One day after Pfeil’s visit, Jared showed up at the Academy.
He would have preferred to stay at the mansion if possible, but Trane, after discussing the situation with Olivier, strongly urged him that now was the time to live as usual, so he decided to comply.
Tomorrow, he had received a letter from his grandfather asking him to visit the mansion, so he couldn’t just do nothing until a week later as Pfeil had told him.
“Jared!”
While chatting with Crysta in the classroom after school, Laurentz and Lars appeared in a hurry.
“It’s rare to see you two together?”
“Really? Murphy might not know because he hasn’t been at the Academy recently, but surprisingly, we’re quite close.”
“Crysta, please set aside the relationship between Laurentz and me for now. More importantly, something troublesome has happened.”
“What’s troublesome?”
Laurentz and Lars exchanged glances, then after a moment’s hesitation, Laurentz spoke.
“I’ll tell you. Do you remember that I told you the other day that Drew was acting strange?”
“Ah, I remember. Did something happen to that Drew?”
“Nothing has happened yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Jared tilted his head at Laurentz, who had a serious expression and was biting his lip.
What in the world had happened? Still, it was strange that Laurentz seemed to be blaming himself.
“For the past few days, I’ve been paying attention to Drew and talking to him, but he’s been ignoring me. Still, I couldn’t just leave Drew, who was clearly acting strange, alone, but now things have gotten bad.”
“You know about the Magic Amplification Potion, don’t you, Jared?”
“Whoa, no way, you can’t be serious…”
“It’s exactly that. It seems Drew has used the Magic Amplification Potion.”
Jared couldn’t help but agree that things had indeed become bad.
Magic Amplification Potion. As the name suggests, it’s a potion that amplifies magic power. Its effects are immense, and instances of magic power being more than doubled temporarily have been confirmed. However, there are conditions for its use; one must possess magic power. It can amplify magic power, but it absolutely cannot increase something that doesn’t exist from the start.
And, despite its definite effect of amplifying magic power—its use is prohibited.
This is because it has strong addictive properties and side effects. Side effects include losing one’s sanity, causing magic power to go berserk, and being unable to control the urge to destroy, leading to rampages.
It is said that it was sometimes used with tacit consent during wartime, but that was a time when the country was desperate to destroy itself.
In modern times, with fewer wars and only minor skirmishes occurring on the continent, Magic Amplification Potions are strictly forbidden under the “Continental Law” enacted by each country.
Not only their use, but also their manufacture is prohibited. Violators face life imprisonment at best, or the death penalty at worst.
“Of all things, he resorted to Magic Amplification Potion. Where did he even get it? Just possessing that potion is dangerous, it’s not something you can easily obtain, is it?”
“I don’t know. He won’t answer any questions.”
“Where is that idiot now and what is he doing?”
“Bertha and Kurt are watching him. To prevent him from rampaging, we dragged him to the training grounds. However—”
“What is it?”
Instead of Laurentz, who was struggling to speak, Lars opened his mouth.
“Drew Zimmer says nothing. But he keeps repeating one thing as if he’s broken— ‘I will kill Jared Murphy.'”
“Me?”
It wasn’t that Jared had absolutely no idea. Regarding the incident with Laurentz the other day, he remembered that he had unilaterally used magic on Drew, who had insulted Olivier. If Drew held a grudge for that, it was entirely possible that Drew, whose sanity was already slipping due to the Magic Amplification Potion, might become obsessed with revenge.
“H-hey, if Murphy is being targeted, shouldn’t we inform the teacher quickly?”
“I did tell Professor Kirsi. I was hoping she might happen to have an Antidote or something…”
“She doesn’t have one?”
“No, she apparently does, but her laboratory is in disarray, so she doesn’t know where it is… She’s gone with other students to search for it, but I’m worried if Drew will go berserk before then.”
“More importantly, we don’t know if he will target Jared if he goes berserk. No, if he goes berserk within the Academy, we don’t know what will happen. In the worst case, other students could get caught up in it. If that happens, he’ll be facing the death penalty.”
At the word “death penalty,” Crysta gasped.
She wasn’t the only one. Laurentz and Lars also wore bitter expressions.
It might be true that Drew brought this upon himself by using the Magic Amplification Potion. However, it was natural for everyone to desire magic and wish to gain power. They didn’t know how desperate he was, but perhaps it was difficult to resist temptation when it appeared, even if one knew it was wrong.
“What should we do? You guys came to me because you think I can do something, right?”
“Let me be clear from the start, I don’t think Drew Zimmer deserves punishment for his own mistakes. However, considering the danger to other students, I have no choice but to rely on a friend.”
“I’m sorry, Jared. I don’t have the confidence to defeat Drew as he is now.”
“Defeat? So I just have to fight Drew and defeat him?”
As he asked, thinking it was too simple, Lars and Laurentz nodded.
“Even though it’s a Magic Amplification Potion, it’s temporary. However, if the amplified magic remains in the body, it seems to be problematic. Therefore, it’s necessary to have him fight and expend magic, even with the risk of him going berserk.”
“He’s already a walking time bomb. It would be incredibly convenient if he self-destructed, but as it stands, we can neither give him an antidote nor hand him over to the Knights.”
“Initially, I intended to fight him, but it was no use. His magic is too amplified, so I don’t have the confidence to win. More importantly, Drew didn’t even acknowledge me.”
“So, if the target of his desire to kill—me—steps in, I can fight him? Understood. Let’s do it.”
Frankly, Jared wanted to leave Drew to his fate. He felt no sympathy for Drew. It was his own fault, after all. Even so, he wanted to help his friends who, unlike Laurentz and Lars, didn’t abandon him.
Besides, he wouldn’t have thought this before, but—Olivier would have tried to save Drew.
“This is a good opportunity to test how much my body has recovered. I’ll fight Drew and beat him to a pulp.”
“Wait a minute.”
As Jared stood up and started to head for the training grounds, a stern voice called out.
“Crysta?”
“Is it really necessary for it to be Murphy? Herring said he couldn’t win himself, but is there any guarantee that Murphy can win against someone who used such a dangerous drug?”
“Well, no, there isn’t…”
Laurentz replied, his voice strained and embarrassed.
“I can’t believe this!”
With a bang, Crysta slammed the desk and stood up.
Her expression was filled with anger, unlike anything they had ever seen. Her anger was palpable, which was hard to believe from Crysta, who was always smiling.
“What is that? Even though you know you’ll lose, it’s okay if it’s Murphy?”
“No, that’s not it!”
“Then what is it? Please tell me it’s not some baseless reason like ‘Murphy will be fine,’ is it?”
“That is…”
Laurentz fell silent, as if he had hit a nerve.
“Lars, you’re the same. You say you don’t care what happens to Drew, but in the end, you’re trying to make Murphy deal with it. That’s incredibly irresponsible.”
“I’m aware of that. But—”
“If you’re aware of it, then don’t have Murphy do this!”
