In the midst of casual conversation, Ronald led the two of them to their destination.

At the stronghold established by the cultist magicians in Waterfall City.

The one before them was probably the largest Ronald knew of.

However, with the entire city's destruction, what used to be quite a 'lively' building had fallen to ruins. Large patches of charred marks were scattered across the exterior of the house, not to mention the windows and roof, and even a large section of the northern walls had been directly demolished in the previous tremors.

According to any country's evaluation system,

The houses like the one before Ronald and his companions would definitely be considered dangerous buildings, unfit for any normal person to reside in.

"..."

"Finding clues in a place like this is no simple task."

Facing such results, Ronald let out a wry smile and sighed.

Beside him, Nicole, who understood that this mission originated because of her, had already stepped forward:

"Ronald, I actually have pretty good luck."

"Let's give it a try. If it really doesn't work, I can use a prophetic spell to try and track this guy again. With the present ritual on me, and the modifications you made to my body—I think I can now handle this more extreme casting method."

Such a dangerous statement from Nicole immediately sent a shiver through Ronald.

"Don't you dare try! Let's just search carefully instead!"

"Recklessly risking your body like that, even for living a couple more years, I'd advise you to be careful in the future."

Nicole, of course, understood this was out of Ronald's concern, so she quickly gave a slightly apologetic smile.

After that, the three of them plunged into what was once the cultist magician's base.

They began attempting to find clues here.

The hope of finding clues was not small—after all, the source of the entire incident was right here.

According to the information extracted from the caster earlier.

This should be the center of where the battle broke out and also where the remnants of the Holy Spirit were implicated.

If they could find something valuable.

It would certainly provide significant help for them in the subsequent search for the spell casters of the [Secret of Aogen].

Among the three of them,

Costate was, of course, controlling the water flow to start cleaning the traces in the room, uncovering some hidden details; while Nicole used the investigative methods often employed by investigators to search and examine the marks left behind from the previous battle at some important spots; only Ronald had the most leisure in his hand's work—

He simply spread out the black mist from the power of 'Fury' as usual, allowing it to work by itself, while he stood leisurely in place, guarding everything around the abandoned building.

...

After a few minutes passed, as Ronald was pondering over the night's encounters, he suddenly had an idea.

Thus, he approached Nicole and asked a somewhat curious question:

"By the way, Nicole."

"I actually have had a question."

When Ronald asked, Nicole was picking up a lampstand stained with wax, pondering over something:

"Why, did I do something wrong?"

Ronald first nodded, then shook his head:

"Sort of, but not quite. What I'm curious about is your spellcasting ability."

"Though said to be an unconventional use of magic power—from a conventional standpoint, it's impossible to cast spells beyond the limits of the original canons. But looking at your case, it seems like there's a way to bypass such restrictions?"

"Ah, this…" Nicole's expression suddenly became enlightened.

Though such information is absolutely valuable.

The investigator girl did not seem inclined to hide it in this area.

She gently placed the candlestick back in place, then explained quite naturally:

"This ability is actually related to my understanding of spells, and part of the reason is that the spell system of the [Secret of Aogen] is quite special."

"Hmm…using runes to form words, even short sentences, to achieve the desired effect. Ronald, you should be able to understand such a spell system, right?"

Ronald nodded, simply stating his thoughts:

"More or less, it's like attributing spell effects to the human language, where individual letters have abilities, and when combined can achieve various other effects, even forming coherent sentences."

"Your understanding is completely correct!"

Upon hearing Ronald's response, Nicole praised him much like Costate, then continued with a light tone:

"Actually, during the spellcasting process, I've been pondering over the rules of constructing such sentences."

"And the result is that the runes we use do seem to be a language, a language used in everyday human speech!"

"Fixed messages express fixed meanings, and combinations of them can become fixed representations. As for the results—though a bit dangerous, through this method, I can try bypassing the necessary conditions of the original canons to make the spells achieve similar or exactly the same effects."

"And as the cost, using unconventional magic power transformed me into the state you saw before."

"..."

The truth behind genius is just that simple.

An excellent capacity for insight, a daring spirit for experimentation, and a habit of summarizing rules to derive results.

Upon reflection, Ronald also promptly spoke:

"By the way, Nicole."

"I know an elderly spell researcher in Springs, who has a deeper study of spell principles. If you have a chance in the future, you must go there to have a good chat with him…"

Facing such a situation, Ronald couldn't help wanting to lend Nicole a hand.

So he offered information about the countryside and provided details about the elder's situation.

"..."

"Sir, I've found something here."

At this moment, Costate, who was completely focused on the search work, made a discovery.

The maid beckoned to Ronald and Nicole, who were 'idling' nearby, then demonstrated an intriguing trace on the ground.

It was a piece of flooring that had already been burned and shattered.

But when Costate used the water flow to clean out a spot, several round dots were arranged in a spoon shape on the ground, clearly not a naturally formed mark.

"Here…there are traces of magic fluctuations?"

Ronald leaned in closer.

At a very close range, he finally detected a very subtle magic fluctuation at these points.

This was not the residue after the end of a spell.

Rather, the phenomenon occurred because the caster chose to hide traces while setting the spell!

"Looks like we might actually have a breakthrough…"

At this moment, Ronald's experience allowed him to clearly identify the nature of this trace.

It was clear.

Someone used a spell to hide something here.

Thus, Ronald quietly asked Costate and Nicole to step aside, then he clenched his right fist, coated it with a thin layer of flame, and pounded it down.

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