Chapter 638: Incomprehensible Image

Aqua stared at her as if the world had tilted.

"...No."

Her voice barely came out.

"No."

She shook her head slowly.

"That’s not possible."

Her thoughts collided violently.

Cassius.

Her teasing brother.

Her charming, smiling brother.

Her womanizing, relaxed brother.

The one she thought she understood.

The one she thought she was protecting.

"...You’re joking."

Aisha didn’t smile.

"I’m not."

Aqua’s chest rose and fell unevenly.

"He...taught you...this?"

She glanced at the floating golem still raining destruction in the distance.

"He did this?"

Aisha nodded.

"He’s the one who showed me how to merge constructs and gravity."

"He’s the one who compressed the mana framework."

"He’s the one who explained fluctuation efficiency and elemental convergence."

She looked at Aqua directly.

"He’s far beyond an Archmage."

Aqua’s fingers trembled slightly.

"...That’s..."

She swallowed.

"...That’s the legendary person I’ve been searching for?"

Aisha nodded once more and Aqua’s knees almost gave out.

"My brother..."

Her voice became faint.

"...is the genius I’ve been desperate to meet?"

Aisha smiled gently.

"You’ve been living with him this whole time. And you didn’t even realize."

Aqua stared at the ground.

Then up at the sky.

Then back at Aisha.

Her mind was spinning.

Shock.

Pride.

Disbelief.

Confusion.

And something else—

Something far more complicated.

"...Cassius..."

She whispered his name under her breath, as if testing it in a completely new light.

And for the first time—

She realized she might not know her brother at all.

She then took several deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down, to let the initial shock settle into something she could actually process.

Her hands were still trembling slightly, but slowly, gradually, she felt her mind begin to work again.

When she finally looked up at Aisha, there was clarity in her eyes now—but also deep confusion.

"Aisha." She said slowly. "How could it possibly be Cassius? My brother? That seems...impossible."

Aisha opened her mouth to respond, but Aqua held up a hand.

"Wait, let me finish. I don’t mean that Cassius isn’t smart enough to do something like this."

A proud smile crossed her face despite the confusion as she said,

"He’s my brother, after all. If you told me he created something like this, I honestly wouldn’t be that surprised. He has the same genius blood running through me."

Her smile fading into a suspicious frown.

"But here’s the thing—Cassius doesn’t have any mana in his body at all."

Aisha’s expression didn’t change, which only made Aqua more certain of what she was saying.

"From the moment he was born, he never had mana. Even when we were children, I don’t remember him having any to begin with. And now?"

She shook her head.

"I’ve personally checked. His body has no mana inside it. No reservoir. Nothing."

"And it’s actually worse than a normal person."

She held up her hands, gesturing emphatically.

"Normal people at least have some minimum level of mana in their bodies—it’s just how living things work. But my brother? For some reason, he’s a complete void. Absolutely nothing."

She stared at Aisha, searching her face for answers.

"So how can you possibly say he’s some kind of magical genius? It doesn’t make any sense."

Aisha nodded slowly, her expression understanding.

"Everything you’re saying is most definitely true." She agreed.

"Cassius doesn’t have any mana. Not a single drop. He can’t use magic at all—not the spell I just showed you, not even the most minor spells like conjuring fire or shooting out a gust of wind. Those things require mana, and he simply doesn’t have it."

She paused, a smile spreading across her face.

"But when it comes to theoretical magic? The analytical part? How to construct a spell, how to decipher runes, how to create the perfect array?"

She laughed softly.

"Then your brother is at the very top of the game. And when I say top, Aqua, I mean the absolute pinnacle."

"I don’t think anyone could even come close to his level."

Aqua stared at her, trying to reconcile this image of Cassius with the brother she knew.

"I only recently found out about this myself." Aisha continued. "And when I did, I had the exact same look on my face that you have right now. I was so shocked I actually fainted."

Despite everything, Aqua felt a small smile tug at her lips at the image of Aisha fainting from shock.

"I thought after the first time I’d calm down."

Aisha went on, her expression shifting into something reverent.

"But he just kept showing me things. Kept explaining things. And every single time, my view of magic would completely transform."

"I would get dizzy just from the sheer beauty of it all, because every single time he showed me something, it would break apart everything I thought I knew and create something new in its place."

Her eyes took on a faraway look, glowing with genuine awe.

"I felt like I was witnessing God create the world."

Aqua raised an eyebrow, a doubtful smile crossing her face.

"Okay, that might be a bit much." She said gently. "You’re exaggerating because you love him. You don’t have to—"

"No." Aisha interrupted firmly, shaking her head. "I’m not exaggerating, Aqua. Not even a little bit. Just wait until you hear him speak about magic—even the simplest topics."

"He’ll give you a shock of a lifetime. He’ll show you revelations you never even dreamed existed."

She reached out and took Aqua’s hand.

"The only reason I reached this level is because of him. And I have no shame in admitting that if I had progressed at my own pace, it would have taken me at least six or seven years just to reach the threshold of Archmage."

"Maybe longer to actually become one."

She squeezed Aqua’s hand.

"I advanced so fast because of Cassius. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. None of this..."

She gestured at the floating golem above them

"...would exist."

Aqua looked up at the massive construct still hovering in the sky.

Something her brother had created.

Something her brother had imagined into existence, even if he couldn’t cast it himself.

It should have made sense. The evidence was right there, floating above her head. And yet—

She just couldn’t comprehend it.

It was like finding out that your mother, the woman you saw every day cooking in the kitchen and cleaning the house, was secretly the owner of a massive conglomerate.

A billionaire hiding in plain sight.

Even if it was real, even if the proof was right in front of you, your mind simply refused to accept it.

The two images couldn’t coexist. They didn’t fit together.

Seeing the utter confusion still plastered across Aqua’s face, Aisha sighed softly and patted her on the hand.

"Don’t think about it too much right now." She advised gently. "If I tell you everything, you’ll only get more confused. Instead..."

She smiled encouragingly.

"Just go to your brother. Talk to him about it yourself. Better yet, ask him to teach you. Tell him about your engagement."

Aqua’s eyes trembled at the suggestion, almost as if she didn’t want to mention marriage to another man for some reason.

"I’m pretty sure you haven’t told him anything about that yet." Aisha continued knowingly. "And I’m also pretty sure he’ll drop everything to help you. There’s no brother in the world who would want his sister to be married off like that—especially not Cassius."

A strange, knowing smile played at her lips.

"He’s very...protective of the people he loves. Even if you’re his older sister, he won’t let you be given away so easily."

"Just tell him everything, and he’ll take care of it."

Aqua stared in comprehension and in that moment, something shifted inside her.

The weight she had been carrying—the burden of her engagement, the pressure of needing to advance, the desperate search for a solution—it all seemed to...lighten.

Not disappear entirely, but become more manageable. More bearable.

Because Aisha was right.

If she told Cassius the truth, he would help her. She didn’t know how she knew this, but she did. With absolute certainty.

Her little brother—the one she had always thought she needed to protect—would protect her in return.

It was a strange feeling. Foreign. She had spent so long being the strong one, the Archmage, the one everyone looked up to.

The idea of depending on someone else, of letting someone else carry her burdens...

But it also felt...nice.

Warm.

Still...

How was she supposed to approach this?

It would be so awkward to just walk up to him and say,

"Hey, little bro, can you teach me magic so I can become a Supreme Mage and get out of this engagement?"

That wasn’t exactly normal sibling conversation.

Before she could dwell on it further—

Footsteps.

Fast, urgent footsteps coming their way.

Both women turned, and Aqua gasped in surprise.

Running toward them across the training field was a small crowd—Carmela, Joy, Julie, and Skadi.

And Skadi was in the lead, her massive wolf form eating up the distance with terrifying speed.

"What in the—" Aisha started.

But before she could finish, Skadi leaped.

The massive wolf pounced directly at Aisha, knocking her to the ground in a tangle of fur and limbs. Immediately, she began playfully biting at Aisha’s neck and face, her tail wagging furiously.

"S-Skadi! What are you doing?!"

Aisha shrieked, struggling underneath the enormous wolf.

"You dumb mutt, get off me!"

But Skadi paid her no attention, continuing to wrestle and nip at her.

"Ow! Stop biting me! Stop it!" Aisha flailed, trying to push the wolf away. "I told you not to sharpen your teeth, didn’t I?! You definitely sharpened your teeth!"

"The moment you let me go, I’m gonna blow you to pieces!"

Skadi just wagged her tail harder and kept wrestling.

By now, the others had arrived, panting slightly from their sprint and Aqua turned to them, utterly confused.

"What’s wrong?" She asked. "Why did you all come running over here? Were we attacked or something?"

Julie looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean, ’were we attacked’?"

She asked in dismay.

"We saw massive sounds and blasts coming from over here. There were explosions, the ground was shaking—we thought some kind of attack was happening!"

"We ran as fast as we could to get here."

Joy said dryly, but it was quite obvious that she was also deeply worried for Aqua a moment ago.

Carmela stepped forward, her sharp eyes scanning the area—and then stopping on the massive floating platform still hovering in the sky, with the golem standing atop it.

Her jaw dropped.

"What...What in the world is that?"