[272] 1. Hostile Friendship (1)
Morning came to Kazra Castle.
Shirone waited in a reception room arranged by the Inspection Bureau to undergo the paternity test.
Visitors weren't strictly forbidden, but since this was a matter the Kazra nobles would be watching, no one came.
Once the paternity test was done, there would be no going back to his old life. What would his future look like?
"Huh… I'm nervous for no reason."
"There's nothing to worry about. It's a simple test."
Shirone snapped his head up.
A tall, slim man stood there. He didn't look cold exactly, but there was a piercing quality to him.
A faint chill ran down Shirone's spine. It felt the same as when he first met Armin.
"Could it be… an Unlocker?"
The man bowed politely instead of answering.
"Sorry for the late introduction. I'm Arius. I serve as an adviser to His Highness Orcamp."
Shirone narrowed his eyes and braced himself.
"What brings someone like you here?"
A waiting room is a closed space by human standards. Being alone with a master who'd slipped in unnoticed was never safe.
"Just wanted to meet you. Unlockers tend to understand one another."
Arius relaxed his expression as if he intuitively understood the sympathetic thrill Shirone felt.
"I've heard a lot about Shirone's exploits. The Photon Cannon was especially impressive. It must be a technique that manipulates mass, yes?"
Shirone tensed. If Arius were an enemy, having his ability guessed so easily would be dangerous.
Arius raised both hands to show he meant no harm.
"No need to be so guarded. Pure curiosity—think of me as a fan. By the way, to introduce my ability…"
"Scale magic, right?"
"Oh? And what makes you think that?"
"This room is sealed on all six sides. You can't enter it with mere teleportation. If time and space were distorted at the same time, it has to be scale magic."
Arius nodded without resistance. Among mages in this line of work, it wasn't much of a secret.
"Right. More than half of Unlockers are scale mages. Did you know that?"
"No, I didn't."
It was the first Shirone had heard of it—more than half of Unlockers being scale mages.
Then again, Armin's magic could be considered a kind of scale magic. Time and space couldn't really be separated.
"The reason so many Unlockers are scale mages hasn't been pinned down. We suspect it has to do with the tendencies of the Immortal Function. In that sense, Shirone, your signature technique is fairly unique. Few can manipulate mass. I'm a bit jealous."
"It's not that great—"
Armin butted in, sticking his face forward.
"I'm still stronger."
It was a childish boast for a high-level mage, but Arius didn't seem bothered and added,
"I just wanted to be clear about that."
"Ah, of course."
Shirone didn't bother to deny it. Arius was a talent employed by a king—decades above a Magic Academy student.
Arius cocked his head in what looked like surprise.
"Oh? You're admitting that too easily. Excessive modesty can be poisonous."
"Huh? No. I'm just a student."
"Your magical power may be lacking for now, of course. But who knows what would happen if you cast Ataraxia?"
Shirone jumped. Ataraxia was the language of Heaven. Aside from a few acquaintances, hardly anyone knew it; academic papers had even used the term 'mana-amplification formation' for the kill-line.
'So this guy's been to Heaven too.'
Arius stared at Shirone as if trying to spot a tiny fairy in his pupils. When the keyword registered, the corner of his mouth lifted.
"How do you know Ataraxia?"
"Haha! Most mages who've played around in this field know it. It's Archangel Ikael's specialty. Admittedly, it's shocking that a human could master it."
"Then have you been to Heaven?"
Arius shrugged as if it were nothing.
"Once, long ago. But it wasn't particularly entertaining for me. Still, I keep gathering information. Humanity's survival is at stake here. In a sense, we're all indebted to Miro. Then again, thanks to that she became the greatest mage—would she really feel wronged?"
Shirone, who had only thought of Miro's choice as a sacrifice, found Arius's take refreshingly different.
"Is Miro the greatest Unlocker?"
Arius gave a self-deprecating smile.
"Well, isn't she? Who can say who's absolutely the best? But she did save humanity. And she's now dwelling in a dimension we can't reach. No mage born in this age will topple Miro's legacy. It's a pity."
It sounded cold, but it wasn't without reason.
Everyone should have a chance to achieve their dream. Otherwise the world Miro protected with her sacrifice would already be dead.
"I see. But Miro must have thought that too—"
"Haha! Of course she did! Don't take it so seriously. If Oberk, the founder of the Turn Undead spell, hadn't existed, humanity might've been conquered by necromancers. Who's on top shifts with the times—that's the nature of magic. Besides, there's already a mage in this world no one can touch."
"The greatest mage? Who is that?"
Shirone ran through names—Kergos, who developed photonization theory? Ibris, founder of Ignite? Maybe Gloria, who compiled the Spirit Zone system?
"The greatest mage in history is… Macclain Goffin."
Shirone slapped his knee in recognition.
"Ah! I knew that name!"
The mage who installed a gate to Heaven in the Kergo autonomous district. How impressive he was was even hinted at in Ikael's words.
"What kind of person was Goffin?"
Arius scratched his head as if unsure how to answer.
"Hmm. Truthfully, we don't know. There are no surviving records of Goffin. Some even doubt he ever truly existed."
"What? But Goffin—"
"Yes. His works are scattered across the world, but only ruins remain. There are no historical records about Goffin himself. Archaeologists still roam trying to find traces, but they can't find any records—not even folklore."
How could that be?
Shirone was puzzled. Every person left traces. Even someone unknown had records through acquaintances; someone like Goffin should be famous everywhere.
"Whether Goffin was a real person is still debated. Some scholars even argue he never once contacted another sentient being in his life. But the leading hypothesis is this."
Arius raised a finger.
"Goffin existed, but for some reason the world forgot him."
A memory rose unbidden in Shirone's mind—the anecdote he'd heard from the Heaven fairy Peope.
Archangel Ikael was said to have committed an unforgivable sin. But Heaven's people don't know what it was.
Because Anke Ra erased the memory.
"Goffin definitely existed, but now he's treated as if he doesn't. Scholars call that Goffin erasure, or the reset."
"If it's a reset—"
"Goffin may have simply removed his name from the Akashic Record. But if so, the whole world would have to be edited. Then why do Goffin's ruins remain? The reset theory answers that: the world we experience was initialized at some point."
To Shirone, whose intellect hadn't yet plunged deep, Arius's words sounded like a madman's ramble. Still, he couldn't shake the pull—Unlockers were drawn to these problems.
"A key piece of evidence for the Goffin erasure is something called the 'fracture-field verification experiment.' The total amount of time and energy in our world seems to be subtly out of sync."
Arius spread his ten fingers as if grasping a sphere.
"The Akashic Record is perfect as a whole. So the world can't lose perfection—but fractures can occur. Fractures are individuality, not flaw. Scholars think traces of a reset remain in those fractures."
Shirone found it hard to believe. Yet if so many scholars argued seriously, it wasn't pure nonsense.
"If the reset is true, does that mean everyone in this world is living the same life a second time?"
"It would. Don't overcomplicate it. Time doesn't flow—it's perceived. Say humanity began ten thousand years ago. Do people now have to wait ten thousand years to reach today? No. From the moment you're born, time is perceived. So scholars point to déjà vu as evidence of a reset—the feeling of reliving something. It's a cognitive error from confusing pre-reset and post-reset time."
Arius tapped his index finger and asked,
"So here's the question: how could Macclain Goffin initialize the world?"
A word popped into Shirone's head on its own.
"Immortal Function."
Arius nodded with satisfaction.
"Exactly. If you expand consciousness without end, the self dissolves. But every phenomenon has a threshold. If you could perfectly control the Immortal Function, you'd become infinite yet finite—a paradoxical state. In other words, you'd be the whole while retaining selfhood."
Arius's explanation awakened a concept Shirone already had some grasp of. To be the whole while retaining a self—conversely, for every part to hold a self. People would call such a being a god.
"I see. So Goffin was…"
At last Shirone understood why Macclain Goffin was the unrivaled greatest mage.
"Yes. Macclain Goffin is…"
Arius smiled.
"The unprecedented Infinite Mage in human history."
It was the second time Shirone had heard the term "Infinite Mage" since Armin used it, but this time the impact was far stronger.
Back then he had been ignorant of the Immortal Function and the Akashic Record. Now he could faintly picture how a human might claim a god's stature.
"We don't know which era Goffin belonged to. A hundred years ago? A thousand? Maybe before humanity. But the most convincing theory places the reset about eighteen years ago. That's the point after which Goffin's achievements disappear. Coincidentally, eighteen years ago was also when Miro's space-time originated."
Arius offered it as a possibility, but Shirone had heard from Ikael that Miro was Goffin's successor.
And eighteen years ago was the year Shirone was born.
He didn't dwell on it. How many people were born eighteen years ago besides him?
Arius glanced at his watch. The allotted time for the test was nearly up; it was time to return to his proper duty.