The undying one’s body looked no different from a corpse. Perhaps because of his immortal race’s peculiar nature, no blood flowed from him, but there was no hint of life in his grotesquely twisted, severed limbs or his utterly motionless chest.

His right arm moved, though. I couldn’t explain that one either. Why were his muscles acting autonomously?

I looked at the corpse and muttered, “Would splashing water on him wake him up?”

The vampire corrected me.

“Leave it. Do not waste your effort. The lives of the earthfolk are quite different from yours. Their life is limitless while they touch the earth, but for that very reason, he will never open his eyes here, cut off from the ground.”

But according to the Regressor’s thoughts, this undying one had witnessed what happened inside Tantalus. He couldn’t have been a witness if he couldn’t open his eyes.

Hmm. Should I try that method?

If his life force was completely depleted, there would be no point. You couldn’t start a fire without firewood.

But the amount of beans the undying one had shoveled down over the past few days was enough to make even the supply office wonder where their stock was disappearing to. If he still lacked life force after receiving bounty on the scale of military procurement fraud, it wasn’t life he lacked. It was a conscience.

I had a feeling he would get up if I could just strike a spark.

“Now, everyone! Today, I’m going to perform an amazing magic trick.”

“A magic trick?”

“Yes! The magic of cardiac resuscitation! I’m going to bring this man back to life!”

I spread both hands with a “Ta-da!” only to hear an incredulous snort from off to the side. When I looked over, the vampire was laughing in disbelief.

“Nonsense.”

After scoffing for a while, she dismissed my claim with that single word.

“Are you a god? Or do you think the heart is your plaything? How do you propose to make a stopped heart beat again?”

“A wonder that ordinary people, with their limited imaginations, could never achieve. That’s what a magic trick is.”

“If that were possible, I suppose your tricks could raise the dead as well.”

As though she had heard enough, the vampire rested her parasol against her shoulder and straightened her back. It was a wordless declaration that she was done paying attention.

At the same time, I sensed an unusual unease.

An alien sensation, like a bone caught in the throat. It wasn’t my own sensation, but the vampire’s emotions reaching me.

Displeasure accompanied by a pain that stabbed from within. Irritation, and a nagging discomfort she couldn’t simply let pass.

Even when dealing with the Regressor earlier, the vampire had been defensive but accepting in her own way. Yet now she was actually showing hostility? Strange. Honestly, from the perspective of someone from twelve hundred years ago, wouldn’t a man liking men be more shocking than a heart beating again?

Times like this called for a little mind reading. Let’s have a look.

I narrowed my eyes and focused on the vampire’s thoughts.

‘The heart? Nonsense. If a heart could start beating again so easily, every vampire would have a heart of their own by now. Enough. There is no need to concern myself. It is impossible.’

That certainty that it was impossible. What was behind it? Inflexible thinking? An old fogey’s stubbornness?

Or was it sour grapes? Blind rage toward a fruit she had longed to possess, only to fail countless times and finally give up?

‘Apart from the first two hundred years, I spent a thousand wandering. I experienced countless lives, took in everything the world had to offer, unearthed its darkest secrets and noblest truths, and saw those things called gods and demons with my own eyes. Yet just as elapsed time could not be turned back, none of them could grant new life to those who had passed.’

Or perhaps...

Was this how a child felt after losing something precious far too young, hating the parents who abandoned them while still yearning for them?

Hmm. This feeling was new.

Usually, an emotion came with a clear background. But perhaps because her life had been so long, one incident was tangled with another, making it difficult to pin down the exact cause.

Then again, how could a tower built over twelve centuries consist of only a stone or two? Thousands, tens of thousands of tiny stones and grains of sand must each be bearing their share of the weight, great or small.

‘Revive a heart? Absurd. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. No one has ever discovered how, and if, by some miracle, a great being had gifted humanity with such a method... it would not have come this late. Not so terribly late, after everything good had crumbled beneath time. Nor should it.’

Still, one thing was certain.

The vampire wished for her own heart to beat again.

She prayed to reclaim the life she had lost when she was far too young.

‘... I let myself get agitated. Having lived a thousand years more, what lingering attachment could I possibly have? It is all worldly longing. Greed.’

Greed... Could you really call it that? I couldn’t agree.

The desire to live wasn’t called greed. It was instinct, or the natural order. An underlying premise, a foundation. A categorical imperative that lay beneath everything, supporting all people.

I had read enough of the vampire.

Perhaps that was why a smile crept onto my face.

Something denied her for a thousand years. Something she believed absolutely impossible.

What expression would she make if it actually happened? If an ordinary person like me performed that miracle right before her eyes? Faced with a single success that arrived as if by chance, would a thousand years of failure give way to joy? Or despair?

I wanted to know. The delight was almost unbearable.

So I spread my arms and cried out.

“Excellent! Achieving the feat when everyone thinks it impossible is precisely what makes a magician! Your wholehearted denial fills me with energy, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka! Very well! If that’s how you feel, then as a magician, I too shall do everything in my power to make it happen!”

The Regressor furrowed her brow at my words.

“A magician?”

“Ah, aha! That was my nickname in the Military State!”

“What did you do to earn a nickname like that?”

“Selling public offices! The magic of turning titles into money! I just slipped back into character!”

‘He’s talking nonsense... right?’

Oops. Better be careful. If I got too carried away, I might arouse suspicion.

Ahem. Anyway.

“Now. Unless something drops straight out of the sky, everything in this world has its own origins and history, right? Let me explain this step by step, from the beginning.”

I was about to take out some chalk when I realized I had completely forgotten about it while teasing the Regressor earlier. It didn’t matter. The story was what counted.

I turned and began my tale.

“Lightning is the Sky God’s punishment, a pure power descending from the heavens! But after the famous lightning thief incident, the Sky God looked fondly upon the humans who returned lightning to the sky and granted them permission to use that power. And that is this.”

Gathering mana as I spoke, I raised a finger. Everyone’s eyes settled on it, with my grinning mouth just beyond.

“Volt.”

CRACKLE.

Yellow sparks flashed. An intensely volatile power spread through the air, as fierce as it was fleeting.

I flicked my finger to scatter the remnants and continued.

“The power to generate electricity. From then on, humans could wield it... Though the force itself is so intense and brief that its uses are very limited. Mainly lighting lamps, starting up various devices, or removing soot and rust from iron.”

As I spoke, I discreetly produced my spike. Holding the sharp implement, I put on the gentlest expression I could to reassure everyone.

“... Or perhaps giving needlessly tight-lipped people a little surprise and knocking on the firmly shut door of conversation? Well, it’s similar in that it removes the soot from their hearts and makes them honest, isn’t it?”

Despite my best efforts to put it delicately, the trainees, who had an uncanny knack for recognizing wrongdoing, understood what I meant.

‘Torture...’

The Regressor and the vampire frowned at me in unison. The vampire lowered her parasol with a slight grimace, while the Regressor gripped a desk so hard I could hear the steel buckling.

Whoa. Better hurry past this part. I spoke quickly.

“Now! While the Military State’s Ministry of Public Safety was conducting electrical torture... I mean, peaceful interrogations involving electricity on certain individuals, they discovered something very peculiar! When they gave another electric shock to someone whose heart had stopped, wouldn’t you know it! They frequently found that the heart started beating again!”

I sensed disbelief from the vampire and pessimism from the Regressor. Well, fine. Better than feeling nothing.

Now, then. I held the spike in a reverse grip. Crouching beside the undying one’s still-cold body, I carefully aimed at his heart.

“I’m going to test that method on this undying one. Here we go.”

Then, without the slightest hesitation, I drove the spike down toward his heart.

THUD.

Was this what stabbing a bucket full of cement felt like? There was only a dispiriting thump, and my spike penetrated barely half a finger joint into the undying one’s chest.

What was wrong with this body? Why was it like hardened concrete? With my strength, I couldn’t even pierce his chest with this spike.

I put the spike in my pocket and held out a hand to the Regressor.

“... Ahem. Using a spike might damage his body, don’t you think? Trainee Shei, could you lend me that sword floating by your head?”

“Sky Cherry Blossom?”

“Sky Cherry Blossom. What a lovely name. Yes, I’ll keep it clean and return it.”

The Regressor narrowed her eyes and looked me over appraisingly.

‘That spike must not be sharp. There’s no way he’d ask to borrow a sword just because he couldn’t pierce a lump of flesh.’

No. It was sharp. I kept it nicely sharpened so I could use it anytime, anywhere.

‘He must be asking for my sword because he’s afraid he’ll shatter the undying one’s body if he uses his full strength. Either way, learning how he woke up would benefit me too.’

No, that was my full strength. I had driven it down with everything I had, and it only went in half a finger joint.

At this rate, I couldn’t even casually pretend to exert myself in front of the Regressor. One wrong move, and I might shatter her illusions about me.

‘Giving my only weapon to someone who might be an enemy would be stupid... Hmph. In that case, being overly wary and refusing to lend it would be ridiculous too. Besides, I’m the only one who can wield Sky Cherry Blossom anyway.’

The Regressor readily flicked her finger. The invisible sword shot over and embedded itself at my feet. Sky Cherry Blossom sank some three inches into the concrete floor and quivered.

“Sure. That spike of yours doesn’t look up to the task. Go ahead.”

“Thank you. I’ll put it to good use.”

Fortunately, the Regressor’s weapon, Sky Cherry Blossom, was so exceptional that it worked even in the hands of someone like me. I would have been in trouble if I couldn’t cut through him with a sword like this.

“Now. Scalpel.”

The blade sliced smoothly through flesh. The undying one’s blood was like living slime, and it didn’t flow out even when I opened his chest. If anything, it seemed to retreat deeper inside his body.

Carefully lifting the flesh aside revealed a heart deep within his pitch-black ribs. From there, rather than forcibly digging through the flesh, I worked the spike inside. Down toward the heart, until it touched its very center.

“We never went this far with electrical torture, but since we’re doing this, the closer to the heart, the better. If I cast it outside his body, the magic might disperse. Anyway, shall we apply some electricity to this stopped heart?”

I tossed Sky Cherry Blossom aside and performed the somatic gestures exactly as I had learned them long ago. Standard-issue magic, capable of forcibly drawing mana out of the body even without an aptitude for it. One of the Military State’s few practical inventions.

“Set, Thema, Ket, Obeli.”

And now, an improved version.

I extended the magical power a little farther than the fingertips through which I normally channeled it. I reached out so that mana could gather at the tip of the spike in my hand, the steel needle that was as familiar as my own limbs. The mana field followed the spike’s tip into the undying one’s body.

When the mana reached his heart, I burned it up and spoke the spell. A little more powerfully than usual.

“Volt, Franklin.”

CRACK!

The undying one’s body jolted violently. The lightning magic, with its natural tendency to flow, coursed through his entire body and stimulated his muscles.

The mana’s recoil sent my hand flying upward. A numbing shock struck me. The spell itself had worked. Now all that remained was the result.

And the very next moment...

“Hah!”

The undying one opened his eyes.