After Catherine and Jacob left Bruce and returned to the eting venue, ti passed until the short hand of the clock turned another full circle.
It was now noon and everyone was exhausted, but Asley — and only Asley — still held his pen and kept on writing.
“…He’s not normal.”
Barun threw himself down on the floor and flung a sarcastic remark toward Asley.
“I-I think the room is starting to stink…”
Amil said, gazing up at the ceiling.
“Amil, don’t bring that up… I’m starting to sll it too…”
Natasha struggled to hold herself up with sheer willpower, but in the end, she succumbed, collapsing onto the floor.
In the midst of this, a faint sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.
Then, with a soft slide, the door was pushed open, revealing Irene with a stern expression.
“…Seriously? Are you all idiots?”
No one could muster a response. Irene’s accusation of idiocy left no room for argunt.
After all…
“This is what you get when you don’t listen to ! There are very few people in this world who can keep up with Asley — In fact, you could even say there aren’t any! But you all just wouldn’t listen! All I said was to ‘take breaks’ — was that so hard!?”
Indeed, they had remained here all this ti, driven by Asley’s passion.
The only ones who had taken breaks were those who knew Asley well — Warren and Irene — as well as Dragan and Tangalán, who had been forced to leave their University students behind.
“I never imagined he would last this long…”
Russel, lying on his back, spoke wearily.
“Sotis, it’s just more efficient when you take breaks. Well, that doesn’t apply to him, I guess…”
Irene’s gaze remained fixed on Asley, who was still engrossed in his papers.
“The concept of Magic Point Reduction is essentially derived from activating the movent of arcane energy that naturally dissipates throughout everyday life. So what would happen if one were to disrupt this regular pattern? By disrupting the surrounding environnt, wouldn’t it lead to an eventual intensification of the flow of arcane energy? What if we incorporate a formula that applies pressure from the surroundings onto this spell? In doing so, the efficiency of arcane energy consumption would increase approximately fivefold… Yeah, that could work. Let’s integrate this refined Demonic Acceleration magecraft into it. If I manage to strike Lucifer even once directly, I won’t even need layered casting — once the Spell Circle is in place, all I’ll need to do is infuse it with arcane energy… But how do I do THAT?”
Just as Asley’s thoughts ca to a halt, Irene interjected to assist him,
“Why not embed a formula for energy collection into the Spell Circle itself?”
“That’s it!”
Once again, Asley’s pen resud its motion.
“Okay, this had enough power to work. With this, Lucifer won’t detect the presence of this spell. Still, even with energy collection, the invocation would still require manual effort. Am I the one who has to do it, then? Wait, no, that’s impossible. Even if I use the Instant Transmission spell to dodge Lucifer’s attacks while executing this highly complex spell with manual drawing, it would likely be countered at so point. Even if I manage to implant the Spell Circle without Lucifer noticing, once manually invoked, he’ll catch on… What should I do?”
Once more, Asley’s thoughts ca to a halt.
“Can’t it be made to invoke automatically?”
Irene asked.
“I had to spare as much space as possible for the Spell Circle’s main functions, so incorporating an automatic invocation formula turned out to be… pretty much impossible. I thought manual invocation would do the trick just fine, you see, but I guess it’s not so simple in the end…”
“There is only one alternative worth considering.”
Warren appeared from behind Irene.
“And what would that be?”
“Instead of manual invocation, why not opt for authentication-based invocation? Upon calculation, the information load for authentication-based invocation is similar to that of the manual invocation formula. However…”
“Oh! That ans even soone other than could do it!”
In the midst of Warren’s explanation, Asley’s pen resud its movent, yet Irene’s expression remained grim.
“You’re talking about an incredibly advanced form of Circle drawing that even you would find difficult to invoke, right? Who in the world could pull it off?”
Facing Irene’s stern gaze, Asley’s eyes widened in realization.
“Uh… Tūs, I guess?”
“We probably cannot rely on him — not in the state he’s in. Perhaps he can manage with a simple Spell Circle, but securing the to morize and learn an exceedingly advanced Circle, especially amidst the impending war for the survival of humanity… if you ask , the chances seem quite low.”
“A simple Spell Circle…! That’s it, Warren!”
As realization dawned upon Asley, his pen resud its swift dance.
And when it was finally completed, Asley halted his writing, collapsed on the spot, and descended to dreamland like a weary traveler.
Irene picked up the paper that had slipped from Asley’s hand, while Warren peered over her shoulder.
Their expressions stiffened simultaneously. Shortly thereafter, both of them felt a shiver run down their spines.
“What in the world…”
“He totally struck gold in the heat of the mont — no way any of this was intentional. It’s Asley, after all.”
“No, Miss Irene. There is no other way to describe this except that it was destined to happen.”
Irene gazed incredulously at the soundly sleeping Asley, while Warren cracked a smile.
“Leave the rest to us, Asley.”
“We’ll definitely make this work!”
With that, Irene and Warren departed, taking the papers with them.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
“Oh, you’re finally awake!”
The voice entered Asley’s right ear — a familiar voice that he had shared centuries with, the voice of his closest friend.
“Oh, it’s just you… Man, feels like I haven’t heard your voice in days…”
Asley murmured, rubbing his eyes as he spoke.
“Master!”
In response, Pochi suddenly let out a loud exclamation.
“Huh?”
“You STINK!!”
“And you’re saying that right after I wake up!?”
Asley rose from his bed and pointed at Pochi.
“Hurry up and go take a bath, sir!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know!”
Grumbling to himself how everything he would say to Pochi would fall upon deaf ears, Asley left his room and headed towards the bath.
However, on the way, he was struck with a certain realization.
(…Strange. Nobody else seems to be in the mansion…? Pochi is the only source of arcane energy I’m sensing… But then again, countless streams of arcane energy are converging in the direction of the magic classroom. Tūs and Lina are there too. Actually, no, everyone I know seems to be there…? …What the hell are they doing behind my back? …Hmm? Co to think of it, what was I doing? Hmm? All the forr Duodecad mbers gathered, and then… what were we even talking about? Ugh, can’t rember!)
As Asley subrged himself in the bath and gazed at the night sky, his consciousness slipped away once again.
After a while, a shadow crept towards the dozing Asley in the bath.
“A hehehe,” a chuckle reached Asley’s ears. Just as he blinked his groggy eyes open, scalding water hit his face, the sensation intense and shocking.
“Bwah–!?”
“HAHAHA! Hey there, Asley! You awake yet!?”
The party boy of Team Silver — known by most others as Bruce — stood in a triumphant pose before Asley with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“…Pfft! Man, what’d you do that for, Bruce?”
Rubbing his face with his palm to wipe off the water, Asley finally noticed who it was.
“Everyone else’s gonna be here in a bit.”
Bruce pointed towards the entrance of the bathhouse with his thumb.
“Well, maybe I should get out now, then…”
As Asley tried to stand up, Bruce raised his hand to stop him.
“Easy there, man. I’ve already washed up, so how about we have a little chat while soaking in the bath like real n, eh?”
“Huh? Have we EVER had anything worthwhile to chat about?”
With a look of annoyance, Asley responded, causing Bruce to panic.
“N-no, no, wait! Haruhana, Natsu, and Fuyu are gonna be here too, you know?”
“Well, yeah, I guess that’s… good for them?”
Asley nodded, and Bruce’s spirits lifted. He continued as if suddenly rembering sothing,
“Speaking of Haruhana, I just t her on my way back, actually. Pochi told her you were in here, and then all hell broke loose!”
“Why?”
Asley tilted his head.
“Well, Haruhana straight up said she’d hurry here so that she’d get to wash your back for you! Hahahahahaha!!”
“……Huh? Why would she want to do that?”
Asley tilted his head again, prompting Bruce to facepalm.
“Dude, seriously?”
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