Episode 41

I swung the calipers with all my might, releasing the accumulated Pron in one fell swoop.

The monster’s belly caved in with a sickening thud. It let out a grotesque scream and rolled onto its side.

“How dare you lay a hand on Rustila!”

Rustila’s survival was non-negotiable. Without her talent, the universe was doomed.

Fortunately, Rustila was still breathing.

“Aidel!”

“Are you alright?”

“Now’s not the time to worry about me!” she snapped.

I knew that, but concern had its own way of expressing itself.

I leaned into the calipers, putting my body weight behind them. To an onlooker, my efforts might have seemed insignificant against the monster’s immense size, but I was aiming for something else entirely.

The ‘Calipers of Wisdom’ were not just any tool; they were a creation of the Outer God, Cartesia, himself. Their primary function was to measure lengths at the particle level, but their secondary function was far more lethal: they could inflict damage directly onto an entity’s essence.

“Kuaak!”

The monster’s vast health pool was irrelevant; the calipers dealt physical damage that bypassed conventional defenses. However, this alone was insufficient.

I reached out to Cartesia for an additional attack, offering the lost Pron as compensation.

Outer Gods were known to form factions among themselves, often at odds with one another. The beast we were facing belonged to the Maxwell Legion, whereas Cartesia hailed from the Descartes Legion.

I exploited the animosity between the two factions, a mere shrimp profiting from a whale’s fight, so to speak.

As a result, Zelnya fainted, foaming at the mouth. She’d likely be fine, given her resilience.

With a forceful yank, I opened the monster’s stomach further. Eyeballs, resembling grotesque intestines, burst forth.

I didn’t halt my advance.

I pressed the outer blades deeper, driving them with more force.

A substance, thick and dark like lumps of nicotine, erupted like a burst of squid ink.

The skill of an Outer God from the Descartes Legion ravages the mind, not the flesh. Its targets are not confined to humans alone. Anything possessing nerve cells, or structures akin to them, falls prey to its manipulation.

As expected, any being capable of engaging in conversation suffers irrevocable harm.

The head of Renanial began to disintegrate, oozing away like molten lava.

Initially, it obliterates the language center.

“Ugh.”

Then, the very framework of thought begins to crumble.

Thud. Thud.

Eventually, it inflicts such damage on the neural pathways that even the most basic stimuli and responses are rendered impossible.

Despite the attack’s clear focus on the mind, the monster’s physical form was dissolving.

The moment its movements became sluggish, I retracted the Calipers.

What remained was the rescue of Rustila and Zelnya.

I extended my hand towards Rustila first, who was at a distance.

“Rustila!”

Our hands met, and I swiftly pulled Rustila into an embrace. Then, I scooped up Zelnya, who had lost consciousness.

Zelnya’s slight build made it feasible to cradle both of them close at the same time.

“Aidel, wait…!”

It was then it happened.

The lifeless creature collapsed.

And, as fate would have it, it fell towards the cliff.

“…Ah.”

The sensation of floating engulfed me, my body suspended in air as if by magic.

One wrong move, and death would claim me.

That chilling thought flashed through my mind as I clambered over the beast beneath me, every muscle straining for survival. My goal was the cliff’s summit, the promise of solid ground. The margin for error was nonexistent; a single misstep could spell doom for not just me, but for all three of us. The weight of this responsibility bore down on my heart, making each breath feel like a battle.

The harder I fought, the more my strength seemed to wane.

My center of gravity had perilously shifted; I was teetering over the edge, my body a hair’s breadth from plummeting.

In a last-ditch effort, desperation clawing at my resolve, I summoned the Calipers.

Ahahahaha-!!!

“Damn it…”

“…Aidel! Clench your teeth and tuck your chin in!”

“What?”

“Do it now-!!”

I obeyed Rustila’s command without hesitation, clenching my teeth and pulling my chin to my chest as tightly as I could. Through my peripheral vision, I noticed Rustila mimicking the action.

Despite our frantic efforts, it was futile. We were caught in the merciless grip of gravity, plummeting downward.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

I counted each moment, marking the time.

Four seconds, five seconds, six seconds.

We were falling, the wind roaring in our ears.

Seven seconds, eight seconds, nine seconds.

Regret surged within me, an overwhelming tide of what-ifs and if-onlys.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds.

It was all because of my arrogance—a grave mistake. There had to have been a better way, a path I could’ve taken with more wisdom.

The hubris of believing I possessed any real understanding of the original novel led me to this impasse. I was no protagonist from a web novel; I was just an ordinary person.

Ah.

If only I had at least earned a PhD…

With that final thought, darkness engulfed my vision.

Nine B-Grade inspectors were dead.

Three A-Grade inspectors were also dead.

In addition, around forty inspectors and security personnel, hired for safety, had sustained injuries ranging from minor to severe and were being transported to the hospital.

Seventy percent of the northwestern district of the Dodeca Forest had been destroyed. Among the students who were there, two had sustained serious injuries, and eight had minor injuries.

The identity of the monster that had appeared in the area remained unknown.

Upon hearing the interim report, the teachers looked visibly distressed.

“It’s a relief that none of the students are dead,” one murmured.

“No, there are three missing students. We cannot assert that there are no casualties without confirming whether they are alive or dead,” another countered sharply.

“Damn it…” a third teacher cursed under their breath.

The teachers were now grappling with two pressing concerns.

The first was how to announce the results of the reassignment test given the current circumstances.

The second, and particularly problematic issue, was whether to disclose the events that had unfolded.

“Let’s handle this as transparently as possible,” one suggested.

“No, we cannot simply overlook this incident,” another argued.

“It’s almost certain that an Outer God was involved. If we report it to the government immediately, we can avoid being dismissed for negligence,” a third teacher reasoned.

“That’s because you’re uninformed,” another snapped back.

“My conscience can’t take this anymore. I vote to disclose it,” declared one, taking a moral stance.

“Have you all lost your minds, wanting to be stripped of your positions? If I’m expelled from this school, I have nowhere else to go!” a teacher exclaimed, panic tinging their voice.

Even among the teachers, opinions were difficult to reconcile, each argument highlighting the gravity of their predicament and the complexity of their decision.

Then, one of the surviving A-Grade inspectors entered and shouted.

“Head Teacher Lotus! A female student requests an audience with the teachers!”

“Who is she?”

“A girl with white hair and golden eyes. She introduces herself as Ceti von Adelwein Reinhardt…”

“Ahh!”

It’s all over.

“Adelwein, Reinhardt…?”

“A girl bearing the surnames of both families?”

“Was there a child born to both houses?”

The second-year teachers, having just been briefed on the situation, could only look on in astonishment, completely caught off guard.

“There is one new student this term.”

Kendra kindly filled them in. “There is a prodigy born from the direct lineage of Reinhardt and a collateral line of Adelwein.”

“What should we do? Should we let her in?”

“Wait a moment…”

The head teacher paused to think before responding.

“Let her in.”

As the door opened, a girl with white hair stepped in.

Her face was gaunt, as though she had endured great suffering, and her dull golden eyes were devoid of any spark of life.

“…I can’t find my brother and sister.”

The girl’s voice faltered as she began to speak.

“One is Aidel von Reinhardt. The other is Rustila Kersil. Those are the names…”

“If it’s those two, they are still missing.”

Teacher Karen sighed and replied, causing the nearby teachers to give her a cautionary tap.

“Be mindful of your surroundings… teacher!”

“…But reality is reality. They have to be informed.”

Karen was among the teachers who had advocated for making the incident public.

Therefore, she felt compelled to present the facts to the girl, without any attempt to soften the blow.

“It seems they fell off the cliff in the northwest along with the monster. We’re currently searching the area.”

“Now… It’s been 2 hours since the incident. Why haven’t we received any reports yet?”

“That area wasn’t intended to be a testing ground. Given the vastness of the Dodeca Forest, it’s uncertain how long the search will take.”

The girl’s expression teetered on the edge of despair, her brows furrowed and her lip caught between her teeth.

“Hey, don’t just dwell on the negatives.”

Kendra smacked Karen on the back of the head before she walked over to the girl, who seemed moments away from tears, and knelt down.

“We’ve got reports there’s a lake below. Plus, while the slope is steep, the cliff itself isn’t very high. If they can swim, there’s a good chance they’ll be found soon.”

“That idiot doesn’t know how to swim…”

Silence fell over Kendra.

Until there was a positive outcome, no words could ease the girl’s worry.

The only thing to do was to hold her, offer comfort, and hope for the best.

Yet, Ceti chose to stay where the teachers were, her presence making the second-year teachers and the more reserved first-year teachers uneasy. They exchanged nervous glances.

Amidst this, Kendra discreetly prepared a cup of cocoa for Ceti, hoping to offer some small comfort.

Outside, night had enveloped everything, and rain began to patter against the windows.

Swoosh.

Suddenly, a torrential downpour unleashed, rendering any attempt to launch a helicopter futile.

“This is unfortunate,” Kendra murmured, her gaze lost in the relentless rain, echoing the heavy hearts within the room.

The sound of teeth clenching filled the air, a harsh, grating noise that seemed to echo the turmoil inside Ceti.

Her parents had always been distant, showing little to no interest in her existence. Her half-siblings, born to different parents, either avoided her like a plague or treated her with undisguised hostility. Throughout her childhood, in both elementary and middle school, she was isolated, treated like a precarious flower perched on the edge of a cliff, her precarious position due entirely to the lofty status of her family.

For Ceti, who had no confidante, no shoulder to lean on, the loss of Rustila was akin to staring into the abyss of death itself.

And now…

“Brother.”

The word was directed at a half-sibling, the third child from another liaison. Until a few months ago, Ceti had harbored dark thoughts about this person, someone she had once wished dead. It was a peculiar shift, one that she found both odd and overwhelming. The suffocation of these emotions was so intense, she feared it might drive her to madness.

To lose one was unbearable. But the thought of losing both? It was a prospect so devastating that Ceti couldn’t bear to entertain it. The very idea was anathema to her, something to be avoided at all costs. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—face such a loss again.

For the moment, her only wish, her singular hope, was for the relentless rain to cease.