Before Jamie and Siegfried talked.
Ann was going to the dorm with Finn, with a bright face.
At first, she was worried that she hurt Finn a lot, but when she apologized and he accepted it, she felt nice.
Instead, there was a condition that she had to tag along with him somewhere after class.
There was nothing wrong with going with her friend, so she said okay.
“But where are we going?”
“It's a good place for you too.”
“Good place for me too?”
“Yes.”
Finn smiled and spoke to Ann.
“I am being tutored by Miss Sophia.”
“Tutored?”
“And, you will receive it today. Hehe.”
As if embarrassed, Finn smiled awkwardly and scratched his head.
Ann felt shocked.
Suddenly, they were going for a class?
That is where they were going now?
But she was already Jamie's disciple.
However, she didn’t inform Finn. Talking about it now, it felt like she was betraying him by not saying it.
Ann stood still with a bewildered expression and Finn, misunderstanding, smiled and said,
“Miss Sophia said you can come. You don’t have to pay anything, so don’t worry.”
“That…”
“It’s fine, really. Miss Sophia is young, but she’s a talented magician, right? You know very well that she is excellent at teaching.”
“True, but…”
Indeed, among the teachers in the academy, Miss Sophia’s teaching level was exceptionally high.
She was 4th class, but she was a promising magician who would soon move to 5th class.
If she hadn’t met Jamie, Ann would have taken up this offer.
‘No.’
She felt sorry for deceiving Finn, but going to this wouldn’t just be disrespectful to Finn, but also to Jamie and Sophia.
So she couldn’t agree.
“Finn.”
“What?”
“Actually…”
Ann told Finn about Jamie.
Finn had a pretty shocked face too and stayed silent. And said,
“It is fine. Even I didn’t want to talk about this.”
“Finn…”
“So, this is no different from hitting each other.”
Finn said with a smile, and Ann was able to sigh. She wondered if he would get angry at her for betraying him like in the morning.
However, the current Finn was the one she knew.
He understood the situation and even said that he made the same mistake making Ann know that it wasn’t her fault alone.
“Thanks, Finn.”
“Thanks? And today, you are coming for a change. Miss Sophia will understand.”
“Sure?”
“Yes. It will be like going on a field trip.”
“Okay!”
She might be a little late to Jamie’s class, but if she explained it right she believed that he would understand.
Then she asked something she was curious about.
“But who did you get in contact with, Miss Sophia? And how did she decide to teach you magic?”
“Ahh-that…”
Finn almost didn’t know what to say.
It was only yesterday afternoon that he met Miss Sophia.
It was when Ivan and his party left Trinity, she was waiting outside the lab for them, and after a short conversation she suggested that only Finn could learn from her.
It felt weird at first but she said.
-You are one of the magicians sponsered by this place, and as a condition I give a private tutoring for VIPs.
-I am not a VIP? Just for today, I followed Ivan to take a look.
-Ivan said that only VIPs subjects were gathered and brought. Didn’t know that?
-I never heard of it. And to become a VIP…
-So? Don't want to?
There were a lot of unsettling things, but for Finn, he liked this offer.
A chance to become Miss Sophia’s disciple.
Besides, Finn was in a bad shape so he couldn’t think straight.
-I’ll do it!
-Then let’s meet tomorrow.
Sophia said, smiling brightly.
Finn felt his fingers tremble. This was something he couldn't miss.
He glanced at Ann. Sadly, she was under Jamie but if she spoke to Miss Sophia, she might change her mind.
Right. People need to experience things to change.
“Finn?”
“Ah nothing. We met just by chance. I met Miss Sophia by chance.”
“I see.”
“M-More than that.”
Finn quickly switched topics and chatted.
Sophia was cleaning her desk.
It wasn’t the desk in the academy office, it was her own office desk which she would use from today.
Call it a dual job?
After cleaning it, Sophia took a few books she needed. It was time for the kids to arrive so she might have to go greet them.
As she opened the door to leave the office, she saw a man standing there.
It was Keniac.
“You surprised me. If you come, at least inform me about it.”
“I just arrived.”
“Really? What? I need to go pick up the kids.”
“Are you really going to teach Ann?”
“Firstly…”
Sophia took a step closer to Keniac and poked him in the chest with her index finger.
“Ann should have been yours. Because I was your mission.”
“…”
“But you didn’t do anything. On such a topic, I finally have a chance, don’t think anything more. If the doctor knows what happened, we will be harmed.”
“It is over if the Apophis project leaks out. Do you know that there are adverse side effects of it?”
“Hehe~ Don’t you think we came too far to worry about that? As long as the results are good nothing else matters. You know that right, Mr. Keniac? This is how the Magic world works.”
It wasn’t just the Magic world.
Quite a few magicians were conducting all kinds of terrible experiments with the mindset that if the results were good nothing else matters.
Among them the Apophis project, which forcibly awakens the mana core, was a large-scale experiment.
At the moment, it was moving smoothly towards good results. While ignoring the process in between.
“So, don’t go around feeling guilty about this. Since when did you have a moral bone in you?”
“…”
“And, if Ann drinks Apophis to prove it sooner than later, we can realize our ideals, right? You should know well since you don’t have talent either.”
“Ann became Jamie’s disciple.”
Sophia’s eyes widened.
She didn’t think Jamie would suddenly be mentioned like that.
And how did Ann even become his disciple?
Her mind hurt.
“Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
The timing was horrible.
If Ann was tied to Jamie, this couldn’t be good.
Jamie’s influence was one thing, but the people he was associated with were only the powerful ones.
And even in the Magic world, it wasn’t just one or two elders who favoured him.
“Give up on Ann.”
Keniac didn’t want Ann to participate in this Apophis project. It was because he had seen her close up all this time.
He didn’t want to ruin her effort by using such drugs.
Especially her brain, from the moments she enters, that beautiful brain would be messed up because of the side effects.
It wasn’t just Ann.
Keniac was jealous and inferior to the students who were more talented than him, but on the other hand, he was a teacher who wanted the children to grow up well.
“Get your hands off the academy from now. I will meet the doctor and talk.”
“What is with you? Do you think that doctor will listen to you and simply give up?”
“I will do something and make sure the idea is abandoned.”
“I don’t know. For now, it will go as planned. After all, the effect of Apophis wouldn’t appear suddenly, we have to wait for at least a week to find out the result.”
“Are you even thinking straight?”
“That applies to you too. It wasn’t a day or two that we were on the same boat. Don’t act nice, because it makes me want to puke.”
Keniac couldn’t say anything.
He couldn’t stop her as she walked away.
“Why did you fight with him?”
Sophia glanced at Ashtar, who was approaching her. She didn’t know why he, who should be in Trinity, was here, but she didn’t ask.
“You don’t need to know.”
“I am also in the same boat as you, why not let me know?”
“You came here for money. I don’t talk about ideology to people who are there for money.”
“That makes sense.”
“More than that, go back. The students are coming.”
“The kid who is old?”
“No, Finn is actually older than the kid. And it isn’t just Finn.”
“You are an uninteresting woman. I am going somewhere, let me know if you have problem~”
Ashtar disappeared after saying that.
Sophia thought of him as a vulgar man. From the stinky mouth to everything he did was disgusting.
If it wasn’t for the doctor’s orders, she wouldn’t even deal with him.
‘But he has real strength.’
One has to be strong to clean up the dirt after treatment.
Ashtar was Trinity’s scavenger. A janitor like man hired for a high price.
Thanks to that, nothing was leaking to the world. If it leaked, then Ashtar would have been dead.
Like Mr. Silver.
The addict of Apophis X who longed for it, but later threatened again as his addiction to it got worse.
-One, give me one… if you don’t, everything will be revealed.
It wasn’t even a nice threat.
So stupid that he couldn’t even think of a nice situation to threaten.
At least that meant that the EX was a nice drug. Although the side effects were severe.
‘Still, I didn’t think it would be a mess in just three days.’
Anyway, Silver was killed by Ashtar and it was said that there was no assistance.
‘The side effects need to be reduced.’
They weren’t far now.
Already the clinical trial results were being reported on hourly basis.
And now.
Sophia returned to her usual form and smiled brightly, waving at Ann and Finn who were coming.
“Over here~”
New clinical trial subjects were coming.
Perhaps, this time she would see the end of Apophis' project.
“Huhu, Welcome.”
Sophia stroked Ann’s hair.
Ann felt the touch and smiled. She did think a lot about it, but Sophia had a warm heart and a pretty face too.
If one becomes a disciple of such a person, one would be happy.
But, Ann already had her teacher.
“Teacher.”
“Yes?”
“First of all, I am Mr. Jamie’s disciple.”
“Really?”
“Sorry. I followed Finn without knowing what this place was.”
Sophia pretended to not know.
“I see. It is fine. It would be great if I had a smart child like Ann as my disciple, but I didn’t call you today for that reason alone.”
“Right?”
Finn responded to Sophia’s words.
Ann sighed in relief. Possibly not, but she was worried what would happen if Sophia got angry.
Ann didn’t do anything wrong since she was called without asking her view.
“Let’s have fun. I prepared this and that.’
“Fun?”
“Yes. Yes. Now that this happened, let’s play games outside class.”
At that, Ann and Finn looked at each other and smiled.
“Like it!”
“I like it!”
And as they answered, Sophia nodded with satisfaction.
“Then follow me.”
As soon as she turned, her expression turned cold.
Make Ann drink Apophis.
Finn said Ann didn’t like the drink. Right. Until yesterday, Finn was in a poor condition due to the side effects.
He looked fine now, but the state of Finn was on the verge of failure.
If this was the case, there wasn’t much time left before they had to dispose of him.
‘Finn had too much.’
At first, it used to be one or two bottles a day, but recently she heard that he drinks six to seven a day.
Given that he drank two to three bottles on average, Finn drank too many too quickly.
Thanks to that, the side effects came in quickly.
‘If it wasn't for the EX he would have gone crazy already. The symptoms of Apophis’s addiction were beyond what a child could tolerate.’
Although EXS was introduced as a mass produced EX version, it was a drug which temporarily prevented the side effects of Apophis X.
The reason why Ivan and his party were called to Trinity yesterday in the first place was because the side effects of X were occurring.
And if the side effects happened openly, bad news will spread. Then Ashtar would have to go ahead and clean it, but if a student dies, the incident can no longer be hidden well.
So, in the name of VIP, they made them visit Trinity with Silver.
‘There is a limit though.’
It was a time when Finn and the others who drank Apophis X were all having their bodies reach the limit.
She felt sorry for the children, but someone had to be sacrificed for the world to be a better place.
It may be painful now, but later it will be considered as a noble sacrifice.
Sophia smiled faintly.
A glow on her face.
