Observation

Seeing her brother open his eyes, Aurora had intended to reassure him that "non-spellcasting Sequences take at least several attempts to succeed at meditation, and some people even need five or six days of practice, or over half a month." Instead, she noticed dense beads of cold sweat on Lumian's forehead and unmistakable fear lingering in his eyes.

"What happened?" Aurora asked with concern.

Lumian took a couple of breaths. The more he recalled it, the more frightened he became:

"I succeeded at meditation. My mind seemed to float up. All around me were different colors piled together at random and a faint gray fog. Things I couldn't really describe wandered everywhere. There were several especially bright, pure lights in the sky. No, it wasn't necessarily the sky. Maybe they were somewhere very far away. I couldn't tell."

"From your description, you did succeed." Aurora began explaining. "What your Astral Body saw-or rather, sensed-was the Spirit World. There, many concepts from reality either don't exist or are jumbled together. That's why you felt you were both high in the sky and somewhere very distant.

"Those seven lights are the Seven Lights of the Spirit World mentioned in certain ancient texts. They're believed to have a standing close to that of deities, to be omniscient, and to be relatively friendly hidden beings. If you can learn their complete honorific names, you can pray to them. Unfortunately, I don't know them either.

"Those indescribable things wandering everywhere are Spirit World Creatures, but you don't seem to have 'seen' many, or seen them clearly enough. That should be a limitation of the Hunter Sequence. Your spirituality isn't high enough yet. Hmm... activating Spirit Vision later will probably be difficult, and the final result definitely won't be very good either. Heh, having it is better than not."

She kept watching her brother's condition, ready to interrupt her lesson and help him at any moment.

Only after seeing Lumian gradually return to normal did she finish everything she needed to explain in one go. Then she asked, "But those things shouldn't have frightened you. Isn't one of your nicknames 'Bold Lumian'? Recently, you've even witnessed bizarre, absurd things carrying mental corruption, like a time loop, people turning into sheep, men giving birth, and the Night Lady's procession. How could ordinary Spirit World Creatures scare you?"

Hearing his sister mention those incidents, Lumian felt the veins in his forehead twitch. He didn't particularly want to recall them, especially the parts involving Madame Pualis.

He exhaled and said, "I felt something watching me from deep in the Spirit World, or somewhere very, very high up.

"Just being watched made me terribly afraid. I couldn't control it and fell straight out of meditation."

Aurora's eyes shifted slightly. Thoughtfully, she said, "I suspect it's related to those two strange symbols on your chest that you mentioned. They're connected to certain hidden beings. They might point to the source that trapped Cordu in the loop, or they might represent the 'special quality' that lets you retain your awareness and strength in your dreams and the loops.

"As a Hunter, you succeeded on your very first attempt at full meditation. That was most likely due to the influence of those two symbols."

Lumian nodded as he listened, agreeing with his sister's explanation.

This left him a little dejected:

"In that case, I can't meditate at all. Whenever I succeed, I'll be watched and have no choice but to leave that state. Besides, I don't think constantly being watched is a good thing."

"You think you aren't being watched right now?" Aurora said with a laugh. "You simply can't sense it because you aren't meditating. Since you can't avoid it and will inevitably suffer harm, you might as well make more attempts and build up resistance, gradually increasing how long you can meditate. That might even give you an advantage when facing certain situations in the future. Of course, before becoming a Sequence 7 Pyromaniac, Hunters hardly need deep meditation. You should wait until your spirituality improves before trying again."

"Why does that sound so miserable?" Lumian had already adjusted his mindset and began mocking himself. "If I can't fight it, I might as well enjoy it."

Aurora gave a short laugh.

"In our current situation, I'd rather have that special quality of yours, even if it meant facing many unknown dangers and difficulties. At least I could retain my memories in the next loop instead of needing you to remind me. That way, we wouldn't miss so many details."

She then glanced out the window, where it had long since gone dark:

"It's time to teach you how to activate Spirit Vision.

"Stay seated and try meditating again. You don't need to fully enter that state where your thoughts float up. Though it would make activating Spirit Vision easier, there are hidden beings watching you, aren't there?"

"Okay." Lumian leaned against the back of his chair and relaxed his body. First, he outlined the sun in his mind, then replaced it with the sphere his sister had drawn at random.

He didn't outline the symbol repeatedly, stopping once both his body and mind had grown calm.

Watching his condition, Aurora said softly, "Good. In your current state, raise both hands and place them in front of your eyes. You can open your eyes now."

Keeping his body and mind calm, Lumian slowly opened his eyes. He discovered that his sister had extinguished the kerosene lamp at some point, plunging the ground floor into darkness. Only a little crimson moonlight from outside outlined the objects around him.

After adjusting for a moment, he could just barely see his hands.

"Point your index fingers at each other, close together but not touching..." Aurora instructed. "Then focus your eyes behind your hands. You can focus behind the point where your fingers face each other. Once you've done that, slowly move your fingers, keeping them opposite each other without letting them touch. Hmm, don't let them leave your field of vision either."

Lumian followed her instructions exactly, focusing on the empty space behind his hands and moving his fingers.

He moved them an unknown number of times, but still noticed no change.

Before long, he could no longer sustain his meditative state and slipped out of it.

"Did you see anything?" Aurora asked.

Lumian shook his head.

"It's harder for Hunters. Don't put pressure on yourself. If the next attempt doesn't work, try again after that. If it doesn't work today, try tomorrow," Aurora reassured him. "Don't worry. Even ordinary people with higher spirituality can activate Spirit Vision after a period of professional training, let alone Beyonders. Of course, how well it works is another matter."

If this loop doesn't work, I can try the next one. But if the next loop doesn't work either, there might not be another... Lumian muttered inwardly.

He had always been resilient and patient. After resting briefly and recovering some mental energy, he tried again.

After repeated failures, he finally saw a spot of fiery red spring up in the empty space between his opposing index fingers.

Did it work? Delighted, Lumian turned his head to look at his sister.

He immediately saw a little red light emerging from Aurora's body, covering its surface.

"Didn't you say I'd be able to see the Ether Body's various colors?" Lumian asked in confusion.

Aurora asked delightedly:

"You succeeded?"

Lumian nodded and described his experience.

"You really did succeed." Aurora breathed a sigh of relief. "You've done quite well. It's probably thanks to a boost from that 'special quality' you possess. Other Hunters likely wouldn't be able to activate Spirit Vision without ten days to half a month of practice. They might even need to advance to Sequence 8 before it becomes relatively easy. Hmm, what you're seeing is a very blurred Ether Body. Red means I'm reasonably healthy. As for anything else, don't expect to see it as a Hunter. Your Spirit Body isn't strong enough."

She then took out the miniature ink bottle and unscrewed its cap:

"Try seeing whether you can see White Paper."

Lumian concentrated his gaze and saw a blurry, nearly transparent bubble float out of the bottle's mouth.

It looked much like the bubbles he blew with soapy water. It was the size of a fist, tinged crimson by the moonlight shining on it.

Lumian could barely make it out. He felt that he would lose sight of it the moment he blinked.

The bubble floated in midair, then flew toward Aurora's palm. Aurora held it and tickled it with her thumb.

The transparent bubble immediately contracted inward, then slowly expanded, repeating the motion.

Lumian steadied himself and told his sister what he had seen.

"Very blurry, huh?" Aurora shook her head. "Hunters really don't have very good Spirit Vision. You can only see the most basic aspects of the Ether Body, and among Spirit World Creatures, you can only detect ones like White Paper. Most are invisible to you."

"Having it is better than not," Lumian replied, repeating his sister's earlier words.

Having never experienced stronger Spirit Vision, he was fairly satisfied with what he had now.

Aurora said no more about it. She taught Lumian to deactivate Spirit Vision by meditating again, reining in his mind, and repeatedly telling his spirituality to stop. She also trained him to use repeated autosuggestion in that earlier meditative state to establish simple actions for activating and deactivating Spirit Vision.

Lumian practiced over and over, becoming proficient at activating and deactivating Spirit Vision. However, he never succeeded in establishing the "shortcut" Aurora had mentioned, only vaguely grasping its key.

"All right, get some rest. We'll observe the assistant Parish Priest later and see what's wrong with him." Seeing that her brother's face had turned pale and his spirituality was severely depleted, Aurora hurriedly told him to take a short nap.

The two went upstairs to the study and switched on the Radio Lamp.

Lumian quickly fell asleep in the recliner, while Aurora picked up a book to read at leisure, waiting for the night to deepen.

Before long, Lumian entered the dream, but he didn't rush to explore. Instead, he forced himself to keep sleeping.

Finally, Aurora woke him:

"We can observe the assistant Parish Priest now."

"Okay." Lumian sat up abruptly and looked at his sister.

Aurora opened the miniature ink bottle and stroked White Paper with her right hand. Her eyes quickly grew dark and deep.

Drawing on the connection of their contract, she chanted softly in Hermetic, "My Contract Creature, bear the special quality of my eyes."

Beside her, Lumian could neither understand nor see anything, since he hadn't activated Spirit Vision. He could only wait patiently.

Within a few seconds, Aurora withdrew her hand and sat down. She told Lumian, "White Paper has gone to the assistant Parish Priest's house."

Lumian took a closer look and discovered that what was reflected in his sister's eyes was not the study or his own figure, but trees with branches and leaves swaying gently in the darkness.

Those trees rushed backward.

Is this what White Paper is seeing? Lumian began to understand.

Aurora picked up a mirror backed with mercury, took out some pale powder, and scattered it over the surface.

The powder soon shone, making the mirror seem covered in a layer of rippling water.

Within the ripples, the assistant Parish Priest, Michel Garigu, appeared.

White Paper had arrived outside the target's room and was watching him through the windowpane.

At that moment, Michel Garigu was already asleep, his eyes tightly closed and his breathing steady.

Aurora and Lumian waited patiently, using White Paper to observe him from different angles.

Time passed, second by second. Suddenly, the sleeping Michel opened his mouth slightly, and a blurry, transparent figure crawled out.

It was something resembling a lizard.