I didn't even notice when this gift box appeared.
At least when I looked around every inch of the room and compared it with the scaled-down model that still lingered in my mind to see if there were any inconsistencies, I was still quite certain that I had never seen it.
I scanned it with my senses with some caution, and after confirming that I couldn't transmit anything into it, I pondered for a moment and roughly guessed what the current situation was.
So I coughed lightly, leaned closer, and tapped the gift box with my finger: "Respected [Omniscient Witch] mentor, may I ask if you are inside?"
The gift box trembled in shock for a moment, then fell silent.
Somewhat helplessly, I still tapped the surface lightly: "You should know that I know you're inside, so let's stop this hide-and-seek game of scares here."
The gift box shook violently.
I rang the door for the third time: "If you don't come out, Professor, I'm just leaving now."
"...That's too much! You idiot disciple!"
A dissatisfied grumbling came from inside the gift box. Taking two steps back, I quickly saw a narrow door appear on the flawless surface of the gift box, and the mentor, disguised as a young girl, reluctantly pouted as she stepped out.
"Even if you guessed it, you should have pretended not to know anything and been startled when I jumped out of the gift box, right? What's with this calm questioning and threatening? You've completely wasted all my preparations!"
She ran over angrily, hands on her hips, and stomped on my foot with her bare feet, but unfortunately it didn't cause any real harm.
Somewhat helplessly, I picked up the little leather shoe that my supervisor had deliberately kicked behind me, picked it up, and sat it on the nearest lab table. I then pulled over a chair and sat down, gesturing for her to hand me her foot. As I put the shoe on, I asked, "Supervisor, aren't you omniscient? Didn't you even think to check the success rate before making this arrangement?"
The petite mentor turned her eyes away: "Who, who would have nothing better to do than stare at you like that! I just got back from out of town and immediately started preparing all this, thinking of giving you a surprise."
Don't waste your time and authority on strange things!
I was both amused and exasperated: "But you still used it, right? You must have checked the success rate, right?"
The tutor, unusually guilty, tapped her ribbon-tied little feet, her gaze shifting, her voice soft: "One percent... no, three-thousandths..."
If there's still such a high chance of success, what exactly will happen?
Leaving that topic aside, I asked her what she meant.
"Oh! This one!"
The mentor, who had somehow produced a large bucket of pudding, regained his usual composure and raised an eyebrow, saying, "I'm here to conclude this part of the storyline."
“Now that we know the course and the ending of a story, we obviously need to add the corresponding beginning, right? I know that my dear disciple has already obtained most of the information he needs through his own abilities, but he is obviously missing a main branch that can connect the whole story, right?”
"It's alright, because I'm here. You can ask your dear mentor any questions you may have about events that no longer involve spoilers."
As she spoke, she scooped up another spoonful of pudding and put it in her mouth, muttering something about sea salt and fruit juice. She narrowed her bright golden eyes, and even her movements and expressions became childlike.
Fortunately, I had some knowledge of my mentor's transformation abilities. If there hadn't been someone unfamiliar with her present, they might have mistaken her for her blood-related child.
Now that the riddle-solving mentor has personally indicated that it's time to reveal the plot, I naturally won't miss the opportunity and will pour out all my questions.
"You should know about the series of events I encountered at the Sacred Tree Stronghold on this trip, right?"
I started with a pointless question as a way to advance the discussion: "So, is the story of Mor being bewitched and subsequently stabbing the current city lord An Ran related to that mysterious young mage who appeared in his shop, then disappeared when I went to visit him again, and who claimed to be his apprentice?"
Previously, when I visited Enron and Moore, both raised the same anomaly.
Anran said that his teacher, Moore, was always a person who cherished plants and living things. He was a well-known good man in the city. He would be sad for a moment if he accidentally stepped on an ant, let alone hurt others. When carving wood, he would choose branches that had fallen off on their own after they had decayed, rather than choosing branches that had been picked and broken on the spot. As a result, the wood carvings he made mostly showed a bit of gray and old appearance, which was not popular with the younger generation in the city, let alone recruiting disciples.
Moore himself stated that in recent years, his thoughts have been fragmented and he has been in a daze. He had the same feeling when he accidentally stabbed Anran on the city wall, as if he was being [mind-manipulated] by someone. He even said that he had no idea why he was carrying a knife, let alone wanted to stab the other person.
I verified his statement with a lie detector test, and although there were some doubts, the questioning continued.
A haggard and dejected man, Mor frankly admitted that although he had considered taking on a disciple to inherit his woodworking skills over the years, he had always found it difficult to find a suitable candidate. As for the mage who frequently purchased large quantities of woodwork from his shop, although such a person existed, he would always have a vague memory of it afterward and forget what he had specifically talked about with him. As for the pure magic stone that had been applied for and placed around the World Tree Phantom, he said he had absolutely no recollection of it.
They all sound like blatant lies, but upon verification, they are all very likely to be true. But if that's the case, wouldn't it be like someone being certain that if someone were to investigate a series of events in the future, they would inevitably ask these questions, thus distorting the information that might be leaked in advance and erasing most of Moore's related memories?
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