Chapter 2: The Angel Tears Approach
RESEARCHING Angel Tears was already the main focus of the Academy and its resources. Mia and her team had been treated almost as heretics for deviating from this and announcing their intention to study Demon Claw instead.
“It might seem a little late in the game for us to turn to this now, but focusing our efforts on Angel Tears might be the most worthwhile course of action for us.” Henrik nodded thoughtfully as he spoke. “But we need to take an entirely novel approach. Mathias, you’re a mage student, but you don’t know how to use Neu-Aera, do you?”
Mathias shook his head in response. “They don’t teach us that.”
Neu-Aera was the practice of creating magic stones by concentrating magical energy into rock. It was an old practice invented and pioneered by King Leonard.
Following the king’s passing, however, the practice fell into nefarious use, and people began using it to transfer magic directly into other people, creating so-called “man-made mages.”
“Bringing forth the era of the mage, Magira-Aera, is an absolutely necessary technology for Isea Kingdom!”
Mia’s breath caught in her throat as she heard a sudden ghostly mental echo of Einz’s words.
Magira-Aera. Two diseases had been born as side effects of that doctrine. Angel Tears and Demon Claw. Angel Tears caused the body’s magical powers to explode and go haywire. And Demon Claw, conversely, caused the body’s magical stores to become vastly depleted, tanking the immune system.
If they could only find out the way to transfer magical energy directly into a person, as Felix had so casually suggested, then they might be able to cure Demon Claw.
After so much time with what felt like doors constantly slamming shut in their faces, there was finally a light ahead of them.
Ah, and yet…
Mia suddenly realized something which dampened her enthusiasm, and she shot a quick look at Felix. The last time this topic had come up, he’d been triggered into reliving painful memories of his childhood friend who’d tragically died. The wounds on Felix’s psyche wouldn’t be healed quite so easily, Mia knew.
But he seemed distracted with other thoughts and was gazing off into the distance. His expression hadn’t changed.
Mia breathed a quiet sigh of relief, her gaze locking with Mathias’s. He looked somewhat relieved as well. He’d probably been following the same train of thought as her.
Chris…that was the name Felix mentioned, wasn’t it? A boy’s name. Or could it have been a girl?
Mia often wondered what Chris had been like. The thought made her chest constrict painfully every time, and she had to brace herself through it.
“So then, how do we go about investigating this?” Henrik broke the silence. “And where are Angel Tears patients to be found, anyhow?”
Mia blinked, feeling exposed. It was almost as if Henrik had picked up on her discomfort… She focused hard on his question, hoping that her expression appeared pensive rather than perturbed.
“That boy, at last year’s entrance ceremony…”
The mere mention of Angel Tears always made her think of that traumatic event.
What had happened to the boy who’d gone on an insane rampage at last year’s entrance ceremony? She couldn’t recall seeing him around campus, not even once.
“He was a mage department student, right?”
Henrik pointed his question towards Mathias, whose lips were set in a tight line.
“He took a leave of absence from the Academy. As far as I know, he’s still hospitalized.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you two were in the same department.”
“His name’s become taboo. He was an untouchable. Nobody wants to be reminded of someone like that. Besides, that happened a whole year ago. No wonder everyone’s forgotten about him. After what he did at the entrance ceremony…I’d be surprised if he had a single friend here.”
Mathias’s expression showed empathy.
It made sense, though. The boy had done such terrible things and all before he’d even had the chance to start trying to make friends at the academy. Even if he’d been cured, who could blame him for not wanting to return to the academy after that terrible business? And yet…
“He’s been in the hospital without being discharged for an entire year? But there is a treatment for Angel Tears, isn’t there?”
Professor Rueger had said something about a medicine existing, Mia remembered that clearly. It was called Anacphis. She’d been shocked to learn that it was the only medicine that had ever been created at the academy.
As Mia chewed her lip, Henrik shook his head.
“That part confuses me, too. There isn’t actually that much easily available information out there on Angel Tears.”
“There isn’t? Even though they’ve made a medicine for it?”
Mia had heard that the majority of graduate research was on Angel Tears. She’d assumed that data on Angel Tears was widely available throughout the academy.
“Yes, but the composition of the drug hasn’t been made public, and access to the data on it is restricted. After all, the cause of Angel Tears and Demon Claw are both the same thing, but the army isn’t about to let just anyone get a peek at all the details. And if we start probing too much, someone’s bound to notice what we’re up to.”
Mia was surprised by this.
“Huh? But what about conducting graduate research? You need to be able to read the existing research, right?”
“For that, what we need to do is get special permission from a professor. But even that may prove tricky.”
Henrik frowned, looking tired.
“Professor Rueger was away on a research trip at the time, so I asked my academic advisor, Professor Bralle of the medical department, but he turned me down. Said it was research that had nothing to do with our chosen study.”
Professor Bralle…Mia recalled his nickname instantly.
“Professor ‘Fair and Square’ Bralle…?”
She muttered the name, her voice going up questioningly at the end. The nickname had always made her think that he must have been a decent sort of professor.
But Henrik sighed deeply.
“He’s tough to handle, in an entirely different way from Professor Rueger. You’ll find out what I mean soon enough.”
✦ ✦ ✦
THE team borrowed the key from Professor Rueger and headed to the library to research Angel Tears.
The musty-smelling room seemed unchanging, as if time had stopped. The sound of steam hissing from different light fixtures echoed throughout the room as the compressed air powered each light individually with spinning flywheels providing power through the dynamos and then the lights through the room.
The high bookshelf stacks formed narrow passageways for people to walk down in single file. Mathias kept bumping his shoulders on the corners.
Yikes…it’s so cramped in here.
Mia was worried Mathias was going to end up snagging his uniform.
It was ironic and kind of funny that he was a mage and had no need of all the brute strength that he had come by so naturally. Mia tried to avoid looking at Mathias as much as she could to keep from bursting out with laughter.