or do we have to do it somewhere else?”

“I’d say so. This is a workplace, not somewhere for mana extraction.”

“Hm.”

“Come with me. I’ve already prepared a place.”

“You’re well prepared.”

“I’ve been preparing for the day I’d meet the mage fated for me.”

“That’s a phrase I’ve never heard before.”

“It’s something mages old enough to have heirs say fairly often. At least in Russia.”

I nodded, then smiled and leaned back.

“You certainly came prepared, but let’s do the extraction here. If it isn’t here, I’m not doing it.”

“…….”

“I have a few things I’d like to ask you, too.”

Without a word, Helga looked at me, then walked over to his desk. He pulled out a sheet of paper and held it out to me.

“Very well. You’re already accommodating me this much. Then let’s start with this. Mr. Clemens Schmidt, would you mind stepping outside? We should get the contract out of the way first.”

“Ah, one moment. This is my first time doing something like this, so… I’d really like the extraction to happen with him present.”

I pointed at Mecklenburg. Helga Brandt looked at me as if he couldn’t understand.

“Most people prefer to be alone. You want someone else watching while your mana is extracted?”

“Why not? Mages throw mana around every day.”

“This will be nothing like that. It’ll be far more taxing.”

Helga answered firmly.

That’s not exactly making me feel any better about this. Turning his head away, he continued in a cold tone.

“More importantly, I don’t want anyone else present during my own extraction.”

“Actually, he’s got anxiety. Look at him. See that miserable face? He’s upset because he thinks we’re leaving him behind.”

“…….”

Mecklenburg forced a smile that looked like he wanted to object. Ignoring Helga Brandt’s unconvinced expression, I continued.

“Personally, I was even thinking—why not make the child with all three of us contributing equally? His mana is quite incredible too.”

“…….”

Helga looked back and forth between us with an expression somewhere between disbelief and exasperation before letting out a long sigh. He held out the fountain pen and the simple agreement once more.

He never actually answered either request—whether Mecklenburg could stay, or whether we’d extract his mana as well—but it was obvious he’d at least given ground on the first one.

Pulling my own pen from inside my jacket, I shook my head.

“Shouldn’t we be getting government approval instead of signing some private contract like this?”

“We can get approval after everything’s ready.”

Sure. Of course you can. I swallowed the thought behind a smile as I uncapped my pen.

“It’s only a preliminary agreement, so I just sign this page, right?”

“Yes.”

After answering briefly, Helga disappeared somewhere before returning a moment later. He opened another door connected to the room. Inside was a sitting room with a table and a sofa. The three of us—including Mecklenburg—went inside and took our seats.

Helga disappeared once again, then came back carrying the forearm-sized box Mecklenburg had described. He placed four suppressors on the table. One would go on the other arm. Two more looked like they were meant for the ankles. The last one’s for the neck? Whatever it was, the numbers didn’t add up. Narrowing my eyes, I asked, “You don’t have a set for yourself. So I’m the only one who’s extracting?”

“For now.”

I lowered my gaze for a moment before looking back at him with a smile.

“If you’re not doing it too, then I don’t want to either. Like I said, this wasn’t an easy decision for me, and I’m still having second thoughts.”

“…….”

Helga Brandt gave me a polite smile before disappearing again. When he returned, he was carrying another set of artifacts for himself. He put them on one by one, then dropped into the seat across from me.

Pointing to the chair beside him, I asked, “Mind if I sit there?”

“Go ahead.”

Mecklenburg looked at me like I’d completely lost it, but I ignored him. I lifted the box-like artifact attached to my right arm. “So what do I do now?”

“Release your mana once.”

Half expecting nothing to happen, I pushed a burst of mana into it. From that moment on, even without casting a spell, it felt as though every bit of mana in my arm was being siphoned away.

“…Oh.”

So far, it wasn’t all that bad. Though this was only the beginning.

‘Still… I’d better be careful.’

I already knew this machine and I were about as incompatible as it got.

Mecklenburg kept glancing nervously between the two of us. It made sense. He probably never imagined he’d witness mana extraction for heir creation at his age.

For some reason, an awkward silence settled over the room. Maybe I was the one making it awkward. Five minutes passed without either of us speaking. Finally, Helga Brandt snapped his fingers, cast a soundproofing spell, and asked, “Honestly, I didn’t expect you to make up your mind this quickly.”

“Is that so?”

“Indeed. What made you agree so fast? I appreciate it, of course.”

Helga Brandt said it with a teasing smile.

Ah, so that was what he found suspicious. Fair enough, I’d be suspicious, too. It was time to steer the conversation toward something a bit more substantial.

“Because it seems you like me even more than I thought.”

Helga Brandt stared at me without saying a word. I repeated exactly what I’d seen written on the memo.

“_De l’éducation, and 1.Mose 4,4.”

“…….”

“You wrote that, didn’t you? I only caught a glimpse of it, but it stuck with me.”

“I did. So what about it?”

“It happens to be my name.”

A chilling silence settled between us. Once again, I turned to Helga Brandt, who was staring at me without blinking.

“The missing word before De l’éducation is Émile. Rousseau’s book, isn’t it? And 1.Mose is Genesis. Abel appears in Genesis 4:4.”

I still didn’t know why he had chosen verse 4 instead of verse 2, where Abel first appears. But that didn’t change the fact that De l’éducation and 1.Mose 4:4 matched the alias I was using here.

Tilting my head slightly, I gave Helga Brandt a faint smile.

“I didn’t expect you to be interested enough to make a code out of my name.”

He glanced sideways at the restraint on his arm before slipping a hand inside his jacket. Good. I already knew exactly what was hidden in there. Smiling, I caught his wrist.

“Let’s not.”

“…….”

“Let’s sit down and have a proper conversation instead.”