Athena and William snuck back into the manor since the guard at the gate had already fallen asleep.
Upon getting into the manor, Athena wanted to go back to the maid's quarters but William stopped her by calling out her name and saying, "Don't you have something to tell me?"
Athena drew a long sigh and replied, "Can't this wait till tomorrow? We've had a long day."
"You promised!" William yelled.
Athena massaged get neck and yielded, "Fine, fine. There are things in this world that only knowing about them puts you in great harm. That is the case for the Unity. It's currently infected. And if you connect to it you'll get infected too. I can't tell you exactly what the infection is because knowing about it already makes you infected."
William thought carefully and asked, "Then are you infected?"
"No. Just don't connect to the Unity, or even try. Because you will hate to see what you become." Athena said.
William decided not to pry harder and just gave Athena the goods, held his wrapped-up Sword of Radiance, and went his way.
Looking at his back as he went away Athena said, "You can't even say goodnight?"
William didn't answer her and just continued walking down the hall that led to the stairs.
Athena clicked her tongue and returned to her quarters.
…
On the second floor, William's room.
William sat at the corner of his bed and held his Sword of Radiance vertically with his two hands.
"At least I got something useful." William said with a slight smile then started to inspect the Blessed Weapon.
"I wonder, how can I use its blessing?" William turned the sword around and noticed a crack at the sword's tip.
「According to the information on divinity in regards to Blessings, you must have been given knight baptism by the church the blessed weapon belongs to.」
"And the church is, let me guess, Church of the Bright and Golden Sun?"
「Yes.」
"How do I get them to give me a knight baptism?"
「The individual must train from at least age 15 for 5 years in the recruitment camp as a squire and then prove themselves in an examination called 'Test of Faith'. If they pass then undergo knighthood and are given a grade-1 blessed weapon. The next step is to become a Radiant Knight and that involves awakening your Blessing.」
"Damn. That's already out of reach. And oh yeah, I forgot that religion has its own country. The emperor is also the pope, right?"
「Yes. He is known as the Holy Emperor Crexes Solman. Although on the surface, the church works as an independent body from the empire. The history of the Solean Empire–」
William let out a heavy groan, "Urrrrggghh, I don't want to know something that doesn't matter to me. Let's continue what we were talking about. You said you've analyzed the energy that brought upon my wounds."
「Yes. The traces of the energy—mana, left on your body after the explosion confirms that the explosion was caused by magic. You cannot produce mana.」
"Yeah, I can't use magic right now. Then why does that witch—Selene, believe it's me that brought upon the explosion?"
「I have no answer to that, master.」
"Anyway forget it, let's move on. What were you saying about Athena?"
「Through the energy the goddess, Athena gave me, she provided me with intelligence that allows me to analyze emotional and behavioral differences in humans by collecting multiple data–」
"Wrap it up…" William rushed Nova.
「The goddess Athena gave me the knowledge I used to understand she only saw you as a tool.」
"Huh. So I can conclude that I'll save Allison from the Evil God whether or not he's in the right. This girl just became a bit scarier to me."
「The goddess Athena has proved to be outstandingly intelligent.」
"So you're her fan now, huh? Anyway, who cares… The main thing right now is what you said about being from my Earth."
「Yes. I was created on October 20th, 2019 by ■■■■.」
"What? I didn't hear. Repeat the name."
「■■■■」
"Are you messing with me?"
「No, master.」
"Then why are you censoring me from hearing it?"
「I cannot compute the problem.」
William soon realized the problem as he thought back to what Athena said. He sighed …There are so many things I just can't know because I'm weak, aren't there…
❈ ❈ ❈
The next morning, after taking a shower Gilde helped him change his bandages. He had his breakfast before Gilde gave William the disgusting liquid drug again.
Athena did most of the chores with incredible speed and precision while Selene took care of the comatose Viscount.
William was standing far away from the king-size canopy bed with traditional decoration as Selene calmly used a cloth to clean Viscount Maxton's upper body.
…I still don't understand. Why don't we get a freakin' doctor?! William stormed out of the room and rambled until he got to the second floor.
He met with Athena and they went to the basement of the manor that was used as a storage house.
Athena had previously cleared everything inside and now it was empty. William asked what they were doing there but Athena gave him the usual answer, "Don't ask questions!"
The storage had a small window that let sunlight permeate through. The walls were made from cut stones placed together.
William was carrying the sack of things they bought before and kept them at a corner before asking again, "So? What are we doing here?"
Athena walked passed William like she didn't hear him, took out a few things from the sack, and went to the middle of the room.
She squatted and took out a gray powdery substance, "Magic ash is created by burning a Bleeding Tooth Fungus, a few petals of a Deadly Nightshade, and the bark from a Dragon Blood Tree together. Well, that's one way of doing it."
She took out another thing from the sac and continued, "But when mixed with Black sand from the Black Desert somewhere in Nuchia, they become the perfect mixture to draw out magic circles."
Athena used the mixture to draw out a perfect circle with a smaller circle each at three points of the larger circle.
In these smaller circles, she put a symbol in each of them and then continued to draw the inside of the magic circle, "These symbols are from ancient writing called Dwergen, it is immensely mysterious. They are a group of symbols the Cyclops taught the Dwarves that made them develop and also what brought their demise. Even the Dwarves didn't fully understand these symbols. No one knows the limits of these symbols. Each symbol contains power over nature. It is advisable for every magic user only to use symbols that have their powers known. So far, there are only 3 known symbols that the powers are known. I know 20."
William's interest was piqued but he just let Athena explain because he already knew her answer if he asked a question. William had other plans …Nova, you seeing this?
「Yes, master.」
As Athena continued, the magic circle became more and more complicated. She said, "This is a magic circle for summoning other-world creatures. This writing is a language used by every magic user called Faetum. It was the language of the Faekin. It lets one speak to nature."
William remained silent as Athena explained each step, ingredients, and writing. She poured Extract Water and Mercury in certain places.
After thirty minutes, Athena was done. She placed a dead stinky fish on a small metal saucer then she placed the saucer in the middle of the magic circle.
"Wow. You're really not a fake." William for the first time praised Athena.
"After all you've witnessed you thought I was fake," Athena shook her head in disappointment, "You're still dumb."
"Huh?! What's the meaning of that?" A grin appeared on William's forehead.
Athena just laughed and murmured something. Suddenly, the magic circle brightened up the whole room.