Lucian narrowed his eyes slightly, the monocle on his face reflecting the cold light of early spring. "You really thought that by sending an anonymous letter — cutting words out of periodicals and newspapers, running the paper through divination-class spells — I wouldn't be able to trace your fate? You underestimate high-tier astrology far too much. This isn't some vague prophecy about an ethereal future!"
He fished the anonymous letter out from the pile, placed it beneath the Morning Light Crystal Ball, and with a grim expression, rested both hands on top of it, stroking in a specific rhythm.
The crystal ball's glow faded, rapidly turning pitch black as pinpoint stars flickered to life within — brilliant and pristine. At the same time, the "Arcane Scepter" watch on Lucian's left wrist was draped in an almost imperceptible layer of starlight, the sun and zodiac symbols rotating silently.
The starlight intertwined, and blurry images began to surface — every stage the letter had passed through.
"The Owl," "the Alen Animal Messenger Bureau," "the 'Magic Steam Train Company' under the Affairs Committee," "a Magic Steam Train," "the rails," "scenes of forest, fields, and hills passing one after another," "the capital of Gallais, Cux," "an unfamiliar Magic Apprentice," "a friend's request…"
The letter's approximate route unfolded before his eyes, and in the end, it had returned right back to Alen — back to the Animal Messenger Bureau, back into the hands of an ordinary restaurant waiter.
The entire process consumed the vast majority of Lucian's mental strength, and the images grew increasingly blurry, on the verge of dissolving.
At that moment, another scene surfaced — but he could only make out the hazy figure of a person wearing a black hooded robe, handing the letter and the Gold Thaler to the ordinary restaurant waiter.
A clear sensation transmitted from the "Genesis" ring on his left hand, refracting countless rays of pure light, and Lucian's mental strength recovered slightly. He lifted his right hand away from the crystal ball and raised high the scepter inlaid with a massive sunstone.
The Sun Scepter — capable of elevating the effectiveness of any stellar constellation magic of the seventh tier or below by one full tier!
The sunlight blazed brilliantly, and the image snapped into sharp clarity. The mage whose face was hidden behind a black hood now had an eerie, distorted star floating behind him — a nebulous, shifting celestial body that could be seen with the naked eye, along with the dazzling, nebula-like trajectories of fate connected to his primary destiny star.
"Got you," Lucian said in a low voice. He recorded the characteristics and trajectories of the target's primary destiny star, and after his mental strength recovered somewhat, he once again used the Sun Scepter and the Arcane Scepter to amplify his astrological ability, roughly narrowing down the person's identity.
"Peavey? Belgos, member of the Silver Moon Song Alliance. Specializes in electromagnetic magic, radical and self-absorbed…"
Lucian suddenly felt the name was somewhat familiar. After racking his memory, he realized it was from a paper he had "reviewed" not long ago — one that failed to meet standards. The self-proclaimed "folk Archanist."
"So he resents me because of that, and then the Light Quantum Hypothesis pushed him over the edge, so he sent this letter to threaten me?"
When not attempting to foresee the hazy, unclear future, but instead holding a critical item that had passed through countless hands, the power of astrology — especially high-tier astrology — far exceeded what mid- and low-tier mages could imagine. On top of that, Lucian had the assistance of both the Sun Scepter and the Arcane Scepter, making him nearly equivalent to an Archmage performing the divination. Most importantly, Peavey belonged to the Magic Council, and the characteristics of his primary destiny star were no secret — searching through records made identification far from difficult. Everyone had a primary destiny star, but those who didn't study stellar constellation magic had no reflection of it within their souls.
This was why Lucian now took great pains to eliminate all significant traces in his work. When that wasn't possible, he used high-tier magic to conceal his own primary destiny star, or shifted the cluster representing the black hole to the forefront. Apart from Fernando and Tampo, no one knew about this.
"Should I submit the anonymous letter and the divination results to the Affairs Committee? A threat is only a minor rule violation — the worst punishment would be Arcane Points fines and fifteen days in the Anti-Magic Prison. That wouldn't scare anyone who genuinely harbors ill intentions, and it would only fuel his anger and make him lose all reason." Lucian stared at the divination results, contemplating how to deal with this clearly overreacting individual.
Lucian, whom everyone regarded as refined and mild-mannered, had never been a soft-hearted person — especially when facing extremists who might harm his friends or students.
"You can overreact? Then I can overreact right back!"
"With the anonymous letter and divination results as evidence, even an overreaction in self-defense would only result in Arcane Points fines and six months in the Anti-Magic Prison," Lucian thought, pressing his lips tightly together. He then gathered materials and, based on the information about Peavey, began crafting a spellcasting medium.
Half a day later, Lucian held a brownish-yellow, eerie wooden puppet in his hands. It had narrow, slit-like eyes, a tightly closed mouth, arms hanging down to its knees, and its body and face were covered in unique patterns — very similar to the trajectory of Peavey's primary destiny star.
"You'd better not actually have any ill intentions. Otherwise…" Wrapping the anonymous letter around the expressionless puppet, Lucian murmured calmly to himself, then activated the Arcane Scepter watch on his left hand.
The zodiac symbols serving as time markers and the sun-shaped hour hand all lit up — some brilliantly radiant, some dazzlingly pure, some vast and cold, some eternal and unchanging…
Seventh-tier stellar constellation magic, "Fate Disruption."
The lifeless, inelastic face of the puppet suddenly developed a layer of human skin, which contorted and reshaped itself into Peavey's likeness — but the eyes remained shut, the puppet utterly unaware.
Lucian began casting spells upon the "Peavey Puppet."
…………
Inside the garden villa.
Peavey was humming the melody of the latest opera with great satisfaction. The thought of Lucian Evans turning livid upon seeing his anonymous letter, of him frantically checking on every friend and student's well-being, of the helpless fury he would feel submitting the letter to the Affairs Committee — all of it improved his mood immensely. "Serves you right for being jealous of me, attacking me, suppressing me! Serves you right for recklessly grading my great work! Serves you right for failing my review! How dare you attack the great Brook System!"
He had used every means at his disposal to evade astrology, and based on the stellar constellation literature he had read, it would take at least a Legendary Mage to trace him through the anonymous letter — which could not be destroyed. If the letter had been attached to a self-destruct array, it would have produced magical fluctuations, and Lucian wouldn't have even looked at it, defeating the entire purpose.