Once Sylvia started to suspect it, she couldn't stop thinking about the possibility.
The first Swarm Disaster test had certainly been dangerous. Herta had been watching her back then, though, so it shouldn't have been fatal. Still, that incident was exactly why Sylvia hadn't tested the Simulated Universe again lately. Stelle had been the one doing all the grunt work inside it instead.
Did that count?
Sylvia didn't remember facing any real danger. She pursed her lips as she considered the question.
'If the Lord of Silence really has her eye on me and is manipulating probability to target me, then she probably didn't interfere during the first Swarm Disaster test. Otherwise, Herta wouldn't have been able to pull me out so easily.'
Then there was the latest test. Sylvia's mental state had improved, and she'd watched most of the war among the gods without taking a scratch. Then the Simulated Universe had crashed.
'Hmm... Is a Simulated Universe crash dangerous?'
Sylvia pulled out her phone and sent Herta a message.
[Sylvia: You there? I've got a question about the Simulated Universe.]
[Herta: Ask.]
[Sylvia: During that last test, when the Simulated Universe suddenly crashed, was the person being tested in any danger?]
[Herta: Did Screwllum tell you?]
[Herta: He said he hadn't contacted you.]
[Herta: Strange. We only just figured it out. How'd you hear about it already?]
[Sylvia: ...]
[Sylvia: So there really was danger, but I got lucky and avoided it?]
[Herta: Correct. The crash was extremely strange. Screwllum calculated that you had a ninety-nine percent chance of becoming an idiot. You happened to land in the remaining one percent.]
[Sylvia: ?!?!]
[Herta: I owe you an apology. This was my fault. The Simulated Universe will undergo a complete inspection to make sure it's safe.]
[Herta: Wait.]
[Herta: First, tell me how you found out.]
"Fuck—!"
The conclusion Herta had sent made the curse burst from Sylvia's lips. Setting aside the first incident, had she really wandered right past death's door during the latest test without even noticing?
Constance, who stood beside her, and Mei, who'd already come closer out of concern, both saw Sylvia's conversation with Herta. Mei's hand tightened around the hilt of her sword.
The Lord of Silence deserved to die.
She'd have to find a chance to cut that woman down.
Constance, on the other hand, stared at Sylvia with shock and delight.
"You actually escaped one of her attacks?!"
"What kind of reaction is that?" Sylvia asked, staring at her in disbelief.
Constance pressed a hand to her chest and let out a breath of relief. "I know Madam Herta and Mr. Screwllum. I don't know what project you're working on with them, but when two geniuses join forces, the chance of an error is nearly zero. Unless another genius interfered, an accident like that couldn't have happened."
"Yeah, I'd already guessed that much. So?"
"The Lord of Silence's probabilities have never been wrong. To her, even a one-percent chance is the same as certainty. You truly are different."
As Constance spoke, her gaze grew almost unbearably intense. Even her tone became respectful, and the heat in her eyes made Sylvia shift with discomfort.
But the mention of probability reminded Sylvia of a strange skill she'd acquired not long ago.
[Wish of the Child of God — Lesser Version]
In simple terms, it raised her luck.
Sylvia hadn't paid much attention to it because she hadn't felt as though she'd suddenly become blessed with amazing fortune. But if Polka Kakamond's manipulation of cause and effect had failed through no mistake of her own, then perhaps the problem lay with Sylvia.
Had that skill caused Polka's method to fail?
As Sylvia thought it over, she suddenly met Mei's worried gaze. She reached out and placed her hand over Mei's, which still gripped the sword hilt. Mei's elegant fingers held it so tightly that it looked as though she might draw the blade at the slightest excuse.
"It's fine. Look, I survived even with only a one-percent chance. That means the Lord of Silence and I must be a terrible match."
Sylvia had always trusted the abilities of geniuses, especially within their own fields.
She'd never doubted that Ruan Mei could succeed in her research on the Vidyadhara, just as she'd never imagined that the Simulated Universe could suffer a catastrophic bug while running.
By the same reasoning, she trusted Polka Kakamond's ability as well. If Constance was right and Polka could manipulate cause and effect, then she shouldn't make a technical mistake.
Only interference from someone or something on the same level could cause a genius's creation to fail.
Yet Sylvia had done nothing and still survived the first attack without even noticing it. Unless her skill had activated, she couldn't think of any other reason Polka's assassination attempt might've failed.
Mei couldn't help getting angry when she heard Sylvia talk that way.
'How many does this make now? How many Emanators have come after you?! Were you born with some kind of Emanator-attracting constitution? Was one furious Lord Ravager not enough? Now you've got an Emanator of Erudition and a Genius Society member after you too?'
Because Constance was present, Mei kept those complaints to herself. But the two of them were linked at heart, so Sylvia could clearly sense both the words Mei wanted to say and the feelings behind them.
"This really isn't my fault... Seriously, what did I even do? I didn't do anything."
Sylvia spread her hands and gave up trying to defend herself.
Wasn't that Polka Kakamond woman supposed to be hunting geniuses? She hadn't gone after Dr. Primitive, Herta, or Ruan Mei. Instead, she'd decided to target Sylvia for no apparent reason.
How was any of that fair?
"She's supposed to be hunting geniuses across the universe. I don't even know what I did to offend her."
"Hmm..."
That was a fair point.
No one knew why Genius Society Member #4 killed people. Even the other geniuses couldn't understand her reasons. Mei couldn't work out why Polka had chosen Sylvia either.
It was strange.
In Mei's heart, Sylvia mattered more than anything. Rationally, though, the geniuses still wielded far greater power. Sylvia would only be able to sit at the same table as them after becoming an Emanator of Permanence.
Polka Kakamond had passed over Herta, Ruan Mei, and Screwllum just to target Sylvia. That was difficult to explain.
When Mei sighed, Sylvia shrugged and raised her phone, which hadn't stopped vibrating. The screen was filled with messages from Herta demanding an answer.
"Let's ask the amazing Madam Herta. They're both geniuses, so she should know more about the Lord of Silence."
[Herta: Did you die? I'll avenge you.]
[Sylvia: I'm here, I'm here.]
[Sylvia: I think the Lord of Silence may be targeting me.]
[Sylvia: I heard it from a Memokeeper.]
While typing, Sylvia glanced at Constance. After a moment's thought, she decided to classify her as a Memokeeper.
Constance might've been a Cremator, or she might not have belonged to the Garden of Recollection at all.
[Herta: ...]
[Herta: ...]
[Herta: This is trouble.]
[Herta: Come to the space station. We'll discuss it in person.]
Great. She had to return to the space station again.
Sylvia gave a helpless shrug. Constance looked as though she wanted to come along, but Herta Space Station wasn't somewhere she could simply wander into. It might look ordinary enough, but Herta could catch her at any moment, and that wouldn't end well.
Following Sylvia might've given Constance a chance to look around. Rumor had it that Madam Herta possessed Light Cone technology, though Constance didn't know whether that was true.
"Mei, keep an eye on her. I'm heading to the space station."
"...All right."
Mei wanted to come, but she accepted Sylvia's suggestion. The main issue was that their opponent was the Lord of Silence. Even if Mei stayed by Sylvia's side, what could she do when they couldn't even find the enemy?
It wasn't as though she could trace the lines of causality backward and cut through them.
Did Mei even have that kind of ability?
"May I come with you?" Constance asked sweetly.
She now resembled an obedient maid, which stood in sharp contrast to her earlier arrogance.
"No. My teleportation only works on one person."
Sylvia rejected her without mercy and teleported away at once.
"..."
"..."
Constance pouted.
She didn't want to stay in the same room as Madam Acheron. Compared with Sylvia, Acheron was the very picture of danger and boredom. At least Sylvia's face showed a wide range of expressions.
Still, there was nothing Constance could do. Her life remained in Acheron's hands, so she'd have to behave.
She sighed, then silently prayed that Sylvia would escape the Lord of Silence's grasp.
At the very least, she hoped Sylvia would survive long enough to share a dance with her.
--+--
Sylvia had only just left, yet she soon found herself back in Herta's familiar office.
Screwllum hadn't left either. The moment Sylvia arrived, both geniuses hurried straight to the point.
"So, what exactly happened?" Herta asked, hands on her hips as she tilted her head back to stare at Sylvia.
Screwllum gave a slight nod beside her and waited for Sylvia to continue.
"Hold on. You believe me just like that? You're not even going to question it?"
Before arriving, Sylvia had been wondering how she could convince the two geniuses. Yet neither of them showed the slightest doubt. They already seemed certain that Polka Kakamond was responsible.
"After Madam Herta and I completed our investigation, we determined that the Simulated Universe shouldn't have crashed," Screwllum said in Herta's place. "Conclusion: A series of low-probability incidents occurred aboard Herta Space Station, indirectly causing this catastrophic bug."
He continued in his calm voice. "From the standpoint of probability, anything can happen. Even so, this incident remains suspicious."
Their systematic investigation had revealed a chain of bizarre and seemingly unrelated coincidences that had combined to cause the crash. At the same time, the safeguards meant to issue warnings and filter out interference had each suffered failures of varying severity.
Had those incidents happened separately, no one would've noticed them, and they'd never have caused such a serious accident. Yet several devices built through the combined effort of two geniuses had all developed unexpected bugs at the same time.
To the proud Herta, that wasn't merely unlikely. It should've been impossible.
Even Screwllum had found it puzzling. Had only one genius made a minor mistake, the situation wouldn't have seemed nearly as suspicious.
The chain of absurdly unlikely events was like drawing random entries from a language database and, by pure chance, arranging them into an entire dictionary. It was theoretically possible.
Only theoretically.
When Screwllum finished, Herta added, "Because the whole thing looked suspicious, I went back and reviewed the data from your previous test. Guess what I found."
"What?"
"Another chain of extremely unlikely coincidences. You should've become an idiot inside the Simulated Universe. You only survived because I happened to open a random system log on a whim."
"???"
Sylvia found the claim absurd.
"What connection was there between opening that system log and pulling me out?"
Herta spread her hands, then fixed Sylvia with a burning stare.
"None. There was no direct connection at all. But the reason I pulled you out in time really was because I opened that log."
"...Uh, are you saying the Lord of Silence spared me? Why?"
Sylvia was confused. At that point, she hadn't yet acquired the skill that raised her luck.
Herta fell silent and continued staring at her. She seemed strangely agitated, perhaps because too many things had happened that day and put her in a foul mood.
Screwllum patiently answered in her place.
"What Madam Herta means is that the Lord of Silence didn't spare you. Rather, you used some unknown method to avoid an assassination through manipulated causality twice in succession."
"Sylvia, tell me honestly. Do you possess a similar ability?"
"Uh..."
Sylvia was left speechless.
Their reasoning was wrong, but they'd somehow reached the right conclusion.
She was certain that her transformation into the Propagation during the previous test had nothing to do with luck. Unless someone had secretly helped her, the only other possibility was that the Lord of Silence hadn't intended to kill her at that time.
"Does increased luck count? Still, what happened when I became that bug definitely wasn't because of my luck."
"You really do have something like that?!"
Herta's eyes lit up. The first half of Sylvia's answer delighted her so much that she ignored the second half entirely.
Screwllum, however, remained calm.
Assuming Sylvia had told the truth, it meant Genius Society Member #4 was escalating her methods against her. The first attack had kept Sylvia away from the Simulated Universe for a while. The second had been a direct attempt on her life.
That brought them back to the same question.
Why?
It would've made sense if Polka had targeted Screwllum, Madam Herta, Madam Ruan Mei, or even the reclusive Stephen. Polka Kakamond was known for hunting members of the Genius Society.
But Sylvia was different. She possessed considerable strength and was growing at a rapid pace, yet she wasn't a genius. Nor had she displayed any potential to become one.
To put it bluntly, Screwllum could've picked anyone at random from Herta Space Station, and that person would've had greater academic talent and achievements than Sylvia.
So what had drawn Polka Kakamond's attention? Why would a genius who specialized in assassinating other geniuses choose to target someone like Sylvia?
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL