The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness Chapter 278: Cause of Death

“Hah? If I don’t go I’ll definitely die? Why?”

Muen stared at Teacher ladomir in shock, thinking to himself—could it be the Academy will soon face so great upheaval again, like an Evil God personally descending, stirring up whatever’s suppressed beneath the Academy, even Teacher ladomir unable to stop it, knowing her own fate is sealed, so she finds an excuse to send , her excellent disciple, away first—let take the Eternal Clock out to endure humiliation and burden, then co back after I’ve trained to success and do that thirty-years-the-east-bank, thirty-years-the-west-bank revenge for her?

“Ow!”

Just as he was spinning wild conjectures, a stab of pain hit and Muen reflexively clutched his calf and hopped.

“Hmph. If my luck really were running out, the first thing I’d do is toss you, this unfilial disciple, into my coffin as padding!”

Teacher ladomir drew back the foot she’d used to kick Muen’s shin. Her amber eyes glared at him with cutesy ferocity:

“There’s nothing that complicated about it. Pure and simple—if you don’t go, you die. That’s all.”

“D-detailed... e-explain.”

“Rember that thing I did to you before?”

“Which thing?”

“The one where I almost boiled you to death in a pot.”

“Oh great, you finally admit it—back then you really were going to—”

“Why do you think I did that?”

“...”

Seeing the sudden seriousness settle on ladomir’s small face, Muen grew solemn as well, rubbing his chin and thinking carefully:

“I recall... your explanation then was... because my physical enhancent exceeded expectations, to make so later step go more smoothly, there was a process that had to be moved up?”

“That’s right. That’s what I said.”

“You boiled for that process?”

“Mm.”

“And what’s that got to do with now? If that process isn’t completed, I die?”

“From a causality standpoint, that’s correct.”

“Hah?”

Muen was dumbfounded again.

He froze a mont, looking at Teacher ladomir, who was calmly sipping juice like she couldn’t care less, and his handso face twisted.

Fuck!

This damned eternal loli is going to screw again!

“Talk! Spit it out!”

Muen shook ladomir’s neck furiously. “What the hell is going on? Lab mice have mouse rights too! Believe it or not, I’ll go find the Cute Disciples Protection Association right now, seize your flower sea, and stage a fierce protest against you?”

“Sorry, no such strange association exists in this world. There was a Lab Mouse Protection Association once, but it only lasted three days before an annoyed Origin Tower flattened it with a Truth-tier spell.”

ladomir, jostled by Muen, had her baby-fat cheeks jiggling along. Her gaze stayed calm; she flicked a finger, and Muen suddenly hung suspended in midair, jiggling along with her cheeks.

“As for the situation... I believe I told you at the very start.”

“Y-you... you told ?”

Muen shuddered like he’d been shocked and stamred:

“H-how co I don’t rember?”

“Then I’ll help you review.”

Teacher ladomir clapped her hands.

In an instant, the juice, the beanbag, and the little sun vanished, becoming desks, a blackboard, and a brightly lit classroom. Muen didn’t know when he’d ended up sitting dead-center. Even the pink strawberry nightgown on Teacher ladomir had turned into a sowhat formal teacher’s professional suit.

But it had to be said—given ladomir’s size and build, she absolutely couldn’t fill out a jacket and pencil skirt; it just made her look adorably dumb...

“Focus.”

Smack— a piece of chalk thunked off Muen’s forehead. Teacher ladomir pushed up the black fras on her face and said with perfect seriousness:

“Class is starting.”

“Okay.”

Muen’s mouth twitched.

“First, I told you before—without a living thing, or rather a living person, as the bearer, the Eternal Clock can only ever be considered a nascent Authority. Because so-called ‘Authority’ is a concept that must be held in the hand of so existent entity to be established.”

Teacher ladomir tapped the blackboard with a pointer on a doodled alarm clock that looked like a kindergartener’s scribble, then tapped the equally kindergarten-level drawing below—of a yellow-haired figure whose eyes were deliberately drawn far apart to look extrely ‘wise.’

“This is the Eternal Clock.”

“This is you.”

An arrow appeared between them.

“You are the vessel I selected for the Eternal Clock.”

“All very easy to understand, but...”

ladomir’s tone suddenly shifted.

“Can you really be called the vessel of the Eternal Clock as # Nоvеlight # you are now?”

“...What do you an?” Muen frowned.

ladomir tapped the blackboard again.

A circle suddenly appeared in the arrow, cutting off the line.

The circle was crooked and crude.

But for so reason, Muen understood at once what it represented.

“The alchemical core.”

“Correct. This represents the alchemical core.”

Teacher ladomir said:

“Have you noticed—right now, rather than you being the one connected to a portion of the Eternal Clock, it would be more accurate to say the alchemical core is connected to a portion of the Eternal Clock. Your real connection is only to the alchemical core.

The alchemical core is likewise a dead thing.

And a dead thing cannot allow the Eternal Clock to molt into a true Authority.

Yet without the alchemical core, you fundantally can’t establish contact with the Eternal Clock at all, let alone later fully bear it.

—That is the crux.”

“I see...”

Muen got it imdiately, rubbed his chin, and mused:

“So your earlier actions were to make the alchemical core—and even those complex magical circuits—fuse completely with , transforming dead matter into living?”

“Seems this foolish disciple of mine isn’t entirely stupid.”

Teacher ladomir nodded:

“Yes. That was my idea.”

“But you failed.”

Muen exhaled and looked at Teacher ladomir in so surprise.

He hadn’t expected that even Grand ntor ladomir would have a hurdle she couldn’t clear.

“Everyone fails sotis—let alone with sothing like ‘turning dead into living,’ which, if you rely said it aloud, those brats in the Stone Cauldron Society would drown you in spit for flagrantly violating the fundantals of alchemy.”

“But...”

“My being unable to do it doesn’t an others—or other existences—can’t.”

“You an...” Muen felt he’d grasped sothing.

“Exactly.”

Teacher ladomir pushed up her glasses; an inexplicable gleam flashed across the lenses:

“When it cos to the word ‘life,’ besides the Goddess of Life Aemil—or rather the Life Church that worships Her—who else in this world dares claim to truly understand it?”

“All those other reasons are fake. This is the real reason I’m sending you on this trip.”

“...Fuck.”

Hearing this explanation, Muen’s vision went black.

He knew that this ti, he was truly not getting out of it.

Even if it was dangerous outside, even if the Life Church would really tie him to a stake and burn him, Teacher ladomir would absolutely punt him straight to the Holy City.

“But that’s not right.”

Muen ca back to himself, puzzled:

“What does this have to do with what you said earlier—that if I don’t go, I’ll definitely die?”

“Heh, kid, I told you long ago—bearing the Eternal Clock isn’t easy.”

“Have you never wondered, with how convenient an alchemical core is, why no one used it before you? Even without the Eternal Clock, the ability to store mana and construct magic is already remarkable.”

“This...”

Muen’s vision blurred; at so point Teacher ladomir had stepped onto the desk in front of him. She poked his cheek with the pointer, a strange smile playing on her small face.

“So, when did you fall into the illusion that your body could fully accept the alchemical core and those magical circuits—these foreign objects?”

“Wha—”

Muen stalled.

His thoughts churned.

As if sothing had clicked, a chill like knives sprouted along his spine.

Even the alchemical core that had carried him through countless crises suddenly turned ice cold.

He thought of a surgery from his previous life.

An organ transplant.

“Rejection... reaction?” Muen squeezed the words out of his throat.

“Correct. A rejection reaction. And as you’ve already felt—because of the alchemical core’s complexity and special nature, and because the materials I used to construct it were just a tiny bit special—this is a rejection reaction that even the power of the Silent Moon can only suppress temporarily.”

Teacher ladomir rapped Muen’s head, gloating:

“So, kid, don’t even think about lying flat this ti. If you don’t resolve this at the Church, you really will be a goner later. No one can save you. I an it—not even the Withering King.”