Chapter 870: The Eye That Sees Fate (6)
The shape of a barcode, flashing intermittently over Lennok’s wrist.
Kiiiing!!
But it failed to settle into his wrist, flickering faintly as it drifted pitifully over his skin.
A precarious glow, flashing as if it might vanish into thin air at any moment. The access rights to Area 19, extracted from Clifton’s body.
The biocode, a form neither tangible nor intangible, was now attempting to graft itself onto Lennok instead of Lapis—a bizarre turn of events.
In the moment everyone froze, caught off guard by the unforeseen event, Gaizl was the first to regain his senses and shout.
“Wizard, hold it!! At this rate, the authority will vanish!”
“Wait, Gaizl!”
Meyer shouted, tapping his staff quickly.
“It’s impossible now that the biocode has failed to settle properly. If his capacity allowed for it, this wouldn’t be happening!”
“Nonsense. We have to save it, no matter what!”
Gaizl rushed to Lennok’s side, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
Frantically touching the various pieces of medical equipment around the hospital room, Gaizl yelled at the watching medical staff.
“Pattern preservation device, particle isolation monitor, biocode incubator!! Anything that can hold the biocode in place, bring it here. Now!!”
[Y-Yes, sir……!!]
As several medical personnel rushed out of the room, Gaizl grabbed Lennok’s hand and lifted it into the air.
“Your body is rejecting the access biocode. Whether it’s your mana or your physical body, you have an innate lack of capacity. I’ve seen cases like this a few times.”
So he was misinterpreting Lennok’s use of Targeted Resistance to deflect the access rights.
It seemed Gaizl had indeed encountered cases where a biocode failed to transfer properly.
The old man, still holding Lennok’s arm, said.
“I’ll buy you time. You need to free up capacity, no matter what. I’ll help you myself!”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“Alright, then let’s start immediately—what did you say?”
Gaizl, who had been about to move as soon as he heard Lennok’s answer, snapped his gaze back.
Ignoring Gaizl, who was staring at him with a fiery gaze, Lennok silently watched the barcode’s shape hovering over his wrist.
‘Access rights to the restricted Area 19. And it’s access data that exists as a biocode.’
Area 19 was a restricted zone designated in Vulcan’s early days, a forbidden area whose security and danger set it apart from other restricted zones.
Lennok had received access rights to a restricted area before to solve the problem in Area 25, but the biocode for Area 19 was not responding to that.
This was proof that the very nature of the authority for the two areas was completely different.
‘If I think about the method the Keykeeper used back then……’
How Lucinder, the Elder Council’s Keykeeper from the Giant Corps, had transferred the biocode to him.
After a moment of thought, Lennok stared intently at the barcode’s glow, then abruptly rubbed it against Lapis’s wrist.
“Uh, um…… Sir Evan.”
Lapis stammered, flustered, but kept her wrist still as Lennok moved.
But after rubbing the barcode’s glow against Lapis’s wrist a few more times, Lennok shook his head.
“It’s no use. This code doesn’t respond to a physical transfer method in the first place.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you!!”
“You’ve been shouting noisily this whole time. I just wanted to be certain of the situation.”
When Gaizl, unable to contain his frustration, pressed him, Lennok turned to him with a cold gaze.
“If I accept this and inherit the authority instead of Lapis, what happens to the deal between the Eyes of Blue and the City Council?”
“That is……”
“The prerequisite was for Lapis to fully inherit Clifton’s access rights to the restricted area.”
“……”
This was the reason Lennok had refused the authority, despite knowing the target for the inheritance of Area 19’s access rights had shifted to him.
This very moment was part of the established deal between Lapis and the Vulcan City Council.
Lennok was considering the possibility that if he intervened and snatched it away, the deal itself would be jeopardized.
Gaizl, too, seemed to understand Lennok’s words immediately, falling silent, momentarily at a loss for words.
Seeing this, Lennok waved his hand leisurely.
“I need a firm answer, right here and now. Will there be any problem with the existing agreement if the recipient of the authority changes?”
“You’re out of your mind…… That’s the most dangerous and valuable data code in this city.”
Gaizl said, not hiding his disgruntled reaction.
“You want to make a new deal with the City Council at this stage?”
“Not my problem.”
He had never cared much for council members even as Van; how much less would he care in this identity, which had no ties to Vulcan?
For his immediate goal, Lennok was even considering turning this entire hospital wing upside down.
“You’d better answer quickly before the biocode vanishes.”
Lennok said, shaking his wrist lightly.
Following the light gesture, the bright yellow light of the barcode moved slowly, as if chasing its own tail.
During that time, Meyer, who had been silently lost in thought, answered.
“Most likely…… the existing agreement will be completely nullified.”
“Councilman Meyer!”
“Gaizl, calm down. Do you really think we can hide anything from that wizard right now?”
Gaizl turned his gaze away in alarm, but Meyer remained composed.
“He didn’t waver for a single moment when he was about to inherit the access rights. He’d already made his decision while the rest of us were still stunned.”
“……!!”
“He might even be considering killing all the witnesses here and now.”
At Meyer’s words, which hit the nail right on the head, Lennok let out a small chuckle.
It was because he realized this old councilman, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, still possessed the sharp judgment Lennok remembered.
In truth, he hadn’t intended to kill Meyer, but it was also true that such a guess wasn’t entirely off the mark.
Seeing Lennok’s reaction, Gaizl’s cheek twitched as he realized Meyer’s words weren’t wrong.
“This…… this is……”
“You said your name was Evan?”
Meyer said, smiling at Lennok.
“A fine name. A very famous genius in this city uses the same one.”
“……”
“You couldn’t have predicted this situation, yet your judgment to halt things in that brief moment to consider your employer’s deal is truly sharp.”
At those words, Lennok felt Lapis glance his way, but he ignored it.
“Enough with the pleasantries.”
“It’s just as you think. The moment the access rights failed to be inherited by the Lighthouse Keeper, the City Council would consider the contract void and move to terminate it.”
Noticing Lapis’s reaction, Meyer nodded.
“But you must understand. Even reaching an agreement to transfer access rights to the Lighthouse Keeper—the leader of the Eyes of Blue and a scion of an Ascendant—took a very long time. Do you think the City Council would accept a result where the rights are passed to some unaccredited wizard who appeared out of nowhere?”
“……”
“However, there is one compromise here that could satisfy both sides.”
“What do you mean?”
“How about we simply cover this up and move on?”
As soon as Meyer spoke, a quiet silence fell over the hospital room.
“Gaizl and I will report to our superiors that the access rights to the restricted area were properly inherited by the Lighthouse Keeper. In return, you will inherit the access rights and tell us about Clifton’s fate.”
“You’re saying we pretend it all went successfully and bury the truth.”
“Think about it carefully. The biocode for the access rights vanishing meaninglessly is not good news for anyone. The moment that happens, the option to cover up this incident becomes impossible.”
Even so, Meyer was clearly still bothered by the biocode that had yet to settle into Lennok’s body, his gaze flickering as he spoke.
“Didn’t Lady Falcia want the access rights because she has business in Area 19? At this rate, the Eyes of Blue will also gain nothing. Wouldn’t that be right?”
“……”
Meyer’s skillful way of speaking, as if turning the conversation over to Lapis.
However, Lapis showed no particular reaction to Meyer’s proposal.
She simply rose from her seat, looking exhausted, and shook her head while leaning on Partisha for support.
“I have no right to say anything about an authority that did not come to me in the proper manner.”
“……Lady Falcia?”
“I’ll leave the decision to Sir Evan. Even if the deal ends here, I can accept that.”
A declaration from the leader of the Eyes of Blue, entrusting the fate of an inter-city agreement to a single wizard.
Only then did Gaizl turn his gaze, his expression one of realization.
“……You’re not just a simple bodyguard. A wizard trusted that much by the Lighthouse Keeper, who are you?”
“……”
Instead of answering, Lennok met Lapis’s gaze in silence.
Lapis’s sky-blue eyes, meeting his, did not waver in the slightest.
“……Fine.”
Lightly raising one hand, Lennok drew upon his mana and covered his wrist with his other hand.
Wuuuuuuung!!!
In that instant, an immense amount of mana erupted as if to blow the room apart, swirling around Lennok’s hand.
The complexions of Gaizl and Meyer changed drastically at the enormous output, which sent a chill down their spines.
“It wasn’t that his capacity was insufficient for the inheritance. He was just holding it back with sheer force!”
“Just how powerful is his will-thought to do such a thing……!!”
Kiiiiing……!!
The shape of the barcode was engraved onto the skin of his wrist, emitting a faint glow.
Feeling an awkward pressure on his skin as if it had actual weight, Lennok touched his wrist.
The access rights he had received before to enter Area 25. The sensation of this new code being overlaid on top of the existing biocode felt incredibly strange.
‘A biocode for access rights…… of all things.’
Why were the access rights to the restricted area inherited by Lennok and not Lapis?
There were so many possible reasons and conjectures that he couldn’t even begin to count them.
Did the other restricted area access rights he received during the Area 25 incident resonate with it?
Did the Priest’s Qualification he received from the Saintess extract a foreign substance from the Apostle Clifton’s body?
Or had his Jindun barrier arts altered the access biocode and bound it to him?
Each was a plausible reason worth serious consideration, yet they were all just conjectures, difficult to verify at the moment.
No, considering Clifton possessed the body of an Apostle, perhaps among the Apostles Lennok had killed—
At that moment, Gaizl muttered as if he’d remembered something.
“The technique to halt the biocode’s transfer process, and that overwhelming output…… it’s a higher concept that surpasses simple brute force.”
“……”
Gaizl, narrowing his eyes strangely, muttered quietly as if recalling a memory.
“I remember hearing something before. A rumor that among the helpers in the Eyes of Blue, there’s an exceptionally talented wizard-”
“It’s decided.”
Meyer cut Gaizl off, nodding towards Lennok as he stood up.
Gazing at the biocode engraved on Lennok’s wrist with some relief, Meyer spoke slowly.
“Lady Falcia and the wizard. I’m very glad that both of you are reasonable people. This could have turned into a huge mess.”
“……”
“Then, Lady Falcia. Lastly, would you tell us what you saw in Councilman Clifton’s fate?”
“……I will fulfill the promise as planned. But is the fate of this man truly that important?”
Unlike before, the way Lapis referred to Clifton had become quite sharp.
Meyer, sensing this as well, looked back at her with a hint of surprise.
“It seems you did see something.”
“……”
“Well, now that things have turned out this way, I suppose a little explanation is needed on this matter.”
Meyer glanced at the bed where Clifton lay, still leaking a sinister aura, and shrugged.
“There’s no shortage of powerful figures in this city who dreamed of an immortality beyond their station only to fall from grace. Among them was a trumpeter who became one with the Tree of Calamity, and a fool who tried to escape to the spirit realm by turning himself into a spirit.”
“……”
Was it just his imagination, or did he know who both of those cases were referring to?
Ignoring Lennok, who forced his gaze upward, Meyer continued his explanation.
“But as for Senator Ramonte Clifton’s final fate, many within the Council are quite curious about the outcome. That’s partly because he stands as a sort of pioneer among similarly fallen powerful figures, but also because he is the one who went through the most trial and error to change his own essence.”
“……”
“As Evan mentioned earlier, this man obtained the body of an Apostle without believing in the doctrine. And though he failed, he once had over several thousand types of biocodes forcibly implanted into his body in place of the Elder Council’s Lucinder.”
Meyer said again.
“In the process, it was proven that the human species cannot take on a brute role like the Keykeeper’s…… but the conclusion is the same. He is still alive after continuously injecting something into his body that is not permitted for a human form.”
Meyer turned his gaze to Lapis.
“Aren’t you curious what lies at the end of that path?”
“Why are the council members so curious about this man’s fate?”
“Because everyone wants to know where the worst-case scenario lies.”
Meyer smiled.
“To dream of eternal life and continued existence is a basic instinct of life. But to find out how far one can pursue it without suffering upon failure, one must look through the cases of other failures.”
“……”
Lapis bowed her head, her expression unreadable.
“He used a great many people as sacrifices.”
A calm voice flowed from between her cascading blue hair.
“The number and scale of human sacrifices this man has performed are beyond what can be explained by human morality.”
“That would be the case.”
Obtaining an Apostle’s body without believing in the doctrine was proof that Clifton had become an Apostle through the selection ritual.
The number of human lives sacrificed in that process must have been staggering.
“The situation is likely no different for the other senators who dream of eternal life. I am……
Lapis said with a darkly sunken gaze.
“disgusted.”
“……”
An icy silence descended.
Lapis quietly looked around before speaking.
“Inside Ramonte Clifton echoes a madness and chaos that is not human. The curse upon his body is actually acting as a shackle, preventing that chaos from blooming.”
“That is……”
“You might be able to improve his condition by bringing in an exceptionally skilled interpreter or curse-breaker, but what awakens from this will not be human.”
Lapis’s gaze turned frigid as she looked at Clifton.
“It would be a clumsy imitation, holding an empty vessel and begging for life, unable to even properly receive the power of the Outer Sea. I believe this man must be killed immediately.”
Had Lapis ever made such a strong assertion about someone before?
This was a person who never once uttered a curse, let alone got irritated, even when her own life was in danger.
While Lennok and Partisha looked back at Lapis with internal surprise, Meyer shook his head, looking troubled.
“I’m sorry, but that will be difficult.”
“……”
“I, too, pay my respects to the existence of the Lighthouse Keeper and her great duty. However, this man is no longer an independent life but an asset of the City Council, a subject to be managed without loss.”
“Even if he awakens and slaughters tens of thousands of citizens, turning them into his own kind?”
At Lapis’s icy question, Meyer gave a bitter smile.
“Such potential risk factors are like the stars in the night sky in this city.”
“……”
“I appreciate Lady Falcia’s concern for the citizens. But managing Vulcan and ensuring its stable operation is the duty of the Central Council.”
Meyer answered, cutting off Lapis’s suggestion.
“We are grateful for the Lighthouse Keeper’s dedication and cooperation. I will personally see you on your way out.”
Lapis didn’t answer.
She merely stared at Meyer with a cold gaze before sighing and nodding.
“The Vulcan City Council certainly has many capable people.”
“……”
“I have been rude. Then, if you would.”
Although she was enraged after glimpsing Clifton’s past atrocities and his fate, Lapis wasn’t so naive as to not know Meyer was not at fault.
She simply realized that everything Meyer was saying was a means to absorb her anger on his behalf, and instead, she quickly calmed her agitation.
As Lapis left the room first, as if she couldn’t bear to look any longer, Meyer smiled bitterly and spoke to Lennok.
“To possess both purity and composure at that age, her reputation is well-deserved indeed.”
“……”
“If someone has to bear the mission of lighting the lighthouses across the continent, it should be someone like her.”
Well, Lennok didn’t think Lapis was a superhuman born with such a disposition.
She was more meticulous and tougher than she appeared, but that quality wasn’t inherited; it was forged.
The saying that the position makes the person was certainly not wrong, at least when it came to Lapis.
Wasn’t it because he knew this that Lennok had affiliated himself with the Eyes of Blue and continued to watch over Lapis?
Meyer, tapping his staff, nodded at the silent Lennok.
“I’ve finished the report to my superiors. An agent will be here soon to guide you to Area 19.”
Passing through a hallway plastered with all sorts of sinister talismans, they stood before an elevator.
But even after boarding the elevator, Meyer didn’t press the button for the first floor.
Instead, he took a strangely twisted key from his coat and inserted it into a slot below the elevator buttons.
Click!!
Simultaneously, a lock below the panel disengaged, and a new button appeared.
He pressed the button naturally, and the elevator began to ascend at a speed incomparable to before.
Whoooosh!!
The elevator’s speed became insane, and soon, he felt a sense of floating as if his body was lifting lightly off the ground.
“This is……”
“You noticed?”
As Lennok frowned, feeling a strong sense of unease from the strange feeling of floating, Meyer smiled faintly.
It seemed that Lennok’s earlier insight into the VIP ward’s coordinate-stacking technology had left a strong impression on him.
Given Meyer’s personality of showing strong favor to talented individuals, he had undoubtedly taken an interest in Evan because of that incident.
Had that helped in overcoming the incident with the access rights without any trouble?
Having finished that line of thought, Lennok answered.
“This is technology that wouldn’t be out of place in a military facility, let alone a hospital. When did you acquire this?”
A small-scale spatial transition that bypassed multiple stacked coordinates, separated by floors, all at once.
So they were instantly skipping to a location not designated as a floor of the hospital wing, using an application of the coordinate-stacking technology?
Converting the amount of mana consumed into money would make it the height of inefficiency, but the fact that they managed to implement it this way was even more surprising.
Meyer, leaning against the wall with his staff, answered.
“By now, news of the Lighthouse Keeper’s visit to Vulcan has probably started to spread. Her journey here wasn’t exactly secretive.”
“……”
“Those who covet Lady Falcia’s abilities and status will also flock here like clouds.”
“So you’re using an application of the ward’s coordinate-stacking technology to evade them?”
“The City Council has a frightening lack of prejudice when it comes to technology like this.”
Meyer replied with his eyes closed.
“While they are drunk on past glory and the smell of blood, they are extremely proactive in embracing new civilizations and technologies. And at the forefront of that is—”
Ting!!
At that moment, the elevator doors opened, having arrived at a new, non-existent floor of the hospital wing.
Beyond the doors was a completely different scene from the first-floor lobby they had passed and the gloomy, talisman-filled hallways.
[Ah, Lapis Falcia. You’ve finally arrived.]
A vast hangar where a giant spaceship was on display.
In its center, a middle-aged woman whose lower face was covered by an iron mask was looking down at the elevator and smiling.
[Meyer was much later than promised. I was just wondering if I should intervene.]
“……And you are?”
[Aha, you wouldn’t know my face, would you?]
The woman clapped as if just realizing, then bowed with an exaggerated gesture.
A suit perfectly fitting her tall frame. A lapis lazuli-colored brooch shining on her chest. All sorts of rare artifacts sparkling on her wrist.
From behind the mask that concealed her mouth, an artificially synthesized, mechanical voice flowed out.
[My name is Amy Weinstein, and I serve as the 1st Administrative Vice-Mayor of the City Government. It’s a pleasure to meet the Lighthouse Keeper.]
“Vice-Mayor……?”
The position of Mayor, shrouded in mystery even within the Vulcan City Government. Did this mean the person with the second-greatest administrative authority, acting in his stead, was waiting for Lapis here in person?
[This is the first waypoint for entering Area 19. After a simple inspection here, you will enter the restricted area directly.]
As Amy gestured lightly, the spaceship behind her began to light up.
Woooong!!!
All sorts of control systems and propulsion equipment lit up, and with ignition starting among the rocket propellants, the air vibrated with noise.
Even amid the noise that resounded throughout the hangar, Amy’s leisurely voice could be heard clearly.
[To commemorate the establishment of a new relationship between the Eyes of Blue and the City Council, I will personally guide you to Area 19.]