Chapter 45: Connected

"What?" The Duke frowned.

"Don’t make me say it twice, My Lord," Silvester said seriously, gazing at him.

The Duke stared back and let out a slow, heavy sigh. He couldn’t argue more. Only the kid’s ability could save his daughter right now.

Silvester’s eyes moved across the books. His fingers touched them softly. There was no dust or spiderwebs on the bookshelves.

His eyes glittered when he saw book titles that he had never seen before. Magic Theory, Tracking Mana Pathways, Elemental Foundations, Dimensional Thesis bindings, and so on.

He continued to search and stopped to go back to what he had just read. Dimensional Thesis.

"Found you," he whispered happily, reaching for the book.

The kid’s heartbeat quickened as he read the content. There was one thing that caught his attention, and that was the Dimensional Rift Theory. It was published centuries ago by an unknown scholar from Novaria Academy, the kingdom’s prestigious school exclusively for noble mages.

The Duke raised an eyebrow. "Those are confidential. Read something else."

"Can I borrow this?" Silvester asked slowly, gazing at the Duke.

"Are you deaf?! I just said no," the Duke said with frustration.

"Nah. I will borrow it. It’s one of my benefits from our contract, remember?"

The Duke froze and couldn’t believe that a mere locksmith slapped him with the truth.

Silvester sat on a nearby chair and rested the thesis book on the table under the floating mana lamp.

"How can you save my daughter by reading? It’s useless." The Duke sat beside him, getting upset.

Silvester ignored the Duke and read the book silently for hours.

The Duke had left the room earlier, probably because he couldn’t even speak to Silvester.

Finally, Silvester finished reading and stood up to stretch his arms and legs, feeling numb after hours of sitting.

He looked out the window to see outside. The ice dome was gone, and the sky was deep orange. The sun was on the edge of the plain, slowly going down.

The Duke entered the room and walked toward a large table. A slice of bread, roasted meat, and cold water were in his right hand, and he set them down beside him.

"Now that you’re done reading, what’s next?" the Duke said, staring at Silvester, who started to eat quickly.

"Hmmm," Silvester groaned and drank water to swallow the food. "I need to experiment, and I need an ice mage’s mana."

Duke Voulstridge’s expression became serious. The young locksmith couldn’t tell what the man was thinking.

"Use my mana all you want. Make sure to bring my daughter back," the Duke whispered softly.

Silvester just nodded slowly and continued to eat. He was not sure if his theory would be a success.

The Duke was powerful. He could also call the high mages of the kingdom to find a way to save his daughter, but he never did. Silvester thought about the family’s reputation. If word went out of the house, it might be the downfall of the Voulstridge family.

The child quickly finished eating and stood up. He reached for the box and opened it, revealing the three Space Crystals. He also opened his magic pouch and pulled out an ordinary lockpick.

Duke Voulstridge’s eyebrow went up. He was confused about what Silvester was doing.

"What are they for?" the Duke asked, pointing at the materials on the table.

"Don’t question me if you want your daughter back," Silvester said straight to the Duke’s face. "And follow my instructions."

The Duke sighed in defeat and just nodded slightly. He watched Silvester pick up a piece of Space Crystal and place it in his palm.

He did not complain and remained silent, though his eyes told the opposite.

"Okay. First, release a small amount of mana," Silvester said, grabbing the chair and turning it to face the Duke. "Arielle’s mana and yours match, so just feed a small amount of it to the crystal."

The Duke stared at him and slowly closed his eyes.

Silvester activated his skill to see what would happen.

Locksmith’s Eye.

From his vision, a tiny thread of pure white mana started to coat the crystal. The crystal started to shake violently, but both of them remained calm.

He reached for a normal iron lockpick and started to feed it with his golden mana thread.

According to the study that he had just read, a person with the same mana as another could detect each other, and in theory, there was a high chance that the Duke’s mana could locate Arielle’s exact location using a Space Crystal.

But Silvester had concluded something else far from the research result. The user’s will was the key to locating what he was looking for.

The child started to insert the lockpick into the crystal, but it couldn’t touch it as space bent itself.

Open.

He opened a rift small enough for the lockpick to go through. The lockpick successfully touched the Duke’s mana inside.

"Okay. Listen, My Lord," he paused and adjusted his arm from being numb. "Call your daughter using your mana, feel her, and connect."

The Duke confirmed the instruction by simply nodding. His eyes were still closed, trying to call his daughter in his mind.

The white mana thread started to vibrate like a guitar string. It was looking for something in the empty space inside the crystal.

After a few minutes, the Duke spoke.

"I-I can feel her..." he whispered as a vision started to flood his mind. "She’s alone, on a vast plain of ice... crying."

The Duke’s mana fluctuated and trembled slightly.

Silvester froze at what the Duke had said. He knew that place. He was once there with Arielle and thought that it was just a place inside the subconscious of the girl. It was a real place all this time.

A spark occurred inside the Space Crystal, and an unknown white mana thread appeared floating in the empty space.

"My Lord, try to reach her. Try to talk in silence or anything you have in mind. Just keep talking," he whispered calmly.

The Lord did not say anything and followed Silvester’s instruction. His mana thread embraced an unknown mana thread inside the crystal.

Silvester looked closely at the two threads. When they finally touched, he quickly activated his spell and let it flow directly into the threads through the lockpick.

Close.

They finally made a stable connection.

Silvester closed his eyes to inspect the connection and how it worked. His golden mana threads started to embrace the connection point of the two different white mana threads.

"Okay. Let’s stop for now," he declared, and his skill instantly deactivated.

The Duke opened his eyes and narrowed them at him.