The Sorcerer's Handbook

On the top office floor of the Senheiser Building.

Quinna was deep in discussion with the Head of the Listening Department when the sharp creak of the heavy oak door cutting through the room caught her attention. She turned to see her younger sister marching in. Nona's face was as dark as stagnant water. Her high-heeled boots struck the floor with an ominous, rhythmic click.

The Head of the Listening Department greeted her with a slight nod. "Captain Nona."

Nona offered a terse nod in return and took up a silent, rigid stance behind Quinna.

Quinna turned back to her subordinate. "That will be all for now. Suspend the Listening Plan for the next three years, and shift our strategic focus from anticipating future risks to maintaining present stability. Additionally, I want a comprehensive report on the family's sorcerers. Include their numbers, sorcery ranks, and sorcery classes, with a clear emphasis on their cultivation priorities."

"Understood."

Once the Head of the Listening Department had slipped out of the room, Quinna stood up and gazed out the window at the fog-shrouded city below. The elf family leader's eyes seemed to pierce through the mist into the future of Vanmura. Her lips were pressed tight as she weighed the safety of her family. "Nona, come here for a moment."

Nona stepped forward, caught entirely off guard when Quinna suddenly reached out and smacked her on the backside. The normally cold, unflappable vice-captain trembled from head to toe, letting out a startled, distinctly un-captain-like, "Eh?!"

Quinna said with a soft, teasing laugh, "I only just realized you actually like having your butt patted. You're just like a cat."

Mortified, Nona shoved Quinna down into her chair and glared at her sister with fierce intensity. Unfortunately, her porcelain-white skin was flushed a bright, burning red, reducing her fearsome intimidation to that of a puffed-up kitten. Nona demanded, "What on earth is going on with the rankings?"

Quinna replied calmly, "Didn't we already discuss this? The Gospel made an error. Those outlanders Annan brought along are variables the Gospel cannot accurately predict. With Annan's deliberate interference, their potential and futures were grossly overestimated..."

"I'm not asking about them. I'm asking why you and I were shown serving Ashe Heath in the rankings!"

"It's the same reason as the Family Rankings. Ashe's abysmal taste—"

Nona cut her off sharply. "It is not the same. In the Family Rankings, we were turned into undead creatures. It wasn't strange for our minds to be distorted. But in the Happiness Rankings, we were clearly, undeniably conscious!"

"The Happiness Rankings also mentioned that despite my status as the happiest family leader, Ashe still forced me into submission," Quinna paused, her jaw suddenly tightening as she gritted her teeth. "That damned Ashe. He must have used the family as leverage to bend me to his will, making me yield and act obediently. I can already picture myself wanting to lock him in a dark room and torment him day and night... But he is the Harbinger of Disaster, the Undying Demon. His strength must already far surpass the Sacred Realm. To protect the family, the Gospel must have predicted that I would endure the humiliation and play the part of a submissive puppet. It makes perfect sense."

Nona's voice turned icy. "Is that so? Because in the projection, you didn't look the least bit unwilling."

Quinna leaned in, her expression utterly earnest. "Ashe is a companion of Rusty Crow, a terrifying Mind Class sorcerer. To protect the family, I would have to conceal my killing intent and pretend to enjoy it. Otherwise, how could I hope to deceive a disaster-level demon? I have truly sacrificed too much for the survival of this family, Nona. But as the leader, it is my duty."

At this, Nona finally snapped. "Then what about me?! Why was I in the vision, too?"

"This only proves that Ashe is utterly corrupt. He used despicable methods to ensnare me, and then set his sights on corrupting you as well..."

"But why did I look completely willing in the projection too?!"

Quinna looked at her sister's furiously blushing face and said with absolute serenity. "Well, Nona, perhaps you should do some self-reflection. To think you'd actually try to steal your own niece's man..."

Nona let out a sharp, angry laugh. "Quinna, are you seriously still trying to shift the blame onto me? Ever since you returned as the family leader, I've practically been an extension of you! I have wondered why I would ever develop feelings for Ashe back at the Belldet estate. Now, it's clear your emotions were leaking into me!"

Every leader of the Six-Emblem Families possessed several family avatars to ensure succession in the event of their death. During the White Mist anomaly, while Quinna had been trapped in a dream, the Avatar spirit within Nona had activated, temporarily allowing Quinna to pilot Nona's body.

It was a safeguard with strict conditions. Since the spirit could potentially overwrite the host's will, it required absolute, mutual trust. In the Six-Emblem Families, however, trust was never the issue.

The issue lay in the side effects. The emotional relationship between the main body and the avatar was like a stack of overflowing glasses. Normally, the boundaries held perfectly. But if the top glass ever overflowed with intense emotion, it would inevitably drip into the glass below.

Quinna tried to counter the claim. "Why couldn't it just be that you were genuinely moved yourself? Stop blaming me for everything!"

Nona shot back, "Then who else am I supposed to blame?!"

"Leave that aside for now," Quinna said, seamlessly pivoting the topic. "The core issue is that the Gospel has gone seriously awry."

Hearing her sister finally talk business, Nona suppressed her lingering irritation and nodded.

Gesturing for her sister to take the seat across from her, Quinna went on, "Early updates. This is a disruption unprecedented in a thousand years. And from what I've observed of Ashe and his group, their actual situations are worlds apart from what the rankings show. If I'm not mistaken..."

Nona finished for her. "The Gospel can no longer write the future."

"Exactly. We must completely overhaul our strategy regarding how we utilize it. Nona, assist the Listening Department over the next few days. Our priority is to burn through as many of our Gospel Points as possible."

"No problem," Nona said on instinct, before blinking. "Wait... eh?"

***

Annan said, "The Gospel can't make things up anymore. That's why it's using you meteors to smash everything apart."

Ashe and Lys both looked confused. "Can't make things up? What does that mean?"

Iger explained, "It means it can no longer weave a truly complete future. So it uses us to piece together fake ones."

Annan went on, "To use a theatrical analogy, the Gospel is an author, and the Woven Festival is a carefully planned masterpiece. Before writing, it usually spends fifty years gathering information and materials, then completes the story in one sudden burst within a hundred days.

"It updates once every ten days. Although it sometimes gets delayed, it has maintained its quality and quantity for hundreds of years. But this time, it suddenly updated six days early. Why do you think that is?"

Ashe guessed. "It had a rough draft ready?"

Annan laughed. "How could an author who always submits right at the deadline suddenly have a draft ready? I don't know the exact reason, but this definitely isn't a normal update. The Happiness Rankings is absolutely something slapped together in a rush.

"If you were that author, and you'd only finished forty percent of your manuscript when the editor suddenly demanded immediate submission, what would you do?"

Ashe responded, "I'd deal with the editor. But the Gospel isn't a normal person anyway. Does it even have an editor?"

Lys reacted faster this time. "Daddy, you're so dense. There are Angels and the Divine Lord above the Gospel! So to submit the manuscript on time, it just randomly scribbled whatever it wanted to fill in the remaining sixty percent?"

"Close, but the Gospel didn't just scribble randomly," Annan spread her hands, her expression turning complicated. "It used you."

"You are beings from another world. The Gospel doesn't know your past, meaning you represent infinite possibilities. That is your leverage against it. But because of those infinite possibilities, you also became the perfect... how should I put it? Half-hearted filler side plots?

"Normally, to construct the true future, the Gospel has to rely on all available past information and infer the future step by step. That's why it always updates at the last possible moment. The more data it analyzes, the higher the accuracy.

"So even if it wants to update early, it can't. It simply doesn't have enough time to calculate the futures of Gospel natives. As a Miracle that predicts the future, it may be imprecise, but it will never deliberately make a mistake.

"But it's different for you outlanders. With your infinite possibilities, the Gospel can afford to approximate your futures loosely. Even if the prediction is completely distorted, it's just classified as a margin of error, not an outright mistake."

Ashe finally caught on. While stroking Lys's head, he said, "So, the Gospel wanted to update early, but it couldn't just make things up for Gospel natives because they're the main characters. If it messes up their arcs, even the Gospel knows its reputation will collapse.

"But we're different. We're random new characters dropped into the middle of the plot, so technically, anything we do is acceptable. It just filled the entire update with fabricated storylines about us."

"Wait," Harvey said, his words slightly muffled as he chewed. "Even if it's fabricated, it shouldn't be completely random. Our personalities don't match anything shown on those Happiness Rankings."

"Because the Gospel doesn't predict based on personality," Iger said, tracing the rim of his glass. "Compared to Gospel natives, our futures might actually be harder to calculate. So, it draws the target first and shoots the arrow later. It sets a template like the Happiness Rankings first, then forces us into it. That's why I end up with a daughter, and Harvey ends up with a wife."

"I actually think Leia is quite nice..." Ashe muttered.

When Lys shot him a murderous glare, he immediately straightened up. "The Gospel has zero sense of accountability! My character is being completely slandered. How am I supposed to face the world now?"

Harvey took a sip of his meat soup and reminded him bluntly, "Even without the Happiness Rankings, Ashe, you're already known as the Harbinger of Disaster, the Disaster Demon Lord, and a wanted criminal..."

Iger added, "The Gospel is a good record-keeper, but it has a terrible imagination. Everything in the Happiness Rankings can basically be treated as third-rate fiction written in a drunken haste. It's all fake."

Ashe sounded slightly disappointed. "Ah. So it's all fake?"

Lys recalled the image of the number one spot on the Happiness Rankings. Lowering her head to look at her mirror, she whispered, almost inaudibly, "Not necessarily..."

"Even if it's fake, the Gospel must have seen some kind of premonition before doing this kind of fanfiction," Annan said, staring directly at Ashe. "For example, Iger and Anphel almost becoming a married couple, or Harvey's ability to create undead brides. So... Ashe, why does the Gospel think you are involved with Quinna and Nona?"

Lys immediately chimed in. "Exactly, why!"

The tiniest speck of dust from the Gospel was a crushing mountain when it fell on Ashe.

"It's framing me," Ashe said firmly.

Annan pressed on. "Why did you lick Quinna's face? That's not normal behavior for you. I've never seen you lick Lys. Based on what factors did the Gospel derive that scene?"

Ashe gritted his teeth. "The Gospel is framing me!"

Annan didn't let up. "And why were you sharing a bed with Quinna and Nona? You even let Nona—"

Ashe collapsed completely. "This really is the Gospel framing me!"

By heaven and earth, Ashe had never had such thoughts about Nona. Those scenes were clearly secondary fabrications based on the composite images Ilafine had sold him!

Just as Ashe was being crushed on all fronts, Pankey suddenly spoke up. "Miss, if everything in the Happiness Rankings is traceable, then why did Leia, Master Iger's daughter, tell Ashe to hurry up and have children with you?"

Everyone turned to look at the Purple Moth.

Suddenly, the pressure shifted entirely to Annan.

After a brief, tense silence, Annan reluctantly nodded. "The Gospel is framing him."

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