Chapter 515

“First of all, thank you for trusting me enough to answer.”

Emanuel lowered the hand he had been resting his chin on and looked into my eyes. He knew exactly how dangerous my confession was, especially after he had warned me to be careful with what I said, and he was thanking me for it. Because telling him the truth meant that I trusted him. Ironically, the reason he had urged me to watch what I said was that he hadn’t expected me to take this much of a risk and come this close to him. I didn’t need to think any further about what that meant. It was already clear. Still, he was a difficult person to become close to once you crossed a certain line…

Emanuel spoke in a slightly quieter voice.

“And I’m sorry for treating you this way. I’m sorry that I put you through this test even though I knew you were capable of being this honest, that I resorted to such an unpleasant method, and that I was secretly glad to hear what you told me.”

I, on the other hand, felt something new. I caught a fleeting trace of anxiety in the minute movements and tension of his irises and pale yellow eyelashes. That was just as new to me as the fact that he had felt guilty for being pleased to hear my genuine feelings through improper means. His anxiety was proof. It meant he didn’t want to lose his relationship with me. They say time isn’t everything in a friendship, but with this person, time might be everything. There was no intense trigger between us like the one that had first brought Elias and me close. Perhaps that was how Archduke Maria had managed to become close to him.

I understood. He had already asked me several times where my information came from, both directly and indirectly. I was the one who had brushed those signals aside. I was also the one who had refused his second method of resolving conflict, one I had already experienced before—going out for a drink. He had concluded that if he tried to resolve this through a rational conversation, he would never get an answer from me, and because I could potentially pose a threat to Bavaria, he had taken things this far. If I were in his position, I would have done the same. If I found someone who could threaten the things I valued most, I would have started by pouring divine power into their head. I had nothing more to say on the matter.

Emanuel’s eyes and the set of his mouth showed that, whatever my reaction might be, he had no intention of holding back what he needed to say.

“Even if you decide you don’t want to stay with me after this, I won’t stop you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them toward him again, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Then I glared at Emanuel again and scolded him.

“You should stop me. Isn’t that why you went this far in the first place—to keep me around?”

“Hmm.”

Since he had already admitted how much weight he placed on the words ‘went this far’ by warning me never to reveal my ability anywhere else, he rolled his eyes again and flashed me a grin.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to stop you. Let’s keep hanging out like this.”

He grabbed my arm and playfully rested his head against my shoulder. I let out a disbelieving snort, almost more of an exhale than a laugh.

If there was one thing I liked about him, it was that he didn’t make grand declarations he knew I would never act on just to prove how sorry he was. Things like, Even if you tell His Majesty and have me punished, I won’t stop you, or something along those lines. That would have been provocation rather than an apology. He couldn’t very well say something like that after asking me to prove my loyalty to Bavaria, but perhaps that was precisely why I could feel that none of his words were ever spoken lightly—if anything, every calculation and every courtesy was carefully woven into them. He knew the difference between what I could accept and what I couldn’t. He also knew how not to make a mockery of himself or everything he loved. The fact that we were each taking a step back from the slight rudeness we had shown each other just now was possible because of that sincerity. It was the right thing to do.

Emanuel said quietly, “When you retire from the Royal Family, I’ll let you live at my estate for the rest of your life.”

Honestly, that was always a surprising thing to hear from someone who had built walls around himself with distance.

“That gives me déjà vu. I’m generally of the opinion that I should live alone, so I’ll just be grateful for the thought.”

“You’re realistic.”

“I suppose I should have made a joke.”

Why was that realistic? Was that really the sort of thing one said in a situation like this? I wanted to know what made him use the word realistic—though I answered differently, he seemed to understand that this was what I fundamentally thought. He patted me on the shoulder and stood up.

“You really are realistic. Are you still sleepy, by any chance?”

“No. I’ve been fine since I drank the liquor you gave me, Your Highness.”

“Good. Then tie your hair up.”

“Why?”

“Come on. Maria is probably still working.”

“You took your time.”

Archduke Maria greeted us after taking off his protective gear. He was holding a thick iron rod with great solemnity. I had no idea what it was for, so I pointed at it and shrugged. The Archduke answered, “It’s an astral sensor.”

“…That’s the name?”

“Strictly speaking, it’s not quite the same thing, but it’s an ambient mana sensor. It’s still under development, so it’s incomplete.”

The Archduke confidently lifted the corners of his mouth and brought over the thick book he had left on the desk. He fired mana at the book as he spoke.

“You called this a button, Sir Everett, but I’d like to call it a lever.”

“Then call it that.”

“You surely would have tried this yourself, Sir Everett. Firing mana throughout the entire room and checking for areas where the wavelength changes. We could use that to find the lever, couldn’t we? Though I suppose you were talking about cases where the lever was made with such advanced technology that even this method wouldn’t be enough to find it.”

“Exactly.”

“Let’s imagine a hypothetical gun that can break mana down into its smallest possible units and fire them with tremendous force. In most cases, we should be able to use something like this to detect the presence of other forms of mana, such as spatial magic or an artifact. It would actually be quite useful. Don’t you think? It’s the same principle as firing mana at an invisible portal: if the mana were to disappear into the portal, we could infer that there was a portal there.”

I nodded. The Archduke enthusiastically tapped the leather cover of the book he was holding.

“But this would work differently. Let’s consider two possible scenarios. First, suppose this is a doorknob. It isn’t like a portal where you can move simply by ‘touching’ the book. You have to perform a specific action, like pulling it and letting it go, to cross over into another space. So it’s different from a portal. If you fire mana at a closed door, the mana won’t simply be sucked inside. However, no matter how simple it is, it can receive a command and carry it out, which makes it a sort of machine. That means it must be an artifact in its own right. And yet, the fact that it doesn’t emit any mana is extremely strange. There must be some kind of special processing involved that we don’t know about. Second, suppose the movement this book requires is a defensive command meant to conceal the fact that the book itself is a portal. In that case, the book has been designed not to absorb mana coming in from outside. From this, we can gain one important insight.”

“What is it?”

“Whatever the case may be, this book has undergone some kind of special processing.”

Emanuel tilted his head, his expression practically asking, And what exactly are we supposed to do with that?

The Archduke spread his hands as he continued.

“This processing was probably made possible not through conventional magical theory using the ordinary mana we know, but through someone’s Special Ability or some occult mystery unknown to us—in other words, through the indirect manipulation of ambient mana. Or perhaps it was designed to consume less mana than the minimum detectable amount of a mana detector. That would also require considerable skill. So, we can’t identify this book as a spatial-magic transportation button using a mana detector!”

“Yes. You already said that.”

“So I decided to try a different approach. I’m sure you know this as well, Sir Everett. Entropy increases in an isolated system.”

At those words, I lifted my eyelids and rubbed my chin. Then I looked at the occult metal rod in the Archduke’s hand.

“Even an attempt to decrease entropy results in an increase in entropy. In other words, entropy continues to increase regardless. I want to find a way to achieve an absolute decrease in entropy, but that aside, this is what modern science tells us.”

“…So?”

The Archduke set the book down on the desk with a thud and said, “Now, look! The book itself is sitting still, but its disorder—in other words, its entropy—is increasing. That’s because as we move around, we disturb the air molecules, and they’re constantly coming into contact with the book. The same goes for light and heat. Even if we leave this book untouched, it will eventually rot away and disappear hundreds of years from now. If we turn off the lights on the ceiling, the temperature of the book’s surface will drop, even if only slightly. We’re also causing vibrations in the table the book is sitting on simply by walking across the floor. Perhaps that contributes to the book’s deterioration as well. These effects are small enough to ignore, but if we carefully measured and calculated the values of every factor around us, we would certainly be able to confirm that the book’s entropy is increasing.”

Emanuel, who was standing a little farther back, nodded. Though he seemed bored by Maria’s teacher-like explanation, he listened in silence with full attention.

“And I don’t want to confirm this increase in entropy only through equations.”

Maria held up the astral projection cigarette and the iron rod. I had to stop myself from letting my mouth fall open. Could there really be a simpler way? He was saying that he intended to use fluctuations in ambient mana—aether—that neither our eyes could see nor our bodies could sense.

“In the first case, this book is doing everything in its power to hide the fact that it is a lever. In other words, it is trying not to emit mana. In the second case, the book is trying not to indiscriminately absorb mana from outside. What does that mean? It means that there is some change taking place that cannot be detected within the range of mana produced by the human body—in other words, a remarkably strong increase in entropy compared to other books.”

I nodded, then put together everything I had heard so far.

“All right. So the fact that entropy increases was only the stepping stone that gave you the idea to use this object. Ultimately, it isn’t the important part. What matters is that we can use this cigarette and the astral sensor.”

“Exactly. But I wanted to tell you, Sir Everett, the entire process that led me to this idea.”

“Me? Why?”

I gave a hollow laugh and touched my chest. I had expected him to brush it off with a laugh, but the Archduke simply stared into empty space, his lips moving slightly. Realizing that the mood wasn’t quite so light, I wiped the smile from my face.

The Archduke spoke almost immediately.

“The world reveals itself according to how much one knows.”

Since I had no idea what he was about to say, I simply nodded.

“Isn’t that an eternal truth? When a conversation flows without difficulty and our thoughts move just as smoothly, it means that, to some extent, we see the world in the same way. To give a simple example, when I talk about a certain subject, my words contain all kinds of knowledge I’ve learned over the years, much of which I don’t even remember when or how I learned. It became a part of me a long time ago, so I don’t need to stop and think or examine it before speaking. Even the fact that it might sound unfamiliar to someone else is something that happened so long ago that I no longer notice it unless I stop and think about it again and again. I suppose… that is what I need to be most careful about.”

That was why he had pretended from the very beginning that he had no interest in the occult. Partly because he had been reluctant to admit to something so anti-Christian and so far outside common sense, but deep down, this was what he had been thinking.

“But if someone without the same background knowledge, outlook on life, or values as me were to hear me speak that way, it would usually make little sense to them at all. They might think I’m narrow-minded, or that there’s simply something wrong with my head. Or, because I casually use words that sound difficult to them, they might think I’m trying to deceive or look down on them, or that I’m showing off my learning.”

“…….”

“Communication between people whose ways of thinking are drastically different often ends badly. They may think I’m indirectly insulting them, or that I’ve gone mad from becoming obsessed with some strange field of study. Then I realize that there has been a failure in communication and explain that I never meant to insult them, but it rarely does much good.”

He was telling me that he was happy because we could understand one another. But it wasn’t simply that he was happy. As I read the emotions behind his words, I had to choose to remain silent.

“But not everything in the world can be explained in simple terms. Sometimes, when you want to discuss a certain subject, you have to use the terminology of that field. I’m not a teacher, so I may be lacking in that regard, but there are times when using anything other than the original terms can lead to considerable misunderstanding. That’s why I try not to answer even when someone asks me about magic. Even when I bring it up out of necessity, the same problem often arises.”

I nodded. Archduke Maria thought for a moment before continuing.

“Adapting the way you speak to the person you’re talking to is a basic courtesy. I suppose that’s why people with different interests eventually drift apart. It’s perfectly natural, and there’s nothing hurtful about it. But people…”

Archduke Maria fell silent for a moment, staring off somewhere as though he had briefly wandered into another world, before continuing.

“You can’t live alone with three eyes among people who all have two.”

I smiled. Archduke Maria continued.

“Everyone wants someone they can truly communicate with. Isn’t it natural to wish that, rather than stepping on others to get ahead, you could simply have people by your side? Even if the world isn’t quite that much of a dream.”

“Otherwise, you start to feel that something must have gone wrong from the very beginning. Even if that feeling itself is mistaken.”

Maria gave a small flick of his finger at my words.

“Exactly. You understand very well, Sir Everett. That’s what I mean.”

Archduke Maria continued, absentmindedly running his fingers over the mana collector sitting at one side of the desk.

“Right? We met each other, and we’re not lonely anymore…”

So that was why he had wanted to tell me his entire thought process. I silently looked down at his bag and the desk. Then I answered in the same quiet voice.

“Right.”

“And yet, to have met people with whom I can connect like this… There’s no way to explain it as anything but luck. Perhaps once you know what it’s like, you can’t go back to how things were before.”

I looked into Maria’s eyes, then turned away.

I thought that this place was no different from any other reality. Yes. That was why I couldn’t bring myself to easily decide that I would come here. I murmured quietly.

“I think it might be time for me to go to the other side.”

“Why?”

“There have been a lot of happy things happening lately. It’s always a joy to discover that someone’s feelings are genuine.”

The Archduke’s eyes lit up.

“It’s a pleasure talking to you, too. Since it’s not time for you to go to the other side yet, let’s devote ourselves to occult— I mean, magical studies together from now on.”

“Yes…”

Perhaps my answer had sounded strange, because Emanuel burst out laughing. For some reason, he roughly mussed my hair with his strong hand, then smoked his cigarette with a broad grin still on his face. I clicked my tongue and tied my hair up again. Emanuel pulled me slightly backward and fell silent. When I looked at him, wondering if he was about to say something, he began to mutter.

“Well… as far as I could tell, there wasn’t a single difficult thing being said in that conversation…”

Emanuel lowered his voice to a whisper, his expression gradually becoming more serious.

“And yet, seeing you react like this makes me reflect on myself.”

Just as Emanuel said, the Archduke hadn’t used particularly difficult words. From his perspective, it had been the most basic of basics, and he had even translated every explanation into terms simple enough for our level of knowledge. And yet, the reason he was so moved now was probably because he had never been able to truly connect with other people over magic and the occult. Whenever he tried to express his thoughts seriously, even just a little, he had repeatedly been met with incomprehension. That was the other side of his joy.

I turned my head and looked at the decorated lights floating along the hallway. Emanuel said the Archduke had been delighted when I told him I wanted to have a serious discussion about magic, and that he had decorated the house like this because he was so pleased by my request. The Archduke must have been happy when he taught me about the occult and we communicated through it, too. He must have been happy when I actively asked about the connection between quantum mechanics, the occult, and the world. And even before that, he must have been happy when I asked him to take me to the ‘world of pure mana’ and analyze it for me.

Emanuel tilted his head and whispered.

“Do you still not want to retire and live at my house?”

“…….”

“Then go live alone in Austria. That way, we can still see each other often.”

I answered with a smile instead. My thoughts were starting to pile up.

I don’t want to keep living like this. With that thought, I called out loudly to Archduke Maria, who was busy assembling the improved mana collector—the next invention he wanted to show us.

“Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to get some of the sleep-magic cigarettes and defensive potions you gave to His Highness Emanuel. Could I have some as well?”

“Ghk…”

Emanuel raised an eyebrow, made a strange noise, and laughed. When the sleep-magic cigarettes came up, Archduke Maria narrowed his eyes and frowned for a moment. But after seeing that we all looked perfectly fine, he answered without giving it much thought.

“Sure.”