Chapter 385

Russian.

Nothing but an unfamiliar language echoed in my ears.

Snow drifted down as I walked with half my face buried in a patched scarf. In the distance stood an Eastern Orthodox monk who looked twice my height, while groups of schoolchildren in uniform made their way toward what looked like a monastery school, little more than dots from where I stood.

Thud—

“――колбасник¹!”

Of the torrent of Russian, the only word I recognized was the slur for a German. The insult was followed by a snowball striking me from behind, throwing me off balance.

A child about my height caught me before I could fall, then turned and shouted something rapid in Russian at the children trailing behind us. They grumbled but kept their distance. The child in front of me looked back and, in clumsy German, said, “They like picking on people around here. Even in weather like this.”

White breath drifted into the air. His eyes darted about as he searched for words, mixing in a few Greek and Russian ones before trying again in German that was just as difficult to understand.

“Can you follow me?”

I stared at the child without a word. Black hair. Blue eyes. And yet I knew.

Standing before me was Mikhail Ismailov as a child.

Click. In the next instant, I was seated somewhere else. It was a place I’d been only a few hours earlier.

Narke stood before me in the darkness, wavering at the edge of my vision. Wearing his usual gentle smile, he patiently waited for me to speak. Feeling as though I were dreaming, I murmured softly. No—at the time, it had never once occurred to me that I might be dreaming.

“So it looks like your abilities still aren’t completely suppressed, Narke.”

“…….”

“I finally understand why you’ve been trying to keep Heike away from him.”

“Do you?”

A faint smile crossed Narke’s face. For some reason, though, his expression carried the stillness of a storm about to break. Leaning against the balcony, he simply watched me. I nodded, meeting his golden eyes beneath the moonlight spilling in behind him.

“I do. Why you’ve avoided getting close to him whenever possible… and why your Insight and Precognition suddenly stopped working.”

“…….”

“Do you remember the Eszett inauguration banquet?”

“I do. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that day.”

“When I said it felt like the range of your abilities had expanded, you told me it’d shrink again on its own. That if you wanted to stay here, it had to.”

“So I did.”

“‘It had to’—that’s strange, isn’t it? That’s not the same as saying it naturally will. It contradicts ‘on its own.’”

Why was there an asterisk beside his Trait? Why was there a note beneath it stating that divine grace had been applied? Swallowing the questions that had haunted me since I’d first met him, I continued.

“The only way those words make sense is if you have to let someone else control your abilities. Did you hand the authority to regulate them over to the Papal See?”

“…….”

“Ismailov erased the vitriol from the Rampager. Then he drew the pheasants toward himself. Where did all that vitriol go? Why did the pheasant’s mana become unstable around him? And how was it that, the very first time he met you, Ismailov looked at you and said, as if he possessed Insight himself, ‘You can read me, can’t you?’”

The wind fell silent. Looking at Narke, who stood with the wind at his back, I asked quietly.

“You shut your ability off, didn’t you, Narke?”

Looking at the smile that gave no answer, I continued expressionlessly.

“So Ismailov couldn’t absorb it.”

The sound of the reel turning. I have to admit it now. It seems I can never escape the work I’ve spent my entire life doing.

“Teacher.”

“Gah…!”

I jerked upright at the warmth and presence before me. A seventy-month-old child stared back at me with wide, startled eyes.

“You were asleep.”

“Asle—…”

His voice rang clearly in my ears. The haze clouding my mind peeled away like a thin film, and a sliver of reality returned. My trembling hands flew to my neck, frantically feeling for the wound.

Nothing.

Everything was exactly where it should be. Blood still flowed through my veins. Mana remained in my blood. My flesh was whole. For the first time in a long while, I looked down at my bare, ungloved hands. My shirt was completely dry. I checked it again, confirmed mana coursing normally through my body, and slowly lifted my head.

“I…”

It all felt like a dream.

Was I still dreaming? Why was I here? Maybe I’d come here without even realizing it. Maybe it was instinct—to return home in search of peace. One thing was certain: my conscious mind had reclaimed more ground from my subconscious. It felt like those final moments just before waking.

There wasn’t a trace of the canal water left—not in my nose, not in my mouth, not in my airway, not in my lungs. The candle held by the seventy-month-old Leonard—so utterly unlike the grown adult I knew—and the music drifting from the gramophone I’d left playing before I fell asleep now struck me as strangely ironic.

There was nothing here but peace. The Extra Chapter I’d entered on the threshold between life and death felt almost like the world after death itself. Everything I wanted at this moment was here.

Looking at the little ghost before me, I murmured, “You shouldn’t come in while someone’s sleeping, Leo.”

The seventy-month-old widened his eyes, so I immediately waved a hand and corrected myself.

“Your Highness Leonard.”

“I know it’s discourteous, but I’ve come across something I don’t understand. I’d like to ask you about it.”

The little magic fanatic was clutching a book on magical theory in his other hand.

It was impossible not to feel as though the days I’d spent with this child had happened only yesterday. It was back when I’d been so preoccupied attending the occult meetings that I hadn’t paid nearly enough attention to Leonard. I gazed out into the darkness beyond the window and wiped the cold sweat from my brow.

“I would like to explain it to you now.”

Feeling the dull ache and buzzing in my head, I thought back on everything I had gone through. Narke… and Heike? What about me? The moment I return, will I open my eyes underwater? Is this really the Extra Chapter?

I took a deep breath in this brief moment of rest and looked at him.

“I’ll explain it to you next time, Your Highness. Let’s meet again in the morning.”

If I could enter the Extra Chapter again, then that morning would come. I ran my hand through Leonard’s hair and had his secretary escort him away.

I gripped the thick blanket that had once been mine and opened the Extra Chapter window. My thoughts spun as though I were trapped inside a dream. I no longer knew where my illusion ended and reality began, but if this wasn’t a dream…

There was somewhere I needed to stop by.

The first words out of my mouth before I had even opened my eyes were these.

“Heike?”

Even speaking was agony. The voice that came out didn’t even sound like mine. My throat ached. Strangely enough, my mind had felt clearer inside the dream.

“Heike… Where’s Ismailov? They both—”

Someone covered my mouth. After dismissing the medical staff from the room, he finally spoke.

“I couldn’t fulfill your request. It was impossible. Even you couldn’t have done anything.”

“…….”

“Fortunately, they pulled you out early enough that your life isn’t in danger. Once your throat heals, you should be able to leave the hospital.”

“Heike.”

Mecklenburg didn’t answer. Instead, after a long silence, he changed the subject.

“You don’t seem particularly upset that I failed to do what you asked.”

What did I ask him to do? The question must have shown on my face, because Mecklenburg gave me the look of someone who had expected exactly that.

“You regained consciousness for a moment right after we pulled you out of the water. You told me not to report Ismailov. You said there was someone who must never learn about this.”

“…….”

“Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore, but it’s not like you’re the one drinking his blood. Quite the opposite—you had your blood taken by that lunatic of a heretic prophet. I don’t understand why that should be kept from everyone else. Anyone can see that the mad heretic prophet drained your mana to survive. That’s exactly what Pleroma do. What do you mean he didn’t drink blood—by every definition, he’s a full-fledged Pleroma.”

“…….”

“I know you didn’t ask me to keep quiet out of sympathy for Ismailov. You’re not that kind of person. There must have been a reason behind that request. Is there something you haven’t told us?”

“…….”

By us, he meant the government. What a joke. I didn’t even have the strength to scoff. I just stared at the bed.

Sorry, but I hadn’t told anyone. And I wasn’t going to. I intended to be careful even with my own conclusions.

After another long silence, Mecklenburg spoke again.

“After you fell into the canal, I went there immediately. I lifted every drop of water out of the canal, but Sir Ismailov was the only one there. Then, just as I was trying to make sense of it, you appeared.”

So he saw the moment I briefly entered the Extra Chapter. Not that it mattered. My head throbbed. I merely flicked a hand, and Mecklenburg fell silent.

“We’ll talk another time. I’d rather see you when you’re in better shape.”

Not long after he left, my friends came in. The moment I saw Elias and Leo, I blurted out, “Heike.”

“…….”

“You’re awake, Luka.”

Elias forced a smile, his voice dry and worn.

There was only one thing I needed to know. I stared at him without another word. After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“Heike… not yet. He’s still unconscious.”

I looked past him at Leo, searching for confirmation. Leo said nothing either.

That can’t be right. They must have gotten something wrong.

They’d been at the scene while I was unconscious—they knew far more than I did. Yet that was the thought that sprang to mind. If only an hour or two had passed, it wouldn’t be strange if he still hadn’t woken up…

“How long has it been?”

“Twelve hours now.”

“…….”

I shot to my feet. Elias snapped his fingers, sending a wave of magic that shoved me back. Leo spoke quietly.

“There’s no point. It’s not like we haven’t already tried everything.”

“…Yeah. Nothing’s changed. Heike’s core is still completely stopped. We’ve been injecting mana into it the entire time, but nothing’s happened.”

Crash—!

I shattered Elias’s magic and staggered to my feet.

“…I have to see him. Let me see him.”

“…….”

Leo gestured for me to follow. I left the room behind him, climbed to another floor, and stopped outside Heike’s hospital room. Even after hearing what had happened, my heart still pounded.

“Go in.”

Creak.

I fell silent at the sight before me. Heike looked as though he were simply asleep. Unlike me, who had lain in bed without a single machine attached, Heike was connected to a ventilator. Ulrike sat beside him, slumped over the bedside with his face buried against the mattress.

“…You already know this, but when a core is shattered, heart function deteriorates rapidly as well. It was the same with him. When his core stopped, his heart stopped too.”

“…….”

My mind was gradually clearing.

And yet I couldn’t remember how I’d made it back to my hospital room. The Change Probability hadn’t gone down. If anything, it had risen. Which meant my choice had been the right one, and that everything unfolding now was, somehow, inevitable.

The fact that I’d actually found comfort in seeing the Change Probability stay intact almost made me laugh. I’d always known that number reflected only my future—it never accounted for anyone else’s safety.

Sitting back down on my bed, I pressed a hand against my forehead. With my eyes closed, I finally spoke.

“They showed the same symptoms. Heike and Ismailov’s cores both failed at almost the exact same moment. As if they’d been attacked remotely. There has to be some connection between them.”

Heike and Ismailov… Heike Einsiedel. Mikhail Ismailov. Remotely… from a distance… Was it Abraham?

But Abraham couldn’t do something like that. He could make someone fall off a cliff, sure—but he couldn’t stop a person’s core from afar. He could manipulate someone into cutting off their own finger, but he didn’t possess some all-purpose switch that could simply shut down an internal organ. He could arrange for someone to be poisoned with cyanide where no one was watching, or have a burst of mana strike directly over the heart…

“…….”

Lost in thought, I turned to Leo.

“Did they find any drugs left in his system? Something with a delayed effect.”

“They checked everything. Nothing.”

“What about Ismailov?”

“Same result.”

“…Elias. You were with Heike right before it happened, weren’t you? What exactly happened?”

“Nothing, really. Julia and I went straight to his room as soon as we got up. …His room was right next to ours. He’d just woken up and was opening the window. I told him we were going hunting later, so I was going to get a good meal in the dining hall first… He said he’d better eat plenty too. That was it. Then all of a sudden he grabbed his core and collapsed. He lost consciousness immediately.”

“That must’ve been hard to witness.”

“Harder than what happened to you? A Pleroma practically drank your blood.”

Elias muttered without lifting his eyes from the floor. I offered a faint, perfunctory smile before sinking back into thought.

“Why did the damage manifest differently? I had my blood drained, but Heike just collapsed and you caught him…”

“Because Heike isn’t Pleroma. Ismailov could recover by drinking blood. Heike couldn’t.”

Elias practically growled the words, his voice thick with hostility. Keeping my gaze fixed on empty space, I slowly shook my head.

“I understand how you feel, but that’s not what I mean. Heike collapsed immediately. Ismailov didn’t. He had enough time to tear into my neck. It’s safe to say they were attacked at roughly the same time, but what happened afterward wasn’t the same.”

Leo, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke.

“Maybe… because Ismailov is stronger than Heike.”

“…Maybe. Eli, could you give us a minute?”

Elias nodded calmly, gave my shoulder a reassuring pat, and left the room. Once the door closed, my eyes met Leo’s.

“Are you going to turn back time?”

Leo asked it as a question, not an assumption. Not You’re going to turn back time, but Are you? I understood why.

This wasn’t like getting hit by a flowerpot while walking down the street, or being stabbed by some random attacker. Avoiding that place at that moment wouldn’t erase the future where Heike collapsed. Unless we knew who—or what—had caused this, turning back time would accomplish nothing. And finding the culprit felt impossibly far away. Even so, I answered as though I were convincing myself.

“No matter how many months it takes, I’ll find them. Then I’ll turn it back.”

Even if I had to spend months investigating before turning back time—and then live through those same months all over again—I needed to make sure the checkpoint in Slot 2, the one from right before Heike collapsed, wasn’t overwritten. Then I would find whoever was responsible.

‘Why don’t I have enough points?’

Why? It had thrown points at me so generously before, yet this time it had given me only five. Was the System trying to tell me something through this… and through the unchanged Change Probability? ‘Even if you turn back time, nothing will change. Give up.’

I buried my face in my hands.

‘How could I possibly give up?’

After seeing the trust he placed in me yesterday? No. Heike was right. You don’t know until you’ve seen it through to the end. Even if I ultimately couldn’t turn back time, I would find a way to make his core beat again.

Silence lingered. I gathered the stray mana around me, let out a long breath, and asked, “What did Narke say?”

“Nothing. He’s wearing the exact same expression you are. That’s all.”

“I need to know whether this could have been part of Pleroma’s plan.”

I could infer the answer well enough. But I needed to hear it. I needed to hear it again and again. Because I couldn’t turn back time until I found the one behind all this.

I pressed a palm against my still-clouded vision, took one more slow breath, and said firmly, “We need to get moving.”

“Even Pleroma didn’t want this.”

Narke’s voice was as clear as ever, yet somehow heavy enough to dissolve into the wind.

“How’s your neck, Lukas?”

“It’s fine. Looks like the Papal See got word and restored your ability already.”

“After something like this, they didn’t have much choice.”

The snowy Russian fields I had seen in my dream remained vivid in my mind, yet before me bloomed the flowers of springtime Berlin. fixed my gaze on the magnolias and forsythias blooming in the park across the street and murmured, “Even Pleroma didn’t want this… What do you mean by that?”

“It’s too soon.”

Narke answered only that. He hadn’t smiled once all day. No one could, under the circumstances. Silence settled over us once again.

I glanced at the flower petals crushed beneath my feet and opened the Extra Chapter window. I’d been too out of it to read it properly before. The one I’d seen immediately after falling into the canal had undoubtedly belonged to Ismailov. I needed to confirm it.

* Stage 1: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

* Stage 2: Turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right.

* Stage 3: ―

…

—

* S Stage 1 : This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

* S Stage ■ : ■■■■■■…

S Stage 1.

Abraham’s stage had been pushed back, and a new one had appeared. But this one alone was almost gray, as though it had lost its color. I frowned slightly at its title before calling it up in my mind.

“…….”

Nothing happened.

The child I’d seen during that brief visit into the new Extra Chapter after drinking his blood had unquestionably been Mikhail Ismailov.

Ismailov had spent his childhood at an Eastern Orthodox monastery school in Russia. His hair hadn’t been white then, nor had his eyes. He’d been upright enough to stand up to classmates who mocked foreigners with slurs, and he’d gotten along well with the other children.

I knew Pleroma was what had turned him into the person he was now. I knew that. Which was exactly why his Extra Chapter mattered. And yet…

I couldn’t enter it.

‘I only caught a glimpse of his face before I was thrown back out.’

Immediately afterward, my memories shifted to the conversation I’d had with Narke. Well, judging by the fact that it was classified as an S Stage, I had expected it wouldn’t be easy. The question was whether the amount of blood I’d consumed determined how long I could remain there—or whether I simply wasn’t allowed to enter again.

But that wasn’t what mattered. What happened to Heike was only the beginning. Not the end—just a preview of what awaited this country. Whether this was Pleroma’s doing or not, if Ismailov was involved in this incident in any way… even if I doubted it was by his own will or through his own ability… if today’s tragedy was a butterfly effect that began with him, then I was prepared to spend years inside Ismailov’s Extra Chapter.

Assuming I was ever allowed back.

“Sir Ernst is to be received first.”

The elderly steward looked between the two of us as he spoke. I nodded, then turned to Narke.

“Wait here.”

“All right.”

Nothing had changed.

Every click of heels echoed through the Neo-Renaissance hall with grating clarity. The emblems of the Kingdom of Prussia still adorned every wall. That black-white-red banner beneath the eagle made my stomach churn every time I saw it.

The aged steward glanced back at me.

“This way, Your Excellency.”

Of course. I’d been here before. I followed him in silence, lost in thought. Stopping before the enormous doors, the steward announced in a clear voice, “Your Highness, His Excellency Nikolaus Ernst has arrived.”

“Come in.”

Creak—

Through the opening doors, I saw a head of blond hair. Sitting with the light at his back, he narrowed his eyes into a gentle smile.

“Welcome. Am I your prime suspect?”

I answered without changing my expression.

“That would hardly be possible. You seem to overestimate your own abilities despite lacking the power to accomplish such a thing.”

“That is a rather painful thing to hear.”

“However, I will acknowledge that you have been an active bystander.”

“…….”

“Was that what your prophet instructed you to do? I must admit, I find it somewhat disappointing.”

I meant the prophet who had rambled to me about Abel, Rosalind, and who knew what else.

The moment I brought up Daniel, Abraham folded his hands together and simply waited, wearing that faint, composed smile. I leaned back deeply into my chair, crossed one leg over the other, and clasped my hands over my knee. It was hardly a polite posture, yet Abraham only watched me with amused curiosity.

Fine by me. I was just as curious about him—though for entirely different reasons. Slowly, I began to speak.

“‘Your Imperial Highness must harbor an ultimate objective you have withheld from me, and my presence is likely required to bring that matter to fruition.’ Those were the words we exchanged when we first met. You remember them, do you not? If you wish to see the outcome you desire, then you must assist me in securing victory.”

“……”

“Rather than merely observing from beginning to end, as you are now, despite knowing precisely what is to occur.”

“Trials are what make a person stronger. Only by enduring hardship can one become a force beyond the reach of ordinary men.”

I twisted my facial muscles, which refused to move even slightly, into a smile.

“You appear to be far too fragile. Allow me to put you through a trial of your own.”

“A trial.”

“‘Sorrow chases the heels of sorrow, approaching swiftly.’”

Abraham’s expression froze exactly as it had been moments before. He unclasped his hands and tapped his fingers lightly.

“Surely you recognize that soul-annihilation spell. It was the very spell he cast the moment the Pleroma candidate you were responsible for slipped through your fingers.”

“Beatrix Maria Österreich-Este…”

“If I stand to gain nothing from this, there is no reason for me to be made a tool in the fulfillment of your objective, is there? When the day comes that you truly require my assistance, I shall ensure this matter is brought to a complete end, so that you may never make use of me in any manner.”

Abraham burst into laughter and shook his head.

“A bluff, then. Hmm… Would it suffice if I told you what I know regarding the Messenger of the Covenant?”

“Do you truly believe something of that nature would be sufficient?”

“…….”

Abraham artificially lifted the corners of his mouth. I mirrored his unpleasant smile and tilted my head.

“Hand Daniel over to me.”

Translator Note

1. Колбасник (Kolbasnik) — A Russian insult literally derived from колбаса (kolbasa, “sausage”). The term was used as a derogatory nickname for Germans, particularly due to the stereotype of Germans being associated with sausage-making and sausage consumption. ↩︎