BTVF 24

Chapter 24

You want me to kill the Grand Duchess?

No matter how indifferent he was to his employer, that was too much.

“Miss, if all the blood leaves a human body, they die, right?”

[Yes.]

“The same goes for the Core. If all the energy drains, you die.”

[Yes.]

“Then let’s stop talking nonsense.”

For Carlin, this level of explanation was already quite polite.

But Aria looked up at him with bright, unafraid eyes, showing no hint of fear even though death had been mentioned.

[Anyway, if I want to use energy in the short term, this is the only way, right?]

“That’s right.”

The ‘only’ way.

Aria made her decision quickly.

For now, she had no choice but to rely entirely on this sorcerer.

[You can do it, right?]

“Of course I can….”

Carlin explained with a sour expression.

“There are sometimes those who train in such reckless ways.”

Mostly martial artists.

Humans whose brains are dominated by a single thought: to surpass their limits, even at the cost of their own lives.

That was why Carlin seriously believed that the “mu” in “martial arts” might not mean martial, but foolishness.

“If their recovery is beyond human level—more like an amoeba—then it could succeed.”

He fixed his gaze on Aria.

It was as if he were asking whether she, being naturally robust, could have such extraordinary recovery.

“Do you know the saying, ‘Know thyself’? It’s inscribed on the temple pillars.”

“…….”

“Your energy is so faint that the moment your Core is pierced, you’ll stop breathing in 0.1 seconds. So I suggest you give up.”

He extended his hand as if to escort her out.

Not out of consideration, but as a way to remove her as quickly as possible.

Aria looked down at his hand and, as if deep in thought, placed her own over it.

“……!”

At that moment, the sorcerer’s half-closed eyes widened in shock.

He quickly pulled his hand back, as if struck by electricity.

“Th-This is impossible… Is it possible for a human to have this much energy?”

The moment his hand touched hers, Carlin saw the essence she had been hiding.

Although she only released her energy for an instant, it was more than enough.

“What on earth… are you?”

The attitude of underestimating a child shifted instantly.

‘He was deceived by appearances.’

Carlin, who had read her tone through the cards, realized it was far from childlike.

Aria met his gaze and replied in a clear, pure voice.

“Siren.”

Aria had reached her limit. If she could no longer hide her power from everyone, she had to make a choice.

She chose the sorcerer.

He was the only person who could awaken her latent potential.

“You know what a Siren is?”

“……Of course I do.”

Carlin’s expression was like chewing on a stone—reluctant and deeply aware of the trouble he was about to face.

“Ah, damn. So you’ve been hiding your magic all this time?”

No wonder. The energy she radiated was so faint that it was a miracle she was alive.

“And yet you don’t even know what a Core is?”

Carlin was confused. Of course, concealing energy and using energy are separate domains, but deeply connected; one could not be mastered without the other.

“You must know how to use energy to hide it.”

‘I remember from my previous life.’

Aria thought.

She could both conceal and manipulate energy because she had memories of it.

But as a child, her body’s Core was blocked and not free.

Her abilities were partly sealed.

“How on earth did you manage to manipulate energy without even having a channel open?”

“Just… did.”

“Just…?”

Aria nodded.

“You possessed such delicate, artistic talent, yet your method was no different from a brute.”

Carlin’s earlier belief—that the ‘mu’ in martial arts was foolishness—seemed only more true now.

Why? Aria had no choice but to answer:

“Because that was the only way I could learn to sing.”

“….”

“Until I coughed up blood, I kept singing.”

Carlin was speechless.

‘She wasn’t even treated like a human.’

Now it made sense why she had hidden that she was a Siren.

‘So that’s why a mere ten-year-old asked me to pierce her Core without flinching.’

Carlin ground his teeth.

He didn’t consider himself especially moral, but even he had his limits.

Count Cortez, sometimes called the “circus master,” took a Siren, had a daughter for the circus, and sold her off when she became unnecessary—a true monster among monsters.

She should have been born a worm.

“Then let’s change the question.”

Suppressing the fury rising to his head, he continued.

“Why did you come to me? To learn to use your energy?”

Carlin was willing to teach her if that were her reason. Seeing a child pushing herself to the point of self-harm to master her abilities frustrated him.

But Aria shook her head.

“Pierce my Core.”

“Don’t be absurd. Piercing your Core doesn’t suddenly make you proficient in using energy.”

“No. As soon as the channel opens, I can use my abilities immediately.”

“So how is that possible?”

Of course, being able to conceal energy came from knowing how to use it.

Carlin felt like he had been a frog in a well; he could no longer claim to understand geniuses.

“Tell me why. Why are you in such a rush to use your abilities?”

Here came the problem.

So far, it was within the bounds of reason. But what she was about to say next would sound like lunacy.

But she had to persuade him.

“I have to change the future.”

“Excuse me?”

“Actually, in the future…”

“Wait a second.”

Carlin cut her off mid-sentence.

“I don’t want to know.”

Aria was momentarily speechless.

Not “What nonsense is this?” or “Are you sane?”—but “I don’t want to know.”

Carlin’s usually high-handed and irritable gaze trembled wildly.

“Did you receive precognition? No, that’s not the important part…”

Not the important part?

‘Usually, that’s the part everyone would want to know.’

Carlin dismissed her most pressing concern as if it didn’t matter.

“No matter what happens in the future, I don’t want to know, nor will I change it.”

“Why?”

“Because everyone has a destiny assigned to them.”

Destiny? Absurd.

By that logic, Aria’s destiny would be to destroy the empire.

Why should she bear such a fate just for being born here?

“Do you mean that everything is God’s will?”

“Whether it’s God or whatever, it means that the world has set rules and order.”

Aria silently watched Carlin.

“The world may look chaotic, but it runs according to fixed laws. Like interlocking gears, precise and flawless.”

She made him understand roughly what she meant.

Apples are red, the sky is blue. Deer eat grass, lions eat deer.

That’s the way of the world.

‘And humans cannot change the future.’

That too was the order of the world.

“Changing the future is like taking out a gear and replacing it with a new one. If you change it, other gears must change too for the system to run again.”

Aria moved her lips slowly.

“If I break the set rules, a new set of rules will emerge?”

“Quick learner.” Carlin nodded in admiration.

Her speech hadn’t sounded childlike because of her precognition, perhaps.

“The new rules will demand a greater price and tighten around your neck.”

A price. Plausible.

If you brought someone back from death by turning back time, you’d owe a life’s worth, naturally.

‘I don’t know what the price will be.’

Aria answered calmly.

“Then why do I know the future? If I knew, I’d try to change it. I wouldn’t just watch.”

“….”

Carlin also wondered why.

Why was a child willing to pierce her Core and risk herself to change the future?

Aria offered a simple answer.

“My will is the world’s will, and my intent is the world’s order.”

“…Excuse me?”

Carlin asked, dumbfounded.

“Surely the world knew I would act this way. And it still let me act. So I am the world. Everything follows my will.”

“Wait a minute.”

He couldn’t believe her audacity.

But she didn’t care and spoke plainly.

“Of course it won’t be easy. I may change nothing. But I must try. Even if I am young, I know what’s right. If the world is wrong, I’ll change it.”

“….”

“If I just wait, afraid of the price, I’d do nothing. I’ll pay the price myself.”

“….”

At that moment, Carlin’s gaze, which had seemed unwilling to pierce her Core even with a knife at her throat, wavered.

Indeed, she was young.

Though he had considered her mature, in some ways, she was startlingly childlike.

‘Believing there is still justice in the world. Believing she can change anything with her own power.’

Aria still believed in the world.

Carlin realized he could not persuade her with words, so he sighed and said:

“Then prove it.”