436 - Leonardo's Perspective - Camille and Jasper 2
"I've tentatively named the mineral that can draw out spirit power 'Spirit Crystal'. I set the Spirit Crystal as the core in each machine, and it should run on the spirit energy transmitted from the core... but it just won't work well."
Above the head of Camille, who was tilting his head wondering what the cause could be, a spirit was sticking out its tongue. As for the cause, it was probably the fact that Camille was not liked by the spirits. And the reason Camille was not liked by the spirits lay in his research. As long as he researched what he called 'magic that borrows the power of spirits', Camille's research would likely never be completed.
"...It seems to be a different mechanism from the one you used on me?"
"The size is different, but it is a similar machine. That one works by acting on the cells of wounds, making them close faster than usual. To act on cells, the first condition is that they be living cells, so it worked on you who are alive, but it has no effect on Jasper who is already dead."
The difference between the mechanism used on me and the one he was trying to use on Jasper seemed to be whether the subject was alive or dead. I did not really understand the explanation about 'acting on cells', but Tina supplemented it for me.
Considering that Tina explained it with a straight face, it must have been common knowledge in her previous life. I had never thought about what the human body was made of, but apparently it was different in the other world where Tina used to be. It seemed to be something even ordinary people commonly knew. The world of cells was something only the Sedovara Church, which preserved the teachings of Saint Yuuta Hiraga, and a few scholars would recognize in this day and age.
"In theory it should be complete, but... I guess I need to research how to reliably draw power from the Spirit Crystal first. I understand the importance of fundamentals, but I still want to make magic work..."
As Camille pressed the glowing panel while twisting his head in thought, Tina seemed to lose to her curiosity. She let go of my hand and started approaching Camille, so I reached around and held her back. I used to be able to lift her up like this, but it seemed Tina had grown after all. It had become difficult to lift Tina with just the strength in my arms alone.
"..."
"Tina, you cannot disturb Camille."
I stopped Tina, who looked like she might bite me at any moment, by using Camille as an excuse. Camille was operating a mechanism that neither I nor Tina understood well. Even Tina could understand that it would be better not to disturb him.
...She looked really dissatisfied, though.
She furrowed her brows in a pout, but Tina stopped approaching Camille. The forward-pulling force disappeared, and Tina's arms reached around my waist again.
I stopped Tina to keep her from disturbing Camille, but in truth I just did not want her near the mechanism. Ever since Tina started showing interest, the spirits had clearly begun taking interest in Camille's contraption as well. It somehow felt wrong for the spirits to lend Camille their power just to satisfy Tina's curiosity.
"...I am reaching my limit with experiments on corpses. The healing magic seemed complete as long as it functioned, so I wanted to complete resurrection magic next."
"Resurrection... that is quite a frightening thing to attempt."
Resurrection simply means bringing the dead back to life. There is no way someone who has died once can come back. Even if it were possible, it is something that should not be done. The spirits seemed to share a similar view of the laws of life and death, their faces more grim than ever before.
"Grandpa, can you bring dead people back to life?"
"I cannot do it now, and even if I could, I do not think I should."
As Camille continued, saying the dead must not be revived for any reason, I found myself tilting my head. If he knew the dead should not be revived, then why was he attempting to create resurrection magic in the first place?
...But I think I understand Jasper's wish.
Jasper was born in Mey Village. Age-wise, there was no mistake that he had been involved with the reincarnator who appeared thirty years ago. Speaking of the reincarnator from Mey Village, he had been sold to the Zugall Empire. Even the docile Tina of now had nearly killed someone on the very day she was obtained in the Zugall Empire. Even if Jasper had found his childhood friend, the likelihood of her being alive at that point was low. When Jasper, who had probably been reunited with a corpse, met Camille, who seemed to be researching resurrection magic, there was only one thing Jasper would have thought.
"You know the dead should not be revived. If you understand that, then did you just deceive and use Jasper?"
Even if the research on resurrection magic were completed, if Camille knew the dead were not to be revived, he would never actually perform that magic. He himself was aware it should not be done. That meant Jasper, who had likely been after resurrection magic, had kidnapped Tina for a reward he could never receive.
At the name 'Jasper' that came out of my mouth, Tina, who had been throwing random questions at Camille, fell silent and looked up. Her blue eyes were wavering with something like anxiety, so I pulled Tina's head into my chest.
"...Depending on how you put it, it is true that I deceived Jasper. I will admit that."
It seemed that for Camille, it was something he said to keep Jasper alive.
I had not heard the detailed circumstances, but apparently on the day Camille first found Jasper, Jasper had immersed himself in a frozen lake. Ordinarily, that was an act risking heart failure or death from cold. When Camille asked in surprise what was going on, Jasper apparently answered that his childhood friend was sunk at the bottom of the lake. When Jasper dove into the frozen lake without listening to Camille's attempts to stop him, telling him he needed to rescue his childhood friend from the lake quickly, it seemed Camille initially stopped calling out to him further. He would give up once he had had enough. Or he would die on his own, he thought. In the Zugall Empire, people dying, and the acquaintances of the dead following after them, was nothing uncommon.
However, the next time Camille passed by the lake, Jasper was still alive. He was holding a girl's corpse in his arms, and Camille was surprised that Jasper seemed to have achieved his goal. He had thought it impossible to find a single corpse from the frozen lake, and it was strange that Jasper had managed to stay alive even after achieving it. He was probably moving on willpower alone. He could not have been making sound judgments. The girl's corpse he desperately called out to was damaged all over her body. If she had been breathing, she would have been in excruciating pain, simply waiting for death. Because she was already dead, the girl could sleep with a peaceful face.
"I thought if I left him like this, Jasper would die. When I thought that, I found myself calling out to him again before I knew it."
It would be a shame if the girl caught a cold while still wet. Come with me, I will hide you for a while, he said.
Jasper did not seem to care that his own body was also wet, but when Camille swapped the situation with the girl's corpse, Jasper correctly understood. If they stayed wet, they would catch a cold. Under the cold sky, Jasper judged that if they stayed wet, 'his childhood friend's' life would be in danger, and he chose to be sheltered by Camille. None of it was for himself. It was a choice made to help the girl who was already a corpse.
"Once his body warmed up, Jasper calmed down too. It was Jasper who asked me to embalm Almel."
Jasper seemed to slowly come to understand his childhood friend's death. From the story told piece by piece, I learned that Jasper had lived until then to find his childhood friend. He became an apprentice to a pharmacist to move around various regions without being suspected, trained at the Sedovara Church in the Divine King's territory of Quebia to become a pharmacist, and finally came to the Zugall Empire. He walked all over the Zugall Empire, tracing his childhood friend's footsteps to the imperial castle. Jasper knowing a hidden passage in the imperial castle seemed to be from this experience. He found a hidden passage in the imperial castle while approaching it to search for his childhood friend, and used it to gather information about her and related rumors. And then he learned that the childhood friend he was searching for had long since lost her life, and her body had been thrown into the frozen lake.
"He achieved the goal of reclaiming Almel, but she was already dead. At this rate, Jasper would die too. Thinking that, I told Jasper many lies."
The reincarnator Camilo's research had included magic to resurrect the dead. However, the records of that research were written in Japanese, and he could not read them himself. If only he could read Japanese, perhaps the ancient spirit arts could be revived, he said.
"Like I said before, I can read Japanese. But I did not tell Jasper that. Instead, I urged him to search for a Japanese reincarnator."
Japanese reincarnators are not something you find just by searching. And the purpose of searching for someone who cannot be found would keep Jasper alive. Camille thought so and suggested Jasper search for a Japanese reincarnator. He hoped it would become a reason for Jasper to live. He wished that even if not right away, Jasper would find new encounters and happiness in the life ahead of him.
"...I never expected Jasper would actually find a Japanese reincarnator."
Because of that, Jasper, who might have found his next happiness someday, had come back to the Zugall Empire instead. Jasper, who might have lived on vaguely if he had not found anything, began moving toward a goal again. As a result, Jasper died this time, Camille said, his shoulders drooping. Tina's head began to stir against my chest, so I wrapped my arms around her and covered her ears with my arms and chest.
"You seem to want to say that if he had not found Tina, Jasper would not have died."
I thought my voice came out horribly low, even to myself. This is what Camille was saying. Because the Japanese reincarnator he never expected to actually find was found, Jasper regained his motivation. This kidnapping was triggered by that, and as a result, Jasper died.
"Because of Jasper, we have taken no small losses. Tina lost a nursemaid she loved like an older sister, and one of my knights lost an eye. There is no reason for Tina to be blamed for Jasper's sake."
"I understand that too."
As Camille continued, saying it was just unfortunate circumstances, Tina raised her face.