Chapter 16
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 16: To You, 1000 Years Later
Flash—!
The moment the ring wrapped around my finger.
The air in all directions wavered insanely.
High-concentration mana swirled and forcibly began colliding surrounding particles.
The frictional heat generated by intense molecular movement stimulates my skin hotly.
But paradoxically.
My mind settled colder and more transparently than ever before.
"............"
It is completely different from what I thought.
It is not simply a quantitative expansion where the amount of mana increases.
Something on a different dimension from that.
A sensation of stepping closer to the essence of the world.
Did Einstein feel this thrill when he mathematically proved the distortion of spacetime?
'I feel like I can do anything.......'
The flow of air.
The minute trembling of mana.
Even the movement of dust piled in the corner of the treasure vault.
They are clearly drawn in my head without even trying to focus.
"Phew............"
As I exhaled rough breath and relaxed my body's tension, high-density mana spewed out following the exhaled breath.
"How is it? Did my treasure fix your body to be somewhat usable?"
Eleanor asks as if interested.
"It definitely changed. Not simply becoming stronger......"
I slowly clenched and opened my hand.
"It feels like one more sense to see the world has been added."
Three cogwheels called sense, mana, and body are interlocking and turning without error.
It's a fascinating feeling.
To use a metaphor, it's like a 3D being perceiving 4D for the first time.
Selene, who was next to me, clapped lightly and smiled brightly.
"Wow! It's definitely different. Just by possessing a Spirit Vessel, your Hierarchy rose. This case is really rare, congratulations!"
Is this the sensation of Hierarchy rising?
'Maybe I'm unexpectedly the strongest?'
Just as I was about to get drunk on baseless confidence for a moment.
Eleanor stared intently at my state and sighed deeply.
"......However, how is it that the total amount of mana is still in that shape even after taking the Spirit Vessel. It's at the level where a rat's tail became a tiger's tail."
"Where else would a rat's tail become a tiger's tail. It's a huge development."
The explanation itself is shabby, but the difference was huge.
Now I am at a level where I can at least present a business card as a mage somewhere.
"So Senior, how do I use this Kotodama (Spirit of Words)? I want to use it right now."
As I asked feeling the touch of the ring wrapped around my finger, Eleanor rebuked stiffly.
"Ahem, do not rush. Kotodama is not magic but the Forced Execution of Phenomenon."
Eleanor shook the doll's head and continued.
"The laws of the world twist at your single word. If you spit it out blindly, the circuits of your soul will burn first from the recoil."
There was such a restriction?
At Eleanor's firm attitude, I closed my mouth.
"I will start formal training in a safe place later, so cherish that sense of accomplishment for now."
Sealing it as soon as I gained omnipotence.
It was regrettable, but isn't getting something enough.
The insignificant mana battery became as thick as a tiger's tail.
And the eyes seeing the world changed clearly.
This is satisfactory enough.
While I was packing my things to leave.
Selene held out the bracelet like a bowling ball I saw earlier.
Clack—!
As she lightly flicked her hand.
The sphere disassembled like a precise mechanical device and unfolded into a sophisticated bracelet form.
"Here, this is a bonus. Etardos's Bracelet."
"......You're giving this to me?"
Selene put the bracelet on my wrist herself.
Strange expectation beyond simple favor dwells in her blue eyes.
"You are the only variable not bound by the Causality of this world, right? That must be the reason Master chose you."
Selene stared straight into my eyes and added quietly.
"So don't die easily. Because if you die, the opportunity to change the miserable future of our family will also disappear forever."
She grinned again like usual and changed the atmosphere.
"Besides, if you're Master's disciple, it means you're my junior, right? A senior originally gives at least one gift to a junior!"
"........."
How touching.
Unlike the descendant with a broken personality, the Founder is such a benevolent and good person.
"......Thank you! I'll come visit sometimes to clean and tell stories so you won't be bored."
There isn't much I can do for Selene.
So, I should take better care of Yveline at least.
'I will definitely prevent the guillotine ending.'
Whether she liked my answer, Selene burst into laughter like a child.
"Wow, really a type Master would like! Good, I'll remember that promise."
On the way out from the treasure vault.
The atmosphere is strangely harmonious.
'Looking at the situation objectively, it is clear theft though.......'
Anxiety about what if I get caught assaulted me, but.
Soon I constructed perfect defensive logic in my head.
Named Founder Chance.
'I received permission directly from your Founder.'
A kind of family-type "Talulah" technique (unassailable excuse).
A descendant trying to take away a gift given directly by the Founder?
This is an act crossing the line both Confucian-wise and magically.
If I push brazenly, it will work out somehow.
While walking thinking this would surely work.
"......Stop. There is something in front."
Eleanor's voice breaks the atmosphere at once.
At the same time, Selene, who was floating next to me chatting, also stared at the door and stopped.
"......Of all times, now. My descendant, I have to acknowledge his impatient temper."
What dwelt in her blue eyes is bitterness.
And clear wariness.
Step, step.
Regular and heavy shoe sounds approached through the passage.
Beyond the passage where darkness heavily settled.
A man flashing cool blue eyes under blond hair slowly reveals his figure.
Cassian von Estal.
'Ha...... they said don't raise death flags in life.'
The real deal appeared.
I mocked myself and whispered with earnestness to Selene standing next to me.
"Senior Selene, can't you tell him directly? That I'm taking it with formal permission."
"That...... sorry. I am invisible to Cassian. Thanks to Master, only you can perceive me."
My grand Talulah plan was ruthlessly smashed before it even started!
Damn it.
It was then.
Kooooong―.
Bizarre noise of friction in the atmosphere.
At the same time, breath chokes.
The pressure emitted by a 6th Hierarchy mage was on a different dimension.
"......I knew you would come."
Cassian's gaze lingered on the Ring of Words on my finger.
"Because I bought your ability highly."
Thanks for the compliment, but fuck!
"Hup......"
Breathing is too hard.
Every time Cassian takes a step closer.
Pressure amplifies twofold.
"No matter how you hide by twisting sound and light, you wouldn't have been able to hide even the soul of a foreign substance intruding into a space allowed only for the bloodline of this family."
I realized my mistake.
I was only busy deceiving sight and hearing.
I overlooked the possibility of high-level magic reading souls.
Cassian suspected me from the beginning.
He dug this trap and was waiting for me to fall in.
"The price for coveting my item is not light."
He slowly raised his hand.
Ssssss—.
Mana condensing at his fingertips.
Destructive enough to annihilate this entire space right now.
Power that cannot even be compared to Delmar I faced yesterday.
"The price of theft, you will have to pay with your life."
There is no retreat nor excuse.
In short.
I'm totally fucked.
In front of the treasure vault door.
Cassian's pupils shake without focus.
Revealing his madness without filtration.
"Looking at it, it seems your magical capacity reached the 1st Hierarchy....... It is regrettable that I have to kill a smart person like you with my own hands."
Fuck, if it's regrettable, can't you just let me live?
I thought about kneeling and begging, but.
Looking at Cassian's eyes, the answer came out.
That is not a physiognomy that will grant mercy.
A man who will kill me without an inch of hesitation.
It feels like my ribs are burning from the tightening pressure.
'......I can't just stand and die.'
1st Hierarchy reached just now.
The afterscent of omnipotence felt earlier still remains at the fingertips.
Against a monster of the 6th Hierarchy, it might be more reckless than hitting a rock with an egg, but.
For a physicist, giving up is something done only after experiment failure.
I cannot die like this.
I stretched my trembling right hand forward.
'Let's focus. 1 second, no even 0.1 second is fine.'
If I succeed in interference just once, room for counterattack might arise.
Just as the chant of high-level magic was about to start from Cassian's mouth.
Beeeeeeep—!
Sudden tinnitus.
Silence arrives as if all surrounding noise is erased.
Soon Eleanor's voice came from within my consciousness.
A calm and heavy voice without a single grain of usual playfulness or venom.
"Rihan. Do you trust this lady?"
'......Senior?'
Opponent is a 6th Hierarchy Grand Mage.
No matter how amazing Eleanor was.
Right now she is just a spiritual body residing in an old doll.
Can she really face that monster?
Doubt brushed my head, but I gave the answer immediately.
"......I trust you."
Die together, live together.
Because she is not a person to lie to me at least.
"Hand over your body to me for a moment. Make a Vow. I must teach that pitiful child what the duty of a teacher is."
No time to ask how to make a vow.
I just answered instinctively.
"I'll hand over my body. Do as you please."
At the same time those words fell, a bizarre sensation of the soul being sucked out swept through the whole body.
Feeling of my ego being pushed out of the body and floating in the air.
At the same time, the owner of my body changed.