Chapter 96

"About Mr. Fred's eyes. Thanks to the images I took the other day, I've discovered some new facts that I didn't expect... Is it okay to talk now?"

"Huh? About my eyes? Tell me, tell me."

One day, I secretly talked to Mr. Fred alone.

I thought it was something about his personal constitution, so I decided to talk only to him. However, after hearing my story, Fred became serious and asked me to explain it to everyone else—Edi, Anna, and Amber.

If Fred wants everyone to know, I'll cooperate. It's indeed a difficult topic to explain myself.

So, to make it easier to understand, I prepared various materials and decided to hold a research presentation about Mr. Fred's eyes. There were four listeners. I invited everyone to the alchemy workshop at the edge of town, which has become my personal research lab.

At first, I was just curious about the strange phenomenon of Amber's "Transformation Spell," but as I investigated, I found out more than just the mystery of the eye color.

In the process, I also speculated that the reason why Amber's "Transformation Spell" can't change eye color might be related to this. I've only identified a possible reason, but I still don't understand the principle behind why the "Transformation Spell" doesn't work. To be honest, I don't even understand how Amber's "Transformation Spell" works in the first place.

"First, please look at this."

I said, placing two sheets of paper on the workbench. They were close-up images of Mr. Fred's eyes, printed on paper about the size of a regular document. The images showed Mr. Fred's deep pink eyes.

Below them, I placed a printout of Amber's transformed green eyes, in the same size.

"Does anyone notice anything from these images?"

Fred already knew the answer from me, so I asked the other three, but they remained silent, deep in thought. Even the perceptive Amber was muttering something, but she didn't seem to have noticed anything.

Hmm...? When I noticed it, it was a very interesting discovery, and I wanted everyone to realize it on their own and exclaim, "Oh!" But maybe I failed.

"...Mr. Fred, your eyelashes are really long..."

Anna said solemnly, and Edi couldn't hold back a snort.

"Hey, hey, Anna, Reina is asking about something else!"

"Hmm... Yes, Mr. Fred's eyelashes are long, but that's not it..."

"Even Reina..."

I wanted to give the correct answer, but Anna's serious face was so amusing that I almost burst out laughing. I took a deep breath to compose myself.

"Oh... The real Mr. Fred's eyes... The irises have patterns in some places, don't they?"

"Oh, really. But Edi, you've been with Fred since you were born, and you're just noticing this now?"

"That's true. I've never looked at Mr. Fred's eyes that closely..."

"Yeah, I didn't know my eyes had such detailed patterns until I saw them like this. They're too small to see in a regular mirror."

"Is that so?"

Indeed, without seeing the enlarged photos, it's easy to miss such small details. You'd probably have to get your nose right up to them and use a magnifying glass to see them. It's understandable that even Fred himself didn't notice them.

However, this isn't a printing error, nor is it a nevus, which is a rare black spot that can appear on the iris.

"Furthermore, please look closely at these patterns. Here's an image where I've filled in the areas that aren't part of the pattern to make it easier to see."

"Hmm..."

"Doesn't this pattern look like a magic circle?"

Indeed, while a typical eye has radial lines centered on the pupil, Fred's eyes are clearly different. Moreover, the pattern looks like some kind of magic circle. It resembles the patterns of ancient sacred magic circles, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

"Furthermore, this is a combination of the patterns from the right and left eyes."

"Indeed... Especially when you look at this, Mr. Fred's eye patterns look like a magic circle..."

"...Like the heart pattern on Mio, the cat we keep in the servants' quarters, which just happens to look like a heart... No, this is a precise magic circle, so that's unlikely."

I placed another piece of material on the table, and Anna and Edi became serious. When the patterns from both eyes are combined, it really looks like a magic circle, even with the blank spaces. It's hard to dismiss this as mere coincidence.

Fred, who had been told about the magic circle in his eyes the other day, was touching his eyes.

"...Do you know what kind of magic circle this is, Reina?"

"No, I've never seen this pattern before, so I don't know. However, after conducting various experiments, I have some ideas, though I don't have definitive proof yet."

"I see. Can you be more specific?"

"First, this isn't something that activates when drawn. Even if you draw it on inanimate objects, like the terracotta plates used in typical magic circuits, there's no change..."

I shouldn't go into too much detail. Since Amber was getting a bit bored, I decided to show a practical demonstration instead.

I brought in ten cages from another room and placed them on the table at equal intervals.

"Are these... Long-tailed rats?"

"Hey! Amber, you know that much! They're weak monsters that live in the city and sewers."

"Right, they're not the kind of monsters Amber fights, but you remember their ecology well."

"Wow, there are white long-tailed rats."

"They're a research breed."

As Edi and Amber said, each cage contained one long-tailed rat. They are technically monsters, but they are only slightly larger than regular rats and can be controlled with common pest control methods. They are often used in research because they can be easily bred and observed.

I brought in one more cage.

"The long-tailed rats in these cages are all male, and this one contains a female."

"Oh, she's wearing clothes... When you look at her like this, long-tailed rats are actually quite cute. They can be quite startling if you encounter them on a night walk, though."

As Anna commented, the female rat was wearing a black garment that covered her torso. It was more like a bag with holes in it, but that's not relevant to the discussion.

"If I place this female where the males can see her... You can observe the males showing interest in the female."

"I know, other monsters do the same. They come by the smell when there's a female around."

While Amber explained the ecology of monsters to Anna, I continued.

"Actually, this female has the same pattern drawn on her back. Please watch how the males react when they see it."

I pointed to a paper with the pattern, which I had created by combining the patterns from Fred's left and right eyes, and then reached into the cage to remove the black cloth from the female long-tailed rat.

The pattern, drawn on her skin with magical ink after shaving her back, was revealed. It was about the size of a Milka fruit, as it couldn't be the same size as Fred's eyes.

"Huh?"

"Wow!"

The male long-tailed rats, which were originally interested in the female's scent, became visibly excited when they saw the "pattern." It was as if someone was waving a cloth in front of a blue-type monster.

Some of them were even clinging to the cage bars, showing an abnormal level of interest. Seeing this, Fred made a displeased sound. It was as if he was recalling an unpleasant experience.

"Miss Reina... Does this pattern have the power to attract the opposite sex?"

"There's no definitive proof, but it seems likely..."

I explained what I knew so far. The pattern's effect varies greatly among individuals, it influences without consuming magic power, it has no observable effect on inanimate objects, and the more blank spaces in the pattern, the weaker the effect.

Incidentally, I demonstrated with a female rat because the effect is more visible, but I observed a similar effect when I drew the pattern on a male rat and exposed it to females.

"Indeed, if Mr. Fred's troubles are due to this, it all makes sense..."

Edi muttered, watching the male rat that was most interested in the pattern and was running around the cage.

"However, Mr. Fred seemed quite surprised, didn't he? Didn't you already explain the power of this magic circle to him, Miss Reina?"

"No... I only told him about it, but he hadn't actually seen the effect..."

Indeed, when I talked to Fred, I only explained the data from my experiments without demonstrating the effect.

Seeing the actual reaction of living creatures was quite shocking.

"In the myths, there were gods with eyes that could turn people to stone just by looking at them, or eyes that could make people tell the truth just by being stared at."

"...Are you saying that this is related to Mr. Fred's eyes?"

"I don't know. It's just a thought..."

This is just a hypothesis that would explain everything if it were true.

Of course, assumptions are strictly forbidden in research, so I'm also considering other possibilities. It could be a mere coincidence, and the pattern might be completely unrelated. The environmental conditions and confounding factors haven't been fully verified yet.

However, I couldn't help but think that the pattern was related to why Amber couldn't transform into Fred's eye color, as she had said, "I can't transform into a god." I don't even understand what Amber's "Transformation Spell" is, but I couldn't dismiss the connection.