The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Evelyn discovered soon enough that her previous conjecture of the red-haired lady being the creator of the 'Searing Soul' was correct, and she witnessed the woman's thought process when developing the technique first hand.

"As the very core of your being, the soul is the strongest and yet the most fragile part of yourself that you can deploy in battle. Its strength lies in its ability to damage the opponent to the greatest extent with the least possible effort, while its fragility stems from the lack of disposability it has compared to the other aspects."

The lady often talked to herself while staying alone in this room, and rectified her conjectures from time to time, fine-tuning her technique to another level.

Evelyn noticed that she could not observe more than a few minutes of each day before the 'memory' would shift forward, and she couldn't pick what parts she viewed, either.

From time to time, Aurora would also be brought into the room, but she was never made aware of the 'technique' that the lady was developing, even though it was presumably for herself.

But at the very least, her treatment wasn't quite as bad as Evelyn had expected after that first scene. The red-haired lady certainly didn't return the little girl's affections, but she didn't hurl abuse or violence her way either.

When the day came that Aurora was about the same age as Evelyn was now, one of the professors once again brought her into the red-haired lady's room. "Headmistress, it is time. Please make your decision."

The red-haired lady frowned as she stared at the nervously fidgeting platinum blonde by the older professor's side. "Let her pick something decent from the tower."

The old man who had brought Aurora in didn't look too happy with her response. "It's been so many years, headmistress. With your talent, I'm sure that the technique is already in a useable state, right?"

"It is still nothing more than a failure, an incomplete technique. To have a failure learn a failure… what a joke. With the sheer volume of resources we have put into her, it's better to let her learn something decent and at least be of some use."

"But if not her, who else will learn that technique of yours? Didn't you say it was specifically for those with disproportionately high soul value?"

"Hmph. The lotus project may be halted for now, but I still haven't given up. Wait a few more years. Once I'm done with 'Searing Soul', I'll go talk to the elders of the Spirit Courtyard once more."

"B-But headmistress, if the Lord of Bones notices your movements…"

Evelyn couldn't hear the rest of their conversation, unfortunately, because the scene once again shifted forward. She guessed that this 'Lord of Bones' must be quite strong for the Ancient Academy's headmistress to need to be afraid of him.

And this was even in an era when the Academy's forces were far stronger than they were right now.

The next scene was actually not in the same room from White Lily Palace, but in a dimly lit cave instead.

The red-haired lady faced what appeared to be a fox quite similar to Ruru, though with ten tails instead of one, and a much darker shade of pink.

The headmistress bowed respectfully to the fox. "Please help me out once more."

The fox barely lifted its chin before putting it back down. "I cannot. The Lord of Bones has been suppressing the Spirit Lands for too long already. I have shielded my children so far, but I'm exhausted."

The red-haired lady looked reluctant. "There's no need to resist his aura so much, is there? It swept through the academy once, and nothing happened."

The old fox sighed. "You do not understand thrones, child. I have seen all three at one point or another, and other than the naïve master of mine who perished before their war even began, the other two are far more patient and insidious than your imagination."

The headmistress nodded. "Alright… I understand. Let's give it another try."

"I can't."

"What do you mean?"

Seeing her perplexed look, the old fox could only sigh once more. "I cannot lend you my core anymore, it's useless anyway. My power is gone, my soul is withering… Perhaps by the time you're ready for your next attempt, I won't be here anymore."

Evelyn knew that the red-haired lady couldn't accept it, because whatever her goals were, she was clearly banking on this old fox's support in accomplishing them. And as expected, she completely lost her calm.

"W-Why? So suddenly?!"

The old fox wasn't surprised by the red-haired lady's outburst either, and explained herself calmly. "It's not sudden at all. I have been too long in this world anyway, my master had already perished not long after the Ocean Conqueror took her throne. I foolishly thought that I could see another take her place in my lifetime, but it was but a hopeless dream."

"NO! Doesn't that mean everything we did so far will become pointless?"

The fox sighed. "Don't panic. Perhaps there are some requirements for being selected by the throne that we do not know about. Be patient and observe the outstanding children in the continent closely. Since the previous two thrones were born naturally, perhaps what we really needed to do was just wait, instead of trying to force it."

The scene shifted once more, and Evelyn saw the red haired lady groaning tiredly in her room once more. Her whole countenance had turned more haggard, and her eyes seemed to have a lifelessness that they never had before.

The reckless abandon with which she pursued the perfection of her cultivation technique seemed to bear some fruit, as the array she had been drawing on paper resembled the one Evelyn saw on her disc more and more.

Eventually, an elder came to the headmistress with the news she had been dreading the most. "The spirit lands have sent a missive. Their old ancestor has perished."

The headmistress gritted her teeth, her eyes red as she continued scribbling on the paper, ignoring the elder.

The old man waited for a while before he couldn't help it anymore. "Shall we reinvest the resources for the next experiment somewhere else?"

"Didn't I tell you to halt project lotus that day? Who cares! Do whatever you want!"

The old man retreated with a shrug.

As soon as the door closed, her eyes welled up with tears as they started flowing down her face continuously. "It's all over… over…"

The next scene ended up slightly confounding Evelyn, because this time she was no longer 'accompanying' the red-haired lady, but an old woman she didn't recognize.

It was only when she saw Aurora look at that woman with a complicated gaze she had often seen her give to the red-haired lady that she realized it was none other than the headmistress, but in a very different state.

Although the old lady's gaze had long turned muddled, there was still a strength in her voice that made it impossible to resist her will. "Why are you here, Aurora?"

"E-Elder Ramses said you will be okay if you let me—"

As Evelyn's initial negative impression of the red-haired lady had slowly reduced, she found herself being able to feel more of her internal thoughts that were hidden behind her stern face. 

Aside from giving her a deeper insight into the cultivation technique, it also allowed her to interpret the scenes with more clarity. Currently, despite her condescending gaze, the lady reminisced about the old fox with a sense of acceptance.

"Hmph. Even if you were to use that hodgepodge soul repair method he found, it would only patch mine up for a few hundred years at most, while tearing yours apart to the same state. What's the point?"

The platinum blonde was still only a little older than Cecilia, perhaps having just entered her teenage years. To her, hundreds of years were perhaps a foreign concept. "W-We can figure something out in that time, right?"

The old lady snorted. "Idiot. Although you're a failure, you still have some use for the academy. Sacrificing your future for a powerless, dying leader who would only bring more harm than good is about as foolish a decision as it can get."

Although Aurora's eyes were red, she remained silent.

After a while, the old lady sighed again. "I have not taken good care of you. Although you were my child, I did not treat you well. I will not ask for your forgiveness, because neither do I deserve it, nor do I feel like asking for it."

Evelyn almost rolled her eyes. Did she have to remain so stubborn, even on her deathbed? She could at least apologize, whether she meant it or not.

Unfortunately, forget about apologizing, the old lady still remained as overbearing as she was all her life, even when she was already at death's doorstep. "However, I will still demand two things from you. Will you accept?"

Aurora nodded.

"Then… first, lead the academy well after I leave. A bunch of elders cannot come to a single good decision. Incompetent morons! Do not let it fall to ruin before you perish. 

"And for my second request, if you ever come across the one who to inherit the lotus throne, help that person at any cost. Even if you have to die to protect him or her, your life, or that of anyone else, is of little consequence in comparison. Do you understand?"

The platinum blonde neither agreed with nor denied the old lady's request, and both Evelyn and the old lady knew that the little girl had already accepted her instructions in her heart.