IRM Chapter 29

When Joseph heard Ji Chi’s words, he quickly turned to look at Antoine. He deeply loved and firmly believed in his son, but regardless of whether this was an accident or not, he felt guilt toward this innocent child—after all, this child was also a victim, and the blow of losing his right eye had indeed affected his entire life.

His lips trembled slightly, filled with pain and disbelief. “Are you hiding something from me?”

Antoine’s eyes had originally shown panic, but he gradually calmed down. “What do I have to hide? Your son caused an explosion while researching potions, destroying both me and him! That’s the truth! What else do you want to know? Do you want to know how that explosion injured my eye? Do you want to know how your son struggled in agony in the sea of flames?!”

Joseph seemed unable to bear it and trembled slightly. Even after all these years, when those past events were uncovered, the wounds carved into his heart would still bleed profusely, causing unbearable pain.

Ji Chi’s expression darkened as he stepped forward, looking directly at Antoine without flinching. “If the Professor doesn’t want to force you, then let me ask you some simple questions. What potion was Vincent researching at the time?”

Antoine’s gaze shifted as he hid his expression under his drooping bangs. “How would I know what potion he was researching? I’m not an alchemist. Or are you expecting someone who was half-blinded by an explosion to notice details in a sea of flames?”

He kept repeating his own pain, shaping himself into a pitiable victim deserving of sympathy. If it were Joseph, filled with guilt, receiving such an answer, he would surely find it difficult to continue investigating.

But Ji Chi wouldn’t care about all that. In his view, even if Antoine was innocent, giving up on life and complaining about fate just because of being half-blind was simply incomprehensible.

Moreover, Antoine might not be innocent at all, and could even be a perpetrator.

He sneered. “It doesn’t matter. Which specific potion isn’t important, but you should remember which element Vincent was researching for his potion, right? You couldn’t have been blind in both eyes before the explosion, could you?”

Ji Chi not only didn’t avoid the topic but quite rudely mocked him back along his own words, making the surrounding people, who had been sensing something was wrong, feel relieved.

Antoine’s face darkened. “Of course it was fire element. Otherwise, how could such a massive explosion suddenly occur?”

“It couldn’t have been fire element.” Joseph suddenly spoke in a low voice, his eyes showing determination. “Vincent was like me, with a wind element constitution. He knew he wasn’t suited to control flames, and he promised me he wouldn’t touch them…”

Antoine chuckled darkly, his tone carrying envy and jealousy he himself hadn’t noticed. “You trust him that much? Too bad he let you down…”

“Madam Emma,” Ji Chi suddenly raised his hand and asked, “You have a deep understanding of magical principles. Could you please tell us which elements can produce flame reactions?”

Emma was startled by this inappropriate classroom Q&A, thought for a moment, and answered, “I should have mentioned to you before that fire element with wind element causes flame spread, with wood element causes sustained burning, with lightning element causes explosive fire growth… These flame reactions all require fire element. However, just like what you fused earlier, pure light element and dark element suddenly fusing together could also cause an explosion.”

Madam Emma hesitated as she spoke, “But this last type hasn’t been experimented with for a long time, after all… people’s current attitude toward dark magic…”

She was unwilling to continue speaking, as it was meaningless and could easily invite criticism.

Ji Chi: “Hmm… So if we could find the residual elements from that fire years ago, wouldn’t we be able to uncover the truth?”

Antoine mocked, “Where would there be any residual elements now? Just because you can’t find elements, does that mean I deserve to be suspected?”

“Well, if it was light element and dark element fusion, indeed nothing but flames would remain at the scene,” Ji Chi nodded. “However… wasn’t there something that luckily escaped midway?”

He smiled as he looked at Antoine.

When Antoine had removed his eye patch earlier, Ji Chi’s body’s mage talent had instinctively made him notice something wrong. He could sense that in that pitch-black eye socket, there were minute traces of dark element escaping.

So minute that if Antoine hadn’t lifted his eye patch, Ji Chi would never have noticed.

Antoine instinctively sensed trouble, his heartbeat gradually accelerating, “What?”

Ji Chi raised his hand and flicked it, sending a wind blade cutting into the task board nearby. He walked forward and lightly touched the deep crack that had been split open with his index finger, causing wisps of breeze imperceptible to ordinary people to escape from between his fingers.

He looked up at Antoine. “I believe that in such deep crevices, even if someone repaired them, the elements inside could remain for a very long time, couldn’t they?”

Antoine’s fingers trembled, and his empty eye socket began to hurt again. He desperately wanted to raise his hand to cover it.

Ji Chi continued, “Logically speaking, it’s very difficult to remove minute residual elements, but I happen to have this talent. Would you like me to try, Teacher Antoine?”

Antoine stepped back slightly. He was finally driven to near collapse by Ji Chi’s pressure, and he wanted to leave this place.

“Antoine, what exactly are you hiding from us?” Joseph was very weary as he spoke softly, with some pleading, “Please tell us, will you? That was just an accident. I don’t want to pursue anything. I just want to know the truth…”

Antoine gritted his teeth and was about to make excuses. “I told you, ugh—”

Ji Chi snapped his fingers, and seeing Antoine unable to help but painfully cover his right eye, he said coolly, “Sorry, I was just trying to call out where there might still be dark element.”

With things developing to this point, everyone understood what was happening and looked at Antoine with complex expressions on his gloomy face.

Antoine’s fingers covering his right eye clenched tight as he glared viciously at Ji Chi.

The hall created by magical space was spacious and bright, with gentle light falling on the young man’s youthful and defiant face. Everything was so vivid and brilliant, just like those favored geniuses who could always live proudly in everyone’s expectations and praise.

It was as if he and they existed in two completely different worlds.

Antoine was the evil fruit of a one-night encounter between a small-town priest and a low-ranking nun.

She was a kind and warm nun, her clean wood element emanating the fresh fragrance of flowers and grass, tough and vigorous, but because she possessed lustrous black hair, she was destined to be nothing more than a mudstone trampled by thousands at the church entrance.

Such humble mudstone, in this class-supremacist society, couldn’t even speak out against the humiliation and oppression from a mere small priest, and had to carefully conceal her increasingly abnormal body.

Before long, she was exposed.

Impure people had no right to continue serving the God of Light. Under the priest’s cold gaze, she was stripped of her divine office by the Church and spat upon and driven away. From then on, she could only live in hardship in a small alley flowing with sewage, searching for medicinal herbs in nearby forests to sell during the day, and spending nights in a drafty, damp little hut with rats and insects as companions.

She struggled in the mud and pinned all her hopes on the small life within her body, hoping it could bring her a thread of courage.

Finally, Antoine was born, and he also took away all the nun’s courage. In the nun’s eyes, this child seemed cursed by demons, possessing the same black hair as her and the priest’s hypocritical light element.

He would surely follow her path.

Antoine gradually grew up under his mother’s sorrowful and disgusted gaze. He didn’t know what he had done wrong. Even though he was very obedient and clever, his mother never seemed to be happy no matter what.

Moreover, the herbal scent on her body was gradually rotting.

On the day his mother died, Antoine didn’t feel particularly profound sadness. He watched the black soil gradually cover the thin coffin, even associating it with the remaining black bread at home… but it would be enough for one person to eat for a while, Antoine thought coldly with downcast eyes.

After the funeral ended, he silently returned home. When he stepped into that cold, damp stone hut, he met his nominal father for the first time.

The priest looked down at his son from above, and upon sensing the high-quality, abundant light element within him, curved his lips in an ambiguous smile and took him to his side.

Thus, Antoine learned at the age of twelve that white bread tasted so sweet, and meat soup had a texture like the moisture of early summer sunlight—these were all sensations he had never experienced before.

He agreed to hide his identity from the priest and began repeating the work his mother had once done in the Church, in exchange for daily sustenance and opportunities to learn magic.

Fortunately, Antoine’s light magic talent was quite good, which made his days not too difficult. He thought this was heavenly treatment, until he passed the Magic Academy’s test and met many boys his own age.

Antoine was immediately attracted to Vincent the first time he saw him.

That boy was flamboyant and confident. His biggest daily worry seemed to be how to secretly slip from the Magic Academy into the nearby Alchemist Academy. He didn’t care at all about his magical grades, even when they were so terrible that they shocked and made his father Joseph frown.

Vincent clearly was the kind of child who had been cherished and trusted. His cheerful and sunny attitude every day made Antoine develop some thoughts he had never dared to hope for before.

If he could become even more excellent, wouldn’t his father also have eyes sparkling with affection and pride like Joseph’s, letting him also experience the feeling of being cherished and trusted?

Antoine used some small tricks and quickly became Vincent’s close friend who could talk about anything. Vincent was a very good child—he was perceptive and kind, knowing that this somewhat gloomy friend harbored deep insecurities, so he spared no effort in encouraging and supporting him.

During that time, Antoine was actually moved for a moment. He had wavered, thinking that perhaps having such a supportive person in his life would be enough.

However, all his beautiful expectations for the future shattered after he accidentally discovered the Church’s secrets. Antoine found that he wasn’t anyone’s son, and might not even live much longer—he was just a sacrifice that could be abandoned at any time.

After Antoine discovered the Church’s dark secrets, he didn’t make a scene but became increasingly gloomy. He began to have secrets, being mysterious and evasive every day, so much so that even Vincent didn’t know what he was doing.

Vincent saw this and felt increasingly anxious for his friend, not knowing how to help him.

One afternoon, Vincent suddenly invited Antoine to his little hideout with a beaming smile. He wanted to give Antoine the first potion he had developed—it was a bottle of light potion with flowing radiance. He wanted to use this light to illuminate the sadness hidden in his friend’s eyes.

When Antoine saw that potion, his eyes filled with disbelief. His lips moved several times, and he could barely speak.

He silently held that light, and his desire to confide surged forth. He tightly embraced this last straw and told Vincent his thoughts.

He wanted to research forbidden magic.

After hearing his friend’s confession, Vincent looked shocked. “You’re crazy! Forbidden magic all requires a price! How can you touch it!”

Antoine hadn’t expected his most trusted Vincent to react this way. His heart went cold, and he tried to explain, “But I’m too weak! I must become stronger! Forbidden magic is my only choice!”

Vincent frantically shook his head. “I can’t watch you step into the abyss… Tell me honestly, have you already started researching it?”

Antoine looked down and said nothing, but under his emotional agitation, the faintly leaking dark aura revealed everything.

Vincent was extremely anxious and grabbed his hand, pulling him outside. “No… no, I’ll go beg Father. He’ll have a solution… Antoine, please don’t do anything foolish, okay? When you regret it, it will be too late!”

Antoine shook off his hand and stared coldly at Vincent. “Why? I thought you would support me.”

“Because that’s forbidden magic!” Vincent roared in a low voice!

Antoine sneered. “Heh… What do you understand? You, who touch the divine forbidden, lecture me about researching human forbidden?”

Vincent frowned: “What?”

“It seems you don’t know yet… The moment you entered the alchemist profession, you already violated God’s will…” Antoine looked mentally unstable, his crazy appearance making Vincent somewhat uneasy.

“Why can’t you understand me! We’re both people bearing forbidden knowledge. To survive, we can only go all the way to the end!” Antoine’s dark aura grew increasingly dense, his eyes vacant as he roared.

Vincent knew that further delay wouldn’t benefit anyone. He turned and ran toward the door, wanting to find Joseph to stop Antoine.

Antoine rolled his eyes and slowly looked at Vincent’s retreating figure. In his eyes surrounded by black mist, madness settled: “Even you want to abandon me? Then I can only…”

“Sacrifice you.”