Screech—
[How full of crude eyes. I have cleared them all away so they cannot obstruct my path.]
The surveillance spell lingering in the room had been neutralized.
The groundwork for infiltration was complete.
The problem started here.
How was I going to reach the treasury?
The security of the duke's residence was truly impregnable.
Even just the hallway in front of my door had elite knights glaring as they stood watch.
I had disguised myself to some extent, but.
If infiltration succeeded just because I put on a monocle, this would be proof I was inside a third-rate novel devoid of plausibility.
Hiding my body well in the darkness was still a problem.
The knights here were those who had strengthened their five senses with mana.
In other words, mere darkness wasn't enough.
"I need to kill the sound and hide from sight too……."
There was a way.
Light was a wave, and sound was also a wave.
In physics, waves were something so familiar that I had calculated them to the point of nausea since my first year as an undergraduate.
I drew up a tiny wisp of mana and began to lightly tap the air particles around my body.
It was the magical implementation of so-called Optical Camouflage and Active Noise Canceling.
The principle was simple.
Smoothly refracting the light touching my body to connect it to the background behind me.
Calculating the frequency of my footfalls in real time.
Emitting mana waves carrying the exact opposite phase to cancel them out.
'I probably can't perfectly erase all frequencies, but eliminating just the human audible range should be enough.'
After finishing preparations, I carefully opened the door.
'Whew…….'
Theoretically, I should be invisible.
But theoretical data and actual scenes always had discrepancies.
Such experimental environments had always been nerve-wracking from my undergraduate days until now.
Thud—. Thud—.
I was definitely taking steps, yet no sound echoed through the hallway.
This seemed like a success?
Before long, the figure of a knight guarding the hallway came into view.
"Haaaaaahm—."
The knight yawned wide enough to tear his jaw and wiped away the tears gathered in his eyes.
I was passing by at a distance of less than a meter, but he didn't seem to notice.
A great success.
Elenore, who had been watching that sight, let out a hollow laugh as if bewildered.
[……Rihan, you truly are terribly stingy with your magical power.]
"That's a compliment, right?"
[A compliment indeed. To pour out such precise mana control that others would use for 8th Circle grand magic into merely concealing your presence. That miserly tenacity of endlessly dividing that paltry mana to barely achieve an invisibility spell…… It is truly a sight to behold.]
It seemed my method was quite shocking to her as well.
"Efficiency is what matters."
I slid through the hallway, crossing right in front of the knight's nose.
****
Having deftly slipped out of the main building, I was on my way to the annex I had scouted in the morning.
[Halt. A filthy insect has been caught in my sight.]
At Elenore's warning, I instinctively pressed my body against the wall behind me.
No way, who would be having a secret rendezvous at this hour?
When I carefully peeked out, I saw a familiar back of a head.
It was Delmar, whom I had beaten black and blue at the training ground yesterday.
'Why is that bastard here at this time? Is he sleepless from the pain of defeat?'
Judging by appearances, he seemed to be standing guard in front of the annex.
The problem was.
'What are the sentries doing?'
Next to Delmar, some female mage was clinging to him with coquettish gestures.
"Lord Delmar, what will you do if Lady Evelin sees this……."
"Huhu, don't even bring up that prickly, willful brat. Who would truly like a girl who rampages around relying only on her family background? A girl like you who's soft and obedient is a hundred times better."
This bastard?
Where had the guts gone that he had when fighting me while watching Evelin's reaction?
Either he was just a vulgar climber trying to leech onto power.
Or trash who chased after women.
Or both.
Evelin might have a bit of a prickly personality, but.
She wasn't someone to be appraised by such filth.
She's my disciple, isn't she?
I have to protect my own disciple.
But.
'I'll deal with you later.'
Right now, the ring took priority.
I decided to put off Evelin's revenge for the moment.
[To think such trash is mixed into the house established by my disciple. It feels like my eyes are being polluted. The vulgar smell of saliva reeks even here, so let us pass quickly.]
Elenore's voice was dripping with sincere disgust.
Just then, Delmar wrapped his arm around the female mage's waist and lowered his head.
Now was the time.
The moment I quickly passed by Delmar's side.
"……!"
Just before the female mage's lips touched him, Delmar froze mid-motion.
Elenore immediately suppressed her presence.
Delmar whipped his head around and stared intently at the empty space where I stood.
'Fuck! He can sense this?'
I'm sorry for saying your skills were bottom-tier!
The top student is the top student!
"Lord Delmar? What's wrong?"
"……No, I thought I felt something just now."
Delmar thrust his face forward with a suspicious expression until he was right before my nose.
His mana reaction flared up minutely and began scanning the surrounding space.
"…………"
His breath reached right in front of my cloaked body.
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
I quietly gathered mana at my right fingertip.
Two opponents.
If it was a surprise attack, it was doable.
"………Must be my imagination. There's nothing here."
After staring for a while, Delmar turned his head back to the female mage.
"My senses seem to have sharpened. Because of that crazy bastard Rihan from yesterday."
That trashy pride of his saved me.
'……Wow, my heart almost fell out.'
[The fool is lucky. Consider it a heavenly fortune that I did not burn his brains out.]
'Let's get the ring first, and later I'll beat that bastard half-dead. Senior.'
I hurriedly propelled my body toward the annex's main gate.
***
Passing through the underground corridor I had seen in the morning, I finally arrived before the massive door of the treasury.
"So, Senior. Where is Lady Selene?"
[Do not be hasty. She should be preparing to answer my call.]
Elenore's doll stood on my shoulder and extended its small hand toward the door.
Then, pink mana rose from the empty air like heat waves.
Slowly, the figure of a woman began to take shape.
Gorgeous pink hair like cotton candy and blue eyes so clear they were nearly transparent.
"……Evelin?"
I almost mistook her for Evelin.
If Evelin matured as she was, would she look exactly like that?
I could tell at a glance how thickly she had inherited the blood of Selene, the progenitor of the house.
"Master—!"
The progenitor of Count Estall's house.
Selene von Estall ran toward her with a bright smile.
"Do you know how long I've waited!"
[There, there. Did I not say I would come? Mind your dignity, Selene.]
"Tch, still as cold as ever. I missed you!"
She looked similar to Evelin, but her actions were the exact opposite.
Unlike the cynical Evelin, this one was excessively friendly.
It seemed only the looks had been inherited.
"Hehe, so is this the one? The kid you boasted about until your mouth went dry?"
[Hmph! When did I ever do such a thing?]
Elenore had boasted about me?
Seeing her clear her throat and fluster, Elenore had her cute side as well.
I lightly bowed my head.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Rihan."
"…."
A sudden silence.
Selene stared at me intently, as if she had no interest in my self-introduction.
Her blue pupils flickered strangely.
Was it her first time seeing a 0th Circle mage?
Or was she observing because my mana quantity was so pathetic?
After examining me piercingly for a long while, Selene finally opened her mouth.
"……I can't see."
"Huh? What?"
"You. How come I can't see your future? This is the first time this has happened since I was born."
The playfulness vanished completely from Selene's voice.
Her unique magic was Causal Calculation.
In other words, future sight.
Hadn't she said she derived results using the movements of all mana in the world as variables?
She couldn't see my future?
"If I can't see you…… doesn't that mean you don't belong to the causality of this world?"
Selene scanned me once more.
This time, her eyes were filled with far more interest than before.
"Wow, just like Master said, you're a really interesting guy! To the point I want to marry you off to our descendant and completely tie you to the family!"
What kind of bolt-from-the-blue nonsense was this?
She wanted me to marry Evelin?
'………Well, Evelin isn't bad, but.'
Casian is a bit……
"I'll have to decline. I don't get married into families where my father-in-law is Count Casian."
"Kyahaha! Casian is a good kid if you get to know him. Don't hate him too much."
Count Casian is a good kid?
Truly a statement befitting a progenitor.
"I've nearly died several times already, you know?"
"Hey, he won't really kill you! ……Probably?"
That's way too irresponsible of a "probably."
How scared I was!
Whether she knew my feelings or not, Selene lightly waved her hand.
"Now, now, let's go in. I've kept Master's belongings very safe."
****
Before opening the door.
I couldn't hold back and asked a scholarly question.
"That future sight. What's the principle? Do you really calculate all variables? All of them, like the momentum of particles or the flow of mana?"
At my question, Selene tilted her head and looked at me.
"Well? I don't know either. It's easier to think of it as an authority. Master spoke difficult words about causality and influences, but even after reaching the 9th Circle, I couldn't understand all that. I just see it because I can, that's all."
A realm that even a 9th Circle grand mage declared she didn't know.
'So it can't be explained by logic?'
I gained nothing from it, but one thing became clear.
My future did not appear in the authority of future sight.
In other words, this world's causality system was not perfect.
Put differently, the future was not predetermined.
Because the variable that is me would trigger a butterfly effect.
If so, it was established fact that I could change the original story's development.
'Evelin. You can live.'
I had been worried inwardly that no matter how much I struggled, the ending would remain the same.
I was relieved that this conclusion had come out.
After the conversation ended, Selene waved her hand.
Clack—!
For a thousand years.
The tightly closed door opened.