Chapter 650: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Sorcery - 8
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 650: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Sorcery - 8
I activated my mind-reading. I was still frozen, but I could see through the eyes of those outside. I watched myself through them.
The space was frozen in hexagonal crystals. Trapped in the center, I was frozen solid, unable to even blink. It was a power closer to stasis than freezing, and I had been caught without any chance to resist.
“He is trapped within our Law. As long as the rule of Celsius holds, he will remain there forever.”
In the frigid world, Elcia spoke softly. The still, cold air carried her voice with clarity. The members of House Celsius used magically amplified voices to command their soldiers.
“The refractive crystals have blocked all lines of sight. Secure the area.”
“Leave no trace of black magic.”
The prisoners who had been freed were frozen once more. Soldiers approached Father Casas and Hilde, who were hiding in a corner. Unlike before, the soldiers advanced cautiously, their staves held ready.
“Be careful with the maid. She's a skilled Qi Practitioner.”
“It'll be a pain if she combines her power with Holy Power. Take out the priest first.”
“Father Casas. You should not have come here.”
The soldiers aimed their spears at the retreating Father Casas. They were still out of reach, but he had no choice but to be cautious. He was holding the collapsed Richard in his arms.
Clutching the boy, Father Casas cried out.
“I don't matter! But please, let the boy go!”
As Father Casas shouted, a chuckle was heard from somewhere. Rankin Celsius, who had been preparing a spell from a protected position behind the soldiers, lowered his staff and spoke.
“You've made the wrong request, Father. Had it been the other way around, it might have been possible.”
“The other way around...!”
“If you, a missionary, were to leave quietly, we would have no reason to pursue you. You understand what I mean.”
Even in the Celsius domain, attacking a missionary was a burden. It wasn't impossible, but they wouldn't refuse an opportunity to resolve things peacefully.
But Father Casas had already waded in too deep to back out now.
“I will discipline this boy myself! He won't even think of the 'black' in black magic ever again! We will live out there as quiet as mice!”
“That's uncertain.”
Father Casas looked into Rankin Celsius's cold eyes. His gaze seemed to ask the priest: wouldn't it be better to choose a more certain method over such an unreliable one?
At that heartless, resolute, and above all, rational choice, Father Casas felt a surge of anger.
“What sin has this child committed! Is it right for this clever, cunning boy to lose every opportunity simply because he is an 'outlier'?! Is it the way of Celsius to deny him even the slightest chance?!”
Father Casas felt the weight of the child in his arms. He was light. Starved during a time when he should have been growing, physically and mentally, the boy was so light that Father Casas could lift him with one arm.
“If you had given these children even the slightest attention! This boy would have found his own footing and become a mage! He would have contributed to the domain without ever turning to something like black magic! You are the ones who have abandoned the countless children out there!”
“An awl will always pierce through the pocket.”
Even in the face of the missionary's passionate speech, Rankin Celsius remained as cold as if he were made of crystal.
“An awl that cannot even pierce a small pocket like this is of no consequence, whether it exists or not. We have no need for it.”
The soldiers took another step forward. Father Casas gripped his cross tightly.
'Perhaps it's better to retreat for now! If I use my position as a missionary to keep them in check, I can save Richard! But...!'
That would be an abuse of power. Father Casas was not the kind of man to misuse the authority of the Sanctum for personal reasons. If he were that cunning, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation in the first place. Besides, the Sanctum also held a hardline stance against black magic, so they wouldn't fully support him anyway.
Father Casas looked to his last remaining hope.
'This maid. Her skills were extraordinary. She was on par with the Knights of the Holy Sword. Perhaps she has another way!'
However, the thoughts of Hilde, the object of his hopes, were perfectly serene.
'Father. You let yourself get caught as part of a plan, right? I won't step in, okay? I trust you, right?'
Trust, indeed. Her faith had gone in a strange direction. Not that it mattered.
Escape artistry is my specialty. This is the first time I've been trapped in ice, but it's no different. The trick is what's important, and having just met the relic, I've figured out that trick.
Inside the extradimensional Vault of Relics, there sits a small thermometer. It's a simple but preciously maintained instrument, with mercury encased in flawless, transparent glass. An uninformed observer might mistake it for a maintenance thermometer, as vaults often have thermometers and hygrometers to prevent damage to their contents.
A good way to hide it in plain sight. That thermometer is the relic of Kelvin Celsius. The foundation of the Law that serves as the backdrop for all the other relics.
I attuned myself to the thermometer visible inside the vault.
“Set, Celsius.”
The thermometer responded. The temperature remained the same. However, the scale used to read it shifted.
And the crystallized space shattered. With a loud crash, fragmented winds swirled like a storm. My body, which had been in stasis, shot out at an incredible speed as if it had been suffocating.
Tumbling over and over, I rolled across the snowy ground from the impact and slammed my head against a wall.
Everyone fell silent. In the quiet that descended once more, I stretched my stiff body. Were my muscles just tense? No, it was closer to being frozen.
Mana that could penetrate my very core... incredible. Thanks to Tyr's Divine power, I'm recovering rapidly, but this is quite tricky.
Elcia, the one who had frozen me, couldn't hide her astonishment.
“How? How did you escape the Vault's restraints?”
The power of the relic that had trapped me was 'Cryopreservation.' It was a relic shaped like a transparent freezer made of ice, with the ability to preserve objects placed inside. They had combined it with a relic possessing the power of 'Ice Sculpture' to create the crystal freezer around me, and with the backup of the Vault, they performed the incredible feat of inducing a phase transition instead of simple freezing.
It was a well-interlocked power. But 'interlocked' also means that twisting just one piece can throw the whole thing off.
Kelvin Celsius's relic doesn't measure temperature. Its true power is to control the temperatures that define the freezing and boiling points, thereby accumulating heat.
I used the relic to slightly alter the standard by which the crystals formed. As a result, the structurally compromised crystals spat me out like a piece of food gone down the wrong pipe.
But it would be a bit much to explain all that.
“Ta-da! It's a magic trick using a simple illusion. Care to guess how it was done?”
To those who don't know, it must seem more mysterious than actual magic. I shrugged and gave a little bow.
“...”
“...”
“Wow! As expected of you, Father! I knew I could trust you!”
Huh. Not much of a reaction. Hilde is the only one playing along.
A strange tension flowed from the members of House Celsius. They didn't understand how I had escaped, and that in itself signified defeat. After all, the Celsiuses were mages to the bone.
Rankin Celsius hid his faint sense of defeat and said.
“A Divine...? No, that's impossible. Of all the Divines discovered so far, none have ever interfered with a Law!”
“Of course not. The Law isn't that kind of power.”
Good. My body's moving well now. I stretched my stiff limbs and spoke.
“It's an incredible power. I almost couldn't resist and crossed the River Styx myself. Luckily, I was able to return thanks to meeting your ancestor, Kelvin Celsius, over there. He was a truly virtuous man. I'm much obliged to him.”
“Are you insulting us right now?”
“But it's true.”
To think my sincerity doesn't get through. What a shame. I was just trying to pass on your ancestor's regards.
In any case, the fact that I escaped is undeniable, and thanks to that, I now have everyone's attention. It's time for a proper conversation. I raised a finger, drawing everyone's gaze.
“I met and spoke with the first Celsius and came to realize a very important truth. A core piece of information about the Law.”
As distant descendants of Kelvin Celsius, I can share what I've learned. Listen carefully. This lecture is for your benefit.
“I've seen many Divines, so I know this: the Law is not compatible with them. You don't even have to look at the Law, specifically. Most of the 'rules' of other great magic houses have no connection to the Divines. Why do you think that is?”
A great principle that pierces the world. A Unique Magic is a Spiritual World explored and polished to its limit by a single individual. When those two align, a Divine appears.
In other words, what does this mean?
“It's simple. Because there's nothing special about it. It's not some grand, unique principle.”
The mages, taking my words as an insult, glared at me.
I calmly absorbed the brief flash of killing intent and let out a deep sigh.
“This 'rule' of yours... you call it a rule, but in truth, it's far from a principle of the world. It's a form of magic, processed to utilize a single phenomenon that has been deeply explored. In other words, it's something like a machine? A facility? A device, intricately crafted using the power of magic.”
The rule of the Celsius domain is simple: the freezing point and the boiling point. By applying and reapplying this simple rule, they created a massive ring of heat that circulates throughout the entire domain. Thanks to this, despite its snowy appearance, the domain's climate was actually quite mild.
It wasn't a power born from some great truth, but a small, ordinary heart that thought of the people.
“The reason the Celsius domain became the most livable place? It's not because the ability is so grand and outstanding. In fact, knowledge that is too profound is often detached from life. It only became great because the intention within it was pure.”
Rankin asked, “Does that not mean that the Law of Celsius is great?”
“It's different. I'm saying what's inside it is great; things like 'the Law' or 'the rule' are just the outer shell. Shouldn't humans be able to swap out their tools whenever they need to?”
No matter how important you think it is, you're just the ones wielding the tool. Wielding a tool to torment people? Well, sure. That happens often enough. That, too, is human nature.
But if you forget that it's just a tool and start worshipping it... I can remind you. Remind you who the master is.
“Regimes. Systems. Justice. Morality. Virtue. Civilization. All of these are tools. What's important is their purpose. I don't know who decided them, but there is no such thing as a sacred and lofty tool.”
I held up a transparent key. It was Elcia's key to the Vault of Relics, which I had discreetly 'borrowed' when I melted the ice and burst out.
Elcia noticed it and her face went blank with shock.
“When did you...?”
She looks like someone who's never been pickpocketed in her life. A little trick like this wouldn't even count as a skill in the back alleys. I twirled the key and spoke.
“If your belief is truly superior to and greater than humanity, then it wouldn't break from someone like me just tinkering with it a little, would it?”
“Careful...!”
Elcia looked at the key in my hand, terrified. She was worried I might shatter or break it.
'No. Control your expression. The essence of the Vault is Rene's Pocket, and the key is just a means to open it. Even if it breaks, I can just get another one! Right now, I have to stop him from doing anything foolish! If the Vault goes berserk...!'
“That's a meaningless gesture. That is a Celsius heirloom. Not only can you not handle it, but it's dangerous for someone who doesn't know its purpose to touch it. If you don't want to be frozen and shattered into pieces, I'll give you a chance to reverse your actions now...”
“Open, sesame.”
I had learned how to open the dimensional door when I read their thoughts earlier. I walked up to a nearby ice wall and inserted the key. The ice split apart, forming a large door. I turned the key, and the door to the Vault of Relics opened.
Creeak.
There should have been nothing behind the ice wall, but a space opened up, revealing the Celsius Vault of Relics. Just as they said, it was a passage to the vault, connected to the space that had opened before. A cool chill and a flow of mana emanated from within.
Elcia, forgetting all decorum, screamed.
“Aaaah! Stop! A plebeian like you must not touch it!”
“Humans resist. They try to protect themselves, to maintain homeostasis against external attacks, challenges, invasions, and variables. It's the essence of life.”
The relics on the magic circle each occupied their proper positions. To stably draw upon the power of relics with different abilities, mana had to be channeled through the intricately designed magic circle in a specific sequence.
A magic circle in a pocket dimension, with the relics as its core. This was the foundation of the Law.
I reached out my hand. Like Shei's Pocket, the internal space was vast, but my hand reached the object I desired, regardless of the distance.
“Hello, Celsius. Starting today, the rules are going to change a little. Try to adapt to the new ones. No need to feel wronged. Isn't this how everyone lives?”
If humans are to be tested by the rule, then the rule must also accept the challenge of humans. It must prove its worth to me. Prove just how useful and practical a tool it is.
I gently moved a relic in the vault. The domain's ancient rule began to reconfigure itself.
For such a supposedly grand rule, changing it was as simple as tidying up a messy room.