Chapter 398

“It’s hard to answer with all the blood rushing to my head.”

Helga Brandt let out a crooked grin and spoke slowly. Sometime during it all, Mecklenburg had stepped over and was pointing his wand at him.

Let’s sort this out. Was Helga Brandt the same person as Lili Lebenro, or not? There were still more clues tying the two together.

First, the ones I’d already noted—the same scent, the same apparent age, and the same ability.

Second, Helga Brandt was one of Pleroma’s founding members. He either had close ties to the Metropolitan, or enough standing to become someone on the same level himself.

Third, in his letters, Helga Brandt compared Ishmael to Pleroma. That made it even more likely that the name Mikhail “Ismailov” came from him.

Ishmael was Abraham’s first son, born to a concubine. In Christianity, after Isaac was born, Ishmael and his mother were cast out into the wilderness.

From the letters Helga Brandt exchanged with someone I suspected was part of Pleroma’s leadership, it was clear they interpreted Ishmael differently. The other party used Ishmael to mean the Diadochi—the countless generals who claimed to be Alexander the Great’s rightful successors. In other words, someone who had to be driven out before Pleroma descended into its own version of the Warring States period¹. To put it more bluntly, someone who had to be eliminated before they threw Pleroma into chaos. Personally, I thought Cain would’ve been a better comparison.

Helga Brandt, on the other hand, used Ishmael to represent those who suffered, those forced to walk a path of hardship, those cast aside. To him, Ishmael was what the outside world saw when it looked at Pleroma. More than that, he probably saw himself in Ishmael. As someone with a mental-type ability, he had no way to prove the visions he’d seen, so no one believed him.

‘And the reason Yuri Alekseyev became “Ismailov” in 1898… was probably because Helga Brandt’s side won.’

Or at least been on the verge of winning.

To declare that he’d been right all along—and that the “persecuted,” the Pleroma branded as heretics, would one day triumph over orthodox Christianity—he renamed Alekseyev as Ismailov. That was my strongest theory so far.

Looking at the Helga Brandt who still wouldn’t stop laughing, I spoke.

“I have a feeling that might be a little difficult for you.”

“What would?”

Mind manipulation magic. Smiling, I pressed two fingers lightly against the side of his neck and calmly asked.

— Do you know the Lebenro family? Answer truthfully.

“It feels as though the Holy Spirit is speaking through you.”

“…….”

He had faintly picked up on the fact that I had woven mental manipulation magic into my words. If Mecklenburg had realized what I’d done, he’d probably be shouting about how I could possibly use magic like that. As expected, though, he hadn’t noticed a thing.

Even if I used mental manipulation magic properly, there was no telling whether it would work on someone like Helga Brandt, whose abilities revolved around the mind. More importantly, I didn’t want him realizing I was using divine power as well, so I only hoped for the slightest effect—something like my Charm Trait, impossible to tell at a glance whether it had taken hold.

Helga Brandt’s eyes lit up.

“You ask why I believe you’re Declinatio? Why? Can you still not tell, even after what just happened? For a moment, it truly felt as though the Holy Spirit had spoken to me.”

“…….”

So he hadn’t realized I’d used divine power… Yet somehow he’d managed to convince himself it was the Holy Spirit based on nothing more than a vague feeling.

“Answer me.”

“I don’t know anything about Lebenro. Hahaha… Though I do wonder why you’re asking. That’s what fascinates me. Have you seen something as well?”

“…….”

If the divine power had worked, then somewhere in his subconscious he’d have felt compelled to answer truthfully. That made his answer more likely to be genuine—but not enough that I could trust it outright.

Dealing with someone who was considered a fanatic even among fanatics was never easy.

Let’s think this through. There were two possibilities for how the New Human Helga Brandt could appear in the body of the Old Human Lili Lebenro. One possibility was that Helga Brandt had altered his appearance with divine power before showing himself to us. From Pleroma’s perspective, our only way of identifying him was by appearance, so using a false face would’ve been more than enough. As for the other possibility… I’d rather not think about it yet. That hypothesis branched into far too many others.

More importantly, what mattered right now was this: They both thought exactly the same way. The delegation led by Lili Lebenro wanted to keep me together with Ismailov. Lili Lebenro had already told me I was “whole unto myself.” Just as Helga Brandt was now calling me Declinatio.

‘This is giving me a headache.’

One thought led to another, each one branching into the next.

I understood everything now—how things had unfolded, and how they were supposed to unfold.

This was the situation. On the surface, Ismailov was the one who looked the most like the “Messiah.” He was a blank canvas, an empty vessel. Everything depended on what was painted onto him, what was poured into him.

I’d always assumed that, starting in 1897, Pleroma had been filling Ismailov with the abilities of countless people, and that they intended to add Narke’s, mine, and Heike’s as well.

But the person I suspected to be Lili Lebenro had a different plan in the past. He was trying to place me where Ismailov was meant to be. He had considered Yuri Alekseyev the Messiah. He had valued him that highly. Yet in the end, he’d chosen me over Yuri Alekseyev.

What mattered now was how much he knew—and exactly what he knew.

“Enough about Lebenro. Do you know Einsiedel?”

“Why are you asking that? What does that have to do with any of this?!”

Mecklenburg snapped, unease creeping into his voice.

Special Abilities. I needed to know whether Helga Brandt knew about the abilities. That had been my real reason for coming here all along—to save Heike Einsiedel. I had to find out why Heike and Ismailov had reacted so similarly at the same moment… and why, despite that, they hadn’t shown the exact same reaction.

Helga Brandt lifted a brow.

“The Einsiedel family? They’re a Junker family.”

“Not the family.”

“Then I don’t know.”

He didn’t know Einsiedel? That couldn’t be right.

‘…Or had he been so obsessed with Yuri Alekseyev that he’d ignored everything else?’

He’d already left Germany in 1888, so naturally he couldn’t know everything that happened there afterward. At this point in history, Einsiedel seemed to have ties only with the Archdiocese of Brandenburg. Even Munich-Freising had merely accepted Einsiedel as a prospective believer and started educating him, so not every branch of Pleroma knew who he was. Since this guy had been stationed in Russia, it wasn’t impossible that he’d simply never heard of him.

“Let’s get back to the point. Why do you believe I am ‘whole’?”

“Do you even realize that you are?”

I ignored his insane remark and continued.

“You couldn’t even convince your own people. Why is Yuri Alekseyev so important? How does his ability have anything to do with salvation?”

“…….”

“I’ve always wondered how you answered those questions. So go ahead. Tell me. I’ll gladly believe you.”

Helga Brandt had never been able to explain his “visions” to his fellow members. He couldn’t prove (1) that Yuri Alekseyev possessed an ability to absorb things—after all, he’d only learned it by chance through his Prophet ability—and (2) he couldn’t explain why that ability had anything to do with Pleroma’s idea of salvation.

I picked up the restraint I’d discarded earlier—the one that had been fastened to my left hand—and locked it onto his right wrist before pulling the mana extraction device closer.

“I’ll tell you this much—I already know. You planned to bless everyone at the Lavrentyev Monastery so you could prove to everyone that Yuri Alekseyev possessed an absorption ability. People can draw out powers they never knew they had when they’re pushed into a corner. If luck was on your side, Yuri would reveal that he had potential… or perhaps something even greater.”

Helga Brandt laughed again. It was the same reaction he’d shown all along. Bent backward as he was, he gasped for breath, laughed, studied my face, listened intently to every word I said… and laughed again.

Ignoring his unsettling reaction, I recalled what I’d confirmed after leaving this place and exchanging letters with the Bavarian Intelligence Bureau—this was exactly why I needed the warp mailbox. In the real past, the Lavrentyev Monastery had burned to the ground. Everyone must have died after receiving the blessing. Leaving behind a pile of bodies would have raised too many questions, so they must have set the building on fire.

At this point in history, there were no rampage drugs yet, but just as always, some people could accept vitriol while others couldn’t.

Helga Brandt drew in a deep breath before speaking.

“You came here because you knew Yuri Alekseyev. Which means… you already knew he was your Malakh.”

“…….”

“‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’”

I felt the muscles beneath my knee tense as I pinned his stomach down. He strained to lift his head despite being bent backward, staring straight at me. From the way Mecklenburg tightened his grip on his wand, I could tell his guard was going up.

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples that question. And how did they answer?”

“…….”

Countless thoughts rushed through my mind, each connecting to the next. I looked down at him for a long moment before answering quietly.

“…‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’”

“Then Jesus asked them, ‘But what about you? Who do you say I am?’”

“…….”

“‘Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Hahaha… Unlike ‘the people,’ Peter gave the right answer.”

“So what’s your point?”

“‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ I am the one who recognized who you truly are. I am no different from Peter. Since it’s come to this, you might as well kill me. If it weren’t for you, would I ever have learned any of this? Even if I die, to die by your hand would be an honor. Through me, you will soon come to know who you truly are. Wouldn’t that make it a righteous death?”

His booming laughter echoed through the room. I was beginning to understand why he kept laughing. He believed, without the slightest doubt, that his visions had been right all along. After catching his breath, he cried out again.

“I saw it! And now you’ve appeared before me in person! You said you would come in the latter days—but you’ve come today!”

“He’s insane. This guy’s…”

Mecklenburg muttered urgently. I swallowed hard. A chill crawled down my spine.

This—that was what madness looked like. Not anything else. This. Clinging to something that was neither truth nor fact and believing it with absolute certainty. It felt as though I’d unwillingly become the leader of a cult.

Even Mecklenburg had gone pale. His face was colder than ever, openly hostile—but even someone like him couldn’t suppress the instinctive fear that came from facing a madman who couldn’t be reasoned with.

‘So his ability is the sole basis for all of his certainty.’

“I know I was mistaken. But unlike me, who has realized it now, people in the future will still fail to recognize who you are, just like the people did. They’ll be ignorant once again, only in the opposite way. Just as I mistook John the Baptist for the Christ, they’ll go on making the same mistake.”

“…….”

He kept replacing one term with another. First he had called Yuri Alekseyev the Malakh. Now he was calling him John the Baptist.

Which meant Lili Lebenro knew Yuri Alekseyev was not the ‘true’ Messenger of the Covenant. Then what was Yuri Alekseyev to Lili Lebenro?

…I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the LORD Almighty…

Ismailov must have been “my messenger.” Lili Lebenro believed I was the Messenger of the Covenant.

“…….”

My stomach churned.

They had planned to place me inside Ismailov.

Or perhaps they expected me to awaken my “wholeness” and consume Ismailov instead.

The latter was only a hypothesis—I had no idea whether something like that was even possible. But one thing was certain: bringing Ismailov and me together carried no downside for them.

That much was clear. Helga Brandt and Lili Lebenro had been after me all along. Even if Brandt’s vision had been wrong, even if his conclusion was a complete misjudgment, there was no denying that Lili Lebenro was using his own confirmation bias to force me into the role of the Messenger of the Covenant.

All the while, Helga Brandt kept shouting, as though trying to convince someone.

“Even so, I will not stop you. Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!—No! Unlike Peter, I know. I know you are one who can die and rise again. Peter was far too ignorant. We already know the New Testament. We won’t repeat his mistake.”

“…He’s insane.”

“I have no idea what to do with a Declinatio who doesn’t know he’s Declinatio. How could I ever explain the grounds for my conviction? You’re someone who doesn’t need to be explained.”

“…He’s completely insane…”

I slowly shook my head. Helga Brandt really was insane. No one accepted him—not even his own comrades, who doubted him at every turn.

And yet, someone who was, ideologically speaking, almost his other half—Lili Lebenro—ultimately won in the real world. Assuming the two are the same person, Helga Brandt, a founding member of Pleroma and once regarded as the cult’s madman, eventually rose to become the Metropolitan of the Province of Brandenburg. To commemorate Ishmael’s triumph, he renamed Yuri Alekseyev as Mikhail Vladimirovich Ismailov. The lie had won.

Let’s think this through again. Judging by its name, his “Prophet” ability probably lets him see and hear revelations about the future. The difference between it and Precognition is likely how much it depends on a god—though whether such a god even exists is another question. And if the two abilities are fundamentally so similar, why are they classified separately?

Maybe Prophet isn’t really foresight at all. Maybe it’s simply the ability to see or hear visions and voices that the user mistakes for messages from a god.

‘Then they should’ve called this ability Delusion.’

How were all these names in the System decided, anyway?

Leo’s words surfaced in my mind again. Is the System truly on my side?

No. This wasn’t the time to think about that. What mattered was figuring out what I needed to know to save Heike.

As my thoughts settled into place, I spoke.

“I’ll give you permission.”

“Hey, what are you trying to—?!”

Mecklenburg grabbed my shoulder, panic written all over his face. I brushed his hand aside and locked eyes with Helga Brandt.

Struggling to sit up, he barely managed to ask, “Permission for what?”

“You’re laboring under the delusion that I’m.. whatever it is you think I am. So I doubt you’d refuse an opportunity like this. If you want to convince your headquarters that your madness is justified, you’ll have to test your theory yourself.”

“…….”

“Go ahead. Do whatever you want.”

Mecklenburg’s wand was now pointed at me. Horrified, he started shouting something, but I simply shook my head.

“Do to me exactly what you intended to do to Yuri Alekseyev.”

Bang!

The moment I stepped out of the Extra Chapter, I forced mana into my unresponsive legs and threw the door open. Leo, who had been leaning against the wall, looked up in surprise.

“What’s wrong, Lukas?”

“Narke.”

“Narke? Now’s not the time to be looking for—”

“Where is Narke?”

Leo frowned at the question before answering with a puzzled look.

“Trier Cathedral.”

“What? Since when?”

Trier Cathedral. It was connected to my plan, sure—but Narke was there?

“For a few hours now. …More importantly, your timing couldn’t have been better.”

What was that supposed to mean? My head throbbed. Still shaken by everything that had happened inside the Extra Chapter, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Leo held something out to me.

“Take a look.”

It was a black envelope trimmed with gold. The instant I took it, neat golden lettering appeared across the front.

[To His Eminence Cardinal Nikolaus Ernst of the Vatican]

“…….”

They were looking for me—as the cardinal.

When I looked at Leo, he answered without changing his expression.

“It arrived for you ten minutes ago. I’m guessing it tells you to come to Trier.”

Translator Note

1. Warring States period: Refers to the era of ancient China (c. 475–221 BC) when rival states fought for supremacy before the country was unified under the Qin dynasty. ↩︎