Li Mo's Disappointment

"Teacher, you said you were taking me to the Atlas Institute?"

Inside the Department of Lore, Li Mo looked at Brishisan before him with a resentful expression, completely speechless.

Brishisan wore a grim expression as well. He shook his head and sighed. "Yes. Although the other Lords have said they will not make a move against you, they insist that I go to the Atlas Institute and determine your origins."

My origins?

Li Mo fell silent. Thinking of what Brishisan had said earlier, he felt a surge of resentment. Did he not know his own origins?

But was that something he could tell anyone?

Although the Type-Moon World did indeed contain countless other Parallel Worlds, and worldlines often shifted, none of them had the slightest connection to the main world Li Mo had come from, did they?

Yes, Li Mo called the world he had come from the main world.

In his mind, the main world was the largest world of all, positioned at the very center. This world was merely one world within the Type-Moon World cluster attached to the main world.

Even the Second Magician, renowned for observing and traveling through Parallel Worlds with the Second Magic, did not dare claim he had visited every Parallel World. How could some instrument made by an alchemical organization like the Atlas Institute possibly determine Li Mo's origins?

Li Mo was full of complaints, yet had nowhere to vent them. There were also things he truly could not explain to Brishisan, which left him deeply frustrated.

"Fine, then. Teacher Brishisan, did they say when we're going?

Give me a time first so I can prepare in advance. It's almost New Year's already. Can't a guy at least enjoy the holidays?"

Hearing that, Brishisan shook his head and laughed. "There's no rush. Since you want to go after the New Year, that's fine too."

What did Westerners know about celebrating the New Year? Still, if the boy wanted to do it, Brishisan would let him.

To be honest, when he had first brought Li Mo back to the Clock Tower, Brishisan really had considered taking him to the Atlas Institute to investigate his background. But as time passed and their relationship grew closer, he gradually began to see Li Mo as one of his juniors, and that thought had been tossed aside somewhere along the way.

Yet now, after all those twists and turns, they had somehow come back to it. They still could not avoid this trip.

Thinking of this, Brishisan's lips curled upward. Smiling at Li Mo, who was fiddling with a magecraft formula before him, he said, "Oh, right. In front of outsiders, remember to call me Father from now on. Don't call me Teacher anymore."

"Ah???" Li Mo accidentally dispersed the formula in his hand.

Enduring the piercing pain in his hand, Li Mo stared at Brishisan in utter confusion. "Um, Teacher, what did you say? I didn't hear you clearly. Could you say that again?"

Brishisan smiled. "I said you should call me Father from now on. I told them you have fifty-six Magic Circuits, and even that is a magecraft aptitude never seen before.

Why do you think they said they would not act against you, and did not even dare mention a Sealing Designation?

Wasn't it because I said you were my adopted son, and the future Lord of my Department of Lore?"

Li Mo was dumbfounded, but Brishisan did not let him off. He practically pointed a finger at Li Mo's head as he said irritably, "Is being my adopted son such a loss? Others would beg for the chance, and I still would not accept them! Besides, this position of Lord, along with everything in the Department of Lore, will all be yours in the future!"

Brishisan kept rambling, but in a daze, Li Mo seemed to see the grandmother who had raised him since childhood in his previous world. Their faces overlapped again and again, until they finally settled into Brishisan's face before him.

Li Mo had not felt this kind of emotion in a very long time.

Although he had felt good when he was with Brishisan before, their bickering had been warm and comforting, he had always thought that was simply what a teacher and student were supposed to have.

Since coming to this world, he had stopped longing for such things.

As for his family in that other world?

He could not think about them, nor did he dare to.

Even the gods had vanished from this world. Who knew whether he would ever find a way back in the end?

Li Mo lowered his head. A glimmering tear fell to the ground. "Father..."

Brishisan froze. Looking at the silent boy with his head lowered, he finally broke into a smile. "Come on, Mō-san. I'll show you the foundations of our Department of Lore!

It's time you learned why the Lords of the other eleven departments do not dare act presumptuously before me, and why the Department of Lore is hailed as the most mysterious department in the Clock Tower!"

Beneath the Department of Lore lay the reason it was known as the most mysterious and unfathomable department.

A small portion of the treasures passed down by King Solomon's disciples after his death was kept here, along with relics left behind after the gods of the Age of Gods withdrew. Of course, there were also the mysterious artifacts accumulated over the thousand-plus years since the Clock Tower had been established.

Why did the Department of Lore receive dozens of percentage points from the Clock Tower's annual budget? That was no small sum. Wasn't it all spent on this?

After descending a long underground staircase, the two finally arrived before a door engraved with mysterious patterns.

"This is where the Department of Lore stores its mysteries. That ring left behind by our ancestor Solomon, the one I mentioned before, is also kept here." Brishisan turned to Li Mo. Seeing that the gloom on his face had vanished and that he was now looking around curiously, Brishisan nodded in satisfaction.

As he took out a key and opened the door, Brishisan said to Li Mo, "I brought you here this time mainly to choose two things for you to protect yourself with. I'm worried when you always go alone to carry out Mage Association missions.

Also, I want you to understand the foundations of the Department of Lore and witness true power."

True power? Li Mo was taken aback.

Seeing Li Mo's stunned expression, Brishisan nodded and scoffed. "You don't think your current state counts as true power, do you?

Mana is just mana. Although you have more mana in your body than I do, that does not mean you possess power.

True power is something a person can fully control. Like the magecraft in a magus's hands, or the knowledge learned and retained in his mind.

If it were merely mana, then wouldn't everyone just squat beside a leyline and convert mana all day?

If you keep getting smug over the mana inside you, sooner or later someone will teach you a lesson!"

Fine. Li Mo pulled a long face and did not dare respond.

Heavens bear witness, Li Mo had never thought that way!

Recently, he really had become somewhat lax in his study of magecraft, but that was because he felt the road home growing ever more distant.

He could not help it. The deeper he delved into magic, the more despair he felt, along with a heartfelt sense of confusion.

He could not find a way home.

He had once been full of hope, but after looking through the Clock Tower's records, he had been disappointed. The gods had retreated. Though this world still possessed unusual forms of magecraft, could they truly send him back to another world?

From his initial high spirits, to later confusion about the future, and finally to his current despair.

Why had he shamelessly latched onto Brishisan in the first place? Why had he come to the Clock Tower to study magecraft?

To go home. Li Mo had never forgotten his purpose.

What Demon King Incineration of Humanity? What ORT destroying the world? Was any of that more important than going home?

Since it was not, what was the point of continuing to study magecraft so hard? To become king and conquer the world in this foreign land?

Li Mo had never considered it.

He was not even eighteen yet. He was only a child who wanted to go home.

"Teacher, why did you study magecraft?"

In the dim underground passage, Brishisan's face in Li Mo's eyes suddenly flickered in and out of view.

Brishisan had not expected Li Mo to ask that so suddenly. For a moment, he froze. He opened his mouth to answer, only to find that he could not speak.

Perhaps he did not know how to say it.

"Study magecraft?" Brishisan murmured, his gaze toward Li Mo turning unfocused.

Had this child lost his direction?