Chapter 44: Marvels
He paused.
"However, what I wanted to talk to you about today has nothing to do with the Gatekeeper."
"What we’re about to discuss is related to your recent illness."
Gerald held the small booklet in his hand. "Do you know the terms ’Marvel’ and ’Infusion’?"
Richard shook his head.
Gerald flipped the booklet in his hand to a certain page.
"Under normal circumstances, as Ether flows through the world, most of it dissipates naturally back behind the Curtain. However, a very small amount of Ether gets intercepted by objects."
"Paracelsus named this process Tinctura, or ’infusion’."
"After an object undergoes years of infusion, the Ether will form a stable deposit. These objects can aid in one’s practice or be used as a Casting Medium. Esoteric texts inscribed upon them are also highly resistant to decay.
In our line of work, we call such objects ’Marvels’."
Gerald’s gaze fell upon Richard.
"The pendant Vincent gave you is a Marvel. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t harm anyone."
"For a Muggle... ah, no, an ordinary person with no potential circuits in their body, nothing would happen even if they wore a Marvel around their neck for their entire life.
The Ether seeping out of it would pass through their body and dissipate, just like water splashed onto a hot iron plate—not a single drop would seep in."
His words were pointed.
"But it’s different for people with potential circuits. The Ether seeping from the Marvel will flow along those circuits, flushing, expanding, until the circuits are activated.
This process is accompanied by a rejection reaction: fever, fatigue, muscle soreness..."
"So my illness was because of that rejection reaction," Richard said, understanding what he meant.
Gerald nodded, then shook his head.
"A typical rejection reaction lasts one to two days. It’s uncomfortable, but never fatal."
His gaze lingered on Richard’s face for a few seconds, his brow furrowed.
"I had Vincent bring you the pendant with the intention of testing whether you had potential circuits.
If you did, you would gain the qualification to step into the Mysterious Side after the rejection was over;
if you didn’t, the pendant would be no different from an ordinary piece of brass to you."
His voice grew lower.
"But I never expected your physical constitution to be so poor."
The coals in the fireplace quietly devoured themselves, the red glow flickering, carving the old man’s wrinkles even deeper into his face.
"It was a rejection reaction that a normal person would endure with a two-day fever, but your body almost couldn’t handle it.
A low fever dragged on into a high one, and the high fever led to a coma... This is my responsibility."
"Then, your Mother called again."
Gerald sounded a little helpless. "The Margaret on the phone was not nearly as polite as the one in the letter."
"One of her conditions for coming to this meeting was that I had to explain everything to you face-to-face and offer substantial compensation."
Richard understood. ’Mother wasn’t dragged to the Imperial Capital; she walked through that door holding all the chips.’
’He didn’t know if there were other conditions, but at least the face-to-face explanation and substantial compensation were clear.’
’Mother was far more shrewd than he had imagined.’
The silence lasted for a few seconds before the old man’s expression grew serious again.
"But you survived in the end."
Richard turned his gaze back to his grandfather.
Gerald didn’t seem to want to dwell on the topic for too long. The guilt had been expressed; now it was time for business.
"Since your circuits are activated, you have already taken the first step on your own."
His gaze fell to Richard’s chest.
’The existence of the Ether Micro-Cycle was probably as obvious to him as seeing if a person had a beard.’
"So the next question is... which direction do you plan to take."
"Within the court and administrative system, there are a number of committees, not open to the public, that specialize in handling extraordinary affairs. You could call them the Imperial officials. The Ashford Family has served in this system for generations."
"Officials? Are they the strongest?"
"They have the most resources, the tightest organization, and can mobilize the greatest power."
Gerald chose his words carefully.
"But a word like ’strongest’ depends on your definition."
He didn’t reveal any more, turning instead to introduce another faction.
"Besides the officials, there are departments in the major top universities that appear to be for classical literature, archaeology, or linguistics, but are actually academic institutions that research theories of the Mysterious Side.
The academic system maintains a cooperative relationship with the officials, but it is highly independent academically."
The old man raised his head and glanced at Richard.
"That Cicero Cup you’re planning to participate in—the organizer, the Classical Society, is a peripheral organization of the academic system."
He smiled and asked casually, "Someone from their side should have already approached you, right?"
Richard concealed the key information. "There’s a teacher at school who’s quite enthusiastic."
His grandfather didn’t press. "We’ll leave it at that, then."
"Besides the officials and the academic system, there are also the common folk—Spirit Mediums, Divination Masters, alchemists, Herbalists... People from all walks of life who have a connection to the Mysterious Side. They loosely form their own civilian Guilds and have their own spheres of influence."
Gerald didn’t linger on this topic, already moving on to the next.
"The Ashford Family has followed the Hunter’s path for generations.
The Path of Burning Blood—direct confrontation, apprehension, and disposal—it aligns with our duties in the civil service system."
"For three hundred years, the resources, connections, and training systems passed down through this lineage have all been accumulated around the Hunter’s Direction."
His tone shifted. "But you are on the path of a Scholar."
"On the Scholar’s path, I can’t help you much."
Gerald was very frank when he said this.
"The Underlying Logic of a Hunter and a Scholar are completely different. The inheritance, ritual materials, and training grounds our family has accumulated... they’re useless to you."
"If I had to make an analogy, it’s as if you want to learn tailoring, but all I can give you is a blacksmith’s forge.
The tools, the materials, the skills—they’re all for smithing. They have nothing to do with what you want to accomplish."
Richard listened intently.
"Your Aunt Isabella was in the same situation back then." Gerald leaned back in his chair.
"At the time, I wanted her to follow the Hunter’s path as well, to align with the family’s legacy."
"She refused."
As the old man spoke of his youngest daughter, a smile touched his eyes.
"She said to me then, ’Father, if you ask a fish to climb a tree, no matter how hard it tries, it will never be as good as a monkey. But if you let it return to the water, it can swim to places you can never reach.’"
"To think a teenage girl could say something like that."
Richard filed away the word "aunt." ’Mother rarely mentioned her own siblings.’
Gerald continued his story.
"The substantial help the family could give her was, frankly, very limited."
"Books that others read for you don’t count as your knowledge. Codes that others break for you don’t count as your ability.
On the Scholar’s path, how far you go is entirely up to you. No one can walk it for you."
"It’s not just the Scholar’s path; every path is like this."
He added, "The Hunter’s Direction is the same. When you reach a critical Tier Transition node, you have to get through it yourself.
What the family can provide are the preparations before the transition and the support after. The transition itself is something you must face alone."
Richard, combining this with what he already knew, understood the weight of these words.
The Tier system of the Mysterious Side, from Newcomer to Practitioner, and from Practitioner to Minor Mastery—every transition had a strict threshold.
It was a threshold that couldn’t be overcome just by piling up resources—at least, not entirely.
Whether you could cross it depended on the foundation you had built beforehand.
Gerald looked Richard directly in the eyes.
"No matter which direction you choose, the family will give you the necessary support."
The study was silent for a few seconds.
"Is that the compensation?"
"Consider it what I owe you."
After he spoke, he stood up from his chair, walked to the far right of the bookshelf, and bent down, searching for something.