Magician in Type-Moon

Page 582

His gaze seemed to pierce through the artificial starry sky before him, reaching into the distant past, to the benefactor who had given him new life and direction.

“He brought up some interesting topics when he talked about it.”

Matouchi raised a finger.

Matouchi's narrative rhythm suddenly changes, with his raised index finger acting as a pointer to guide attention.

He caught the seemingly unrelated but actually crucial episode in Dr. Gulot's narrative.

"The doctor said that he had a strange illness when he was hiding you, which caused him to lose his sight intermittently."

Dr. Gulot did indeed say that.

A striking detail: During his time sheltering Hartres, the doctor himself contracted a strange illness—

Intermittent blindness. The timing and symptoms of this condition are both eerie.

"However, it is said that the strange illness will be cured after you touch him."

The turning point came.

A simple touch, a touch from the sheltered Hartres, became the cure for this strange illness.

This is no ordinary medical miracle; it must contain a power that transcends common sense.

"........."

This time, Hartres's expression wavered for the first time.

If mentioning Glot had only slightly startled him, this specific detail about "healing blindness through touch" truly shook his unfathomable calm.

His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, his lips tightened slightly, and an indescribable light flashed in his deep eyes—perhaps surprise at being completely seen through?

Seizing this fleeting moment of hesitation, Matou Ike's words struck like a drawn blade, hitting the nail on the head:

"Isn't this the superpower you 'gained from the spirits'?"

The words swayed in the air.

"Disappearance"—that mysterious event in which Hartres vanished and then returned, bringing with him a "supernatural ability" whose details were unknown to anyone.

Matou Ike directly attributed Dr. Grote's strange illness and bizarre cure to this supernatural ability!

He interpreted that touch as an unconscious or passive activation of his supernatural ability, the effect of which was healing.

"It is common knowledge in the Clock Tower that you once gained some kind of supernatural ability through divine intervention. However, no one knows the details of that ability."

Matou Ike clarified the background: the existence of supernatural abilities is an open secret, but their essence is the deepest mystery.

"Lord Norwich, who adopted you, may know, but for whatever reason, he wouldn't reveal any information that would be detrimental to his adopted son."

He analyzed the only possible person in the know—Hartles' adoptive father, Lord Norwich, the founder of the modern magic department.

But given Lord Norwich's noble character and his love for his adopted son, he would never become a source of leaks.

"...Yes, that's just how Lord Norwich is."

Faced with Matou Ike's analysis of Norwich's character, Hartres finally spoke again, his voice low and filled with deep respect.

He nodded slightly, tacitly agreeing with Matou Ike's judgment. This recognition of his adoptive father's character was itself a form of affirmation of Matou Ike's logical reasoning.

Lord Norwich, from whom the name of the modern magic department originated, seems to have a character noble enough to earn the approval of these two men.

Chapter 618 The Predestined Circle (4k)

That shared respect for Lord Norwich was like a brief beam of light across a deep pool, quickly replaced by more obscure and profound topics.

Matouchi's gaze refocused, sharp as ever.

He did not dwell on reminiscing about the wise men of the past; time was relentlessly passing, and he had to get to the heart of the matter.

"Legend has it that children taken away by the gods receive both blessings and curses," Matou Ike's voice was deep and clear as he quoted the ancient legend.

“But what he received was not a blessing, but a pure curse.” This assertion set the tone for the nature of Hartres’s supernatural ability—not a gift, but a calamity.

"The doctor said that no matter what machine they use to test you, they can't find your heart."

He recounted Dr. Gulot's chilling discovery. Modern medicine, and even magical detection methods, could not detect any trace of the beating heart within Hartrace's chest.

This is by no means a simple physiological abnormality, but rather a distortion that touches upon the very essence of existence.

"Where the lost heart is located, there probably exists some kind of rift-like alternate dimension that can be manipulated like imaginary magic, right?"

Matouike's speculation was bold yet accurate.

He deduced that the “empty” space in the heart was not nothingness, but rather maintained by a heterogeneous existence, like a spatial rift, related to the concept of “imaginary numbers.”

This crack is the source of his superpower, a core that can be manipulated as the highest-level "imaginary magic"!

"Correct answer."

The red-haired magician nodded frankly, a bitter smile that was almost self-deprecating even appearing on his face.

This insight has clearly touched upon his deepest secrets.

"Haha, so I almost die every time I use it."

Hartres suddenly laughed, but there was no joy in his laughter, only a deep pain and a sense of absurdity.

"It's like cutting open your heart."

He used the most vivid metaphor to describe the price of using this power—each time it was used, it was like personally stabbing an invisible blade into the void rift that sustained life, bringing excruciating pain on the verge of death.

"Your name is Heartless, yet you have to experience the pain of a ruptured heart. Don't you think that makes no sense?"

He pointed to the irony of his own name—Heartless.

A person who has lost their heart must repeatedly endure the extreme pain of their "heart" rupturing. This cruel twist of fate is filled with suffocating dark humor.

Matou Ike took a breath and continued:

Faced with Hartles's candid and painful confession, Matou Ike remained calm, but his slightly adjusted breathing revealed that he was under tremendous cognitive load and mental pressure.

Time was of the essence; he had to push forward to the final answer to the mystery.

"There's only half an hour left. Let's get back to our original topic."

He mostly uses magic circuits to keep track of time.

A precise sense of time, down to the second, is a fundamental skill for magicians.

The intricate magic circuits within Matou Ike's body are his built-in countdown timer.

"Aozaki Touko also saw through it during the Grand Order decision. Kuro's ability to discover the crack in Albion is probably the result of the Mystic Eyes of the Adashino family being synchronized with the eyes of the deceased dragon."

He revived Kuro's (Kuro Adashino's) abilities.

Kuro's magical eyes, capable of detecting the cracks in the Spirit Tomb Albion, are essentially the magical eyes inherited from the Adashino family, and they resonate in a mysterious way with the eyes of the ancient dragon remains that fell deep within the Spirit Tomb.

It is this harmony that gives Kuro his unique perspective to see the gaps in space.

“That’s right. Your Mystic Eyes of Usurpation and these Synchro Mystic Eyes, although they have been altered due to the disappearance of the gods, are basically the same ability.”

Matou Ike made a startling statement!

He directly equated Hartres's terrifying Mystic Eye, which originated from the spirits and could usurp power, with Kuro's Mystic Eye, which was based on bloodline and dragon bones and was called "Ripple Discovery"!

Although the disappearance incident caused Hartres's magical eyes to "change," its fundamental essence—the ability to perceive and interfere with the "cracks" in the concept of space—is the same!

“It took me quite a while to become certain. In fact, I only came to this conclusion after infiltrating Albion.”

He frankly admitted the difficulty of the reasoning and the crucial turning point.

Only by personally stepping into the spirit tomb Albion, feeling the pervasive spatial anomaly, and tracing back the deep connection between Hartres and Kuro's abilities, could this astonishing consistency be finally confirmed.

"El-Melloi II said in the Grand Order that the current Hartres is his disciple Curo in disguise. This statement is not wrong, but it is not accurate."

Matou Ike made a seemingly contradictory statement.

El-Melloi II's speculation captured the superficial connections and touched upon part of the truth, but failed to grasp the more distorted and essential form beneath.

"........."

Hartres remained silent, with a smile on his face.

This time, Hartres did not respond immediately. He simply maintained that enigmatic smile, his eyes beneath his red hair as deep and unfathomable as if encouraging Matou Ike to utter that final, subversive answer.

This silence itself is a heavy form of acquiescence.

“Dr. Hartres was originally Kuro,” Matou Ike continued.

The most crucial bomb has been dropped!

Matou Ike wasn't saying "Kuro replaced Hartles," but rather asserting that the core of Dr. Hartles's existence, his essence, is Kuro himself!

The situation kept changing.

This conclusion completely overturns the cognitive framework established by the Grand Decision.

During the tumultuous Grand Order decision, El-Melloi II hinted at the possibility of Cúro impersonating Hatres, but this has likely been denied by Asila's own confession.

“I heard that about thirty years ago, Hartres, who was rescued by that doctor Gulot, was covered in wounds and had lost his memory.”

Matou Ike's voice was calm, yet it dropped a bombshell about time.

He brought up that long-forgotten starting point again: thirty years ago, a severely injured and amnesiac "Hartles" was hidden and rescued by Dr. Gulot.

"What if that was Kuro, the one who was betrayed and wounded by his former comrades ten years ago?"

A startling hypothesis was thrown out! He wasn't referring to two separate events, but rather to the "Hartles" who suffered severe injuries and amnesia thirty years ago.

This is directly equivalent to Kuro, who was betrayed by his companions Ashira and others in the depths of the Spirit Tomb Albion ten years ago and was seriously injured and on the verge of death!

The order is reversed.

Using an incident of betrayal ten years ago to explain events from thirty years ago.

This completely overturns the linear understanding of time! Matou Ike's reasoning uses events that happen in the "future" to explain a phenomenon that existed "earlier".

This is a chilling conjecture about reversed cause and effect!

“The problem is that Kuro has a way to travel between Albion and the surface world,” Matou Ike immediately pointed out the key point supporting this paradox.

"Moreover, according to Ashira's confession, the betrayal occurred in Albion—so, Kuro discovered another crack before he died?"

Ashira's confession confirms that the betrayal took place deep within the Albion Tomb.