Lumencia
Lumencia von Arkein.
She was the last descendant of the Arkein family, a once-prestigious line of mages from the era of knights and wizards.
Knights and mages had once formed the twin pillars upholding the Empire, a powerful privileged class. But as the ages turned, their arts—knights’ mana-enhanced physical reinforcement and mages’ devastating elemental spells—became the exclusive domain of the Empire’s own knights. The old orders declined, fell, and in their final throes unleashed a devastating civil war. In the end they were crushed without mercy.
Of course, feudal nobles and a handful of traditionalists still trained knights and mages in the classical sense. Lumencia, however, was different. Raised in Arsein, the city of art and academia, she had pursued magic as a pure scholarly discipline.
Having become a mage, she never fell into the common delusions of rebuilding her ruined house or resurrecting a bygone age like so many bitter ghosts of the past. She simply lived for the study of magic, mana, and the world’s hidden mysteries.
The books she authored were popular enough that anyone living in this city had probably heard her name at least once.
“...This must be the place.”
I stood before a shabby house on the city outskirts. The librarian had given me this exact address. Even for a fallen mage noble, living somewhere this rundown seemed extreme.
Knock knock.
No answer. Yet a faint light leaked from inside, so someone had to be home. I waited, then knocked again. Still nothing.
Click.
I tried the knob on a whim, and the door swung open without resistance.
No way…
An unpleasant thought flashed through my mind. Arsein might be known for good public order, but crime had not been completely eradicated. Images of robbery and murder rose one after another.
“Is anyone here?”
I opened the door cautiously and stepped inside. The exterior had looked bad, but the interior was far worse. Possessions lay scattered across the floor; the place hardly seemed habitable. The only respectable objects were a candlestick on the wall and the candle whose light I had seen from outside.
I scanned the space that could barely be called a house, but there was no sign of the woman named Lumencia. Had she gone out? Or had something happened to her…?
“…!”
That was when I felt it—a faint but unmistakable flow of mana. I carefully traced its tail and moved forward. The trail led beneath a haphazard pile of wooden planks.
A basement?
Something was down there. Using clairvoyance, I made out the faint outline of a staircase descending below.
The choice split here. Option one: descend alone right now. Option two: return for Lucrezia and Eleanor. The safer choice was obviously the latter.
But the moment I imagined explaining the book in my hand—The Human Mind’s Secret Urges and Structures—and what I had witnessed through Future Sight, my head already throbbed. In the end I had no choice but to go alone.
Thud!
When I shoved the planks aside, a thick cloud of dust billowed up. I held my breath and waited for it to settle.
A moment later a square trapdoor appeared in the floor. I gripped the iron ring and lifted it slowly. A spiral staircase plunged into absolute darkness. I steadied my breathing and stepped down with care.
After descending the pitch-black stairs for some time, a straight corridor came into view. A faint light leaked from its far end. I tried to peer inside with penetration, but all I saw was a bluish wall.
Some kind of mana barrier. Which meant both this space and the barrier itself had been created by Lumencia. This had to be her workshop.
One thing still puzzled me. Why build a workshop so deep underground instead of on the surface? I advanced slowly, staying alert.
If this truly was a mage’s workshop, she had almost certainly noticed me the instant I entered. I could easily be mistaken for an intruder and attacked.
With tension coiled tight, I walked toward the light until an antique door appeared.
Knock knock.
Creeeeak…!
At my knock the door swung open by itself with a grating squeal of hinges.
The room beyond was far larger than I had imagined.
Gigantic bookshelves stretched toward the ceiling. Every wall was packed with ancient grimoires. Glass vials held liquids of every color. Bones and organs of unknown monsters sat beside them while dozens of objects moved about as though alive.
Pens floated in midair, scribbling frantically across paper by themselves. Books flipped their own pages and drifted through the air. A teapot climbed onto a flame on its own and began to steam. A small doll dragged a broom, sweeping dust across the floor.
Clank. Clank.
In one corner, several metallic arms the size of human forearms assembled magical tools with mechanical precision. Yet despite all the motion, the workshop was eerily silent. Only the scratching of pen nibs and the click of metal parts filled the space.
At the center of it all sat an enormous desk surrounded by magical devices and tomes. Someone was seated there.
“Looks like we have an uninvited guest who entered without the owner’s permission?”
A beauty with vivid green hair and glowing green eyes stared at me. A thick book floated above her hand, its pages turning by themselves as though moved by invisible fingers.
She was beautiful.
Her looks rivaled even Lucrezia and Eleanor. And unlike the gloomy mage I had pictured, her clothing was shockingly light and revealing. Slender legs flashed beneath a short skirt, and the tight top made no attempt to conceal the generous curves of her breasts.
This was Lumencia von Arkein.
I lifted the books I carried and spoke carefully.
“I apologize for the sudden visit. I happened to read these at the library. When I asked the librarian, she said the author lived nearby, so I came looking.”
“That one is definitely a book I wrote…”
Her gaze slid across The Human Mind’s Secret Urges and Structures in my left hand, then moved to the black leather volume in my right. A bitter smile touched her lips.
“Another victim, I see.”
“Victim…?”
With a casual wave, every moving object in the room froze at once. Floating books returned to their shelves. The pen stopped mid-stroke. The metal arms locked in place.
A table and two chairs drifted over from somewhere and settled before me. A snow-white tablecloth unfurled across the surface, followed by a tea set and a steaming pot.
“Sit. This is going to be a long conversation.”
Lumencia rested her chin on her hand, watching me.
“Anyone who brings that book all the way here deserves to be treated as a guest.”
“…Understood.”
I sat down cautiously. The teapot moved by itself and poured fragrant black tea into the cups. The rich aroma spread gently through the room. Lumencia took the opposite seat and lifted her own cup. After a single sip she studied me slowly.
“From the flow of mana in your body and the reinforcement traces lingering in your eyes… you’re an imperial knight, aren’t you?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then the black book makes sense, but…”
Her gaze returned to my left hand.
“Why this one?”
Lumencia indicated The Human Mind’s Secret Urges and Structures. I fell silent. How much could I tell a woman I had just met? Explaining concepts like netorare or voyeurism out loud felt embarrassingly shameful.
“That’s… never mind. I came because of the black book. What exactly is it?”
I opened the volume and pointed to the illustrations inside—grotesque monsters so bizarre that merely looking at them made my head spin. Horrific entities whose very shapes defied recognition covered the pages.
“That book is indeed one I created. But it left my hands long ago.”
Lumencia set her teacup down quietly and continued.
“It was corrupted by the lingering traces of ancient gods and has wandered the world ever since… appearing before humans like you who already carry those traces.”
“Ancient gods?”
She stirred her tea slowly. The red liquid swirled inside the cup.
“The Empire is essentially an artificial god manufactured by humans.”
“…Pardon?”
“A colossal machine deity and manifested god that exists solely for humankind and moves to annihilate every non-human existence.”
Her green eyes glowed faintly.
“It is driven by the collective unconscious of humanity. Humans wish to be the sole intelligent species on this land.”
Sudden unfamiliar terms poured over me—machine god, manifested deity, collective unconscious. I could barely follow what she was saying. Lumencia gave a small laugh, as if she had seen this reaction many times.
“That is why the Empire has driven out countless heteromorphic races since antiquity. It stole their lands, crushed their cultures, and desecrated their faiths.”
Her fingertips traced the black book’s cover.
“So many races perished without leaving even their names. The gods they worshipped were cast into a lightless abyss to spend eternity without a single prayer.”
Lumencia paused, then looked at me and smiled brightly.
“…You didn’t understand a word, did you?”
“…Honestly, no.”
She took another sip of tea and calmly rephrased everything.
“Simply put, the gods of the races humanity destroyed have fallen and begun casting curses.”
Her finger tapped the black cover.
“And you have been afflicted by one of them.”
“…A curse.”
“Imperial knights in particular encounter them quite often.”
“Why?”
“Who knows.”
Lumencia smiled with hidden meaning.
“I can’t tell you that yet. But you will learn eventually. You are already linked to the traces of an old god.”
She leaned forward slightly.
“So tell me. How exactly did you come into contact?”
I turned the pages and opened the illustration of the Apostle of the Abyss.
Lumencia’s gaze locked onto the image. Her expression tightened by a fraction.
“Apostle of the Abyss.”
“I don’t even know which race it originally belonged to. It is that ancient and thoroughly corrupted.”
She continued carefully.
“Humans who touch this one usually break mentally first.”
“Mentally?”
“Symptoms differ from person to person.”
Lumencia gave me a meaningful look.
“A benevolent ruler recorded in history suddenly became a tyrant overnight. Perfectly ordinary people turned into serial killers. And some…”
Her eyes drifted to The Human Mind’s Secret Urges and Structures beside me.
“…awaken to rather vile sexual fetishes.”
“…Is there no cure?”
“First tell me how you made contact.”
I stayed silent for a moment, then described seeing the Apostle of the Abyss inside my Future Sight. Naturally I left out any mention of Lucrezia and Eleanor. Lumencia listened with her chin propped on her hand, lost in thought.
“Future Sight…”
Her green pupils shimmered faintly.
“A phenomenon completely unrelated to your original ability. The contact with the old god must have temporarily warped it.”
She set her cup down.
“Then tell me what effects you’re experiencing now.”
“……”
I hesitated. Could I really confess something like this? Yet the woman before me had already shared a wealth of information despite our first meeting. After long deliberation I finally spoke.
“…It seems I’ve developed voyeurism.”
Silence fell. Then the corners of Lumencia’s mouth curved upward.
“Oh…?”
She stared straight into my eyes, clearly fascinated.
“Shall we test it, then?”
“What do you—”
In that instant a dizzying sensation crashed over me. My vision warped. Lumencia’s green eyes swirled like a vortex, and the entire room rippled as though reality itself were bending. The frozen objects began to float once more.
Books drifting in the air. A slowly rotating teacup. Pen nibs floating through space.
Everything stretched and twisted strangely.
Whoooong—
A low, ominous vibration echoed deep inside my ears. Breathing became difficult. My mind felt as if it were sinking. The green glow drew closer and closer, like being dragged into an endless swamp. At some point I could no longer even tell whether I was still sitting in the chair.
When I regained awareness, I stood in the middle of a knight academy bathed in gray light.
