Chapter 73: Realization
Adrian glanced in the direction she was pointing and then turned back to her. There was a confident smirk on her face, signaling that she wasn’t pointing in that direction by mistake. Adrian asked in confusion.
"Why there? Do you even know what area that is?"
She approached a step closer as her confident smirk widened.
"Adi, when you pointed out all the areas in this city, I found it kinda strange. This city looked so large; there was no way there would only be those areas in this whole city."
She was absolutely correct. Aevithar was a duchy, a dukedom. The size of this whole territory would be comparable to a large kingdom, at the very least. And this city was like the capital city of Aevithar, so it would obviously be quite large.
"So after I returned home, I did my research. And apparently, there were a lot more places in this city than you pointed out. That direction is the industrial hub of this city, right? I wanna go and see it."
For a moment, Adrian stared at her quietly.
’Looks like she isn’t as much of an airhead as she pretends to be. I will have to reevaluate her.’
From the moment of their first interaction, Adrian had kept a close eye on this girl and watched and evaluated her every action. And so far, if he evaluated her solely based on what he observed, Evangeline Florivelle seemed like a ten-year-old girl who was an airhead.
Her behavior made her incomparable to Ravian—who Adrian used as a standard for a normal ten-year-old—and was down below, almost at the same level as his younger brother, Elias.
But apparently, this girl was also thinking about things. It was just hidden behind her carefree behavior.
Adrian’s thoughts soon returned to the matter at hand, and he slowly opened his mouth.
"...I don’t think that’s a good idea."
Evangeline narrowed her eyes and gave him a look of suspicion.
"And why is that?"
"..."
"Not gonna answer? Then I won’t listen to you. Adi, that is our next destination, and that’s final."
Adrian could only sigh.
And just like that, the next destination for their adventure was decided. Evangeline sprang forward with an energetic rhythm while Adrian followed behind her with calm steps.
***
Adrian glanced at Evangeline once again.
’What’s up with her?’
They had been walking for quite a while, and somewhere along the way, she started looking into the empty air with a lost look on her face. It was as though she was deeply lost in thought while her steps continued.
In the end, he lost patience and tapped her shoulder.
"Hey, Evangel, why have you been spacing out like this? Something wrong?"
Using her nickname felt quite strange, but Adrian didn’t want her to throw another tantrum, so he used it just in case.
She slowly turned to him, then shook her head as her lost expression returned to normal.
"Oh, it’s just that... I have a strong feeling that I’m forgetting something. The last time I got that feeling, I had gotten into quite a mess, so I don’t wanna ignore it this time..."
She trailed off as her gaze settled on him. Then her eyes suddenly widened in realisation.
"Ah, I finally remember! Adi! You, you tricked me!"
Adrian furrowed his brows.
’What is she talking about?’
He tricked her? When? Adrian had no memory of ever doing that. Meanwhile, she accusingly pointed her finger at him.
"You lied to me! I asked for an easy way to get stronger, and you told me it was spell creation. Adi, you liar! You made a fool of me!"
Adrian’s confusion deepened even further.
"I don’t understand what you are saying. I never lied to you about anything."
But his words seemed to have provoked her further, as she began poking his cheek with the finger she had been pointing at him.
"Trying to play innocent now, are we? It’s not going to work. I read through an entire book about the introduction to spell creation and didn’t understand a thing, and you call that easy?"
’That’s so strange.’
She was claiming that she had read through an introductory book on spell creation and didn’t understand anything, but that couldn’t be true. At worst, she should’ve at least understood a portion of it.
’Did she read the wrong book?’
Adrian decided to confirm his doubts.
"Evangel, look at my hand."
He gathered mana in his palm and manipulated it. Slowly, the formless energy began taking shape. It was divided into multiple small glowing blue dots, twinkling like miniature stars. Then the glowing blue orbs were connected to each other with a thin blue string.
Soon, all the dots were connected to one another. Some glowing dots were connected to multiple ones, while some had a single string attached to them. The sophisticated pattern they formed looked like a miniature hologram of some constellation was floating above his palm.
He turned to Evangeline.
"What is this?"
The reply came instantly.
"A spell, obviously."
Indeed, this was a spell. Specifically, it was the spell for Space Implosion that Adrian had personally created. Evangeline also held out her hand and condensed mana into her palm as it took the shape of something similar to his own spell.
Though its patterns were completely different from the spell in Adrian’s palm. It also looked far simpler than Space Implosion and had far fewer glowing dots, which suggested that it was a lower-tier spell.
Evangeline pointed at the spell in her palm with a smug expression.
"I can do it too, you know."
’When did I say that you couldn’t? Really, what’s with her?’
But he shook away those thoughts since he was getting off topic and began explaining.
"These glowing blue dots that you see in this structure, they are the rules of a spell. Every spell needs a set of rules to function. A fireball spell would need rules like ignition, compression, control, and the like. And these glowing dots represent those rules. These strings connecting these glowing dots, meanwhile, are called rule correlations."
He brought his palm closer to her, trying to give her a better look.
"For a spell to properly function, the rules must be connected in such a way that they achieve synergy. Evangel, are you following so far?"
She nodded somewhat absentmindedly as her violet eyes remained completely focused on the spell in his palm. He continued.
"To create the spell, we have to calculate the exact pattern to achieve synergy. But the problem is, we don’t know which glowing dot represents which rule, since all glowing dots look the same. But of course, calculating them is easy. After that—"
"Wait, wait, wait, I think you lost me there. How do we calculate something if we don’t have a fixed value to use as a basis? You just skipped over it as if it were nothing."
’Huh? What’s the big deal in calculating variables? There is a whole branch of mathematics called algebra—’
But Adrian’s thoughts suddenly paused there. That was because he realised something crucial. Calculating variables was not a concept in this world; it was a concept from Earth. He had been using it without realising, since it was basically common knowledge to him.
’No, more than that...’
He focused on Evangeline’s expression. The confusion on her face looked genuine, as if she had never heard of the concept of calculating variables.
But back on earth, that was something one was destined to learn in high school, and some kids even learned it as early as middle school. It would be very unlikely for a person from Earth to have never studied it.
’Does that mean... she really isn’t a reincarnate?’
Not only this, if he were to compile all known facts about this girl, like her childish behavior, her intelligence level, her thought process, and several other things, it would be enough for him to have concluded that she really wasn’t a reincarnate.
Yet he hadn’t come to that conclusion until now.
’Maybe, maybe I wanted her to be a reincarnate.’
Maybe that was his way of grasping at straws, trying to hold on to hope that there was someone in the same situation as him and he could navigate everything with their help.
Adrian closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Opening his eyes again, he began walking forward quietly.
"Hey, Adi! Why did you suddenly grow quiet? Weren’t you trying to explain things to me? Hey! Where are you walking off to? Wait for me!"
Evangeline’s voice came from behind, and she caught up to him soon after. He turned and looked at her, and his grey eyes met her violet ones.
Suddenly, Adrian no longer had any interest in this outing; he didn’t feel there was any meaning in it. From the start, his only motivation for interacting with this girl was the possibility that she might be a reincarnate like him.
But seeing her as a ten-year-old child now, he no longer had any desire to interact with her.
Adrian opened his mouth and spoke evenly.
"Actually, you were correct. I really did lie and try to make a fool of you, so please forgive me."
