Reshaper

"Let him try."

Elvily said.

Deep down, she hoped Sean could enter the Holy See.

It had nothing to do with whether it would benefit Sean in the future. She just felt that he was one of her people, and if he could enter the Holy See, it would reflect well on her, too... Yes, that was it.

Sean was already a Tier Two mage, the minimum requirement for entering the Holy See. Maybe he really could earn the approval of her brother-in-law's statue.

"Fine. I'll wait for you on the first floor," Iris said with a smile. "I hope I'll be waiting for you, too, Mr. Writer."

Elvily hung up.

Entering the Void Arts Space required a quiet, stable environment. She had planned to turn right at the intersection and continue straight into the residential area, but after taking only a couple of steps, she stopped and turned back, leading Sean along the way they had come to the hospital room.

One lay down, the other sat.

Once they entered the Void Arts Space and met on the familiar street, they headed toward the Hall of Truth. Sean asked the girl, "Wasn't turning right just now the way to your home?"

Elvily gave a soft "Mm."

Though she didn't live in the town of Alora, as a member of the Dawn Council's leadership, she naturally had a place to stay on her own turf.

Whether Sean genuinely didn't understand or was only pretending, he remarked casually, "Then we didn't really need to go back to the hospital."

Elvily caught his meaning. Her tone grew pointed. "If we didn't go back to the hospital, where did you want to go? You want to come to my place?"

Men. The name for them was "pushy."

Sean played dumb. "I never said that."

"Good. You'd better not." Elvily gave a faint snort. "I haven't even asked why your magic has grown so quickly."

There was no need to mention a rookie like Quill, who'd taken two and a half years to reach Tier Two. He didn't know anything. And the so-called genius of the Floris Family—reaching Tier Two in half a year—was nothing special in Elvily's eyes. Only people like her and Sean, who went from Tier One to Tier Two within a month, deserved to be called true geniuses—or, as she put it, "born mages."

That was a far cry from her initial assessment of Sean.

But Elvily wouldn't bring it up.

The past was past. It didn't matter.

It wasn't that she had poor judgment. This guy was just too good at hiding things: his magic, his methods, his connections. And he'd used his good looks to cloud her judgment, so she hadn't seen through him right away.

"Honestly, I don't know either." This time, Sean wasn't lying to Elvily.

His dreams came in fragments, without any clear process or timeline for cultivation. He didn't know how quickly a normal mage was supposed to advance or what it was meant to feel like. Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to drink from the Spring of Enlightenment before realizing that the desert in his dream was meditation.

He'd thought everyone advanced that quickly.

"You must be a Reshaper, too." Elvily didn't believe for a second that he really didn't know.

Sean: "..."

"Too?"

"Can I ask what a Reshaper is?"

First Awakened Ones, then Reshapers. How many kinds of mages were there that he'd never heard of?

There hadn't been any talk of them in the Scholar Era, had there?

Elvily patiently explained, "To put it in terms a novelist like you would understand, reshaping is reincarnation."

The difference was that in novels, a protagonist's rebirth was usually a rare, unique event. The protagonist was the only one in the world to receive such a blessing, and the timeline rewound as the plot required. But reshaping wasn't like that. Reality wasn't a novel; time only moved forward. It was more like reincarnation. Reshapers gradually regained memories of their previous lives, and they weren't unique.

There might not be a great many Reshapers in the world, but there were definitely quite a few. She was one, Iris was one, and so was Isha. There were also Kate and her teacher, Adev. They were all Reshapers.

Meditation, after all, was shaped by experience. Those so-called "flashes of inspiration" or "moments of insight" were really the cultivation experience of a previous life guiding them. Memories engraved upon the soul helped them grow faster. That was why Reshapers advanced far more quickly than Awakened Ones, who went from being ordinary people to mages.

Every Reshaper had also held an identity in their previous life. So when Elvily asked Sean why his magic had grown so quickly, she was really asking who he'd been in his previous life.

Going from Tier One to Tier Two in about half a month put him on par with her. That meant Sean's previous life had been no less impressive than hers. In the Scholar Era, her family, the Seraphim Family, had been extremely well connected. They'd known plenty of Archmages. Perhaps she and Sean had known each other in their previous lives—maybe they'd even been friends.

Sean hurriedly said, "No, no. I didn't know you."

Elvily: "?"

"Is knowing me something to be ashamed of?"

No, not exactly ashamed. More like he might end up dead.

Sean still didn't know what he'd done to offend the girl in the past, or how badly he'd offended her. The only thing he could be sure of was that back then, she hadn't been able to do anything to him.

He'd been invincible then. He was the only one who could bully others; no one could bully him.

So before he figured out what had happened, revealing his identity could easily turn the tables.

Elvily was Tier Five now. If there was bad blood between them, wouldn't she seize the chance to settle the score once she found out he was her brother-in-law?

He couldn't take her on.

Sean was also a little baffled. Would he really have been willing to bully such a pretty, adorable sister-in-law?

He couldn't figure it out, and he didn't dare ask.

All he could do was make up something on the fly and answer vaguely, "Maybe it's because my memories haven't fully returned."

"Then we'll talk once they do," Elvily said.

She could just about believe that explanation. Her own memories were still returning, after all.

Sean seized the chance to change the subject. "So reshaping sounds like something you can control?"

Could you decide for yourself whether to be reincarnated?

Elvily nodded, confirming his guess.

"Reshaping" was a form of "life extension" devised through the combined research of mages in the Scholar Era. The first to come up with the idea and propose the theory had been her older sister, Delilah, and the Holy See's Saintess, Oliya. But Elvily didn't want to say more about it, or she'd start thinking about her irresponsible bastard of a brother-in-law again.

"Achoo."

Sean suddenly sneezed.

He rubbed his nose and said in surprise, "You can sneeze in the Void Arts Space?"

Elvily: "..."

Why did that sound so familiar?

The two chatted as they walked, until they reached the first floor of the Hall of Truth.

Iris, who had been waiting there, saw Sean with Elvily and her eyes brightened. She teased, "So you really did make it in. Looks like our Mr. Writer isn't as simple as he seems."

Tier Two was only the minimum requirement for entering the first floor of the Holy See. It meant you had a chance of earning a statue's approval, not that you were guaranteed to get it. Plenty of mages—even Tier Three mages—couldn't get into the first floor. Yet Sean had succeeded on his first try. It seemed... she and Elvily had found themselves quite the treasure.

Hearing that, Elvily belatedly realized something was wrong.

She'd been so caught up talking to Sean about Reshapers that she'd forgotten to take him to touch the statue. She normally entered the Holy See through the front door, so she'd instinctively come in through the main entrance with Sean. But why hadn't he been thrown back?

Elvily abruptly turned to Sean and gave him a questioning look. "?"

Sean: "What?"

Elvily stared straight at him. "Have you been inside the Holy See before?"

Iris also gave him a questioning look. "?"

What did she mean?

This wasn't Sean's first time entering the Holy See?

Sean pretended not to hear Elvily. He looked around as if searching for someone. "Where's Mr. Dream Weaver? Didn't you say we'd talk in the Holy See?"

"He's on the second floor," Iris said.

Sean paused. "The second floor?"

"Yes." Iris suppressed her curiosity and said in an annoyed tone, "If he weren't doing Elvily a favor, he'd want you on the third floor."

Sope'a's earlier claim that "only a Tier Five mage is qualified to speak with him as an equal" had now become "only those who've entered the third floor of the Holy See are qualified to speak with him." He'd only lowered his standards for the time being because of Elvily.

So even though Sean had entered the first floor, he couldn't follow them to meet Sopea.

But Sean didn't seem to care. "It's fine. The second floor is just as good."

With that, he strode onto the moving staircase. Elvily and Iris's eyes widened, their expressions turning ghostly, as he passed through the door between the first and second floors without the slightest resistance. He left them with a single remark—

"Hurry up and come over. I don't know anyone here."

Iris: "???"

Elvily: "???"

He could enter the second floor, too?