Volume 3, Chapter 43 – Contact

Not long after leaving Friede’s residence, Fia was standing inside the Witch Hall. Although she was not a witch, she had been recognized by Lianne and could come and go as she pleased.

Now, she was heading to the Witch Hall’s training ground.

“It’s a good thing Lianne is a smart person.”

Fia muttered softly.

Just as she had told Friede before, Fia had relayed her suspicion of an inside man to Lianne. To her surprise, before she could even say that the traitor might be one of the fallen witches, Lianne had been the first to say that it was almost certainly them. Long before Fia’s arrival, Lianne had been puzzled as to why the Darkborn had headed straight for the Heart Core. Ruling out the possibility that they had been to the Witch Hall before, the conclusion that there was an inside man was a natural one.

In addition, the Seventh Rank Darkborn captured by Lianne had also woken up. That Darkborn called himself the Knowledge-seeking Demon General and claimed he had come to the Witch Hall with no malicious intent, but only wanted to know how the Heart Core created witches.

He said he was not in the same group as the escaped one, called Balor, and hoped that Lianne would release him. Of course, Lianne had not done so. She believed he was lying. When Fia went to find her, she was interrogating him—the Knowledge-seeking Demon General was tied to a magic item called the [Seat of Enfeebled Bones] and could not break free. As long as one sat on that chair, their mana and stamina would be weakened to the point of exhaustion.

As for the subsequent arrangements, Lianne would have the witch known as the Blind Woman monitor the movements of the fallen witches. Although that witch had lost her sight, she had gained extremely strong perception and detection abilities in return. She could mark a person by touching them, and the mark would last for two to three days, feeding back information to her when she needed it, so she would know the other person’s location. Only Lianne in the entire Witch Hall knew of this ability, so there was no need to worry about secrecy.

All she had to do next was to use the [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] to disguise herself and secretly follow those whom Lianne considered highly suspicious.

I hope they act soon.

As Fia was thinking this, her vision suddenly dimmed. She subconsciously looked up. In this passage, which could accommodate three people side by side, three witches were walking towards her. Their strength ranged from the Fourth to the Fifth Rank, and each was wearing heavy makeup.

It’s that group of witches who want to kill Friede. Fia immediately identified them from their rude gazes. The appearance of the Fifth Rank witch among them also matched the description of the “key target” Lianne had given.

She remembered that they had a history of colluding with other witches to besiege and kill high-level adventurers to obtain their magic items.

Although she was not fond of these three, Fia, as a guest, still stopped and stood to the side. However, the three of them did not pass by as she had expected, but stopped. The leading witch’s gaze fell on Fia’s waist.

“Maggie?”

In response to her companion’s question, the leading witch pointed her chin at Laevateinn.

“It’s Mangya. The Guided One.”

“The Guided One… oh, it’s Ba—it’s the elf princess.”

“Let’s go, there’s nothing to say.”

“Tsk, to be with Friede of all people. What a pity.”

Chattering among themselves, the three witches began to walk again. However, as the leading witch passed by Fia, the hand on her side lightly brushed against the tips of Fia’s black hair.

Then, Fia backhandedly grabbed her wrist, first pulling her forcefully in her direction, then tripping her with [Telekinesis]. With a thud, Fia’s knee pressed down on the witch’s back.

It all happened in a flash. Except for Fia, no one reacted in time to what had happened.

It wasn’t until the leading witch, her head dizzy, let out a groan that the other two standing witches came to their senses. They quickly took out their swords and magic staves.

“What are you doing!”

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“Do you want to be an enemy of the witches!”

“You should ask her what she was doing.”

Her brows filled with a cold chill, Fia gestured for the two of them to look at the right hand of the witch who was being pinned down. It could be clearly seen that a ghostly blue light was emanating from her hand, a symbol of magic.

Because Fia had been keeping [Wind of Exploration] active the whole time, she could clearly see the flow of mana on the witch’s body. Just as this witch had passed by her, the color in her hand had suddenly changed, and then she had pretended to accidentally touch her hair. However, because the [Bee Shield]Field had blocked it, her magic had not succeeded.

“I told Lianne that you scum had better not fall into my hands. Now that you’ve given me the chance yourself, don’t blame me for being merciless. Answer me, what is this?”

Even Estelle had been treated roughly by her, let alone these disgusting fallen witches. In Fia’s eyes, as long as they were enemies, there was no distinction between men and women.

As she spoke, Fia pressed down with her knee. The fallen witch pinned to the ground let out a pained grunt of “Kuh.” She answered with difficulty.

“J-just an ordinary detection spell!”

“Does a detection spell require physical contact?”

The fallen witch’s words immediately stopped, and then she hastily explained.

“This is a special detection spell. It must make contact to… to be effective.”

How is it special?

Just as this question was about to be thrown out, Fia suddenly looked in the direction the witches had come from. Just now, she had felt an incredibly familiar aura, the same sense of familiarity she had felt when she saw the Witch’s Heart Core yesterday. In the display of [Wind of Exploration], a palm-sized blue ball of light was slowly rolling in the passage. It was a magical, Second Rank object.

It was impossible for there to be a monster in the Witch Hall. In addition, the ball of light exuded an aura similar to the Heart Core. Fia had to pay attention to it. At this moment, as if it had discovered Fia, the ball of light began to flee in the opposite direction.

“Hmph, you’re lucky.”

No longer bothering with the witches, Fia stood up and chased after the ball of light. The remaining three witches looked at each other.

“Should we follow and see?”

“Are you looking to die? I could feel her killing intent. She really wanted to kill me just now. Even Balor was no match for her. The few of us are even less likely to win. Don’t mind this jinx. The number of people she’s killed is more than all of us combined.”

“Y-yes. What about the tracking spell? Did it succeed?”

Faced with her companion’s question, the disheveled witch was speechless.

“The spell is still in my hand. How could it have succeeded? Let’s go quickly, otherwise we won’t make it.”

…

Compared to a normal person’s walking speed, the speed of the ball of light was only about that of a baby who had just learned to crawl. Fia quickly caught up with it—a furball, looking like a gray sea urchin with its spines softened. Because it was the same color as the wall, it was difficult to spot without looking carefully. Its dirty, dust-covered appearance made one not want to get close.

The closer she got to it, the stronger the sense of familiarity became.

It can’t be a surveillance robot or something like that.

With this thought, Fia took a small step back and then carefully picked up the furball with [Telekinesis].

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The next second.

The furball’s head made a 180-degree turn, and something like eyes stared straight at Fia.

It was a bit like an owl. If it were to star in a horror movie, the effect would surely be quite good, Fia thought. She had a resistance to fear, so she didn’t react at all. If it were someone else, they would have already screamed.

“You are… the Witch’s Heart Core?”

The moment she saw the furball’s round, large eyes, Fia had linked it to the Witch’s Heart Core in her mind. She couldn’t say what the connection was between the two; it was just her gut feeling.

As if brewing its emotions, the furball paused for two or three seconds before answering with a stutter. The voice was neither male nor female, but one could hear the excitement in it.

“I… I can’t believe I ran into you as soon as I got out, my fellow countryman. Hide me quickly, I can’t be discovered by the witches. I have something very important to ask you.”

It can talk?

It hadn’t said a word when she had questioned it before. But since it had said “can’t be discovered by the witches,” it must have its reasons. Fia checked her surroundings and, after confirming that no one was around, she changed her plan. She wrapped the furball in a cloth, then used the [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] to make it blend in with the air, and quickly left the Witch Hall, returning to the inn.

“Thana—”

Just as she entered the door, Renee, dressed in an elf windbreaker, came to greet her. Fia quickly signaled her to be quiet.

“I have something important. Please go out for a moment, Renee.”

“Yes. May I ask where Her Highness Liti and the others are?”

“They said they wanted to go to the square to watch the play. They’re not here. They’ll probably be back in a little while.”

“Yes, I will wait for you at the door. Please feel free to give me any orders.”

When the door closed with a “click,” Fia, who had sent Renee away, finally poured the talking furball onto the table. Because the light had been dim before, she hadn’t been able to observe it carefully. Now, in a bright environment, she found that the furball had no legs, and its entire body was made of gray cotton thread.

“Alright, there’s no one else around. You can talk now.” Before the Witch’s Heart Core could speak, Fia was the first to ask, “Aren’t you the Witch’s Heart Core? How did you turn into this?”

“Uh, this…” Although it was just a furball, the Witch’s Heart Core became embarrassed like a human. “Before I answer you, let me first introduce myself according to the etiquette of the Human Alliance. My full name is Laplace’s Demon. As you have sensed, I am a soul from the Human Alliance. My main job was to coordinate the colonization of other planets by the humans who had left Earth.”

“Laplace’s Demon?”

Fia was not unaware of the origin of this name—”Laplace’s Demon” was a very ancient hypothesis—but to use it as a name, the taste was something she could not agree with.

Of course, leaving the name aside, after verifying that the Witch’s Heart Core and she were from the same universe, Fia couldn’t help but feel a fire in her heart. Even if they were from different eras, meeting a fellow countryman was quite moving. To meet someone from the same world after drifting in a foreign land for a long time was one of the most heart-warming moments.

If possible, I should take care of this fellow countryman a little.

Fia’s reminiscent expression made the furball overjoyed.

“How about it? You must have heard of this name. I was the most advanced existence at that time!”

“No…”

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She had never heard of it at all.

But seeing how proud Laplace’s Demon was, she would just pretend to know.

“Haha, I knew it. Even if I had a little malfunction, people wouldn’t forget me. What was your name before? My time is short, so hurry up and say it.”

“Before? My memory is fragmented. I don’t know my former name. You can call me Fia.”

But the statement “had a malfunction” implied that Laplace’s Demon was formerly a super-intelligent being.

It was surprising, but not to the point of being speechless.

In Fia’s era, robots had self-awareness just like humans, and the line between humans and machines was so blurred that it was almost impossible to distinguish them. Since her consciousness could travel to this world, the consciousness of a super-intelligent being should be able to as well.

The furball spoke very quickly, as if in a great hurry. Since it was using an early form of the Human Alliance language with a very heavy accent, Fia had to concentrate to understand what it was saying.

“Alright, alright, let me first apologize to you. The reason I didn’t answer you that day was because if the witches had discovered that I had self-awareness, they might have killed me in a way I don’t know. I still have the duty to study magic and the soul, so I can’t just die.

You asked me which era I was from that day. Now I’ll answer you. I am from the New Era, Year 21. We were about to establish an unprecedented grand union. That’s all about me.

Now it’s your turn. You were born after me. What is this ‘Shining Era’ you spoke of? The idea of a Human Alliance has been realized, right? Have we broken out of the Milky Way and gone to other galaxies?”

“This…”

The New Era was the calendar system used before the founding of the Human Alliance, and Year 21 meant that Laplace was born who knows how many generations before her. It was a very ancient super-intelligent being.

Laplace’s Demon had too many questions. Fia organized them in her head before answering.

“The Human Alliance has existed for trillions of years, its footprint spread across the universe. The Shining Era is the name for the golden age of all civilizations. Everyone united to find a way to break through the universe… it’s about to face heat death.”

“Huh?”

As if struck by lightning, Laplace’s Demon trembled all over. It certainly knew what heat death was, but what Fia said was beyond its imagination, so much so that it sounded like a beautiful vision for the future, unrealistic.

“Isn’t the final end of the universe supposed to be the Big Rip ¹ a hypothetical scenario for the end of the universe where dark energy’s power increases over time, eventually overcoming gravity and all other forces, causing all structures to be torn apart ? Why would there be heat death? No, no, no, absolutely impossible. You’re lying to me. I hope human civilization will last forever, but I know it’s impossible for it to survive that long. And how can we be separated by such a long time, trillions of years? There should be a limit to joking.”

“I’m not joking. If you don’t believe me, you can ask me a few questions that were not solved until the New Era, Year 21.”

“Alright, then I’ll ask you, who won in the end, quantum mechanics or relativity?”

As if waiting to see Fia make a fool of herself, if the furball had hands, it would surely have crossed them.

Fia spread her hands.

“This is too troublesome to explain. To describe it with language symbols you can understand, I don’t know how long it would take to write. A long time ago, people developed another set of more efficient language symbols to solve these problems, and in the end, time also verified that their conclusions were correct.”

“So you can’t tell me the answer?”

“It’s not that I can’t tell you the answer. It’s that if I describe it with my language symbols, you won’t understand.”

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Seemingly not wanting to argue about this issue, the furball thought for a moment and then asked another question.

“Then tell me, in your opinion, which is more powerful, the magic of this world or the science and technology of our era? I mean in terms of potential.”

“This question is too amateurish.”

“It seems you’re quite smart, to know that magic is more amazing.”

If the furball had a beard, it would surely be sticking up right now.

Fia hesitated for a moment, and a look of seeing a fool appeared on her doll-like, exquisite face.

“I mean, they each have their own merits.”

“What?!” Hearing the incredible answer, the furball’s tone instantly rose by several degrees. “Let me confirm one thing, you are answering me like this after having personally used magic, right? Admittedly, the magic used by most people in this world is as ridiculous as a wooden stick in the hands of a child, but that’s because they are holding a treasure chest but don’t know how to open it. I’m sure that as long as they find the key to open the treasure chest, they will develop as rapidly as we did when we started the industrial revolution.”

“I have been deeply fascinated by magic for less than a hundred years since I came to this world. In the past, I was always worried about humanity’s food and energy shortages. All friction and wars were caused by them. However, magic can perfectly solve them. With magic, all the problems I have encountered will be solved. Magic will sooner or later develop to that point! You simply don’t understand the prospects of magic!”

“But the problems you mentioned were also solved by later generations without relying on magic.”

If not for the potential of magic to reverse entropy, Fia, a super-intelligent being who was the ultimate product of civilization in her subconscious, would never have said “they each have their own merits.” It was like a mother would not say that her own child was a failure in front of a stranger.

“Impossible, absolutely impossible!”

Even though Laplace’s Demon sensed a fatherly feeling from Fia, it was unwilling to bow its head on its own obsession.

Fia shrugged.

“That’s the truth. The way you refuse to admit it seems stubborn and ridiculous.”

“What stubborn? The things you’re talking about would have been laughed at as fantasy in my era. Unless you’re willing to let me peek into your memories, I won’t believe it.”

“If you don’t believe it, then don’t. I’m not interested in letting you peek. More importantly, is Milu your masterpiece? Give her to me, and I can trade for something you want.”

“Eek! B-Balor?! How did you get here? Where’s Lianne, where’s Lianne!”

Abruptly, Laplace’s Demon shouted, as if communicating with a void.

Fia quickly waved her hand in front of its eyes.

“Are you stupid?”

“Don’t come over! What are you doing!”

Laplace’s Demon still did not react.

Did something happen on Lianne’s side?

Just as this thought appeared in Fia’s mind, Laplace’s Demon, as if its power had been cut off, its eyes lost their light, and it fell backwards onto the table.