[Joy]
[Sadness]
[Disgust]
[Anger]
The wheel continued to move. It turned before my very eyes, switching from one color to another. Eventually, it started to slow down.
[Disgust]
I stared without a word.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the result, but it was because I couldn’t think about anything else but my current situation.
’It’s aware...’
The Outer Being was aware of the eye and what I was doing.
It wasn’t like with Xa’hurl, where it was also aware but couldn’t do anything about the eye. This ti... things were different. The Outer Being was acutely aware of what I was doing and was actively trying to stop from doing so.
I had barely managed to escape the first two tis.
I knew that it was impossible for to escape the third.
This was my last resort.
My last choice.
Trr!
The wheel slowed down further.
It went from [Disgust] to [Anger]. It felt that it would stop at [Anger], and I prepared myself for what was to co, but just when I thought it would be the case, the arrow moved a little bit further, stopping at a pinkish color.
[Love]
"...."
I didn’t react upon seeing where the arrow had stopped.
No, it was more like...
I couldn’t react.
My mind was numbed from the aftereffect of my previous actions.
However, my train of thought was still there.
Love...?
’How is that supposed to help in my current situation?’
I knew that the thing that I needed to do at the mont was focus on improving my current mastery of the Runes. Enhancing Love would...
’This isn’t good.’
If the situation continued like this, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to get what I wanted. However, it was already too late.
The surroundings changed a mont later.
"....."
Looking around, I found myself in an apartnt.
One that I used to call mine.
’It’s exactly the sa.’
I looked around.
Brushing my hand against the coarse texture of the sofa in the middle of the room, and grabbing the cup that rested on the glass tabletop next to the sofa, I pursed my lips.
This was extrely realistic.
But...
’What exactly am I supposed to do?’
"Hm?"
Suddenly, I noticed sothing.
Turning my attention to the wall opposite the sofa, I spotted a mirror.
There, I could see my reflection in it.
"...I’ve never had a mirror like this in the past."
I calmly walked towards the mirror and reached for it.
Cold.
That’d be how I’d describe the mirror. However, other than that, it looked like a regular mirror.
I frowned.
I could tell that the Mirror was linked with the current situation.
However, I soon pulled my hand away and moved towards the sofa.
Whatever the case was, it was good this way.
’Since I don’t know what the end goal is, and since ti outside is not moving, I can focus my entire attention on understanding the Outer Runes.’
This was my only shot at getting out of the situation.
Lifting my hand, a magic circle ford.
I stared at the three layers of the Ring, quietly staring at all of the runes in place. At the sa ti, I started to think about everything that I had learned.
’The Outer Ring is comprised of Flow Runes only.’
They were the runes that determined the movent of a spell, how fast it gathered power, how cleanly it circulated, how violently it erupted, and so on. They were essentially the main structure of the spell.
Pripietary Runes were the ones that were found in the Inner Ring, and they determined the function of the spell.
Elental? What type of Elent?
Ignis? That was fire. Aqua? That was water.
Lastly, there was the Inner Ring. This Ring was made up of Modulation Runes, which helped establish the identity of the spell in its direction. Piercing, size of area of effect, shape, and so on.
Each Rune had its own distinctive importance in the creation of a spell, and if sothing went wrong, the entire spell would shatter.
It was also for this reason that I struggled so much at the start.
"...I guess it makes more sense now."
One couldn’t blindly ’unlock’ a spell. They needed to understand the Runes and their function. Without a proper understanding, the only outco was the shattering of the spell.
Especially since certain runes couldn’t coexist.
"I see."
I played around with the magic circle in my hand.
I began altering its inner workings.
[Hands of Contagion]
This was an Advanced Type spell.
The number of Runes it contained was thirty, and its shape was fixed. The Rune that established its shape was the Manus Rune. What was set to happen if I were to change that?
Furrowing my brows, I began to tweak the spell.
This process wasn’t exactly hard.
With just a little bit of concentration, the Rune shattered. However, alongside the shattering, the spell started to destabilize, its structure threatening to break at any given second. That was the mont that I inserted a new rune in its place.
Serpens.
In the instant that I inserted the new Rune, the spell stabilized once more. Not even a mont later, the surroundings began to change as green snakes appeared in all directions, coiling over the sofas, chairs, and even the lamps above.
I stared at all of this indifferently, my feelings still numb from before.
But soon—
Crash!
The spell in my hand shattered, the snakes fading alongside the shattering of the spell.
Drip!
Red stained the wooden floor a mont later as I felt sothing wet drip down my nose. Rubbing my sleeve over my nose, I looked down to see the red stain that had appeared.
My head started to feel light a mont later.
’...I guess it’s not that simple.’
The spell had worked. Of that, I was sure. However, it was clear that there was so clash with so other Rune in so other area of the spell. I didn’t know what it was, nor was I interested in knowing.
My main goal at the mont was to find a way to handle Evelyn.
The answer was the Outer Runes.
Of that, I was certain.
However, from the simple experint I had just carried out, I knew things wouldn’t be simple.
I had to truly give it my all.
But just as I was about to continue—
BANG!
A loud bang shook out of my thoughts.
Lifting my head, I looked towards the source of the noise, and it was there that I found myself staring at the mirror opposite .
A reflection of stared back.
"...You’re a hypocrite."
The words flowed out of my mouth on their own.
The mont they did, I paused.
These words... They weren’t the things that I had ant to say. In fact, I hadn’t ant to speak at all. Sothing had clearly controlled and spoken for .
But at the sa ti, I didn’t feel much at all when the words ca out.
Hypocrite?
Yes, indeed, I was.
This was sothing that I had long been aware of.
’I presu this must be the test of the wheel.’
I had faced many trials, and was aware that each one was different. I still didn’t know how this entire ’wheel’ thing had been created, but I knew that it had been sothing that my past self had created in order to aid .
’How should I proceed next?’
I focused my attention on my hand once more as a new magic circle ford.
It was a different spell this ti.
One that was a lot less complex.
[Shackles of Alakantria].
None of my spells was complex. In fact, they were all around Lvl 2, except for Hands of Contagion.
’...I really did neglect my spells.’
I calmly analyzed the new structure in front of .
It was a lot simpler, and as I looked at it, I imprinted the Runes that were present in each layer. Once I was done with that, I moved on to the next spell, doing the sa thing.
I did this in order to morize the structure of each spell properly. This was so that I could have a better understanding of what worked and what didn’t.
Having neglected spell class... or to be precise, having been missing for almost my entire ti at the Academy, my knowledge regarding spells was rather lacking. It was only now that I had finally started to regret my absences.
’But it couldn’t be helped. The circumstances made things the way that they are.’
There was no use crying over spilled milk.
I continued to focus my attention on the spell in my hand. The picture was clear in my mind.
’...As of right now, the spells are unable to contain the power of the Outer Runes. What I need to do right now is upgrade my spells. I think I should be capable of doing that.’
I didn’t know how it was possible in the past, but I’m much clearer about the process now.
What I needed to do was insert more Runes into the Rings, and connect them using the Outer Runes to make sure the spell wouldn’t break. It sounded easy, but it was extrely difficult.
This much beca obvious to after the first couple of failures.
"You’re shit."
Once again, I paused.
Lifting my head, I stared at the reflection in front of . It stared back at wordlessly, not saying a single thing.
Those words...
They were once again said without my consent.
I knew that whatever this was... it was part of the trial that I was undertaking. However, quickly shaking my head, I dismissed what had happened. I didn’t have the ti to pay attention to this.
The goal at the mont was to create or improve my spells in a way that I could sohow calm down Evelyn.
I kept thinking back to the spell that I had seen from my past self, and I wanted to find a way to replicate that, but before I could even start, my lips moved on their own once again.
"...I don’t like myself."
The words made pause, my gaze lifting to stare at the mirror.
’What’s it trying to make say?’
I was quickly realizing that the words that the mirror was saying weren’t random. What was it trying to achieve? Was it trying to put down?
Perhaps there was more to it than that, but in my current state, whatever word was coming out of my own mouth, it had no effect on .
I could hardly feel a thing.
...Or so I thought.
Drip!
Feeling the warm streak running down the side of my cheek, the spell in my hand shattered, my expression slowly beginning to change.
It was also at this mont that I started to feel them again.
My emotions.
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