Knowledge Chases People

Lumian understood Aurora's words all too well.

Back when he was still a vagrant, he had learned not to underestimate anyone. Some adult vagrants had suffered badly because they looked down on him as a child and thought he was weak. Some people who gave them food, meanwhile, had meant well but failed to consider the state of bodies that had gone hungry for so long, doing harm instead of good.

Lumian thought seriously for a while before saying, "So descriptions that let you summon the creature you want with relative precision are very valuable."

"Yes." Aurora nodded with feeling. "Notebooks containing the corresponding summoning incantations are worth a great deal. Every incantation, every description, and every annotation in them was paid for with lives, blood, or suffering. To give you the simplest example, the three-part description I use to summon White Paper is 'a spirit wandering amid illusion, a friendly creature that can be commanded, a fragile sphere that can connect with my thoughts.' If you tried to work out that last line yourself, who knows how many failures you'd have to go through before piecing it together? And every failure means considerable risk."

A fragile sphere that can connect with my thoughts? Is that a description a normal person could come up with? Especially those words, fragile and sphere... Grumbling inwardly, Lumian asked, "So you bought it from someone?"

"No." Aurora shook her head, her expression turning somewhat bitter. "The Mystery Pryer pathway is different from the others. Every so often, vast amounts of knowledge chase after you. You have to learn it even if you don't want to, and even if you can't endure it, you have no way to refuse. When you drink a potion to advance, this phenomenon of 'knowledge chases people' becomes even worse.

"Most of that knowledge is useless, but some of it is bound to have value. The incantation for summoning White Paper is one such piece."

"Knowledge forced on you by the Hidden Sage?" Lumian understood what his sister meant.

Aurora gave him a surprised look.

"You know about that? Did that lady teach you?"

"Yes." Lumian nodded.

Aurora pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"Based on my own experience, 'Knowledge chases people' doesn't come entirely from the Hidden Sage forcing knowledge on us. What I call 'ringing in my ears' really is me hearing His voice and receiving the knowledge He gives me. It always leaves me in agony, with my head on the verge of exploding, until I almost wish I'd just lose control.

"But sometimes, especially when I'm in poor condition and close to showing signs of losing control, I have a kind of hallucination. It feels as though all the knowledge in the world has come alive, and a small portion of it is chasing me, rushing toward me, while I have no way to evade it. That's how the incantation for summoning White Paper forced its way into my mind.

"When I drink a potion, roughly ninety-nine percent of 'knowledge chases people' comes from the Hidden Sage, and one percent has to do with knowledge coming alive."

"That's fascinating, but terrifying too. It could scare everyone in the village out of their wits." As Lumian offered this sincere assessment, he also tried to think of a way to solve his sister's problem with "knowledge chases people," or at least lessen its effects.

Aurora answered with a bitter smile.

"It's precisely because I suffer this sort of torment so often that I didn't want you to take the path of the supernatural. But in our current situation, being a Beyonder really is better than being an ordinary person."

To make sure her brother remembered the madness and danger of the supernatural path, she pointed at her head.

"After being chased by knowledge and living with pain for so long, I feel that my mind and personality have changed in certain ways.

"Haven't I often told you that I have social anxiety, but sometimes become especially talkative, wanting to go out and chat with the old ladies in the village or tell stories to the children? And that occasionally I go a little crazy, borrowing a pony from Madame Pualis to gallop through the mountains, shouting at the top of my lungs?

"The talkativeness is a kind of rebound from staying home for so long, being unable to return to my homeland, and the oppression of the supernatural path.

"As for occasionally going crazy..."

At this point, Aurora looked at Lumian and gave a quiet laugh.

"You didn't think that was just an exaggerated turn of phrase, did you?"

Lumian fell silent. His sister's laugh seemed at once self-mocking and bewildered, filled with indescribable pain and struggle.

Aurora then sighed.

"At times like that, I almost don't recognize myself."

"There must be a way to fix it." At that moment, Lumian felt his own powerlessness keenly.

"I hope so. Let's continue." Aurora pointed at the altar. "Once you sign a contract with the Spirit World creature you've summoned, summoning it again becomes simple. You can change the final line of the description to 'a Contract Creature belonging exclusively to Aurora Lee.' Very precise, isn't it? And until the contract is terminated, no one else can summon it."

"Can each person only have one Contract Creature?" Lumian was very concerned about this question.

"No. I don't know the exact limit, but it's definitely more than one, especially for certain unusual Sequences. When summoning them, you distinguish between them by saying 'so-and-so's first Contract Creature,' 'second Contract Creature,' and so on," Aurora answered honestly. "You also need to remember that summoning Spirit World creatures consumes your own spirituality. The more you summon, the more you expend. With a Hunter's spirituality, I estimate you could sustain at most one Contract Creature."

Knowing her brother's personality, she went further to close off any loopholes Lumian might find.

"After a Spirit World creature is summoned into reality, it can only stay for a limited time. The weaker it is, the longer it can stay. Don't think about summoning one, then waiting for your spirituality to recover before summoning the next, unless you choose very weak creatures and your spirituality becomes significantly stronger than it is now."

She then used White Paper as an example.

"If I don't have White Paper carry my abilities, it can remain in reality for twelve hours. If I share my eyes' special properties with it and have it do things for me, it can last three hours at most, and my own spirituality will keep being drained."

Lumian, who had been hoping to build an army of Spirit World creatures, was deeply disappointed.

He thought for a moment, then asked instead, "Can you only summon Spirit World creatures? Only spirits?"

"No." Aurora shook her head. "You can also summon creatures from other dimensions attached to the Spirit World, the real world, or the Astral World, such as the Underworld and the Mirror World, as well as certain creatures from other worlds-or other planets-whether they're spirits or not. But all of that is extremely dangerous. Most Beyonders who tried it died horribly, and a few vanished mysteriously, leaving behind only notes documenting what they had done."

"Then can you summon something from the real world?" Lumian asked curiously.

Aurora thought for a moment. "In theory, as long as the target has a close connection to the Spirit World or has reached a certain level of status, it should be able to hear the summons and decide for itself whether to respond. But such targets are either very unusual or very powerful. If you want to keep living a decent life, never experiment with this.

"Also, when the summoning target isn't a spirit, the corresponding ritual has stricter requirements and needs more spirituality. It may even require a large number of sacrifices. Only then can you open a summoning gate that allows a non-spirit creature to pass through.

"With a Hunter's spirituality, you'd barely be able to summon White Paper. If you want to try anything more powerful, you can only pray to a deity or a hidden being. You might have to prepare items rich in spirituality as sacrifices."

Having gained a rough understanding of summoning Ritual Magic, Lumian said to his sister, "Are you going to recite the incantation and complete the summoning now?"

"How could I?" Aurora scoffed. "We've interrupted the ritual so many times. How could it possibly continue? Normally, if you follow the proper procedure when interrupting it, you can resume from where you stopped. But I was mainly explaining things just now and didn't spare any attention for that."

You probably forgot... Lumian muttered inwardly, not daring to say it aloud.

Aurora continued, "But I am going to perform a summoning ritual. Partly to demonstrate the entire process for you, and partly to ask for help."

"Ask for help?" Lumian asked in confusion.

Summon a powerful Spirit World creature to help?

Aurora explained, "Among the countless Spirit World creatures, a tiny minority can serve as messengers-personal messengers. Um, messengers have special contracts that allow other people to summon them.

"For example, if I had a contracted messenger, someone in Trier could summon it and give it a letter they'd written. It would immediately pass through the Spirit World and deliver the letter to me.

"Because of the Spirit World's special nature and the connection formed by the contract, it would only need a second or two to deliver the letter."

"That's amazing. As fast as sending a telegram," Lumian exclaimed sincerely.

The thought passing through his mind was:

I want one too!

"Don't even think about it." Aurora saw through him. "Summoning a messenger is very difficult. Unless you obtain the precise incantation directly, you're unlikely to work it out through trial and error. And only a few special Sequences can master the precise incantations. Even your sister doesn't have one."

Disappointed, Lumian asked instead, "Are you going to summon someone's messenger and write to them for help?"

"Yes." Aurora nodded. "She's one of the few among us who have gone furthest along the supernatural path, and she has her own messenger. I don't expect her to come rescue me, but she should be able to offer some advice."

That's probably going to be difficult. Even that mysterious lady said we could only rely on ourselves... Lumian asked curiously, "Among us? Do you mean your pen pals?"

Aurora nodded at first, then asked in puzzlement:

"When did I tell you about my pen pals?"

"In the last loop-no, the one before that," Lumian answered honestly.

"All right." Aurora pressed a hand to her forehead. "Actually, it's a mutual aid organization gradually established by those of us who can't return to our homeland. We usually communicate through letters, share knowledge, and solve problems. At regular intervals, we hold small gatherings or communicate through messengers and other means. She's our organization's vice president and one of its founders. Her code name is Hella."

"Code name?" Lumian was a little puzzled.

Aurora gave a hum of assent.

"Everyone in the organization uses a code name and keeps their real name secret. When writing letters, we emphasize that they're pen names, to avoid discovery by the authorities."

"What's your code name?" Lumian was very curious about this.

Aurora fell silent for a while before answering with a faint wistfulness.

"Muggle."

"What does that mean?" Lumian asked, confused.

Aurora's eyes dimmed slightly as she replied, "An ordinary person without supernatural abilities."

Knowing that his sister would rather be an ordinary person living in her homeland, Lumian hastily changed the subject.

"What's your organization called?"

Aurora's expression immediately grew complicated.

"Originally, everyone wanted a classy name. But since we'd be writing letters regularly, a conspicuous name might draw attention from certain powers. So in the end, we settled on one that sounded like a group of animal enthusiasts."

"What is it?" Lumian pressed.

Aurora answered with a hint of embarrassment.

"The Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society."