Chapter 14
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 14: Raiding the Duke Estal Family (8)
Ziiiing—
"Crude eyes are everywhere. I have cleared them all away so they cannot obstruct my path."
The surveillance magic hovering in the room was neutralized.
The groundwork for infiltration is complete.
The problem starts from here.
How am I going to get to the treasure vault?
The security of the Duke's residence is truly strict.
Just in the hallway in front of my room, an elite knight is waiting with eyes wide open.
Although I did some disguise.
If infiltration succeeds just by wearing a single monocle, it would be proof that this is a third-rate novel with no probability.
Hiding well in the darkness is also a problem.
Because the knights here are guys who have enhanced their five senses with mana.
In other words, it shouldn't just be dark.
"I need to kill the sound and not be seen either......."
There is a way.
Light is a wave, and sound is also a wave.
In physics, waves are very familiar guys I've calculated tirelessly since my first year as an undergraduate.
I pulled up my rat's tail amount of mana and started tapping the air particles around my body.
The magical implementation of so-called Optical Camouflage and Active Noise Canceling.
The principle is simple.
Smoothly refract the light touching my body to connect to the background behind.
And calculate the frequency of my footsteps in real-time.
Send out mana waves with the exact opposite phase to cancel them out.
'I can't completely erase all frequencies, but canceling just the human audible range should be enough.'
After finishing preparations, I carefully opened the door.
'Phew.......'
Theoretically, I shouldn't be seen.
But errors are bound to occur between theoretical data and the actual field.
Such an experimental environment always makes me nervous, from my undergraduate days until now.
Step—. Step—.
I am clearly stepping, but no sound rang in the hallway.
Seems successful?
Not long after, I saw the figure of the knight guarding the hallway.
"Yaaawwwwn—."
The knight yawned until his mouth ripped open and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
I am passing by a distance of less than 1 meter, but he seems unaware.
It's a huge success.
Watching that scene, Eleanor let out a hollow laugh as if it was absurd.
"......Rihan. You truly spare magic power terribly."
"Is that a compliment?"
"A compliment indeed. To pour that precise magic control, which others would use for 8th Hierarchy Grand Magic, into merely suppressing presence. Dividing that insignificant mana again and again to finally realize invisibility magic, that salty tenacity...... it is truly at the point of being wondrous."
It seems my method is quite shocking to her too.
"Efficiency is important."
I glided across the hallway right in front of the knight's nose.
I skillfully escaped the main building and was heading to the separate building I saw in the morning.
"Stop your feet. A filthy bug has been caught in my sight."
At Eleanor's warning, I instinctively pressed my body behind a wall.
No, is someone having a regular meeting at this dawn?
Peeking my head out carefully, I see a familiar back of the head.
It was Delmar, who got beaten to dust by me at the training ground yesterday.
'Why is that bastard like that at this time? Did he lose sleep over the pain of defeat?'
Looking at the appearance, it seems he is standing night duty in front of the separate building.
The problem is.
'What are those guys doing?'
Next to Delmar, some female mage is sticking to him with coquettish gestures.
"Sir Delmar, what if Lady Yveline sees us like this......."
"Huhu, don't even bring up the story of that prickly and selfish girl. Who would really like a kid running wild trusting only her family background? A soft and obedient kid like you is a hundred times better."
This son of a bitch?
I don't know where the spirit he had dueling me while looking at Yveline's eyes went.
He was just a snob trying to cling to power.
Or a trash revealing women.
Or both.
Even if Yveline's personality is a bit prickly.
She is not a kid to be evaluated by such filth.
Isn't she none other than my disciple?
I should protect my disciple.
But.
'I'll see you later.'
Right now, the ring is the priority.
I decided to postpone Yveline's revenge for a moment.
"To think such trash is mixed in the family established by my disciple. I feel my eyes being polluted. Since the smell of vulgar saliva vibrates up to here, let's pass quickly."
Genuine disgust dripped from Eleanor's voice.
At that time, Delmar wrapped his arm around the female mage's waist and lowered his head.
Now is the time.
Just as I was passing quickly by Delmar's side.
"......!"
Just before the female mage's lips touched, Delmar stopped his movement abruptly.
Eleanor immediately killed her energy.
Delmar turned his head sharply and stared piercingly at the empty air where I stood.
'Fuck! He senses this?'
Sorry for saying your skills were rock bottom!
A Chief is a Chief!
"Sir Delmar? What's wrong?"
"......No, I thought I felt something just now."
Delmar thrust his face right in front of my nose with a suspicious expression.
His mana reaction soars finely and starts scanning the surrounding space.
"............"
His breath reached right in front of my invisible body.
Cold sweat flows down my spine.
I quietly gathered mana at my right fingertips.
Opponents are two.
If it's a surprise attack, it's doable enough.
".........Is it just my feeling. There's nothing."
Delmar stared for a long time, then turned his head back to the female mage.
"It seems my senses have become sensitive. Because of thinking about that crazy guy named Rihan from yesterday."
That trash-like pride saved me.
'......Wow, I really almost dropped my heart.'
"The stupid guy is lucky. Consider it heaven's luck that I didn't burn that guy's brain fluid."
'Let's just take the ring first, and beat that bastard half-dead later. Senior.'
I hurriedly threw my body towards the main gate of the separate building.
Passing the underground hallway I saw in the morning, finally in front of the huge door of the treasure vault I arrived at.
"So, Senior. Where is Lady Selene?"
"Don't be impatient. She must be preparing to answer my call."
Eleanor's doll stood on my shoulder and reached out a small hand towards the door.
Then, pink mana rises like haze in the empty air.
Slowly, the form of a woman began to be shaped.
Cotton candy-like bright pink hair and clear blue eyes to the point of transparency.
"......Yveline?"
I almost mistook her.
If Yveline matures as is, would she look exactly like that?
I could know at once how thickly she inherited the blood of the family founder, Selene.
"Master—!"
The founder of the Estal Duke family.
Selene von Estal runs over smiling brightly.
"Do you know how long I waited!"
"Yes, yes. Didn't I say I would come. Keep your dignity, Selene."
"Che, still cold as ever. I missed you!"
She looks similar to Yveline, but her actions are the opposite.
Unlike the cynical Yveline, this one is excessively affectionate.
It seems only the appearance was inherited.
"Hehe, then is this the guy? The kid Master boasted about until your mouth went dry?"
"Ahem! When did I do that."
Eleanor boasted about me?
Seeing her clear her throat and getting flustered, Eleanor has a cute side too.
I bowed my head lightly.
"Nice to meet you. I am Rihan."
"........."
Sudden silence.
Selene stared intently at me as if she had no interest in my self-introduction.
Her blue pupils waver strangely.
Is it the first time seeing a 0th Hierarchy mage?
Or is she watching because my mana amount is too terrible?
Selene, who scrutinized me piercingly for a long time, finally opened her mouth.
"......I can't see."
"Yes? What?"
"You, how come I can't see your future? This is the first time since I was born."
Playfulness disappears entirely from Selene's voice.
Her unique magic is Causality Calculation.
In other words, future foresight.
Didn't she say she derives results using the movement of all mana in the world as variables?
She can't see my future?
"If I can't see it...... You, it means you don't belong to the Causality of this world, right?"
Selene scans me again.
This time, eyes filled with much more interest than before.
"Wow, as Master said, he's a really interesting guy! I want to marry him off to our descendant and tie him to the family altogether!"
What kind of bolt from the blue is this.
Are you telling me to marry Yveline?
'.........Well, Yveline isn't bad but.'
Cassian is a bit......
"I decline. I won't marry into a family where the father-in-law is Duke Cassian."
"Kyalulu! Cassian is a good kid if you get to know him. Don't hate him too much."
Duke Cassian is a good kid.
Truly a remark befitting a founder.
"I almost died several times already?"
"Ey, he won't really kill you! ......Probably?"
That 'probably' is too irresponsible.
How scared I was!
Whether she knows my heart or not, Selene waved her hand lightly.
"Now now, go inside. Because I was guarding Master's item very hard."
Before opening the door.
I couldn't endure and brought up a scholarly question.
"That future foresight. What is the principle? Do you really calculate all variables? Like particle momentum or mana flow?"
At my question, Selene tilts her head and looks at me.
"Well? I don't know either. It's comfortable to just think of it as authority. Master says difficult things like influence of Causality or whatever, but I couldn't understand up to there even after hitting 9th Hierarchy. I just see it because it's visible, well."
A realm where a 9th Hierarchy Grand Mage asserts she doesn't know.
'Can it not be explained by logic?'
There was no harvest, but one thing became clear.
That my future does not appear in the authority to look into the future.
In other words, the Causality System of this world is not perfect.
To put it differently, the future is not determined.
Because the variable called me will cause a Butterfly Effect.
If so, changing the development of the original work becomes an established fact.
'Yveline. You can live.'
Inwardly, I was worried that the ending would be the same no matter how I struggled.
It's a relief that such a conclusion came out.
After the conversation ended, as Selene waved her hand.
Click―!
For a thousand years.
The tightly closed door opened.