Gravis realized that she had comprehended the True Law of Control, and he smiled.
It definitely wasn't easy to comprehend the True Law of Control, but the Sect Master's mind was already very susceptible towards the Law of Control.
Of course, the Law of Freedom would be a different story.
Manuel's mind was also very susceptible towards the Law of Control, but he still hadn't comprehended the Law of Freedom, even though he already knew all of the other Laws.
Comprehending either one of the Law of Control or Law of Freedom was relatively easy.
Comprehending both of them was nearly impossible.
After all, they were polar opposites.
One was about evaluating all the variables and possibilities and comprehending the entire complexity of the situation, which would give someone insight into what options everyone had and what they could do.
The Law of Control was the peak of complexity.
Meanwhile, the Law of Freedom was literally ignoring everything and doing whatever one wanted to do. Nothing else. That was it.
The Law of Freedom was the peak of simplicity.
Yet, comprehending the True Law of Control was still quite an achievement.
"Surprised?" Gravis asked the Sect Master with a smirk.
The Sect Master was surprised when she heard Gravis' words.
It took her some time to understand what Gravis meant.
"You already know this Law?" she asked.
Gravis nodded. "Yep. How else could I be in control of the situation?"
The Sect Master took a deep breath.
No wonder she had felt like she had had no control over her interaction with Gravis.
Her lack of control hadn't been an illusion but reality.
She realized this now even more than before.
She comprehended the entirety of control, which allowed her to truly see that she wasn't in control.
One would think that knowing more about control would allow one to be in control more, but that wasn't always true. Sometimes, knowing more about control only makes one realize that there was truly no way to be in control of a situation.
The Sect Master also finally realized that Gravis had given her an opportunity to comprehend the Law.
However, exactly that was throwing the Sect Master for a loop.
She knew that Gravis was Orpheus' brother, and she knew that she had quite a shaky relationship with Orpheus.
Additionally, she had wanted to punish Gravis.
Even more, she had nearly killed Gravis back then, and Gravis knew that.
Even just now, she had debated killing him.
In essence, Gravis should see her as his enemy.
So, why was Gravis suddenly helping her?
She didn't get it.
It made no sense in her mind.
It felt completely random.
All the different thoughts shot through her head, and even though she knew everything about control, she had no idea how to navigate the current situation.
There was seemingly nothing logical about it.
When Gravis saw her uncomfortable expression, he only chuckled.
He knew exactly what she was thinking.
"You want to ask why, but you are not asking. Why not?" Gravis asked.
These words threw the Sect Master for a loop again.
Gravis knew what she was thinking about?
How?
Did he know something she didn't know?
"I…" the Sect Master said as she hesitated.
She had no idea what she should do.
Her mind tried to combine all sorts of realities and possibilities with each other to comprehend the current situation, but she didn't come to any reasonable conclusion.
It was like Gravis didn't act like a human.
Gravis only suppressed a laugh as he looked at her.
He found it hilarious that he could throw someone that knew the True Law of Control for a loop with only some words.
However, Gravis also realized that she would probably never comprehend the Law of Freedom in her life.
The concepts of control completely enveloped her mind, and there wasn't even the smallest space left for freedom.
Manuel had a possibility to comprehend the Law of Freedom in the future, but she didn't even have that.
It was straight-up impossible for her.
"The reason why I gave you that opportunity was that I wanted to," Gravis said. "That's the entirety of my reason. I was impressed by your great change and wanted to see if you could comprehend the True Law of Control."
"That's it."
After some seconds of thinking, the Sect Master looked at Gravis.
"What did you get out of doing that?" she asked.
Gravis shrugged. "Nothing."
The Sect Master thought for another second. "Was it for an altruistic or empathetic reason?"
"No," Gravis answered. "I simply wanted to see if you could comprehend the Law. That's about it."
The Sect Master thought about Gravis' words some more.
"Did you do it so that I might feel indebted to you, which would give you a lot of options to further your own power?"
"I mean, that's just a natural consequence of doing someone else a favor," Gravis said with a shrug. "It wasn't really my target. If you want to, you can, but you honestly don't have to. If you simply did nothing, I wouldn't mind. I only wanted to see if you could do it. I didn't really do it for you, but to sate my own curiosity."
The Sect Master frowned. "Why did you say that? You could have achieved a lot more by simply saying nothing."
Gravis scratched the back of his head with an uncomfortable expression.
Was this so hard to comprehend?
He only wanted to do something, and she was trying to insert all kinds of meanings and goals into his actions.
"Why would I need to lie?" Gravis asked. "Don't take it personally, but your help would only have a minuscule effect on my growth. I have my ways to comprehend nearly all the Laws I want."
"In a way, you could say the potential stuff you can give me isn't worth the effort of lying to you."
"Also, I don't like lying."
In a way, Gravis' words felt a bit humiliating to the Sect Master.
However, she also realized that Gravis was speaking the truth.
It might be uncomfortable to hear, but it was the truth.
Additionally, she had asked Gravis again and again. Not being honest would be even more disrespectful after so many questions.
The Sect Master thought about Gravis' words some more, and she felt a headache approaching.
Eventually, she gave up.
She just couldn't comprehend Gravis' thoughts.
So, she decided to simply throw everything away.
"My name's Lina," she said suddenly.
Gravis cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Okay?"
"I didn't introduce myself previously," Lina said. "I think I can learn a lot from you, and I think it's only fitting for me to introduce myself first. How can I learn more from you if you don't even know my name?"
Gravis scratched the side of his head.
'I mean, it makes sense, but it's a bit sudden.'
'Oh well.'
"Is that your real name?" Gravis asked.
"It's my first name. However, my family comes from this world, and they know about the effects of true names. Because of that, all of the members in the family get extremely long and complex names, making it impossible for anyone to guess them."
"My true name consists of over 100 words. Giving out my first name isn't a danger to me," Lina explained.
'That's quite a long name,' Gravis thought with surprise.
"Alright. I'm Gravis," Gravis said. "Don't worry, the remainder of my name is impossible to guess since not even I know it."
This took Lina by surprise.
"You don't know your own name?" she asked in surprise.
"Nope. I guess that's my family's way of protecting my name."
"Does your family also come from this world?"
Gravis nodded. "Yep."
Gravis' plans of visiting Orpheus were delayed yet again.
Talking with Lina was quite interesting.