The Price of Knowledge and a Sleepless Night

‘I, Rhine Green, the King of Solitude, a lofty Seven-Ring Sorcerer, could never be swayed by a mere duke’s eldest daughter.’

‘Indeed, this is merely a matter of courteous reciprocity; I am a sage who reveres the supreme rationality of the Hall of Wisdom, and sentimentality holds no place in my existence.’

‘Yet, the only thing that momentarily disturbed my composure was that pair of eyes.’

‘But this utterly defies all reason! The starry sky is meant to be gazed upon from afar, so how could it manifest in the mundane realm?!’

‘I felt my worldview tremble for a fleeting moment. While Anjemuel should be able to enlighten me, with my current strength, even venturing into the Ancient Zhi Forest’s periphery would be a near-death experience, let alone reaching the Babel Tower in its central region.’

‘The trauma from the forced fusion of my soul and body was not to be underestimated; although Anjemuel had mended my physical wounds, the damage at the soul level has shattered my magic circuits.’

‘My former Seven-Ring pathways were utterly destroyed, the Six-Ring pathways were fragmented, the Five-Ring suffered severe trauma, the Four-Ring could barely be utilized but couldn’t connect to the body’s mana, and the spell formations on the remaining Three Rings were, for now, intact.’

‘As someone with perfectionist and obsessive tendencies, I was even tempted to undergo a complete reconstruction.’

‘Fortunately, with remarkable foresight, I had not etched the magic pertaining to the mental domain onto the magic circuits, but directly into my soul instead.’

‘My unique Seven-Ring magic, ‘Psyche Subspace,’ is still functioning normally; this magic, which I had impulsively created to prepare for the construction of a tower, has truly aided me greatly over the years.’

‘As for the device Anjemuel had given me, it is an invaluable treasure, its true worth arguably no less, and perhaps even greater, than the entire Cavendish Library.’

‘Though it took me several days to thoroughly understand how to use the gadget, the return on that investment was exceptionally high.’

‘Knowledge truly is the most precious wealth, a truth that holds in any era, and these insights from beyond the stars—advanced mathematics, collections of foundational physics and chemistry, geometric formulas and theorems, Newton’s laws, the wave-particle duality of light, the periodic table of elements…’

‘These are truths, indeed, they are existences from the very Hall of Truth itself! To encapsulate the principles of the world so succinctly in a single sentence or formula! It was as if a mist had cleared, illuminating all the countless mysteries I had accumulated on my path of magic, profoundly enlightening me!’

‘The knowledge from beyond the stars was truly unfathomable, yet another unsettling thought coiled in the back of my mind like a serpent—’

‘They are real, undeniably so, but what is their origin?’

‘They are precious, certainly, but what is their cost?’

‘I was not so naive as to believe that knowledge could simply be given away for free. Anjemuel had openly declared herself an Old God; even if this knowledge were mere common sense to her, how could she not understand its profound importance to sorcerers like us?’

‘And what profound meaning, if any, lay hidden within the appellation “Old God”?’

Subtly, a thought surfaced in Rhine’s mind, clear and natural as if it had always been there:

‘All gifts bestowed by fate are secretly marked with a price.’

“It seems it’s time to put the magic circuit reconstruction plan on the agenda; I cannot simply wait for the synchronization rate between my soul and body to increase.”

“Moreover, with the support of this knowledge, I now have a significant opportunity to realize those ‘impractical’ ideas I once harbored.”

After his careful deliberation concluded, Rhine closed his notebook and lay on the bed, allowing his rational mind to meticulously sort through his jumbled thoughts.

The Five-Ring magic, ‘Gate of Memory’—the human mind invariably forgets, unable to recall every detail. This magic, however, could categorize and systematically organize all information input into the mind into distinct areas, allowing for effortless “memory recall” when needed, helping one clearly retrieve desired information.

Leveraging this ability, Rhine’s progress in his various studies at the Duke’s estate was remarkably swift. Simply learning to brew tea, for instance: others would be corrected repeatedly by the Tea Ceremony Instructor, their fingers reddened by small wooden rods, yet Rhine needed only to observe the entire process once to flawlessly replicate it. Even the elegant Tea Ceremony Instructor herself couldn’t help but marvel, acknowledging his talent for the craft.

Beyond “memory recall,” ‘Gate of Memory’ also served for “fictional memory” creation. For instance, when Rhine first arrived at the Duke’s estate and collapsed, a sorcerer in the Duke’s service came to perform a “memory appraisal” on him.

Without a fabricated memory as a guise, Rhine would have long since been apprehended and publicly executed. Moreover, even an ordinary Five-Ring Sorcerer capable of using this spell might not execute it with Rhine’s flawless perfection.

The reason being that even simple memories, to varying degrees, contain emotional fragments, and memories devoid of emotional fluctuation are immediately discernible as false.

The reason Rhine was able to deceive the Cavendish family’s most skilled sorcerer was that some of his grim past was not fabricated; a significant portion of his constructed tragic experiences were modeled after his own personal history.

As were the emotions.

However, those were all in the past, and he was not one to constantly dwell in nostalgia; otherwise, he could not have stood at the pinnacle of the magic world, becoming a Seven-Ring Sorcerer.

And if one were to ask what those past experiences truly left him with… haha, those are stories for another day.

‘Audrey~ Audrey! Audrey!! Audrey… What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? I have absolutely no experience asking anyone out, let alone a girl, and a noble young lady at that! What can I possibly say to make this work? Or should I just tell her not to come?’

‘No, how can Green go back on his word?! What should the first line be—’Tonight, the moon is truly beautiful.’ Get out of here, that’s far too sappy! Or should I just say, ‘Oh, you’re here.’ Isn’t that a bit too simple, and perhaps a little cold? What if I say, ‘Actually, I find your eyes quite lovely; could I perhaps keep them?’ What kind of monstrous idea is that, absolutely not! I’d turn into some kind of creepy collector!’

‘Besides, what can a lone man and woman do together other than ignite a passionate romance? Arghhh! I am quite virtuous, but if Audrey wishes to continue researching physiological matters, I suppose I could let her observe again, since it’s not my original body anyway… But this is all so wrong! What are these bizarre scenarios developing?!’

‘Or perhaps we could play chess? Would she find that too boring? Probably not, I hope? If we were to play chess, she’d be a complete novice, so how much should I hold back? Ah, if I hold back, would her pride be hurt? I don’t like it when others deliberately go easy on me either. Or I could give her a handicap. But how would I explain the rules to her? My chess pieces are all back in Babel Tower… I suppose I’ll just have to go to the woodworking shop these next couple of days and make a chessboard. I remember having plenty of materials…’

‘I’ll just avoid her for the next couple of days. This is absolutely not me chickening out! How could the great Green possibly back down?! This is called a strategic withdrawal, to await the enemy’s unpreparedness and then execute a deep-penetration maneuver…’

That night, someone was destined for a sleepless night.