Chapter 62: Chapter 46: Reshaper
"Let him try," Elvire said.
Deep down, she hoped Sean could enter the Holy Sanctuary.
It had nothing to do with his future prospects; she just felt that he was *her* person. If he could enter the Holy Sanctuary, it would reflect well on her... ’Yes, that’s all it is.’
Sean was a Tier Two Wizard now, meeting the minimum standard for entering the Holy Sanctuary. Maybe he could actually get the approval of her brother-in-law’s statue.
"Fine, I’ll wait for you on the first floor," Elise said with a smile. "I hope I’ll be waiting for you too, Mr. Writer."
Elvire hung up.
Entering the Void Technique Space required a quiet, undisturbed place. She had originally planned to turn right at the intersection toward the residential area, but after just a few steps, she stopped, turned around, and led Sean back to the hospital room.
One lay down, and the other sat.
After they entered the Void Technique Space and met on a familiar street, Sean asked her, "Was turning right back there the way to your place?" as they walked toward the Hall of Truth.
Elvire hummed.
Although she didn’t live in Alola Town permanently, as a member of the Dawn Council’s leadership, she naturally had a place of her own on her home turf.
Whether he was genuinely oblivious or just playing dumb, Sean said casually, "Well, we didn’t have to go back to the hospital, then."
Elvire picked up on his implication, her tone pointed. "If not the hospital, where? You wanted to go to my house?"
’Men. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.’
Sean played dumb. "I never said that."
"You’d better not have," Elvire huffed. "I haven’t even asked you why your Magic Power has increased so quickly."
Never mind a rookie like Quill, who knew nothing and took two and a half years to reach Tier Two. Even the so-called genius of the Florist Family, who reached Tier Two in half a year, was nothing special in Elvire’s eyes. Only people like her and Sean, who jumped from Tier One to Tier Two within a month, deserved to be called true geniuses—or "natural-born Wizards."
This was a far cry from her initial assessment of Sean.
But Elvire wouldn’t mention it.
’What’s past is past. It isn’t important.’
’It’s not that my judgment is poor. It’s that this guy is too good at hiding things—his Magic Power, his abilities, his connections. He even used his good looks to cloud my judgment, which is why I couldn’t see him for who he was right away.’
"To be honest, I don’t know either." Sean wasn’t lying to Elvire this time.
His dreams were fragmented, with no clear process or timeline for his advancement. He had no idea how quickly a normal Wizard was supposed to advance through the Tiers, or what it should feel like. If he had, he wouldn’t have needed to drink from the Spring of Enlightenment to realize the desert in his dreams was a form of Meditation.
’I thought everyone was this fast.’
"You must be a Reshaper too." Elvire didn’t believe for a second that he truly didn’t know.
Sean: "..."
’Too?’
"Can I ask what a Reshaper is?"
’One minute it’s the Awakened, the next it’s Reshapers... How did I not know there were so many kinds of Wizards?’
’I don’t think these terms existed back in the Era of Polymath, did they?’
Elvire patiently explained, "To put it in terms you novelists would use, ’Reshaping’ is basically reincarnation."
The difference is that in novels, the protagonist’s reincarnation is usually a rare, unique event. Only the main character gets this special treatment, and the timeline might even rewind for the sake of the plot. But Reshaping isn’t like that. This is reality, not a novel; the timeline only moves forward. It’s more like a cycle of rebirth, where a Reshaper gradually recovers memories from a past life. And they aren’t the only ones.
The number of Reshapers in the world might not be huge, but there’s a fair number of them. I am one, Elise is one, so is Yisha, and Kate, and Kate’s teacher, Adelf... We are all Reshapers.
You have to understand, Meditation is experience-based. The so-called ’flashes of inspiration’ or ’epiphanies’ are, in essence, experiences from a past life resurfacing. The memories engraved on their souls help them grow faster. That’s why the speed at which a Reshaper advances through the Tiers is far beyond that of an Awakened, who started as a mere mortal.
And since every Reshaper had a specific identity in their past life, when Elvire asked Sean why his Magic Power was rising so quickly, she was actually asking who he used to be.
’Going from Tier One to Tier Two in about half a month... that’s on par with my own progress. It means his past self was no weaker than mine. Our Blazing Angel Family had extensive connections during the Era of Polymath, and we were on good terms with plenty of Grand Mages. Who knows, maybe my past self and his even knew each other. We might have even been friends.’
Sean hurriedly said, "No, no, we didn’t know each other."
Elvire: "?"
"Is it that embarrassing to have known me?"
’It’s not that it’s embarrassing. It’s that *I* might die.’
’I still have no idea how I offended her in the past, or how badly. The only thing I’m sure of is that back then, she couldn’t do a thing to me.’
’Back then, I was invincible. I was the one who bullied others, not the other way around.’
’So, until I figure out the full story, revealing my identity would be reckless. It could very well lead to the roles being reversed.’
’Elvire is a Tier Five now. If there’s really bad blood between us, and she finds out I’m her brother-in-law, wouldn’t she jump at the chance to get her revenge?’
’I wouldn’t stand a chance.’
’Honestly, I don’t get it. She’s such a beautiful and cute sister-in-law. Did my past self really have the heart to bully her?’
’I can’t figure it out, and I don’t dare ask.’
He could only think fast and offer a vague excuse. "It’s probably because my memories haven’t fully returned yet."
"We’ll talk after they’ve returned, then," Elvire said.
She found the excuse plausible enough, since her own memories were also still in the process of returning.
Sean seized the opportunity to change the subject. "So, it sounds like Reshaping is something you can control?"
’Like you can decide whether or not to be reincarnated?’
Elvire nodded, confirming Sean’s guess.
"Reshaping" was a method of "extending life" jointly researched by the Wizards of the Era of Polymath. The ones who first conceived of and proposed this theory were her sister, Daeli, and the Church Saintess, Olivia. But Elvire didn’t want to say more on the subject, or she would be reminded of her irresponsible, bastard of a brother-in-law.
ACHOO.
Sean suddenly sneezed.
He rubbed his nose and asked in surprise, "You can even sneeze in the Void Technique Space?"
Elvire: "..."
’Why does that sound so familiar?’
The two chatted as they walked, arriving at the first floor of the Hall of Truth.
Elise, who was waiting there, saw Sean was also present. Her eyes lit up, and she teased, "You actually made it in. It seems our Mr. Writer isn’t as simple as he looks."
Tier Two was just the minimum requirement to enter the first floor of the Holy Sanctuary. It only meant you had a chance to gain the statue’s approval, not that you were guaranteed to. In fact, forget Tier Two; plenty of Tier Three Wizards couldn’t even get in. Yet Sean had succeeded on his first try. ’It seems... Elvire and I really picked up a treasure this time.’
But when Elvire heard her say this, she belatedly realized— ’Wait, that’s not right!’
’I was so busy talking to Sean about Reshapers that I forgot to have him touch the statue! I always use the main entrance to enter the Holy Sanctuary, so I just walked in through the main gate with him out of habit. But... he wasn’t thrown out?!’
Elvire whipped her head around and stared at Sean, her expression one of pure confusion.
Sean: "What?"
Elvire stared intently at him. "You’ve been in the Holy Sanctuary before, haven’t you?"
Now Elise was looking back and forth between them, equally confused.
’What does she mean?’
’This isn’t Sean’s first time in the Holy Sanctuary?’
Sean pretended not to hear Elvire, looking left and right as if searching for someone. "Where’s Mr. Dream Builder? Weren’t we supposed to talk in the Holy Sanctuary?"
Elise replied, "He’s on the second floor."
Sean paused. "The second floor?"
"Yes," Elise said, suppressing her curiosity, clearly annoyed. "If it weren’t for Elvire, he’d want to be on the third floor."
Sopea’s previous declaration, "Only a Tier Five is qualified to speak with me as an equal," had now been upgraded to, "Only those who can enter the 3rd Floor of the Holy Sanctuary are qualified to speak with me." He’d only lowered his standards temporarily as a favor to Elvire.
So even though Sean had made it to the first floor, he wouldn’t be able to go with them to meet Sopea.
But to their surprise, Sean didn’t seem to care. "No problem. Second floor it is. It’s all the same to me."
As he spoke, he stepped lightly onto the moving staircase. Before the stunned eyes of Elvire and Elise, who looked as if they’d just seen a ghost, he passed through the barrier between the first and second floors without any resistance. He left them with a parting remark—
"Hey, are you two coming? I don’t know anyone up here."
Elise: "???"
Elvire: "???"
’He can get into the second floor, too?!’
...
