Shades of the New World

Chapter 179: Sating one's curiosity

"Ahem," Twelve cleared her voice forcing Evin to look at the simply dressed teenage girl.

After looking at Four for about a month straight, he could clearly see the differences that Twelve and Four had, even though their facial features could be called almost identical. While Four had a slightly slouchy pose, with sharp, upright eyes, Twelve had a much proper posture with a distinctly dignified bearing. While her eyes weren't as sharp as Four's they certainly couldn't be called droopy. Evin could also say that they had a peculiarly dangerous feel to it.

'Maybe I shouldn't be as casual with her, like I was with Four,' Evin thought after a bit.

While he was quite scared of Four at first, he very quickly got used to the girl's two moods. Even though he was quite curious about the third, yandere personality. But sadly, Four seemed to be very adamant on keeping that one in check.

Although Four said that she would hibernate most of the time, she was nice enough to keep Evin company for the entirity of Evin's exile. Well, the girl was always adamant on the fact that she was being forced to do so. But she did seem to have fun dissing Evin during the whole duration of it...

"First of all, I must apologize for getting you caught up inside this whole mess in the first place. Four and the others well, they can be a bit unpredictable sometimes," Twelve apologized in a smooth voice and Evin regathered his stray thoughts.

'The others being the ten other supervisors of the Empress' failed projects...' Evin thought curiously. Four would sometimes mention her sisters, but would never talk in detail about them. Evin felt like she wanted to, but she was encouraged not to by a certain someone who was standing in front of Evin currently. He himself was happy enough to not put his head in the hornet's nest.

"Please don't worry about it. After all, I've gotten a lot of things from this accident And I know you did a lot of things to help me out," Evin said while gesturing at the surrounding barrier.

'Though, it would've been nice if you told me what I was getting into,' he thought inside.

"Haah, I'm quite used to cleaning up after the others. Although I wish they'd stop doing so, as it's utterly meaningless," Twelve sighed.

'I'm pretty sure they do it, because there's nothing else to do. I've seen how Four acted most of the time, bored and searching for the next thing to do,' Evin thought, but steered the conversation to the main problem at hand.

"In any case, can I assume you want to talk about keeping the Empress' past and the use of Divine Essence a secret?"

"About that As you can probably guess, anything that concerns the failed Worlds and the history of the Empress must be kept secret," Twelve said softly.

Evin didn't bother asking why, as he didn't want to explain how he knew these things in the first place.

"As for your Soul magic, I will not forbid you from using it, as long as you chalk up a proper excuse for it, when you're using it in public. Perhaps you can simply call it your specialty I know a few who do the same. Oh and also, for the time being, please don't use raw mana to Break Spells. You can use my World's energy for those purposes," Twelve said.

"What should I do about the Kingdom's Oath?" Evin asked. The Kingdom's Oath forced every mage to divulge and explain any new type of magic they used. 

"Don't worry about that. The kingdom should know of those things already and they won't ask you where you learned it from as well. And you should also remember that the Oaths and the various Contracts will not apply for any information that concerns the Empress and her past," Twelve explained calmly.

"What about the use of Divine Essence?" Evin asked.

"Technically, since they're just mana, it's a bit hard to keep their use hidden... But I'll make a slight exception for you and make it so that you won't have to speak of those things," Twelve said. 

'Hmm Well, considering that it can be related to what the Empress did when she was still the Princess of Denial, I suppose it couldn't be helped Though considering her behavior, something tells me that even if everyone knew about the Empress' past, she wouldn't really care much...

'So does that mean that the reason the information is being contained is for another reason,' Evin wondered.

But that wasn't something that concerned him much. What he was interested in was something else. It was just that he was awfully afraid of actually asking the question.

'Shit, it wouldn't hurt to ask. At worst, Twelve would be slightly annoyed,' he eventually amde up his mind.

"Can you tell me more about the memories that I saw inside Four's World? Why the Empress led a bloody crusade against the World, meticulously killing every single person on the world..." Evin asked.

Twelve eyed Evin with a half smile, before shaking her head.

"Why did the Empress do those things? Well, unfortunately, I don't have the answers for you. Just know that aside from the Authorities and another very special group of people, you're probably the only one who knows about the Empress' past. For your information, probably the only reason she left you alive was because you come from another World and she's slightly interested in where you might end up," Twelve said, a threatening hint in her voice.

Listening to the answer, Evin tactfully shut his mouth. He didn't need any more hints.

'It isn't my place to question a goddess. It would be too tragic to die for my curiosity,' he thought resolutely. 

"Do you have anything else for me?" he asked, trying to break the sudden eerie silence.

"Ah yes, mother the Empress invited you to come to the next Velvet Procession. Please make sure you don't miss it," Twelve said smilingly.

"She's inviting me personally?" 

'Is it to talk to me about the memories? Why does she need to see me personally?' Evin couldn't help but think.

"So it seems If you find yourself unable to turn up at the time due to external reasons, will yourself to enter the World of Time. My World's doors will always be open for you, no matter the problems you might be facing," Twelve said reassuringly, the previous threatening tone all but gone.

Evin thought about what Twelve meant when she said that Evin could access Twelve's World at all times. Thinking a bit, he realized that Twelve was willing to help Evin out if he needed it. 

'That's nice to hear. It's like a get out of jail free card. Though I should probably not use it to get out of any and all situations, provided I'm not about to literally die or anything,' Evin thought.

"Thank you for your help," he then replied simply.

"That's all for the time being. Good luck on your training, Evin. Oh, and thank the old man for not making a fuss. I wouldn't want to bother Kal for such small things, after all," Twelve said and waved her hands. 

A portal appeared in front of her and she jumped into it, dispelling the barrier that was protecting Evin. Registering what just happened, Evin hurriedly put his Soul Mask and his spear inside his Storage Ring. 

He looked around and found Nasst and Rith sitting next to each other, speaking about something.

"Oh, you're finally awake. Is the Authority gone?" Nasst asked, a hint of regret in his voice.

"Yes, though she did tell me to thank you for not making a fuss," Evin replied and asked: "What were you two talking about?" 

As far as he knew, the two really couldn't be considered close. 

"We've just been talking about your training regime. Seems like you'll be busy learning the wonders of the World of Space under Rith's instructions," Nasst replied smilingly.

'Ah, that.'

"Oh, I don't know if this is important, but I'm able to use Time energy without much problems. I'll probably need some time to get used to it, since I'm unable to use a lot of it at the same time," Evin said, suddenly reminded why he got into this whole mess in the first place.

"That's great. I'm really running out of things to teach you, huh? Well, it saves a lot of trouble, since it would be a pain to have you learn about how most spells are constructed. But now that you can brute force your way through most of them, I just need to teach you how to distinguish spells from natural occurrence created by a spell," Nasst laughed.

'Wait he was going to teach me what now?' Evin thought, thanking Twelve for letting him use Time Energy.

No matter how he thought about it, learning about how mages cast all their magic sounded like some extremely tedious work.