Screwllum was a scholar of strict logic, so he wasn't the sort to believe in something as vague as luck.
He understood it more as a way of manipulating probability. If events were pushed toward outcomes that benefited you, that was what people called good luck. At least, that was how Screwllum interpreted the "increase in luck" Sylvia had mentioned.
The only reason he'd called it "good luck" was because Herta herself had just brought up luck. It'd merely been a small joke.
Herta caught it and shot Screwllum a vicious glare.
Sylvia only shrugged and shook her head. "Who knows? Personally, I'm leaning toward Aha being the one who gave us that information."
Herta gave the mask on Sylvia's head a thoughtful look. Naturally, Herta Space Station had heard that Sylvia had become an Emanator of Elation. Sylvia was practically an old acquaintance of theirs by now.
Once the Interastral Peace Corporation dug up her connection to Herta Space Station, its people had immediately gone to Asta for information. Their intentions couldn't have been more obvious.
Asta ignored those so-called "relatives," but she was still thrilled by Sylvia's achievement and had reported the matter to Herta.
That was why Herta wasn't bothered by Aha appearing inside the Memory Bubble.
"Whatever the reason, at least we can confirm one thing now. The Lord of Silence really is targeting us."
Herta handed the Memory Bubble back, her brows drawn tight.
"Sylvia just happened to run into a crisis in the Asdana system, while at the exact same time, part of the Simulated Universe's historical record just happened to be obscured. If that's all coincidence, then it's one hell of a coincidence."
"Conclusion: I'll reserve judgment for now."
Screwllum was wavering, but his logical nature still wouldn't let him accept a conclusion based on speculation alone.
Herta hadn't expected him to agree anyway. In fact, it was precisely because Screwllum was here that she felt comfortable relying on her own intuition and voicing a speculative conclusion.
"At least we're agreed on what comes next. We have to keep pushing forward with this part of history." Herta looked at Sylvia. "I need you."
Sylvia blinked in curiosity. "Speaking of which, Screwllum said you chose the history of the Second Emperor's War because you wanted Rubert II's Scepter system?"
"Hm? Yeah."
Herta glanced at Screwllum in confusion before turning back.
"The Scepter system was an internal cognition unit Rubert II built in imitation of Nous. It's a top-tier creation made by a genius, and it could help us make a massive upgrade to the Simulated Universe."
"It's really that impressive? Then what happened to the real Scepter system?"
Sylvia was genuinely curious about where the actual system had gone.
"Of course it's gone! The idiots at the Corporation did who-knows-what to it, and every last Scepter turned into scrap metal!"
Just talking about it annoyed Herta.
The Corporation's public explanation was that scholars had bombarded the system with so many questions that it overloaded and failed. Herta didn't believe that nonsense for a second.
That was a genius's creation. A bunch of mediocre scholars asking questions would've been child's play to a genius, the sort of thing they could answer in an instant. They could've stuffed every brain they had into the system and still wouldn't have clogged the Scepters.
Herta's explanation only made Sylvia more interested.
Now she really wanted to know what the Corporation had done to a genius's creation. How had they managed to break an external cognition system modeled after Nous?
It sounded about as believable as saying they'd asked Herta so many questions that she'd crashed.
"Anyway, I don't care what Genius #4's goal really is. My goal is to recreate the Scepter system, then use it to ask him... her? it? a question. I want my answer."
Herta planted her hands on her hips, looking utterly determined.
"With all due respect, if your hypothesis is correct, then the threat posed by the Lord of Silence will remain throughout this endeavor. You'll inevitably encounter unpredictable complications," Screwllum warned.
Herta might've been confident, but she'd been just as confident every previous time she'd tried to break through the boundaries of knowledge.
Every attempt had failed without exception.
If Herta's theory was right, Screwllum saw little reason to believe this attempt would be different. He didn't want her placing too much hope on a single experiment.
"Adding too many goals to one research project will greatly divide your attention."
Rather than expecting this experiment to hand them every answer, it'd be better to focus their efforts on uncovering the Lord of Silence's secrets.
"Then that's perfect!" Herta shot back. "I'll grab her by the tail and see what Genius #4 is really planning."
As she spoke, she reached out and grabbed Sylvia by the arm.
"Besides, we've got Sylvia as our secret weapon. That should at least give us some insurance."
After all, Sylvia had already survived several probability-manipulation attacks through sheer good fortune.
Herta genuinely wanted to keep Sylvia beside her as a personal lucky charm.
Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly practical.
"You're already assuming I'm going?"
Sylvia leaned sideways and gave Herta a strange look.
This woman really hadn't changed. She still loved making decisions for everyone else.
"Don't you want to keep investigating the Lord of Silence? Where else besides my place are you going to find a trail leading back to her?"
Herta put her hands on her hips with an expression that practically said, 'You're not disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing, are you?'
"Well... you're not wrong."
Sylvia clicked her tongue.
Crude as Herta's argument was, it made sense. As far as Sylvia knew, Herta's research was the only place where they had any real chance of finding the Lord of Silence.
Constance's lead had only been a theory pieced together from scattered memories. She didn't know anything concrete about the Lord of Silence either.
"So, are we starting now?"
"No. I'd like to, but I need to upgrade the entire space station and put some precautions in place first."
There was a slight hesitation in Herta's voice when she said it. Maybe even she wasn't sure whether those precautions could actually defend against the Lord of Silence.
Screwllum nodded, though.
"Logic: While we theoretically can't guard against the flap of a tiny butterfly's wings, perhaps we can choose what form the resulting accident takes."
"You can actually do that?"
Sylvia thought Screwllum and Herta's idea sounded absurd.
Were these two seriously planning to gamble on probability against someone who manipulated probability?
"Who knows?"
Even Herta couldn't give her a definite answer.
When geniuses played games against one another, uncertainty was inevitable. Still, making no preparations at all wasn't Herta's style.
"I'll need a little time. I'll message you when everything's ready."
"Fine."
If the person running the project said so, there wasn't much Sylvia could add.
"Then I'm heading back."
"Mm."
--+--
Sylvia returned to Penacony.
With nothing else to do, she and Mei went to the bar at The Reverie in reality. They'd originally planned to have a few drinks and kill some time, but instead they overheard a surprising piece of news.
There was finally a lead on the missing mask.
Quite a few Dreamchasers were already getting restless over it.
The Synesthesia Dreamscape had only just gone through a major upheaval. Now that the Stellaron was gone and new protections hadn't yet been established, the Dreamscape was no longer a perfectly safe place where death couldn't happen.
Rumor had it someone had already died inside the Dreamscape while chasing the mask.
The man spreading the story sounded so convincing that he'd managed to scare quite a few people. Then a pair of Bloodhounds arrived and chased him out.
Sylvia had listened from a booth nearby for quite a while before her expression slowly turned strange.
"...I'd almost forgotten about that whole thing."
Mei lowered her head and took another sip, paying little attention to the gossip.
"With what you can do now, you still can't find the mask?"
"Nope. At the end of the day, that's still Sparkle's mask. If anyone can find it, it'd be Sparkle herself."
Sylvia shrugged.
Being a Masked Fool didn't exactly come with a built-in ally-tracking function.
"My guess is Sparkle's behind this again."
Sylvia rolled her eyes at the empty air.
If some outsider had gotten the mask, they would've put it on themselves long ago. Why go through all this trouble and cause such a huge commotion?
The whole thing smelled like one of that Masked Fool's schemes.
"That's certainly possible."
Mei would've normally told Sylvia not to make accusations without evidence.
But considering Sparkle's personality, even Mei had to admit there was a very good chance Sylvia was right.
"Still, I'm more interested in why the Family doesn't seem interested in stopping the rumors."
Mei glanced toward the two Bloodhounds. They'd driven the storyteller away and made a few official-sounding remarks, but there'd been no sign that they actually intended to stop the rumors from spreading.
Sure enough, the moment the Bloodhounds left, everyone in the bar started whispering again.
Even more interestingly, the bar staff all worked for the Family. Yet they'd only offered a few verbal warnings and didn't seem bothered by the gossip spreading at all.
As for the idea that the Family had lost control of Penacony because it currently lacked clear leadership, neither Mei nor Sylvia believed that.
Things couldn't possibly have fallen apart that badly.
"So what does the Family gain if Penacony starts getting chaotic again?"
Sylvia took another sip and began thinking it over.
It wasn't anything urgent, so she wasn't in a rush to solve the mystery.
"Who knows? Maybe the Family's confident Penacony can't actually descend into chaos."
"Could they just want publicity? But this whole mess makes the Family look incompetent too."
After all, the item had vanished during an auction run by the Family.
Normally, shouldn't they be trying to bury the story?
Weren't they afraid of becoming a joke?
Sylvia tilted her head, still thinking.
Mei bumped her lightly with her shoulder.
"Instead of worrying about that, maybe you should think about when you're going to take Miss Firefly to see Ruan Mei."
"I'm almost afraid to bring Firefly there now. What if something goes wrong with the experiment?"
Sylvia sighed.
She'd originally wanted to deal with Firefly's physical condition as quickly as possible. But now the Lord of Silence was lurking somewhere in the shadows, watching her.
Who knew what kind of morals that woman had?
Maybe she enjoyed causing trouble. Maybe she'd arrange some freak accident right in the middle of Ruan Mei's experiment.
Sylvia certainly wasn't willing to gamble on an enemy's sense of ethics.
"Trouble really does keep finding you."
Even Mei couldn't help sighing on Sylvia's behalf.
"Tell me about it. At least we've still got time."
Sylvia didn't know whether the bracelet could truly improve Firefly's condition.
A day or two wasn't enough to tell.
So Sylvia still planned to ask Ruan Mei for help. No matter what happened, they needed a plan first.
She just hadn't expected the Lord of Silence to appear at precisely this moment.
Sylvia had once assumed the Lord of Silence would only interfere with matters related to the Simulated Universe.
Penacony had already proven that assumption wrong.
--+--
Meanwhile, inside Firefly's guest room, Firefly sat on the sofa with her chin propped on one hand, humming along to Robin's new album.
She looked to be in a very good mood.
Silver Wolf, meanwhile, was reading through the Dreampool's data.
The longer she looked, the stranger her expression became. Every so often, she'd reach up and touch the gemstone hanging from her ear as if she were puzzling over something.
"What's wrong? Did SAM's scan get something wrong?"
Firefly looked at her curiously.
Silver Wolf didn't look like she'd found terrible data, but she didn't exactly look happy either.
"No, SAM's report is right. It's just..."
Silver Wolf touched the earring again, her expression complicated.
"Just what?"
"According to the Dreampool's monitoring program, the point when your condition started improving matches the exact time you escaped the deeper dream."
Silver Wolf pursed her lips, then looked at the bracelet around Firefly's left wrist.
Firefly's eyes widened. She reached down and touched the bracelet in surprise.
"Wasn't that when the bracelet helped me?"
"Exactly. Look at the Dreampool's recording."
Silver Wolf flicked her hand, sending the screen in front of Firefly.
The timestamp showed the moment Firefly had broken free from the deeper dream.
At that same moment, the bracelet around Firefly's wrist in reality began to shine. The light slowly spread from it across her entire body.
Firefly's brow had been tightly furrowed, her expression filled with pain. But as the light washed over her, that tension gradually faded.
Her expression became peaceful and stayed that way until she finally woke from the dream.
"It happened then?"
"That's what the data says so far."
Silver Wolf dismissed the screen and spread her hands.
"But we still don't know how far this bracelet's effects go. Whether it's only improving your condition or can actually cure it completely... we'll have to ask Sylvia. She's the one who gave it to you."
Silver Wolf's tone was a little strange.
She was happy, of course. One of her companions might finally have a solution to a condition that threatened her life.
At the same time, she couldn't help feeling a little annoyed about what looked suspiciously like unequal treatment.
Still, Firefly was the one involved, so Silver Wolf couldn't bring herself to resent her.
That meant all of her irritation naturally got redirected toward Sylvia instead.
Seriously.
They'd both received keepsakes from her.
Firefly's bracelet had an incredible effect that anyone could tell was extraordinary.
So why was Silver Wolf's gift apparently just pretty?
Was Sylvia playing favorites because Silver Wolf was smaller?
Silver Wolf silently clenched her fist.
It'd been a while since she'd fought Sylvia.
Suddenly, her hands were starting to itch.
"Hehe..."
Firefly had no trouble noticing the shift in Silver Wolf's mood.
Silver Wolf usually wore such a cool expression, but her emotions were surprisingly easy to read.
Still, Firefly trusted that Sylvia hadn't deliberately treated anyone differently.
The earring she'd given Silver Wolf surely had some special purpose too.
They just hadn't discovered it yet.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL