The moment I opened the reception room door and stepped inside—
A chill pressure swept over my entire body, choking the breath from my lungs.
The head of House Estal.
Cassian von Estal.
He was sitting on the guest sofa, waiting for me.
‘…This man.’
Just how dense is his mana?
The space itself was saturated with the mana this man was emitting.
‘So the author really was good at description.’
The descriptions in the novel had not been wrong in a single respect.
A man of few words, with eyes as fierce as a beast’s.
The brutal charisma the author had taken such pains to write down sat before me, as if it had leapt straight out of an illustration.
Of course, since this was a world the author had created, it was only natural that the descriptions would be accurate.
But the intimidation before my eyes was on a completely different level from reading it in text.
‘He was Sixth Tier, probably?’
A strategic weapon–class powerhouse said to change the tide of war.
With one rough gesture of that hand, a lowly researcher like me would literally be split in half.
Ugh, chills.
The thought that I had to be careful came to me naturally.
Just then, within my consciousness, Eleanor spoke to me in a voice mixed with a yawn.
[Goodness, even being generous, he is only Sixth Tier. Hm, it seems my disciple utterly failed in cultivating his descendants. How can he be emitting such feeble energy?]
What are you talking about?
Even at a glance, he looks terrifyingly strong.
‘Feeble, Senior? He’s one of the top ten strongest people in the Empire.’
I answered inwardly and sat down, breaking the awkward silence.
His cold blue eyes, contrasting with his blond hair, pierced through me as if they could see right through me.
He was handsome.
A sharp, refined beauty, enough to be called the very standard of a handsome middle-aged man.
So this really was a rofan setting for a reason.
Even the villains in this world were dazzlingly good-looking.
“Are you Professor Rihan?”
“Yes, Your Grace. I am Rihan.”
“I was truly impressed by the Flame Storm magic circle you reconstructed. The precision with which you twisted the very source of mana… I suppose the word genius exists for people like you.”
Why is this man acting like this?
Someone so unbearably arrogant, giving me praise embarrassing enough to make my skin crawl.
Cassian immediately got to the point.
“I invite you to our ducal house.”
It was a sudden invitation.
And at this timing, of all times.
It was a good opportunity to head to the treasury where the Ring of Word Spirit was, but his intentions were unclear.
“…I am honored, but may I ask why you are calling for me?”
Cassian leaned his upper body toward me.
The waves of mana he emitted brushed past the nape of my neck like a sharp blade.
“That alien yet precise talent of yours. I believe it may become the answer for our family. For your information, refusal is not something I am considering.”
What kind of way of speaking is this?
He says it’s an invitation, but—
The meaning hidden between the lines is obviously a threat.
As I bit my lip and tried to get my thoughts moving, Eleanor began mercilessly scraping at my brain.
[Why are you hesitating so! Tell him at once that I shall graciously go myself! Do you intend to turn back with that ring right before your eyes? I shall watch your back, so hurry!]
‘I’m telling you, this isn’t something I can decide so easily…’
But Cassian before me already had the eyes of someone convinced that my answer would be “Yes.”
No, judging by his gaze, the moment I said “No,” this reception room would become my grave.
‘Fuck… I never had a choice in the first place.’
In the end, I opened my heavy mouth.
“…Very well. If that is Your Grace’s will, I will choose the path where I can be of help.”
A cruelly satisfied smile spread across Cassian’s lips.
***
On my way out after promising to go to the ducal house.
At the end of the corridor, I ran into Ibellin, standing with her back to the afternoon sunlight pouring in through the window.
Normally, she would have raised her nose high and said, “Being invited to our family is obviously an honor!”
But for some reason, her complexion was deathly pale.
“Rihan, do you really… have to come to our family? Can’t you say you won’t go, even now?”
Ibellin blocked my path and asked.
Her eyes were like those of a frightened puppy.
‘Why is she suddenly acting like this? It’s making me uncomfortable.’
I deliberately shrugged and answered in a light tone.
“Of course I have to go. If I refuse His Grace’s offer, who knows what’ll happen to my life? Besides, you said the research facilities at the ducal residence are the best in the Empire. It’s not like I’m going there to live for the rest of my life, just for a short visit, like a tour. What temptation could be greater than that for a researcher?”
Of course, my real goal was the Ring of Word Spirit sleeping in your family’s treasury.
But that was a secret I would take to my grave.
“…You don’t know anything. What kind of place my house is, what kind of person my father is.”
She lowered her head.
I could see her fingertips trembling slightly.
“If you have nothing else to say, I’m going. I need to pack.”
As I tried to pass by indifferently—
Tap.
Ibellin urgently grabbed my sleeve.
“…Be careful of my father. He wasn’t like this before. He did have a strong scholarly passion for magic, but he was a kind and warm person.”
Her voice trembled faintly.
“But a few years ago, after a certain fortune-teller prophesied that our family would soon fall, Father changed completely. Rihan, I don’t want… anything to happen to you. So when you go there, please don’t do anything unnecessary.”
After leaving those words behind, Ibellin fled as if running away.
I stood blankly, watching her back recede into the distance.
“…That fortune-teller is scarily accurate.”
I almost wanted to go later and ask whether I should keep pursuing my major like this.
And whether I could survive in academia.
The fall of the family, huh.
I was curious about the identity of that fortune-teller, who had predicted the development of the original story exactly.
But more than that, the pressure the duke must have felt struck me as more realistic.
The loneliness of a man who became a monster while trying to protect his beloved family and house, or something like that.
“Is there no such thing as a villain without a story?”
Just then, from within my arms, Eleanor spoke quietly.
[Karma, is it.]
“Yes?”
I thought she was about to say some more nonsense.
But her voice was not the usual playful one.
It was a voice filled with the chill of a transcendent who had looked on for a thousand years.
“Karma… You mean something like fate? Well, according to interpretations of quantum mechanics, the future isn’t a fixed result but a probabilistic superposition, though we still don’t know for sure.”
It was a fairly fundamental question.
In this world inside a novel, had their fates already been decided by the author?
At my muttered words, mixed with my own somewhat scientific reasoning, Eleanor responded once more.
[Rihan. I am not speaking of some conceptual fate such as you imagine. In this world, “karma” truly exists.]
“…What does that mean?”
[It means it is not some metaphysical thing that exists conceptually, but that an actual entity called “karma” truly exists somewhere in this world.]
What kind of absurd nonsense was this, collapsing the laws of physics built up over thousands of years?
No matter how much of a fantasy this was, wasn’t this going too far?
Was she perhaps talking about something like “Laplace’s Demon,” derived from Newtonian classical mechanics?
That hypothetical being that could calculate the future if it knew the position and momentum of every particle.
“How can karma have substance and truly exist? Does that make any sense?”
[I have already met it. When your tier rises and you continue to remain with me, you too shall one day face it.]
There was certainty in her voice.
She was not joking right now.
My head rang.
Fuck, what the hell kind of thing is that?
Karma is an actual person?
Is it the author of this world?
Or the world itself?
Does Laplace’s Demon actually exist?
As a physicist, I got chills so intense that the back of my neck went stiff.
“…Ah, I don’t know.”
Thinking about it now wouldn’t get me an answer. It would only make my head hurt.
For now, I should just think about going to the ducal residence and securing the ring first.
I forcibly shook the complicated thoughts out of my head and began walking.
Right now, I had no time to care whether karma existed or not.
Because I was the one who had to crawl into the ducal house tomorrow.
Well, if I kept researching magic, then as Eleanor said, the day would come when I’d meet that entity.
It wouldn’t be too late to question it then.
***
The next morning.
I packed some simple luggage and the doll that Eleanor inhabited, then boarded the carriage headed for the ducal residence.
‘I’m kind of looking forward to this.’
For a physicist, seeing a new world was like entering a gigantic laboratory.
A pleasant tension washed over me.
Looking at the research institute growing distant outside the window, I lightly touched the doll in my arms.
‘Senior, you’re ready, right?’
It was an absurd thing to say.
But in this world right now, the only being I could trust was the old doll in my arms.
I didn’t care if she was a ghost from a thousand years ago.
At least she would value my lifeline as dearly as her own.
[Do not worry. It is the place where my treasure lies. It feels as if I am returning home! Hehe, I look forward to seeing just how magnificent a treasury that fellow’s descendants have built.]
But unlike us, who were excited, the pitch-black carriage sent by the duke was not so kind.
It had a special structure with no handles on the inside.
The moment the carriage set off, a mana barrier descended beyond the window frame.
Sitting across from me was Ibellin.
Normally, she would have been unable to keep her mouth shut, asking me about my magical theories.
Whether she had no strength or not, right now she was simply staring blankly out the window.
Did she herself know that her hands, resting on her knees, were trembling slightly?
“What’s wrong? You’ve looked pale for a while now. You’re going to your own house, but you look like someone heading to a battlefield.”
“Shut up. It’s just… the air feels a little stuffy. You stay close to me. If Father calls for you, don’t ever go alone.”
So softly that I almost didn’t notice, she tightly gripped the end of my sleeve.
‘Just what kind of atmosphere is it that she’s acting like this?’
We were going on an outing. It wouldn’t do for the mood to be this dead.
I looked down at her fingers for a moment, then opened my mouth as if it were no big deal.
“Ibellin, did you know? Fear isn’t actually anything impressive. If you break it down, it’s basically a kind of system error sent by the machine called the brain.”
“…What?”
Ibellin turned her head and stared at me blankly.
I lightly tapped my temple with my index finger.
“Biologically, fear is nothing but an electrical signal. When uncertainty in the surrounding environment increases, the brain over-secretes adrenaline to raise the probability of survival. In other words, it’s an extremely inefficient warning light telling you that your body is currently wasting energy, so be careful.”
“What are you talking about in this situation…?”
“It’s even funnier from a physics perspective. The distances between the atoms that make up our bodies are actually empty, you know? Your hands trembling is just the electrons filling that empty space releasing unstable energy.”
I added one last thing.
“What I’m trying to say is, don’t think about it too seriously. Just enjoy the mood like we’re going on a picnic.”
At my long-winded logic, Ibellin’s eyes wandered for a moment.
After a brief silence—
“…Pfft.”
A short laugh burst from between Ibellin’s lips.
“Ha, haha! You really… You’re really bad at comforting people.”
“Hey. I said that sincerely, and with proper reasoning.”
Once her laughter broke free, it did not stop easily.
She shook her head as if dumbfounded and slowly loosened the hand that had been gripping my sleeve.
A faint trace of vitality returned to her pale cheeks.
“Fine, let’s just say it’s because my brain is stupid.”
That’s a little better.
As expected of someone in a rofan, she was prettier when she smiled.
As soon as the carriage picked up speed, Eleanor’s voice from inside the doll dropped lower than usual.
[…By the way, Rihan. About the mana barrier placed on this carriage just now. Its purpose does not seem to be protection from the outside, but capture—to prevent the prey inside from escaping. What do you think?]
“Please don’t say such creepy things.”
Honestly, I’d had that thought too.
But a carriage with his own daughter riding in it being for capture—logically, that made no sense, didn’t it?
If Ibellin hadn’t been riding with me, I wouldn’t have gotten in either.
I just hoped we’d arrive safely without any trouble.
And so, looking out the window, we raced on for a long while.