Chapter 299: King’s Remark

Alex remained silent as he considered her words, slowly connecting ideas that he had previously treated as separate concepts.

Sophia continued, "Vairāgya means becoming detached from worldly desires, so you might still want things, but those desires won’t have the same intensity because you no longer feel as strongly attached to them. If your Will depends on the intensity of your desires, then achieving Vairāgya would weaken it."

Alex stared at her, genuinely stunned by how much sense her explanation made. He had spent several minutes trying to understand the connection between Vairāgya and magic, yet Sophia had managed to offer a reasonable explanation almost immediately.

He looked at her with a suspicious expression. "...How did you figure all of that out?"

"That’s how it always works in novels!" Sophia answered proudly, clearly enjoying the opportunity to show off her knowledge.

Alex simply stared at her, unsure whether he should be impressed or look at her strangely.

After a moment, Sophia noticed his expression, and she hurriedly added, "W-Well, you said the System has probably been influencing our culture for decades, so I thought some of the things I’ve read in novels about Souls and Will might actually be true. I just tried applying those ideas to our situation."

"...I see."

"Hey, can you not answer like that?"

"...Got it."

"I’m serious! It’s embarrassing for me!"

"...Okay."

"Stop it!" Sophia’s face turned bright red as she stood up from her chair. "Fine! It was my fault for trying to help you in the first place. I’m going now, so good night!"

She stomped her feet as she walked toward the door, clearly annoyed by Alex’s response. However, she still turned around to wish him good night before leaving, which left Alex feeling both amused and slightly baffled by her behavior.

He shook his head with a smile and returned his attention to the Rune Compendium. Sophia might have been angry because he had teased her, but she had still tried to help him understand something that had confused him, and he appreciated that.

After chuckling to himself for a moment, Alex recalled her explanation about Will and Vairāgya. Her reasoning made sense, and considering the strange warning he had felt from within his body, he decided against attempting to achieve Vairāgya for now, not that he knew how to achieve it.

He turned the page and looked at the second method.

—2. Eat a Star Plum Arasia fruit.

Alex stared at the sentence with a strange expression. The first method involved achieving detachment from worldly desires, which sounded like something that required considerable mental effort, while the second simply required him to eat a fruit.

He couldn’t understand how the two options could be so different in difficulty, but he decided to read the accompanying note before making any judgments.

—Note: Star Plum Arasia fruits are too expensive, so it is recommended to either steal them or take them from Chaos Domains. They grow during or after the Dark Nights of Chaos Domains. You can find them on top of a tall hill, cliff, or any area elevated above its surroundings. They cannot appear in areas with high concentrations of Origin Energy.

Alex’s expression became even stranger as he reread the first sentence. He had to check the words several times to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood the translation, but the book genuinely seemed to recommend stealing the fruit simply because it was expensive.

He turned to the first page to check who had written the book, wondering whether its author was some eccentric Mage who had a habit of making unusual recommendations.

[Author: Kptrin, King of the Trotha Kingdom]

"..."

Alex remained silent for several seconds. Trotha Kingdom was the same kingdom whose native language was Mirisi, and according to Jackel, it was one of the few places in the Land of Origin where Mages could still practice magic without facing widespread prejudice that magic was dead.

The king of such a kingdom had personally written this book, and he was recommending that Mages steal an expensive fruit rather than purchase it. Alex looked at the name again before slowly closing the cover.

’...I suppose strange people aren’t limited to humanity.’

He reopened the book and read the note once more, this time paying closer attention to the information about the fruit’s ’appearing’ conditions. The mention of Dark Nights immediately reminded him of the Lightless Night that had occurred the previous day, when all the moons had disappeared from the sky and even ordinary sources of light had seemed unable to illuminate the surroundings.

’Dark Nights must be what we call Lightless Nights.’

’So, the place where we were summoned is called a Chaos Domain, and the fruit appears during or after a Dark Night.’

The recommendation to steal the fruit was strange, so given how easily the book had recommended to go to Chaos Domain, those places were not simple.

Furthermore, the book specifically mentioned elevated areas with low concentrations of Origin Energy, which gave Alex a few ideas about where he might find one.

He recalled the Lightning Grim Ape that had established its territory at the top of a hill. There hadn’t been a dungeon nearby, which had initially confused him because powerful monsters usually preferred places with high concentrations of Origin Energy, where they could grow stronger more easily.

For a High Rank Species, finding such a location shouldn’t have been particularly difficult. Yet the Lightning Grim Ape had chosen a hill that seemed to offer none of the usual advantages, making its decision rather strange.

Alex then remembered the Stone Basilisk, which had abandoned its search for its egg and headed toward the same hill. At the time, he had assumed that the monster intended to confront the Lightning Grim Ape, but now he wondered whether it had actually been searching for the Star Plum Arasia fruit.

After reaching the hill, the Stone Basilisk might have discovered that the area was suitable for the fruit’s appearance, especially since the Dark Night was occurring at the moment. If that was the case, the monster’s behavior suddenly made much more sense.

..

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