Chapter 112: Chapter 112
Chapter 112 - The Price of Curiosity
Five minutes earlier.
Valdrova Castle, the study.
Mori was on duty there.
Her work consisted of documenting and preserving the records gathered from Hestia Village.
She also handled legal consultations and granted access to archived records.
She was an A-rank talent that people desperately wanted to recruit but could never obtain, yet now she was nothing more than Echidna’s toy.
—Lady Echidna.
"Hm? What is it?"
—Hugging me while I am working is inefficient. It causes a 12% decrease in work efficiency under perfectly optimized working conditions.
There was one rule established when managing her.
Never allow the drop in work efficiency to exceed 15%.
Most people would have interpreted that warning as, I should only bother her when absolutely necessary.
But the affection-starved Witch, Echidna, was different.
"Then that means there’s still a 3% margin left, doesn’t it?"
Her mindset was to push things right up to 14.99%.
But if she could stop there, she wouldn’t be a Witch.
Even while hugging Mori, Echidna’s excitement only intensified.
At last, she let out a beast-like growl.
"Grrr... I can’t hold back anymore!"
She immediately buried her nose into the top of Mori’s head.
"Sniff, sniff."
—I advise you to stop.
"Hnnnnng..."
—Stop—
"Sniiiiiiff!"
Thud!
"Guhh!?!"
A powerful strike landed squarely on Echidna’s philtrum while she was completely absorbed in smelling Mori’s hair.
Her body staggered violently before she was thrown backward.
She crashed into the wall, knocking several books onto the floor before collapsing into a sitting position.
"Hiiieeeeng... That’s so mean... You didn’t have to resort to violence..."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she rubbed her philtrum.
Mori looked down at her with an oddly satisfied expression.
She quickly scribbled something down and showed it to her.
—Your actions just now have increased work efficiency by 5%.
"Really? Does Miss Mori have sadistic tendencies? Does Miss Mori want to become a Witch too? I absolutely can’t allow you to become one!"
—I possess no ego. Therefore, I cannot become a Witch.
Mori calmly returned to her work.
Echidna also stopped fooling around and turned her attention back to reality.
Books and documents were scattered all over the floor.
It was an absolute mess.
"Eeeh... Why are there so many papers...?"
If she left them like this, she’d definitely get scolded, so she started cleaning them up.
With a simple wave of her hand, the scattered books and documents floated into the air.
As though time itself were reversing, the books slid neatly back onto their shelves while the documents stacked themselves into perfect order.
"I wonder who even reads books like these... They’re so boring... Hm?"
While grumbling and organizing them by hand, Echidna noticed something tucked inside one of the books.
A neatly folded square piece of paper caught her eye.
"This is..."
The material alone was unlike ordinary paper.
It was magical parchment capable of absorbing Mana.
Magical parchment mixed in among ordinary documents.
That fact alone was enough to pique Echidna’s curiosity.
She unfolded the paper.
"A Magic Circle...?"
Her words ended in uncertainty.
"...Is it?"
The runic symbols inscribed within the circular pattern resembled the Magic Circles she had seen countless times before.
Yet there were many things that felt strange for a Magic Circle.
There wasn’t just one or two elements that violated standard magical theory.
As she stared at it, an interesting idea crossed her mind.
As though she had completely forgotten the pain of getting punched in the face, she smiled brightly and called out to Mori.
"Miiiss Moriii~"
Scratch, scratch.
Holding out the Magic Circle, she spoke.
"Don’t be so cold. Could you take a look at this? What kind of Magic Circle do you think this is?"
Scratch, scratch.
"It looks like something Regent Ferda drew."
Scratch—
Roll...
Mori’s eyes moved the moment she saw the name Ferda.
She scanned the Magic Circle from top to bottom as though analyzing every detail.
Several minutes passed in silent contemplation.
Finally, Mori answered.
—I do not know.
"So even Miss Mori doesn’t know?"
—Correct. It is not a Magic Circle that exists within the records I possess.
"If it’s something even Miss Mori doesn’t know..."
Echidna knew exactly what existed inside Mori’s mind.
The Library of All Things.
It recorded not only humanity but also the names of nearly every known spell across the Cerdes Continent.
—There are three possible explanations for why I cannot identify it.
—First, it is magic that has never been recorded anywhere on the Cerdes Continent.
—Second, it is a magic too complex to be recorded using the languages of the Cerdes Continent.
—Third, it is magic personally created by its owner.
From a rational standpoint, the third possibility was by far the most likely.
A spell personally created by Ferda.
—Judging by its structure and appearance, the third explanation seems the most probable.
"I suppose so. At first glance, it just looks like a drawing..."
That was what people called unusable Magic Circles.
Mages who studied geometry occasionally designed Magic Circles hoping to strike gold, but only about one out of every ten thousand would actually work.
—Furthermore, this cannot even truly be called a Magic Circle. It lacks the essential elements of geometry, and its form itself is indistinct.
"Exactly."
Even Magic Circles dismissed as mere drawings could make one wonder whether they might work if studied carefully enough.
But Ferda’s Magic Circle inspired no such thought.
Unlike refined and meticulously designed Magic Circles, this one looked crude and inefficient.
—It is merely a drawing resembling a nonfunctional Magic Circle. That is my conclusion.
That was Mori’s verdict.
But Echidna disagreed.
The more one knew, the more one could see.
Echidna possessed enough knowledge to create runes herself.
That allowed her to perceive things others could not.
"This one works."
This crude, inefficient-looking Magic Circle...worked.
Mori turned toward her.
—Do you have evidence?
"My evidence is... well... I don’t... It’s just intuition..."
—Then there is no point in discussing it.
Mori based every conclusion on the records contained within the Library of All Things.
Human intuition was illogical.
There was no value in arguing over something that lacked logic.
She lost interest in the Magic Circle and resumed her work.
Their conversation came to an end.
Feeling slightly disappointed, Echidna lowered her gaze to the parchment and murmured,
"How does this thing even work?"
She questioned her own intuition.
Tilting her head, she began analyzing it.
She sorted through everything she knew.
Piece by piece, she matched together the components, slowly peeling away its veil.
Yet strangely enough, the more she uncovered...the larger the wall before her became.
It was an impossible mystery that neither logic nor reason could decipher.
Like the existence of Utopia.
Like Mana Fatalism.
A theory that simply could not be solved.
Echidna’s eyes sparkled.
The very fact that it contained a mysterious, unknowable power thrilled her.
That excitement soon gave birth to an impulse.
"I’ll dismantle it."
Her curiosity eventually led her to the idea of dismantling the Magic Circle.
Dismantling a Magic Circle without its creator’s permission was an absolute taboo.
The thought that it might anger Ferda crossed her mind.
But her desire was so overwhelming that she ignored even that.
"...I’ll just touch it a little."
Just a tiny bit.
Removing a single rune should be harmless.
In terms of importance, it would be like temporarily taking out a single gear from a machine just to examine it.
Though she said that...her finger reached directly toward the rune at the center.
The traces of Mana engraved into the parchment were transmitted vividly through her fingertip.
Echidna copied the rune she had sensed and manifested it in the palm of her hand.
Now all she had to do was take it apart and read its code.
Until that moment...she had no idea.
No idea that she would soon pay the price for her curiosity.
"Huh?"
In the next instant, before the rune could even react...it melted away and flowed into her arm.
She felt something rushing backward through her Mana pathways.
"H-Huh?"
Echidna froze in surprise.
Though she let out an innocent, girlish sound...her response was immediate.
Like the skilled Witch and Mage she was, she cast a Fifth-Tier Blocking Spell to stop the rune from being absorbed.
"H-Huhhh?!"
It had no effect.
Her blocking spell nullified all magical effects of Fifth Tier and below.
The fact that it failed meant the rune itself was equivalent to the Sixth Tier or higher.
That was impossible.
Runes that humans could create and manipulate were limited to the Fifth Tier.
"Cough—Kgh!!"
Echidna had paid the price for her curiosity.
There was nothing she could do to stop it.
***
"Explain exactly what happened."
Mori began writing down everything she knew.
—Echidna touched one of the runes inscribed in the Magic Circle and was subsequently assimilated by it.
"You’re saying she was assimilated by a rune I created?"
—She stated that it was a Magic Circle drawn by Lord Ferda.
"A Magic Circle I drew?"
Ferda frowned.
A bad feeling told him this was about to become troublesome.
’Even so, there’s no way Echidna could have died...’
He did have a few stored runes, but none possessed enough power to kill Echidna.
Especially not his specialty—runes.
Ferda lowered his gaze to the floor, searching for the object in question.
His eyes landed precisely among the scattered books.
’This is...’
Ferda recognized the Magic Circle.
It was the one he had drawn when his thoughts had been thrown into chaos because of Mana.
It had looked so overly complicated and crude that he had copied it before absentmindedly tucking it away inside a book.
’She died because she touched this?’
Ferda examined the runes inscribed within the Magic Circle.
There were seven runes in total.
Echidna had touched only one of them.
’Just one rune did this?’
Common sense said it was impossible.
A Fifth-Circle Witch.
A Rune Maker at that.
Dying because of one of Ferda’s runes...
"Then what happened? Did you actually see her die?"
—After touching the rune, she began showing signs of respiratory failure and then disappeared.
"Because of the rune?"
—I cannot determine that.
Mori’s conclusions were based entirely on knowledge.
Anything that only Mages could perceive was beyond her capabilities.
"It must have been Circle Rampage."
That was Luri’s guess.
It was also a theory Ferda himself might have accepted.
It was something impossible to notice in the lower Circles, but among Mages of the Fifth Circle and above...it was a terrifying phenomenon that could never be ignored.
"I don’t think so."
"Why not?"
"If it had been Circle Rampage, Mori would have died in the explosion as well."
Circle Rampage was, quite literally, becoming a living bomb.
No matter how dearly it cherished Mori, it could never have spared her so cleanly.
A tremendous vibration had occurred...yet it had ended with nothing more than that.
Ferda voiced his conclusion.
"Someone cast a spell."
"If a Magic Circle had activated, wouldn’t Mori have said that the Magic Circle activated?"
"Ordinarily, yes."
After all, Mori could see Magic Circles as well.
"But it’s a different story if the caster is a Witch bearing the name Phyliaz."
A blue light flickered within Ferda’s eyes.
He began seeing far more than what appeared on the surface.
"As I thought."
The place where Echidna had stood still contained traces of Mana.
But those traces weren’t merely evidence of Mana activation.
Ferda poured Mana into the faint outline, giving its shape vivid color once more.
Luri gasped when she saw it.
It had the shape of a rose.
"That... rose... is a trace of Mana?"
"It’s a Mana Signature. A technique only high-ranking Mages can use."
"Then... do you know whose signature it is?"
Ferda nodded.
It was a signature he could never forget.
"Lucy Phyliaz."
The First Witch.
She alone left behind a Mana Signature like this.
Which meant...
She had interfered inside this very castle in order to retrieve Echidna.
To accomplish that, she had violently disturbed the Magic Circles protecting the castle.
"Then... you’re saying someone infiltrated from outside? The barrier surrounding this castle shouldn’t allow magic of this level."
"The Magic Circle had already been implanted inside her body. Triggering it only required a slight stimulus."
All that had been necessary...was a tiny spark to ignite the fuse.
And Lucy Phyliaz had provided that spark.
"Since she’s a Phyliaz, this must be the Magic Circle Big Sister engraved to recover the body."
Killing a Witch was difficult.
Some stored their lives inside separate Life Vessels.
Others kept their true bodies safe while using clones.
But ultimately...they all lived under the protection of Big Sister.
Her influence could pierce even the impregnable scales of a dragon.
What defensive spell could possibly stop her intrusion?
"But Echidna was an exiled Witch. Does that protection still apply?"
Unlike the other Witches, who hated men...
Echidna loved them.
She had likely been exiled because her beliefs conflicted with theirs.
So why would they bother recovering her corpse?
Ferda answered simply.
"They don’t discriminate based on where talent comes from."
Whatever else she might be...she was still one of the few Rune Makers on the continent.
An artisan beyond price.
Luri slowly nodded in agreement.
"How ruthless... Those Witches truly are."
"It’s not just Witches."
Because I was the same.
Ferda couldn’t take his eyes off the remaining traces.
"Still... there’s one thing I don’t understand."
"Something bothering you?"
"It ended too cleanly."
The only thing left behind...was the rose-shaped Mana Signature.
Aside from that, there wasn’t a single trace of interference.
And that was precisely what felt strange.
"A Witch wouldn’t leave after doing something this cleanly..."
"They merely infiltrated the castle. Wouldn’t it have been difficult to leave anything else behind?"
Luri’s reasoning made sense.
Even so...
Ferda refused to overlook it.
After pondering for a moment, he asked,
"Has everyone inside the castle been evacuated?"
"Yes. They’re probably standing in front of the inner gate looking like frightened meerkats."
"Let’s go there."
Luri looked puzzled.
Could the answer really be among them?
Ferda looked at the crowd gathered below the stairs.
Among them were Zed and Penelope, casually standing around as Zed yawned.
"Zed Swallow."
"Yes?"
Ferda crooked a finger, beckoning him over.
With an expression full of annoyance, Zed walked up beside him.
"You’re one of those Swindlers, aren’t you?"
"That’s right."
"So you’ve been hitting on the women working inside the castle as well?"
"Huh?! Do I seriously look like the kind of guy who can’t live without women?"
Zed protested indignantly.
Luri immediately shot him a look of utter disgust.
"But you are exactly that kind of man. Every time I pass by your room, I keep hearing those damned moans."
"Huh? That’s probably not because of me, it’s because Jeje—Mmgh!"
"You. Shut up. The adults are talking."
"So? Your answer?"
"...I just get to know them a little."
Embarrassed, Zed scratched the back of his head.
Ignoring him, Ferda gestured toward the women gathered below.
"Among the women standing over there... is there anyone you’ve never seen before?"
"I’m not such a shameless scoundrel that I’ve memorized every woman’s face in this castle, but... huh?"
"What is it?"
"There’s one girl whose face I don’t recognize."
Exactly one.
There was a woman whose appearance had escaped even Zed’s radar.
In the direction Zed pointed stood an ordinary-looking woman.
She looked completely average in every respect.
A face so plain it possessed no distinguishing characteristics whatsoever.
"You’re certain?"
"Yes. I’ve never seen her anywhere in this castle."
Zed answered without hesitation.
Luri’s expression of disgust deepened even further.
Ferda began walking toward the woman.
"Lord Regent is coming down!"
"Everyone, show your respect!"
As soon as they saw Ferda approaching, everyone cried out and dropped to one knee.
Only the woman Zed had pointed out existed in Ferda’s eyes.
He walked straight through the crowd until he stood directly before her.
Seeing Ferda’s boots before her, the woman raised her head and greeted him.
"My greetings to Regent Valdrova—"
Whoosh—!
She never finished her sentence.
Before she could...a single sphere of Mana formed at Ferda’s fingertip shot forward...and pierced straight through her forehead.
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