Chapter 73: So Who is the Mastermind?

Seeing Elsa, who had been completely incapacitated by the sleeping black tea, sleeping soundly on the bed, Charlotte, standing beside her, looked utterly frustrated.

She was about to learn the identity of the mastermind from Elsa’s mouth, but Elsa had fallen asleep with the answer, which was completely unacceptable.

But, to be fair, Lillian’s sleeping black tea was quite effective. Elsa was knocked out less than half a minute after drinking it.

She could consider using it on Instructor Mashiro someday. She might just have an unexpected success.

But for now, it seemed she would have to wait until Elsa woke up to find out who the culprit was.

Thinking this, Charlotte sighed softly and prepared to go back to her room to rest.

After all, she had been working hard all day. Even with a little help from Yuffie, the sheer volume of work had left her body aching and miserable.

Just as she was about to turn and leave, she noticed that Nicole had tidied a stack of magic books and placed them at the head of Elsa’s bed.

“Nicole, what are these?”

“Oh, these are the books Miss Elsa borrowed from the Grand Library today.”

Hearing this, Charlotte’s interest was immediately piqued. If Elsa found a clue about the mastermind from these books, she should be able to find some hints within them too.

“Can I take a look?”

“Of course, Miss Charlotte.”

With Nicole’s permission, Charlotte began to flip through the books.

After a quick skim, Charlotte found that all the books were related to magic circles.

Witches could use magic in two ways. One was directly through incantation, allowing magical power to flow through the internal magic circuits to achieve the spell’s effect. The other was through a magic circle.

By injecting magical power into a specific magic circle, even if the user didn’t know that particular type of magic, they could still achieve the spell’s effect through the circle. Furthermore, no specific incantation was needed to trigger the effect.

As long as the magic circle was prepared beforehand, the corresponding spell could be triggered anytime, anywhere.

In other words, a magic circle was like an external magic circuit.

For a complex and intricate spell, using layers of stacked magic circles was actually safer and more effective than chanting the spell directly.

Seeing this, Charlotte couldn’t help but wonder. Why did Elsa specifically choose books related to magic circles?

‘Did the mastermind steal so much magical power just to learn about these magic circles? That seems highly unlikely.’

Thinking this, Charlotte suddenly realized that she had been overlooking the most important question all along.

‘What does the mastermind intend to do with all that stolen magical power?’

‘Could it be that the spell she wants to use requires an enormous amount of magical power, which is why she’s constantly draining others’ magic?’

If that were the case, then the large-scale spell she wanted to use could only be…

Charlotte flipped open a magic book related to forbidden magic.

And indeed, she found the answer she was looking for inside.

Soul-Revival Magic.

This was a grand, large-scale spell that could bring a dead person’s soul back from the Underworld to the world of the living.

Because it brought the dead back to life, the magical power consumed by this spell was extraordinarily immense.

Not only that, but the entire spell operation was incredibly complicated. If even one step failed, the consequences of the Soul-Revival Magic would instantly lead to an irreversible disaster.

This was why Soul-Revival Magic was classified as one of the forbidden spells.

‘Did the mastermind want to use this Soul-Revival Magic?’

If that were true, then how did Elsa figure out the mastermind’s true identity?

Confused, Charlotte continued to read.

Then she saw that the creator of the Soul-Revival Magic was the first witch, Erin Inola, who was active a thousand years ago and also the disciple of the very first witch, Shera Hirakami.

“Hmm? Inola?”

For some reason, seeing this surname, Charlotte suddenly felt like she had heard it before.

Yuffie’s surname was also Inola.

‘Wait a minute, is the mastermind Yuffie?’

At this thought, a bad premonition arose in Charlotte’s heart.

But to be safe, she continued reading.

A thousand years ago, the Demon King Kōse led a massive demon army across the Boundary Mountain Range and launched a fierce attack on the then-unified Rose Empire of the continent.

The strongest human force at the time, the Rose Knight Order, quickly engaged the demon army. With Shera’s aid, the demon army was quickly routed and fled back to the demon territories in disarray.

However, in that bloody war a thousand years ago, Erin’s brother, Acre, who was also the Vice-Captain of the Rose Knight Order, was completely incinerated by a magical blast from the demons while protecting Erin.

To bring her brother back to this world, Erin spent twenty years and finally created the Soul-Revival Magic, which could bring a soul back from the Underworld.

But because Acre’s body had been utterly destroyed in the war, Erin had no choice but to use the white armor that Acre frequently wore as a vessel for his soul, successfully summoning Acre’s soul back from the Underworld.

Perhaps Erin’s original intention was good, but the white armor that housed the soul had no concept of lifespan. It could not enjoy life like a normal human. As time passed, it gradually became the guardian of the Inola family for generations.

And after Erin’s death, her descendants tried many times to resurrect Erin, but they failed every time. Not only did they fail to save anyone, but they also caused extremely severe disasters, leading to the decline of the Inola family until they became a marginalized existence.

This was the fundamental reason why Soul-Revival Magic was one of the forbidden spells.

Despite so many failures, the successors of the Inola family still did not give up on using Soul-Revival Magic.

Five years ago, the Inola family attempted Soul-Revival Magic again, which resulted in a massive fire that claimed the lives of almost everyone in the Inola mansion, except for.…only Yuffie Inola survived the fire.

Reading this, Charlotte finally understood why Elsa had been looking through so many books related to magic circles.

The mastermind wanted to achieve the effect of Soul-Revival Magic through the use of magic circles.

And the mastermind was very likely Yuffie.

Yuffie, as the sole heir of the Inola family, certainly had access to the white armor. Furthermore, after experiencing the disaster five years ago, she had sufficient motivation to use Soul-Revival Magic to bring back her unfortunate, deceased family members.

But…

Even if she used magic circles, Soul-Revival Magic was still a spell highly prone to causing unpredictable disasters. The slightest mistake could lead to catastrophe, not only failing to save anyone but potentially costing her own life.

No matter how valid Yuffie’s reasons were, she couldn’t be so easily forgiven for inexplicably draining other people’s magical power and even injuring people close to her!

She had to stop her! She couldn’t let her make things worse!