Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1270: The One-Eyed Secret

"When we met Abigail earlier, she only had ’ONE’ Mystic Eye."

"...huh?"

Evan was dumbfounded by her words.

The Ocular Unique Series Skills that the Aidosian Heroes possessed were called ’Mystic Eyes’.

Plural.

Not just one of their eyes held the ability, but both did.

The only way they could lose the ability in either eye was if they lost sight in that eye or lost the organ itself.

Abigail, however, had both eyes functioning perfectly, so both eyes should have been Mystic Eyes of Destruction.

But what Laurene was saying was that despite having two perfectly working eyes, only one had been a Mystic Eye.

"Think about it. Just as you haven’t used your Mystic Eyes in front of Abigail, she hasn’t used hers in front of us," Laurene said. "So it’s only natural you wouldn’t notice the missing symbol. Since she still had a Mystic Eye, that was more than enough for us to feel Series Skill Resonance."

"And how exactly did you come to the conclusion she only has one Mystic Eye? What did you see?"

Evan didn’t fully dismiss Laurene’s claim outright, instead trying to understand what led her to that conclusion.

"It starts with what I sensed. Series Skill Resonance from a distance, coming from somewhere to the South, South-East of where I was. Then it felt like the resonator crossed an immense distance from where they were to Abigail’s location in an instant, and Abigail’s resonance seemed like it..." Laurene trailed off, searching for the words to explain what she felt.

She bit her thumbnail for a moment, then her eyes flashed as she found the right term.

"Bugged out! It’s like, for a split second, I couldn’t sense Abigail through Series Skill Resonance, but then I could again, and it was weird, so I told Kuro to teleport me to her.

Her elf guard, that Zestari, noticed Kuro and attacked, thinking he was a threat. Kuro put up a barrier with darkness, and I took advantage of it to use my Mystic Eyes on Abigail, and this time, there wasn’t any law energy distortion blocking me.

I could clearly see the process of the energy of the law of destruction reconnecting to Abigail’s right eye. It was like I was watching her normal eye become a Mystic Eye."

"..."

Evan stayed silent for a moment after Laurene’s explanation, and from his skeptical expression, Laurene could tell he didn’t fully believe her.

She wanted to speak again to convince him, but Evan raised a hand to stop her.

"You know our Mystic Eyes are essentially runes on our souls, right?"

"Yeah, I know, Evan. Don’t forget my predecessor is the one who studied our Mystic Eyes the most out of all of us," Laurene responded.

"It’s a two-layer rune connected to our eyes. I also understand that losing our Mystic Eyes only happens due to damage to the rune.

Abigail’s soul was fine as far as I could see. There wasn’t any damage on it, which is why I still don’t understand how she lost and regained a Mystic Eye."

Laurene stomped her foot in frustration at being unable to make sense of what she’d seen earlier when Kuro teleported her, forcing her mind to search for ways it could possibly be true.

Ways Evan would understand and find logical.

Still, she came up with nothing.

"Come on, it’s not like she could surgically remove the Skill Rune from her soul and transplant it to someone else!"

"!"

Evan’s eyes widened at Laurene’s frustrated outburst, and he immediately grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him.

"That! That’s it!"

"H-huh?"

Laurene blinked in confusion, then recalled her own words and immediately shook her head.

"Didn’t you just hear me say Abigail’s soul was fine? If she somehow detached part of the rune, she would’ve either suffered soul damage, damaged the skill rune, or more likely, both."

"But what if she didn’t?" Evan asked.

"What?"

"What if there was someone with soul manipulation strong enough to transfer part of the skill rune to someone else, or somewhere else, without harming Abigail’s soul?"

Laurene’s eyes narrowed instantly, sensing there was something Evan already knew that made him ask such a specific question, and his next words confirmed it.

"Did you know Abigail Lowe’s best friend is a soul manipulator?"

"...Evan. Who the hell are you talking about?"

Evan released Laurene’s shoulders, snapping his fingers and forming a hologram of a woman he could never forget from their first encounter.

"The Priestess of the Lusos Barbarian Tribe of Tharvoria. Agnes Ivloh Lusos."

Dismissing the hologram, Evan said, "If there’s anyone in this world capable of performing something that impossible without a hitch, it’s her."

"And this Agnes person is Abigail’s best friend?" Laurene asked, and Evan nodded.

"Okay. So let’s say Agnes can do this. Why would Abigail have her do it in the first place?"

"That’s the question that needs answering," Evan replied with a soft sigh.

Neither of them could think of a reason Abigail would transplant her Mystic Eye to someone else.

"To begin with, even if this Agnes can somehow manage that, it’s impossible for someone who isn’t a Hero to possess them," Laurene added.

The Mystic Eyes Series Skills were locked to the Heroes of Aidos, so even if there were other Mystic Eyes Series Skill wielders from other planets somewhere in the vast universe, the ones originating from Aidos could not be wielded by anyone except an Aidosian Hero.

The skill rune had that restriction within its fundamental structure, and unless someone warped reality at the level of influencing the Devour Class System that encompassed the universe, they would more likely destroy the skill itself than remove that restriction safely.

"The question of ’why’ is still the most important thing," Evan muttered.

If they couldn’t figure out Abigail’s motives, then they couldn’t even grasp the full scope of her actions.

Scratching her head, Laurene then asked, "Why don’t we just confront her directly?"

"I doubt she’d answer you honestly," Evan replied, shaking his head.

Exhaling, he added, "I have to do this either way. I’m going to have to meet Agnes."

"You want to head to Tharvoria?" Laurene asked.

"Not just yet. Going to Tharvoria was already part of my plans anyway, which is part of why I brought Leoniel along. I want him to see the Demonic Hand’s activities there and bring him into my plans to deal with the Disaster targeting that place as a hidden card."

This was news to Laurene, who didn’t know anything about what Evan had planned for Tharvoria, but neither did Eliza or anyone else, so she wasn’t late to the party.

"If you’re not heading to Tharvoria now, then how are you going to meet this Agnes?"

"By going to where she actually lives, which, despite being a Barbarian Tribe Priestess, is NOT in the Barbarian Nation."

Evan pulled out his phone and used the compass in the map function to figure out where north was, then turned in the opposite direction and pointed slightly to his left.

"The largest Province in the Elven Empire’s South-Eastern Region. The Jine-Alora Duchy, homeland of Abigail’s mother, the Elven Empress."

Putting his phone away, Evan looked at Laurene and said, "Agnes practically lives in one of Abigail’s houses there, so that’s where we’re going to find her."

"I’m very curious how you got that information," Laurene quipped.

"From Agnes herself," Evan replied with a chuckle.

"You’ve met her before? Are you close?"

"Not the real her. I’ve only met her when she uses soul fragments to possess the homunculi bodies Abigail created.

As for being close..."

Evan trailed off, scoffed lightly, then shook his head and continued. "When we first met, she tried to use her power to dominate my soul and control me like a puppet. In return, I destroyed her soul fragment and told her I’d kill her if I ever caught the real her."

"..."

Laurene stared in silence at what Evan had just said, and Evan laughed at her reaction, unfurling his wings and extending a hand toward her.

"Come on. Let’s go get Liz and head to Jine-Alora."

"...dude, you don’t just—" Laurene cut herself off mid-sentence, exhaling heavily and shaking her head.

"You know what, never mind."

She decided to completely drop trying to understand Evan’s relationship with Agnes and just reached out to take his hand so he could fly her back to the forest where Eliza and the others were.

◇　◇　◇

Laurene and Evan went to check another potential location for Demonic Hand activity that he’d sent his Factor Mimic out to scout, and after confirming it was still a target, they returned not to Votix-Lerion but straight to Lustea, using the World Tree branch Lios had given Evan.

Evan used the chance to inform Lios that he was going to make contact with someone important to his plan, then left the tree with Laurene before heading to the Guest Palace within the Elverston Citadel, where their accommodations were.

He explained his plan to head to Jine-Alora to Eliza via text, then informed Leoniel of his intentions for Tharvoria.

But before that, they needed to split up a little bit.

Leoniel would head to Tharvoria ahead of them, while Evan, Eliza and Laurene would go to Jine-Alora...in secret.

The plan was to let the Elven Emperor know they were making preparations based on Evan’s discussion with Lios, but not that those preparations involved going to Jine-Alora.

Evan needed Agnes’ soul manipulation abilities to increase the chances of success for his plan, so it wasn’t technically a lie.

By the next morning, Leoniel was already getting the documentation for his trip to Tharvoria, while Evan, Laurene and Eliza bade him a temporary farewell, and using Evan’s full dragon form as transport, they flew to Jine-Alora above the clouds, under the veil of his Lethe skill’s superior concealment.