Galois stared at him in silence. Into those pink eyes.
For a fleeting moment, he wondered—was this brat toying with him again?
But there wasn’t even a hint of mischief in Professor Dante’s eyes.
“I'm in my right mind, Chief.”
“......”
The next emotion that surfaced was something closer to dread. How had this even come to be? What had driven this young genius to such research—and how in the world had he arrived at this conclusion?
Dante Hiakapo... why...
“...Professor. Has anyone else seen this?”
“You’re the first, Chief.”
“This...”
Galois faltered. His tongue wouldn’t move the way he wanted it to.
“...Is this even sane?”
“It is, Chief. The final derivation might seem a little convoluted, but I’ve spent the last six months testing, retesting—”
“Don’t.”
The word came out bluntly.
A researcher who had reached an unseen frontier in history was now unfolding a logic only he could comprehend. That was inevitably going to be persuasive.
“Don’t do it, Professor.”
“I must, Chief.”
“Don’t. Don’t...”
Galois had to find a way to shut him up.
“Chief.”
“Don’t!!”
The shout escaped him before he even realized.
“Why are you doing this!? Everyone already knows you’re a young genius! You could rock the entire academic world just by publishing a few normal papers!”
But Dante remained unshaken. He didn’t get angry at the criticism, nor did he try to persuade him.
“I must.”
“Why!? Why the hell!? Is it that euphoric sense that you’re ushering in a new era? Or is it just to prove you’ve ascended to a peak no one else could reach?”
“No. It’s neither.”
Galois slammed the thesis down.
“This is madness, Professor! This is dangerous. It’ll shake the entire continent! People will die—many more than just one or two. It could even trigger a war with those Kreutz bastards. If the Empire catches wind of it, there’ll be no shortage of people lining up to put a noose around your neck! Are you even aware of that?”
“I am.”
“Goddammit!!”
Thud!
Galois slapped the thesis down hard and pressed his fingers into his temple. How the hell could he talk this crazy young genius out of it? What words could he possibly use?
“...Why now?”
“I tried to do it as soon as it was viable. And that happens to be now. Chief, there are monsters in this world who spread lies and deception as their weapons. Humanity must resist them.”
“Are you talking about that bastard, Professor Toxin? Still... still, not now... With Agion gone, there’s no one left who can place a brake on this thesis. Not until a new Radiant Constellation is born. Just hold off a little longer!”
“I cannot, Chief. This must happen now.”
“Are you trying to reverse the flow of time?”
Dante’s eyes narrowed. He lowered his head and stared at the paper on the table.
“Reverse the flow of time...”
He murmured.
“A reversal of the age...”
Time, as a concept, always moves upward. Productivity increases. Jobs are created. Living standards improve. In the long term, the quality of life rises. Even those who would have perished in the primitive ages now live with some fragment of utopian pleasure.
“Chief.”
Galois waited in fear for Dante Hiakapo’s next words.
“I intend to end an era.”
The old man closed his eyes.
He was right.
The world this paper depicted wasn’t simply a rejection of progress.
It would dismantle an entire era. An entire industry. A portion of the economic structure itself.
“...Then would you give this thesis a title?”
“......”
Galois closed his eyes.
So this was the real reason the damn brat had come to see him.
To name the thesis.
His wrinkled hand covered his eyes.
He removed his monocle and let out a sigh.
“...This is the hardest assignment I’ve ever had.”
2. Gray Habanero
Special admission. A shortcut. A connection through Dante—that’s how Gray passed the assistant professor exam.
She had been training off and on with Dante in the art of 『Glass Butterfly』, and at some point, she had reached a level she never thought possible.
From the moment her appointment was confirmed, Gray gritted her teeth and threw herself into research and training. She’d always been diligent, but now she cut everything out of her life that wasn’t illusion. She stopped seeing friends. Quit drinking. And there was a reason for that.
“No matter how you look at it, this ain’t right. It’s unfair.”
“Who makes a 22-year-old a professor? Like, seriously... How can she teach cadets who were her drinking buddies last year and not feel weird?”
“Exactly. She’s literally only known for showing her face on that imperial broadcast. That’s her whole career, and they made her a professor...”
The whispers.
She’d become the poster child for nepotism. White Saber hated her for it. And Black Abyss didn’t exactly welcome her either.
‘I have to do well.’
If she didn’t teach properly, didn’t produce real research, Gray would be dragging down the name of the man who gave her this chance—Dante.
So she pushed harder. Invested even more time into the department.
No one achieves success while enjoying everything. Gray had learned that from watching Dante.
She used to think he was just born a genius. But that wasn’t it at all.
Dante didn’t waste a single second on anything unnecessary. That extreme discipline—that was what made him a genius.
“...Professor, isn’t it exhausting?”
Gray asked him once, during 『Glass Butterfly』 training.
“Training with you, you mean?”
“No, no. I mean living like you’ve got no personal life. You don’t hang out with friends. You don’t date. You don’t even have a hobby, do you?”
In response, the professor straightened his back and looked up at the sky.
“Even if it’s hard... it must be done.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things only I can do. No one can replace me.”
“And who’s that for? It’s not like it’s for yourself, right?”
“...It’s for everyone.”
The professor, always seemingly beyond human, showed no wavering even now. He simply looked down at Gray and said something loaded.
“Gray. May I ask you a favor?”
“Uh, yeah. What is it?”
“Give it everything you’ve got. For 『Glass Butterfly』.”
“Eh? Well, of course—”
Gray cut herself off.
Dante’s expression was more serious than she’d ever seen.
“I know you’re already doing your best. But I’m asking you to go even harder.”
She didn’t know why.
But it was the first time Dante had ever asked something like that of her.
And it didn’t come off like a rebuke—‘Am I not working hard enough?’—but rather, there was something massive behind his voice. As if there were a reason she had to give it her all right now, in this exact moment.
So when she was modeling alone in the Illusion Magic joint lab again today...
Thwip—
A strange pressure near her maxillary sinus popped—then a nosebleed.
Gray quickly rolled up a tissue and shoved it into her nostril.
“Wha—Professor!”
“What brings you here?!”
There was a stir from the far side of the lab. Curious, she turned her head—and there stood Professor Dante.
“Gray Habanero.”
Every gaze in the lab shifted toward her. Jealousy. Envy. Irritation. All blended together.
“Can you step out for a bit? Let’s go somewhere.”
“Eh? Right now?”
An abrupt summons. But she followed him.
The car slid out of Zone 0, heading straight for Zone 2.
“...Where are we going?”
He looked more tired than usual. She hesitated before asking. Professor Dante replied curtly.
“Department of Magic.”
“...Why?”
“Because starting now, you’re going to teach 『Glass Butterfly』 to the illusion magic professors there.”
“Wha—huh??”
It was, quite literally, out of nowhere.
Why now?
But before she could even begin to understand the reason, Gray found herself standing ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) dumbfounded in front of the veteran professors of Illusion Magic.
They were all severe-faced, elderly scholars—people who had dedicated their entire lives to the study of [Illusion].
“Starting today, you professors will be learning a completely different system of [Illusion] from Assistant Professor Gray Habanero. The technique is called 『Glass Butterfly』.”
Yet, as if this had already been arranged behind the scenes, the Illusion Magic professors simply nodded without resistance. Even though these were monsters who, driven by pride, would not hesitate to kill.
“Gray. Teach them well.”
“Ah, y-yes...”
Whatever the case, this was a massive opportunity. 『Glass Butterfly』 was not a technique that could be taught to ordinary people. Only the most gifted of elites could even attempt to learn it.
And yet all of these professors were precisely that—veterans among the gifted, with decades immersed in illusion. Gray bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“I look forward to working with you. I’m Gray Habanero, assistant professor in the Department of Illusion-Assassination.”
And even then, one thought kept circling in her mind: Why?
Why had Dante put her at the front of the classroom?
Why...?
4. Ezekiel
When Department Head Ezekiel came to find Dante, the latter was in his private lab, speaking with Chief Professor Cain.
“What was that?”
“This... um... could be of... practical?... use, as a popularized formula...”
“Very good.”
The one scheduled to present at the upcoming Soltia Conference was Chief Professor Cain, with Dante acting as his assistant.
But Ezekiel had serious doubts.
It wasn’t just any venue—they’d be facing three Constellations at the Soltia Conference. Could they really deceive them?
Though... a fair number of those Constellations already suspect Dante is the main body himself.
Even so, the very fact that they had specifically invited Cain showed they were at least pretending to play along with Dante’s little puppet show.
Anyway, when Ezekiel sat down in the lab, Dante and Cain both turned to look at him.
“U-uh...”
Cain, evidently nervous, averted his eyes and reached toward Dante for a hug. Normally he’d be trying to get attention with a little “peekaboo!” but today was not the time.
“Golden Rat.”
“Yes, Department Head.”
“I heard from Galois. About what you’re about to do.”
Dante nodded. He had already given Shaman the heads-up—and received his permission.
“May I speak frankly?”
“I’ll listen.”
“I’m afraid.”
“......”
“I am afraid of this research you’ve been preparing these past six months. This paper.”
Tap.
Ezekiel placed the thesis Dante had sent him in advance on the table.
Galois—the damn plagiarist—had even given it a hell of a title.
The title of the paper was:
“The End of Illusion: A Proposal for the Long-Term, Supernatural, Universal, Irreversible, and Permanent Deconstruction Formula of Perceptual Forgery”
At a glance, it just looked like a mess of complicated terminology.
But the moment a scholar or professor saw it, they’d foam at the mouth.
Because what that title actually meant was:
“From this moment on, illusion will cease to exist in this world.”
It was madness.
Dante Hiakapo was quite literally talking madness.
He was declaring the end of an entire field of study. Not just any field, but one that had only just begun to bloom—one that was poised to define the future of the world.
And he wasn’t doing it at just any academic conference. He planned to say this at the Soltia Conference, the one held to explore new possibilities after the death of Agion, the great master of illusion. He would say it in front of the top illusionists of every nation.
“......Golden Rat. Are you prepared to bear this?”
Even if he was a Challenger. Even if he was once on the cusp of becoming a Constellation. In the face of this madness, even a grand magus like Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel fear.
“Illusion won’t vanish entirely.”
“No, of course not. There’s still 『Glass Butterfly』.”
『Glass Butterfly』—a completely separate branch of [Illusion] that doesn’t intersect with any known system—would survive. Because it couldn’t be dismantled by Dante’s new formula.
“Even so, this is about vested interests. This goes beyond you. The entire Hiaka Kingdom could come under attack.”
“......”
Dante gazed at Ezekiel. He didn’t say this is necessary.
He didn’t need to.
There was no need to convince him. The truth was, Ezekiel already knew.
Not just Ezekiel—all those close to Dante, especially the department heads, already knew.
What Dante Hiakapo was trying to do. The desperate struggle of one man against a colossal threat to all of humanity.
“Please support me, Department Head.”
At Dante’s words, Ezekiel lowered his head.
It was something he had hoped to ignore, or deny, or at least delay.
But with this sudden research and its imminent presentation... Ezekiel felt it deep in his soul.
“...This is insane...”
The end was coming.
And at the same time, a shiver of awe crawled through his chest. In nearly ninety years of life, Ezekiel had never once felt this kind of sensation.
What kind of reaction would the world have when it came face to face with this absurd thesis?
It was a visceral, unmistakable reaction—one that only a true scholar could feel.
“......”
It was awe.