Chapter 132
He rarely saw Moriarty make such an expression, and he never expected Moriarty to show such an expression.
Therefore, Babbage asked curiously about his expression.
"Who is this old man?"
"Just an old Priest who talks nonsense all day long."
In response to Babbage's question, Moriarty continued, clearly annoyed.
"Is someone who keeps saying things like 'I want to see such a beautiful view', 'Can you do it?', 'Moriarty could definitely do it,' and 'The world is golden' a joke to me? If he wants to see it, why doesn't he go see it himself? Do I have to show it to him?"
"Is... is that so?"
Babbage blatantly averted his gaze, then feigned a cough twice.
Moriarty is a stubborn man, he thought.
Because Moriarty's tone was consistently awful, yet—a fearless smile appeared on his lips.
Occasionally, very occasionally, this young man named James Moriarty would show this expression.
It's like constantly rejecting someone with a cold attitude, but actually waiting for the day they'll be proven wrong.
"Well, fine. Since you seem to think that way, I might as well use my math skills to help you in my Babbage time. In exchange for that impossible dream of a world without conflict, only development and prosperity, you'll be my first subordinate... What are you laughing at?"
Babbage finished his tea and sighed, saying:
"No, it's nothing, boss."
"Don't call me 'boss,' that's not acceptable."
"What should we call him? Boss? Big Brother? Master? King? Your Majesty the Emperor?"
Babbage chuckled and joked.
"None of these will work..." The silver-haired youth pondered for a moment, "That's it, just call me Professor!"
"But your diploma isn't even as high as mine yet."
Babbage was right; he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in 1814 and 1817 respectively, and was elected a Fellow of England Royal Society in 1816, while Moriarty was just a mathematics Teacher at the time.
"... Never mind that! It's just a name!"
"Alright, alright, we'll do as you say, Professor Moriarty."
Let's go back to the present, to 1818.
The two friends have been in Geneva, Switzerland for almost half a year now.
Moriarty moved in at the beginning of the year, and Babbage followed him out of curiosity about what he was going to do.
In fact, Moriarty's reason for coming was also because of what Faria had said to him:
Something will happen in Geneva, Switzerland in 1818, and I hope you can go and see it then.
Although Moriarty didn't understand what the old man was talking about and was dismissive of it, that didn't stop him from coming to see for himself.
This was purely his own will, not at the instruction of anyone else; this was what he truly thought.
At this moment, Babbage was calculating the shapes he had drawn, which were symbols related to Magecraft. Although they were the basic components of the Clock Tower's learning, their precision was so high that even a Level 1 instructor would marvel at them.
In the Nasuverse, the science-oriented characters naturally know about the Magecraft behind the world and have all learned a lot about it to varying degrees, just like Helena later on. After all, as the times have progressed, the Clock Tower has no choice but to learn about technology.
Meanwhile, Moriarty carefully wrote the letter. As time passed, a heavy rain fell on Geneva, which was shrouded in night. In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and countless Thunderbolt created a blinding brilliance.
The two exchanged a quick glance, barely spoke, and then got up and left the room together.
Because the two heard a roar that could only be heard between Magecraft whose five senses had been 'enhanced'.
Lightning flashed across the rainy night, drawing the most beautiful arcs across the sky.
As night deepened, the rain intensified, thunder roared deafeningly, and dazzling lightning illuminated everything, turning the world into a sea of fire; then, in an instant, all was plunged back into darkness until lightning struck again.
Meanwhile, at that very moment, in a classical Gothic building slightly away from the city, nestled in Forest, the owner of the house was stumbling and fleeing from the building's Great Gate into the Forest.
Behind him, a figure that appeared extremely distorted at first glance followed him.
The figure walked through the Forest undeterred by the darkness and heavy rain, moving as if it were daytime even without flashlights or other lighting tools.
In fact, there is not much difference between day and night.
Because one is Magecraft and the other is a created Homunculus, their eyes, imbued with Od Magecraft, can easily see through the darkness. Most shadows cast by normal nightlight pose no Obstruction to them.
The Magecraft's name is Victor Frankenstein. A mad scientist, Alchemy, and Magecraft, he conducts forbidden human research, yearning to create Homunculus comparable to humans—a miracle akin to that of God.
In a sense, he recently succeeded; by piecing together and stitching corpses, and using Alchemy and Magecraft techniques, he created a Homunculus that closely resembled a human.
However, due to her lack of emotion and significant deficiencies in expressing joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, this Perfection Magecraft had to acknowledge his own shortcomings and thus defined her as a "failure"—that is, the Homunculus named Frankenstein.
Earlier, the newly born Frankenstein realized Victor's dissatisfaction with her. Although she was puzzled, in order to express her gratitude to Victor for creating her, she killed a wild dog and gave its entrails to Victor as a gift. This act terrified Victor was already somewhat disappointed, so he abandoned Frankenstein and regarded her as a failure.
"Get out of here! You're not Eve! You're a damned Monster! Die--"
The Magecraft slightly extended his right hand, and in less than a few seconds, a variety of Magecraft capable of killing were unleashed.
Frankenstein didn't understand what Eve meant by Victor; he only knew he was afraid of himself, and therefore instinctively reached out his hand—
Then, the Magecraft was instantly resolved by her, and Victor, realizing he was no match for her, chose to run away.
He also realized that the Homunculus he created were pure Monster.
The Homunculus didn't understand why he was leaving, and could only silently follow behind him.
Therefore, the human shadow—
Frankenstein walked quietly through the Forest on a rainy night.
Because of his simple, heartfelt longing, his face showed obvious tension.
But at this moment, Victor's heart was filled with fear. In a corner of his consciousness, almost buried by fear, he desperately thought about what he could do to successfully escape from the Monster's grasp.
After all, Frankenstein's current appearance is a distorted humanoid shape, covered in filth that is hard to look at.
With just a slight turn of his head, Victor could see Frankenstein's gaze meet his.
The Homunculus's heterochromatic eyes, in the pitch-black rainy night, resembled those of a killer brimming with murderous intent. To Victor, they were the Monster's intimidation and Wrath, a death sentence delivered to him as a human.
After an unknown amount of time, Victor, utterly exhausted, collapsed to the ground. As the Homunculus slowly reached out its hand towards him, Victor roared in terror, "Don't come near me! You Monster! My biggest regret is creating you!"
The distorted humanoid creature, unable to speak and yet having not learned how to do so, can only roar.
Please don't abandon me, I beg you.
The various xenophobic and negative emotions that erupted from his roar impacted the Magecraft Victor Frankenstein, shaking his mind, numbing his thoughts, and halting his Flesh preparations.
Unable to move.
Both physically and mentally, they became so easily afraid.
Even her voice couldn't escape from her trembling lips.
Only his wide-open eyes remained fixed in fear as he stared at the grotesque humanoid figure that resembled Demon.
In the trembling vision, slowly, the humanoid figure began to move, its hands shredding all the flowers and grass along its path, forcing its way to the Magecraft's eyes—
"Get away! Monster! You're not the Eve I imagined! Don't come near me! Just die, please!"
Victor's inner disgust overwhelmed his fear, leading him to utter those words again.
Upon hearing those words again, the Homunculus, hailed as Monster, froze, staring at him in disbelief.
The Monster didn't shed tears, it just growled softly.
However, at that very moment, both the Homunculus and the Magecraft realized that something had silently approached them from behind in the darkness.
"Oh dear, I've got a way to prove it! Should we shout 'Victory!' at this point?"
Moriarty twitched his fingers in a chilling manner, his eyes Gilgamesh with a dazzling curiosity.
"This kind of creation... is a bit too terrifying, but there are also aspects that need improvement."
Babbage, standing beside him, turned his gaze toward Frankenstein.
"You're Magecraft too! Help me, this guy's a Monster! I'll give you everything I own!"
Feeling like he had escaped death, Victor immediately turned to the two Magecraft he didn't know for help, thinking that they should agree to such a deal.
"Oh? Why call her Monster? Is it because of her hideous appearance?"
Moriarty shook his head and smiled slightly.
"That... that thing is Monster! It's not the Eve I was expecting at all; it's an evil creature devoid of any emotion..."
"Hahahaha--"
In an instant, Moriarty burst into laughter in front of Victor. He didn't look at the panicked Magecraft Victor Frankenstein, but instead looked up at the sky, which had stopped raining. Although the sky was slightly illuminated by the moonlight, there were no stars, and it looked very empty.
"Excellent! This newly born, emotionless evil being is the perfect subordinate for my path to evil! Evil should be ruled by evil, and evil should be destroyed by evil! Controlled by numbers, evil will naturally grow. My evil will devour evil, and it will also dominate evil!"
Babbage coughed and said to the dazed Victor:
"His message was that you could go, and he would protect you; in exchange, you'd have to hand this over to him."
Having received the promise, the Magecraft immediately got up and fled, never looking back, until he completely disappeared into the darkness.
"Aaaaaah--"
"Full of flaws! Your answer is wrong at every turn! How dare you call yourself evil! What's with that expression?! Show me some seriousness!"
As Frankenstein tried to give chase, Moriarty, expressionless, blocked her path, dramatically spreading his arms wide:
"My name is James Moriarty, and I am about to become the pinnacle of evil. From this day forward, you are my subordinate."
"Ah."
The Homunculus was somewhat dull.
"Obey evil! Both good and evil are functional defects of the world. I will look down and observe, and then sweep away everything! In other words, evil, obey me!"
He means to say--
Babbage couldn't help but cough again. Although he was used to Moriarty doing this from time to time, he still couldn't help it sometimes.
However, just as he was about to speak his true meaning as before, the words spoken by the Homunculus interrupted him.
"... Dad, Dad..."
She had never learned how to speak and had only ever roared before, but for some reason Homunculus used this term, something even she herself didn't know.
"... Huh? Who's your dad?! Don't call me that! Watch your language! I'm only twenty-one! I've never even been in a relationship! Besides, I have absolutely no such burden in my career!" Moriarty frowned instantly, his voice even turning somewhat sinister, "You're just a pawn I can discard at will, you know that!"
Frankenstein scratched his head, as if to say he was really sorry.
Babbage looked at Moriarty's instantly gloomy expression and the trembling 'Monster', and sighed softly:
"Since things have come to this, why don't we go back first? You're soaked too, and if we don't get it fixed, it might short-circuit."
"Hmph, if it breaks like this, then it's okay if it gets lost... Also, can you please stop holding my hand? Don't you look like a bad person! Never mind today, I'll teach you a lesson later..."
Thus, following Faria's advice, Moriarty's 'evil organization' began to take shape.
A year later, Moriarty returned to the Château d'If in France as a prison inspector.
He learned from the warden that there was an extra prisoner in the Dungeon, and out of curiosity, he went to see the man.
Soon, upon hearing the sound of the key turning in the lock and the clatter of the hinges, the gray-haired youth, who had been lurking in a corner of the Dungeon, enjoying the sliver of light streaming through the iron bars with indescribable pleasure, looked up and saw the silver-haired youth enter.
Perhaps due to excessive excitement, the gray-haired youth clasped his hands together and jumped forward.
And, in order to avoid being seen as a threatening prisoner, the gray-haired youth wore the expression of the most docile and humble person.
"I've been sent to inspect the prison and hear the prisoners' requests. What are your requests?"
Moriarty asked, as was customary.
"I demand to know what crime I have committed, I demand a public Judgment, in short, I demand: if I am guilty, execute me; if I am innocent, set me free."
"When I arrived, the jailer told me that there was a time when you were about to kill them."
"That's true, but I was too angry at the time. Anyway, I'm very sorry. He was really nice to me. Maybe I was just a little out of control because I'd been inside for so long."
Upon hearing this, Moriarty frowned.
"How long have you been detained?"