After returning to the mansion and briefly splitting up, I took Luna with me to the garden on the Eddington family grounds.
"So it finally happened, huh?"
"Yes. It's exactly what Orun-san suspected. To make sure there's no misunderstanding, let me explain what happened today—"
Luna affirmed my question and began recounting the events.
◇ ◇ ◇
During today's labyrinth investigation, Twilight Moonbow encountered a group of five Cerberuses.
Among the groups they'd faced during surveys so far, this was arguably the strongest.
It wasn't an opponent they'd lose to.
They used Luna's [Induction Decoy Light] effectively, with Carol and Rogue holding them back while Sophia and Luna finished them off with magic.
The division was Carol handling three, Rogue handling two.
Rogue also had to maintain party-wide buffs as the enchanter, so it was a reasonable split.
Even so, facing two Cerberuses meant dealing with six heads total.
Their attacks were ferocious, and to the ones holding them back, it probably felt like fighting six separate enemies.
As a result, Rogue's limit was enduring their attacks while keeping buffs active for the whole party.
Even so, for a B-rank explorer to manage that much was already more than enough.
In fact, no one took serious injuries, and they won the fight.
But Rogue apparently wasn't satisfied with how the battle went.
The biggest reason seemed to be that Carol, while holding back three, had taken down one of them on her own.
Lately, Rogue had been feeling powerless.
Luna aside, both Sophia and Carol were growing remarkably.
Compared to the three of them, Rogue felt like he wasn't growing at all.
That wasn't true, of course.
In that state, Carol called out to him: "You were amazing holding back two!"
Her words included the implied meaning "while maintaining buffs for the whole party."
Normally, Rogue would have understood that.
But today's Rogue took it literally and snapped: "Was that sarcasm!? I know I'm inferior to you! You don't have to rub it in!!"
Carol was considerate and good at reading distance with people.
But she wasn't perfect.
At the worst possible timing, she'd stepped just a little too far.
Carol shrank especially hard when someone directed negative emotions at her.
That stemmed from her trauma.
As far as I knew, Rogue had never once raised his voice at Carol before.
Being yelled at by Rogue for the first time had left her frightened of interacting with him.
Rogue, meanwhile, was regretting hurting Carol while struggling with his own emotions.
That was why the atmosphere in Twilight Moonbow had felt off when I returned.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Thanks, Luna. It was pretty much what I expected."
"Orun-san… was this really the right thing to do?"
Luna asked with downcast eyes.
"We vented just enough to prevent a fatal crack in their relationship, and this clash was within expectations."
"Certainly, we avoided the worst-case scenario you anticipated. But if we'd intervened, we could have prevented the clash entirely. We didn't have to let them collide like that…"
"I don't think constantly clearing the path ahead of them is necessarily the right thing."
If we kept smoothing their road, they'd never stumble.
But if they never stumbled, they'd never learn how to stand back up.
I won't always be there beside them.
That's why I want them to stumble while still within my sight—so they can learn to get back up.
I believe that's one of my roles as their master.
Of course, this is completely my personal belief. Others might say it's wrong.
"Besides, if their relationship crumbles over something like this, then that party never had a future anyway. Even without this incident, they would have fallen apart eventually."
"…That might be true."
"But still—I made you do something that went against your wishes. I'm sorry."
"No, the educational approach for those children was entrusted to you, Orun-san. It's fine."
"Thank you. I hate to ask again, but could you look after Carol?"
"Of course. I was the one who asked you in the first place. Leave her to me. Please take care of Rogue."
"Yeah, leave it to me. —Oh, and this isn't really related to today's incident, but can I ask one last thing?"
"Yes. What is it?"
"This might sound completely out of left field—maybe even since that day—but… have you ever felt like there's a spell formula engraved on your body… or something like that?"
"A spell formula engraved on me?"
"I mean 'engraved' as a figure of speech—it's not literally carved in—but it feels like there's a spell formula in my body? Or soul? Something like that."
The true nature of the bug that led to establishing [Layering] was this.
Back when I was in the hero party, I'd focused on developing magic that exceeded standard support spells.
But the more deeply I studied support magic—especially the basic six—the more I realized they were "optimal solutions" with every waste stripped away.
Even now, back then I couldn't imagine any way to evolve them further.
So I changed my approach: if I could induce some kind of change in the recipient instead of altering the magic itself, perhaps the same spell formula could yield greater effects.
That led me to study the human body.
During that process, I noticed a spell formula engraved in myself.
It was a formula I'd never seen before, despite my confidence in having studied countless spell formulas.
With Grandpa's knowledge, I deciphered it and discovered that modifying this formula allowed the same support magic to grant greater benefits.
And so I completed a magic that efficiently altered the engraved formula.
That was the true identity of [Layering].
However, it had no meaning for others.
My hypothesis at the time was: "This magic only works on the caster himself."
Since I had no intention of making it public, I never verified the hypothesis and stopped thinking deeply about it—but now I knew that hypothesis was wrong.
Because—most likely—this formula was engraved only in me.
Now that I understood ki to some extent, I couldn't believe every human had the same formula engraved in them.
"N-No… I don't really understand… I'm sorry I couldn't help."
"No, that's fine. Sorry for asking something weird."
If every human had the same formula engraved, Luna—who had far deeper insight into human structure than I did—would surely know.
Since she didn't, my conclusion was probably close to the mark.
That alone was progress.
This had been the final piece. Now that magic… could be called complete.
All that remained was talking to Rogue—
◇
"Hey, Orun-kun."
On my way to Rogue's room, someone called out.
I turned to see Lazarus Eddington dressed casually.
When we left Tsutorail, the old man had stayed behind due to unfinished business.
Apparently that was resolved—he'd returned a few days ago and was now living in this mansion too.
I turned fully and bowed.
"Lazarus-sama, it's been a while."
"Yeah, long time no see. Sorry—I was swamped when I got back and couldn't even greet you properly."
As he said, right after returning he'd shut himself in a room with his son, Count Eddington, to discuss something—so we hadn't had a proper greeting.
"Not at all. I'm the one who's been focused on labyrinth investigation and hasn't come to pay respects. I apologize."
"No need. That just shows how seriously you're taking our request. I heard the mid-investigation report, by the way. As expected of Tsutorail's strongest explorer and a hero. I thought it would take until next year, but now it looks like you'll finish this year. Truly impressive."
Something about the old man's words felt off. I couldn't pinpoint what.
I really couldn't read this man's true intentions at all.
"…I'm honored. I promise to continue giving my all to the labyrinth investigation."
"Yeah, I'm counting on it."
"Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me—I have some plans, so I'll take my leave."
I bowed to the old man and started to walk away.
Just in case, I activated [Hearing Up] without him noticing.
"Being too excellent can be a problem too. I wish the other side would hurry up and make their move."
The old man's whisper—too quiet for normal ears—was caught by my enhanced hearing.
But those words alone weren't enough to understand his meaning.
As expected, he wasn't going to show his tail so easily.
It was certain he was plotting something, though.