I Studied Mainly Textbooks! Chapter 24

"Will you really be fine without me?"

Perelman, who had exited the infirmary, asked in a worried tone.

"It's fine. Isn't he still a student? It's a little bothersome that his father has some influence… but for now, I'll do what I can. I'm thankful, even though you should be busy with the matters of the fief. Please tell the duke that the scrolls helped me out a lot."

Lucas smiled as he said that.

"Hey, it's me that should be thankful. I got to visit the academy after 30 years."

The two hugged each other and bade their goodbyes.

"Hey! Didn't you guys have business here?"

After the parting, Lucas asked Abel as though he had just remembered. He wondered why Reina and Abel had followed him out of the infirmary in the first place.

"Oh yeah! Samgyetang! It's really late… Then see you next time, old man! Let's go Reina."

Abel grabbed Reina's hand and ran towards Ian's ward.
Looking towards Abel's fading back, Lucas grumbled in a low voice.

"Haha, even though he looks like that, he completely restrained the berserker curse without sustaining a single injury. He's a magical genius alright. Didn't you have no choice but to kill him?"
"It's a good thing for the Tardema family."

He had been worried since there was no news of a successor for the longest time, but his magic prowess was more than qualified. Perelman had an inkling that the meeting with Abel was the work of fate.

***

It took a full 3 hours to return to his dorm after cooking Ian Samgyetang. He was currently pondering over how to put Cain back in place.

'Should I just beat him up till he ends up like a dirty rag?'

Even though they say a beating is the best medicine for a crazy dog, Abel did not think that Cain was the type that would come to his senses just with that alone. He might end up begging for mercy at that instance, but would harbor evil intentions immediately upon his release.

'Then do we eliminate him?'

That was the most sure-fire method, but at the same time, he didn't like it.
He had lived in Korea, abiding by the laws of modern times. As such, it felt really wrong to dirty his hands with blood.
Even if he did away with Cain, there would be severe consequences if he were to be caught.
Moreover, if Duke Junerheart ever found out that his son died, it was likely for the entire empire to be flipped upside down, not to mention the academy.
It was imperative to find a solution without staining his hands in blood, and a method that would benefit himself at the end of it all would be wonderful.

'…!'

He was struck with sudden inspiration. Humans were rational animals after all.
Abel had advanced his level in magic with his innovative 'Astral Projection' study method. Abel's achievement in spatial magic was incredible, adding that to the fact that he was now able to use any magic that his quant.i.ty of mana permitted. As such, he had the idea to infuse ordinary forms of magic into his spatial magic.

"…Teleport!"

When he thought of the things that should be done in respective order, he teleported after inputting a few numbers into his calculator. His destination was Cain's dorm room.

Swoosh.

"Hah?"
Cain was shocked to see Abel appear out of nowhere.

'Wh, what was that? Teleport!?'

Teleport magic was something that only the professors at the academy had the slightest chance of using. Moreover, Cain was incredibly surprised that Abel had managed to calculate the exact position of his room.

"I already know everything, you d.a.m.ned little thug. Confess while I'm still in a good mood."
Thought his tone didn't suggest he was in a very good mood at all.

"Wh, what are you talking about?"
"Haaa, what have you done to Goel? Explain it to me in simple terms."

'H, how does he know about that?'
Cain's eyes trembled as though there was an earthquake in his head.

'I even burned his brain!'

His book had stated that even a 7th circle recovery magic would be unable to heal it.

'Anyway, he's here knowing everything, then… I'll suppress him with the element of surprise!'
Subdue Abel with a surprise attack, and then kill him.

That was the best solution he could come up with.
Cain thought about the quickest, most lethal magic he could cast. It was the 2nd circle magic 'lightning shock.' He could cast it in 11 seconds, and it would easily knock the opponent out cold if cast properly.

"@#$… Lightning Shock!"

When Cain finished casting the magic, a small streak of lightning charged towards Abel. Compared to his peers, 11 seconds was indeed very quick indeed.

"…backstab."
However, it only took a second for Abel to cast any type of magic.

"Rbdbdbdbdbdb!"
Cain was struck in the head by his own lightning magic. He shuddered as though he was electrocuted.

"What a coward. I knew you wouldn't say anything. You stay in there and repent."

Swoosh.
With forced teleport magic, he tossed Cain into the room of silence.

The room of silence was a cuboidal s.p.a.ce that could only fit a single body, and it was structured such that all six walls would absorb sound.
The minimum sound that a human could perceive was 0 decibels. The sound in this room might even be negative decibels! A human really wouldn't be able to hear anything.

Due to that, anyone inside the room would gradually begin to hear the sound of one's own heartbeat, then the sounds from their organs, and eventually, even the sound of blood flowing through blood vessels. In these conditions, a person would simply go insane.
There had been a similar experiment back on Earth, and most of the test subjects couldn't continue after hearing auditory hallucinations. The person that lasted the longest gave up within 45 minutes.

Well, if he let Cain out after a few minutes, he would probably spit out everything he knew.

"Well, then. Let's start rummaging through his secrets."

Abel started ransacking Cain's dorm room. There should be a secret behind the ability to make Goel like that.

Clack clack.
'I think it should be here.'

One of Cain's drawers was locked tightly, too tightly, almost in an overtly suspicious manner.

"…Distortion cutter."

Abel cut open the lock and pulled open the drawer. Within was a magic book wrapped in black leather.

"Suprenomicon?"

Flap.
Abel started flipping over the pages. However, his expression continually darkened as he perused its contents.

'This… looks like black magic….'
The method of acc.u.mulating mana was a little strange.

Abel was aware that there were 3 types of mana in this world from the Book of Thrandriel. And the methods of acc.u.mulating white and grey mana had already been known to him.

In other words, this completely foreign method could only be a way of acc.u.mulating black mana.

When he had a look at the various spells written in the latter pages, he was even more convinced. These magic spells weren't normal. Most of them were senselessly destructive and cruelly vicious spells.

One of them was 'Brutalist', and Goel's symptoms matched it to the letter.

'Cain had been learning black magic….'

Abel attempted to recall everything he knew about black magic.

Those learning black magic will have their souls tainted by black mana due to its influence. A soul influenced by black mana would crack, and would be unable to contain the soul energy.

Due to that, a pract.i.tioner's emotions would turn darker the deeper one delved into black magic, and eventually, all of the soul energy would drain out and the essence of a soul would completely vanish.

'Hey, this dude was already a potential terrorist beforehand, and now somebody gave him wings.'
A psychopath was scary, but a psychopath with a knife was multiple times scarier.

Anyway, Black magic, huh.

'Oh!'
Abel thought up of a more creative way to punish Cain.

"I should take him out now."
40 minutes had elapsed. Fwoosh>
Abel undid the seal on the room of silence, and Cain popped out while sweating profusely.

"Pant, pant…."

Cain was about to go crazy, he was forced into some strange cubicle. At first, he started hearing his own heartbeat, gradually devolving to hearing the vibrations of the earwax wriggling around within his ears.

Then he started to hallucinate.
He had indirectly experienced schizophrenia and was able to feel his heart pounding rapidly.

"Where did you get this?"
Abel swayed the Suprenomicon in front of Cain's face as he asked

"I, I bought it! I bought it for 500 thousand gold from a stolen goods merchant!"
After experiencing h.e.l.l, all the information spewed from his mouth like a loose hose leaked water.

"Which stolen goods merchant?"

"I, I don't know. He's called, uh, Kurt?"

Kurt, eh. He found out everything he needed.

"Really? Then it's time for some 'true' education as an ex-teacher. Here is some punishment, full of love."
"?"
"Being punished for your wrongdoings is only natural. Now I will be punishing you, so obediently accept it."

As he had already begun on the path of black magic, his fate was sealed. If he was left to roam freely in society, innocent people would eventually get hurt.

He didn't care that much about justice or whatnot, but this dude had tried to murderl him. Even if he let him go, it was pretty clear that he would try again in the future.

Tap tap tap tap.
Abel started pressing b.u.t.tons on his calculator again. This magic was a little complex and thus required more time to input the numbers.

Ziiin.
Then, a huge cubic s.p.a.ce was created. However, it was created by incorporating dimensions  2 levels higher than the current one. This was a supers.p.a.ce of the 5th dimension.

"I will now encage your soul here. As your soul whitters away… repent on your actions. Soul extraction!"

Soul extraction was in the same category of spell as astral projection, except that it was cast on others.

It is usually impossible to extract the soul of another from their body, but those of the dark arts had a crack in their soul. In other words, the defenses around their souls were very weak.

Moreover, he was learning white magic, which was the natural ant.i.thesis of black magic. Also, Cain's magic skills were nowhere near his standard.
In conclusion, he was only able to extract the souls of black mages weaker than him.

If he succeeded in extracting Cain's soul, the soul would never be able to escape, nor would anyone be able to detect it from the outside as this was a supers.p.a.ce that existed in the 5th dimension.

Cain's soul started floating when Abel cast his spell. He was forcefully having an 'out of the body' experience.

"Wh, what is this?"
Cain was surprised to see himself seemingly separating from his physical body and screamed.

Then, Abel transported Cain's soul to the 5th dimension s.p.a.ce.

"There is only one method through which you can leave this s.p.a.ce. I will write down a problem on the wall, following which you will attempt to solve. The solution to the problem will become the key to leaving this place."

After saying that, Abel started writing a mathematical equation on the wall. This was the fundamental problem in topology. Seven Bridges of Königsberg.

The solution to this historically famous mathematical equation was that…

'There is no answer.'

There was no solution to this problem. In other words, Cain would never be able to escape this area.

Swoosh.
Abel left Cain's soul inside and left that place. Cain despaired as he saw Abel leaving.

"Abel you son of a b*tch!"
Cain's eyes didn't contain a single trace of repentance, only deep seeded hatred.

However, his state was a little weird. Unlike Abel's transparent soul, his soul was colored black. Moreover, the crack in his soul was leaking golden 'soul energy'.

He would no longer be human once all of the soul energy disappeared with the pa.s.sage of time.

Abel named this inescapable s.p.a.ce 'Schrödinger's Prison'.

Schrödinger was a physicist from Austria. Abel's prison was named after 'Schrödinger's cat', an experiment that Schrödinger formulated in order to highlight the imperfections of quantum physics.

Just like the cat in the experiment, Cain's condition was neither dead nor alive.