True Meditation

The Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society? If his sister hadn't been in such a poor mood, Lumian would have burst out laughing.

Even though he held back his laughter, he couldn't resist saying:

"Those in the know would understand that you study curly-haired baboons. Those who don't would think a bunch of curly-haired baboons were doing research."

Of course, he was only joking, since the word "research" was in the passive voice.

Aurora rolled her eyes at him.

"We often make fun of ourselves too, saying we're a bunch of curly-haired baboons being studied."

Seeing that his sister seemed a little better, Lumian changed the subject. "Are all the members of your society Beyonders?"

"Not all of them," Aurora answered briefly. "But ordinary people can't attend some of our gatherings."

She didn't explain why they couldn't attend.

"Who's the president? How many vice presidents are there?" Lumian pressed.

"Are you checking our household register?" Aurora snapped.

"Huh?" Lumian was utterly confused.

Actually, he could more or less guess that the "little book recording the members of a household" his sister mentioned referred to the specifics of the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society, and that she didn't like him prying into so much detail.

Aurora puffed out her cheeks, then exhaled. "The president's codename is 'Gandalf,' and there are five vice presidents.

"All right, I'm going to summon Hella's messenger."

Lumian nodded at first, then grew a little puzzled.

"Aurora, uh, big sis, didn't you say you only knew the codename 'Hella,' not her actual name? How can you summon her messenger, then?"

He remembered his sister saying that changing the last part of the summoning incantation to "the messenger belonging exclusively to so-and-so" would point to the target creature with great precision. But they didn't know who "so-and-so" was.

"Very good," Aurora praised him. "Being able to spot problems is an excellent quality in a student. Put it this way: it doesn't matter what name you use when signing a contract with a Spirit World creature. The contract automatically draws a little of your true aura from you, creating a connection between both parties. But remember, when summoning it afterward, you can only use the name written when you signed the contract. Changing it to your real name won't work."

Lumian thought it over carefully. "I understand. The aura and connection are what matter. The name used when signing the contract is only equivalent to an incantation used for subsequent summonings, so it doesn't matter what you write."

"Right." Aurora nodded slightly.

Lumian suddenly chuckled.

"Could something like this happen? Hypothetically-I'm saying hypothetically-you obtain an accurate incantation, summon a messenger, and sign a contract with it under the name Aurora Lee. Then, out of love for your younger brother, meaning me, you teach me that incantation. I successfully summon another messenger, but when signing the contract, I use the name Aurora Lee too, just for fun.

"So here's the question: which one would the description 'the messenger belonging exclusively to Aurora Lee' summon?"

Aurora's face turned livid as she listened.

"I don't even have a messenger! How would I know?"

She exhaled and composed herself, then said thoughtfully, "This is really a case of ambiguous targeting caused by identical names. Compared to ordinary Contract Creatures that only you can summon, messengers that others can summon are indeed more prone to this problem. But since I don't have a messenger, I can't be sure whether there's a special mechanism to prevent such errors. I can only try to analyze it based on what I know.

"First, very few people have messengers, so the probability of identical names is low enough to be practically negligible.

"Second, if there really are identical names, you can place an item bearing the messenger's owner's aura in the summoning ritual to pinpoint the target.

"Third, if you're really afraid of sharing a name, you can make up a longer one when signing the contract. For example, Lumian Torres Alay Lanlos Arthur Gehrman Sparrow Lee. That should avoid any duplicates."

"But I'd probably forget the name as soon as I signed the contract. It's too hard to remember," Lumian muttered. "Besides, why add the pirate hunter and great adventurer's name?"

"Because I like him. Ms. Fors Wall's adventurer series is a true classic," Aurora replied confidently.

She turned around and tidied up the altar, preparing to formally perform the summoning ritual.

Just then, Lumian thought of something and hastily called out, "Wait!"

"What is it?" Aurora looked back, bewildered.

Lumian asked solemnly, "Does a messenger count as an outsider?"

"..." At first, Aurora looked completely baffled, unable to understand what her brother meant, but she soon realized the problem.

After some consideration, she asked in return:

"You mean that once a messenger arrives in Cordu as an outsider, it will get trapped in the loop and never be able to leave?"

Before Lumian could answer, Aurora reached a new conclusion.

"No, it'll be even worse. It's a Contract Creature. Once it receives the letter, it will immediately head to Hella, which is equivalent to leaving Cordu. That would restart the loop.

"After that, it would keep leaving out of instinct, and we'd keep restarting, with no time at all to investigate the key to the loop."

Lumian couldn't help imagining the scene his sister described.

He opened his eyes and saw the familiar bedroom, then opened his eyes again and saw the familiar bedroom, then opened his eyes yet again and saw the familiar bedroom... He repeated this action countless times, all because a certain messenger was in a hurry to "go home."

Aurora raised a hand to her forehead.

"I don't even dare imagine what changes might happen then..."

After that sigh, she analyzed the situation seriously. "Judging by what we know so far, living things leaving Cordu and the surrounding area cause the loop to restart, while inanimate matter doesn't trigger the restriction. The telegram we sent and the letter we mailed both prove that.

"If that's really the case, spirits definitely won't work either. Looks like we can't summon a messenger."

Hearing this, Lumian suddenly understood why the Little Blue Book could remain in its state with words cut out.

The slips of paper that had been cut out had left Cordou Village, escaping the loop. They were no longer affected and wouldn't return, so naturally, the Little Blue Book couldn't be restored to its original state!

He shared this conjecture with his sister, then concluded, "That explains the Little Blue Book, but how was that letter sent?

"We definitely couldn't have mailed it during the loop. The moment the person delivering it left Cordu, it would restart. But if it was before the loop, I have no memory of it at all. Do you?"

"Neither do I." Aurora thought for a few seconds, then scolded him with a laugh. "You idiot, you almost led my thinking astray. Sending a letter out during the loop is easy!"

"Huh?" Lumian stared at his clever sister.

Aurora smiled. "We don't need a postman or a hired courier to send a letter.

"If we discover something unusual and don't want to alert the people who might be involved, the best option is to find a wooden box, put our completed plea for help inside, seal it properly, then toss it into the river outside the village. We let it float downstream naturally until someone from another village or even Dalege picks it up and helps deliver it to the authorities.

"You said we'd already confirmed in the previous loop that it includes a small stretch of the river, which we can reach."

"That's right!" Lumian clapped his hands together.

Then he thought of another question.

"Would the fish in the river cause a restart?"

"Probably not." Aurora thought for a moment. "Creatures like that, with little intelligence, are very sensitive to invisible restrictions. Or rather, they're more easily affected by invisible influences. They most likely instinctively avoid places that might cause a restart."

"What about your White Paper? After twelve hours, she has to leave the real world." Lumian felt that this would also restart the loop.

Aurora looked around and said thoughtfully, "I suspect the loop includes not just Cordou Village and the surrounding mountains, but also the corresponding region of the Spirit World for this place and everyone here.

"You probably don't know this, but there are actually quite a lot of natural interactions between the Spirit World and reality. If the corresponding part of the Spirit World weren't included, the loop might restart every little while. That's clearly not what's happening now.

"As my Contract Creature, White Paper has a direct connection to Cordou Village. The region of the Spirit World she roams is most likely included too."

I still don't know enough about mysticism... Lumian asked no more questions.

Aurora demonstrated the Ritual Magic procedure once more and dispelled the wall of spirituality.

Amid the invisible wind that suddenly stirred, she told Lumian, "It's completely dark now. I'll teach you true Meditation and how to activate Spirit Vision."

"Mm-hmm." Lumian indicated that he was listening closely.

Aurora explained, "You've already mastered the first half of Meditation, so we'll start with the second half.

"Once you've imagined that sun, focused your mind, and entered a relatively calm state, let your mind go slightly blank. Picture something that doesn't exist in reality to replace that sun. Keep picturing it, over and over, until your body and mind become peaceful and your thoughts feel as though they're floating."

"Something that doesn't exist in reality?" Lumian didn't quite understand.

Aurora took out a pen and paper and made a few casual strokes.

"Look. Does anything like this exist in reality?"

The drawing was extremely abstract, resembling a sphere with eyes and a cross marked over its face.

"Doesn't it exist now that you've drawn it? This drawing is in reality." Lumian felt that his sister's explanation wasn't quite right.

"Drawings and imagined things don't count as reality." Aurora rolled her eyes.

Teaching her younger brother meant constantly putting up with this sort of frustration.

"Oh," Lumian said.

"Then I'll try using your drawing."

He pulled over a chair, sat down, leaned against its back, and focused his mind.

That crimson sun quickly took shape in his mind, gradually calming him.

After a while, since he was in reality, he didn't hear that terrifying, mysterious voice and could calmly replace the sun in his Meditation with the image his sister had casually drawn.

The sphere with eyes and a cross marked on it quickly emerged in Lumian's mind.

As Lumian pictured it repeatedly, his body and mind grew increasingly peaceful, and his thoughts gradually began to feel adrift.

He "saw" a faint gray fog appear around him, along with indescribable things that seemed not to exist and rich patches of color mixed together. High above-or perhaps deep within-were streaks of clear, radiant light.

"There's no need to rush. Hunters have a very low chance of successfully entering Meditation on their first try," Aurora reassured her brother from beside him.

Lumian was just about to tell his sister that he had successfully entered a meditative state when he suddenly felt something watching him from the depths of the faint gray fog and from an infinitely high place!

It seemed to be an illusion, yet it left him drenched in cold sweat and inexplicably terrified, jolting him out of his meditative state.