Vol 3. Chapter 45: Aesphyra Earns Great Merit

“I know I can’t possibly achieve a complete understanding of an entire civilization. Not just me—even the most brilliant ruler in that civilization’s own history couldn’t understand their country one hundred percent. So all I can do is understand as much as possible—the closer to complete, the better,” Isatia said.

“You came here for that, didn’t you? If you construct a civilization inside your [Saint’s Favor], can you cure your illness?” Vinny asked.

At first, Vinny had thought Isatia came seeking the Divine Authority of [Continuance] and [Eternity] to find a cure for her strange sickness. But now he felt that wasn’t it. Isatia was probing Marsmo’s secret realm because of the specialty of her [Saint’s Favor]. She needed to construct the Marsmo civilization within her [Saint’s Favor].

As for why, Vinny could only guess that doing so would evolve Isatia’s [Saint’s Favor] to a stronger state—or perhaps alleviate her exhaustion.

“No,” Isatia replied, crisp and without a second thought.

“Then... why did you come here?” Vinny was puzzled.

“But it can be delayed,” Isatia continued. “The Lanteville Family’s [Saint’s Favor] is rather complicated to explain.”

“Alright, so that’s how it is? In other words, the guarantee you’re relying on to get us out intact is your [Saint’s Favor]?” Vinny asked. “Then why not use it now?”

“Because I can’t right now,” Isatia said. “Marsmo civilization hasn’t been constructed within my [Saint’s Favor], so I can’t use [Saint’s Favor] here.”

So that’s what she meant?

That was Isatia’s plan?

Vinny understood enough of what he’d wanted to know and had no desire to pry deeper.

While they spoke, they passed several forks in the right wing of the palace. Vinny didn’t know which way to choose, so he followed his gut—left, then right, then left, then right—repeating the last direction at the final door.

As they went, Isatia observed the various artworks on the palace corridor walls, as well as the wall textures, materials, and so on.

“Your memory’s not bad, and you learn fast,” Isatia said suddenly from his back—and after the praise, still added, “If you put that energy into studying, your progress would be tremendous.”

“Uh—huh? What are you talking about?” Vinny asked, puzzled.

“The pathing of the Marsmo temple. You haven’t forgotten,” Isatia said softly.

“That? I just picked directions on instinct. You didn’t say anything, so I kept following the feeling. Besides, before we were in a temple; now we’re in a palace—they’re not the same, right?” Vinny asked. “It’s not like the Marsmo palace would be full of traps, right?”

“That... can’t be guaranteed,” Isatia didn’t give a firm answer.

The dim passage reached its end, opening into a hall—a golden chamber enshrining [Continuance], one of Marsmo’s twin deities. The giant figure took up nearly the entire room. Unlike the temple’s, this statue seemed crafted to flaunt royal status: forged of pure gold, surrounded by many offering tablets and tributes arranged into an altar.

“Marsmo really does love gold. Golden armor, golden palace, and gilded tech scattered all over the city-state—now even the deity statue is pure gold,” Vinny couldn’t help but gripe.

“Love” didn’t even cover it. This was a feverish, near-pathological obsession with gold.

He deliberately moved up to examine the statue. Finding nothing special, he continued forward—just as two fully-armed guards appeared ahead, heading their way.

Vinny hadn’t been worried—until Isatia’s voice sounded behind him.

“Classmate Vinny, the effect is about to end.”

“What??” Vinny blinked and glanced down. Just as she’d said, the transparency on them had faded a great deal; they were almost visible again.

The Marsmo guards coming toward them seemed to notice something, staring ahead without blinking and stopping in place.

Damn! It went by that fast? Half an hour already??

They’d taken too long in the palace!

Vinny realized—and hastily pulled out the last Invisibility Elixir Aesphyra had given him and drank it.

The veil of concealment fell over them again. Only when the two Marsmo guards ahead rubbed their eyes, saw there was indeed nothing there, and moved on with their patrol did Vinny breathe out.

Time really flew. He’d conserved strength as much as possible and pushed forward fast—yet this was as far as they’d come.

Vinny shifted, tightened his hold on Isatia’s legs, settled her on his back, and pressed on.

They’d used up the Invisibility Elixirs. When the time ran out now, they’d have no recourse.

They’d deal with that when it came. For now, they needed to deepen Isatia’s understanding of the palace layout as much as possible.

“Classmate Vinny, follow the same pattern as before,” Isatia said at the next fork.

“Got it,” Vinny nodded.

Time slipped by in silence. They reached another hall—this one enshrining [Eternity], the many-limbed, serpent-like Ouroboros.

“At this pace, we won’t be able to explore what’s inside those branch corridors—or the left wing,” Vinny said.

“No need. I largely already know what the left wing looks like,” Isatia replied.

“Huh? How do you know?”

“Marsmo reveres contracts and adores symmetry. If we know the right wing, we can broadly infer the left,” Isatia answered calmly.

“Right—if that’s so, our search gets much more efficient,” Vinny understood.

“The left wing should be the mirror: where the right places the [Eternity] statue, the left places [Continuance], and vice versa—same positions, corresponding, or, put another way, together flanking the royal way at center,” Isatia said.

“In that case, we should have searched the passage behind the throne earlier, right? That’s most likely the king’s quarters—we’d find more clues there,” Vinny said.

“In principle, yes. But we can’t make it back now,” Isatia glanced at the countless branching corridors behind them, stretching out of sight. “It took us nearly fifty minutes to get here. Going back—we won’t make it in time.”

“Then it is what it is,” Vinny kept moving, breathing a little hard. “Looks like we can only keep going till we hit the wall.”

Yes—after carrying Isatia for so long, even if she was light, Vinny was exhausted. He wasn’t made of iron and didn’t have a cheat code. He could only grit his teeth and persist. He knew this was a critical moment—if he dropped the ball, they were done.

Speaking of which—how was Vanessa’s anemia? Better yet?

Her condition should be much improved compared to before, right?

In that slightly suffocating, desperate mood, the thought slipped through Vinny’s mind.

But that had been a last-resort measure at death’s door. Otherwise he would never expose a weakness like that before anyone.

He followed the same pattern forward again. Soon, his own ragged breathing grew more obvious. He knew what that meant—the Invisibility Elixir was about to fade.

He hurriedly checked their surroundings. Seeing no patrolling guards nearby, he let out a small breath.

An hour had passed; the elixirs were spent; and they hadn’t even reached the end of a single corridor in the palace.

“Looks like another hall up ahead?” Vinny pressed his lips together. Hearing no footsteps from ahead, he moved up boldly.

Another hall—this one enshrining [Continuance].

Vinny was about to keep going, when Isatia suddenly called out.

“This shrine is wrong.”

“Hm? Wrong? What’s wrong?” Vinny couldn’t see it. He’d been focused entirely on making time and finding the route. With his strength so heavily drained, he had no bandwidth left to notice what was off about a shrine.

“This shrine differs in a significant way from the earlier [Continuance] shrine,” Isatia said.

“Significant how?” Vinny didn’t get it.

“In the Celestial Diagram on the mural behind the statue: the most important part—the star used to link to the deity—its shape is wrong. It has an extra point,” Isatia said, certain.

“Ah—huh??” Her words scrambled Vinny’s brain for a second. “I mean, Classmate Isatia, you’re that detailed in your observation??”

Vinny knew Isatia had photographic memory—but he hadn’t expected it to be this extreme. She remembered a tiny detail on a star on a diagram she’d glanced at once—down to the last point.

“For such a small detail—isn’t it possible the craftsmen just made a tiny slip?”

“Impossible. Marsmo reveres the deities and holds the Divine Authority of [Continuance] and [Eternity] in utmost esteem. A craftsman who made that kind of error wouldn’t be able to save his family. They would never make that mistake.”

“I’ve observed many Celestial Diagrams on the way—the ones on stelae, altars, in temples, and even the aerial plan of the royal city from earlier. Not a single star had that strange extra point,” Isatia said, full of confidence in her judgment.

Hearing that, Vinny sighed inwardly and accepted her conclusion. He skirted the statue and moved behind it to inspect that odd little star.

“This one, right?” Vinny reached out and tapped it—then raised an eyebrow. He rapped the wall lightly beside it, then rapped the spot where the little star was. The sounds were the same.

“This doesn’t seem hollow,” Vinny murmured.

“It doesn’t have to be hollow. Classmate Vinny, do you have an alchemical elixir that reveals magic?” Isatia asked.

“That? No.” Aesphyra might have one. He recalled their last snake-clearing operation—her layers upon layers of alchemical brews, tossing them around like they cost nothing.

Given Aesphyra’s caution, she would absolutely bring every elixir and scroll that might be useful on a trip before feeling at ease.

Wait—was there one in the batch she’d given him earlier??

Vinny thought of it, let one of Isatia’s legs slide down to free a hand, and took out the three remaining elixirs in his coat.

“See anything here we can use?” Vinny asked.

“That one—the colorless, bubbling elixir. Pour it on,” Isatia said.

So there was one after all??

Vinny did as told—bit the cap off and splashed the colorless liquid over the little star.

Honestly, he didn’t know whether to praise Aesphyra’s cool foresight or her thorough preparation—or call it destiny’s favor—that in that split-second emergency when most people wouldn’t even react, she’d stuffed him with every elixir he might need.

“Classmate Vinny, very well prepared.”

“Ah—ahaha.” Vinny flushed at the praise. None of this was his preparation. He couldn’t even afford these, much less stock them.

“Tsss—tsss!” Wisps of white vapor curled up where the elixir hit the little star. Under their gaze, the star’s color changed.

The gold drenched under a flowing gray, and that gray gradually soaked through.

At a glance, the mural now looked... off. Vinny couldn’t say why, but it bristled with dissonance.

Like a dragon’s eye had been veiled—just a tiny bit, but in the most important place. That shift made the entire Celestial Diagram feel wrong. That dim star—why did it stab the eye so much?

“Click, click!” Then, under their eyes, the mural gave a faint series of sounds, and several magic runes floated into view before them.

“What’s... this?” Vinny froze, at a loss.

“Classmate Vinny, pull the character that looks like an upside-down person to the front. Then put the one that looks like a star right behind it, and then...”

“Ah—okay.” Vinny did as Isatia instructed, guiding the runes by hand and placing them in the correct order.

So that’s it—a kind of combination lock?

Impressively tight.

So this kind of magic existed even in the ancient era??

(A few more chapters till the big reveal 0.0)