Chapter Thirty-One: Madam, Aren’t You Overthinking This?!

[Francesca had originally intended to present this magic mirror as her daughter’s dowry. Would that count as a gift from the mother-in-law? It’s up to you to decide...]
[A. “Honored Mother, today Oxicrys and I...” Bow and accept the dowry.
Completion Reward: Oxicrys’s feathery pleas and a flurry of resounding slaps*N, the princess’s body*1, the Witch Queen’s challenge*1, final battle with the evil dragon of Dragon’s Nest City*18775, magic mirror blueprint*1]
[B. “Are you kidding? What about Helen, Sakura Bell, Lilith, Delphinia, Black Dragon Girl, and Aunt Stia and all those others? What about the storybook readers and those strange shareholders?!”
Completion Reward: Power to command the winds and rain*1, the trust of the strange shareholders +1]
[C. Kneel piously on one knee: “Your Majesty Francesca, forgive my disappointing you.” Declare X incompetence/like men.
Completion Reward: All attributes +1]

Louis was shocked.
Option A was downright shameless!
And what was this about mothers-in-law and Aunt Stia?
Was there no bottom line? Did they think he didn’t know what “power to command the winds and rain” implied? Most likely, it was the title of Sea King!
Would he really throw away his dignity for those two chances?
Louis shook his head. In the end, he knelt on one knee and began to mutter a prayer under his breath.

Stewart didn’t dare listen too closely, and his mind-reading couldn’t pick up the boss’s thoughts. He could only prick up his ears curiously—what on earth was the boss doing? Worshipping Her Majesty Francesca? Was he praying after taking her magic mirror?

“Your Majesty Francesca, I’m sorry to disappoint you! Stewart is X incompetent and prefers men!”
[All attributes +1]

[???] Stewart stared in disbelief. [My lord? How did you know?!]
“???”
“!!!”
Louis looked at Stewart with utter disgust. “Get lost! You damn eunuch!”
Then he resumed his muttering.
Stewart strained with all his might, using his mind-reading to eavesdrop intently.

“Honored Mother above (!!!), today Oxicrys and I (damn! Damn, the boss really does admire my lady!)—just me here...”
Upon hearing this, Stewart was moved to tears.
[Your Majesty, if you can see from the heavens! I have not entrusted all this to the new master in vain... I know the boss’s character, he’ll be loyal to the princess, and... eh? Eh??]
Stewart’s ears perked up in astonishment as he heard the boss continue in a low voice.

“Since she’s not here, I won’t ‘make a joke’—otherwise, what about Helen, Sakura Bell, Lilith, Delphinia, Black Dragon Girl, Aunt Stia, and all the rest? What about the shareholders?”
Stewart: [???]
[!!!]
[Aunt Stia beams as she hands you a bottle of ‘Nutritional Express’.]

“???”
“!!!”
Louis rubbed his face. ‘Ma’am, you’re reading too much into this. That’s not what I meant.’
[My lord! How could you! Delphinia is Her Highness’s stepmother! She has a husband! And who is Aunt Stia? Auntie? Did I hear that right?!]

Louis shot him a contemptuous glance—‘You’re the odd one here.’
No, you’re the odd one!
Louis ignored him and kept muttering: “Since I’m taking your magic mirror, I’ll take good care of your friends or descendants—by ‘take care’ I mean just that, nothing else! I’ll look after them!”

Stewart let out a breath of relief.
Louis also sighed. “So I’ll accept your dowry.”
[.......]
For a moment, the hall was filled with surging winds and thunder and lightning.
Stewart stared open-mouthed at the clouds suddenly gathering on the ceiling.
The boss raised his head with a clear conscience (and a sigh of relief), facing the storm head-on—as if he wasn’t afraid of being struck by lightning at all!
Such iron will in accepting his mother-in-law’s dowry!

“A slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue.” Louis waved his sleeve at the sky, clearing away the clouds, then said to Stewart, “Not ‘your dowry’—ah, Stewart, that’s not what I meant. You understand.”
[My lord, I understand, I do.]
Louis rolled his eyes, too lazy to explain further.
I, Louis of iron resolve, have a clear conscience, all right?
What kind of person I am, the storybook’s readers can testify.
He approached the magic mirror for a closer inspection.
Now, he understood its condition perfectly and was confident in repairing it.

Stewart sidled up obsequiously: [My lord, there are many famous legends in this world.]
[But the most renowned: one is the magician’s magic box, one is the painter’s canvas, one is the pumpkin...]
After reciting a string of strange items, Stewart chuckled and said: [But if we’re talking about the most famous...]
Here, Stewart raised his hand and made two circles above his head, offering a noble’s salute—clearly implying his own humble place.
Louis didn’t need him to speak further to know what nonsense was coming, and his face fell in disappointment.
[Ahem, my lord, don’t look at me like that... I can only rank second.]
Louis surreptitiously wiped his brow and asked, “Then what’s the most famous of all?”

Stewart adopted a mysterious air.
[The most, most famous one~~] Stewart drew out the words, building suspense, then revealed:
[It’s called the Book of Destiny. Legend says that its owner, so long as they keep altering their own fate or others’, the book continuously draws power, fulfilling the owner’s wishes. But... this book has disappeared, so, well...]
Stewart again gave a noble’s salute, making clear that this second-ranked magic mirror was now the uncrowned king.

Louis ignored Stewart.
And was deeply disappointed.
So this is the so-called treasure?
Still, the magic box, canvas, pumpkin, endless crucible, and a dozen other famed treasures all sounded intriguing.
Perhaps, one day, he’d get to see them.

He closed the Book of Destiny (storybook) floating in midair and began the restoration.
With a wave of his hand at the mirror, it split into ‘slices’.
Just as he’d done repairing Stewart, Louis began restoring the magic mirror. During the process, he discovered that besides prolonging life and granting magic immunity, the mirror had many other uses.
The most (with a double ‘most’) famous of treasures—indeed, that was no exaggeration.

For instance, the ‘Mirror World’—it contained an independent world, mirroring this one, but everything inside was reversed and utterly empty.
Using the Mirror World, you could travel anywhere—the exits were mirrors.
Moreover, the Mirror World was a dream world; with a nightmare spell, anyone could be dragged into the mirror’s realm.

If, in a dreamer’s own dream, the dreamer might yet defeat their nightmares, in the world of the magic mirror, the dream-maker was Stewart.
In this mirror world, Stewart was a god, omnipotent so long as the mirror remained intact—though if an enemy completely exceeded Stewart’s imagination, things might change.
Additionally, the magic mirror was a supreme artifact of prophecy, allowing its master to uncover secrets—such as asking who was the fairest of all.
But whether there was an answer, and how accurate it was, depended on the questioner’s magical power. The stronger the power, the higher the likelihood of success.
Yet Louis believed that beyond magical power, the answer’s accuracy also depended on the asker’s own views—someone who thinks mathematics is only for accounting will only get accounting-related answers.
As for who is the fairest, Louis doubted its accuracy.
If you asked who was the greatest, that might be closer.
Of all he’d met, Helen was the brightest student; as for Oxicrys, she was a bit of an underachiever—a C, just barely passing.
Louis had already seen her test papers on his first day, so he knew the results were at least reliable.
But the one who’d left the deepest impression was that ‘strange witch’ Sakura Bell; she clearly needed a lot of tutoring. But exactly what her grade was, he wasn’t sure... he hadn’t yet graded her work.
He decided he’d try it out later.

Soon, the restoration was nearly done.
Once finished, the slices began to move at the wave of Louis’s hands. Like broken building blocks or a scrambled Rubik’s Cube, they spun and assembled themselves in midair.
But the magic mirror’s power seemed depleted, so Louis began infusing it with magic. Over a dozen points of magic restored only a fraction, which surprised him.
Still, the mirror now worked, and its power was slowly being replenished.
Nonetheless, he used an energy infusion, gradually filling the mirror with magic. In the end, Louis estimated he’d poured in over a thousand points of mana, meaning the mirror’s maximum capacity exceeded a hundred.
He also noticed some shattered crystal arrays near the mirror. These had held magic and had once floated around the mirror, serving as ‘attachments’ that let it store even more power.
Such vast reserves were partly for prophecy and the Mirror World, but mainly for resurrection.
Resurrection—many forbidden spells could achieve this, and the mirror held two such incantations: ‘Summon Soul Angel’ and ‘Borrowed Life and Return Soul’.
The Summon Soul Angel could bring a soul back from even the depths of hell via the Mirror World.
Borrowed life meant just that—a sacrifice’s life was used. To resurrect a newly dead person without magic was not difficult; Witch Queens could even do it without incantations or harm.
But if the resurrected had magic, then it was no longer an equal exchange; the sacrifice would need ten times the power of the dead. To borrow half a life, one extended half a life.
But this magic mirror could accomplish a 1:1 resurrection. With Louis’s current magic, the mirror could revive him without shattering completely—he could simply ‘run a corpse’.

And this was a mirror used by a Witch Queen, which had shattered directly—proving her magic exceeded three digits!
It seemed the previous Witch Queen’s power had indeed been terrifying; the spell’s strength equaled mana spent times spell rank times the caster’s magic coefficient.
With three-digit magic, even with little knowledge of spells, one could quickly recharge and use them to command the elements.
The kind of archmage who, with a wave of the wand and a hint of mana, could shroud London in thick fog.
With Louis’s current magic, his fog spell would need to reach fifth rank to achieve that sort of effortless effect.
So, even as an underachiever, the Witch Queen could still go head-to-head with her teacher.
But if that teacher’s magic reached the same level...

After repairing the magic mirror, Louis gazed at it for a long while, stroking his chin, planning to test its power of prophecy.
“Stewart, how do you feel now?”
[My lord, I can sense the mirror’s power,] Stewart replied, a tremor in his voice.
“Give it a try,” said Louis.
He cleared his throat and stood before the magic mirror.
At that moment, both Stewart and Louis adopted a solemn, reverent air.

“Mirror, mirror, who is the greatest?”
[.......]