While the girls were facilitating training, Raid was in their current base of operations: the Altanian throne room. “Oh,” he said, looking up. “Sounds like things are getting lively over there.”
Wisel raised an eyebrow. “Really? I don’t hear anything.”
“Well, I heard some very loud shouting from the city walls. Probably the soldiers, since Eluria and Ariel should be conducting their training right about now. Sounds like they’re all pumped up.”
“Oh? I’m sure Ms. Eluria’s very happy about that. Ms. Ariel said her efforts didn’t produce much results...but I’m sure they can overcome any horrific training with enough grit.” Wisel sighed and gazed into the distance, likely recalling the early days of his and Millis’s training with Eluria. Eventually, he turned back to the room and adjusted his glasses with a grimace. “Anyway, it’s great that things are going well over there, at least. But as for us...”
Their original plan for this world had been to take authority from Altane, dismantle the empire, evacuate everyone to the eastern continent, then deal with the polluted mana. But things had changed a bit with the Sage’s Codex now in the picture.
The Sage’s Codex was a manuscript left behind by Raid Freeden of the First World—a marvelous treasure trove of knowledge and technology, one that even the Demon Lord had used to craft the art of magic. At present, this manuscript was their main lead to finding a solution for the polluted mana.
“Raid, have you figured out how to decipher it yet?” Wisel asked.
“Sure have,” Raid replied. “The Sage of this world led a completely opposite life to mine, so I was kinda worried for a second there...but it turns out we still think the exact same way. Bizarre, isn’t it?”
As Raid had suspected, the Sage’s Codex was not simply a compilation of knowledge and research; rather, it was an immense labyrinth of ciphers and codes. Some words were spelled slightly differently, meant to be put together with other such words from various pages to form a completely new paragraph. Some words seemingly made no sense until they were placed against a mirror and recomposed into a new passage. Raid could identify several ciphers he himself had invented and used in his past life.
That being said, the Codex was far from indecipherable. Each individual cipher could be decoded given enough time, effort, and manpower. In fact, some of the ciphered contents ranged from advanced technology to magical knowledge related to the Hero spell—things that were already known to the First World, meaning that many had taken up the challenge of the Codex’s ciphers and had already succeeded.
However, even then, the Sage’s Codex was far more complex than anybody could have ever imagined.
“So the deciphered texts also contain ciphers within them? How terribly cautious,” Wisel muttered. “It’s almost as if he could see through everything and made sure to complicate the codes.”
“I think the point wasn’t to complicate the codes, but rather to make sure only a certain person could decipher their true contents,” Raid suggested. “After all, the people of this world must have felt like they’d perfectly decoded the text when they were left with a new passage after so much painstaking effort.” Most people would have been elated the moment they found such advanced knowledge and groundbreaking technology hidden behind the first layer of ciphers. They wouldn’t think to look past that—to piece together the ciphers themselves—where the Sage had hidden the true secrets of the Codex. “I’ve tested this method myself a few times. It never really took off, though, given its complexity, so I stopped using it.”
Wisel narrowed his eyes. “What a...brutal way to wield knowledge. He used these groundbreaking inventions as a smoke screen? No ordinary person would think that way.”
“Or maybe it was just that vital to keep the major secret hidden,” Raid suggested as his gaze trailed over the pages scattered around him. “The Sage needed to make sure that only the intended recipient would be able to decipher the Codex’s true contents.”
To decipher one code alone was a tall task, but with the Sage’s Codex, that was no more than the first step among many. There were ciphers hidden behind ciphers, codes folded into codes. Even piecing these together was not the final step, for sometimes, different ciphers were used partway through the process. It was certainly not something one could achieve with a human lifespan—that is, unless it was the one who crafted the ciphers himself.
“The Sage definitely left this behind because he saw everything coming,” Raid concluded. “What would become of the First World...and that we would eventually arrive here.”
Wisel furrowed his brow in confusion. “But didn’t the Sage live two millennia ago? Are you saying that he knew what would happen two millennia in the future...and the creation of a new timeline?”
“Is it so surprising? I was reincarnated from a thousand years ago, Tiana can send her consciousness through time, Elise has inherited millennia-old memories, and Dian and his troops actually traveled through time themselves. All of this was made possible...with magic.” In the First World, Demon Lord Eluria Caldwin had invented magic by deciphering the Sage’s Codex. In other words, Sage Raid Freeden was the origin point of all magic. “The Sage left behind the foundations of magic as far back as two thousand years ago. Clearly, you can’t write him off as ‘just a smart guy’; there has to be something about him that defies logic. Besides, have you noticed how this manuscript is in perfect condition even though it should be two thousand years old?”
“You’re right... The preservation magic cast onto this manuscript is powered by the mana veins, not human mana. I thought somebody had cast it on the Codex at some point...but in that case it should have developed wear and tear over the millennia before magic was invented.”
Raid nodded. “Precisely. It was probably cast on the manuscript from the very beginning. This way, the Sage’s Codex is seemingly unaffected by the passage of time. The people of the past must have seen it as some sort of divine item and would have naturally stored it away in a secure location—such that, even two millennia later, all the volumes can still be found.” Raid narrowed his eyes at the manuscript scattered around him—a mere portion of the entire Codex—before quietly turning around. “So, Valtos, are you certain about the location of the rest of the manuscript?”
Behind him, a large man was seated with his legs crossed. Instead of responding, however, this man—Valtos—clenched his fist and yelled, “Hah, behold—my fifteenth consecutive victory! Do you understand now that I, a proud member of the Altanian imperial family, would never lose to a woman and a child?!”
“Aaaaargh! Norn, what’s the meaning of this?!” Millis demanded. “Don’t we have the All-Seeing Eyes? Isn’t it supposed to be a super overpowered ability or something?!”
Norn stuck out her bottom lip and mumbled, “Our eyes give us the ability to intuitively comprehend mechanisms and structures. But it’s up to the person to apply that information.”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh...” Millis nodded, listening eagerly. “So, what does that mean?”
“It means that just understanding the game’s rules and theories doesn’t make you smarter. Basically, you lost because you’re kind of a dum-dum.”
Millis slumped over like she’d just received a punch to the gut. “Have you no mercy for your dearest ancestor...?!” she wailed.
“Please try putting yourself in my shoes for a moment. I really wish I never learned how much of a ditz my ancestor was...”
“Ha ha ha!” Valtos’s boisterous laugh interrupted the girls’ exchange. “I see you finally understand that you could never dream of matching up to the genius of my noble lineage!”
Millis gritted her teeth and punched the floor in frustration. “I would’ve won by a landslide if this were a cow milking or foraging competition...!”
Valtos, however, continued to laugh with his head held up high. “It stands to reason that only I, the crown prince of Altane, am fit to— Ack!”
Raid withdrew his foot from Valtos’s back with a sigh. “Cut the nonsense. The Altanian empire has been dismantled, and the imperial family is no more. You’re just an ordinary civilian now.”
“Did you have to kick me?!” Valtos snapped. “Even if the empire is gone, our family has protected the people over generations! Have you no respect for me?!”
“None at all,” Raid answered swiftly. “Besides, your vassals were the ones actually protecting the people and keeping things running. Those who stayed behind told us that they had to make sure your family stayed entertained so they wouldn’t mess things up.”
“Who dares?! Bring them before me now! I shall have them executed right away!”
“Case in point,” Raid muttered dryly as he landed a firm fist on Valtos’s head. “What a useless buffoon.”
They had allowed the Altanian upper class to move to Paradise—save for Crown Prince Valtos, who now remained under guard in the capital. The reason was very simple: They needed his cooperation.
“The Sage’s Codex was split into seven volumes, and the remaining six are mainly in the western region because that was where the Demon Lord’s invasion began. Correct?” Raid asked.
“Of course,” said Valtos. “It was recorded as such in our history books. The Sage’s Codex was evacuated from the central continent to the eastern continent before it could fall to the Demon Lord’s invasion.” However, the Sage’s Codex stored in the empire was incomplete, as Altane had failed to secure a portion of it amid the Demon Lord’s invasion.