Gorsa laid his cards on the table.
He finally revealed the real reason he had been watching Saul.
But this revelation chilled Saul to the bone. For a mont, he recalled the rough texture of black leather on the conveyor belt in the morgue.
He swallowed hard. His heartbeat, which had nearly stopped from the shock, gradually resud.
"It might not be the worst outco yet. If Master truly wanted to dissect , there would’ve been no need to wait until now—let alone tell outright at this mont." Saul tried hard to comfort himself, to calm down. "In this world, soul separation and possession aren’t rare occurrences. What makes special is simply that I can ignore bodily rejection. If I put it out in the open, maybe I can even bring it to the table and study it together with my master."
His mind spun rapidly, and in the shortest possible ti, he had already decided on his response.
“I-I didn’t do it on purpose. When I woke up, I was already in this body.”
Saul didn’t deny it. Denying what had already been discovered would only make Gorsa look down on him.
Better to admit sothing not too important, and do it in a frightened tone.
“I don’t even know why I survived. I wasn’t a wizard before—just an ordinary person. I didn’t even know about wizards. I ca from a small town…”
Gorsa waved his hand casually. “Heh, no need to say all that. I don’t care about your past. From the mont I first saw you, I confird that you weren’t a wizard. Your ntal aptitude may be strong, but it’s like an unpolished gem—completely undeveloped. Since you weren’t a wizard, even if you were a king in your original world, it makes no difference to .”
He extended his index finger and gently tapped the spot between his brows. “I even suspect that the peculiarity of your soul doesn’t stem from your original self. Instead, it ca from the experience between leaving your original body and entering this one—which was also just an ordinary person’s body. That transitional process may have altered you in a way that produced positive feedback… or, we could call it a kind of beneficial alienation.”
Saul’s mouth opened slightly.
He had never considered this possibility.
He had no mory of his death in his past life or his possession in this one, and he had never truly thought about why his ntal aptitude was so high.
In his previous world, “transmigration” and “rebirth” weren’t novel concepts—they were frequently ntioned in countless novels.
But most of those stories only used it as a hook to start the plot. No one ever explored the chanisms behind it.
As for the enhancent of his ntal aptitude, Saul had simply attributed it to soul strengthening during the world-crossing.
But as for how it strengthened—he had never given it real thought.
The matter was too distant for him. Without the power of a Fourth Rank wizard or higher, how could he hope to unravel the mysteries of world-hopping?
But now, prompted by Gorsa’s words, Saul suddenly realized he had fallen into the trap of being too close to see the truth.
In a world filled with high-level powers, transmigration might not be so rare. The one thing that made him truly special was that he ca from a world with completely different foundational laws.
His old world was too different from the wizarding world. Going ho… might not be sothing that spatial travel alone could solve.
Gorsa did not interrupt Saul’s thoughts. He knew Saul had secrets, but for now, he was only concerned with the source of his soul’s uniqueness.
“I don’t rember anything from that ti.” Saul strained to recall the transitional phase between his past and present lives, but nothing ca to him.
He didn’t know how he died, nor how he lived. One mont his eyes closed, and when they opened again, he was in this not-yet-cold body.
“Of course, since your original identity was neither wizard nor supernatural being, surviving in soone else’s body might’ve just been a matter of chance. Your mory loss is likely a self-preservation chanism of your consciousness.”
Gorsa chuckled and shook his head. “To study the special nature of your soul, we can still use many gentle experintal thods. But if we want to trace its origin—that part of history contains high-level knowledge… your consciousness may not be able to withstand it.”
“You an, studying what happened to before I arrived in this body… might harm ?”
“Exactly. Whether you ca from far away or another world, the reasons and experiences of your soul’s traversal are knowledge you cannot bear. Even I would face trendous danger trying to explore it.”
Gorsa narrowed his eyes. “But Saul, if I reach the point where I truly can’t hold out any longer and the resurrection experint still hasn’t succeeded, I may have to risk exploring that dangerous knowledge.”
His aning was clear: if he personally probed Saul’s history, it could cause irreparable harm—even lethal corruption.
So, the choices were: either complete several resurrection experints within ten years, sothing that generations of ntors had failed to do; or uncover the secret of his soul’s uniqueness and replicate it in Yura’s soul; or beco an experintal subject and endure others’ perilous research.
“I might not even have ten years. Master won’t wait until the last mont to start studying my transmigration. His research will take ti. I may only have five years… maybe even three…”
Though Gorsa hadn’t said it outright, Saul knew: as a wizard, one must always maintain a sense of urgency and vigilance.
Faced with such a future, with no options left, Saul felt no resentnt.
The mont he chose to beco a wizard, he had already understood that selection and elimination were the main thes of the Wizard Tower. At the very least, Gorsa had given him the chance to prove himself.
“I understand, Master.” Saul raised his head, eyes burning with awakened fighting spirit. “I’ll give it my all to assist you in completing the resurrection experint.”
Gorsa’s eyes curved again. “Very good. I also promise, during the course of the experints, I’ll ensure all ntors fully support your work. If you complete the experint, or make significant contributions, I will protect your consciousness, not investigate your past, and keep your secrets safe. This is a fair exchange… Heh, not that you have a choice.”
Saul laughed as well. “No reward, Master?”
Gorsa raised his hand again and knocked on the wall beside him. “I already told you at the beginning—if you survive, this Wizard Tower will be yours.”
So that’s what he ant!
A Wizard Tower…
Saul, too, reached out and stroked the rocky wall beside him. For soone like him—without any family or factional backing—it was truly tempting!
Agreent reached!
Even though his identity was already exposed, Saul was still curious—how exactly had Gorsa figured out he was a transmigrator?
If another powerful Second Rank wizard ca along, would they also be able to tell that his soul wasn’t the original one?
He’d been in close contact with Kira before—had she noticed?
What about Kist? Could he have known all along?
If one day he ran into a completely unrelated Second Rank wizard, would he be picked up and thrown straight onto a lab table?
“Master… when did you first realize that my soul didn’t belong to this body? Can others tell as easily?”
“The day you first appeared,” Gorsa’s tone remained gentle, but it sent a chill down Saul’s spine.
Like an early spring breeze—warm at first, but still cold to the bone.
“Th-the first day?”
“At the ti, I was on a night patrol and suddenly saw a boy with a large wound on his head, stumbling around the West Tower.”
“That was you, Saul. You’d only just entered this body then, and your body and soul hadn’t fully synchronized. Heh, now and then I could see your soul leaking out from your body.” Gorsa’s voice carried a hint of amusent, as if he could still recall Saul’s helpless and flustered state just after transmigrating.
(End of Chapter)
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