Family

After staring for a moment at the dim, illusory, unreal passage beyond the mirror, Cyril suddenly reached out and pressed his hand against it. To the touch, it was still a cold, flat mirror surface.

The dark passage behind the mirror seemed not to belong to reality, as though an insurmountable membrane lay between them.

"At a time like this, the mirror should count as a kind of wall too, and an Apprentice specializes in dealing with all kinds of walls."

As he spoke, a layer of deep blue ripples suddenly spread from his palm, echoing across the mirror and laboriously weaving themselves into an illusory door—a door connecting to the Mirror World.

The instant he wanted to reach inside and investigate, a terrifying sensation of his hair standing on end abruptly struck him. It seemed that something in the Mirror World had looked over.

He instinctively withdrew his hand and shut the "door" on the mirror.

"That feeling was terrifying—far more terrifying than the gaze I felt at the Twilight Hermit Order before."

"Though that was partly because the people from the Twilight Hermit Order bore me no ill will and were merely curious, the shudder that came from the depths of my heart just now means the gaze from the Mirror World definitely belonged to an existence at least at the angel level."

"Is the Mirror World in this world really this dangerous? Those Witches travel through it all the time, so why are they all still alive and well? Could the thing that looked over just now have been a Witch herself?"

After muttering to himself for quite a while, he gave the mirror before him a wary glance, then returned to his room with the mop and broom.

He had a feeling that, for some time to come, mirrors were going to leave him with a psychological shadow.

After cleaning up the remaining dust from the Painting Scroll on the tablecloth, he had not even had time to rest before he heard the doorbell ringing outside the front door downstairs.

The people knocking at this hour were, without surprise, his elder sister Beth Gray and his little nephew Thomas.

Cyril stiffly walked downstairs to answer the door. Whether in the past or now, on the old Earth or in this world, he had never been good at dealing with children.

When he opened the door, two faces came into view—one serious, one grinning; one large, one small.

The child, who was barely taller than Cyril's knee, wore a fitted children's suit with a silk bow tie around his neck. His pale blond hair was combed flawlessly, making him look like a tiny old-fashioned gentleman.

At that moment, he placed one little hand over his chest and tucked the other behind his back. Raising his chin, he gave Cyril a slightly unpracticed bow.

"Good morning, Uncle Cyril!"

"Good morning, Little Thomas."

Cyril smiled and nodded at the boy before scooping him into his arms.

Only then did he look at the other person before him: a young woman with a rigid, severe expression, light makeup emphasizing a mature temperament, and a black soft top hat with a thin veil hanging halfway down. Her facial features bore a forty-percent resemblance to his own.

Noticing his gaze, her already stern face darkened a little further.

Cyril smiled unconcernedly and stepped aside to make way for them to enter. At the same time, he rubbed Little Thomas's head and said, "Little Thomas will not even be three until next month. There's no need to rush into raising him to be some old-fashioned gentleman. Children should act like children."

In his arms, Little Thomas, though still young, was already relatively mature mentally. He nodded in agreement.

Ever since his father, who was busy with work all day, had suggested discussing his education with his mother, he had been left with only one hour a day to play with toys. Even his favorite sweet tea and bread had been restricted by dietary rules and habits.

He was still a child who was half a month away from turning three!

"His father and I sincerely hope that Thomas can grow into an outstanding young man like his Uncle Haven."

"When you and Haven were three, he was already capable of cleaning up the messes you made."

Beth shot him a glance, then entered the house with two servants carrying exquisite gift boxes.

Cyril flipped the table in a fit of rage.

This was his real sister. He could not get angry, could not talk back, all so that next year's living allowance would not be reduced.

Still, he could not help muttering softly, "Everything I did was painstaking training for Haven. Without me causing trouble, could he have become so outstanding in every way?"

Beth, walking ahead, paused. The deliberately stern expression on her face nearly cracked.

After composing herself, she turned back and examined Cyril's face from top to bottom with a scrutinizing gaze. Then, in a tone of frustration at his failure to live up to expectations, she said, "In certain respects, Haven truly is not as good as you."

Before Cyril could speak, Little Thomas, still in his arms, spoke first. "That's right, that's right! Uncle Haven never plays with me!"

Beth turned away with a stiff face and quickly headed for the kitchen behind the dining room. She always felt that if Little Thomas stayed around Cyril for too long, the elite education she and her husband had planned would go wrong. She needed Haven to come out and keep an eye on the two of them.

Meanwhile, above Sefirah Castle, within the ancient palace that seemed like the dwelling of the God of Giants.

Klein leaned back in the high-backed chair at the head of the mottled long table, staring at the deep crimson star representing Cyril amid the boundless gray fog.

For some reason, he had kept thinking over the past two days about that fellow who recited the honorific names of gods and hidden existences like nursery rhymes. It was as if a voice in his heart kept urging him to pay attention to this person and establish contact with him.

"Is this a revelation from spiritual intuition, or have I been influenced by some unknown existence or power?"

After murmuring for a while, he manifested his usual Citrine Pendant in his hand and prepared to perform a divination first.

A few minutes later, Klein looked at the pendant in his hand, which was rotating steadily counterclockwise, and relaxed slightly.

"I have not been affected by anything unknown, and contacting him is not dangerous. So was that feeling from before a hint from my spiritual intuition?"

"Should I pull him directly above the gray fog, or play it safe?"

After hesitating for several seconds, Klein ultimately decided to play it safe. After all, he had previously seen the other party interact with someone suspected to be a hidden existence.

Having made up his mind, he immediately extended his spirituality and touched the deep crimson star flickering faintly in the depths of the gray fog.

Backlund, Empress Borough, within a luxurious castle occupying a considerable area.

A beautiful blonde, blue-eyed young lady with a pure yet elegant temperament sat quietly on a swing in the garden. Before her crouched a large golden retriever, and the girl and dog conversed in such harmonious calm.

The next second, dense gray fog emerged in her field of vision. Before she could react, she saw a majestic figure, vaguely visible amid the fog, looking down upon her. At the same time, she heard its voice.

"A mission: find him and investigate him, but do not alarm him."

"Take note: he has once suffered a curse and has also had direct contact with a hidden existence. The danger level of this mission is unknown."

"This mission is not compulsory. You may abandon it if necessary. Under all circumstances, life takes precedence over everything else."

As The Fool's voice entered her ears, the gray fog before her surged, and crimson light emerged, swiftly gathering into a lifelike image of Cyril.

The young lady's clear eyes widened slightly as she quickly memorized every characteristic of the person in the image. Then she respectfully nodded toward the enormous figure faintly visible in the gray fog.

"I understand. I will find this person as soon as possible, Mr. Fool."

She saw the figure in the gray fog seem to nod gently at her. Then the surrounding fog rapidly receded, and everything soon returned to normal.

Under all circumstances, life takes precedence over everything else... Mr. Fool seemed to be a very gentle existence.

"Audrey, Audrey, what are you thinking about?"

Across from the blonde young lady, the golden retriever crouching on the ground spoke in a human voice.

Coming back to her senses, Audrey looked at the golden retriever and smiled softly.

"Susie, we're going out this afternoon. But before that, you need to go find Viscount Glaint first and have him contact Xio and Fors in advance."

"No problem." The golden retriever nodded lightly, then took on a humanlike thoughtful expression. "But Audrey, didn't you say just yesterday that you should not visit Viscount Glaint too frequently lately? It would affect some of your reputation within noble circles."

The blonde young lady smiled with curved brows. "That's why we'll be going in disguise this time."