Chapter 231: A Scholar’s Conviction

Inspector Laurent had expected the second estate to contain another collection of abandoned laboratories. Instead, his investigators discovered that the property was still being used.

The estate belonged to a noble family that had disappeared from public life nearly two decades earlier.

Its buildings had supposedly remained vacant since then, yet supply wagons continued arriving under the name of a private agricultural company.

After two days of surveillance, the Imperial Intelligence Bureau confirmed that several individuals were living inside the main building.

One of them matched the description of Edmund Falkenrath.

Laurent immediately requested authorization for an operation.

The Imperial Guard secured the estate shortly before sunrise, approaching through the surrounding woodland while investigators monitored the exits.

The operation proceeded without serious resistance, although several occupants attempted to destroy documents when they realized the property had been surrounded.

Fortunately, the soldiers reached the archive before the fire could spread.

Falkenrath was arrested inside his office.

He initially protested that the authorities had no grounds to detain him, but his objections ended when Laurent presented the financial records connecting his accounts to the Cult of the Second Dawn.

The investigators also recovered several sealed containers bearing the same markings found on documents removed from Saint Aurelia.

Their contents had already been transferred elsewhere.

However, the accompanying inventory confirmed that the estate had received records from the school shortly before the hostage crisis ended.

Laurent now possessed evidence that the missing research had passed through Falkenrath’s network.

The remaining question concerned its final destination.

During questioning, Falkenrath insisted that he had merely arranged financial services for private research institutions. He claimed to know nothing about the experiments conducted at Saint Aurelia and denied any involvement in the children’s deaths.

Laurent allowed him to finish before presenting the payment authorization recovered from his personal archive.

The document explicitly stated that payment would be issued upon delivery of the examination records, regardless of the participants’ survival.

Falkenrath had signed it himself.

His confidence diminished.

However, he continued refusing to identify the people who had commissioned the transaction.

Laurent ordered his officers to examine the newly recovered accounts. The financier could remain silent if he wished, but the Bureau had already obtained enough evidence to continue without his cooperation.

By afternoon, the arrests had become public knowledge.

Newspapers throughout the Imperial Capital reported that a major financial intermediary associated with the Saint Aurelia massacre was finally in custody. The announcement brought some relief to grieving families, although public anger remained intense.

At SkyRune, Ilya learned about the development through an official communication from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.

Several researchers gathered to discuss the news, particularly the discovery that Saint Aurelia’s missing records had passed through Falkenrath’s estate.

The authorities had requested assistance identifying equipment listed in the recovered inventory.

Ilya helped organize the workshop’s response.

Fortunately, the new initiative established by Professor Antoine Chastellain had already compiled much of the relevant information. The researchers could identify several devices without conducting additional experiments.

Their report was completed before evening.

However, the announcement also meant that Antoine would soon learn about the arrest.

Ilya considered whether the professor should receive the information while undergoing treatment.

He eventually decided that concealing it would accomplish little. Antoine remained an authorized consultant to the investigation, and the arrest was already public knowledge.

Nevertheless, he contacted Doctor Valmont before visiting the clinic.

The physician agreed that Antoine could be informed, provided the discussion remained brief and the professor wasn’t encouraged to involve himself directly in the investigation.

Ilya accepted the condition.

When he arrived at the observation ward, Antoine was reviewing an ordinary historical text.

The professor welcomed him before asking about SkyRune.

Ilya provided a brief update concerning the workshop, then mentioned the arrest.

“Falkenrath?”

“Captured this morning. The Bureau found records confirming that the Saint Aurelia documents passed through his estate.”

Antoine immediately became attentive.

“Have they recovered the documents?”

“Only the inventories. The records themselves were transferred elsewhere.”

“Then Falkenrath knows where they went.”

“Possibly. Laurent’s questioning him.”

The professor considered the information.

For days, the Imperial authorities had struggled to identify the people who financed the massacre. Now they had arrested one of the most important intermediaries.

It was meaningful progress.

Nevertheless, Antoine appeared dissatisfied.

“Does he understand what happened to those children?”

“I imagine Laurent has explained it.”

“Then I hope he remembers every one of them.”

Ilya understood the anger behind those words.

Antoine had remained remarkably composed throughout the investigation, but the knowledge that someone had arranged payment for the examination records while children were dying inside Saint Aurelia was difficult to accept.

Fortunately, the professor didn’t ask to participate in the interrogation.

He understood that the Imperial authorities possessed the necessary evidence and that his own condition made further involvement unwise.

After discussing the matter, Ilya changed the subject.

He informed Antoine that SkyRune’s new initiative had completed its preliminary report and received approval to begin developing methods for identifying dangerous modifications to ordinary magical equipment.

The professor was pleased.

The project had been one of the few constructive decisions he had made since Lucile’s death, and seeing it progress without his direct involvement brought him genuine satisfaction.

“Then I suppose my students are becoming independent.”

“Terrifying, isn’t it?”

“Somewhat.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll still find plenty of reasons to bother you.”

Antoine laughed before asking about Ilya’s own studies.

The young wizard explained that his coursework had continued normally, although balancing his academic responsibilities with the Imperial investigation had become increasingly inconvenient.

The professor advised him to prioritize his education.

Ilya accepted the recommendation, although he suspected Antoine would eventually assign him another unreasonable research problem once he returned to SkyRune.

Their conversation continued until visiting hours ended.

Before departing, Ilya asked whether the mysterious voice had returned.

Antoine admitted that it had spoken to him the previous evening.

However, he had recorded the incident and discussed it with Valmont.

The physician believed his condition remained manageable, although the frequency of the encounters continued causing concern.

Ilya encouraged him to continue treatment.

The professor agreed.

After Ilya departed, Antoine remained alone in his room.

He attempted to read, but his thoughts repeatedly returned to Falkenrath’s arrest.

The financier had helped arrange the transfer of records documenting the suffering and deaths of dozens of children.

Lucile’s final moments had become part of an archive intended for someone else’s research.

Antoine found the idea increasingly intolerable.

He had devoted his career to the belief that knowledge should improve human life. The people behind Saint Aurelia had treated knowledge as something valuable enough to justify destroying it.

Their reasoning disgusted him.

Then the familiar woman spoke.

“You’re angry again.”

Antoine closed his book.

He had expected her to return eventually, although her timing remained unsettling.

She seemed particularly interested whenever his thoughts turned toward Lucile or the people responsible for her death.

“That man helped them,” she continued. “He arranged the payments and sent their records away while those poor children were dying.”

Antoine remained silent.

“Do you think he’ll be punished?”

The professor remembered Valmont’s instructions and resisted answering.

The woman continued with gentle sympathy.

“Perhaps he will. The Empire has laws, courts, and investigators. Everyone seems very determined to do the right thing.”

Her voice softened.

“But none of that will bring your daughter home.”

Antoine felt his chest tighten.

He understood that justice couldn’t restore Lucile. He had never expected it to.

Nevertheless, he wanted the people responsible to answer for what they had done.

The woman’s words made that desire feel painfully inadequate.

“You’ve done everything people asked of you,” she continued. “You helped the soldiers, cooperated with the investigators, and even agreed to stay in this clinic. You’ve been wonderfully patient.”

Antoine recognized the direction of her argument.

She was encouraging him to question the decisions that had kept him safe.

However, the woman didn’t ask him to abandon treatment.

Instead, she asked something else.

“Why do you keep pretending you’re satisfied?”

The question angered him.

He hadn’t claimed to be satisfied with anything. He understood that the investigation was progressing, but the arrests couldn’t erase the massacre.

He also understood that recovering from his condition would require time.

There was no contradiction between wanting justice and accepting treatment.

Nevertheless, the woman’s words continued troubling him.

“You’re allowed to be angry, Antoine. You’re allowed to hate the people who hurt her.”

The professor found that difficult to dispute.

He did hate them.

He hated Albrecht Voss, the cult members who carried out the examinations, and the financiers who treated the children’s suffering as another transaction.

For days, he had struggled to acknowledge the intensity of those feelings.

Now the woman was giving him permission to express them.

The familiar pressure began gathering inside his chest.

Antoine recognized the warning signs and concentrated on controlling his magic.

However, the woman’s voice remained clear.

“There’s nothing shameful about wanting them to suffer for what they’ve done.”

The professor’s thoughts returned to Lucile.

He remembered her asking whether she had failed the examination, and the way she had tried to comfort him even while dying.

The memory filled him with anger so intense that several books on the nearby shelf began trembling.

Antoine immediately suppressed the disturbance.

The books settled.

Nevertheless, the woman’s words continued echoing in his thoughts.

He wanted the perpetrators punished.

He wanted them to understand what they had taken from him.

And for a moment, he wanted to make them experience the same helplessness he had endured.

The realization frightened him.

He had spent his life teaching students to approach problems rationally, yet he was beginning to understand how easily overwhelming emotion could distort a person’s judgment.

The woman spoke again.

“You’re frightened of yourself.”

Antoine didn’t answer.

“That’s understandable. You’ve always believed you should be better than these feelings.”

The professor concentrated on maintaining his composure.

However, the voice continued with quiet amusement.

“Why must you be better? Those people never showed your daughter the same kindness.”

Antoine felt his mana stir again.

He immediately called for the clinic’s medical staff.

The woman fell silent.

Several attendants arrived shortly afterward, followed by Doctor Valmont.

Antoine described the encounter, including the anger it had provoked and the brief magical disturbance.

The physician examined him and confirmed that his condition had stabilized.

However, he was concerned by the intensity of the emotional response.

Valmont recommended additional observation and temporarily restricted the professor’s access to news concerning the investigation.

Antoine accepted the decision, although he requested that any urgent information relevant to preventing further attacks still be forwarded to SkyRune.

The physician agreed.

After the examination, Antoine remained awake for some time.

He understood that the woman’s words were influencing him.

He also understood that the anger she encouraged came from feelings he genuinely possessed.

That realization troubled him more than the voice itself.

He had always believed that his responsibilities as a scholar required patience, discipline, and restraint.

Yet a part of him wanted to abandon those principles and make the people responsible for Lucile’s death suffer.

Antoine eventually opened his medical notebook and recorded the incident.

He described the woman’s arguments and the emotions they had awakened.

Then he added a question beneath his observations.

‘If anger is a natural response to injustice, at what point does suppressing it become another form of dishonesty?’

The professor examined the sentence for a while.

He had no immediate answer.

However, he suspected that the woman would have plenty of suggestions the next time she returned.