Chapter 801: Mages Might All Be Idiots Who Were Severely Deceived
"So that is how it is..."
Index murmured, her small shoulders slumping. The light in her bright green eyes dimmed as she stared at the floor. The two battered people standing in front of her were supposed to be her precious friends, yet looking at their faces brought nothing but a blank void to her mind. She did not recognize them at all.
Yet, a heavy sense of helplessness washed over her. They had done terrible things, but according to their own words, they were only trying to protect her. She could not even find the energy to blame them.
A sudden, unapologetic laugh shattered the heavy atmosphere.
Ren threw his head back, his amusement echoing through the quiet room. "You mages really are all idiots."
"Bah, bah, bah! I am not an idiot!" Index puffed out her cheeks, planting her hands firmly on her hips and glaring up at him.
Kanzaki Kaori tightened her grip on the hilt of her nodachi, a deep frown creasing her forehead. "Mr. Ren. What exactly do you mean by that?"
Ren's lips curled into a lazy smirk. "I mean exactly what I said. Do you just blindly swallow whatever garbage your superiors feed you?"
"Are you implying the Archbishop is lying to us? That is impossible." Stiyl Magnus forced himself up from the ground, his long legs trembling slightly. A deep, instinctual fear lingered in his eyes whenever he looked at Ren, a quiet reminder of the overwhelming gap in their strength. Yet, his stubborn pride flared. "Her Eminence has absolutely no reason to deceive us."
"No reason?" Ren's tone dripped with playful sarcasm.
Ignoring the tall fire mage's furious glare, Ren reached out and pulled Index directly into his lap. His fingers gently brushed against her soft cheek, tracing the line of her jaw.
"Ugh... Ren, what... what are you doing?" Index stammered. A furious blush spread across her face, and she squirmed weakly against his chest, completely flustered by the sudden physical contact.
"Hehe, nothing much. Just reminding your two idiotic friends about a little detail." Ren shifted his gaze back to the mages, his smile sharpening into something dangerous. "She carries the knowledge of one hundred and three thousand magical grimoires inside her head. Do you honestly believe that alone is not enough for your Church to resort to any dirty trick in the book to keep her chained to their faction?"
The words hung in the air.
Stiyl and Kanzaki froze. Their eyes widened as the sheer weight of that logic crashed into them. The grimoire library was an unmatched weapon, a treasure trove of absolute magical supremacy. No organization would ever willingly let such an asset slip through their fingers.
If they looked at it from that angle... the Archbishop really might have played them. With a treasure of this magnitude, anyone would do whatever it took to maintain control.
"Then how do you explain her memory limit?" Stiyl gritted his teeth, desperate to keep his crumbling faith intact. He refused to let his entire worldview collapse so easily. "Index possesses perfect memory! Her brain absorbs every single detail, completely different from a normal human!"
Ren scoffed, his disdain crystal clear. "You would not fall for such pseudo-scientific garbage if you actually bothered to read a normal book once in a while."
He held up a finger, his voice taking on the tone of a teacher lecturing a particularly slow student. "The human brain has enough storage capacity to hold roughly one hundred and forty years' worth of continuous information. Besides, human memory is not just dumped into one single folder."
Ren tapped his own temple. "There are specific areas dedicated to language and learned knowledge. Other areas handle motor skills and physical procedures. Different sections entirely manage episodic memories and personal experiences. Because of this compartmentalization, when someone suffers from amnesia, they do not suddenly forget how to speak or lose their basic common sense. If a brain simply 'filled up' and had to be wiped indiscriminately, the person would revert to a drooling infant."
He gestured toward the window, out at the sprawling, technologically advanced skyline. His eyes gleamed with open mockery. "Look around you. This is Academy City. The absolute pinnacle of the scientific side. If you grabbed a random middle schooler off the street and told them a girl's brain was going to explode because she remembered too much, they would laugh in your face and call you a moron."
Dead silence filled the room.
Kanzaki and Stiyl stood paralyzed. The color drained from their faces as the sickening realization twisted in their guts. They had completely bought into Ren's explanation. The anger of being manipulated, heavily mixed with the suffocating guilt of repeatedly erasing the memories of the girl they swore to protect, threatened to crush them.
The Anglican Church had concocted a hilariously flimsy lie. They weaponized the care Kanzaki and Stiyl had for Index, turning her closest friends into her executioners. By forcing them to wipe her memory every single year, the Church guaranteed Index could never form lasting bonds, never rebel, and never escape their grasp. She would forever remain dependent on the Church for her very survival.
And the only reason this flawless plan worked? Because her protectors were scientifically illiterate mages who did not know any better. Stiyl and Kanzaki fit the criteria perfectly.
"I suppose you two can still struggle a little bit," Ren drawled, a dark amusement dancing in his eyes as he offered them a poisoned lifeline. "For example, you could bring up the fact that Index suffers from severe headaches and faints every year right before the deadline."
Stiyl's head snapped up, a desperate light igniting in his eyes. "Exactly! She gets those headaches! She collapses! Is that not physical proof that the strain is real?"
He clung to the argument like a drowning man clutching a piece of driftwood. He was terrified of the alternative—that he had been actively torturing the girl he loved.
Kanzaki's breath hitched. For a fraction of a second, a spark of hope flickered in her chest, but it was instantly extinguished. She met Ren's gaze. He was looking at them the way one might watch a pathetic clown perform a tragic routine. The sheer pity and mockery in his eyes felt like a physical stab to her heart.
She exhaled a long, shaky breath, her voice coming out hoarse and broken. "That... that must also be a mechanism planted by the Church. Right?"
Stiyl's entire body went rigid. The remaining color vanished from his face, leaving him ashen. "Kanzaki... you..."
Kanzaki did not look at him. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor, her expression turning ice-cold. "Stiyl. Stop deceiving yourself. Every single sign points to one absolute truth. We foolishly believed the Archbishop."
"But..." Stiyl opened his mouth, his voice cracking.
"Clap. Clap. Clap."
Slow, deliberate applause echoed through the room, cutting off the fire mage's pathetic denial. Ren grinned, his eyes crinkling with amusement. "Well, well. It seems one of you is not a complete lost cause after all."
That left only one true idiot in the room, and that was Stiyl. Even after being directly insulted, the towering mage lacked the strength to argue. His spirit was shattered.
Kanzaki, having accepted her bitter fate, finally raised her head. A deep frown creased her forehead as a new doubt surfaced. "I have personally bathed Index. I have checked her entire body for injuries. There were absolutely no traces of magic, no hidden spells, no unnatural marks. If the Church planted a mechanism to cause those headaches, where could it possibly be hidden?"
"A very good question." Ren nodded, genuinely pleased that she was finally using her brain. "Index."
"Hmm?" Index blinked, looking up at him from his lap.
"Open your mouth."
"Oh. Ahhh~" Index obediently parted her lips, tilting her head back like a patient at the dentist.
Without hesitation, Ren slid his finger past her lips, pointing deep toward the back of her throat.
Kanzaki's breath caught. Her eyes widened in absolute horror as the realization struck her like a physical blow. She finally understood. No wonder she had never found anything during her physical examinations.
The throat.
Deep inside the oral cavity, completely unprotected by the thick bone of the skull. In terms of linear distance, the roof of the mouth and the back of the throat were practically pressed right up against the brain.
, it was a location completely hidden from plain sight. No one would ever casually look down a girl's throat, let alone touch it. Even Kanzaki, despite being a woman who had helped Index undress and bathe, would never have had a reason to inspect the deep recesses of her throat.
If a magical spell was designed to directly stimulate the brain and induce agonizing headaches, there was no more perfect, insidious hiding spot in the entire human body.
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