Ch.10095 – A Clue

“Why… why did you do that!”

Haru slammed her bottom onto the soft impact-absorbing material, venting her frustration.

The brilliant fantasy was now completely gone without a trace.

In the starless night sky, only the chirping sounds of insects echoed through the empty playground.

“Why did you end the magic on your own, why…! I didn’t even get to finish talking with mom!”

She pounded the ground with her tiny palms.

I told her she’d only hurt her hands that way as I helped Haru back to her feet.

“It’s time to return to reality.”

“No, I don’t want to go.”

“It gets chilly at night, you might catch a cold.”

“No, I said no!”

First, I needed to take my friends back home.

Haru threw a tantrum, refusing to leave the playground.

“I think I can fix your eyes.”

“…! Even the doctor couldn’t fix them, how could you possibly…”

“Remember when I used aura on you before and you said you saw colors briefly? I know how now.”

Though she still looked doubtful, Haru willingly took my hand.

We didn’t say anything until we reached my front door.

Occasionally, I could hear labored breathing from beside me.

While I could proudly say my stamina wasn’t great, Haru’s was even worse than mine.

Haru’s inability to distinguish colors wasn’t simply due to the shock of losing her mother.

Although I couldn’t bring it back since it was formed inside the Alchemist, the pill Haru had received clearly emitted magical wavelengths similar to those used in “black magic.”

If this was true, and if her mother had given it to her knowingly, then her mother couldn’t possibly be considered someone of sound mind.

Back in my room, I sat Haru on the bed.

Then I pulled Yuna’s chair from my desk to the bedside so Haru could face her.

“Lee Haru, what color does Yuna’s hair look right now?”

“Gray… no, black…? No, gray…”

Yuna’s hair was still unchanged, bright red strands.

There seemed to be a problem with her eyes.

“Close your eyes. Raise your right hand if it hurts.”

I wiped away the moisture flowing from her swollen eyes and covered them with my palm, letting my innate aura flow. However, I planned to use it differently than last time.

“Ah… it hurts…!”

Haru immediately grabbed my wrist, groaning in pain.

“It hurts? Where and how does it hurt?”

“Hic… I don’t know. NoName, I’m scared… can’t you stop? My head hurts so much…”

What I was doing now was simply a purification procedure using aura.

There shouldn’t be any element in this process that could cause pain.

Haru’s right hand trembled as she consistently complained of pain.

I firmly held Haru’s hand. I couldn’t stop here.

This certainly couldn’t rule out the possibility of black magic.

However, black magic couldn’t exist in its complete form in this world.

As long as there’s a “storage” stage that calls mana from another dimension, magic couldn’t be cast through simple methods like human sacrifice.

The remaining possibility was that magic was used indirectly through “engraving,” like when I previously transformed a pen into an atomizer.

Did they engrave a magic circle on the pill itself and activate it through internal absorption?

[3rd Circle Reverse Casting: Engraving Release]

Just in case, I cast a spell to extract the engraved magic circle in reverse.

Then, wriggling black characters and formulas crawled up my hand from Haru’s eyes like snakes.

A tingling sensation rushed through me as my right arm filled with runes and distorted circles, like a tattoo.

I barely managed to contain it with my aura, preventing it from spreading throughout my body.

As I was sighing with relief,

“What on earth is this?”

Yuna asked me in surprise.

“Engraving magic. The content seems to be… 6th Circle thought acceleration.”

Did Haru’s mother feed her this thinking it was simply a pill to make her smarter?

It was frustrating not being able to confirm the truth.

* * *

I laid Haru down on my bed and asked Yuna to look after her for a while.

I needed to go and break down the engraving formula temporarily stored in my arm before it disappeared.

“If Haru wakes up, please come tell me.”

“Haru isn’t seriously ill or anything, right?”

“No, I’ve treated everything, so don’t worry too much.”

The reason why Haru couldn’t see colors or heard hallucinations was simple.

Her brain was overloaded because high-level circle magic unsuitable for her young age had been placed inside her.

The former was a case where her brain lacked the necessary regions for information processing, so it invaded other sensory organs, and the latter was a case of brain wave interference.

Haru’s internal balance was severely disrupted due to continuous exposure to unrefined mana not purified by the Aura Heart.

So the first step of purification I performed was removing mana impurities using Haru’s Aura Heart, and the second step was completely removing the engraving formula and temporarily infusing my aura.

While Haru slept, my aura would circulate from her head to her toes, restoring organs that hadn’t been functioning properly.

Click-

With the sound of the bathroom door closing, I stood in front of the sink mirror, staring at myself.

My hair was really long.

Despite Hiasen’s careful haircut, everything returned to its original state when the illusion magic was dispelled.

This is why I didn’t want to cut it…

Anyway, that wasn’t the issue. I decided to release the formula first.

Since this was a procedure I had done countless times before, I didn’t need to close my eyes to concentrate.

As golden aura flowed out, the runic character combinations in my arm began to fluctuate.

Aura. A probability-superimposed substance derived from mana.

Just as our blood replenishes oxygen through the lungs, mana is also transformed through the Aura Heart to receive brain wave signals.

In other words, the most appropriate summary of aura would be “controllable artificial hormones.”

The difference from ordinary hormones is that aura encompasses the concept of continuous hormone secretion.

For example, if thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) stimulates thyroxine secretion, and thyroxine then promotes metabolism, aura skips this and makes it all one step.

However, since aura is merely a concept derived from mana, it’s not a physically existing substance.

It only makes inactive hormones already in the human body form groups to appear as if new hormones have been created, but it doesn’t create something from nothing.

In other words, it could make someone run 100m in 10 seconds, but humans couldn’t be faster than cheetahs or Ferraris.

Of course, if one’s ability to handle aura is extremely exceptional, it might be possible to emit it externally over short distances, but I’ll exclude that from this discussion.

Honestly, it’s my personal opinion, but I think humans being born with an Aura Heart is as miraculous as dragons being able to use dragon language.

Even though the limitations are clear, the ability to strengthen the body without permanent side effects or costs is already an incredible blessing in itself.

Who said human greed has no end?

Aura is easy to apply but has clear limitations. Conversely, mana is difficult to handle but has endless possibilities.

Therefore, people who wanted to use mana in the same way as aura emerged everywhere, and some even sacrificed their lives for it.

Magic that activates automatically without understanding the principles—we once called it “black magic” in slang.

It seemed like it would take some time, perhaps because the same magic was layered multiple times. Removing a tattoo is such a difficult task.

The engraving formulas extracted from Haru’s head were all results of black magic gradually injected into her.

Engraving magic, being the only magic successfully mass-produced worldwide, is used more in factories than on people.

Therefore, if the magic contained in this pill wasn’t cast by a human, I could obtain useful information by decrypting the caster’s code.

The decryption process was similar to dispelling.

However, the more challenging aspect was that while dispelling simply aims to make the sum of magical flows “0” by any means, regardless of dynamic or static equilibrium, decryption only follows the static equilibrium procedure.

So, like untangling a knotted thread one by one, I released the formula by performing all casting processes in reverse order.

Decryption is the reverse of magic recording. Therefore, the “subject,” which should be written first when recording a magic circle, was the last character to remain.

The Korean Magical Power Plant can levy taxes on individuals because they have the technology to decrypt the “subject” obtained from the “storage” process.

“This is…”

When all the unsightly tattoos disappeared and only one character remained on the back of my hand, I couldn’t help but bite my lip.

[Walpurgis]

In that moment, a thousand thoughts flashed through my mind.

‘Why is this appearing here?’

Is it just a coincidence? It’s not even certain if it’s genuine. Unlike casters, machine subjects’ naming conventions depend on the user.

But I couldn’t shake off this sticky sense of discomfort.

My heart was racing uncontrollably.

Why would those who manufacture illegal drugs while maintaining 6th Circle magic, which isn’t even permitted for ordinary people, set the subject of the engraving as “Walpurgis” of all things?

Is it really their involvement? Or did they just use the name for convenience since it was a group that was eradicated in the past?

While confusing hypotheses swirled in my head, I heard a knock.

Knock knock-

“Hey NoName, are you still in there?”

For now, I’ll keep this secret from the children.

I still have very little information to work with.

[1st Circle Casting: Clean]

After completely erasing the last remaining character, I greeted Yuna with a bright face.