'I'm glad she didn't use her truth detection spell this time, but it was as expected.'
Aurora calmly walked through the hallways, thinking back about what happened just then.
He didn't instill two lies beforehand again this time, not because he believed in the trust they've supposedly established, as colleagues, but the timing of events.
The day he had gone in for his first interview, he knew Simon's death was not received yet by the Academy. Even if his name wouldn't be found in any of the systems, and no one knows where he had come from, a recommendation letter was enough to persuade.
They could see he himself was only a Prelude rank String Master, someone with only stage I Instrument cannot go against an Etude rank, was a norm recognised by everyone. Even if he did miraculously beat him, there would've been no way to force a usable recommendation letter out of him. A document written against a person's will from mind control could easily be targeted as forgery, there exists many spells that detect this matter.
So, even if there was an interrogation, two lies were all he needed.
However, this time was different.
Aurora had expected Simon's corpse would've been devoured by wild String Monsters, to think he fought to the very end with the instilled lies... but it was also something he anticipated.
Which was why, right after he had left the first interview, he attempted to disassemble the lie, in case someone used some spells that could've tracked the Remnant Art back to him from Simon's corpse.
Throughout many trials and errors, he discovered [Kuro] could keep track of the lies it had instilled. Although currently, he could only instill lies at close distance, but to dismantle its effect, there was no range limit.
However, just as he was about to do so, the lie was broken on its own. That was when Aurora had learnt that upon a person's death, [Kuro] will lose its effect.
And, Simon was dead.
He knew this news would get back soon, and a further investigation was inevitable. If Renna decided to use her truth detection spell today, two lies will not be enough to form a convincing cover-up story.
But, Aurora was glad Collapse had taken the credit. There will be more times where he had to act like he cared about his old cousin, but that's for another discussion.
He never liked that man, not because he was trying to kill him, but he was condoning the use of slaves.
The boy, previous owner of this vessel, was treated poorly in the army. Unlike the grave robber brothers, he committed no crimes, but was simply met with the misfortune of political conflicts.
He lost his family during the war, and was enslaved. Simon was not the one who directly mistreated him, but he condoned it, even though he was a professor at this institution.
He had the power to change the fate of this young man, but became silent. Aurora firmly believed, had any of the other staff he'd met were in the same situation, Madam Renna, Lucien or even Professor Laurent, would've all stood up to the unjust—
Including himself.
It's the values that they hold will be passed down to the next generation. Aurora wondered quietly, what would the reaction of the little girl in front of him be, if he had told her the story of a slave boy.
But, he won't tell her, there were no reasons to.
At first, he didn't even recognise this term when the grave robber brothers had used it. It was long gone in the Age of Golden, when everything was at peace, slavery was abolished across the land.
But why had the most sickening, depraving concept been passed down in the thriving future that Kael had promised? The Age of Dawnflame?
'Just what have you been doing…'
As he walked out the administrative building, he questioned his old friend in the quiet mind.
The more he knew about Tuning, the more insignificant he felt.
What lies beyond the pinnacle of String Mastery? No one knows the answer, but many tried, and might be still trying.
He knew a God that could move faster than light itself, that individual had flown into the vast emptiness beyond the skies, determined to reach the end of the universe.
He witnessed the birth of a new life from Tuning, the Goddess who possessed that Remnant Art had hidden herself somewhere in the vastness of this land, fostering a new garden of life.
Kael, his best companion, can explore freely in the axis of time. What had he hoped to achieve? What answer did he find in killing his day-one, for the Age of Dawnflame?
To an extent, a God was similar to what the mortals would expect, someone that could achieve the impossible.
But Aurora knew, Deities were still String Masters at the core. They could manipulate concepts in of itself, but String Theory was still the fundamental law they had to obey.
A String cannot be created or destroyed.
No space can exist empty of Strings.
…
Aurora, the God of Calamity, was the deliverer of inevitability. He governed Death, Loss, Misfortune, Corruption and Despair, which made him the most hated being at the time, hence the name bestowed:
"Whose death will bring all good"
However, he did not create any of these concepts. He was the deliverer, the best String Master in these fields; yet if you were to ask him why, he wouldn't have a clue.
Why do people die? Why do beings decay?
Of course, he could've explained it through Tuning. Because of the way a String behaves, adversity was only natural.
However, what reason beyond Tuning, beyond String theory that could answer these questions, was something all Gods were determined to find.
The vision Kael had, where everyone could perform Tuning, Instrument or not, was the closest method Aurora thought that would've reached this goal.
Because if everyone has access, then perhaps one day, there will be an individual more talented, that could unveil the mystery beyond Strings.
Ironic, isn't it? The Gods who everyone thought that was able to solve anything, were thinking of ways to pass down the torch.
But, one hundred thousand years later, Aurora was not rebirthed into the world of this vision. Slavery revived, wars continued, Tuning was locked in institutions for only those with talents.
'...I don't like it.'
He continued walking, footsteps gradually became more heavy. His purpose, Kael's vision — No one knows what the young man has in his mind.
But, he didn't like what was happening…
Not in the slightest.