In a Female-Dominant World with a 5:1 Gender Ratio, I Saved a Girl as a Kid, and She Said She Wanted to Be My Bride—Who Would’ve Thought She Was a Princess… - 30

Chapter 30: The Heretical Sage and the Last Hope

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(Alto’s POV)

My memories after that were terribly vague. My sense of time had vanished. Outside the window, it grew light, then dark again. How many times did that cycle repeat?

My dorm room had practically turned into a madman’s laboratory. Ancient books scattered so thickly the floor could not be seen, piles of parchment, the remnants of equations crumpled up and thrown aside. The air was stagnant, filled with the iron-rust-like smell peculiar to ink and the stench of coffee that had completely gone cold and turned muddy.

“…No good. This one too, this one too… Everything’s a theoretical dead end.”

 Rubbing my bloodshot eyes, I roughly slammed shut a thick tome of magical medicine. The dust that billowed up from the impact sparkled in the light of the setting sun. It looked so beautiful that it made me feel nauseous. For the past three days, I had kept my attendance at the academy’s lectures to the bare minimum and devoted everything else to deciphering texts and constructing theories.

“Magical Erosion,” the disease gnawing away at Lilianna. As countermeasures, I simulated every possibility. External discharge of excessive magic power, increasing endurance through physical enhancement, or spell formulas bordering on forbidden arts that converted magic power into life force.

On the desk lay the results of simple simulations using magic stones. Each magic stone, infused with energy modeled after Lilianna’s magic power, had without exception shattered from the inside and turned to ash. None of them stood a chance before her overwhelmingly vast magic power reserves. It was like trying to plug a burst dam with a spoonful of mud. No matter how meticulously the theory was built, everything was swept away by the overwhelming mass.

And more than anything…

I clenched my chest tightly over my clothes. The “abyss” within myself that I had seen that day. Ever since then, whenever I focused my mind to use magic, I felt that sticky darkness squirm deep inside my body with a wet sensation, sending an intense chill through me.

What existed in my body was not some miraculous power meant to save people. It was a “poison” that eroded the world just by existing, twisting the laws of physics. If Lilianna were to use my structural system as a reference, she would not be saved. Her very soul would be devoured by that darkness and erased.

“…Damn it. Is this a dead end?”

I leaned back deeply in my chair and stared up at the stains on the ceiling. A leaden sense of helplessness crushed my entire body along with the fatigue. Was my knowledge from my previous life, my cheat skills as a reincarnator, really unable to save even the life of a single girl? Was all I could do just sit there, watching the countdown to her death with my finger in my mouth?

“…She’ll smile again, won’t she?”

Suddenly, Lilianna’s smile flashed through my mind. That crystal-clear expression she wore as she smiled, even while realizing her own approaching death. Now, it felt like a blade gouging into my heart. Giving in to irritation, I knocked over the stack of books piled on the desk. With loud thuds, the books avalanched down and scattered across the floor.

One book among them stood out. A tattered journal with half its spine peeled away, reeking of mold, slid to my feet. It was something I had absentmindedly borrowed from a corner of the library shelf labeled “Scheduled for Disposal / Unclassifiable.”

It had no title, and the author’s name was too worn to read. It was little more than a bundle of paper. To distract myself—or perhaps to escape reality—I picked up the journal. I flipped through it. The pages were filled with scrawled handwriting. Disjointed research notes, daily grumblings, or strings of words that read like curses.

 『…Another failure. Royal blood is cursed.』

『Existing magical theories cannot explain it. Their magic power is not power granted by the gods, but something closer to punishment.』

『Why does no one try to understand? History that does nothing but wait for beautiful vessels to break can go to hell.』

My hand stopped. Something cold raced through my veins, and my drowsiness vanished in an instant. I leaned forward, pulled the desk lamp closer, and traced the faded letters with my eyes.

『Eleanor-sama’s condition is worsening. My proposed ‘artificial augmentation of magic power circulation bypasses’ was rejected by those decrepit fools in the academy. ‘Tampering with the human body is blasphemy against the gods,’ they said. …Fools. Blasphemy or not, it means nothing if you can’t save a life.』

Eleanor. There was no mistaking it. That was the name of Lilianna’s mother. Was the author of this journal someone who had been on the front lines of treating Eleanor, the former queen? My fingers trembled as I turned the page.

There were numerous radical yet logical hypotheses written there, ideas I had not even conceived of in the past three days. Demonic spell formulas that ignored ethics, mocked common sense, and fixated solely on “keeping someone alive.”

『Today, I was banished from the royal palace. Branded with the mark of a ‘heretic.’ Eleanor-sama will likely not survive.』

『But I will continue my research. So that the same tragedy will not be repeated someday.』

『I have decided to hide myself in the deepest reaches of the northern ‘The Forest of No Return.’ I have no need for worldly honor. People will call me a madman. But all I want is to find an answer to this ridiculous curse.』

 The final page. In a spot where the ink had bled and the paper was nearly torn by the pressure of the pen, a trembling signature remained.

『Former Chief Court Mage, Gideon Grave』

“Gideon…?”

That name snagged on a fragment of knowledge buried in the corner of my memory. It wasn’t in the history textbooks. But it was a name I had heard as a rumor among students. A mad mage who was once called a “sage,” but who delved into taboo research such as human transmutation and chimeras, and was banished from the capital despite his lamented talent. But the moment I recalled that rumor, a powerful sense of dissonance surged through me.

“…Wait. Gideon?”

That was clearly a male name. But in this world, men possessed almost no magic power. Unless there were irregular circumstances like mine as a “reincarnator,” it was impossible for a man to achieve greatness through magic. And yet, “Chief Court Mage”?

A man had held the position of the greatest mage in the kingdom? By common sense, such an appointment was impossible. Either history was wrong, or he was lying. But…

“If he really was the Chief Court Mage…”

Then this man must have twisted the rules of the world in some way. If he was a man who overturned even the absolute law that “men cannot use magic,” then he might also be able to overturn the fate of the “short-lived royal bloodline.”

From the words of this journal, I sensed not madness, but rather a blood-spitting obsession with caring for his patients more deeply than anyone else. He had not given up. Even after abandoning his status and honor and being banished from the royal palace, he had continued to resist this incurable disease called “Magical Erosion.”

“…Is he alive?”

The dates in the journal were from over a decade ago. They overlapped with the period when Lilianna’s mother had died. That forest was a death zone, prowled by powerful monsters and shrouded in a thick mist that led people astray. But if he was still alive and continuing his research… There might be something there that surpassed the common sense of this world, something I did not yet know.

A fragment of hope not found in school textbooks or even the library’s forbidden books. I slowly stood up. The chair fell over with a loud noise that echoed through the room, but I paid it no mind. I grabbed the thick cloak hanging on the wall. My destination was the northern “The Forest of No Return.”

According to academy rules, it was designated a strictly forbidden area. It was not a place some mere student should approach. If discovered, there was no guarantee of survival. But to me now, such warnings meant nothing.

If I stayed here waiting with my finger in my mouth, Lilianna would certainly die. If death was certain either way, then leaping into an uncertain death zone was better.

“…I have no choice but to go.”

I shoved the journal on the desk into my coat. The truth of my own darkness, and Lilianna’s treatment… None of it could be understood while staying at the academy. Then I would simply have to seek guidance from the “heretics” of the outside world. Even if the other party was truly a madman, just as the rumors said. Even if I were forced into a contract with a demon, I didn’t care. If it meant changing Lilianna’s fate of death, I would become a heretic or a madman, crawl through the mud, and bow my head without hesitation.

When I opened the window, a cold night wind blew in. The stagnant air of the room was replaced in an instant. From a break in the thick clouds, a pale moon peeked out. Its light felt cold and merciless, as if testing my resolve. I placed a foot on the window frame. Below lay deep darkness. But my eyes were fixed on the northern sky.

North—that was my destination. Toward the forbidden forest where final hope and the greatest danger awaited.

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