Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: The Strange Well
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She belatedly understood what Loan meant.
“Are you saying you just had a conversation with the blackboard?”
“Yes. It seemed pleased. It said it couldn’t even remember the last time it spoke with a human.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Of course not.”
“Of course, the Tower’s guardian can hear our voices or understand our intentions and react accordingly, but that’s hardly what one would call a conversation. How did you manage it?”
Loan didn’t try to hide the truth.
He intended to gauge this person he was meeting for the first time.
“I spoke to it with my mind.”
The Tower Master’s eyes grew even more suspicious.
“You mean you used Mind-Talk?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Both had their own impressions to process.
“Mind-Talk requires a specific target. How could you converse with a blackboard, which cannot be specifically targeted?”
“Of course, it can’t be targeted precisely. I sent the Mind-Talk toward the area where I felt the densest magical energy, and it responded. Around here.”
Loan levitated a piece of chalk and drew a tall, oblong circle on the blackboard, about the height of a person.
In truth, he had sent the Mind-Talk directly to the condensed form of mana, but he explained it vaguely on purpose.
The Master of the Tower of Cognition, Anke, stared intently at the circle as if trying to detect the magical energy, then turned her gaze to Loan.
Her expression was filled with the question, ‘How?’
Of course, sensing magical energy was something most people who practiced mana cultivation could do.
However, the process was not simple.
One’s sensitivity could determine how well or how quickly they sensed it.
In any case, it required a level of concentration comparable to mana cultivation and time to calmly immerse oneself.
‘When could he have had the time for that…?’
She couldn’t understand how he had managed it in the brief moment they were exchanging greetings.
Having spent many years here, she too had felt the phenomenon of magical energy concentrating in a specific part of the blackboard.
But she hadn't given it much thought.
The blackboard proved its status as the Tower’s guardian daily by displaying incomprehensible abilities, so she had considered it natural to feel magical energy from it.
Of course, she had never thought to speak to it.
And so.
Anke, who had been watching Loan with distrustful eyes, soon sent her own Mind-Talk toward the spot Loan had marked with chalk.
She imagined the top of the oval as a human head and gave it a random try.
Then, suddenly, her shoulders flinched.
Her mouth fell open on its own.
A faint vibration, not as strong as before, could be felt from the bookshelves and pillars.
While the seated mages looked at each other in confusion.
Anke’s lips parted and closed slightly.
“Reflection of Cognition…”
She had confirmed the name for herself.
She continued to mutter to herself in a trembling voice.
“It was real. Why for so long…”
She exchanged Mind-Talk with the Reflection of Cognition.
Their conversation was long, due to the years they had spent together, but it didn’t take her much time to gather her thoughts.
After a few emotional moments, she looked at Loan again, her expression calm once more.
“I misunderstood.”
“It’s alright.”
“Now I understand the rumors about you, and how you were able to pass through the Tower of Phenomena so quickly.”
“Thank you for seeing me for what I am.”
Anke was pleased with Loan’s answer.
He could have been polite and said something like, ‘Thank you for your kind words,’ or ‘You praise me too highly,’ but he had answered differently.
It was the most desirable and correct expression a mage could use.
“No, as the Master of the Tower of Cognition, I am the one who should be thankful. You have opened a new horizon for this place.”
“Is it that significant?”
It was a higher evaluation than he had expected.
Loan was also somewhat surprised.
Anke continued in a calm tone.
“This place is different from the Tower of Phenomena. Like the mirror, we couldn’t converse with the blackboard. Of course, some communication through writing was possible, but it wasn’t at a level that could be called a conversation. No, perhaps we simply never tried properly…”
The Tower Master muttered to herself, her gaze lowered.
Loan waited for her to continue without showing any particular reaction.
“The Tower of Cognition is the intellect of Schwerin. From the Age of Creation long ago to this very day, we have researched, perceived, analyzed, and understood every magic that has been created and manifested. This is under the belief that magic is not developed, but discovered.”
“That’s why it was called the Age of Recreation for so long.”
“Yes. The moment the world was created, the laws of all things were created with it. Magic is the recreation of these laws, and we, the later generations, have recreated those already perfected magics. However, that was only until you made a name for yourself. It was a great shock.”
The Tower Master extended a hand toward the mages of Cognition, whose gazes were fixed on her and Loan.
“These mages. Despite everything, the mages of our Tower did not put down their books. The belief that there is nothing truly new in the world still held. Thus, we sought to find it. The formula for combining elemental magics that you introduced to the world, and the method by which you deconstructed the very nature of elemental magic itself.”
“Did you find it?”
“Not within these walls. Not yet. But we will.”
These were things that required a prerequisite understanding and analysis of mana itself.
If such a book or theory had existed, the world’s mages wouldn’t have been so astonished by Loan’s magic.
Loan asked.
“Do you only ever search?”
Depending on the interpretation, it was a rather aggressive question.
Anke did not take it personally.
“Rather, I would like to ask you. How empty would it be if a thousand years of history were to be rewritten because of a single mage who stood out for a few years?”
Loan pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement.
“That’s a fair point.”
Anke watched him for a moment and then smiled.
On the surface, both their expressions and attitudes seemed perfectly fine.
In fact, they even looked quite friendly.
But Loan could feel from the unique flow of Anke’s mana that the test had already begun.
Fine threads of mana began to extend from her head, connecting one by one with the books that filled the Tower of Cognition.
The books themselves held a certain amount of magical energy, so it was fair to say they were resonating with each other.
To be able to connect with so many books individually meant she possessed remarkably precise magical control, and that her magical power was exceptional.
What was she preparing?
Just then, Anke spoke.
“I know what you desire. You wish for the mages of Cognition to go out into the world and face Grave. And you intend to convey the same wish to the Tower of Sensation. Is that correct?”
She asked bluntly, as if to waste no time.
Loan didn’t hold back either.
“That is correct. How can I make my will known here?”
“A wish of that magnitude is not something I, the Tower Master, can grant. Only the Tower’s guardian can acknowledge you. The method to verify your qualifications… yes. The Reflection of Cognition will now inform us.”
At the end of Anke’s words, he felt an incredibly subtle flow of mana.
Just as he had felt the Tower’s emotions as vibrations when he shared Mind-Talk with its guardian.
A very small change was felt somewhere above his head.
He couldn’t pinpoint it.
It was like trying to identify which leaf had rustled in the wind within a dense forest.
And yet.
Anke suddenly spoke. Though she tried to hide it, a faint look of bewilderment remained on her face.
“Three, twelve, four, twenty-seven.”
The four enigmatic numbers she recited.
Loan understood their meaning without difficulty, thanks to his long familiarity with libraries since childhood.
‘When she said three, she must have meant the third section.’
The Tower of Cognition was divided into four sections of bookshelves, corresponding to the four cardinal directions.
And instead of having a single floor, it was divided by fifteen massive bookshelves, as if they were fifteen separate floors.
So the numbers she spoke meant the twenty-seventh book on the fourth row of the twelfth bookshelf in the third section.
Indeed, when he looked up to find it, a single book was sticking out ever so slightly, like a fingernail, in the far distance.
The Tower Master hadn't pulled it out. It had to be the Tower’s guardian that had selected the book.
It would have been impossible to notice without being magically connected to every volume on the shelves.
Anke opened her mouth.
“Yan.”
“Head Mage Yan, at your command, Tower Master.”
One of the seated mages walked over and took a position in front of the bookshelf.
Then, he reached a hand upward and chanted an incantation for telekinesis—
The book that was sticking out slightly was slowly drawn downward.
Just by accurately selecting and controlling a book from such a great distance, it was clear he was a mage of considerable skill.
The book floated down.
[The Strange Well]
The cover of the not-so-thick book bore a title he had never seen before.
Anke had worn a very perplexed expression ever since she announced the book’s location, but she quickly erased it upon becoming conscious of Loan.
It was clearly a reaction to having already discerned the book’s title and content.
Anke said.
“The Reflection of Cognition has chosen a rather random book.”
“So the Tower’s guardian did choose the book.”
“…Yes. You are to select a topic based on this book and then present your opinion on it. The Tower’s guardian will judge your knowledge and intellect.”
“What is it about?”
While Head Mage Yan kept the book floating in the air, the conversation between Anke and Loan continued.
“It’s a fairy tale. A grim one, I believe they’re called. Judging by your reaction, you haven’t read it.”
“I have not.”
“It’s not very long. Would you like to read it now?”
Anke asked, lightly tilting her chin up.
She was trying to buy time.
She had no idea what topic could possibly be drawn from this book.
As Tower Master, she was supposed to point out flaws in his process or holes in his theory, but with no foreseeable topic, she couldn’t predict how he would present his argument.
For the first time in a while, her mind felt foggy.
She didn’t want to reveal such a state to a junior so far beneath her.
Loan replied.
“Thank you. I will.”
Loan enveloped the book in Convection and gently drew it toward him.
In that brief moment, not only Yan, who had been controlling the book with telekinesis, but Anke as well, furrowed their brows in wonder.
Light gasps escaped from among the other mages of Cognition.
Listening to their whispers, he heard them murmuring about how smoothly he could intervene with magic.
Loan feigned ignorance and opened the book while it was still floating in the air.
A gentle, delicate movement.
Another round of admiration rippled through the onlookers, and for good reason—he was turning the pages by caressing them with mana.
He wasn’t trying to show off. He was simply concerned about damaging the very old book with unnecessary contact.
*Rustle, rustle.*
For a moment, only the sound of pages turning could be heard in the silence.
Loan quickly read the story of a boy and a girl from different worlds who conversed with each other through a strange well.
The girl, who had peered into the well, spoke with a boy she had never seen before, reflected on the water’s surface. At the boy’s wish to meet, she jumped into the well and entered his world.
The author’s intent could be felt through the text. At times, Loan became the boy, and in other moments, the girl. He understood both their hearts at once.
“Hmm…”
Closing the book, he stepped back from the world the author had created and projected it onto reality.
The mirror. The blackboard. The other side of phenomena. The Reflection of Cognition.
Both gaze into the same well, but each sees a different world.
A symmetrical world. Beings in different places. Different dimensions.
Finally, he added the questions he had brought from the Tower of Phenomena to his thoughts.
“A good topic has come to mind.”
Loan had an inkling as to why the Tower’s guardian had chosen this book.