Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Synesthesia
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The next day.
Long before sunrise, the mages of Sensation began to gather in the first-floor hall, silently watching the number decrease.
Though they didn’t approach for fear of disturbing him, some had watched the painting from a distance all night.
There was a strange addictiveness to watching the number dwindle.
They were all mesmerized until they reached a certain conclusion, and then they simply waited for him.
Time passed in silence, with nothing happening.
The silence was broken by one person.
“Good morning.”
Loan, who had returned to the first-floor hall with a refreshed body and mind for the first time in a while, greeted the mages.
And then he saw the number ‘0’ written starkly in the painting.
The number repeatedly shifted through various colors, like a meteorite emitting a unique, random light.
With his eyes fixed on the number, Loan approached Ingrid.
As the two exchanged morning greetings with a light bow, the Tower's Guardian sent a mental message to everyone gathered.
-I shall make the announcement.
It was already incredibly quiet, but in an instant, it felt as if even the softest breaths had vanished.
The heavy mental message slowly sank into everyone’s hearts.
-Eighty-seven billion, seven hundred ninety-nine million, seven hundred ninety-five thousand, two hundred fifty-four. It matches the number Loan stated.
The content was straightforward, but it seemed so unbelievable that there were no cheers or gasps of admiration.
At the height of the silence.
“How did you do it? How could you count those countless beads without a single error?”
Ingrid asked.
It was a question she had long suppressed. Because of that, yesterday's intense emotions had completely vanished.
She was remarkably calm.
The atmosphere was not unlike that of a teacher looking proudly at a student who had received a perfect score on a test she had set.
Loan answered.
“I didn’t rely solely on sight. All five senses were mobilized. But because of that, I couldn't distinguish one sense from another.”
It was a puzzling statement.
Ingrid, trying to grasp its meaning, was taken aback by Loan’s follow-up question.
“It was the moment I truly felt that this was the Tower of Sensation. The test’s intention. Wasn't that the profound meaning you and the Guardian intended?”
The Tower Master of Sensation desperately racked her brain.
She wanted to figure out what profound meaning her subconscious might have had in arranging this confrontation.
Loan continued to elaborate.
It was a great relief.
“Counting with my eyes became impossible midway through. But when that happened, something amazing occurred.”
Loan’s voice grew thick with emotion. He seemed to be recalling a certain moment.
“Something amazing?”
“I imagine it was the same for you, Tower Master, since you must have also counted to a considerably high number.”
Loan recalled that moment.
The moment he had spun his two Circles, gathering a significant amount of mana.
In truth, for Loan, who was used to seeing and manipulating the mana in the atmosphere, the beads were quite large objects.
The same was true even after they split multiple times. They were still a long way from being as small as mana itself.
Having meticulously controlled mana particles for years, it would have been easier for Loan to count them if he had used his three eyes, but he felt that would be unfair.
So he deliberately chose not to use his mind’s eye.
He approached it conventionally, like everyone else, by enhancing his vision.
And so he counted the beads.
“Of course, a moment certainly came when I could no longer follow them with my eyes. The terribly fast and numerous movements in the confined space dazzled me.”
But his brain refused to give up the will to count them all.
And desperation always had a way of bringing about change.
“Then, suddenly, my other senses began to compensate. It was as if other organs were helping an unstable one.”
It’s easy to understand if you think of those who cannot see. They often develop other senses, like hearing or smell.
For a moment, Loan thought of the Governor-General, who covered her eyes with a blindfold.
“First, my hearing compensated for my sight. I could hear minute sounds distinctly. The *ting, ting-ting* of collisions and the *shhhk* of them splitting formed shapes in my mind.”
Even with his mana-seeing eye deliberately closed, the movement and waves of mana were rendered in his mind, following the sounds.
To be precise, the impacts inside the device created external vibrations, and these subtle waves pushed against the mana.
And from that, he felt a sense of touch.
His sense of touch eventually took on a pattern, and the mutually reinforcing senses began to construct a clearer, more precise image.
As the heating intensified and the beads’ colors glowed, the colors and images were sometimes perceived as scents and tastes.
“Perceived as scents and tastes?”
She found the sense of touch hard enough to understand, but the idea that smell and taste had aided his sight made Ingrid’s head spin.
“We often recall a taste just by looking at a picture of food. Ah, Guardian, could you help me for a moment?”
Loan suddenly looked at the Tower's Guardian and made a friendly request.
The Tower’s Guardian began to mix paints on its canvas.
A delectable painting of the pork leg dish that Loan had enjoyed yesterday appeared.
*Gulp.*
Someone made a swallowing sound, and soon, a wave of stomach growls spread through the hall.
Most of them hadn’t eaten yet. It was because they had gathered early, eager to see the result of the test.
“The Guardian has shown us a very delicious-looking dish. Thank you. The feelings and reactions you are all experiencing are created not by actual food, but by a painting. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say we recalled a stimulus rather than directly tasting the painting. The same goes for color.”
As if understanding Loan’s words, the Tower’s Guardian painted the entire canvas red.
Then blue. A moment later, it was colored a green that seemed to have been made by melting the surrounding leaves.
“Through color, we can recall tastes and scents. We can also recall the sensation of heat or cold. This might be in the realm of instinct, or it could be cognition born from experience. If so, the reverse should also be possible. That’s why touch can become taste or scent. And scents and tastes can become colors, forming shapes in the mind.”
“Hmm…”
“It was a bit strange to experience a reversal of what I normally feel, but in the end, I learned that the five senses are interconnected. Here, the transformation between senses is not one-way but mutually complementary.”
A familiar, easy-to-understand concept was slightly twisted, creating an awkward feeling.
It was like food that had been eaten but not digested.
“The senses are interconnected. They don’t just flow in one direction. Is that what you mean?”
“I can’t explain the principle of this reversal precisely, nor how I encountered that moment. What is certain is that I counted the beads with all five senses. All my senses connected to reconstruct the beads in my mind.”
The image of the beads that emerged this way was slow enough.
Slow enough to divide them into sections and count them accurately.
“You said it was a test of counting with our eyes, but in the end, it was a contest that required mobilizing all five senses. Truly befitting the Tower of Sensation. And, Tower Master…”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. Has there ever been anyone who has given so many lessons to a lacking junior in such a short time? I have truly learned a great deal.”
Her method of mana manipulation, and the things concerning the five senses, were all refreshing. It had been a time of great gain.
The Tower Master’s face flushed red, but Loan paid it no mind.
“It was also a moment when my misunderstandings were completely resolved.”
He had never doubted that the development of the five senses would be helpful to a mage.
However, he had been skeptical about whether it would elevate the status of mages.
He thought it couldn’t compare to swordsmen and fighters, who daily experienced the process of using their bodies to clash, learn, and internalize their senses.
He wondered if it wasn't highly likely to remain a mere academic pursuit.
Thus, he had doubted whether it was right to focus solely on sensory training.
But after taking the test, he realized it held a profound meaning.
“I didn’t realize you were preparing for sensation not to stop at mere perception. It’s hard to know how you’ve trained, but the direction is surely correct. Ultimately, the key will be to open all five senses simultaneously and expand into the realm of synesthesia.”
“The realm of synesthesia.”
Some felt a faint truth in those words, or at least a concept they could shallowly understand.
Naturally, the one who felt closest to understanding was Ingrid.
The Tower Master of Sensation rolled the words around in her mouth several times.
Something that seemed within reach, yet remained elusive.
“In the end, doesn’t the very act of ‘seeing’ require us to use our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin all at once?”
It doesn’t stop at the primary use of the organs.
It isn’t bound by the definitions and preconceptions of the senses.
It even reaches a state where perception and stimulus, mind and body, are not separated into a duality or defined as such.
It was questionable how one could achieve and handle such a state, but having stepped over its threshold, he didn't think it was impossible.
And if they could reach that level, mages would be reborn as entirely different beings.
‘The development of the five senses is like the process of perceiving mana itself.’
In fact, for Loan, it was like a process where his five senses reconfirmed the existence of mana he was already seeing with his eyes.
That sound, as a vibration and a wave, pushed mana.
That smelling was the process of the olfactory organs perceiving the mana that caused the scent.
The same was true for tasting.
If one understood this process, even those who couldn’t see mana could achieve magical feats.
Loan, vaguely realizing how he should guide them, felt quite moved.
“In the end, the Tower of Sensation was striving to establish a new logic of the senses. You were pursuing not the fundamental or the modern, but the postmodern.”
“…”
“I should have caught a clue from the paintings the Tower’s Guardian showed, which shifted between abstract and figurative, but I was a bit slow and only just realized. Furthermore.”
“…”
The Tower Master wore a bewildered expression.
Since she couldn’t continue, Loan once again shared his conjecture.
“It also seems to have something in common with my theory from the previous Tower, about converting form into power.”
“Is that so…”
“None of this could be a coincidence, of course. I thank you again for your consideration in preparing such a precious test to guide your junior.”
The one who was clearly superior was saying he had gained enlightenment thanks to them.
Yet, it didn’t feel unpleasant.
Ingrid shook her head.
On the contrary, hearing such words from a much younger junior even made her heart swell with emotion.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. But one thing I can be certain of is that what we have been doing was ultimately connected to the essence of a mage. We must not waver, and we must not be lazy in mobilizing all our senses to grasp the origin and the truth. Your words that our direction is correct are very much appreciated.”
To put her words into practice immediately, Ingrid stepped closer to Loan and added.
“I will now mobilize every sense I can to perceive you.”
“I must decline.”
Loan politely and courteously refused the Tower Master as she tried to embrace him.
His very subtle movement, as if to step back, completely broke her will.
“It seems sight alone is not enough…”
Ingrid muttered with a look of dismay.