Cassian looked at me as if he would devour me alive.
“How…… Rihan, what on earth did you do?”
Cassian grabbed my shoulder.
My scapula screamed under a grip that felt like it would crush it to pieces.
Apparently, a 6th Circle magician possessed superhuman strength as well.
But now was not the time for such leisurely observations.
‘I have to get through this. I have to survive this situation somehow!’
This bastard has completely lost it!
He looks like he’s going to kill me!
The problem was, I didn’t know what I had done either.
The terror of ignorance swept over my entire body.
While my mind flickered white and blank.
I squeezed out a trembling breath and spat out a desperate, forced argument.
“……For now, I don’t believe I can do the rest today. The mana backlash is more severe than I anticipated.”
“Why is that! Did the first seal not unravel so easily just moments ago!”
Judging by his shouting, the man was worked up.
Cassian’s suspicious gaze swept over the nape of my neck.
Shit, was that too much of a stretch after all?
I really don’t know anything, what do you want me to do?
I swallowed dryly and performed my best conversational diversion.
“I…… need time to prepare as well. Breaking a seal of this magnitude is a matter of staking one’s life, after all.”
“……….”
Was it because of the desperation in my voice?
The frosty light in Cassian’s eyes eased slightly.
He stared at me piercingly for a moment, then, surprisingly, released my shoulder willingly.
“………I see. I got too worked up.”
Cassian let out a deep breath and donned the mask of a duke once more.
“It seems I momentarily lost my reason, seeing a door I could never reach even after devoting my entire life beginning to open. My apologies, Sir Rihan.”
The oppressive atmosphere subsided, and silence fell.
But it was too early to relax.
He was a persistent scholar.
He would want an answer to the “phenomenon” that had just occurred.
“Then, might I ask once more by what method you dissolved the seal?”
I don’t know either.
It just clicked open when I touched it!
The mood was such that if I told the truth, I’d never leave this basement alive.
Should I just spout some nonsensical bullshit?
Just dump it out?
The moment I was about to make a big decision.
A voice spoke up from a corner of my brain, where it had lain quiet as the dead.
[Rihan, recite exactly as I say.]
‘Senior! Where did you go! I really thought I was going to die!’
But the joy was short-lived.
Elenore’s instructions poured into my mind.
I falteringly repeated the words she fed me, yet with a voice brimming with certainty.
“I read the unique pulsation of mana flowing at the base of the seal. At the moment that pulsation surged, I channeled my mana into the exact opposite weave. Our forces canceled each other out, inducing a void where mana temporarily vanished.”
Cassian’s eyes widened once again.
“The pulsation of mana…… you twisted the weave. Rather than seeing it as a rampart built of magic, you viewed it as a living flow and erased its echo. Indeed, if one could capture that fleeting moment, the gap in circles would become meaningless.”
Cassian began muttering to himself.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t noticed a thing.
Listening to Elenore’s explanation, this seemed related to wave mechanics as well…….
No, more importantly.
‘Why didn’t you answer earlier? You said you can’t do this without me! The world almost ended!’
[……I went to see my disciple after a long time.]
Instead of her usual arrogance, her voice had sunk damply, like paper soaked in rain.
‘That person was from a thousand years ago, right? Wasn’t she dead?’
[She is dead. Her breath clearly ceased. Not even a handful of dust would remain.]
Elenore fell silent for a moment.
Her sigh echoed deeply within my consciousness.
[But she is truly worthy of being my disciple. Selene von Estal. That child tore off a piece of her own soul and planted it within this seal. She was keeping a terrible promise—not to leave that place until her teacher returned, or until someone appeared who could protect the family.]
In Elenore’s voice lay an indescribable pride.
As a Grand Magician, praise for the tenacity of a disciple who had endured a thousand years.
But at its end, a terrible loneliness seeped through.
[Truly…… a disciple worth teaching. But I cannot fathom why that clever child did something so foolish. She could have simply rested in peace.]
“………”
A solemn silence fell.
A disciple who had whittled away her own soul to wait for her teacher.
What must the heart of the teacher who faced her have been like?
More than joy, there was regret.
More than pride, pity must have been greater.
‘That……’
The moment I tried to ask further.
Cassian lightly tapped my shoulder.
“Sir Rihan. Go and prepare for tomorrow. You may use the research lab as you wish. I have some matters to settle as well, so follow the exclusive butler.”
Cassian’s voice also carried a strange weight of respect, unlike before.
“Ah, yes. Sir Rihan. I shall place one of my knights at your door. If you need anything, tell him.”
****
On the bed, Elenore’s doll sat with its legs crossed.
I placed one of the two cups of coffee the maid had brought before her.
Of course, the cotton-stuffed doll couldn’t drink it.
But atmosphere is a thing.
“Mmm…….”
The sight of the doll burying its nose in the teacup to smell it was quite cute.
Steam rose in wisps from the dark roast.
As befitting a ducal household, they were high-grade beans.
[The aroma is truly excellent, Rihan. Among the fragrances I have smelled in a thousand years, it is one to be counted on one’s fingers.]
“It’s probably because they’re high-grade beans. I bet one cup costs several days of my salary.”
[……….]
Now to the main point.
I sunk deep into the sofa and asked.
“Now, explain. Just what kind of person was this disciple named Selene?”
Elenore looked at me fixedly over the teacup.
[Selene remained there just as she was a thousand years ago. That stubborn gaze I knew, that chilly magical power—they were unchanged. That child did not trust her descendants. It seemed she kept the seal firmly closed, saying that passing down the family treasures would only worsen the situation rather than be put to use.]
“Isn’t that too cold-hearted? There’s no guarantee things would worsen. They’re her own descendants, even.”
How could she be so sure?
If only that treasure vault had opened, who knows what might have happened.
In the original story, the Estal family might not have been destroyed so tragically.
[Is that your way of asking how she could be so certain?]
Elenore gave a strange smile.
[Do you know what her unique magic was? Causal Calculation (因果演算). It was an authority commonly called future sight.]
I stopped the coffee I was about to drink.
The physical circuits in my brain began spinning like mad.
Future sight?
Not simple astrology or prophecy?
“How is that possible?”
[It is the ability to read the near future and the countless branching points that may occur. It derives results using the movement of every particle in this world and the flow of mana as variables. She was the most gifted among my disciples, and simultaneously the most unfortunate.]
Elenore’s explanation was shocking.
From a certain perspective, wasn’t it essentially the real “Laplace’s Demon”?
A hypothetical being said to be able to perfectly calculate the future if it knew the position and momentum of every atom in the universe.
Did that mean Selene had calculated the future like that demon?
Then an extremely natural question arises.
“Then why couldn’t she stop your ascension? Shouldn’t she have calculated something like her own fate of being trapped for a thousand years in advance?”
[Selene could only glimpse the near future. Piercing the distant future is “Causality” itself, the domain of the gods. Selene’s authority was merely a sophisticated imitation of that great providence.]
In other words.
It meant a magician from a thousand years ago had performed calculations surpassing modern supercomputers.
Just what was her brain structure like?
“Can I meet her too? I have a mountain of things to ask.”
[You can. I have already sent word to Selene. However, the most important thing is that you must reach that place again tonight.]
Good.
Night operation confirmed.
****
“Ah, I’m stuffed.”
[You are about to go thieving, yet how will filling your stomach so foolishly be of use?]
“But the ducal chef is so skilled.”
The food was so delicious.
It was on a level that put our research institute to shame.
After finishing a luxurious meal at the duke’s estate, I returned to my room at once.
Now, it was time to depart.
I took out an item I had prepared beforehand from my bag.
It was a round monocle (single-eye lens) that could cover the face.
I’d prepared it in advance, just in case.
[……What is that grotesque eyepiece?]
“Ah, this? Since I’m stealing anyway, I wanted to set the mood. Don’t you know the phantom thief’s code? A prop like this really boosts immersion.”
[Truly…… you do all sorts of things. Even I, who have lived a thousand years, cannot possibly fathom your bizarre mental world.]
Putting Elenore’s exasperated gaze behind me, I adjusted the glasses and put them on.
With a black cape draped over me as well, I cut a fairly convincing figure.
Originally, the standard for a phantom thief is a white cape.
But wearing white at night is like advertising yourself to be caught.
“Let’s go, Senior. Your disciple is waiting.”