I Don’t Want To Be the Main Character

89. In-group bias (1)

1.

It was a predetermined future for Sylphia.

Of course, it wasn’t easy for her to change the already confirmed future where Lorenzo Tonali opened the Gate of Origin and was killed by an unknown entity beyond the truth. As she said, changing a fixed future involves too many variables, and due to the minor butterfly effect of Ludrick starting his research, this event progressed much faster than Silphia’s memory.

However, it was not an ‘easy task’ by any means, and it was not impossible.

As Ludrick said, there was also the option of magically obscuring Lorenzo’s perception, and then simply breaking through the mental barrier and manipulating his memories.

Even though Lorenzo is an excellent magician, and one of the few great magicians in the entire continent, he cannot surpass the limits of humans. Compared to the magical power of dragons, who can freely use ancient magic that has been passed down from time immemorial, he is nothing more than a firefly in front of the sun.

But there was no need for Sylphia to go through such trouble from the beginning.

It is impossible for the gaze of a dragon that lives for nearly eternity and the gaze of a human that burns for a moment that lasts less than a hundred years to be on the same level.

And the same goes for Arwen, who agreed to this plan.

Going back in time a few days ago.

It was at that very moment that Ludrick was leaving the palace with Eileen and enjoying a cozy date.

“Ugh……”

As usual, Ludrick was missing from the members, and only Lorenzo and Sylphia were left in the lab.

Lorenzo, who had been wandering around the palace under the pretense of taking a walk as he always did, muttered repeatedly as he began his research late in the afternoon.

Originally, magicians were a profession that had difficulty communicating with others because they spent their time locked in their rooms and doing nothing but research. Silphia, who knew this from experience, didn’t pay much attention to it, but Lorenzo, who had been diligently writing down his formulas on his own, suddenly stood up from his seat.

Lorenzo, who had been pacing around the lab for a while, turned his gaze to Ludrick’s desk. Feeling curious, Lorenzo approached the desk, looked through a few books, and then spoke.

“It seems that Mr. Ludrick has been focusing his research on the field of recovery magic recently.”

“That’s right. Most of the books on that desk are probably related.”

“Is there anyone in your family who is sick? That’s an unexpected area. Oh, it’s almost like they raided the entire palace library.”

“……well.”

“Hmm… Still, it’s the teacher’s duty to be of help to his disciple’s research. I guess I should read a few books for a bit.”

Silphia, who couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth about Ludrick’s constitution, trailed off, and Lorenzo, who was looking through a mountain of books, stuck out his tongue.

Naturally, the amount of books in the imperial library was so vast that even she, a court magician, could not read them all.

In fact, these numerous books that Ludrick had dug up, even if they seemed to have even a little bit of relevance, were only the tip of the iceberg.

Lorenzo, who was staring at the pile of books as if he was tired, suddenly noticed something strange in his eyes.

The original wizard was a corpse without curiosity.

Anyway, the research to open the door to the source had hit a wall and was not progressing for a long time, so she couldn’t help but become interested when she saw books she had never read.

Lorenzo picked out a few books with interesting titles and took them to his seat, while Silphia also began to focus on her research again. Since she was pressed for time anyway, she had to come up with a way to fix Ludrick’s constitution based on the hypotheses she had prepared so far.

That was the end of it. It certainly should have been.

“Hoo……”

Another few hours passed, and another few hours passed. Lorenzo, who had been reading a few of the books that had been sitting on Ludrick’s desk, began to breathe heavily.

There is a famous anecdote.

The anecdote that could be best described as a reincarnation of a ghost, one of the world’s greatest scientists before Ludrick was reincarnated into this world discovered the law of gravity by observing a falling apple.

In reality, it is somewhat of an exaggeration and should be described as inspired, but regardless of its truth, it has become one of the most famous anecdotes in the world.

In this way, sometimes academics develop through chance encounters, and there are also cases where academics from seemingly unrelated fields help the original research.

And as it happens, this is exactly the case for Lorenzo.

“……Miss Sylphia.”

“yes?”

“Do you know what this old man was most worried about?”

“……If you say it’s a problem?”

“A method to penetrate the dimensional boundary has been found, which is almost miraculous. However, he was having difficulty fixing the spatial coordinates to the location the old man wanted beyond the unstable dimension.”

Silphia instinctively realized the ‘subject’ Lorenzo was talking about, and paused for a moment.

“Is this the research you were talking about, Master?”

“That’s right. I guess I won’t be able to sleep today.”

Lorenzo, who had been holding a book he had been reading until just a moment ago, shook his head and then rearranged a few books on the bookshelf as if he had become accustomed to it. Then, a secret passage opened.

Silphia muttered as she watched Lorenzo’s back disappearing down the passage.

“Have you already found a way?”

Although she had a bad feeling, Sylphia narrowed her eyes and frowned.

The time difference from her memory was quite large. At the earliest, it would have been a year or so later that Lorenzo had succeeded in opening the Gate of Origin. It was too early now. In the past before the regression, Lorenzo had succeeded once, so she had expected that he would succeed someday.

I still don’t know exactly what triggered this, but if Lorenzo succeeds in his research, various problems will arise.

Sylphia got up from her seat and started walking hurriedly somewhere.

The place she headed to was Ludrick’s room. Of course, the owner of the room would be out of the room by now, enjoying a date with Eileen in the capital, but what Sylphia was looking for wasn’t Ludrick.

“Oh my. Lizard woman, what brings you here in such a hurry? Did you come looking for me?”

“I told you not to call me a lizard, Bat Woman.”

“We’re both equal… So, why did you come to me? If you’re thinking of picking a fight, then go back. I don’t really want to do anything that will make Ludrick hate me.”

“You remember, right?”

“If you cut it off and talk like that, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Sylphia’s expression was very serious. In an atmosphere where she was talking seriously unlike usual, Arwen, who had just been yawning in cat form, also returned to her human form and answered with a serious expression.

At least as far as she knew, Sylphia wasn’t the type of person to suddenly come to her and talk nonsense.

Sylphia, who had been hesitating, opened her mouth.

“During the civil war, the two of us handled it quietly.”

“…Are you talking about that old man, Ludrick’s teacher?”

“that’s right.”

Sylphia nodded. Arwen frowned slightly, as if she had remembered something she didn’t want to remember.

“Wasn’t it the seed of a disaster that I brought upon myself? Human greed is endless. That shallow curiosity ended my life. Who can I blame?”

“Of course I couldn’t help but know. It was something unprecedented. How could I open my eyes if I knew that not only the literal ‘truth’ was lurking inside, but also otherworldly beings were waiting for an opportunity?”

“Humans don’t change. Thousands of years ago, they built a huge tower to reach the sky, but they must have incurred the wrath of the gods.”

“Anyway, I think the court wizard will open the door much faster than before.”

“……So, you came to me to stop it?”

Arwen also wiggled her eyebrows at the news that the timing was much faster than expected.

Before the return, there was a fierce civil war going on. So, during the chaos, Silphia and Arwen, who were nearby, miraculously joined forces to stop it.

The probability that the strongest life form on earth, the king of all vampire species, would exist in a location where initial response was possible was extremely slim.

Because the two of them took care of it before anyone else could come forward, it was just passed over as something that happened. In essence, the level of danger was much more serious than those who heard about it afterward had thought.

“No, I have no intention of stopping it.”

“…You’re crazy. If we don’t close the door quickly, the empire will be destroyed within a week at the most.”

“Of course we have to block the ‘door’. But is it really necessary to block the court magician?”

“……?”

Arwen tilted her head as if to ask what that meant. Of course, since it was Lorenzo who opened the door, it was certain that the door would open for sure at least once if she was not stopped.

But Arwen looked pleased at Sylphia’s words that followed.

“Think about it carefully. A court magician who cannot overcome his thirst for knowledge will eventually open the door and die.”

“……I guess so.”

“It doesn’t matter when you open the door, I’ll be there anyway. I’ll be in a position to block it.”

“Does that mean… that we should think about what happens after the court magician dies?”

“That’s it.”

Sylphia nodded.

If a court magician dies, a new court magician must be chosen to succeed him. Of course, it is easy to say that a new court magician will be chosen because the position cannot be left empty, but in reality, it will take a long time to find a new talent suitable for the position.

Even looking at the entire continent, there are very few magicians who can be considered great magicians, and most of them are either the lords of the magic tower or powerful figures in specific locations.

Even if you receive almost unlimited research funds and are treated like a Marquis, the position of court magician doesn’t offer much merit unless you are an eccentric like Lorenzo.

But coincidentally, this time, the court magician of the time, Lorenzo Tonali, died in an unfortunate accident while conducting his research, leaving behind a successor.

Then, of course, the person with the highest probability of becoming the next court magician is the disciple of the previous court magician.

“……You plan to promote Ludrick to the position of court magician.”

“So that means there’s no need to stop it.”

“That would be more beneficial to Ludrick.”

Sylphia nodded at Arwen’s muttering, and an agreement was reached in the secret room.

And that was the whole story.

It was not a ‘human’ way of thinking that was focused solely on results.

Inhumane.

Ironically, Yongdo fell in love with such a human, and even Jinjo, who had wandered alone for thousands of years, could not fathom the human heart.

The contradiction of loving humans but not being able to understand the human heart.

Because they weren’t human from the beginning.

And at this point, Ludrick, who had heard the story, had an expression on his face as if he had no idea where to start.

Before I knew it, my trembling hands were covering my face.

If only we had discussed it in advance, if only we had given some notice. If only we had done that, we could have prevented it from the beginning.

An indescribable emotion had been slowly enveloping his body for some time, but now Ludrick could realize what it was.

It was a feeling of betrayal.