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Chapter 24
You want me to pierce the archduke’s daughter’s core?
Even if he wasn’t one to care about what employers thought, this was too much.
“Miss, if all the blood drains from a human body, they die, yes?”
[Yes.]
“In the same way, if all the energy drains from the core, they die.”
[Yes.]
“Then please stop talking nonsense.”
For Karlin’s temperament, this was him explaining very kindly.
But even when he told Aria she would die, she looked up at him with clear, unafraid eyes.
[Anyway, if I want to use a large amount of energy in a short time, that’s the only method, right?]
“That… is true.”
The only method.
Aria made her decision quickly.
At the moment, she had no choice but to gamble everything on this sorcerer.
[You can do it, right?]
“I can….”
Karlin spoke with a bitter face.
“Some people do train themselves with such a stupid method.”
Mostly martial artists.
People whose muscles controlled their brains, who were so obsessed with surpassing their limits that they willingly risked their lives.
Thus Karlin sincerely believed the “martial” in “martial artist” stood not for martial arts but for mindless.
“If their regeneration is beyond human and closer to an amoeba, then sometimes they succeed.”
He then stared intently at Aria.
As if silently asking whether she truly believed she was born with such a sturdy body and incredible regeneration.
“Do you know the phrase ‘know thyself’? A famous proverb carved on the temple pillar.”
“……”
“Your energy is so faint it’s a miracle you’re alive at all. The moment your core is pierced, you’ll stop breathing in 0.1 seconds. So give up.”
He held out a hand as if escorting her away.
“I’ll show you out.”
This wasn’t consideration — he simply wanted her gone as soon as possible.
Aria looked down at his hand, thinking quietly, then placed her small hand atop his.
“……!”
Karlin’s half-closed eyes flew wide open in shock.
He jerked his hand away as if electrocuted.
“Th-this is impossible…!”
Was it possible for a human to possess this vast an amount of energy?
The moment their hands touched, Karlin sensed her true nature — the essence she had been hiding.
She had released that hidden power for only a blink, but it was enough.
“What… what are you?”
His attitude, which had underestimated her as a child, changed instantly.
I let her appearance fool me.
Karlin realized belatedly: her manner of speech had not been childlike at all.
Aria met his gaze and answered in a clear, ringing voice.
“Siren.”
Aria had reached her limit — and if she could no longer hide, she had to choose.
She chose the sorcerer.
Because he was the only person who could raise her potential.
“You know what a Siren is?”
“…How could I not?”
Karlin responded grudgingly, as if chewing rocks.
His instincts told him he had been dragged into something extremely troublesome.
“Damn… so you’ve been hiding your magic power all this time?”
That explained it. No wonder she felt so faint — like someone whose energy had nearly disappeared.
“And yet you don’t even know what a core is?”
Karlin was confused.
Yes, hiding and releasing energy were different skills, but they were deeply related — one couldn’t learn only one of them.
To hide energy, one had to know how to use it.
That’s because I remember my past life, Aria thought.
She could hide and handle energy because she remembered doing so before.
But in this young body, her core was blocked; she couldn’t use her abilities freely.
It was like her power was sealed.
“What are you? How is this even possible? Theoretically, this is nonsense!”
“I know how to use energy — my channels just aren’t open yet.”
Then how could she use energy without open channels?
Well, it was possible… but horribly inefficient and basically self-harm.
He had never seen anyone train that way in his entire life.
Karlin rubbed his aching forehead.
“How have you been using energy with no channels?”
“I just did.”
“Just…?”
Aria nodded.
“With such precise and artistic talent, why do you behave no differently from barbaric martial artists?”
Once again, Karlin thought the “martial” in martial artist meant “mindless.”
To his question, Aria could only answer one way.
“That was the only way I could learn to sing.”
“……”
“I sang until I coughed blood.”
Karlin was speechless.
She wasn’t even treated like a human.
He finally understood why she had hidden her voice, why she never revealed she was a Siren.
So that’s why a mere ten-year-old can ask to have her core pierced without blinking.
Karlin clenched his teeth.
He never considered himself a particularly moral man, but even he had limits.
Count Cortez — often called the circus ringmaster.
He had forcibly taken a Siren to produce a daughter, then sold that daughter once she was no longer useful — just to continue his “circus.”
A wretch who had forsaken even the basic ethics a human should uphold.
He should’ve been born as an insect.
“Then let me change the question.”
Suppressing the rage boiling to the top of his head, he continued.
“Why did you seek me out? To learn how to control energy?”
If she said yes, he would teach her.
Watching a child abuse herself to learn her abilities made his insides twist.
But Aria shook her head.
“Pierce my core.”
“Stop being unreasonable. Piercing the core won’t suddenly let you use your powers masterfully.”
“No, once my channels open, I can use my powers immediately.”
“And how is that even possible….”
Well, she did know how to manipulate energy, so hiding it was possible.
Karlin suddenly felt like a frog who had spent his life at the bottom of a well, and now could never call himself a genius again.
“Tell me why. Why do you need to use your powers so urgently?”
And this — this was the problem.
Aria inhaled deeply, bracing herself.
Up until now, everything she said could still be accepted logically — but her next words would sound like a madwoman’s delusion.
But she had to convince him.
“I have to change the future.”
“…What?”
“The truth is, in the future, something terrible happens—”
“W-wait.”
Karlin cut her off immediately.
“I don’t want to know.”
Aria froze.
Not “What nonsense is that?”, not “Are you insane?”
Just — I don’t want to know.
The sorcerer who had been so cold and curt now looked utterly shaken.
“Did you receive a prophecy…? No, that’s not the important part—”
That’s not the important part?
Normally, that was the first thing people wanted to know.
Karlin brushed past the biggest concern as though it were trivial.
Ignoring Aria’s bewilderment, he spoke firmly.
“Whatever happens in the future — I don’t want to know, and you mustn’t try to change it.”
“Why?”
“Because every person has a fate assigned to them.”
Fate?
Aria nearly laughed.
By that logic, she was fated to destroy the empire.
Why should she bear such a fate just because she happened to be born?
“So you want to say everything is God’s will?”
“Whether God or not, the world runs according to fixed rules and principles.”
Aria simply stared at him.
“The world may look chaotic, but it actually moves in perfect accordance with set laws. Like gears meshing without a gap.”
She kind of understood.
Apples are red. The sky is blue.
Deer eat grass. Lions eat deer.
That is the law of the world.
And humans cannot change the future.
That was also a law.
“Changing the future means removing a gear and replacing it with a new one. For the world to turn again, many other pieces must also be changed.”
Aria slowly parted her lips.
“If I break the existing rules, new rules will appear?”
“Correct.”
She was smart — unbelievably so, for a ten-year-old.
Her mature way of speaking… so it was because she had foresight of the future?
Karlin nodded in admiration.
“And the new rules will strangle you, demanding a greater price.”
A price. That made sense.
If someone who was supposed to die was saved by reversing time, then demanding an equivalent life in exchange seemed natural.
Though she didn’t know what that price would be.
Aria answered calmly.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“Then why would I know the future? If I know it, of course I’d try to change it. No one would just sit back and watch.”
“That is…”
Karlin didn’t know either.
Why would a child willing to risk her life to change the future be the one allowed to see it?
Aria presented the answer herself.
“Because my will is the world’s will. My intent is the law of the world.”
“…What?”
Karlin stared, dumbfounded.
How did she reach that conclusion?
“The world must’ve known I’d act like this. And still let me know. So I am the world. Its will follows mine.”
“Now wait—”
This was absurd.
Karlin looked like he’d been hit in the head.
But Aria continued unfazed, staring straight into him with honest, piercing eyes.
“Of course it won’t be easy. I might not be able to change anything. But I have to try. Even if I’m young, I know what’s right. If the world is wrong, I’ll fix it.”
“……”
“If the price scares me, and I do nothing and wait for the end — then I’ll pay the entire price myself instead.”
“……”
In that moment, the resolve in her eyes shook Karlin more than any knife at his throat could.
She was young — painfully young.
He thought she was mature, but in some ways, she was astonishingly childish.
To say she’ll take responsibility so easily…
Like a child who still believed in justice and that she could change anything with her own strength.
As if she didn’t understand what inevitability meant.
She must’ve lived a harsh life.
And yet she still believed in the world.
Karlin realized nothing he said would dissuade her.
So with a long sigh, he said the only thing he could.
“Then prove it.”
