Kanzaki Rei stepped out.

The Sage’s outward-bulging eyeballs shifted left and right: "What do you think?"

It had to be said—no matter how hard the fishman race tried to appear wise, its protruding eyes and gaze that never quite focused on Kanzaki Rei gave it an inescapable air of dullness.

Every time he looked at it,

It was hard to connect it with the word "Sage."

"Aren’t you supposed to be a Sage?"

"Shouldn’t you have some kind of opinion?"

The Fishman Sage’s eyes rolled a few times, and a mysterious smile appeared on its face. "My wisdom tells me that my thinking is less important than yours."

"Sisha seems to have a lot of issues with me," Kanzaki Rei said directly.

"After all, everything is far too coincidental. No one easily trusts a sudden stranger who also happens to be overwhelmingly powerful."

"You should understand that."

Of course Kanzaki Rei understood. If he put himself in Sisha’s position, not suspecting that this guy named Kanzaki Rei was putting on an elaborate act would be a sign of a flawed mind.

And to suspect him,

She would inevitably connect Kanzaki Rei with the Nest Lord of the Nest of Aberration.

After all, the last thing she saw was that very Nest Lord.

"So your real question is whether I’m manipulating all of you, right?" Kanzaki Rei said bluntly.

The moment these words left his mouth, the atmosphere grew somewhat heavy.

The Fishman Sage let out a long sigh: "Whether you are or aren’t... it probably doesn’t matter anymore..."

"You killed Artemys, didn’t you."

Kanzaki Rei: "Your intelligence network is fairly sharp."

"I am a Sage, after all. Even if I’m an old thing that can’t offer any useful advice anymore, I can still keep up with major world events that everyone knows about."

"You possess the strength to kill Artemys."

"No matter how much others may doubt you, I have decided to trust you."

Kanzaki Rei: "Mm, I understand."

Compared to the concerns of others, the Fishman Sage’s decision leaned more toward gambling.

What it wanted to seize was the possibility of victory.

Even if Kanzaki Rei turned out to be an enemy, that would only mean going from losing to losing even worse.

Dwelling on that distinction was pointless.

"By the way, regarding your compensation..."

"I know of a divine garment that Aramochi once left behind in the world, sealed away in a hidden location."

"That seal has never been broken. Perhaps you might find some use for it."

"I’ll go retrieve it and bring it back to you in a few days..."

The Fishman Sage promised.

Kanzaki Rei nodded, then looked again into the future.

He saw that five days from now, the Fishman Sage would return here, bringing the divine garment back with it.

"Excellent."

"Since the commissioned task is complete, I should also return."

"When you come back, I’ll come find you."

The Sage nodded steadily.

Unfortunately, even this naturally wise gesture, when performed by it, still looked clumsy and dull.

Kanzaki Rei shook his head inwardly.

Sigh.

Sage.

If you looked a little wiser, you might be more convincing, wouldn’t you?

The thought was too impolite to say aloud, so Kanzaki Rei naturally kept his mouth shut.

He merely smiled politely, then turned and vanished.

...

[Land of the Crescent Moon]

One day had passed since returning from the Room of Answers.

The Land of the Crescent Moon was now quite lively.

Shumi, Luluvia, Yuna, and Eliosa were all here.

And Lotdan sat upon his throne, feeling utterly bewildered.

Kanzaki Rei had only been gone for a few days—

Where had he picked up so many Tier 8职业者?

And also—

Luluvia was Tier 8?

Yuna was Tier 8 as well?

After becoming high-tier职业者, one’s memory tended to be quite sharp. Back then, Yuna had been just a child.

But Lotdan had heard the reports from the White Tower.

He had heard about Yuna’s ascension ceremony.

At the time, it had even been an extremely high-priority national project.

Back then, Yuna had seemed to be just a child who had recently awakened.

How had only ten years passed...

Just ten years...

And she had become a Tier 8 Savant.

Not only that—she was the World’s Sage, renowned as one who knew all the truths of the world.

And himself by contrast?

He had only just advanced to Tier 7.

Even if Yuna didn’t bring it up—Luluvia—how had she become Tier 8?

Once upon a time, a single dying Tier 8 like Ansei had been someone Lotdan felt he had to enshrine.

And now, on a single continent, there were fully five Tier 8职业者. How was he supposed to treat these people?

If they broke into conflict, what was he supposed to do?

Kanzaki Rei, naturally, did not concern himself with Lotdan’s troubles.

Instead, inside the Mage Tower, he was instructing Suenari on the application of magic.

At the same time, in his own mind, he was contemplating magic and the Origin Source.

The influence of the Origin Source was indeed not so easily dispelled. After a day of reflection, Kanzaki Rei felt his thoughts sometimes clear, sometimes muddled.

And within that single day,

He had actually conducted six future premonitions, plus countless instances of stopping time to think.

If you calculated all that time by real-world standards,

More than a month had already passed.

And even after all that thinking,

Kanzaki Rei still felt he couldn’t figure it out.

Since the Origin Source was not the answer,

What should the answer to magic be? Or did magic simply have no answer at all?

If he wanted to reshape the Origin Source into something new, what form should that perfect Origin Source take?

But whenever he started thinking about reshaping the Origin Source, he immediately felt that his knowledge was far too lacking. Even with the ability to stop time and think, he would need a vast period to learn more magical knowledge.

Moreover, on the basis of the wrong Origin Source, the vast majority of existing magical knowledge could almost be classified as having fundamental errors.

Meaning the errors started from the very foundation.

What could be learned became extremely limited. He would have to test things himself, create things himself, imagine things himself.

Or perhaps—if there was another mage walking the same path, they could verify their thoughts against each other, making things easier.

Thinking about all of this made his head feel like it was going to split open.

If the problem of the Origin Source wasn’t solved,

The biggest issue was—how could a mage’s tier advance?

After all, the essence of advancement was witnessing the Origin Source, was pursuing the Origin Source, was uncovering the answer of the Origin Source.

And right now, Kanzaki Rei couldn’t face the Origin Source at all.

If this problem wasn’t solved, his mage tier would never advance.

"Master."

Suenari looked up at Kanzaki Rei.

"Are you troubled by something?"

Kanzaki Rei smiled wryly: "You could say there’s something."

"What about?"

Kanzaki Rei shook his head: "If I told you now, you probably wouldn’t understand it."

But upon hearing Kanzaki Rei’s response, Suenari’s face took on an extremely serious expression.

"Master... if you feel that telling me would only cause you trouble, then I’d rather not hear it."

"But if there’s any chance—I’d also like to try to help ease your burdens."

Kanzaki Rei smiled... Ease my burdens, he says.

This was the ultimate question of mages.

No—more ultimate than ultimate.

But then Kanzaki Rei reconsidered. If Suenari was to become a powerful mage in the future, he would inevitably have to face this trial as well.

If he received the answer without any preparation, his faith in magic would absolutely shatter.

But if the information was broken down into stages and fed to him slowly,

The outcome might be completely different.

Hmm...

I’ll take the unsolvable nature of the Origin Source, break it into pieces, and tell him a little.

This response is AI-generated, for reference only.