Star Guidance

Elijah was wearing a black robe made of a different kind of leather; upon closer inspection, one could see tiny, evenly distributed hairs on it.

His hair was hidden under his hood, and his brown eyes looked at the First Order Mage around the table.

He raised his thin hand and patted Charles on the shoulder.

"If our system malfunctions again this time, I'll really lose my third seat. Last time I spoke up for Vernon in the newspaper, I was questioned by many people within the Law School..."

"If the system malfunctions again this time, even the Chief won't be able to protect me. This is the greatest asset of the Law School; if this gets out..."

"At that point, I'll have to rely on you Charles, for help..."

Charles smiled, removed the hand from his shoulder, and chuckled softly:

"Although I know that the Law Domain is a very valuable asset of the Law School since its inception."

"This realm is the Alliance's tentacle in the Spirit Realm, and it's also one of the few places in the Spirit Realm that can maintain absolute neutrality."

"Here, anyone can make a transaction with only a 1% commission, in exchange for a legal system within the realm that makes it difficult for anyone to manipulate things..."

"This system can even reject Divine Power. Both the Proxy of the Deity and the Deity themselves have tried to take action against this place, but they have all failed without exception."

"Perhaps the Lord of Radiance's Proxy found some loophole, but it was only a teleportation-level loophole, wasn't it?"

"As long as she doesn't expose any loopholes in the trading system, this matter won't have a significant impact on you, am I right?"

Charles turned to look at Elijah, who wore a forced smile. When Charles looked over, Elijah nodded slightly, indicating that Charles was right.

"What you said is absolutely right. Luckily, you reminded me, so it seems I don't need to worry anymore..."

Hearing that Elijah's words lacked any trace of realization or gratitude, Charles raised an eyebrow and continued:

"Don't pretend with me... Fine, tell me why you're here now. According to the Alliance's rules, this place has been rented by the fourth seat of the Astrology School for negotiations with the Lord of Radiance's Proxy..."

"According to the rules, someone from the Law School like you shouldn't be here unless I invite you beforehand. Do I need to use the system to remove you and report it?!"

"No, no, no, I really have something to do." Upon hearing that Charles wanted to kick him out, and judging from his tone, Charles genuinely intended to do so, Elijah immediately wiped the smile off his face.

"Let me explain first. You can kick me out after you've heard what I have to say."

Elijah breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that Charles made no move, and the faint smile returned to his face.

"Charles, you probably don't know what I found in the system logs yesterday."

What did you see?

Charles knew that since Elijah had appeared here, their target this time was the Proxy of the Lord of Radiance.

What Elijah said must be related to Fran, otherwise she would never be here.

The affairs of the Material Realm were already busy enough for Elijah, the third seat of the Law School, so the fact that he could still come up to the Spirit Realm to check on the situation under these circumstances was enough to say something.

Elijah didn't keep them in suspense; he just told them directly.

"I think you should know that the last time the Proxy of the Lord of Radiance was teleported to the plaza, it was because of a system recognition error, right?"

"Yes, at the time I was thinking that the people from the Law School here were in trouble, and the entire system might be investigated, but I didn't expect that someone of this caliber would come."

Elijah tapped the armrest next to Charles before slowly speaking:

"I didn't want to come originally, since this kind of error can be fixed by updating the system and stopping it from recognizing the mage characteristics on that Proxy —generally speaking, these disguised mage characteristics are different from those of a real mage, but..."

"I found the mage characteristics on that Proxy in the system logs, and they differed from our standard mage characteristic model by only 5%, or even within the margin of error..."

"Our set margin of error is within 7%. In the hundreds of years that the entire realm has been operating, only three the Alliance ' mages have exceeded this limit without being detected by the system..."

"Within the 5% range, roughly 95% of mages fall into this category. In other words, this Proxy, in the eyes of our system, might be more like a mage than our own mages."

"Do you know what this means? The standard model of our mage characteristics is defined by the spells we master, the strength of our Mental Power, and the number of times we've cast spells."

"Or perhaps this Proxy of the Lord of Radiance is truly a mage, casting divine spells while also unleashing fireballs, shields, and decrees..."

"But you and I both know that's impossible. If she were a mage mixed with other Profession, I could use the excuse that she has a special Profession, but she's Priest, and Proxy of the Deity."

"So in the end, there's only one possibility: she used some more precise magical concealment method, a method that almost surpasses our imagination."

"If we don't prepare..." Elijah's tone grew colder, "I wonder if all the apprentices in the City of Apprentices will be wearing white robes under their mage robes..."

Charles tapped his armrest, remaining silent for a long while, but he finally spoke.

"What do you want to do? This is the Law Domain, and even you and I must adhere to the principle of absolute neutrality."

Charles's words were clear: he knew what Elijah wanted to do to Fran, but he was also reminding Elijah that this was the Law Domain.

This realm is known as an absolutely neutral realm within the Spirit Realm, and that is true.

The mages are the managers and beneficiaries of this realm, but they are not its true masters.

Otherwise, this realm's name would have long since become a domain for mages to sell, rather than a realm that can be freely traded.

Here, although mages can do many things that other Profession cannot, it is still extremely difficult for them to attack other Profession.

This is not a choice made with regard to the reputation of the domain. If the mages of the past had truly considered this, the Law Domain of today would probably have been disgraced long ago.

This is a situation where mages simply cannot act in this way; the laws here restrict not only those Spirit Realm Traveler, but also the mages themselves.

This follows a statement made by the founder of the Law School.

"Sometimes, once you establish a law, you may lose control, and you may even become subject to the constraints of that law."

"This is because laws are fundamentally things that you and others discuss together; you can only propose them, not arbitrarily control them."

"Therefore, we should utilize this law that we created, rather than presume to establish some perfect law ourselves."

Elijah smiled, then pointed to the contract on the table and slowly said:

"We naturally can't do anything openly; this is the Law Domain, and you just happen to be signing a contract."

"Charles, tamper with that contract so that she— the Proxy of the Lord of Radiance —takes away an item that can mark a location."

"Whether you use the Spirit Realm or the Material Realm, it's fine. Of course, I still recommend you use the Spirit Realm, so that we can catch her the moment she leaves the Law Domain."

"We must determine whether this approach is detrimental to our the Alliance."

Charles glanced at the drafted contract on the table; as Tristan had requested, it contained almost no hidden traps.

He merely glanced at it, without making the slightest movement.

Elijah, standing to the side, was getting anxious. He knew there was nothing he could do in the room, because Charles now held the right to use it.

"Charles, there's something else I haven't told you. I sensed the mage's aura of the Elemental, Modification, and Sword Song School School in that Proxy, but I didn't detect any aura of the Nature or Necromantic School."

"I have a bold guess: this disguise requires the cooperation of mages from our School, or the use of their corpses..."

These words touched Charles. He understood what Elijah meant and why Fran's mage-like features exhibited characteristics of certain types of mages.

According to the consistent magical theories of mages, such a disguise must contain elements of that characteristic, namely the mage himself from each School.

Either someone within the Alliance betrayed them, or Fran killed the Alliance's mages and then wore their identities...

Charles looked up at Elijah and sighed.

"I asked the Stars what I should do. If possible, I'll do as you said, betting that the other party won't find out..."

Without waiting for Elijah's reaction, he used his prized [Star Guidance], a spell he was confident no one in the Alliance could master better than him.

This is different from the spell Charles had previously mentioned to Tristan, which involved consulting the Stars to determine one's actions; that spell was called [Guidance Spell].

His [Star Guidance] is a Third-Order Spell that can project what the future will be like if he does this.

His consciousness sank, and this was the first image he saw.

It was an island floating in the air, Alliance's Floating City. Through the details, Charles could even identify which Floating City it was.

At this moment, the Mage Tower in the center of the Floating City lit up with a deep red light, as if flames were burning on the tower. The protective barrier was fully deployed, and the blue barrier on the Floating Isle stirred up the air currents, preventing anything from entering or leaving.

This was the most advanced preparedness measure the Alliance's Floating City had taken in the face of a potential threat, and this was the only scene Charles had ever seen.

After that, his consciousness returned to reality.