The sharp chemical odor still assaulting my nose had become unbearable, but I could not allow myself to be drawn into his logic here.
Had this merely been a game, I could have answered him with brute force alone. However, I was invoking the ‘privilege of The Absolved’ with my own words to wield its power. If he defeated me in logic as well, I would have nothing left with which to respond.
‘……All I can do here is bluff with everything I have.’
I was not an officially appointed Executor of Salus.
Therefore, I had no choice but to present whatever arguments I could devise.
“As I said, Professor Simon Iceberg, I find myself deeply sympathetic to your theory. I even read your paper once.”
Of course, I had merely read some of the lore that appeared in the game.
“However, whether the experiments you are conducting can be morally tolerated is a separate matter. I am also addressing the legal aspects of the issue.”
“Ha! What an interesting statement. You believe morality and regulation can simply be discussed together? Does that not fall beyond the jurisdiction of an Executor?”
Simon cleverly seized upon the weakness in my words and countered my argument.
At first glance, it might not have appeared significant, but this was a serious matter.
[The target of Objection ― Simon Iceberg, ‘Professor of the University’s Stasis School,’ counters the logic of ‘The Absolved’ Ash Gray!]
[Argument Neutralization!]
[Judgment failed: The discussion was insufficient, and you failed to refute the opponent’s logic!]
[‘The Absolved’ Ash Gray suffers a mental penalty after failing his Objection!]
“……Urgh!”
In accordance with the System window, pain tore through and raked across the inside of my head under the name of a penalty. My knees nearly gave way.
This was no mere headache.
It was the penalty inflicted when the power capable of countering every absurdity was wielded incorrectly.
Yes. The principal figures of the trials I had encountered until now had never offered a proper rebuttal.
Their arguments had amounted to nothing more than ‘one-sided assertions.’
It was almost as though the System were telling me that they had merely been a tutorial intended to teach me the process.
“You still cling to such vague sentiments? The Ink permeating the bodies of Salus’s citizens is already drastically shortening their lives. You must also know that, like a hopelessly tangled skein, it can no longer be restored.”
A blue aura surged from Simon’s body, sweeping across the surroundings like bitter frost.
“So I will ask you again. What exactly have those vaunted rules accomplished? Can they restore the Ink distorted by an Outer God? Ordinary citizens cannot resist the law engraved into their blood.”
Simon continued speaking as though he had no intention of giving me a turn to respond.
“Did the Bureau of Law—did Salus—ever act to save its citizens? No. You must already know the truth. Executors, Magistrates, and Adjudicators are nothing more than stacks of paperwork that tell anyone carrying Contaminated Ink to ‘die slowly,’ regardless of how they reached that state!”
“……Urgh!”
His words struck my chest like bullets driving enormous nails into it.
Simon watched me falter, pushed his glasses upward with a sharp TAP, and merely scoffed.
“Your precious law is ultimately incapable of offering a practical solution. If I am mistaken, then by all means, refute me. Tell me that there is a method more efficient than mine!”
He countered me with complete confidence.
It was clear that invoking morality or regulation against him would accomplish nothing.
[The rebuttal of Simon Iceberg, ‘Professor of the University’s Stasis School,’ seizes control of the surroundings!]
[Danger: Under the ‘Efficient Stasis Theory,’ the surroundings begin to freeze!]
[Warning: Mental Fortitude (Mental) has entered the danger zone. Refute his logic immediately!]
Warnings poured across my vision in densely packed lines of text.
A vicious gale of frost accompanied the storm of violent pain inside my head.
‘Damn it! The difficulty suddenly increased the moment the tutorial ended!’
This was a battle of minds that had never existed in the original game.
It was as though I had to draw upon experiences from entirely different games to present my argument.
‘……That attorney would have said something like this.’
The further one was driven into a corner, the greater the opportunity that emerged.
An opponent would reveal an opening when he believed that he had already won.
‘I never imagined that a line from a game I had barely played would help me.’
When I organized my thoughts, it became clear that his argument also contained a contradiction.
That was simply how the world worked.
Just as life was harsh, not everyone could reach paradise. Not everyone could become happy.
When one person became happy, someone else became unhappy.
It was a truth and a law that applied in any world.
“Whew.”
I took a light breath and straightened my clothes.
I bit my lip to clear my mind and tasted thick blood.
If I was pushed back here, it would be over.
I carefully recalled my days as a streamer.
I still remembered the days when viewers filled the chat with cutting remarks aimed at me.
There were the eloquence and shamelessness I had developed while dealing with them, along with the hundreds or thousands of pages of miscellaneous information I had read while playing countless games.
Together, they formed a signpost that presented the information I required.
“……No, Professor Simon. Unfortunately, you still have not realized that the vaunted equation you presented was fundamentally defective from the very beginning.”
I abruptly pointed an accusing finger at him as I answered.
“Fundamentally defective? I cannot begin to understand which part you mean…… If you are truly so brilliant, then prove it. Point out the flaw you believe exists!”
Simon answered with a cold smile.
‘That is right. In truth, there were any number of things I could have said.’
I had merely presented conventional arguments because I believed anything else would fail.
Therefore, I only needed to depart from convention.
I needed to approach the matter from the academic perspective that he desired.
“Are you familiar with the concept of Entropy, Professor?”
“No, not particularly. However, what…… does that have to do with the Stasis Phenomenon I created?”
Simon questioned me with a puzzled expression.
Apparently, he did not properly understand it.
Then again, how many people in a medieval world like this would understand a discussion of the laws of thermodynamics?
I changed the target of my pointing finger.
I no longer pointed at Simon, but toward the glass tubes beside him.
“Very well. Let us examine matters from the beginning. Professor Simon…… You intended to use the phenomenon of Stasis to neutralize the laws that had descended into madness. Is that correct?”
I took several slow steps while watching him and asked the question.
Simon merely nodded in silence.
A frozen stillness filled the surroundings.
White breath clearly escaped my lips, but I continued before the cold could consume me completely.
“You have overlooked one thing. A system (System) brought to a thermodynamic…… or entropic halt inevitably causes the living beings within it to collapse from the inside. The moment you imprison a person within one of those glass tubes and stop their time—”
I stamped my foot with a resounding THUD and presented the contradiction within Simon’s logic.
“—they become scrap metal that can no longer function as human beings. Does an electrical current continue to flow after the power is cut? What you are doing is not salvation, Professor Simon Iceberg. It is no different from switching off the citizens.”
Simon’s face turned pale at my words.
He hurriedly looked back and forth between his recorded charts and the research materials consumed by his experiments before shouting.
“What nonsense……! Stopping the traces of the Outer God that invaded us through our blood is the most perfect form of preservation! If they survive—if they can endure within that imprisoned world—then humanity will be able to survive once again! Why can you not understand that!!”
“Then allow me to ask another question. Will the traces of the Outer God disappear merely because everything is stopped? If Stasis is a process that halts the circulation of a person’s blood and bodily functions…… who determines what happens afterward, Professor?”
Simon avoided answering me.
Of course he had not attempted to use the Stasis Phenomenon after attaining a complete understanding of thermodynamics.
Had he understood even the slightest portion of its laws…… this was a field he should never have contemplated, much less researched.
“Do you possess some miraculous method of setting those trapped in Stasis into motion again? If not, can we truly describe them as alive? Well? Answer me, Professor Simon!”
I stepped forcefully toward Simon and proclaimed those words.
The frozen ground that had brought the surrounding area into Stasis finally began to recede.
At last, I could feel it.
The authority of an Executor was returning to my voice.
“Hup.”
I drew in a breath and pointed at Simon with all my strength.
“Objection! Professor Simon Iceberg, do you know what economists call the act of squandering the power of the future to pay the maintenance costs of the present? They call it Bankruptcy.”
I calmly confronted his argument head-on.
“What you are doing is no different from holding an extravagant suicide party with the future of every living being in Salus as collateral! Professor, your calculations contain no figures representing the citizens’ well-being or their tomorrow!”
“Y-You……!!”
Unable to answer my logical criticism, Simon merely pounded the desk beside him as though venting his frustration.
The beakers and glass tubes rolled from the table and struck the floor with sharp crashes.
Cracks had begun to form within the logic he had believed perfect.
[Objection successful!]
[Judgment reversed: ‘The Absolved’ Ash Gray seizes control of the debate from Simon Iceberg, ‘Professor of the University’s Stasis School’!]
[Penalty reversal: Simon Iceberg’s mental state collapses significantly, inflicting the Status Effect ‘Logical Panic’!]
There was a saying in online communities.
If there was victorious trash and defeated trash, one should at least become victorious trash.
Perhaps because that thought occurred to me, I nearly burst into laughter.
“Now, answer me. There is a provision in Salus Administrative Law entitled ‘Guarantee of the City’s Continuance and Development.’ Your experiments are in clear violation of that law. The University may protect you, but it will not protect an act that destroys the very foundations of the city.”
An opportunity.
I did not allow it to escape.
With a cold smile, I pronounced judgment upon Simon as though interrogating him.
“Professor Simon Iceberg, your vaunted theory has been dismissed. All that remains is either the proper judicial procedure or the exercise of an Executor’s authority…….”
Before I could finish speaking, Simon’s body began to tremble.
At last, he opened his mouth.
“……You damned Executor. None of you would ever acknowledge it. Stasis is absolute cessation! I have been telling you from the beginning that with it, we can escape the dominion of the Outer God!!”
The title of professor no longer suited him.
Only a Scholar consumed by madness and I remained, standing there and staring into one another’s eyes.
“An unsolved problem that cannot be proven? Entropy? Thermodynamics? Do not speak to me of academic value when you are nothing more than a creature bound by regulation! Results are what matter! Nothing but the results!!”
He suddenly pulled a switch from inside his clothes and pressed it without hesitation.
HSSSS!
Dense purple mist poured into the warehouse laboratory.
The solutions inside the experimental tubes gradually drained away, revealing grotesque figures fitted with bizarre mechanical components.
‘The order is reversed, damn it.’
The Professor’s Domain had not manifested.
The psychological blow dealt through logic had worked perfectly well.
The next phase had simply become a one-sided battle.
‘……The strategy.’
In truth, I did not know it.
Simon had only ever been mentioned in the game’s lore.
However, there was one thing I knew with certainty.
‘Even if he intends to force matters through physical strength, the conditions have already been fulfilled.’
Something that could not have manifested had my Objection failed was now resting in my hand.
The form of William’s longsword slowly began to change.
It transformed into a hammer.
‘A shining…… gavel of judgment.’
If I could not defeat him through physical strength, I merely had to introduce a legal element.
If the situation was not advantageous, I only needed to make it so.
“Then shall we begin the second round?”
I raised the hammer’s handle and pointed it toward Simon.
The tedious and pedantic essay session had ended.
Now the time had come for an enforcement drenched in blood.