The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 365: Attention

“Hey~”

“Hm? What is it?”

About two hours had passed since we finished the reflection meeting with Fiera and the others.

At first, Dōna, who had been reading the material seriously beside me, had shifted to take a nap, likely bored, and after a while, Lavienne approached with a tired voice.

“Aren’t those kids just overflowing with ambition? I finally managed to escape!”

“Yeah, well, it can’t be helped. You fought them directly, so it’s natural for them to seek your advice.”

Lavienne was talking about the reflection meeting that Fiera and the others had restarted. I hadn’t intended for it to end with just my opinion, and clearly, they were discussing their battles, voicing concerns, and talking about improvements.

At that moment, Lavienne, unable to fight off her drowsiness, had dozed off on the sofa, and Fiera and the others shook her awake, wanting to hear her opinions as well. For about an hour, Lavienne was bombarded with questions.

“Still, don’t you think they could’ve let me rest a little? They never let me have a moment to relax and kept switching off asking questions; it was exhausting!”

“Well, isn’t there some resentment for losing? It was their first time being so thoroughly defeated, so I bet they were pretty frustrated.”

“Gah! Seriously, everyone’s so small-minded. They need to be more mature and generous like me!”

Despite saying that, Lavienne’s expression appeared somewhat pleased, so it seemed she enjoyed being questioned by Fiera and the others, even if against her words.

“Well, whatever, but I have things to do too, so if you want to rest, go back to your room or stay quiet on that sofa.”

“How cold! Can’t you pay a little more attention to me~?”

Finding my attitude unsatisfactory, Lavienne clung to me from behind like a playful cat, causing Dōna, who had been peacefully sleeping, to twitch a bit.

“Hey, don’t wake Dōna! Don’t just suddenly cling to me.”

“That’s cruel! Why are you sweet to Dōna but cold to me?”

“I’m plenty considerate of you! After all, I brought you along this far, let you fight to your heart’s content, and I let you act freely. What more do you want from me?”

“Um, like having meals together, going out, taking naps…?”

“You didn’t wake up for meals yesterday and I brought you along today, plus you snuck into bed and napped before we came here.”

“Muu~! That’s not what I’m talking about! I’m talking about the future, not the past! You really don’t understand a maiden’s heart, do you?”

Lavienne shook her head in exasperation, but I knew each of her expressions and actions was to tease me, so I chose to ignore her to avoid the trouble.

“By the way, what are you looking at right now?”

Seeing my reaction, she changed the subject without much expectation, still clinging to me, and turned her gaze to the materials I was holding.

“This is material regarding magic and magic circles left by the first sage, who is also Sonia’s ancestor.”

“Magic circles?”

“Yeah. I went to the Kingdom of God Tree once, and at that time, I saw the transfer magic circle said to be left by this person.”

“I see. It’s true that in modern times we don’t know how to recreate magic circles, right? But this person managed to show how to recreate that magic circle, so it’s only natural for you to be interested in it, Lu-kun.”

“Exactly.”

Lavienne quickly grasped what I was saying and began to read through the materials, her interest piqued.

“Hmm. The most important thing about magic circles is the magical letters, known as runes, and by writing these using a special ink called starlight liquid, you can use the magic circle.”

“Yeah. Also, when creating a mobility-type magic circle, it seems you need to write coordinates in numbers. However, because the transfer magic circle scroll can move freely, it’s noted that you might be able to improve it by writing other magical letters.”

“Impressive. No wonder they call him the first sage!”

“I think so too.”

Until now, I hadn’t found any records regarding magical letters, so while I knew they were letters, their meanings weren’t clear.

However, it seems that the first sage, Igar, either had many scrolls depicting magic circles or had managed to analyze each one and deduced the meanings of the letters used to construct the magic circles through countless experiments, allowing some progress in understanding the letters of magic circle construction.

As a result, it seems the letters that construct magic circles can be broadly divided into categories based on the magic used, coordinates or power, and effects.

The magic used refers, of course, to attribute magic like transfer magic or fire magic, the coordinates are for the destination of the transfer, and power refers to specifying the power of attack magic, while effects indicate what the magic does, like burning for fire magic or healing for recovery magic.

Additionally, for some spells, it seems fine-tuning for effectiveness duration and area of effect is also needed, which made it difficult for anyone to decipher magic circles, and because they were less efficient than using ordinary magic, research on magic circles gradually faded away.

“I see. But doesn’t that seem a little strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“Modern times consider magic circles to be a neglected technology, yet magical tool creators and alchemists are still using magical letters to create magical tools. How’s that work, I wonder?”

“Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”

As Lavienne pointed out, even though the technology for creating magic circles has been lost in modern times, when creating magical tools, there is still a technique to engrave magical letters onto those tools.

However, this causes a contradiction since they can’t recreate the magic circles without understanding the root magical letters.

I was bothered by that contradiction as I looked back over Igar’s remaining materials, noticing a magical energy infused into the paper, and I channeled matching magical energy into the materials.

“This is…”

Then, as if creating a chain reaction, the magical energy I had infused spread throughout all the materials, causing the paper to move on its own, rearranging itself, and parts of the written letters began shining, forming new sentences.

“Ah ha! I see… so that’s it…”

I had assumed that if Igar noticed the oddities of this world, he would have also realized this contradiction between magic circles and the magical letters, and indeed, he had cleverly hidden this knowledge from anyone who might see the materials.

As I sequentially deciphered the neatly lined-up letters, it became evident that the magical letters in modern times and those inscribed on the scrolls were entirely different. It was also noted that the materials used to cultivate the ink for writing magical letters differed, so while there exists a concept of the same magical letters, the recreation of magic circles is impossible.

“I understand now. If the basic magical letters are different, then recreating the magic circles is indeed impossible. Moreover, if the materials are important, it’s even more unreasonable.”

“Right? I’ve never heard of this starlight liquid before; I wonder what kind of ink it is.”

“It says here that it’s a special liquid made by grinding up rare meteorites that contain magical power.”

“Magical meteorites, huh? Sure, I can’t say how it was in the past, but needing something so precious makes recreating magic circles impossible.”

While magical letters are engraved into magical tools using ink mainly derived from monster-harvested magical stones in modern times, this document indicated that the ink used for the magic circles was from a precious material—a starlight liquid filled with pure natural magical energy—meaning without it, even if one understood the magical letters, they couldn’t recreate the magic circles.

However, it seems Igar had managed to acquire a piece of that meteorite during his travels, and using the magical energy contained within, he was able to conduct research that miraculously led to the recreation of the magic circles.

Furthermore, it appeared the magical letters inscribed on the scrolls and those used today were quite different, leading researchers unable to comprehend the letters on the scrolls.

“However, this raises another question. Why are entirely different magical letters widespread today? Where did these magical letters even come from?”

“Ah, you might be right. Until now, I never really questioned magical letters or felt something was off, but now that it’s pointed out, it feels really strange.”

As stated in the documents left by Igar, if the magical letters from ancient civilization scrolls are entirely different from those in modern times, it raises the question of where the magical letters used today originated from and who spread them.

“Maybe I’m overthinking it.”

For a moment, I thought someone might have intentionally spread magical letters different from the past. But upon reflection, according to my theory, this world was created about two thousand years ago, and there are no records of the ancient civilization era before that.

If so, there’s a possibility someone independently created and spread these magical letters after the world was made, suggesting it could have been done without any deep implications or intentions, resulting in a completely different set of magical letters that continue to be taught up to modern times.

“Even so, it might be worth looking into.”

However, that was just one possibility. It’s also conceivable that when a god created this world two thousand years ago, they deliberately spread a different set of magical letters than those found in the scrolls. Thus, looking into the history and origins of these magical letters might not be a bad idea.

It could lead to finding something that resolves the sense of discord and connecting my theory that there was no world before those two thousand years to the truth.

After that, I continued to look over the materials left by Igar while bouncing various theories off Lavienne, and before I knew it, the sun had completely set, and it was time for dinner.

By the way, while we were lost in conversation, Fiera and the others had finished their reflection meeting and, perhaps out of consideration for our focus, remained silent, quietly sipping tea prepared by Miria. Ultimately, we didn’t engage in conversation again until we left the room for dinner.