A long bout of silence fell between them. Eventually, he came to a decision and looked over his shoulder. “…Navarov arranged everything that has happened. The boy Jair is also moving according to his will.”
“I can’t believe it…!”
“I thought I was one of the few friends he cared about. We sympathized with each other for losing who we loved most. That’s why I tried to help him, to the best of my ability.” A sour expression overtook Getz’s face, as though he resented himself for his choice. “But he used everything and anything to make his plans succeed—including you, Erie. I tried to stop him, and this is the result…”
“Stop him from doing what? What is Mister Navarov trying to do?” Erie asked.
Getz wrung out his answer through a constricted throat. “Listen to me very closely, Erie. The man you know as Benny Navarov does not exist in this world.”
“He doesn’t exist…?”
“It happened about eight years ago. On the run from the Torah Church, Grinzam came to my clinic with his disciple who had fled with him. His disciple, Jair, was unharmed, but Grinzam had serious injuries, and had grown haggard.”
Erie listened to the unexpected story about Grinzam with her head spinning.
“He was at the point where he couldn’t run any longer. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to research the cubes he went through all that effort to obtain. I told my friend I would do anything to save him from the brink of demise. What he asked of me was…” Getz took a deep breath, “…to erase Arusrad Grinzam from existence, and create another identity for him.”
“You don’t mean to say Mister Navarov is…” Erie trailed off as the answer to her doubts flashed through her mind.
Navarov became the Academy’s dormitory custodian eight years ago. So why did he tell Erie that he had met her ten years ago? Because he had worked for the Torah Church before he became the dorm custodian. Because he was the Golem Tamer Erie had met and idolized as a child!
Erie finally understood what it all meant. In a quivering voice, she whispered the answer. “Mister Navarov was…Arusrad Grinzam…all along…!” Shock and grief jolted through her, robbing her of speech.
“I performed plastic surgery on Grinzam and his disciple, then autopsied completely unrelated corpses and reported them as theirs. Thus, the Torah Church believed they died, and the man known as Arusrad Grinzam vanished from this world, along with his disciple Jair…”
That was the hidden truth. Grinzam, the man everyone thought had died eight years ago, hadn’t really died. He had changed his name and face and lived on, never leaving the archipelago.
“And so, his plans continued below the surface. His accomplice, Spinoza, conducted research into the cubes within the Church. Grinzam received the data so that someday he could attempt to unravel the secrets of the cubes.”
“But wasn’t the research canceled when Ouka and the others failed?”
“It never ended. Grinzam’s obsession, his vindictive feelings, didn’t end with that horrible tragedy…! He waited and waited at the dormitory for the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge on the Church and bring the woman he loved back to life!” Getz turned to Erie, holding her in his intent gaze. “And then, four days ago, Grinzam finally put his plan into action—his plan to reactivate Sephiroth and demolish the Church.”
“That’s when I was pulled into it… Is that what you are saying?”
“…I’m sorry.”
Erie didn’t want him to apologize. She didn’t desire those words from him. She sought them from no one. She only wished everything had just been one big, bad dream. But it wasn’t.
Mustering her courage to face reality, she insisted, “Let’s run away, Professor Getz! Our opponent is a monster! It’s too dangerous to stay here!”
“I won’t run! I’ll stay with Roberta in her final moments!”
They could still hear chaotic thundering and crashes coming from inside the clinic. Roberta was still fighting Jair.
“A Berserker Golem is no different from a baby. They simply lose control because they were born with power. But she was capable of even making peace with me—the man who imprisoned her in that cellar.”
This was the first Erie heard anything of the sort, but Getz’s tense face and what she had witnessed in the cellar told her it was the truth.
“Roberta grew angry when she saw me being hurt. She grew angry for her worthless, cruel father, who had locked her up in a tank for over ten years… She left the tank and told me, ‘Daddy, run away…!’”
Erie hadn’t heard Roberta say anything. But she didn’t doubt Getz had. She understood their relationship better than anyone else, because she was the same as him. It was for that reason she didn’t object outright.
“Professor Getz, even your daughter has asked you to run… So please! Run away!” Tears welled in Erie’s eyes.
Getz looked away and said, “I’m staying. You run for it.”
“But—”
“I can’t leave my daughter behind to escape and live a carefree life without her.”
“But—”
“This is all I can do for you, and the many others embroiled in this chaos my actions enabled—”
“But I don’t want you to do that! I don’t want to lose the people I care about, ever again!” Erie wailed, taking Getz’s hands in hers. Bewilderment flickered in the eyes directed at her.
“Erie…?”
This man had wandered for many years, lost and unsure of what he should do. He was a lonely, miserable, grieving, and selfish doctor. But those were the exact reasons why Erie connected with him on a deeper level. He taught Erie, who could only ever believe in Heath, the warmth of others. Getz had become someone important to her.
“Professor, you wanted your daughter to live, didn’t you? You wanted to be with her in whatever shape necessary, right? I was the same. Please don’t make me lose another person I care about!” Erie looked squarely into Getz’s eyes and declared, “I will protect you, Professor Getz. I will defeat them!”
After a long pause, Getz squeezed Erie’s hands. His warmth was conveyed to her through his hands.
“…Don’t die, Erie.”
“Thank you, Professor Getz… I’ll go settle things for us,” she told him, and then reentered the clinic with Heath.