Chapter 478: Observer of the World (5)
The eccentric wearing the talisman mask stepped forward towards Lennok, instantly closing a distance of dozens of meters.
Whoosh!!
The talisman mask’s face was right before him, its eyes piercing Lennok’s.
Lapis’s eyes widened at Gapseon’s sudden eccentric behavior.
“D-Dreyfus… sir?”
“……”
Lennok frowned slightly, but wasn’t overly flustered.
Ever since their encounter in Kaiushyu, when Lennok was in his Victor identity, he knew Gapseon was aware of Evan’s existence and was paying attention.
He hadn’t expected Gapseon to so overtly try to observe him the moment they met, but he already understood what Gapseon wanted.
The talismanic magic Gapseon Dreyfus O’Gnil wields determines whether human time cycles in 45-year increments.
Since he’d learned through it that Victor wasn’t even forty, he was clearly trying the same investigation on Evan.
Gapseon, who had been staring intently at Lennok for a while, quietly took a step back and shook his head.
[Rumors are always exaggerated, aren’t they…? This is more than I expected.]
“What do you mean?”
[It means there’s still room to reconsider the causality and possibilities remaining on this continent.]
Saying so, Gapseon took a talisman from his pocket and offered it.
[It’s an item that combines the subtleties of astrology to divine one’s past path. If you’re interested, will you take it?]
“……”
Lennok looked at it for a moment, then calmly picked it up.
At that moment, a brilliant blue magical light spread from the paper talisman Lennok held, intricately drawing patterns onto it.
Whoooom!!
Just as the patterns seemed to reach the edge of the talisman, lines ceaselessly covered the drawing and created new ones.
Eventually, the sheer number of patterns drawn on the talisman overwhelmed the paper’s integrity, tearing the talisman paper apart.
Rip…!!
Even though the talisman he gave was instantly destroyed, Gapseon seemed to find endless fascination in the fact.
[Yes, I see… So that’s how it is….]
Gapseon, who had been stroking his talisman mask with a seemingly satisfied expression, suddenly looked up at Lennok.
[Thank you. That was a sufficient answer. I will certainly repay you for this.]
After saying that, Gapseon instantly stepped back from Lennok, his hands clasped behind his back.
“……”
A surprisingly concise series of actions, compared to the interest he had shown Evan.
His words and actions were so peculiar it was hard to tell what he intended or wanted.
He appeared even more fitting of his moniker, ‘Eccentric of the Western Continent,’ than when Lennok saw him in Kaiushyu.
But before Lennok could comment on that, the Watchers who had been waiting behind Gapseon approached them.
Lapis, perhaps interpreting Lennok’s reaction differently, leaned in close and whispered in a low voice.
“These are Watchers who primarily operate in the Western Continent branch.”
“……Western Continent branch?”
“They prefer to act alone, so I haven’t had a chance to introduce them to Evan, but this is perfect. Since you seem to know Dreyfus, I’ll introduce the others instead…”
“Lapis!”
At that moment, a tall woman, who had approached Lapis from behind like lightning, grabbed the girl’s arms and lifted her up.
A female warrior with bronzed skin and an impressive physique, almost 2 meters tall.
With a greatsword on her back that was even taller than herself, she lifted Lapis as if she weighed nothing and boomed.
“I’m back! Have you been well?!”
“R-Rayza…!!”
Lapis, held in the woman called Rayza’s hands, struggled desperately.
“Okay, okay, just put me down now!!”
“Aw… Doesn’t look like you’re very happy to see me… Can’t be helped.”
At Rayza’s instantly dejected words, Lapis frantically patted her shoulder.
“Of course I’m happy to see you… It feels like almost a month since we last met…! So please put me down now, or I’ll use spirit magic!”
“Oh, Lapis’s full-power spirit magic punch!!”
Rayza chuckled heartily.
“I’d love to try getting hit, but I think my heart, not just my body, would ache, so I’ll pass.”
The female warrior, who had spouted something a bit unhinged, gently lowered Lapis, contrary to how energetically she had lifted her.
Her demeanor was as if she were handling a delicate glass art piece that might break with the slightest mishandling.
“Hah, haah….”
Lapis, clutching her dolphin spirit and calming her racing heart, asked.
“If I recall correctly, Rayza was also deployed on a mission to explore an unexplored region. What happened?”
“Ah, well….”
The moment Rayza trailed off with a slightly troubled expression, another voice came from right beside them.
“We ran into a bit of trouble, Lapis.”
“We found a candidate for the unexplored region, but the opponent is formidable.”
Identical voices echoed consecutively, as if having a conversation.
Two young men, identical in face, build, height, voice, and even expression, were now standing beside Rayza, shrugging their shoulders.
“We couldn’t last long crossing the Sea of Understanding.”
“It seems difficult to continue the mission like this.”
“……Twins?”
Identical twins. And both of them are 7th-level Saint-grade ability users.
Even for Lennok, who had met and fought many superhumans, encountering twin physical ability users was a first, hence his muttered words.
But as if they had somehow caught his murmur, the two twins immediately turned their heads sharply towards Lennok.
“Oh, so you’re the wizard Evan?”
“We’ve heard a lot about you. You weren’t waiting for us, were you?”
“Ah, if you’ve already heard about us, then there’s no helping it.”
“I thought it would be a good chance to compare our abilities, but it’s a shame.”
“……”
They were spouting such incomprehensible things that he couldn’t understand what they were trying to say.
Lapis quickly stepped in to mediate.
“Evan, these are Fio and Gio. And Rayza. All three are Watchers operating in the Western Continent.”
“Fio.”
“Gio.”
“And if you add our weights together and multiply by two, you get roughly Rayza here…”
Thwack!!
With a fist the size of a pot lid, she slugged the young man called Fio in the jaw, sending Fio’s head straight into the Lighthouse’s front yard.
A conversation so chaotic it made one dizzy.
As if reflecting Lennok’s state of mind, the dog-headed giant who appeared behind them approached, sighing.
“Could you two settle down? Are you going to keep joking around all day, even in front of Lapis?”
“Rapperd.”
“Evan, long time no see.”
The dog-headed giant, a monk who enforces martial power through an avatar using his own primitive faith.
Lennok remembered having worked with him a few times in the Hanghasa Labyrinth, and he had shown competence in many aspects.
Rapperd, whose impression of Lennok wasn’t bad either, extended a friendly paw—no, hand.
“You hadn’t shown your face for a while, so I thought something had happened. Glad to see you’re alive and well.”
“Quite a few things happened.”
“You said you were living under another name in a mega-city, didn’t you?”
Lennok gave a wry smile, and Rapperd shook his head.
“It’s a method I can’t quite understand… but a wizard like you must have a good reason for such a decision.”
“……You’ve become surprisingly mellow compared to before. I didn’t know you could say such things?”
“Sometimes, with time, one realizes the value of things.”
The dog-headed giant said that, then quietly bared his teeth and smiled.
“I’ve just come to understand why Lapis isn’t trying to force you into becoming a Watcher.”
“What?”
“During the process of attacking Pajeop Valley, I learned just how much wizards are like sunfish.”
“……”
“No matter how valuable firepower support is in a siege, there are so many of them whose condition is so easily affected…”
Only after hearing Rapperd grumble did Lennok guess what had happened, and he chuckled.
It seemed a lot of unspoken resentment had built up while working with other wizards on Eyes of Blue missions.
If Lennok was their standard of comparison, then working with any other wizard would naturally be unsatisfying.
“Most spellcasters find it unfamiliar to maintain combat while deploying spells. You should lower your expectations a bit.”
“Right. So I’m the only capable one, is that it?”
Rapperd exhaled lightly through his damp nostrils.
“It’s even more annoying because I can’t deny it.”
“……How do you manage to interpret things so twistedly?”
While shaking his head, thinking his eccentric nature hadn’t gone anywhere, Lapis, who had gotten down from Rayza’s arms, looked at the other four and asked.
“By the way, I didn’t expect all four of you to return together. If I recall correctly, you all left for various parts of the Eastern Continent to find an unexplored region…”
“Lapis, you still remember something from almost a month ago? That’s so admirable!!”
“Not twice!!”
As Rayza subtly tried to lift Lapis again, this time the dolphin spirit floated in front of her, emitting ultrasonic waves.
With Rayza backing away, licking her lips, Fio and Gio subtly looked around.
The Lighthouse front yard, where the attention of other Watchers was focused.
“Shall we go inside and talk first?”
Fio pointed his chin towards the inside of the spire, grinning.
“Because that strange old man seems to have something to say too.”
[……]
Lapis looked at Gapseon like that, then nodded.
“……Let’s talk inside the Lighthouse first. It seems something bigger than I expected happened.”
Rayza, the Fio and Gio twins, Rapperd, and Gapseon Dreyfus.
All five of them are experts of Hierarchy 7 or higher, having completed their Hierarchy.
If strong individuals, who are among the top Watchers acting as enforcers, gathered and returned after exploring an unexplored region, there must certainly be a reason for it.
This wasn’t a story to be told with so many people listening.
Lennok followed Lapis, walking towards the inside of the spire, and realized that the gazes of the other Watchers watching them had become slightly strange.
Unlike when they had made friendly jokes towards Lennok while he installed the barrier, there was now an awkward, wary look about them.
Lennok realized that their gazes were directed not at him, but at Gapseon and the other superhumans who had just appeared, and quietly nodded.
‘So they haven’t fully integrated with the Western Continent branch yet.’
It seemed that while securing a bridgehead towards the Central Front, the skilled individuals Lapis had recruited from the Western Continent had now begun operating in the Eastern Continent.
Nevertheless, if Watchers, different from those seen until now, suddenly appeared en masse to join operations, it would naturally create a sense of dissonance.
Especially if the Watchers who came from the Western Continent were all strong and yet had difficult personalities,
it was only natural for the existing Watchers who had dedicated themselves to the Lighthouse in the Eastern Continent to feel uncomfortable.
It wasn’t strange that such an atmosphere hadn’t been properly managed yet.
Lennok felt a tense atmosphere he hadn’t experienced before within the Eyes of Blue, but he wasn’t particularly worried.
Factional struggles always exist within organizations, and Lapis wouldn’t be unaware of this.
In fact, using this as an opportunity to inject new blood and refresh the organization’s internal strength and atmosphere might not be a bad thing.
Entering the spire and heading down the hallway to the conference room, someone who had been standing with their arms crossed outside the room rose as if they had been waiting.
“Lapis.”
“Grisha!”
A Saint-grade sorcerer with bronzed skin and a worn shirt.
Although her complexion seemed a bit haggard, her gesture of stroking Lapis’s head hadn’t changed much from what Lennok remembered.
Massaging her shoulder with a tired expression, she smiled and asked Lapis.
“I was stabilizing the Lighthouse’s power core output, and suddenly the efficiency greatly increased, finishing the work quickly. Was that you?”
“Evan helped me. Thanks to him greatly increasing the surplus power efficiency by constructing a barrier.”
“I knew it. I always seem to be indebted to him.”
Grisha waved her hand with a smile, and Lennok quietly shook his head.
“I wondered why I didn’t see you next to Lapis; it seems your work wasn’t finished yet.”
“Why let surplus magical power go to waste? I should use it to help out here.”
Grisha, extending her magical energy, opened the empty conference room door behind her and gestured to the other Watchers standing there.
“I heard what’s happening. Is it regarding the Sea of Understanding?”
At that moment, Gapseon, who had been silent, spoke for the first time.
[It is an honor to meet the successor of the Great Esoteric Law.]
“……”
Grisha’s movement, as she was opening the conference room door, abruptly stopped.
The talisman mask was undeniably facing Grisha.
[I express my deepest condolences for what happened recently. You truly have nowhere left to return to.]
“……What ancient history are you talking about?”
Grisha, who had been slightly bowing her head, chuckled and opened the door.
Gapseon stared at Grisha for a moment, then glided past her, muttering.
[If there is something to be recovered, it would be best to prepare without delay. That mighty magical power is a sign of a distorted imbalance… If it doesn’t possess a proper origin, it will soon collapse.]
Gapseon, sitting at the far end of the conference room, folded his arms and bowed his head.
Shwip!!
Talisman papers fell from his body, fluttering and naturally sticking to various parts of the conference room walls.
Simultaneously, a powerful security formation’s flow unfolded around the room.
The other Watchers expressed slight admiration as they moved into the conference room.
“Wow, to be able to do this just by sticking a few pieces of paper.”
“See? That old man isn’t alive this long for nothing.”
“Indeed, if you gathered all the eccentric things he’s done, he should’ve been caught and decapitated long ago… gasp.”
The twins and Rayza fell silent, watching Gapseon’s expression.
As they settled into their thoughts, the meeting immediately began, centered around the eight people who had taken their seats.
“Shall we start by taking this out?”
It was Rayza who spoke first.
As she infused magical power into a small box taken from her pocket, a blurry hologram emerged and began to play.
“What’s this?”
“It’s an artifact that stores memories and plays them back. I’m not smart enough to use it well myself, but it’s pretty useful in situations like this.”
As if her words were true, the hologram box on the conference room table began to project a blurry image of a landscape.
A coastline located at the outermost edge of the continent.
The magnificent horizon, stretching endlessly below the sheer cliffs, remained quite vivid even in Rayza’s memory.
“After finishing my assigned operation, I stopped by the floating island cluster on my way back.”
Rayza grinned.
“It’s a famous tourist spot, right? I really wanted to ride that paper-airplane-shaped thing once.”
“……”
“So I borrowed a plane from the Autonomous Region and was happily flying over the Sea of Understanding, but I must’ve gone too far, because the airship wouldn’t fly anymore.”
“You flew all the way to the end of the Sea of Understanding’s territorial waters?”
Grisha asked with a dumbfounded expression.
“So I had no choice but to carry the broken plane on my back and swim all the way to land… Wait, why are your expressions like that?”
Rayza continued her proud explanation, then tilted her head, seeing the people around her shaking their heads in disbelief.
The Fio and Gio twins responded with incredulous expressions.
“No, seriously, should we keep a straight face while hearing you swam here carrying a plane naked?”
“Even if you estimate conservatively, it must be thousands of meters, and considering the currents in that sea… Ugh, never mind. No point talking about it.”
“I wouldn’t have expected her to discover an island and make contact that way…”
When even Rapperd added a remark with a bewildered expression, Rayza pouted.
“Whether someone flies or walks across the sea… I don’t think that’s something weaklings should hear about.”
“It’s not that we’re weak, it’s that you’re just…”
As they bickered amongst themselves and the conversation threatened to derail again, Lennok rapped on the table.
“An island?”
“Well, anyway, that’s why Rayza contacted us to check on the island. The Western Continent branch often has trouble with communication, so they carry pretty powerful terminals.”
Fio quickly summarized the situation.
“The problem is that the island is extremely large and vast, and it was isolated from the outside.”
“The defenses were extremely tight, and magical energy use was thoroughly detected, so we had no choice but to break through the island barehanded.”
Shwaap!!
At that moment, a talisman extending from Gapseon’s fingertips enveloped Rayza’s artifact, making the hologram even clearer.
The holographic landscape, tracing along the continent’s coastline, unfolded as if viewing a giant island from the sky.
A magnificent hemispherical barrier surrounded the island. And within it, the faint image of a grand temple.
And at the center of the temple, the horrific shape of an altar made by piling up living humans.
The moment Lapis’s face stiffened, Gapseon, who had been silent, spread his voice.
[It’s the Cult.]
“……”
Everyone fell silent at the unexpected words.
The scene, enhanced by Gapseon’s memories added to the artifact, was as precise and vivid as reality.
Even Grisha’s mouth opened slightly, a look of disbelief on her face.
“……Unbelievable. The Cult has approached the vicinity of the Sea of Understanding and set up a base?”
The Sea of Understanding is one of the core unexplored regions located in the Pilenom Autonomous Region.
It is the core that supports the cluster of Floating Islands, created by the phenomenon of anomalous updrafts causing mana to surge upwards in the area.
Naturally, the coastal area that the Autonomous Region’s security forces are most concerned about and guard is precisely the territorial waters of the Sea of Understanding.
The fact that an island existed at the outermost edge of such territorial waters, and moreover, that the Cult’s forces were located there, was information hard to readily believe.
The Eyes of Blue walks a path opposite to Pandemonium’s goals, but they don’t even consider the Cult’s existence.
This isn’t because Lapis acknowledges the Cult’s existence; on the contrary, it’s because she dismisses them as incomprehensible beings.
Those who worship the Outer Sea’s demise as a god were objects Lapis, as the successor of the mission, could absolutely not empathize with.
As if knowing their doubts, Gapseon continued.
[To be precise, it’s not an island. Nor has it been hidden there since long ago.]
“That’s….”
“The likelihood of the Autonomous Region’s navy being so incompetent as to not know about that island for decades is low.”
Lennok naturally spoke.
[……]
“Furthermore, that a Cult temple located on an island hasn’t been discovered until now? Rather than that…”
From Lennok’s perspective, having directly witnessed an Apostle in the jungle once, he could think and find the answer in a way completely different from ordinary people.
This was only possible for Lennok, who had directly gazed upon the Outer Sea and vastly expanded his horizons of thought.
“It must be that the island moved across the sea and arrived in these territorial waters.”
Lennok turned his gaze to Gapseon, who, having stared intently at him with a look of wonder, resumed speaking.
[Among the forces of the Guido Cult, there’s famously a branch whose location remains unusually undisclosed despite its power and prestige.]
“……”
[The wizard is correct. That island now located beyond the Sea of Understanding is the Cult’s Far Eastern Branch itself, which has never directly revealed itself throughout the Cult’s long history.]