Chapter 201: An Old Friend (17)

The first thing I felt when I lifted the box was its lightness.

Isaac tilted his head, puzzled. "Too light?"

I was just as confused. It wasn’t like I was showing off my strength. With all my boosted stats, any box shouldn’t feel heavy, no matter what was inside. So, the fact that it felt light was a relative issue. It was lighter than before.

Click!

I opened the box. Inside were twelve one-liter glass bottles, just like in my previous life. But...

Rubia blinked. "They’re completely empty?"

"W-what? What is this?! Why is there nothing inside?!" Isaac shouted in disbelief.

The silvery, magical liquid that used to fill them had disappeared without a trace.

"This makes no sense...! My precious treasure—gone! Where did the apostle’s blood go?! This can’t be happening!"

I was just as shocked. Where the hell had it gone?

"The bottles are pretty... Was something supposed to be in them?" Rubia mumbled, watching Isaac panic.

Something was

definitely

supposed to be in them. In my previous life, all twelve bottles had been filled to the brim with Lurium. And we had gotten here even earlier this time around. It didn’t make sense for someone else to have come and taken them.

Trying to get some information, I casually asked Isaac, "Could Purson’s followers have raided this stash too?"

I didn’t bother mentioning that the order’s protective barrier had already been destroyed.

Isaac shook his beak lightly. "Impossible. If the barrier had been breached, there would’ve been signs. But there’s no evidence anyone entered."

"

Hm

..."

He seemed completely sure. Since he called himself the greatest barrier sorcerer of all time, he probably knew what he was talking about.

Rubia tilted her head and asked, "This box... wasn’t it left here over four hundred years ago?"

"And?"

"Could what was inside have dried up? Or maybe it evaporated?"

I knew that wasn’t the case. Still, curious about Isaac’s answer, I waited silently.

Isaac replied firmly, "The apostle’s blood never changes in quantity. It doesn’t seep into the ground, doesn’t dry, doesn’t evaporate. Besides, it was inside a preservation barrier. There’s no way it just disappeared."

It never changed in quantity? Thanks to Rubia’s question, I learned something important.

"But it decreases when you use magic."

I remembered entering the order last time, blowing apart massive rocks using it.

Isaac immediately countered, "That was from overuse, wasn’t it?"

Fair enough.

"You’re using Lurium to exert power you normally couldn’t."

"..."

"It only evaporates when used as a transformative reagent. It won’t change if it's preserved properly."

It didn’t change. Something clicked in my mind.

Could it be... that even across regressions, it doesn’t reset?

"..."

I decided not to voice that thought. I didn’t want to reveal too much to Isaac just yet.

"So then..." Isaac briefly lowered his head. "Where the hell did it go?!"

I looked up again, baffled. Where did it go, indeed? Three of the bottles had been used by me. One had been used to promote Rena to the position of T&T branch chief.

Suddenly, I wondered to myself, what about the other eight? Where could they be? I tried to remember where he had left the rest of the Lurium. I hadn’t carried them...

Rena! I had definitely entrusted them to her. That meant, in this timeline all eight bottles were with her. Then what was she doing with them? How was she keeping them? I couldn’t even begin to guess.

Transformative reagent...

That phrase kept echoing in his mind. I had become this powerful with just three bottles. What kind of change did eight bottles bring to Rena? Perhaps, she had become something far more than just a T&T branch chief.

"Isaac."

The bird, still stunned, responded, "What."

"Do you know just how important Lurium is?"

"It’s the foundation and source of the current imperial family’s power."

"The imperial family’s power source...?"

"Seiron obtained it by slaughtering the apostles. He tore them apart and stole their blood. It’s raw power, nothing more, nothing less."

"And where does the imperial family store it?"

"Probably in their inner sanctum. Even I don’t know the exact location. Don’t think of stealing it. You’d need at least five lives."

"!"

Suddenly, an idea struck. A way to influence the imperial palace, something I thought was impossible. Even if it cost more than five lives, I could alter the location of the so-called apostle’s blood.

If I could just do that, I could reshape the power balance and start over again. Just like I had changed Rena’s fate. Just like I had erased her name from the records. Maybe, I could slowly alter the very wheel of the world. I couldn’t even get near the palace right now, but this was a massive clue.

Thunk.

Isaac tapped his beak against the wall with a sigh. "In that case... we’re going to the ruins of Kevin Ashton."

"The ruins of Ashton?"

"Yeah. There’s a site I’ve always been suspicious of. You might be able to see something I can’t. Let’s go."

Rubia cut in. "What do you mean, see something that Mr. Skeleton can see?"

"Well..."

Should I explain the status window? I didn’t hesitate long. Isaac knew about it already, so there was no reason to hide it from Rubia.

A translucent screen that floated in the air. Various pieces of information about myself displayed there.

"These values appear before me," I said calmly.

Rubia’s expression shifted strangely as she looked at me. What she said next completely blindsided both Isaac and me.

"Oh my gosh... I’ve never met anyone else who can see screens like I do!"

***

Isaac stumbled back a few steps, looking as though he might faint.

"W-what did you say...?"

"I can see my own stats. I can also check my skills and everything."

He wasn’t acting—he was utterly thrown off. Just like when he’d been sealed by a cursed backlash in a tomb, he truly couldn’t accept what he was hearing. Honestly, I was just as surprised.

"When did you start seeing them?"

"Since I was a kid. I told my father once, but he told me not to mention it to anyone. He said people might think I was strange."

Since childhood...?

Even the past had changed. When we had first met in the previous life, she hadn’t said anything like this. Most likely, this phenomenon had been caused by repeated regressions. Rena, too, had started perceiving the window at some point.

Does the likelihood of seeing the status window increase the deeper someone gets involved with me?

"This is absurd..." Isaac muttered.

I turned and asked, "So, it’s not just that only people from your era couldn’t see the window, right?"

Both Rubia and Isaac shook their heads.

"No. My father said he’d never heard of anything like that either."

"That’s nonsense. I’ve shared the sight of every Chandler family head throughout the generations... I’ve watched humans in real time. There’s never been anyone like you two. This can’t just be a coincidence..." Isaac paused, then said, "One of you must’ve had a significant influence on the other."

As expected, he was quick to catch on. I was looking at him with a more suspicious gaze now. Still, Rubia’s claim of having seen it since childhood had shaken him.

Rubia tilted her head, puzzled. "Is that so?"

"One thing’s certain...

Heh

. If I keep following you two, I might eventually see the holes in the world myself."

That didn’t sound good. More than Rubia, I felt like Isaac’s attention was fixed on me.

Curious about Rubia’s status window, I asked her a few things. As expected, she could only view information about herself. She seemed to be able to perceive the window about as much as I could in my first life.

I wondered how she’d change going forward, but for now, I changed the subject. "You mentioned the ruins of Kevin Ashton earlier."

"Yes. It’s the most likely place nearby where Lurium might be stored."

Lurium, huh.

"So in the end, you’re planning to recharge your mana."

"

Hmph.

And don’t you need to charge your titan sniper? Don’t you want to try that weapon at least once?"

"Maybe."

It was a weapon powered by magitech. I couldn’t deny I was a little curious. Still, right now, I was far more interested in the silver liquid that powered it.

"Just follow me."

Flutter!

Isaac seemed to have recovered a bit, rising into the air again.

Rubia called out to him as he ascended, "Are you going to leave the remains in the tower like that?"

"Don’t worry about it. Once I’ve recovered my strength... I’ll personally gather them all."

Just like before. It seemed his personality hadn’t changed. However, he didn’t say anything about restoring the order’s protective barrier this time. Maybe the situation was simply different now compared to when Rena had been here. Isaac’s wings, flapping as he left the order grounds, appeared oddly lonely.

***

A few hours later, we headed south. Isaac had led us to a strange place not long after we set off.

"A waterfall... I had no idea something like this existed out here."

Rooooaaar...

"

Aah

..."

Rubia stood blankly, staring at the expansive view beneath the falls. It truly was a beautiful sight. Still, where were we? I had never been to this location before. Following Isaac’s instructions, we’d moved according to some strange set of rules, and a space had appeared before us like an illusion.

"What are you getting all impressed for? Let’s move!"

Flutter!

Isaac flew straight down the cliff. And what were

we

supposed to do? Going down with the horse was out of the question... Looks like it was time to run on our own feet.

"Rubia."

"Yes?"

"We’re flying."

"Whaaaaat?!"

Thud!

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

I picked Rubia up and landed directly at the bottom of the cliff. Her face had gone pale.

"You okay?"

I made sure to minimize the shock, enough that even a newborn would’ve been fine. She covered her face with both hands.

"I—I made such a weird... noise..."

Flutter!

Isaac flapped his wings heavily nearby.

"No time to mess around. Smell the air."

Smell?

Cradled in my arms, Rubia put on a serious expression. "Is that the smell of blood?"