Even after Ian left Baron Layan's castle and returned to the Platinum-Iridium Workshop dormitory, he still could not figure out the sense of discord he had felt within the castle.
Layan Territory was riddled with mysteries, and Baron Layan's castle was where those mysteries piled up in heaps, leaving one not even knowing where to begin.
"Four children with psionics—fine, three of them awakened due to suffering exceptionally cruel torture, but how did the Baron's biological child awaken psionics? Right, where's the Baroness? Don't tell me the Baron is a single father raising four children? That's a little too much suffering, isn't it?"
Ian swirled the bottle of Psionic Nourishment Extract, radiant with brilliant rosy light, before his eyes and stared at its gorgeous psionic glow.
Somewhat puzzled, he thought, "Setting those matters aside, the Baron's arm is strange too. Even if he wanted to pretend he had lost a hard-fought battle and shirk responsibility, there was no need to actually cut off his own hand."
"At the Second Energy Level, without an ascended organ like a regeneration core, it would take months for it to grow back."
"Then there's Anfa, who came here concealing her identity, that self-proclaimed 'Elf scholar,' and the 'Sister Reflected Light' of Light's Embrace, who came pursuing cultists. One of those two is suspicious; the other is worrying."
"What, is the Baron the cultists' leader, planning to use a crystal skull to pass down the Mountain Folk's prophet inheritance to his children? But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are no harmful backdoors in the crystal skull; it merely looks a little creepy. In essence, it is quite a legitimate vessel of inheritance."
*"A prophet inheritance—even with so many restrictive conditions, people would still scramble for it, let alone when the family's feelings are