Satou here. I needed to write a lot of papers in my university days, but the chance never presented itself after I became a member of society, unless it was an event outside the company. Though well, I do need to write materials for presentations quite often….

“–Is there any more questions for Satou-kun? No? Well then, let us take a vote. Anyone who has objections regarding the thesis presented by Saotu-kun about [Denying the irreversibility of the transformation from living being into undead], please raise your hand.”

When I submitted the finished paper to Sage"s Tower, Sage Kanryu scanned over it before he gave the order for an emergency summoning of the tower"s board of directors, and then I ended up having to present the paper before them.

Since a sage from time immemorial had asked G.o.d Karion about resurrection magic and got a negative as his reply, they didn"t fuss over the part about it in my paper.

In addition, the spell I used to verify the validity of my thesis, [] got designated as a forbidden spell, but since I had gone the trouble of developing the spell and all, I had it recorded in the Sage"s Tower [Sealed Depository] with the condition of it having [Creator Unknown] description.

“It appears there is no objection. Then we shall accept the thesis, and award Satou-kun with Doctorate t.i.tle, and his a.s.sistant, Serkun with Master t.i.tle.”
“–Objection!”

A plump professor who was spearheading the inquiries, or rather, the verbal arguments during my presentation of the thesis stood up and shouted out loud.

“Professor Padoru, do you have any objection?”
“I do!”

I don"t really care either way as long as the thesis is accepted.
If the t.i.tles from Sage"s Tower would end up wasting my time here, I"d rather not get any.

But before I could speak up and decline the offer–.

“Doctorate t.i.tle is way too paltry for a thesis as monumental as this!”

–Huh?

“The one who has solved an 『Unsolved Problem』 that no one has accomplished before should be given the t.i.tle 『Sage』, not 『Doctorate』!”

The plump professor"s shout was backed by a ma.s.sive round of applause.

Sage Kanryu was going to give me the position of Sage"s Tower"s supervisor along with the Sage t.i.tle, but I firmly refused it and we eventually agreed for me to just get into the rank of the tower"s board of directors instead.

The formal award ceremony and celebration will be held tomorrow.

>t.i.tle [Doctorate] Acquired.
>t.i.tle [Sage] Acquired.

“Your excellency, congratulations in your achievement of solving an 『Unsolved Problem』.”

When I got to the Karion Main Temple, a troupe consisting of high-ranking priests, Miko Maiya and the stern looking temple head welcomed me.
Apparently, Sage Kanryu had informed them ahead of time as they had finished preparing the ceremony to do the Divine Mingle with G.o.d Karion.

『–O G.o.d. Prudent G.o.d we revere.』

A bright light fell down from the heavens after Miko Maiya called.
It"s a comforting vermilion colored light. Is it just me or does it feel brighter than the light before.

Miko Maiya"s ecstatic expression slackened.
Looks like she"s entered the trance state.

『…Good boy.』

G.o.d Karion uttered only one word, yet at the same time, the thoughts, [Blessing], [Praise], and [Satisfaction] flowed unto me.

『For you.』

A deep vermilion glitter is born in the center the vermilion light, and then it crystallizes into the shape of a book.

According to AR readings, it"s called [Book of Wisdom, Karisfel], a type of [Divine Gift Treasure].
An unfamiliar gem called [Wisdom Spring Stone] is embedded in the book"s spine.

Later on, I learned that this book is able to look up all kinds of spell chant of basic magic, which is very helpful.
The majority of magic I developed myself isn"t recorded in it though, so it"s not like it has everything.
Nevertheless, there"s a still lot of magic I don"t know written in it, so I plan to use the book to register them into my Magic List when I have time.

>t.i.tle [Saint of Karion] Acquired.
>t.i.tle [Apostle of Karion] Acquired.
>t.i.tle [Librarian] Acquired.

“To celebrate Satou-kun"s successful trial and the discovery of the solution for an 『Unsolved Problem』, let"s cheerssu!”

Cheers and sounds of gla.s.ses b.u.mping echoed in the room.

On my way back after submitting the paper and got a graduation certificate-like Trial-pa.s.sing Acknowledgment thing from Karion Main Temple, I dropped by [Ice Field Witch]"s tower, there, the drinker witch-san suggested we held a party.

“I never thought that someone would find a solution for  one of the 『Unsolved Problems』… Satou-dono you truly have great talents not only as a warrior but also as a prevalent scholar.”

Thus, Raker-kun, an apprentice of [Frost Tree Witch] praised me.

That"s cool and all, but please stop holding my hands while sending hot glances with your drunken droopy eyes, I"m feeling a crisis of my virtue here.
In addition to Arisa and Hikaru, Princess Sistina who recently got into it with them are looking here with antic.i.p.ating looks, this is tough.

“Indeed, you"re really incredible. Raker-kun, be sure to follow sir Pendragon"s example, you hear me.”
“Yes, master!”

His master, [Frost Tree Witch] is the same too. She"s got a fine bust that exceeds even Lady Karina, but her waist size follows and is great too, so I don"t feel too great having her plump big arms circling my neck.

“We"re not gonna lose to him ourselves, "rite Hyou-chan.”
“You betcha".”

The two witches inclined their wine gla.s.ses while nodding at each others.

“I would"ve gone to Tokiswolk myself if I weren"t bound to my Source~”
“Didn"t you send that debauchee in your stead there?”
“That"s "rite. Wonder when s.h.i.+gan-kun"s gonna come back from his ruin investigation~”

–s.h.i.+gan?

An unexpected name came out of Witch-san"s mouth.
That reminds me, I was planning to investigate about the guy when I arrived at [Sage"s Tower] but I completely forgot about it due to the abundance of stuff I had to do.

“Are you perhaps, acquainted with s.h.i.+gan Saga?”
“He"s a scholar who regularly comes and go to my tower, y"see. Satou-kun, you know him too?”
“Oh, no, I never met with the person himself, but an acquaintance of mine at Tokiswolk Kingdom mentioned to me that s.h.i.+gan-dono has gone missing ever since the vampire incident…”
“Oh I"m sure he"s fine. s.h.i.+gan-kun is good at erasing his presences, he ain"t gonna get killed so easily y"see.”
“That kid is bad at reading map, he"s probably lost even now.”

Looks like the two witches-san don"t want to believe the pa.s.sing of s.h.i.+gan Saga.
It seems they get it already deep down, I"ll just dispatch a letter about the pa.s.sing through Tokiswolk Kingdom later.

“So I"m wondering what"s s.h.i.+gan-s.h.i.+"s research subject about?”
“s.h.i.+gan-kun is researching about the seal of Demon G.o.d, you see.”

–Geh, seriously?

“Did he, you know, find out a way to undo the seal?”
“There ain"t no way to undo a seal placed by G.o.ds, y"know.”

Unlike Witch-san, s.h.i.+gan-s.h.i.+ was not a demon G.o.d adherent, he was researching the topic with the goal, “With a barrier that can even seal the Demon G.o.d, sealing demon lords should be easy with it”, in mind.

“It"s said that you can go to h.e.l.l where Demon G.o.d-sama is sealed through the h.e.l.l Gate, but there"s no doc.u.ment supporting that claim anywhere to be found ssuyone.”

Thus, the credibility of such claim is still in question even now.

“Who said that stuff about h.e.l.l Gate?”
“It was s.h.i.+gan-kun"s friend ssuyo. It was a small old man from the same hometown as s.h.i.+gan-kun"s ssu.”

s.h.i.+gan-s.h.i.+"s hometown means that he"s from Saga Empire.

“Around several months ago, he came here to ask me to investigate a place at Tokiswolk Kingdom where s.h.i.+gan-kun had gone ahead to.”
“Oh, that small man who spoke with a weird Saga Language accent huh… I don"t trust that guy.”
“Raker-kun, you"re always so quick to distrust someone you just met ssune.”

–Weird accent.

I have an idea of who that could be.
When I tried to mimic the demon lord"s accent and asked for Witch Apprentice"s opinions, he replied with, “Yeah, just like that.”

“Did that person have green colored skin?”
“Green? No no, he"s not a monster y"know. It"s your ordinary skin color ssu.”

–Did I get it wrong?

Or so I thought, but then Arisa whispered to me, “That guy had ordinary skin color when we first encountered him too.”
Looks like his sheep"s clothing came undone because of the intense fight against Arisa and Hikaru.

“Raker-kun, do you know where the accent is from?”
“I wonder? I have no idea, master might know though?”

According to Raker-kun, his master was born in Saga Empire.
Frost Tree Witch-san tells me where it is after prefacing it with, “Don"t come back complaining if I get it wrong okay.”

“Near poor villages at Kishuo District to the east of Saga Empire, you see. There"s this place with traces from an ancient battlefield where a fierce clash with Orc Empire 700 years ago occurred, and a withered dungeon.”

Since I found the rough location, I went there myself after the banquet, but there were only ordinary countryside villages over there, I couldn"t find members of some suspicious society or hideouts of any sort.
While I was at it, I also visited the ruin at Tokiswolk Kingdom where s.h.i.+gan-s.h.i.+ went to investigate at.

There were traces of someone investigating the ruin, I also found heaps of preserved food and stuff there.
Unfortunately, the great majority of slates had their inscriptions sc.r.a.pped off, so I didn"t find a new information about the demon G.o.d.

I had investigated the leftovers, and I could found no clue other than the fact that they belonged to research groups from various countries including Tokiswolk Kingdom.
Well, that demon lord from the other day probably instigated this.

◇

“So we couldn"t finish our thesis until the end after all.”
“It should take us about another half a month, we can do it if we tackle it in between our free time.”

Back at the Solitary Island Palace, I found Hikaru and Arisa having a discussion while organizing bundles of papers.

Apparently the two have finished their work up to the transition part of their research subject, [The transition of primeval magic to modern magic and variations], all that"s left is the variations part.
I"m intrigued about it myself, so I"m going to be the first person who will read their paper when it"s done.

“And how about you Tinsama, how"s your group doing?”
“Oh, currently we"re exploring the possibility of chant annulment through Chant Shortening skill as the first step toward Chantless magic.”

Princess Sistina replied to Arisa.
The members who aren"t too familiar with magic look confused as the difference is a bit hard to comprehend.

[Chant Shortening] skill shorten a spell by overwriting the variables in the spell with preset fixed values from the skill.
On the other hand, [Chant Annulment] omits the spell chant itself and enables magic activation just by reciting the last part that is [Execution Verse].
And the [Chantless Magic] that I, Arisa and Hikaru regularly use omits both the spell part and the [Execution Verse] of magic.

Even excepting my chantless magic that comes from my Unique Skill [Menu], Arisa and Hikaru"s version is a hidden function of the [Self Status] skill they got from G.o.ds when they were reincarnating and getting transported here, thus I think even ordinary people have a chance to obtain it.
After all, even though [Self Status] is a Divine Gift, it"s not a Unique Skill that comes from a [G.o.d"s Fragment].

“Hey, hey, master. Can you make an item that has similar function like what Tinsama said?”
“Sorry, I didn"t catch it.”
“Geez! Listen closely okay. Tinsama, another go please.”

While saying the onomatopoeia of being mad, punpun, out loud, Arisa handed over the talk to princess Sistina.

“With ordinary spell chants, it"s possible to put the activation of a finished chant on hold until you recite the Execution Verse right?”
“Yes, it"s an indispensable ability in a fight.”

That kind of skill does not exist, however, you can"t do a feint if you can"t do this, making it hard to hit agile enemies with magic.

“Then perhaps it may be possible to create a magic item that can 『Save』 such On-Hold state.”

Saving On-Hold state huh.
That"s quite a broad concept.

“Sounds interesting. I"m not exactly sure if it"s possible or not yet, but I"ll make sure to do a research on it.”

I can"t imagine how the magic circuit would be like right now, but if this goes well, it should enlarge the scope of possible tactics that can be employed, and if other people can activate the reserved magic, the vanguard group can get a nice boost all at once.

It"s more than worthy enough to research on.

“Kuro-sama! We"ve got a huge trouble!”

A woman rushed into the room while I was excitedly pondering over the magic circuit.
The usually always composed Tifaliza was unusually expressive.

“T-the Parion Holy Hand!”

It"s the country where the Parion Main Temple is located, where I need to take on the last trial.
I don"t have much good memories about the country, but since I did rule the City Core there once albeit temporarily, can"t say I"m unrelated to it.
I"ve liberated myself from that City Core after a few experiments since I have no particular need for that City Core.

“The Parion Holy Land has been destroyed!”

Whoa, now that"s a surprise.