Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Lumian couldn’t help but suppress his laughter at the name of the Curly-Haired Baboons Research Society, but he managed to hold it in.

But even if he held it in, he couldn’t help but say, “Those who know will understand that you’re studying curly-haired baboons. Those who don’t know will think that a group of curly-haired baboons are doing research.”

Of course, he was only joking.

Aurore rolled her eyes at him. “We often tease ourselves as a group of curly-haired baboons being studied.”

Seeing that his sister was in a better mood, Lumian asked, “Are all the members of your research society Beyonders?”

“Not all of them,” Aurore answered briefly. “But some gatherings can’t be attended by ordinary people.”

She didn’t say why they couldn’t participate.

“Who’s the president? How many vice presidents are there?” Lumian asked.

“Are you doing a census?” Aurore snapped back.

“Huh?” Lumian was confused.

Lumian was confused and realized that Aurore didn’t like him asking too many questions about the Curly-Haired Baboons Research Society.

Aurore pouted and exhaled.

“The president’s code name is Gandalf. There are a total of five vice presidents.

“Alright, I’m going to summon Hela’s messenger.”

Lumian was puzzled and asked, “Aurore, uh, Grande Soeur, didn’t you say that you only know the code name ‘Hela’ and don’t know her exact name? How are you going to summon her messenger?”

He remembered that his sister had just mentioned that by changing the last sentence of the summoning incantation to “the messenger that belongs to so-and-so”, he could very accurately pinpoint the target creature. However, she didn’t know who “so-and-so” was.

“Excellent,” Aurore praised him and said, “to be able to discover the problem is an excellent learning quality. Let’s put it this way. It doesn’t matter what name you use when you sign a contract with a spirit world creature. The contract will automatically extract a bit of your true aura from you, allowing the two parties to be related. However, remember, you can only use the name written when you sign the contract in the future. Changing it to your real name will be ineffective.”

Lumian pondered seriously and said, “Got it. The key is the aura and connection. The name when signing the contract is only equivalent to the incantation used for the subsequent summoning. It doesn’t matter what you write.”

“Yes.” Aurore nodded.

Lumian suddenly laughed.

“Is there such a situation? Let me say hypothetically. Grande Soeur, you obtained an exact incantation and summoned a messenger. You signed a contract with it in the name of Aurore Lee. After that, you taught me that incantation because you loved your younger brother, which is me. As for me, I successfully summoned another messenger. However, when signing the contract, I used Aurore Lee’s name to sign it for fun.

“Then the question is, which one will be summoned with the description of ‘the messenger that belongs to Aurore Lee’?”

Aurore’s face turned livid. “I don’t have a messenger. How would I know!”

She exhaled and calmed herself down.

“This is actually a confusion caused by having the same name. Compared to ordinary contracted creatures that can only be summoned by oneself, it’s indeed easy for a messenger that can be summoned by others to have such problems. However, because I don’t have a messenger, I’m not sure if there’s a special mechanism to avoid such mistakes. I can only use my knowledge to attempt an analysis.

“First, very few people have a messenger. The probability of having the same name is so low that it’s almost negligible.

“Second, if there’s an overlap in names, you can place an item with the messenger’s owner’s aura in the summoning ritual and use it to accurately lock onto them.

“Third, if you’re really afraid of having the same name, you can make your name longer when signing a contract. For example, Lumian Torres Arri Lanos Arthur Gehrman Sparrow Lee. That way, you probably won’t have the same name.”

“But it’s very likely that I’ll forget this name after signing the contract. It’s too difficult to remember,” Lumian muttered. “Also, why did you add the name of the Pirate Hunter and Great Adventurer?”

“Because I like it. Madam Fors Wall’s adventurer series is a classic,” Aurore said confidently.

She turned around and tidied up the altar, preparing to officially hold the summoning ritual.

At that moment, Lumian thought of something and shouted, “Wait a minute!”

“What’s wrong?” Aurore turned around, looking confused.

Lumian asked seriously, “Does the messenger count as an outsider?”

“…” Aurore was confused at first, but quickly figured out the problem.

She deliberated and asked, “You mean that as an outsider, the messenger will fall into a cycle after coming to Cordu and won’t be able to leave?”

Without waiting for Lumian’s reply, Aurore came up with a new theory.

“No, the situation will be worse. It’s a contracted creature. After receiving the letter, it will immediately go to Hela. It’s equivalent to leaving Cordu. That will cause a restart.

“After that, it will instinctively attempt to leave again and again, while we restart again and again. We won’t have time to investigate the key to the loop.”

Lumian couldn’t help but imagine the scene his sister had described.

Just as he opened his eyes to see his familiar bedroom, he would open his eyes again to see the familiar bedroom. Only to open his eyes again to see the familiar bedroom… He would repeat this action countless times, and the root cause of this was that a certain messenger was in a hurry to “go home.”

Aurore raised her hand to cover her forehead.

“I can’t even imagine what kind of changes will happen then…”

After sighing, she analyzed seriously, “From the current situation, the departure of living things from Cordu and the surrounding area will cause the loop to restart, and inanimate objects won’t trigger the restrictions. The telegram and the letter that were sent are proof.

“If that’s the case, spirits definitely won’t do either. From the looks of it, I can’t summon the messenger.”

Lumian suddenly figured out why the livre bleu could maintain its state of having its words cut out.

The pieced together notes had left Cordu, making it no longer affected. Since it couldn’t return, it naturally couldn’t return to its original state!

He shared his speculation with his sister and asked, “The problem with livre bleu has been solved, but how did that letter get sent?

“There’s definitely no way to send it out during the loop. The moment the messenger leaves Cordu, it will cause a reboot. And if it’s before the loop, I have no impression of it. What about you?”

“Neither do I,” Aurore thought for a few seconds before jokingly scolding, “You idiot, you almost led me astray. It’s easy to send the letter in a loop!”

Lumian looked at his smart sister and asked, “Huh?”

Aurore chuckled before explaining, “There’s no need for a postman to send the letter, nor is there a need to hire a messenger.

“When we discover an abnormality and don’t want to alarm those who might be problematic, the best choice is to find a wooden box and place the distress letter inside. After sealing it, we will throw the wooden box into the river outside the village and let it float downstream naturally. When the other villages and even the people of Dariège pick it up, they will help us deliver it to the officials.

“You said that our last cycle confirmed that the loop contains a small portion of the river that can be reached.”

...

“That’s right!” Lumian exclaimed, pressing his palms together.

He thought of another question.

“Will the fish in the river cause a reboot?”

“I don’t think so,” Aurore replied after thinking for a moment. “These creatures without any intelligence are very sensitive to invisible restrictions. Or rather, they’re more prone to invisible influences. There’s a high chance that they’ll instinctively stay away from places that might cause a reboot.”

“What about your White Paper? It has no choice but to leave the real world after twelve hours.” Lumian felt that this would also restart the cycle.

Aurore looked around and said thoughtfully, “I suspect that the loop not only includes Cordu and the surrounding mountainous areas but also the area that corresponds to everyone here in the spirit world.

“You probably don’t know that there are actually more natural interactions between the spirit world and reality. If you don’t include the corresponding spirit world, it might restart every now and then, but the current situation is clearly different.

“As my contracted creature, White Paper has a direct connection with Cordu. The spirit world it roams is most likely included.”

I still don’t know enough about mysticism… Lumian didn’t ask further.

Aurore demonstrated the ritualistic magic process again and dispelled the wall of spirituality.

In the formless wind that suddenly blew, she said to Lumian, “It’s already dark. I’ll teach you true Cogitation and the way to activate Spirit Vision.”

...

“Okay!” Lumian replied, showing that he had his sister’s full attention.

Aurore explained, “You’ve long grasped the first half of Cogitation. Let’s start from the second half. When you imagine the Sun, retract your spirit and enter a relatively calm state. Let your mind be slightly empty. Draw an outline of something that doesn’t exist in reality to replace the Sun. Keep drawing and repeating until your body and mind obtain peace. Your thoughts will have a feeling that they are floating.”

Lumian didn’t quite understand. “Something that doesn’t exist in reality?”

Aurore took out a pen and paper and drew a few strokes. “Look, is there anything like this in reality?” The paper had something very abstract on it, like a ball with eyes and a cross on its face. “Doesn’t it exist once you draw it? This drawing is in reality.”

Lumian felt that her sister’s explanation was wrong. “Pictures and imaginations aren’t real.”

Aurore rolled her eyes. As her younger brother’s teacher, she had to suffer this kind of anger often. Lumian acknowledged her comment tersely. “Then I’ll try using this picture of yours.” He pulled up a chair and sat down. He leaned back and focused.

The crimson sun quickly outlined itself in his mind, gradually calming him down. After a while, because he was in reality, he did not hear the terrifying and mysterious voice. He could calmly use the pattern that his sister had casually drawn to replace the Sun in Cogitation. The ball with eyes and a cross quickly appeared in Lumian’s mind. As Lumian repeatedly outlined it, his body and heart became more and more peaceful, and his thoughts gradually felt ethereal.

He “saw” that there was a faint gray fog around him. There were many indescribable, non-existent things, and dense colored blocks mixed together. And high in the sky, perhaps deep in the depths, there was a clear light.

“There’s no hurry. The probability of a Hunter succeeding in Cogitation on their first try is very low,” Aurore consoled her brother.

Just as Lumian was about to report to his sister that he had successfully entered a Cogitation state, he suddenly felt something watching him from the depths of the gray fog and an infinite height! This seemed to be an illusion, but it made him break out in a cold sweat. He felt an inexplicable fear and immediately left the Cogitation state.