Chapter 222 – Morbius (6)

“Why are you like this? Is it because you learned magic?”

Mobius didn’t answer. Sylvia could only continue to be drawn to him with her anxious face. The magic she had learned so hard and the mana she had gathered were helpless in front of Mobius. He suppressed Sylvia’s resistance with the magic power of the sea, and moved Sylvia’s body as easily as carrying a basket of fruit.

“Welcome. Mr Mobius. Who is that woman?”

Mobius did not even answer the wizards who greeted him. His stiff face and white beard gave his gait weight and authority, making silence feel oppressive. The mage turned away with an embarrassed look, and Morbius reached out for the elevator.

“Dae, why are you like this?”

Sylvia mustered up the courage to ask the question again. I was afraid that Morbius didn’t answer anything, but even so, she continued to talk to her. Mobius dragged her away with her savage attitude, but he did not injure or abuse her body, and created the most comfortable environment for her while coming to the mage tower.

[Move to the top floor]

The elevator went up with a dry voice. Busy moving people and complex experimental tools passed past the translucent elevator. Before Sylvia could see what her lab tools looked like, the glass windows were rapidly reflecting another landscape.

Because of the dripping, both the experimental tools and the person blurred the glass window like a failed watercolor painting, then disappeared while illuminating the room with antique furniture and soft lighting. Sylvia blinked her eyes, trying to dispel the afterimages of color that lingered in front of her eyes, and Mobius moved her fingers and moved her Sylvia body toward her drawing room.

“Wait, what the heck… !”

As Silvia repeated her words, Morbius moved her body in silence. When his fingertips touched the switch in the secret room and the stairs were revealed in front of her, Sylvia shuddered and had to face the blue light that leaked softly.

Mana came and went like waves pushing through the beach sand. It was like holding her small candle to her face and taking it off, the energy of her mana momentarily rushing warmly and then disappearing as if it had never happened.

Morbius gathered his magical energy at the tips of his fingers to form his orb, then sent it slowly down the stairs. The space, which had created a dark shade through a gap in the wall due to the poor quality of lighting, was enveloped in bright light when Mobius touched it, revealing its own color.

It was only then that Sylvia realized that this stairway was made of white bricks.

Once upon a time

Right after this mage tower was built, the white road that inherited her white walls was guiding her and her Morbius. Sylvia held her breath as she descended her steps. Wizards are beings who cannot overcome their curiosity. Sylvia, too, was more interested in the new sight that Mobius showed her than the crisis facing her body.

On the one hand, she twisted her body hard to get free, but her vision could not help but follow the stairs that descended deeply.

As she climbed and descended the stairs, her footsteps deepened and the air became thick. The air was so stifling that it tasted like lime, and white particles floated around in the halo of light. Sylvia asked Morbius questions while covering her mouth.

“Where are you? What do you want?”

How many questions is this? From the time Sylvia was dragged from her tower, she repeated the same question like a parrot, and Morbius ignored all questions like a deaf person. And now, Morbius turned her body as if he had heard her voice for the first time.

“Sylvia. She said her name was Sylvia.”

He spoke to Sylvia in a softer and lithe tone than expected. Her voice, like that of her grandfather next door, was enough to make her feel familiar. She thought that Sylvia might have asked her if circumstances were different, she might have asked him to teach her magic.

If she hadn’t been so enchanted, she certainly would have been.

“…In the world, why the hell did you drag me here? Is it such a big mistake for me to learn magic?”

“No. It’s not wrong. Rather, it is good to see it this way.”

Morbius has so far spoken out against the things he has done. Those who had had to give up their dreams of magic because of his unreasonable sanctions would have sighed upon hearing Mobius’ answer. Sylvia, too, had to catch her breath, despite her good nature.

Why had he secretly learned magic all this time? What was the reason she was kicked out of the Mage Tower, where she was normally able to attend?

“Then, then why the hell did you not let me learn magic in the Mage Tower?”

“I read the books you learned about. I’m a newbie who just got out of the Faculty of Magic, but I’ve learned the basics solidly.”

Mobius seemed to be answering Sylvia’s words, but he was talking about something else. Sylvia, she felt her patience wear out as she watched his attitude. The reason her fundamentals were solid was never because she or her teacher valued her fundamentals. It was because if she wanted to learn without being seen in the dorm, she had no choice but to learn the basics.

To the extent that a medium-sized mage of a small mage tower can teach, the basics are taught tightly, and the next process is handed over to another mage. Silvia had to go through this troublesome process because of Mobius’ sanctions.

“The fact that the basics are solid also means that absorption is quick when learning other application processes.”

Saying that, Mobius knocked on the tightly closed iron door. He hit the iron door lightly with his cane, causing the entire room to shake slightly and the door to open. Sylvia couldn’t understand what Morbius was saying, so she only let out a sigh as she grabbed her head.

The mysterious experiment tools placed in her room and the complicated magic circle were just unsettling factors for her.

“Uh, uh… ! Uh!”

And her vacant thoughts were broken by the sound of an old man’s scream. When she came to her senses belatedly and raised her head, the skinny old man was tied up. Sylvia somehow thought the old man was familiar. The old man, too, was trembling as he looked at Sylvia’s face and put on an expression of disbelief.

“Uh, uh… ! Ahhh! This, this gnome… ! Am I not enough? Uh! Because it wasn’t enough that I was caught and imprisoned… ! You, you beast!”

Mobius ignored the rampaging old man. Sylvia tried to remember the old man in front of her. Was she someone I had seen once before? I must have seen her somewhere, but I can’t remember. And the old man shouted.

“Sylvia! Grow! Me! Your grandfather!”

“Ah! Ha, grandpa?”

Only then did she nod as if she remembered Sylvia. According to her memory, she never met her in person, but she was definitely her grandfather, whom she had seen several times in pictures of her. My grandfather, whom I had never met before, because his research was too busy and the facility was dangerous.

The old man said with a desperate face.

“Yeah, yes! I don’t remember because I saw you when you were too young, but… ! My, I changed your diaper too!”

“Ha, but apparently he died… !”

“I am not dead! I-that madman locked me up here and covered me up as dead!”

Mobius was silently tinkering with the magic device. Sylvia thought that now Mobius would tell her why she was doing this. Morbius puts a few more politicos to work and puts his magic to work.

As he blew some magical energy into it, a blue liquid flowed through the test tube. It made its way across the ceiling to the old man’s body, and penetrated the mechanism attached to his side.

OK.

“Quaaaaagh!”

Sparks flew from the old man’s body and he screamed in pain. Morbius was silently looking at the old man, and Sylvia covered her mouth in surprise. Mobius said while watching the old man suffer.

“Did you know that my granddaughter would die and you would die in peace?”

“Quaaaaa! Isn’t this, already suffering, giving all the pain! Is this not enough! My apologies too! Even the deaths of my disciples! Was it not enough for you!”

The old man shouted without losing even in pain. Morbius struck back with his eyes wide open.

“Don’t say the hat! Even if you cry! Even if your apprentices don’t learn magic! My granddaughter never came back! The death of my granddaughter! What do you think you can repay!”

The old man shook his head at Morbius. Rather than denying him, it was a face that looked at him with pity. Before this happened, the two were colleagues and had even discussed magic. The old man sympathized with Mobius even if he suffered worse than death.

“…How can you be unaware of your pain? I also had a granddaughter. But, but, even so, the dead don’t come back. It’s all in vain. The research of the last few years, in the end, was just proving that obvious fact! Mobius, stop now. Stop thinking about hurting my granddaughter, let’s finish it now. At that time, it was my mistake that I was not good at managing the laboratory.”

The old man closed his eyes and said.

“Come on, kill me. Kill me in front of my granddaughter, and release her granddaughter.”

So silence came. Did Morbius really change his mind? A hint of anticipation rises in the old man’s heart.

“Uh? Now wait… !”

In the darkness, Sylvia’s panicked voice rang out. When the old man opened his eyes again, he saw magic devices sticking to Sylvia’s body. Her body clings to the wall, and her intricate magical devices bind her. Sylvia didn’t know what the situation was, so she was spitting out only her questionable words over and over again, and Mobius was silently extending her hand and operating her magical power.

Cried the old man.

“What are you doing, Mobius!”

“Who said you were going to kill your granddaughter? Friend I mean. She realized that she couldn’t live any longer without her granddaughter. Every time she realized she didn’t have him, she thought she would go crazy, but now she really has gone crazy.”

Morbius looked at the old man. He was smiling, but tears were streaming down his eyes.

“Did you think I was doing research to bring my dead granddaughter back to life? No. I, I just want to go back to the past. I just want to be with my granddaughter.”

Sylvia’s mouth fell shut, and a huge test tube wrapped around her body.

“My friend. What do you think a person is defined by?”

Morbius continued his remarks, pointing to his own head.

“It is a memory. Memory. We define someone by our memories and experiences. I don’t want to believe that my granddaughter is dead or that I will never see her again. Therefore. I decided to erase my memory. Erase your granddaughter’s memories and mine, and write new memories there. My granddaughter is not dead. Sylvia is my granddaughter.”

The old man struggled to free himself from the device. He shouted.

“Mi, you’ve become a madman! Mobius! Don’t try to take someone else’s granddaughter!”

As Morbius started the machine again, the old man screamed in searing pain.

“Quaaaaagh!”

Mobius’s voice echoed in the blue glow.

“Didn’t you take my granddaughter with you! So I want to get what I deserve! If you can’t bring the dead back to life! Just think that no one died in the first place! I just need to believe that my granddaughter is still alive!”

Mobius took a step forward.

“Do not worry.”

His hand slipped on the glass of the test tube. Sylvia, her unconscious and her eyes closed, was floating on the other side of her windowpane. Mobius’s expression reflected in the window did not tell whether he was laughing or crying because his mouth and eyes were distorted.

“Because Grandpa will take good care of you.”