Chapter 84 Sacrifice
As the night deepened, Baita University became very quiet, almost abnormally quiet.
In the past, at this time of year, you could still see professors and students finishing their evening classes, but now there is only a light night mist and the slightly hoarse chirping of insects.
On the way to the principal's office, several professors in the corridor changed their expressions when they saw Nova, and seemed to want to say something, but seeing his gloomy face and fast steps, no one dared to step forward.
The person who opened the door was Vice Principal Gibson Wyatt. The usually smiling, portly old man now had a grim expression. He didn't seem surprised by the two people's visit and stepped aside to welcome them in. Owl took the office chair, facing away from them.
Nova unceremoniously threw the newly bought newspaper onto the desk. The photo on it was clearly of an extremely familiar face.
"Please give me an explanation." The black-haired young man looked at Wyatt, his face as cold as ice. "You promised me that you would try your best to delay those people, but I haven't received any news in the past five days. It wasn't until I set foot in White Tower Town that I learned from a newspaper that the murderer who killed Bill Farm had been arrested."
He tapped the panicked young man in the photo with his knuckles, his voice gradually rising: "Madal Rabbi, a civilian student at White Tower University, killed Bill Fam, the only son of Count Fam. Is this a joke?!"
How could that silly, naive, even foolish young man have planned such a sinister and meticulous scheme and then pinned the blame on him?
Wyatt's lips moved slightly, and guilt flashed in his bloodshot eyes, but in the end he just looked at him silently.
Nova forced himself to calm down. He pulled out several papers and a class schedule, spreading them out on the table. "Because Mr. Rabbi chose the topic of wanderers and the traveling god, he asked me for help. I also agreed to have a Q&A session with Mr. Rabbi on the paper, and this is the trace of those sessions. Mr. Rabbi had a full class schedule in the days before and after Bill Fam's death, and he changed classes on the day of his death, so I noted it on the schedule. You can ask any student about this; they can all prove that Mr. Rabbi didn't have time to commit the crime during those days."
He spoke faster and faster: "Going back further, the only time Mr. Rabbi and Bill Fam had any contact was during my open class. The few times they had contact at that time were all witnessed by everyone. Even if they had private contact afterwards, that was—"
Wyatt wearily interrupted his long speech. "Mr. Rabbi is a commoner. This incident has alarmed His Excellency Duke Kamu, the Speaker of the Royal Court. He, in conjunction with the Inquisition, is pressuring us to hand over the individual to 'cooperate with the investigation.' This time, we have no reason to refuse, and we cannot refuse."
——So no matter how powerful and credible the arguments he puts forward are, it doesn’t matter what the truth is.
The young man stared at him with unusually cold eyes, his every evasion captured in his sharp grey pupils. "You know the methods of the Inquisition very well. You know exactly how they would deal with a civilian."
Detention, interrogation, torture, even forced confessions and harm to family members.
"Young man, don't yell at my vice-principal," Owl finally spoke. He swung his chair around, his voice hoarse, his topaz eyes flashing a cold, menacing light. "If Gibson hadn't been running around for you these days, do you really think you'd still be standing here mad at us?"
"It's not that the society couldn't continue the fight, but you still chose to sacrifice an insignificant civilian student, only to think you were saving me." The other man stared at him without giving in. "If necessary sacrifice could bring about gratifying progress, then it goes without saying that you and I are both despicable accomplices. But all you've done is pointless concessions and weak compromises, and the price you paid is a young man with passionate blood—ridiculous! Contemptible!"
It had been a long time since anyone had dared to be so rude in front of Owl. He shook off Wyatt's hand, who tried to dissuade him, and sneered, "Who do you think you are? What do you think an ordinary person like you can do against anything? Just relying on your cleverness and a few quick words?"
A familiar pressure crept over Nova. The fury of a powerful being would have been enough to cripple and suffocate a common man. But soon, Owl's body trembled. He suppressed the faint blood in his throat and looked in the direction of the blond young man, a look of suspicion flashing in his eyes behind his hood.
"These people simply find it difficult to target me, so they're trying to use Mr. Rabbi to prove my heretic status and suppress the Society." Nova calmly held his companion's hand. To save the Rabbi's life, he needed to use more leverage against him. "Involving Mr. Rabbi is foolish and fatal. He knows some of my undisclosed research, which could even undermine the Vatican's rule. But if it's exposed now, it will only bring disaster to White Tower University and the Society."
After a moment's silence, the owl's voice was indistinguishable from emotion: "About what?"
"I brought it." Nova took out a stack of thesis manuscripts from his arms and put them on the desk.
The office was quiet, with only the sound of shuffling papers. His teacher had privately warned him many times not to expose this thing to the public, saying that even if he handed it over to the society, it would make him a target of public criticism and even push him to the gallows.
"...As a theologian who has spent his life pursuing truth, I can't believe that one day I would say these words." The day when Delos Rabelais saw the first draft of his paper, he looked at him seriously and said, "But my child, never let anyone see these manuscripts. It's best to burn them, otherwise they will definitely destroy you, completely destroy you."
At that time, out of his cherishment and pride in his own research, he opposed the other party's proposal to destroy the manuscript, but it happened to come in handy at this time.
Submitting some of his research to the society had been part of his plan, though it was brought forward. The clock ticked mechanically, and Nova looked indifferently at the owl's fingers, which trembled slightly with emotion. Madel Rabbi was merely a minor catalyst, destined to follow a path his teacher disapproved of.
The tide of fate eventually swallowed him up.
After a long moment, the owl finally raised its head, its inorganic gemstone eyes fixed on him. "Who else knows?"
"At least Rabbi Mardel knows." Nova didn't answer him, but said coldly, "Rather than trusting an ordinary civilian student to remain silent under torture, it's better to divert the Inquisition's attention away from him as soon as possible."
Seeing that the owl remained silent, the black-haired young man took a few steps forward and placed his hands on the desk. “Of course, you and I both know there is a backup plan.”
"—killed Rabbi Madel."
His voice was cold and calm, causing the vice principal beside him to look up at him suddenly, with astonishment in his eyes, as if he was meeting the seemingly weak and helpless young man in front of him for the first time.
Owl didn't show any emotion and let him continue. "Of course, this will make the Inquisition even more suspicious of the other party's possession of some secret, so much so that the Inquisition would go so far as to silence him. And I personally disagree with this. I'm only bringing this up now to make you think carefully about what I can do, even though I'm just an ordinary person."
"...You don't have to worry about that." Owl reorganized the documents. Although he was threatened by an ordinary person, his attitude softened slightly.
The bad feeling reached its peak at this moment. Nova took a step back, suppressed his emotions, and finally began to carefully observe the information revealed by the two people.
"Mr. Rabbi won't reveal any of the information we're worried about." The black-haired young man's pupils shrank for a moment. He heard the owl's voice, a hint of pity: "Do you think we don't want to save him? He was also a student of White Tower University, one of ours—but he's already dead."
“…”
Wyatt sighed aside, "On the night he was detained, the day after you left, before the senior officials in charge of the interrogation at the Inquisition even arrived, the child..."
"Just what?" Nova asked expressionlessly.
"'Suicide out of fear of punishment'. The kid hid a few Datura seeds and quietly swallowed them." Owl added, "Based on my understanding of the Inquisition, it must have been suicide. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the chance to kill himself by the time the interrogation began."
"Silly boy." He turned his chair and faced away from them again, his voice gradually becoming vague and low: "Even if you can hold on for a few more days?"
Wyatt looked worriedly at the young man, whose expression was unclear. After an unknown amount of time, he finally spoke, but there was no emotion in his voice at all.
"I see."
He picked up the manuscripts one by one, straightened them out, turned around to leave, and happened to bump into the dean of the seminary at the door.
Rabelais, who was a little out of breath, looked him up and down, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the man seemed to be fine.
“…It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back.”
He instinctively reached out to pat the other person's shoulder, but hesitated and paused. The pair of penetrating gray eyes were looking at him quietly, reflecting the guilt in his eyes clearly.
— He also knew about the arrest of Rabbi Madal, but did not reveal any information to the students.
"Sir Owl," Rabelais then heard his student suddenly say, "there is one thing which I think it necessary to tell you, although you may have heard it already."
"—I am also a civilian now."
An identity that is most suitable for attracting attention, creating momentum, and being sacrificed.
After saying this, he and his teaching assistant left the principal's office, which was completely silent. However, when passing by the dean of the seminary, Rabelais heard his student leave behind a very light sentence, which almost floated away in the wind.
He said, I don’t blame you, teacher.
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