LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 151
I prepared a box. A small, square one that could fit in my hands.
After tossing in a random object, I closed the box. Now, the sealed box held its contents until someone dared to open it.
I presented the box, speaking cheerfully,
“Now, try to take out the item inside the box. But remember, don’t touch the box itself!”
“Huh? Is this some kind of quiz…?”
Ayle tilted her head, using magic to levitate the box instead. Clearly, the instruction to avoid touching the box had somehow inspired her to use magic.
I made a large X in the air with my hands, signaling that she was off track.
“Wrong! Not touching means you can’t interact with it at all!”
“How am I supposed to get it out then…?”
“Well, that would be…”
“Like this, right?”
Just when I was about to reveal the answer, Arima suddenly appeared, reaching into the air and pulling out the item from within the box. Spatial magic at its finest! No need for a ‘Great Mage’ title when you can show off this easily.
“Uh, Arima, I’m trying to teach here… can you not interrupt?”
“Haha, sorry! But isn’t this the answer?”
“Well, you’re not wrong…”
I took back my phone from Arima and turned back to Ayle. She looked at me with a confused expression as if saying, “Are you really asking me to do that too?”
Of course, asking Ayle for the same level of spatial magic as Arima was a bit much.
“What do you think the principle is, Ayle?”
“Um, connecting space?”
“That’s correct, but… 30 points.”
“Huh… then what gives 100 points?”
“You should explain how it works too.”
Ayle looked at me with a puzzled expression, as if to say, “How should I know that?” But honestly, if she didn’t know this, I’d be more disappointed. I didn’t turn her into some dusty old computer filled with facts. I aimed to cultivate her as a thinking, adaptable talent.
After a moment of deep thought with her eyes closed, Ayle finally answered with a solid 70 points.
“Uh, the space in front of Arima is connected to the inside of the box, right? Using magic. So… it’s kinda like… higher-dimensional?”
“Good. I’ll accept that much.”
“Accept? What do you mean…?”
“The correct answer is connection to higher dimensions.”
I drew a big circle on the whiteboard, then added a rectangle inside it, asking how to get the rectangle out without touching the circle.
This was the same problem as before. The only difference was that the dimension had dropped a level. With something intuitively visible now, Ayle easily figured it out.
“Oh…! So, like this?”
She quickly wiped out the rectangle with her sleeve, grinning with newfound understanding. As she thought, the way to extract an object from a closed box without touching it was to grab it from a higher dimension.
Of course, this seems simple because we exist in a three-dimensional space, tackling a lower two-dimensional one… In reality, interfering with four-dimensional space is a whole different beast, not to mention grasping the concept of it is incredibly tough, but—
‘Who would have thought making tesseracts as a hobby in middle school would come in handy?’
I never imagined that implementing a 4D hypercube I’d learned from YouTube would actually help me now. It allowed me to consciously recognize the four-dimensional world.
I instructed Ayle on the same method, making her practice constructing 4D shapes in her mind. However, Ayle looked perplexed at the request.
“Is that even possible…?”
“Possible or not, look, one person is already here!”
“Well, I’m not a scientist or anything…”
“You have to try! This isn’t something I can help with.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“Do I even have to say it?”
I grimaced and gazed into the distance, recalling the Saintess who had entered the lab. The moment she was sure I wasn’t an assassin, she had released her bindings, apologized, and stated she would officially come to apologize later, but—
I couldn’t just sit here defenseless and ignorant. I still needed to build up some power to counter the Saintess.
“Let’s say I might have to fight those 4D beings.”
“F-fight them? The 4D ones? Like, the kinds of enemies you’d only see in a magical girl movie…?”
“Well, I can’t be sure.”
I said this with a grin, but Ayle looked even more concerned. She was deeply immersed in the practice I had assigned her.
Fact is, when it comes to ‘fighting or not’, the odds of not fighting would likely be greater. I turned my back on Ayle, who was putting in the effort, and started crafting weapons to attack 4D entities. If I found out what I was up against, I would have my methods.
After all, the most terrifying blades are the ones that remain unseen—
* * *
The next day.
The Saintess kept her promise.
[The first pilgrimage of the Saintess! Taking place in City E!]
[May you all taste the miracles!]
The Saintess rented out a church in City E for her pilgrimage event. Naturally, her usual followers were there alongside her.
City E suffered from an unexpected influx of tourists. With not many travelers to begin with, suddenly having tens of thousands of followers arriving left the place struggling to feed and shelter them all.
Of course, they couldn’t just build a new hotel for this one-time, temporary tourism boom. The followers the Saintess brought scattered throughout the city.
‘Cuckoo.’
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
Was she here to apologize, or was she declaring war? What was the point of bringing these followers along?
Of course, she likely didn’t personally herd them all. As a Saintess, she couldn’t exactly hide her event, and the followers just took it upon themselves to follow. Hence, City E was left to shoulder the consequences alone.
And considering our Evilus Corporation controlled City E, this could be viewed as an assault on our business…
“What are you thinking?”
“…Just wondering how she plans to get to our building.”
“Haha, I see your point.”
Six, who returned from recon on the church where the Saintess was holding the pilgrimage, nodded soberly as if realizing the absurdity of the situation.
Had this been a previous covert visit, it might’ve been easier, but could the Saintess really slip into this building without being caught under such circumstances? What were the odds of that being possible?
I waited with the mindset of testing the Saintess’s abilities. However, contrary to her claim of officially coming to apologize, she never showed up.
Instead, I received a text.
<I apologize for the previous incident. >
<As an act of contrition, I’ve decided to hold a service for the citizens of City E.>
<Oh, that’s the Saintess for you.>
Seeing the unexpected message, I stared at it in disbelief. To apologize by holding a service for the citizens? But what was even crazier was that I’d never given her my contact information.
<How did you get my number?>
<I just guessed it.>
When I read her response, I lost my words and stopped replying. She just guessed it? In theory, that’s not impossible. The issue was that she somehow guessed it right on the first try.
Did she really go through every number from 0000 to 9999 in one shot? If she did, everyone would know her number, plus there’s no way to send out that many texts in one go.
‘She’s definitely not just using it for show…’
I learned a bit more about the Saintess’s powers and decided to try to uncover her identity. I pulled out the binoculars I’d made over the past few days. In the distance, I could see the church where the Saintess was supposed to hold the service. It was easy to spot since people were lined up like crazy around it.
I focused on the place where she was, raising my sight to a higher dimension—
And there it was.
“…!!”
It was something that possessed the most grotesque appearance a human could imagine.
The instant it locked eyes with me, it trembled like a bug that had discovered fire.
It moved wildly within the four-dimensional space, radiating light as it reached toward the Saintess, who stood far below.
“—Insane.”
In the next instant.
The moment it touched the Saintess, her body began to expand wildly.