The Problematic Child of the Magic Tower
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 340: Taming the Mad Fiend (2)
KWA-A-A-A-A!
Every time the Mad Fiend stamped on the ground, black wind pressure exploded outward and scattered, scraping against the pure white subspace.
Oscar watched the sight as if observing it.
‘He’s definitely fast. If we’re only talking about speed, he might be the absolute best among all the mages the White Tower has ever produced.’
Of course, he wasn’t talking about the speed of casting spells, but about wind velocity.
And the Mad Fiend’s wind was not merely fast in terms of speed ‘alone.’
“Wind Shield.”
The moment Oscar spread a defensive barrier in front of him—
the black wind, which arrived a step ahead of the Mad Fiend’s body, tore it apart.
‘Fast, and strong too.’
From the standpoint of the one facing him, it was nothing short of troublesome.
Even if you reacted to that speed and deployed a barrier, the black wind that arrived first would rip it apart...
“KRRAAAAA!”
...and then the Mad Fiend’s fist would follow right behind.
HOOOONG!
The air along the trajectory of the incoming punch screamed as it was shaken.
“Let’s see some learning ability this time.”
Oscar raised both palms upright.
Oscar-style martial arts, Secret Technique Chapter 3.
The Sway of the Reed.
A technique that had already once thrown the guy to the ground back at the airport.
Once again, the two palms gently pushed away the Mad Fiend who had been flying in like a streak of light.
“Krk...?”
In an instant, the creature’s body shot off toward some random direction.
But at that moment, the Mad Fiend—his one eye revealed beneath the shattered mask—opened it wide and shouted.
“Krarararara!”
Twisting his flying body by force, the Mad Fiend generated a foothold of black wind in midair.
He stomped on it and charged at Oscar once again.
“Oh.”
If you experienced this for the first time, reacting like that was nearly impossible.
Which meant the guy clearly remembered that he had been taken down by The Sway of the Reed.
‘So his memory itself isn’t reset every day.’
Then does he remember as far back as several days ago?
Or perhaps when a certain period or capacity is filled, the earlier memories get erased?
Or maybe he simply cannot recall memories from childhood.
“Interesting.”
“KRAAAA!”
The Mad Fiend’s fist reached right up to Oscar’s nose.
At that moment, Oscar lightly flicked one hand.
“Our walk together today ends here.”
As soon as he said that, space rippled—
and the Mad Fiend was instantly swallowed up.
“Is it about time?”
When Oscar opened the subspace, THUD!—with that sound, the Mad Fiend dropped onto the floor.
He looked around, and upon spotting Oscar, immediately prepared to charge.
But the moment Oscar raised one hand, his body flinched reflexively.
“I won’t say it twice. Today’s walk is over.”
“......”
In reality, two hours had passed.
But inside the double-layered subspace, a full twenty hours must have gone by.
Perhaps because he had disliked being left alone in the pure white space, the Mad Fiend didn’t dare recklessly attack.
“Good.”
Oscar clasped a shackle around the ankle of the Mad Fiend, who stood there stiffly, and lifted his head.
Meeting the gaze of the single eye looking down at him, he said,
“For the next few days, you’ll be living like this with me. Talking, walking together. Sounds good, right?”
“......”
The Mad Fiend met his gaze but gave no answer.
He simply moved to the corner of the room and pulled the blackout curtain, covering the broken part of his mask.
Oscar had no idea why he was acting like that, but for now, this was enough.
‘At least he isn’t charging at me anytime like before.’
It seemed the sparring sessions called “walks” hadn’t been entirely ineffective.
In truth, he had tried this after seeing the Mad Fiend’s attitude toward the Heavenly Sword.
‘That guy tucked his tail and didn’t dare make a peep when that old Heavenly Sword said something.’
What kind of anger-management disorder selectively chooses its targets like that?
More than anything, even if it was a heart demon, it wasn’t easy to stay angry forever.
Putting him in the subspace and waiting until the pent-up anger settled down had also been a decent choice.
“A guest will come tonight. Let’s rest until then.”
With those words, Oscar yawned widely and lay down on the bed, falling asleep just like that.
“......”
Only the steady sound of breathing filled the room.
Slowly, the Mad Fiend pulled aside the blackout curtain.
The one exposed eye stared at the sleeping Oscar for a long time.
“Oscar, it’s been a while!”
“Yes, it really has been quite some time.”
The one who entered the room with a cheerful expression was the mana therapist, Vesalius Silva.
To check on the condition of the Mad Fiend, the Empire’s greatest healer could hardly be left out.
Oscar offered him coffee in gratitude for willingly coming for an outpatient consultation.
“The trip here wasn’t inconvenient, was it?”
“Thanks to that portal of yours, I arrived quickly. My stomach churned a little, but it was comfortable.”
“That’s a relief.”
After taking a sip of coffee, Vesalius noticed the Mad Fiend crouched in the corner.
“That’s the one?”
“Yes. His name is Gilliot Dominic. From what I see, it seems like a typical heart-demon phenomenon, but I wanted to be sure.”
“Hm. A heart demon... quite a difficult problem.”
Vesalius downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp and walked over to the Mad Fiend.
The Mad Fiend, crouched in the corner, immediately growled.
“Arrrrr.”
“......”
Vesalius glanced back slightly.
“Does he attack if someone tries to touch him?”
“Ah, our kid doesn’t bite.”
With Oscar’s guarantee, Vesalius stared silently at the Mad Fiend for quite some time.
His eyes didn’t merely examine the outward appearance—it was as though he was reading the mana and its flow.
Then he muttered various words and occasionally asked questions whose meanings were unclear.
About an hour later, just as the Mad Fiend’s patience was reaching its limit—
“I think I more or less understand.”
Vesalius gave his diagnosis.
Oscar, who had been quietly waiting behind him, brewed a fresh cup of coffee and asked,
“Isn’t ‘I think I more or less understand’ a rather unprofessional line?”
“You won’t think so once you hear the results.”
Returning to his seat, Vesalius took a sip of coffee and continued.
“To put it simply, the patient’s condition is ambiguous. It’s hard to say he is a heart demon, yet also hard to say he isn’t.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“What does that mean?”
“Ordinarily, a heart demon collapses the self. One becomes trapped in the past or consumed by excessive emotions.”
“Isn’t that what happened to him too? He’s consumed by anger.”
“It’s slightly different. I believe his anger isn’t a natural reaction—it’s an intentional emotion.”
Oscar turned his head and glanced at the Mad Fiend crouching with his knees hugged.
That guy’s rampage... all of it was intentional emotion?
“Please explain in more detail.”
“Very well. Could you prepare some paper and a pen?”
When the requested items were brought, Vesalius drew a line on the paper.
A gently rising and falling curve.
“This is an extremely ordinary mana waveform. But the amplitude of this waveform changes depending on the emotion the subject holds. Joy, anger, confusion, fear...”
Vesalius drew each mana waveform on the paper.
“Every emotion has its own waveform. But the basic structure remains.”
With that, a suddenly alien waveform appeared on the paper.
A sharply spiking line shot upward and crossed the page.
“This is the mana waveform when one harbors the emotion of anger. Its output is stronger than any other emotion, but it cannot be maintained for long. Anger is inherently volatile, so it quickly subsides.”
“Then what about him?”
At that question, the waveform changed drastically once again.
This time, it wasn’t a simple graph.
The sharply rising line pierced through the paper and continued onto the table, stretching sideways for quite a distance.
“This is the patient’s mana waveform.”
“......”
“As you can see, his mana waveform is most stable when he is angry.”
“Stable?”
“That’s right. Compared to ordinary people, the output he releases when angry is tremendous, and even the flow of the waveform is smooth.”
Oscar rubbed his chin and asked,
“So he’s deliberately getting angry?”
“Exactly. He isn’t merely being swept away by emotion—he’s using the emotion of anger. He treats it as a means of drawing his output into its most ideal state.”
“......”
“The problem is that anger is an emotion that is extremely difficult to control. The longer it is maintained, the more likely it is to consume the person instead.”
The line of the graph slowly trembled.
The once-stable line began to shake slightly, and soon it exploded up and down violently.
“When it enters this section, even the patient himself becomes consumed by the emotion. In other words, he falls into a heart demon.”
“...Then why is he doing this? Simply for stronger output?”
“More than that, it feels like he’s running forward because he cannot afford to stop.”
Vesalius also looked at the Mad Fiend as he spoke.
“What’s certain is that every time his own name was called, the mana waveform fluctuated greatly. That made me think—perhaps his inability to remember the past is related to this.”
“You mean he deliberately avoids recalling it?”
“Yes. To maintain high output, the brain instinctively blocks that area.”
Running forward while abandoning everything for the sake of strength.
Oscar looked at the Mad Fiend with an expression that said he couldn’t understand.
“After hearing the results, I’m even more confused. Why on earth is he like that?”
“As the attending physician, my opinion is... he looks as though he is desperately trying to reach something.”
“Reach something? Reach where, exactly?”
“That, I don’t know either. But from my long experience as a healer, that’s the feeling I get.”
This was why Oscar had thought he was a quack at first.
At that ambiguous statement, Oscar let out a faint sigh.
“Then what should I do from now on to help with the treatment?”
“You called it treatment, but in this case I think correction is more appropriate.”
“Correction?”
“Yes. Do not try to forcibly eliminate his anger. Only intervene when he begins to be consumed by it.”
Oscar frowned.
“So normally I’m supposed to just leave him like that?”
“Rather than leaving him alone, it would be better to say you should wait for him. In ordinary times, showing him objects related to his past or taking him to places connected to it might also help him recall his memories.”
Wait for him...
Oscar looked at the Mad Fiend with complicated eyes.
‘Just where is he trying to reach... and for what... that he runs so desperately?’
The Mad Fiend, who could answer that question, remained as always—
hidden behind the blackout curtain.
The Mad Fiend looked around.
This was the first time he had come somewhere in the White Tower that wasn’t Oscar’s room.
“This is the garden on the tenth floor. I wonder if you remember it.”
“How could he not remember? He used to come here all the time following his senior brother.”
Sasha, who had come along, carried a picnic basket on her arm.
Noticing the gaze directed at it, she smiled brightly.
“I brought soup in a thermos, and I even made sandwiches.”
“This brings back memories.”
“I remember waiting for the days we’d go on picnics to the garden with Master.”
Just as the two of them were smiling faintly while immersed in memories—
the Mad Fiend, who had been lying on the ground with his face buried in the flowers and sniffing them, suddenly sprang up.
“Hm?”
An intense flow of mana was felt from him.
The Mad Fiend’s body stretched long like pulled taffy and disappeared from their sight.
“This is bad, chase him!”
“Yes!”
The two hurriedly chased after him.
“...Huh.”
“Ah?”
Upon entering the clearing, they slowly reduced their pace.
The bench placed in the clearing where the four of them used to gather.
The Mad Fiend was sitting there quietly—in the seat he had always used.
“......”
The broken part of the mask revealed one lonely eye as it traced the wood grain of the bench.
“Master.”
“Shh.”
Silencing Sasha, Oscar quietly observed him.
The black wind that had always been rough and fast circled gently around the bench.
Then the Mad Fiend lifted his head and looked at the two of them.
HOOONG!
Suddenly, the texture of the black wind changed.
“Master.”
Sasha cautiously opened her mouth, but Oscar shook his head.
“Not yet. Wait a little longer.”
HOOOONG!
The wind that had been gradually accelerating soon broke past a critical point and began turning into a storm.
Every time the pitch-black wind scraped across the clearing, flower petals fell in showers.
‘The waveform is shaking.’
The mana waveform Vesalius had drawn flashed through Oscar’s mind.
The section where the graph’s line pierced through the paper and shot upward.
He could feel that this was exactly that point.
“Grrr.”
The Mad Fiend twisted his one eye as anger flared.
It was an expression that looked as though he was irritated at failing to achieve what he wanted.
‘Still only this far for now.’
Just as Oscar clicked his tongue lightly—
the Mad Fiend kicked off the ground and shot toward the two of them.
With a sweep of one hand, space split open, and the Mad Fiend vanished from sight.
Sasha looked around the garden that had been completely ruined and muttered,
“Is this really having any effect?”
“It is.”
After all, they had just witnessed the moment when the Mad Fiend showed interest in something other than himself for the first time.
Oscar looked around and shrugged.
“...Looks like the lunchbox will be eaten by the two of us.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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