Noah put down his teacup and pointed at the "trophy" on the table.
"No, you didn't fail. Look, that's the proof."
"Is that so...?"
"Mm. Don't overthink it. Go take a bath and relax."
Noah reached out and lightly patted Taeko's head. Then he picked up Five Sights: Spectator and returned to his room.
"Appraisal."
[Five Sights: Spectator]
・Teigu
・Support-type Teigu
・Possesses the "Five Sights": Insight, Farsight, X-ray Vision, Foresight, and Illusion
・Consumes mental energy to activate
・Insight: Sees into the human heart
・Farsight: Observes distant places
・X-ray Vision: Sees through visual obstructions
・Foresight: Sees the future
・Illusion: Creates illusions
・Activation condition: The Eye of Five Sights must see the target
For a support-type Teigu, its functions were truly impressive.
Noah used Seeker to analyze everything about Five Sights: Spectator, memorizing all its abilities.
Then he placed the Teigu directly on his head and began testing the abilities that did not require a target.
He put on the headband and poured mental energy into it. The golden metal eye on the headband immediately opened, revealing the Eye of Five Sights inside.
With a thought, Noah found that the tabletop before him had turned transparent in his vision. He could clearly see everything inside the drawer beneath it.
If he deepened that thought, he could even see through the objects inside the drawer and directly observe their tightly fitted internal parts.
"X-ray Vision... I can sense things outside my line of sight with Weaver too, but I never thought about simply piercing through visual obstructions in such a straightforward way."
Then, what about the others?
Insight, Foresight, and Illusion all required targets to activate.
So aside from X-ray Vision, the only one he could test alone was Farsight.
That said, the room was only so large. Even without Farsight, he could see everything clearly.
"Combine Farsight and X-ray Vision, then extend the range farther."
Having thought of a method, Noah activated Farsight and X-ray Vision at the same time.
Five Sights: Spectator's abilities were not limited to one at a time.
They could be used together, but doing so would greatly increase the drain on mental energy.
Ordinary people had no specialized way to train and increase their mental power.
But Noah was different.
This level of burden was light as a feather to him.
First, he used X-ray Vision to pierce through the visual obstruction.
Then, with Farsight activated, Noah found that this function worked almost like a camera's zoom, allowing him to adjust the distance.
So, based on the close-range view, he slightly extended the Farsight distance.
It was only a slight adjustment, but this time, his vision directly passed through three or four walls.
"Enough... This is!"
Looking at the scene that suddenly appeared as if it were right in front of him, Noah froze on the spot.
It was Taeko.
Her long black hair, usually tied in a high ponytail, had been let down, and she was in the middle of bathing.
Because of the viewing distance, the image appeared far too close, as if he had accidentally walked right into the room.
Noah closed his eyes and even raised a hand to cover them, but it did not help.
That was simply how X-ray Vision worked.
Whether it was his hand or his eyelids, the ability pierced through them all. Blocking his sight meant nothing.
After a startled beat, Noah finally removed Five Sights: Spectator from his head.
At that moment, he suddenly realized something.
There had been no rejection reaction at all.
In other words, his compatibility with this Teigu seemed to be quite high.
But he had not managed to draw out any kind of "trump card" from Five Sights: Spectator.
In other words, although his compatibility with it was decent, the Teigu had not fully acknowledged him.
Noah studied the Teigu in his hands and once again felt that the power of Teigu was truly fascinating.
The more he researched them, the more he realized that alchemy and secret arts were, in essence, technologies designed to help humans use the power of Danger Beasts.
Super-class Danger Beasts possessed abilities they were born with, standing above all other species.
At the end of the day, the abilities of Teigu were the innate supernatural powers of Danger Beasts.
And yet, even those beings, powerful and noble enough to resemble gods, had still been slaughtered by humans.
Noah did not know how many people the Empire had sacrificed or how great a price it had paid to achieve that, but the humans from a thousand years ago who managed to put reins on gods were terrifying.
Even monsters comparable to natural disasters could be defeated.
Was that the fate of solitary strength?
If those lonely, powerful beings had reliable companions, would humanity still have succeeded?
Unfortunately, if they relied on companions, then they would no longer be solitary.
Seen from that angle, the path Noah had chosen was probably at least better than that.
He would not become a hero.
Instead, he would make his companions even stronger than heroes.
Five Sights: Spectator's Farsight ability was excellent. It was much better than the surveillance formula he had installed on Black Nightmare.
To describe it simply, it was like the difference in image quality.
The surveillance formula's own function was only "watching." It could not zoom in or freely change angles by itself.
The reason Noah could make it do those things was because the formula's carrier was the telescope installed on Black Nightmare.
Noah had never been obsessed with achieving everything using only what he personally had on hand.
If his own ability could not do something, then he would simply make up for it somewhere else.
For the parts the surveillance formula could not do, he used tools.
Then by combining the two, he got the function he needed.
The only problem was that the telescope's performance was a little hard to praise.
If the telescope's image quality was 720p and lost clarity whenever it zoomed in, then Five Sights: Spectator's Farsight was 4K ultra-high definition!
It could zoom in and out proportionally without affecting the clarity of the image.
This kind of Farsight felt almost as if it brought the user directly to the scene to watch up close.
That made Noah clearly realize that this was truly a supernatural ability, not technology. In the past, he had only experienced something this strange in VR.
'That said, this thing really is ugly...Maybe I should give it a new look.'
Since his compatibility with it was not bad, Noah decided to keep the Teigu.
He simply did not like its current appearance.
For Teigu, the way compatibility was judged was simple and crude.
First impressions played a very important role.
For example, when a Teigu was placed in front of someone, that person might think, 'So beautiful,' 'So cool,' or 'So elegant.'
In cases like that, even if the compatibility was average, the two sides would at least not reject each other completely.
Then there were cases where someone instinctively felt, 'Disgusting,' or 'Creepy.'
In that situation, the Teigu would most likely respond with the same kind of rejection.
For Noah, he thought Five Sights: Spectator's effects were very good.
He did not reject it in his heart, which counted as a positive impression.
With his current Endurance, he could stay awake for forty-eight hours straight without feeling obviously sleepy.
As a result, he ended up getting absorbed in the joy of redesigning it.
It was not until noon the next day that he finally put down his work and stretched.
The object in his hand had already changed from a headband into a pair of glasses.
Not only that, considering Five Sights: Spectator's Illusion ability, Noah had also given the lenses special treatment.
They could reflect certain flickers and special light patterns directed at the pupils.
That way, illusion abilities that used the eyes as a medium would have a much harder time affecting him.
Although most Teigu abilities were unique, that was not absolute.
Taking precautions was never a bad idea.
Wearing the glasses, Noah came to the living room and found the teapot being kept warm on a volcanic stone.
He knew Taeko had prepared it.
He picked up the pot and poured himself a cup of tea to quench his thirst.
By coincidence, Taeko walked out of the washroom.
Noah glanced at her, paused slightly, then somewhat unnaturally moved his gaze aside.
Of course, he had not used X-ray Vision.
It was just that looking at Taeko while wearing these glasses naturally reminded him of what he had seen last night.
When Taeko saw Noah drinking the hot tea she had prepared, a smile immediately bloomed on her face.
Still, she did not forget the important matter.
"Senpai, someone came to deliver a message this morning. They claimed to be from the Leiden family."
Taeko took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it over.
Noah accepted it and looked at it, discovering that the seal printed on the paper was indeed the Leiden family crest.
Leims?
With a bit of curiosity, Noah began reading the contents of the letter.
The general meaning was that he should come home for a visit. Aside from that, the rest was mostly ordinary greetings.