Ingrid stood near the end of the central aisle, her new glasses catching the light like frost reflecting fire.
She drew in a steadying breath, then spoke—her voice higher than usual, though not quite a shout.
"Wait—why would Rein suddenly become a suspect?"
Master Rachel stood near a hexagonal support column, arms crossed.
She parted her lips slowly, each syllable released with deliberate weight.
"Yes. Rein is one of the suspects. That is why I ordered you to retrieve him from the Vault immediately."
The response was brief but heavy enough to anchor everyone's thoughts back into rational ground instead of fear or confusion.
Rein stood not far away, hands resting loosely at his sides. His posture was straight—not defensive, not resigned.
But his eyes—too steady for sixteen. Brows relaxed, expression unreadable, yet beneath that stillness lay a concentration wound tight around something razor-sharp.
Ingrid stole a glance at him—and for the briefest instant, it felt as though two figures overlapped. The Rein she knew… and a shadow of someone older, colder, carved with different memories.
She blinked hard.
But Rein remained Rein.
He sighed softly and dipped his head, accepting the accusation without protest.
Then he turned toward the deeper rows of shelves—the Forbidden Section—and pointed at the gap between two dark leather-bound volumes.
"The missing book… would be Poison Domain, written by the alchemist Zarif al-Sumum. Correct?"
Rachel's brow twitched upward, like the tightening of a carefully drawn bowstring.
She did not respond immediately. She allowed the question to settle, to leave a mark, before answering in a level voice:
"Correct. And the fact that you know it so precisely only makes you more suspicious, Rein."
Ingrid stepped forward instinctively, as though to shield him from an unseen force. She turned sharply toward the boy.
"Poison Domain? Wait—how do you even know that?"
Rein tilted his head, examining the shelf under the cold blue light. A thin shadow cut across his cheek.
"I stopped here earlier today. The Forbidden Section caught my attention. One of the titles was Poison Domain by Zarif al-Sumum."
He paused briefly.
"But I didn't take it, Ingrid."
The answer didn't ease her worry. She stepped back to her original position, then faced Master Rachel again—this time speaking quickly, almost defensively:
"That still doesn't prove Rein killed Senior Lucien. Having an interest in forbidden books isn't evidence."
Rachel raised one hand slightly—a subtle gesture to calm her.
"Correct. It is not evidence. It is only the first potential motive."
Then she turned to Rein.
"Why don't you tell Ingrid what traces were left on that section of the shelf?"
She lifted her hand. Long, slender elven fingers swept gently through the air.
A pale thread of light unfurled from her fingertips, seeping into the gaps between floor tiles before rising as a thin veil in front of the forbidden shelf—dim as moonlight, but sharp enough to clarify what lay behind it.
At chest height, a faint ring of dim white light began to form—circles upon circles. The edges were so clean they could almost be mistaken for drawn lines… until one looked closer and saw the ring was composed of tightly arranged micro-glyphs. Two concentric circles, layered like the growth rings of a tree.
As Rachel cast the spell, the surrounding air cooled slightly.
"The problem is here, Ingrid."
Rachel spoke slowly, allowing the full image to form before continuing.
Ingrid's eyes widened. She had seen something similar just hours ago—during the fight against the intruders alongside Rein.
"That magic circle… a Delay Casting!"
Rachel confirmed with a single nod.
"Delay Casting is an extremely advanced technique—one that's been lost to Aetheria for generations. As far as we know, only a handful of people alive can still use it. Even among the academy's faculty, no one can execute it this cleanly."
Rachel's voice remained low, clinical.
"And these glyphs… the precision is absolute. Not a single rune shifted from its proper placement."
She fell silent for a breath before lowering her hand. The curtain of light faded, revealing the dust-free forbidden bookshelf. The glowing ring vanished, leaving no trace behind.
Rein pressed his lips into a thin line.
Trace Detection Magic. He filed that away.
His mind was already modeling the room.
So normally, the Forbidden Section doesn't get touched—explains the dust. But where the delayed-cast ring appeared… the dust is gone. Cleared by mana discharge.
He crouched, lowering his line of sight until his blue eyes aligned perfectly with the shelf. His attention spread outward like ripples until it stopped—at one particular point.
Then he rotated, shifting toward the corpse lying face-down in front of the forbidden shelf.
"And judging from Lucien's body—the wound through the torso is surrounded by uniform burn marks. No bone fragmentation from blunt impact, no elemental residue, no secondary spell traces. The edges were cauterized instantly by high-temperature mana. That explained the lack of blood spatter on the floor—the heat had sealed the tissue on contact."
He lifted his head.
"This lines up most with Lightning Bolt magic."
Rachel's gaze met his. Her lips moved just enough to acknowledge the truth she had already known.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"And in this room," she said quietly, "there is only one person capable of using both Delay Casting and Lightning Bolt with mastery."
Rein's mouth curved just slightly. The flickering mana crystals cast shifting shadows across his face.
"That would be me."
"Yes."
Rachel didn't hesitate. Her voice echoed off the white stone floor.
"Which is why it is not surprising that you are now our prime suspect."
Rein shrugged lightly, unconcerned.
"Fair enough, Master Rachel."
"Fair—? Are you insane, Rein!?"
Ingrid burst out before she could stop herself. She turned on Rachel, worry and frustration mixing sharply across her expression.
"Master, you're talking like you've already decided he's guilty!"
Rachel shifted her gaze toward the blonde girl. Slowly. Her long fingers drummed once against her arm in a measured rhythm.
"Calm yourself, Ingrid. 'Suspect' does not mean 'culprit.' I'm simply starting from the point with the strongest correlation to the evidence."
Her tone was flat—but her sharp red eyes never left Rein.
"For safety, I must detain him temporarily. Rein will remain inside the library until morning. If nothing changes, the academy and Forensic Magic Division will continue the investigation afterward."
Her attention slid toward the entrance, where Librarian Belle stood without making a sound.
Rein nodded once, steady.
"Understood. I'll cooperate fully. But—since I'm the one here most familiar with Delay Casting mechanics—I'd like a moment to examine the scene myself. I might catch something important. Just three minutes."
Rachel closed her eyes briefly, weighing the request.
"One and a half. You are not to touch anything. And both Belle and I will be watching you."
"Fine by me."
Rein didn't need to look to know that Belle had already drifted closer—watching him like a security familiar disguised as a librarian.
Fitting, he thought. She's basically a surveillance camera with legs.
He exhaled, shoulders loosening.
He knelt again. His eyes followed the trail of blood beneath the mana-crystal light. He rubbed his thumb against his forefinger—thinking, calculating.
"Whoever the killer is, one thing is clear: they intentionally framed me. But the real question is—why?"
His voice fell into a murmur meant only for himself. One hand rose to his chin, head tilting slightly.
"And why kill Lucien? Why take the forbidden book? And what were they aiming to accomplish?"
The scene felt like a scattered jigsaw—pieces lost under the shelves, pieces stained in red.
Rein rose, turning to scan the area again. His gaze landed on the shelves behind the corpse, where streaks of blood had sprayed across the wood.
"The books there show no scorch marks. The Lightning Bolt used to kill Lucien was controlled with precise dissipation—ended just before it would damage anything else."
Rein's brows tightened sharply. His breath hitched—just a fraction—before settling back into its usual calm.
"Honestly? Even the previous Rein wouldn't have been confident he could control his power with that level of precision."
He swept his gaze across the surrounding shelves once more. The Healing Library remained dim, the mana crystals above flickering intermittently—its arcane circuits still unstable.
"Normally," Ingrid said softly, "a mage would have a passive barrier or a shield artifact active before any duel. Even a direct hit shouldn't have been fatal."
She looked away from the scorched corpse.
"But he was completely exposed. Without any resistance… the lightning didn't just kill him. It burned through him instantly. He didn't have a chance to scream, but… the split second before he died? It must have been agony."
Rachel nodded in agreement.
Rein raised a hand and flicked his finger toward the opposite shelves—ordinary collections, not forbidden ones—counting something silently. A few book spines bore flecks of blood, scattered like red punctuation marks from the spray around Lucien's body.
"Hm… History of Alchemy, huh? Seems the Healing Department has more students interested in the subject than I expected."
He spoke as if offhandedly. His gaze lingered on the spine.
On Earth, alchemy had started the same way—equal parts magic, faith, and guesswork—before the documentation habits took over and became something called chemistry. He couldn't help wondering if Arath had skipped that particular detour entirely.
That curiosity alone was why he had spent so long studying Zarif al-Sumum's forbidden text earlier in the day. It was pure intellectual interest—Dr. Rhys peeking through.
Ingrid frowned and snapped:
"Rein, this is not the time to admire alchemy textbooks."
"Ah—right, sorry."
Rein chuckled quietly, as though reeling his mind back from another world.
Then he turned to Master Rachel.
"By the way—who here is capable of unlocking the Mana Chains that protect the forbidden books?"
A raspy voice answered from the shadows before Rachel could speak.
"Anyone with the key can release the chains," Librarian Belle said, stepping out from between the shelves. "But the rules forbid removing any forbidden book from the library. Normally, the librarian or an assistant unlocks the chain and retrieves the book for supervised reading in the right-wing study room."
Her eyes—sharp, cold—locked onto Rein.
"The key is kept in the librarian's office behind the counter. I have checked it already. The door latch was destroyed, and the key is missing."
She took two steps forward, her black shoes clicking against the stone floor—positioning herself to observe the entire crime scene at once.
"And if you hadn't brought all these students into the library without authorization, none of this would have happened."
Ingrid immediately stepped in front of Rein.
"He had permission from Master Chloe! And he was saving lives—there was no time for formalities!"
Belle's expression remained as hard as carved obsidian. Her displeasure toward Rein was unmistakable.
"And yet," she said coolly, "someone still died in the sacred domain of knowledge belonging to the Healing Department."
Rein lifted his head slightly, blue eyes glinting with a cold, distant light.
He murmured, half to himself:
"Sacred knowledge, huh…?"
He crouched again—not just to look, but to examine. The charred edges of the wound were sharply defined, the burn pattern characteristic of high-tier magical heat.
"Interesting."
Rein nodded slowly.
Ingrid leaned closer, whispering so quietly her breath barely reached his ear:
"You already know who did it… don't you?"
"Nope," Rein answered flatly. "You know how exhausted I am today. I feel like Jack Bauer at the end of a twenty-four-hour shift."
Ingrid froze, blinking. She genuinely couldn't tell if he was joking—or referencing some legendary, terrifying mage from a distant land.
Belle cut in abruptly, voice as icy as before:
"Your time is up."
The black-haired boy nodded without objection. He rose slowly, dust and the faint metallic tang of blood still in the air.
He turned back toward Master Rachel. She was already watching him.
Under the crystal light, his shadow stretched long across the floor.
Master Rachel's brows tightened.
"Rein... you know what happened, don't you?"
So the ears really are functional, Rein thought. Not just decoration. Elves must have hearing several times sharper than humans. He glanced at her, the corner of his mouth lifting faintly.
"Yes. At the very least, I have proof I wasn't the one who did it."
"What do you mean?" Librarian Belle's voice cut sharply through the air.
"First of all," Rein said, completely sure of himself, "the killer's Lightning Bolt isn't the same as mine."
Silence rippled through the space.
"Everyone here should know that Lightning Bolt is a Primary Stratosphere-tier spell. I'm still at Master-Troposphere. Casting above your tier requires special conditions—like a Staff of the Sage or a catalyst-type artifact."
He halted—then, like an air bubble rising from deep water, a memory rose.
"Ah… right. During the tournament, I cast above my tier because I used a Lightning Crystal—a single-use artifact. After that, I had the Sage's Staff, but that thing turned out to be a warlock's trap and nearly killed me. Master Chloe knows the details."
But Rachel countered, her voice steady.
"That still doesn't prove your innocence. You could have used another artifact to replicate the effect."
Rein let out a quiet sigh.
"I've only been allowed out of the Vault for one day. Where exactly would I even obtain a Lightning Crystal? More importantly—if my target was a second-year who didn't have a passive barrier active, I wouldn't need a high-tier spell at all. One basic Magic Missile to the chest would've ended it cleanly—and left far fewer traces."
Rachel folded her arms, falling silent. She was reassessing him—carefully.
Rein continued.
"If I were committing the murder, I'd set up a Delay Casting trigger within two feet of the target and use a basic Magic Missile to stop his heart instantly. No need for Lightning Bolt. Using it would mean taking unnecessary risks—overextending my tier—and leaving a signature that points straight back to me."
He paused.
"And that's why I'm certain the killer's real objective was to frame me as the primary suspect."
These entries expand the lore and mechanics introduced in this chapter.
Completely optional—read only if you enjoy diving deeper into the system.
Spell Codex
TRACE DETECTION MAGIC
Category: Forensic Divination / Arcane Residue Analysis
Tier: Troposphere (varies by caster)
Casting Method: Vocal Based, Quiet Casting, Inscribed Artifact or Mana Core Circle
Element: Light / Arcane (Hybrid)
Description
A specialized divination spell designed to reveal residual mana signatures, detect hidden spellcasting traces, and uncover environmental disturbances left behind by magical activity.
In Chapter 23, Master Rachel uses this spell to detect the precise Delay Casting glyph hidden on the bookshelf. The spell manifests as a veil of pale blue light—“moonlight through dew”—that enhances, outlines, and exposes arcane disruptions invisible to the naked eye.
It belongs to a class of magic rarely mastered outside forensic specialists or elite investigators.
Mechanism
When invoked, the spell:
Projects a thin arcane-light membrane into the surrounding environment.
Reads fluctuations in ambient mana, identifying:
– Spatial distortion
– Glyph residue
– Dust disturbance caused by mana discharge
– Elemental traces (heat, lightning, necrotic signatures, etc.)
Reconstructs the original spellwork by outlining micro-glyphs, rune placement precision, and spellcasting patterns.
The spell’s sensitivity is so high that even Rein’s ultra-clean Delay Casting circle becomes visible.
Capabilities
Detects:
– Residual mana of any element
– Micro-glyph structures and spell inscriptions
– Compressed or dormant spell circles
– Environmental distortions (pressure shifts, heat bloom, ozone)
– Tampering, forced entry, mana-chain unlocking attempts
Reconstructs:
– Spell tier
– Caster’s technical precision
– Intent (attack, movement, concealment, inscription)
Range & Resolution
– Approx. 10–20 feet in high-resolution mode
– Can be extended in lower-resolution sweeps over large rooms
– Sensitive enough to distinguish between two Lightning Bolt casters with different mana signatures
Limitations
– Cannot identify who cast the spell unless mana signature is catalogued
– Cannot detect traces erased by Divine spells or Sanctuary effects
– Weaker in high-mana turbulence zones (after battles / catastrophes)
– Requires intense concentration; overuse leads to sensory fatigue
Notable Use
– Used by Master Rachel to reveal a perfect Delay Casting circle hidden on the forbidden bookshelf.
Notes
– Considered one of the core tools of forensic mages within the Academy.
– Its subtle cooling effect and faint ozone scent are trademarks of elven casters.
Books
Poison Domain by Zarif al-Sumum
Type: Forbidden Book
Category: Alchemy / Forbidden Magic
Details:
A text located within the Forbidden Section of the Healing Library. It contains rare and dangerous knowledge on toxins, manipulation of internal biological systems, and illegal alchemical practices.
– Its theft is central to the mystery surrounding Lucien's murder
– Zarif al-Sumum was known as a rogue alchemist
– The book was sealed under Mana Chains
Magical Devices
Mana Chains (Forbidden Book Locking System)
Function:
Arcane locks that bind dangerous or restricted tomes within secured library areas. Cannot be broken by force—require a specific key from the Librarian's Office.
– Key was confirmed stolen during the incident
– System designed to prevent unapproved access to sensitive knowledge
Other
Forensic Magic Division
Category: Magical Institutions / Law Enforcement
Affiliation: Kingdom of Arcadia (Royal Government)
Jurisdiction: Nationwide (All magical incidents under Arcadian law)
Tier: Authority-Level Division
Description:
The Forensic Magic Division is a royal investigative body operating under the Kingdom of Arcadia, empowered to intervene in cases involving magical crimes, deaths by spellcraft, artifact misuse, or violations of magical law. Its agents possess specialized knowledge in forensic enchantments, mana trace analysis, and reconstruction spells.
The division serves as the primary legal investigatory force for magic-related incidents and holds cross-jurisdictional authority over all regions within Arcadia. Cases handled by the division are typically submitted to the Magic Court for official trial and judgment.
Core Functions:
– Investigate magical crimes and unnatural deaths
– Trace and analyze residual spell signatures
– Secure evidence involving mana-based tampering
– Collaborate with academic institutions for field analysis
– Supervise the handling of Forbidden Artifacts or Spells
Legal Authority:
– Operates under direct charter from the Arcadian Royal Council
– Authorized to bypass standard local jurisdiction when magic is involved
– Can seize magical items, question suspects, and detain individuals for investigation
Notable Affiliates:
– Master Rachel: Senior magic-forensics consultant
Magic Weapons and Artifacts
Lightning Crystal (Over-Tier Variant)
Type: Single-Use Magical Catalyst
Element: Lightning
Rarity: Rare (Over-Tier Capable)
Usage Function: Spellcasting Enhancement / Inscription Aid
Description:
A rare, single-use elemental crystal saturated with high-density lightning mana. Unlike standard elemental crystals used by apprentice mages, this variant is capable of temporarily overriding natural tier limitations. When embedded into a casting focus such as a wand or staff, it enables the user to inscribe and cast a spell from a higher tier than normally allowed.
Notable Usage:
Used by Rein during the Arcadia Grand Magic Tournament. The crystal was pre-installed into his Arcadian Oak Wand, allowing him to inscribe and cast a lightning-element spell above his tier—giving him a critical edge in combat.
Difference from Standard Crystals:
– Typical elemental crystals (Uncommon to Rare) are used to aid in inscribing spells within the user’s tier boundary.
– They cannot amplify the user’s mana capacity or bypass tier restrictions.
– In contrast, this Lightning Crystal contained pre-condensed mana of a higher tier, effectively “loaning” the required magical threshold for one spell.
Legality in Competitions:
– Technically legal under Arcadia’s dueling rules, as long as the item is pre-registered with the caster’s focus.
– Controversial due to the advantage it confers; generally frowned upon by instructors and purists.
– Other students typically augment their wands with basic affinity-aligned crystals that enhance casting stability, but not tier.
Key Properties:
– Single-use only: The crystal disintegrates upon activation.
– Element-specific: Requires matching elemental affinity to avoid misfire.
– Difficult to obtain legally: Likely sourced from black-market channels or legacy collections.
Strategic Impact:
– Enabled Rein to surprise opponents expecting spells within his standard tier.
– Allowed inscription and activation of an over-tier lightning spell, which would otherwise fail.
When suspicion settles on the wrong person,
the room changes.
Even the air seems to wait for an answer.
but because someone wanted them to look simple.
— Re:Naissance