Whoosh—!
The moment the ring wrapped around my finger.
The air in every direction began to ripple madly.
Highly concentrated mana swirled, forcibly making the surrounding particles collide.
The frictional heat generated by the violent molecular motion seared my skin.
And yet, paradoxically.
My mind sank colder and clearer than ever before.
“…………”
It was completely different from what I had imagined.
This wasn’t a quantitative expansion, a simple increase in the amount of mana.
It was something on an entirely different level.
The sensation of taking one step closer to the essence of the world.
Had Einstein felt a thrill like this when he mathematically proved the distortion of spacetime?
‘I feel like I can do anything…….’
The flow of the air.
The faint tremors of mana.
Even the movement of dust piled up in the corner of the treasury.
Without even trying to concentrate, it was all drawn clearly inside my head.
“Hoo…………”
As I let out a rough breath and relaxed the tension in my body, dense mana poured out along with my exhale.
[How is it? Has Our treasure made that body of yours somewhat usable?]
Eleanor asked, sounding intrigued.
“It’s definitely different. It’s not simply that I’ve gotten stronger……”
I slowly clenched and unclenched my hand.
“It feels like I’ve gained one more sense with which to perceive the world.”
The three gears of sensation, mana, and the body were meshing and turning without the slightest error.
It felt strange.
If I had to compare it, it was like a three-dimensional being perceiving the fourth dimension for the first time.
Beside me, Selene lightly clapped her hands and smiled brightly.
“Wow! You’re definitely different. Just possessing spiritual energy raised your tier. Cases like this are really rare. Congratulations!”
So this is what it feels like to rise in tier?
‘Maybe I’m actually the strongest?’
Just as I was about to get drunk on baseless confidence for a moment.
Eleanor stared at my condition, then let out a deep sigh.
[……And yet, how is it that even after taking in spiritual energy, your total amount of mana remains in such a state? It is merely the level of a rat’s tail becoming a tiger’s tail.]
“A rat’s tail turning into a tiger’s tail is still something. That’s tremendous progress.”
The explanation itself sounded pathetic, but the difference was great.
Now I was at least at the level where I could go somewhere and hand out a business card calling myself a mage.
“So, Senior, how do I use this word of power? I want to try it right now.”
When I asked while feeling the sensation of the ring wrapped around my finger, Eleanor scolded me sternly.
[Now, now, do not rush. A word of power is not magic, but the forced execution of a phenomenon.]
Eleanor shook the doll’s head and continued.
[With a single word from you, the laws of the world are twisted. If you carelessly speak it, the backlash will burn out the circuits of your soul first.]
There was a restriction like that?
At Eleanor’s firm attitude, I shut my mouth.
[Later, in a safe place, We shall begin formal instruction. For now, simply cherish that sense of accomplishment.]
To have omnipotence sealed away the moment I gained it.
It was regrettable, but having obtained it at all was something.
My pitiful mana battery had grown as thick as a tiger’s tail.
And the way I saw the world had changed distinctly.
This much was satisfying enough.
Just as I was about to gather my things and leave.
Selene held out the bowling-ball-like bracelet I had seen earlier.
Click—!
When she lightly flicked her hand.
The sphere disassembled like an intricate machine, then unfolded into the form of a refined bracelet.
“Here, this is a bonus. It’s the Bracelet of Etardos.”
“……You’re giving this to me?”
Selene personally fastened the bracelet around my wrist.
In her blue eyes dwelled a strange expectation that went beyond simple goodwill.
“You’re the only variable not bound by this world’s causality, aren’t you? That must be why Master chose you.”
Selene looked straight into my eyes and added quietly.
“So don’t die so easily. If you die, the chance to change our family’s miserable future will disappear forever too.”
She grinned again like usual and changed the mood.
“Besides, if you’re Master’s disciple, that means you’re my junior, right? A senior is supposed to give her junior at least one present!”
“……….”
How could this be so moving?
Unlike that personality-wrecked descendant, the progenitor was this benevolent and wonderful a person.
“……Thank you! I’ll come visit sometimes to clean, and I’ll talk with you so you won’t be bored.”
There wasn’t much I could do for Selene.
So I’d have to take even better care of Evelyn.
‘I’ll definitely stop the guillotine ending.’
As if she liked my answer, Selene burst into a childish peal of laughter.
“Wow, you really are the type Master would like! Good. I’ll remember that promise.”
***
The path leading out of the treasury.
The atmosphere was strangely warm and friendly.
‘If I look at the current situation objectively, this is clearly theft…….’
Anxiety over what would happen if I got caught assailed me.
But soon, I constructed a perfect defense logic in my head.
I named it the Progenitor Chance.
‘I received direct permission from your progenitor.’
It was a kind of clan-style Tallulah technique.
A descendant trying to take away a gift personally given by the progenitor?
Whether Confucianly or magically, that crossed a line.
If I just shamelessly pushed forward, things would somehow work out.
As I walked while thinking that this would definitely work.
[……Stop. There is something ahead.]
Eleanor’s voice shattered the mood in an instant.
At the same time, Selene, who had been floating beside me and chatting away, also stopped and stared at the door.
“……Of course it’s now. Our descendant really deserves credit for how impatient he is.”
What dwelled in her blue eyes was bitterness.
And unmistakable wariness.
Step, step.
The steady, heavy sound of dress shoes approached along the passage.
Beyond the passage thickly shrouded in darkness.
A man with icy blue eyes gleaming beneath blond hair slowly revealed himself.
Cassian von Estal.
‘Ha…… They say not to raise flags in life.’
The real thing had shown up.
With self-mockery, I whispered desperately to Selene beside me.
“Senior Selene, can’t you tell him directly? That I’m taking this after receiving proper permission.”
“That’s…… sorry. Cassian can’t see me. Thanks to Master, only you can perceive me.”
My grand Tallulah plan was brutally destroyed before it could even begin!
Damn it.
It was then.
Ruuumble—.
A bizarre noise, like the atmosphere grinding against itself.
At the same time, my breath caught in my throat.
The pressure emitted by a 6th-tier mage was on another level.
“……I knew you would come.”
Cassian’s gaze settled on the Ring of Words of Power on my finger.
“I held your abilities in high regard, you see.”
Thanks for the compliment, but fuck!
“Hoo, hah……”
It was too hard to breathe.
Every time Cassian took a step closer.
The pressure doubled.
“No matter how much you twisted sound and light to conceal yourself, you would not have been able to hide the soul of a foreign substance that intruded into a space permitted only to the bloodline of this family.”
I realized my mistake.
I had been so preoccupied with deceiving sight and hearing.
That I had overlooked the possibility of high-level magic that read the soul.
Cassian had suspected me from the beginning.
He had laid this trap and was simply waiting for me to fall into it.
“The price for coveting my belongings will not be light.”
He slowly raised his hand.
Sssss—.
Mana condensed at his fingertips.
It was destructive enough to annihilate this entire space at any moment.
Its power couldn’t even be compared to Delmar, whom I had faced yesterday.
“The price of theft must be paid with your life.”
There was no escape route and no room for excuses.
In a word.
I was completely fucked.
****
In front of the treasury door.
Cassian’s eyes trembled without focus.
They revealed his madness without any filter.
“Judging by what I see, your magical ability seems to have reached the 1st tier…… It is regrettable that I must kill such an intelligent person with my own hands.”
Fuck, if you regret it, can’t you just let me live?
I considered dropping to my knees and begging.
But the moment I saw Cassian’s eyes, I had my answer.
That was not the face of a man who would show mercy.
He was a man who would kill me without a shred of hesitation.
The pressure tightening around me felt like it was burning through my ribs.
‘……I can’t just stand here and die.’
The 1st tier I had just reached.
The aftertaste of that omnipotent feeling from earlier still lingered at my fingertips.
Against a 6th-tier monster, it would be more reckless than striking a rock with an egg.
But for a physicist, giving up was something you did only after the experiment failed.
I couldn’t die like this.
I stretched my trembling right hand forward.
‘Focus. One second, no, even 0.1 seconds is fine.’
If I could succeed in interfering just once, there might be room to counterattack.
Just as a high-level magic chant was about to begin from Cassian’s mouth.
Beeeeeeep—!
A sudden ringing filled my ears.
Silence descended, as though every sound around me had been erased.
Then, inside my consciousness, Eleanor’s voice rang out.
A calm, heavy voice, without a single trace of her usual playfulness or barbed tongue.
[Rihan. Do you trust me?]
‘……Senior?’
The opponent was a 6th-tier archmage.
No matter how incredible Eleanor was.
Right now, she was only a spiritual body dwelling inside an old doll.
Could she really face that monster?
The doubt flashed through my mind, but I immediately gave my answer.
“……I do.”
If we died, we’d die together; if we lived, we’d live together.
At the very least, she wasn’t someone who would lie to me.
[Hand your body over to Us for a while. Form the covenant. We must teach that pitiful child what a master’s duty truly is.]
There was no time to ask how to form a covenant.
I simply answered by instinct.
“I’ll hand my body over. Do as you please.”
The moment those words fell, a bizarre sensation swept through my entire body, as if my soul were being pulled out.
It felt like my ego had been pushed out of my flesh and was floating in midair.
At the same time, the owner of my body changed.