"I see now. I understand. Lainis, gather everyone."
After the battle between Daniel Davis and Touko Aozaki concluded, the Second immediately took over. Despite the awkward nickname "the Second," he was one of the twelve Lords of the Clock Tower and theoretically equal in rank to Baruelay.
After listening to Lainis and Daniel's accounts, personally inspecting the Golden Princess's corpse, and taking a walk through the Dual Towers, he seemed to have pieced everything together.
Soon, everyone gathered in the main hall of the Sun Tower. Among them was Atram, the blond-haired young man who entered wearing a furious expression as he glared at the Second.
Atram had spent a long time preparing for this operation, paying a heavy price in the process. If it had succeeded, the costs would have been worth it. But things had fallen apart. First, the thunderclouds summoned by multiple magi to amplify lightning magic were dispersed by Gray's Noble Phantasm. Then, just as Atram had managed to defeat Byron and was about to achieve his goal, the Second's two disciples, Flat and Svin, appeared and effortlessly subdued his dozens of subordinates.
What stung most was when Svin addressed him as a "magus user"—for a self-proclaimed orthodox magus, that was the gravest insult. Magus and magus user—only one word apart, but worlds different.
If the Second hadn't promised to give him an explanation, Atram might have started another fight. Despite his arrogance, Atram was powerful. He had managed to pierce the Izaluma family's barrier using a relic he had spent a fortune on—an original Baghdad Battery.
Byron, as the Izaluma patriarch and a veteran magus, was no pushover. But with his greatest defense—the barrier—destroyed at the start, and with Atram having superior numbers, Byron didn't stand a chance.
"If I'm not mistaken, the one who impersonated the Golden Princess... was you, Karina."
As soon as everyone was assembled, the Second fixed his gaze on Karina, one of the twin maids. Everyone turned toward her in shock at his words.
"That's impossible!" Lainis exclaimed. She had been in close contact with the Golden Princess and had noticed nothing suspicious.
"My lord, I don't understand what you mean," Karina responded, clearly tense under everyone's scrutiny.
"Now this is interesting. Where's the evidence?" Baruelay asked.
"Simple. While I didn't personally witness the Twin Princesses' debut, I can be sure that what appeared then wasn't a puppet," the Second said, glancing at Touko Aozaki.
Most of the magi present shared this view. Since the real Golden Princess had died, many assumed the one at the banquet was a puppet created by Touko—a Grand Magus, after all, and a rare one to appear at such events.
While it was hard to believe a puppet could surpass the results of the Izaluma family's century-long pursuit of beauty, if anyone could do it, it would be someone of Touko's stature.
"Of course, for her to convincingly replace the Golden Princess in such a short time, Touko's involvement was essential. She must bear the marks of Touko's modifications. Miss Touko, would you mind checking? If I'm right, she should have the same flaws as the original Golden Princess."
The Second looked toward Touko as he spoke.
"I don't remember such a thing," Touko replied, but nonetheless walked over to Karina and began inspecting her. Her expression quickly turned to surprise.
"Well, this is my handiwork. How odd—I have no memory of this." She tapped her head with a finger, then returned to her seat.
Her words left no room for doubt.
"Most likely due to a memory-blocking drug. We do have a pharmacist here, after all. But of course, Miss Touko wouldn't drink anything suspicious without precautions—she and her client must've had a deal."
"If the terms were interesting enough, I'd definitely go along with it," Touko confirmed.
"My foolish apprentice is impressive, but I don't think she could surpass what the Izaluma family has spent over a century building," Baruelay said, voicing what many magi were thinking.
If the process were so simple, why hadn't they asked Touko to help from the beginning? This technique was said to possibly lead to the Root.
"If you used ordinary means, no—it wouldn't be possible. But with special methods, it could be. Before coming here, I did some research. Byron purchased a relic at auction: a blood-stained Bodhi leaf. If that's used alongside the Cinderella ritual, the situation changes."
"The blood-stained Bodhi leaf… the Cinderella ritual… I see."
Baruelay was the first to react. As the Lord of the Department of Creation, she understood immediately. Any further confusion would've made her seem unqualified.
"Lady Touko, wasn't that relic your requested payment?" Byron asked, realization dawning.
As someone who researched beauty-based rituals, Byron naturally knew what the Cinderella technique was. But this only deepened his confusion and frustration. He looked toward Touko, clearly blaming her.
"If it was me, yes—I would've used it. That relic must've been specifically prepared for the Cinderella ritual." Touko nodded. Even without the memory, she knew herself well enough to be sure.
For her, if something was interesting enough, she'd participate even without payment—she might even invest her own resources.
"What did you say?" Atram couldn't believe his ears. He had paid dearly for that relic—only to find out someone else had treated it as a disposable item.
Relics were extraordinarily valuable and typically reusable, like the Second's fragment of the Emperor's cloak. Now Atram understood the "explanation" the Second had promised him.
The relic had been used up. No matter how much he raged, Byron couldn't make it reappear. That's why Atram was so frustrated—he had even bought off Baruelay for this.
Byron was from the Department of Creation, and Baruelay was its Lord. When his subordinates were attacked and she stood by doing nothing, it was clearly due to their prior arrangement.
Touko ignored Atram. While he was dangerous to most magi, he meant little to her. Byron's barrier had been broken—but to Touko, Atram was just a small fry.
And Byron himself was just as frustrated. Things had spiraled far beyond his expectations. Initially, he had only contacted Touko to help cover up the Golden Princess's sudden death for the family's honor.
The Twin Princesses' debut had already been announced; canceling it would've been a devastating blow. But he never expected Touko to exceed expectations to this extent.
The Izaluma family had never produced such a result, even after a century. Baruelay had shown up precisely because she suspected something unusual. As the Lord of the Department of Creation, she knew the Izaluma family inside and out. The sudden appearance of Touko made everything even more suspicious.
"Initially, my timeline suggested Byron bought the relic too late. But once I arrived, I realized my mistake. The 'Sun Tower' might not refer to the sun—but to Venus."
As everyone fell silent, the Second continued explaining the Izaluma technique. The Dual Towers' Sun and Moon Towers represented sundials and moondials. To use the ritual, a precise moment must be chosen. The last optimal moment had actually occurred before the relic was purchased.
The Twin Princesses' creation required embedding planetary mechanics into the body to create resonance between microcosm and macrocosm—between the small source and the great source.
"That's enough."
Byron suddenly shouted, interrupting the Second. Any further and he would've exposed the Izaluma family's most secret arts—rituals passed down for centuries. The Second truly lived up to his title: the Mystic Breaker.
"You really are turning into a detective—can't stop digging until you've reached the bottom. So that's the reason for the facial patterns on ancient people…"
Cut off, the Second stopped talking. Though he still looked eager to keep going, he understood he'd crossed a line. Not just Byron—even Baruelay wouldn't tolerate such secrets of the Department of Creation being exposed.
Still, his explanation gave Daniel new insight into magecraft. Ultimately, pursuing the Root was a quest to understand the world's fundamental laws.
"Lady Touko, I'm curious—who asked you to detain me?"
Once things had calmed down, Lainis asked the question she'd been wondering about—why Touko had stopped her from leaving.
"Normally, I wouldn't reveal a client's identity. But she tricked me. The one who asked me to stop you was her."
Touko pointed to Regina, one of the twin maids standing behind the Silver Princess.
"I didn't want my sister to die."
Regina was silent for a moment under everyone's gaze before she spoke.
"Lady Tyadra died due to ritual backlash. Our plan was to escape during the ensuing chaos."
Now that everything was exposed, Regina laid their plan bare.
What the Golden Princess told Lainis about defecting was true—but not to the El-Melloi family. She simply wanted to flee the Dual Towers. The Izaluma family would never give up their research, so Karina, the maid who temporarily replaced the princess, would eventually become the new Golden Princess.
Given the fate of the last one, her future was grim. Byron had indeed planned for this.
Under normal circumstances, news of the Golden Princess being killed would cause massive chaos. Even if Byron knew the truth, he might still use it to drag the El-Melloi family into a scandal. Amid this confusion, Regina, the Silver Princess, and others—helped by a childhood friend—could escape.
"Let's do it again."
As everyone absorbed Regina's confession, the pharmacist suddenly turned to Touko with a fanatical gleam in his eyes.
"So that's it."
Many of the magi immediately understood. He was a fanatical devotee of the Golden Princess.
Although they were twins, there was always a hierarchy—Golden was primary, Silver secondary. Just like red flowers need green leaves to stand out.
"Maio, you—" The twin maids, the Silver Princess, even the tailor looked at the pharmacist in shock. None of them expected this from him.
"It can't be done. Cinderella… is just Cinderella."
Before Touko could respond, the Second spoke.
Cinderella was a fleeting beauty—a miracle bound by time. Though in the story she gained her happy ending, in magecraft, such results couldn't be replicated. Magecraft was magecraft—it wasn't True Magic.
"Urgh."
Just as Touko was about to speak, she suddenly groaned. Everyone turned to see a strange green root-like object emerging from her chest.
"We did it! Lady Touko, I knew you could do it!"
Maio now held a bizarre incense stick in his hand, but his appearance had changed—he looked decades older, having gone from young man to elderly in an instant.
"A drug... I see."
Despite the foreign object sprouting from her chest, Touko showed no panic—only realization. She had understood how she'd been compromised.
"It's the memory-blocking drug from before—something else was hidden in it, and it's now been triggered," the Second deduced immediately.
"Grand Magus? Hah. Meaningless. Only she matters. She is the culmination of my and the Izaluma dream. Isn't that right, Lord Byron? Let's do it again!"
Now even more crazed, Maio's face was twisted with obsession. Byron, on the other hand, looked completely lost—this had gone beyond anything he anticipated.
"Are you threatening me?" Touko stared at Maio, her expression flat but radiating immense pressure. But in his frenzy, Maio seemed immune to it.
Meanwhile, Baruelay had already leapt from her seat, quickly putting distance between herself and Touko.
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