Chapter 116
The Principle
Lucy released Ferda’s hand and plucked a rose leaf from the garden.
When she clenched it tightly in her small hand, it instantly turned into a dried tobacco leaf and slipped into her pipe.
She sparked a flame from her fingertip, lit it, and took another deep draw.
Ferda waited until she had finished before asking,
“What did you mean when you said it would become a blessing?”
He could not understand her words.
Lucy answered with a mature smile.
“As you know, cultivating a Blue Circle generally begins with meditation.”
Most Blue Circle cultivation methods began with meditation.
One emptied the mind or focused exclusively on a single thought, maintaining a steady rhythm while shaping one’s mana circuits.
Naturally, the best way to interfere with such people was to shatter that composure.
“What serves as the source of strength for a Red Circle?”
“The emotion from which the circle originated.”
“Correct. If it began with joy, it grows through greater joy. If it began with hatred, it grows through greater hatred.”
Lucy nodded.
“Then how would one obstruct them?”
“Through contradiction and dilemmas.”
A person sustained by hatred lost their life as a mage the moment they lost their reason to hate.
When confronted with contradictions and dilemmas, their emotions cooled and faded.
Ferda knew this well because he had always lived with that principle in mind.
“At present, two emotions exist within your heart: love and regret.”
“That is correct.”
“If you wished to grow stronger purely according to Red Circle theory, you would need to nurture your love while suppressing your regret. Then your strength would grow solely according to that love. Is that not so?”
Ferda already knew that much.
He nodded lightly before asking,
“Then are you saying you know how to eliminate the regret?”
Lucy shook her head.
“That would be a foolish choice, child. Would you burn down your house because you fear bedbugs? Remove even one emotion, and the balance will inevitably collapse.”
“What do you mean?”
“All emotions are connected through cause and effect.”
Lucy inhaled deeply from her pipe.
“Because there is negativity, positivity exists. It is precisely because you possess that regret that your love exists.”
Ferda frowned slightly.
“If I do not erase the regret, it will continue trying to test me.”
Although he said that, the regret still felt like an unnecessary extra organ inside him.
Lucy had undoubtedly anticipated that he would think so.
She, too, was someone who had mastered the Red Circle.
“Then let me ask you this. Why does that regret exist?”
“It is…”
When Ferda hesitated, Lucy continued.
“You need not answer aloud. Think carefully and reach the answer yourself.”
Because he had killed Valdrova.
The woman who had been purer than anyone.
If he erased that regret, what would happen to his feelings for her?
Once he thought of it that way, Ferda understood.
He understood why the regret had to remain.
“Child, your regret is like your heart. Too much or too little will cause abnormalities, and if it disappears entirely, you will die. If you learn to regulate it, it will become an excellent driving force. Do you understand?”
Ferda nodded.
“Then what must I do?”
Lucy drew a straight line in the air with her index finger.
“Draw a boundary.”
“A boundary?”
“If you place a fence between the emotions so they cannot intermingle, you will be able to understand what each one is made of.”
As a mage who wielded a Red Circle, Ferda roughly understood what she meant.
Emotions were vague, like paint.
Without focus, they flowed together, mingling and becoming murky until they lost their essence.
The moment that essence disappeared, the Red Circle stopped growing.
In that regard, Ferda had been an elite.
He had converted everything into anger and reached the Ninth Circle through that emotion alone.
But this time, I must separate two emotions.
It was his first time operating a mana circle through love.
It was also his first time having regret interfere with it.
Naturally, this would be his first time placing a boundary between the two.
His mana circuits were powered by both his love for Valdrova and his regret.
How was he supposed to build a wall between them?
“In that sense, child, you have already taken your first step.”
“What step?”
“Shape of Shadow.”
It was a mana cultivation method recorded in Barbatos’s shadow arts.
“‘The shadow becomes me, and I become the shadow.’ Do you remember that phrase?”
Ferda nodded.
“The answer lies within it.”
Lucy ended her explanation there.
To Ferda, it felt as though she had stopped halfway through a sentence, but Lucy did not care.
“And what else should I give you as a reward…?”
Lucy idly waved her pipe.
“Hmm…”
She stared intently at it before breaking into a grin.
Ferda suspected she was about to give him something useless.
Then the thorny vines drifting around Lucy gathered toward her hand.
They rose like a hundred snakes tangled chaotically together before spitting something out.
It was a perfectly straight tree branch.
Perhaps because Ferda was consciously comparing them, it looked similar to the pipe Lucy held.
“What do you think this is?”
“…A pipe?”
“Why would I give you something like that? You are too young to appreciate the true taste of tobacco.”
As though warning him never to smoke, she exhaled tobacco smoke with an irritatingly smug expression.
Ferda had smoked before.
He had stopped because he disliked the hazy sensation it caused.
Just as he was about to ask what the object actually was—
Crackle!
Red sparks danced around the branch.
Heaven-Defying Lightning.
Lucy smiled in amusement at Ferda’s expression.
“It is called Divine Punishment.”
“Divine Punishment?”
“That is the name I gave it. It is a magical staff I created myself.”
“Is that so?”
“You know the branch I struck with lightning? The one that makes mages come running with their eyes blazing? This staff will absorb that power on its own. Once it does, the instability will settle, and you will be able to use that power in its entirety.”
Ferda did not understand why she was explaining this to him.
From the context, it sounded as though she intended to give it to him, but he did not jump to that conclusion.
She might simply be testing his greed.
“Take it.”
He had suspected it, but she truly was offering it to him.
Even after she explicitly told him to take it, however, Ferda did not reach for the staff.
“My arm is getting tired, child. Despite appearances, this maiden is delicate.”
“…”
“I am offering you a gift, yet you look like a pig presented with an overflowing bowl of rice. Why? Do you think I am preparing to slaughter you?”
“It seems likely.”
Lucy burst out laughing.
“What an insolent thing to say. Why can you not imagine that I might simply give it to you freely?”
“Because people like that all died long ago.”
“True. That is also true.”
She laughed loudly.
“As I said, I help women burdened by cruel fates. Valdrova also bears such a fate. That is why I wished to help her, but it proved difficult.”
“Why?”
“Is there not an exceptionally vicious dog at her side?”
Ferda did not need to ask whom she meant.
Had that vicious dog not prevented Lucy from entering this space?
I have no idea what she’ll do to me once I return.
He had already prepared himself to be scrubbed raw.
Just thinking about the green bath towel in Luri’s hand made him tense instinctively.
“That puppy refuses to trust a witch’s words, so how could I possibly help?”
It was only natural that Luri would refuse to listen.
Luri was Valdrova’s attendant, while Lucy was a witch infamous throughout the continent.
There was no chance she would stand by and watch Valdrova be manipulated by a witch.
“I had no way to approach her directly, so I thought I might simply help her through you. Even if you are a man, you intend to save a woman burdened by a cruel fate. There is little reason for me to distrust you.”
As Ferda listened, he did not feel that she was lying.
He had sensed the same thing when he fought her in the past.
Despite being the leader of all witches, she had never seemed filled with malice.
She resembled Ferda as he was now—someone whose emotions had flowed into emptiness, leaving her endlessly calm.
Had she simply become worn down?
Or was she completely certain of herself?
To believe he had been bewitched would mean distrusting himself.
To believe in his judgment would mean trusting himself.
There was no real choice.
Only then did Ferda accept the staff.
The moment he grasped the blunt end of the branch she offered him, it transformed.
In an instant, the branch became a smooth black staff.
Its shape naturally adjusted itself to Ferda’s appearance and clothing without seeming out of place.
Transformation itself was a trick other staffs could perform.
Only one thing surprised Ferda.
I cannot sense any mana from it.
A staff or wand normally assisted with spellcraft, so it inevitably possessed a reservoir for storing mana.
The better the staff, the larger that reservoir would be, but even an inferior staff could not lack one entirely.
Ferda cautiously sent mana into it.
Crackle!
Red lightning immediately began surging around the staff.
It is not releasing mana converted in advance. It converts it instantaneously.
He could cast magic through it the instant he wished.
And because it held no mana of its own, it would be recognized as nothing more than an ordinary staff.
It was a magical artifact that every mage would consider a dream come true.
“I will treasure it.”
“Hmm? Why have you suddenly started speaking so respectfully?”
“After receiving this much assistance, how could I not address you with respect?”
“Ho… Is that so? What a commendable child.”
Lucy gazed at him with mischievous eyes.
They looked almost sweet enough to drip honey.
“Is there anything else you require?”
“I would appreciate another clue about how Shape of Shadow can be used…”
“Haha! So that was why you suddenly began flattering me?”
It would have been a lie to say that was not part of the reason.
Now that Lucy was in a good mood, Ferda needed to extract as much knowledge from her as possible.
“Very well. I shall tell you. In the Eastern tradition, it would be called the Unity of Self and Shadow. Is that not the essence of shadow arts—to control the shadow as naturally as one’s own limbs?”
“Yes.”
“If you truly believe the shadow can become you, then what could possibly be beyond your reach?”
What did that mean?
Ferda wanted Lucy to explain further, but before he could ask, her small finger touched his lips.
“This is the final favor, clue, and profound principle that this maiden can offer you.”
Lucy’s little finger slowly moved upward until it touched Ferda’s forehead.
At that moment, Ferda’s consciousness was pulled somewhere else.
When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the same place where he had first received the invitation.
With Ferda gone, only witches remained in the Witches’ Garden once more.
Lucy covered her face again with the black veil and returned to the Rose Pavilion.
The witches resumed laughing and chatting as usual.
“What did you think of that man, Ferda?”
“He was insolent. He spoke so casually to our Big Sister.”
“I wanted to drive needles beneath his fingernails…”
“There is nothing better than making such a stoic man scream.”
“I prefer moaning. I’d make him moan for three hours.”
The witches cackled as they listed their twisted fetishes.
Then they began probing Lucy.
“Our Big Sister seemed rather demure today. Have you decided to adopt that persona?”
Lucy Philiase.
Their eldest sister sat sprawled in her seat, endlessly smoking as though she had no interest in the conversation.
The other witches joined in as they watched her.
“You really do seem troubled, unlike your usual self.”
“It has been so long since you met a man. You must have been excited.”
“Ah, youth. What a wonderful thing.”
Lucy tapped the ash from her pipe into the ashtray.
Without becoming angry despite their relentless teasing, she finally spoke.
“Ferda Valdrova.”
The man’s name left her lips along with a stream of smoke.
For Lucy to speak a man’s name meant that he had become a target.
“What do you want us to do with him?”
“I wonder what kind of scheme you are planning.”
They gestured dramatically as though burning with curiosity.
Lucy answered,
“Learn more about him.”
“That’s all? Nothing else?”
“There is.”
Lucy added as though she had nearly forgotten.
“None of you are to touch that child carelessly.”
The witches’ snickering stopped.
“That is an unusual order from you. Even though he is a man?”
“Oh my, has our Big Sister truly developed an interest in a man?”
“You foolish things. You foolish things. It is not because of some simple feminine desire like yours.”
Lucy raised her head and looked at the seated witches.
“I simply do not wish to see you die by that child’s hand.”
“…What?”
“How could that possibly make sense? A mere nineteen-year-old brat could kill us?”
Had anyone else said it, they would have assumed it was a joke.
But Lucy’s words carried weight.
When speaking to the witches, she did not casually say things she did not mean.
“So… you mean something involving a previous life, right?”
“Do you think this is some trivial story of reincarnation? That child once erased your very existence from this land.”
“Are you saying he invaded this place?”
“He did far more than invade it.”
Lucy exhaled a slow puff of smoke.
“He even took my life.”
Every witch fell silent.
Their silence contained both disbelief and horror.
Limbo was a realm that no being could properly trace.
Yet he had entered that place, annihilated the witches, and killed Lucy Philiase, the mother of them all.
It was effectively impossible.
The witches who had been teasing him and treating him as a joke fell silent alongside Lucy.
For the first time, the Rose Pavilion was filled with complete stillness.
They were likely trying to make sense of it in their own ways.
If I died there, then my death must have held meaning.
Lucy regarded it as another message sent to her by her former self.
She did not know its purpose, but it was undoubtedly a sign that Ferda was special.
Was all of it… truly for that woman?
Lucy released mana into her hand.
It took on a fixed shape.
A rune.
It was the rune that had entered Echidna’s heart and nearly killed her before she could resist.
The rune was an enormous collection of information shaped entirely from emotion.
Is this rune that child’s regret?
Like Echidna, Lucy attempted to sample it.
Yet she withdrew her hand before even tasting it.
Even she, Big Sister, could not withstand it.
Though she could rightfully be called an authority on Red Circles, she found herself wondering how a human could possess such an immense emotion.
The answer was obvious.
He must have turned back time.
Lucy could not help wondering how Ferda had accomplished such a thing.
To reach that level, one had to enter the realm of the Ninth Circle—a demigod’s domain—and invoke a Wish.
Did he reach the place I abandoned because I could not attain it?
It would have been a lie to say she felt no jealousy.
But knowing how meaningless it was, she extinguished the feeling.
He used a Wish to sing of his regret…
Lucy smiled.
“It seems I have found someone worth watching for a while. At least I shall not be bored.”
An emotion worn away by more than a thousand years began beating within her chest.
It was undoubtedly fascination.