Three years ago, Aozaki Residence.
"What's the name of your Mystic Eyes?"
Touko marveled at his eyes, clicking her tongue in amazement.
Even by her standards, the performance of these Mystic Eyes was downright absurd—practically a natural-born counter to magi. Even an immature Magic User might struggle against them.
There wasn't a single case in all of human history with eyes like his. They were that unique.
Had she met him a decade earlier, she might have taken him back to Misaki City to teach her little sister a lesson.
If that had happened, she never would have lost back then!
"They don't have a name."
Roy's voice was icy, his gaze frosty enough to make the air itself seem to freeze.
"Is that so? Such formidable Mystic Eyes deserve a proper name. If you don't mind, how about I give them one?"
"Whatever."
"What an unlovable child."
Touko sighed, shaking her head.
From the scars on his body, she could already guess what kind of life this homunculus had lived—and given his lifespan, it was effectively his "first half."
"Alright, let's get started on teaching you magecraft!"
"The technique of personality partitioning—you'll need to master it quickly. If you keep that 'my-mother-just-died' face around every magus you meet, someone's bound to take offense and try to dispose of you behind Aoko's back. After all, a homunculus under a Magic User's protection must be special. I'm sure plenty will have their eyes on you. But if you fully master those Mystic Eyes, that's another story. There probably won't be a single magus in this world you can't handle. Really, it's almost reminiscent of that king who infused magecraft with its very soul…"
Roy remained silent.
Only Touko's voice filled the room.
But she could tell—despite his indifferent expression, Roy was listening.
"Now, back to the main topic."
She paused, as if carefully choosing her words.
"Magecraft, at its core, is simply accomplishing what humans can achieve through methods unknown to ordinary people. It exchanges the cost of completing a task for another form of payment—that cost being magical energy. For example, if a magus wants to construct a building, by expending magical energy to perform magecraft, they might finish it in minutes, even seconds, whereas human technology would take days or years. True Magic, however, is an entirely different matter. That's a separate discussion."
"The essence of magecraft lies in the study of history—researching, analyzing, and utilizing concepts developed over millennia of human civilization to create various thaumaturgical systems."
"But fundamentally, magecraft is nothing more than a karmic obstruction created by humanity. Just one of countless such obstructions in this planet's 4.6 billion years of cyclical repetition. Even if you pursue it to its limits—"
"Magecraft is… a karmic obstruction?"
Roy suddenly looked up, interrupting her explanation with a probing question.
"Interested in this part?"
Touko smirked noncommittally, pulling a cigarette case from her pocket.
"Indeed, magecraft is a karmic obstruction. But it's merely one of countless obstructions born from Earth's endless cycles. From the perspective of the planet's history, it's an insignificant fragment."
I see.
Roy lowered his head, deep in thought.
"What's on your mind?"
Touko lit her cigarette, exhaling smoke as she studied him with interest.
"Touko, do you remember the question I asked you before?"
"Which one?"
"About what kind of creatures humans are."
"Ah, that."
She scrutinized him carefully, her expression gradually turning serious.
"So? Have you reached an answer?"
"I've thought about it for a long time. It's still immature, but yes—I have an answer."
Roy nodded, his face devoid of joy or sorrow.
"I believe humans are incomplete beings. Whether acting out of goodwill or malice, they inevitably leave indelible sins upon history. Even with something as irrational as magecraft, the result only intensifies the cycle of good and evil. Karmic obstructions can never be erased. No matter how many times the cycle repeats, humanity will never reach an ideal higan—the far shore of enlightenment."
"...An interesting conclusion."
Touko's expression grew complicated.
It reminded her of an old acquaintance.
A certain monk she hadn't seen in centuries.
That monk had taken hundreds of years to arrive at such a bleak realization—yet this homunculus boy had reached the same conclusion in just a few years under the weight of reality.
"Now that you've come to this conclusion, what do you intend to do?"
She probed cautiously, slightly worried the boy might take an extreme path.
"Destroy humanity, these incomplete beings, and reset everything? Or research the Sixth Magic, experiment with reaching the Root, and erase all evil from the world?"
"No. Evil is an inherent flaw in humanity's bones. It can never be erased. Resetting humanity is meaningless. Besides, I have no feasible method to accomplish it. Those who spout such ideas are just indulging in self-satisfying delusions—not even worth calling armchair theorizing."
Roy's lips twisted into a derisive sneer.
"However, I do have one idea. One feasible possibility."
"Humanity is indeed incomplete. Perfection is fundamentally impossible for them. In that case, the only solution is to use an external force to compensate. But that external force cannot be something like magecraft."
As he spoke, Roy raised his head.
A bright golden moon hung in the sky. This world was often shrouded in dark clouds, but occasionally, a moon like this would appear.
Roy lifted his hand, reaching toward the distant, untouchable moon—as if trying to grasp it—and clenched his fist tightly.
"Touko, I've thought of a name for these Mystic Eyes."
"Hmm? I thought we agreed I'd name them?"
Touko pouted slightly, looking miffed.
Ignoring her complaint, Roy declared it himself.
"Inverted Moon."
"These Mystic Eyes shall be called—The Mystic Eyes of the Inverted Moon!"
Touko pondered for a long moment.
But she still couldn't decipher the deeper meaning behind the name.
Roy stood in the mansion's front garden, gazing up at the eternal moon, his eyes gradually gleaming brighter and brighter.
Yes.
The Mystic Eyes of the Inverted Moon.
The "moon" in "Inverted Moon" isn't the moon in the sky.
It's the moon of Type-Moon.
When you get down to it, humans are all the same.
No matter how many cycles pass, good and evil remain ingrained in their souls. These are immutable truths.
Life itself is static—they are both the creators of sin and the victims of karmic obstructions.
What truly displeases me is the rules by which this boundless world operates!
What I must do is already clear.
***
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