Chapter 108: Another Eye - III

Fate was churning, but I don’t know why.

No matter what I tried to decipher, I got lost like a scuba diver in a forest of kelp. Anything that led me closer to an answer would send my mana costs straight into the sky.

[Absolute Awareness] was truly wasted on a mortal like me.

Of course, a mortal like me did not need to rely purely on such a Gift.

Just based on the cost alone, I could already surmise several things.

All I had to do was understand which ’facts’ cost the most, or which patterns drained more mana.

Even without the auto-correcting <Trait> of <Deduction>, I was still capable of mundane—but still powerful—inference and induction.

Therefore!

It was time to question the universe.

Let’s start with something simple:

"Is this situation a direct result of my movements? Is this situation mainly because of me or because of my contribution? Is the cause in my vicinity?"

Three questions to start things off. The first two gave me a clear answer through [Absolute Awareness]. It was a direct result of my movements along with the movements of a lot of other constituents.

Our collective shift seems to have done something.

Therefore, the situation was related to me. However, when I got to the last question, I got a no.

"Is the distance immense?"

I sensed it to be a yes.

"In what direction?"

All my mana vanished.

Interesting... While waiting for my mana to regenerate, I had a nagging suspicion.

Technically, being aware of the direction of a certain phenomenon should have had the same cost as asking for the immensity of the direction. Asking near or far was similar to asking whether something was North, South, East, or West.

Therefore, I surmised that the cause could be directly pinpointed if I was given a direction.

It was this straightforward direction—akin to giving out the answer directly—that caused the total evaporation of my mana.

Thus, I asked next.

"How much mana would I have needed to comprehend the answer to my previous question?"

The answer was a startling value of 10E92.

Ten raised to ninety-two. Also written as: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Haha.

Well... let me try something else.

"Is it related to Walvaskaz?"

An easy yes.

"Is it related to the higher-ups of Walvaskaz?"

A bit more costly, but yes. I was getting warmer.

"...Could it be the players of Walvaskaz?"

My mana vanished again. When I had enough mana, I asked how much I needed to get an answer to the previous question.

This time, the answer made me grin.

I got a value of 10E133.

That narrowed it down a little more. I had a guess that the 10E92 is exactly because of only a single being.

So, I asked.

"Is it due to the Primordial Dragon Empress?"

My mana vanished once more. Thereafter, I asked how much it would have cost.

10E100.

Ah, a little more expensive, but it made sense. After all, I was only asking for a general direction earlier...

"Huh... Wait a minute."

My eyes unconsciously drifted up to look at the fresh, morning sky. There, a faint silver moon was looming beyond the clouds.

I grew suspicious.

If giving out the direction would have revealed the entity in an instant...

"Is the cause of the disturbance... The moon?"

My mana vanished again! When I asked how much—

10E95

So, when I had enough mana again, I asked. A terrifying chill ran through my body, pumping me full of adrenaline. The blue of excitement and sheer anxiety engulfed me in totality.

I was shaking in my seat in the carriage. Kuvie and Reazue were resting, unaware of my current state.

"Is the Primordial Dragon Empress Fleim’s moon...?"

Once my mana disappeared and I asked for the cost...

10E150.

Yep.

That’s about right.

The Primordial Dragon Empress is most likely the damned moon above the world. What the hell? She was a being of that scale!?

No wonder.

Honestly, no wonder.

<Fate> was trying to do something, but the silver moon in the sky did nothing. Ignoring its whims.

Wasn’t this blasphemy?

I could help but let out a hollow laugh. Accessing a secret of the world like this...

It gave me an immense high—and an even greater crash.

The moon...

Ah, the moon was a living being.

It was a Dragon. A Mortal God.

The owner of the Walvaskaz Empire.

Existential dread consumed my puny mortal soul. I felt so empty. So small.

So... weak.

But that moment of weakness lasted only for a few hours.

When the sun had fully risen, and Kuvie and Reazue had woken up, I had fallen asleep from the exhaustion of the night’s revelations.

I woke up for dinner—served as a ball of vegetables and grains, with hints of floral herbs and spices. It was... akin to an onigiri from Japan, Earth. However, it was shaped as a sphere, not cute little triangles.

It felt like a pill that hadn’t been chucked into the oven.

Anyways.

While eating, I continued my deductions, still in disbelief from this morning’s revelations.

By following a trail of names, histories, and ideas, while making assumptions, calculations, and deductions here and there...

I encountered several evolutions in the world’s current quantum state that drained my mana reserves, as well as that of the <Wyrm With No Name>, completely.

Given that, I could guess that <Fate> had—at the very least—forced the Gods to move.

It made sense. After all... It was most likely because <Fate> wanted to rope the Primordial Dragon Empress into some scheme.

But she had no desire to participate.

At least, that’s what I deduced after several questions.

"...Aventine?" Kuvie was waving her hand in my face. "Hello?"

My eyes, which were looking into the distance, returned to my surroundings.

"...Yes?"

"My gods! We’re already in the Living City of Hispe! We haven’t been able to talk to you in an entire week!" Kuvie’s exasperation was immense. "What in the name of the Empress have you been thinking about?"