Chapter 407

6 Ludwigstr.

To any German, it looked wrong at a glance.

[Hong Gil-dong

Republic of Korea, Seoul

Jongno-gu

85 Cheonggyecheon-ro]

It was no different from writing an address like that in Korea. Of course, you’d still understand it. If the writer were elderly, a foreigner, or simply jotting it down as they heard it, the order hardly mattered. People wrote addresses backwards sometimes.

Even if I returned to the 21st century and found a note like that, I’d still have no trouble locating the address. The same would apply here. You might pause for a second and wonder why it had been written that way, but it wasn’t the sort of mistake worth picking apart.

The existence of the letter itself—filled with fabricated information—was far more important. So why had the atmosphere in the sitting room suddenly turned so cold?

“…….”

Instead of the cigarette he’d politely stubbed out in the ashtray earlier, Emanuel Wittelsbach took out a fresh one and lit it. He drew in a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

“Hoooo…”

The sigh sounded heavy enough to sink the floor beneath us. All of us glanced over at Emanuel. After seeing nothing but people smoking cigars lately, watching someone slowly ruin their lungs with cigarettes almost felt novel.

The chairman looked between us uncertainly, about to say something, when Emanuel let out a quiet, humorless laugh.

“Could there still be a chance it’s an English? I’d sleep much better if that were the case.”

“It seems Your Highness already knows the answer.”

“…….”

Between those two possibilities, which one was the obvious answer? Wasn’t it obvious? After all, Emanuel Wittelsbach probably knew better than anyone except me who had stolen the sapphire parure. We had undoubtedly reached the same conclusion. Emanuel’s expression gradually hardened into stone. Leaving him to his thoughts, I turned to the chairman.

“Chairman Ptolemaios, if I may ask—what made you reorganize your bookshelves yesterday?”

“Ah, well, after taking out an old safe to store the Christian relic, the room became such a mess that I decided to tidy the whole place.”

“So you only read the letter after the relic was found.”

“That’s right. We discovered the relic the morning before yesterday, took out the safe and stored it inside, then I spent yesterday before dawn cleaning the room. After that, I urgently contacted our members to see if anyone knew who the relic belonged to, and around three o’clock I sent warp mail to His Highness Emanuel’s office.”

Slow in some ways, fast in others.

I murmured to myself with a faint smile. Emanuel, who had been resting his head on one hand, spoke quietly.

“Chairman Ptolemaios, I know this may be an imposition, but would you mind giving us the room for a moment?”

“Ah, of course. Please, make yourselves comfortable. Shall I have some tea brought in?”

“I would appreciate that. And if possible, something with a bit of liqueur in it.”

“…….”

I stared at Emanuel in disbelief, narrowing my eyes. The chairman looked just as baffled, but quietly excused himself. If it had been Leo, I would’ve cut him off before he finished asking, but I couldn’t do that with this guy. Leo technically outranked him, but that wasn’t the point. Besides, Leo would’ve never made a request like that in the first place.

“Now then. It’s just the two of us.”

Draping an arm over the sofa, he tipped his head back and stayed in that awkward position, steadily smoking one cigarette after another. By the time he let out what was practically his third sigh, I was seriously considering hitting him in the neck. Thankfully, he spoke first, “You’re going to bore a hole through my neck at this rate, Sir Ernst.”

“I was hoping you would say something worthwhile. What do you suppose I am thinking right now?”

“Thinking about hitting me?”

“…….”

“I’m joking.”

“Indeed. It was so utterly absurd that words failed me.”

Emanuel burst into laughter, as carefree as though he were joking around with an old friend. Even though I wasn’t Lukas Everett now, something about it reminded me of those days. Without a word, I turned my head away. Just then, a servant wheeled in a trolley and set down a wine bottle with a red label along with two glasses. Glancing at the label, Emanuel muttered, “Cream sherry. Much appreciated.”

“I am surprised they actually took your request to spike the tea with liqueur.”

Trust them to upgrade the order on their own. Even in his forties, some things about him hadn’t changed since his twenties. Half resigned, I watched the servant pour the sherry into our glasses. Once he left, Emanuel’s piercing gaze settled on me. I rested a hand over the glass and let divine power flow into it. Just in case, I dipped in one of the testing strips I always carried for detecting drugs, but it showed no reaction.

Good. Nothing troublesome was going to happen here.

I slid the glass toward Emanuel. Tilting his glass slightly in a mock toast, he said, “It is an honor to drink wine personally purified by Sir Nikolaus Ernst.”

“Is that so?”

I gave a slight shake of my head, making it clear I wasn’t going to drink. Emanuel simply sipped the sherry on his own. Alternating between his cigarette and the sherry, he savored both in silence. After a long while, he finally spoke in a subdued voice, “So a French sent the chairman of the Hermetische Gesellschaft a letter full of lies about me years ago. In other words, the same person who stole the Österreich-Este’s jewels.”

“That seems the most likely possibility.”

“And then, just the other day, something believed to be a holy relic turned up in the Hermetische Gesellschaft founded by that very Österreich-Este.”

He was simply voicing his train of thought, trusting that I would make good use of everything I’d learned in the Labyrinth. It left me wondering how much I should agree with. After all, I had to avoid anything that fell outside the overlap between what I had seen in his Labyrinth and what I’d discovered as Lukas Everett.

“And the jewels and the holy relics were stolen at the same time. Even if this relic isn’t one of those relics, the whole story still reeks of something foul, doesn’t it? There are too many threads connecting one thing to another.”

“Indeed.”

Turning the wine bottle in my hand, I read the label as I answered. Apparently displeased by my detached reaction, Emanuel gripped my shoulder and said seriously, “We need to think this through. Come, Sir Ernst. If you don’t trust the sherry here, then come with me. We’ll leave and solve this case together.”

“Ah yes, it feels as though we have become private detectives. Even without Your Highness making such a request, I must resolve this incident anyway.”

To fulfill the mission entrusted to me by the Papal See—and to save Heike, who was already standing at death’s door.

“You look tired,” Emanuel said quietly.

“Not at all.”

I meant it. I wasn’t tired in the slightest. He studied my face for a moment, then nodded as if he believed me. After taking another easy sip of sherry as though it were the water of life, he spoke again.

“Then tell me, Sir Ernst. Is there anything else we need to learn here? I’m waiting on you.”

“Of course.”

I looked over the letter the chairman had given me once more.

The paper had yellowed unevenly with age, and both the envelope and the letter inside had discolored to the same extent. The sealing wax still bore the official stamp, though it looked flattened from years of being pressed beneath books. The handwriting was elegant German cursive, written with what must have been a fine pen—not a blot, smear, or broken stroke anywhere. Then there was the address. And among all those neatly written lines, one sentence caught my eye.

Sie sollten wissen, dass dies eine großartige chance für Sie ist!

Seriously? At least be consistent.

If you were used to English, where only the first word of a sentence and proper nouns are capitalized, the mistake would be easy to miss. I’m talking to whoever wrote this letter. Sorry, but in German, nouns are capitalized. chance? It should have been Chance.

It wasn’t a casual note to a friend—it was a formal letter. The writer really should have avoided mistakes like that. Sure, anyone can make a typo now and then. But after the address, this made two in a row. That was much harder to dismiss.

I read through the letter from beginning to end before ringing the bell on the table. A servant waiting outside entered and stood beside us.

“Could you ask the chairman to come back in?”

“Of course.”

The servant returned a moment later with the chairman in tow. The chairman’s eyes immediately went to Emanuel’s glass, and it was obvious he was about to say something about the sherry, so I smiled and spoke first.

“Thank you for the sherry. Could you bring in the servant who found the letter?”

“The servant? Yes, right away.”

The chairman gestured to another servant. Perhaps because it was still the middle of the night and they had to wake him, it took a little longer this time. A young Old Human entered, looking thoroughly confused, and stopped beside us.

After casting a soundproofing spell around everyone except the chairman, I quickly spoke before the servant could launch into a long-winded speech about what an honor it was.

“Nice to meet you. I am Nikolaus Ernst. This is His Highness Duke Emanuel Wittelsbach of Bavaria. Before we begin, may I have your name?”

“Helen Wechsler.”

“Good. I’m sorry for waking you, Miss Wexler, but something important has come up, and I need your help. I was told you found this letter while organizing the bookshelf yesterday. Could you walk me through exactly how you found it?”

The servant hesitated, unsure whether to greet us properly first, but when I held out the letter, she simply answered my question.

“Y-Yes. The master’s study has three bookshelves…”

Beside me, Emanuel curled one corner of his mouth as if to say, You’re starting all the way from there? I simply nodded, signaling her to continue.

“They hadn’t been organized in almost ten years, so he decided it was time. Ah, and… the master doesn’t like people touching anything in his study, so there was quite a lot of clutter. Um, how far should I go… When I removed everything from the fourth shelf of the innermost bookcase—the third bookcase—I found this wedged between two books. I put it on top of the letter tray afterward. It had what looked like a Ministry of Education seal, so I assumed it was just some old notice, but I suppose it wasn’t.”

“I see. So it was stuck between two books?”

“Yes.”

“If your master dislikes anyone touching the things in his study, who do you think could have put it there?”

“Either… the master himself, a long time ago… or perhaps his secretary.”

“Very well. Do you remember which book it was?”

“An encyclopedia of world geography. It wasn’t a single-volume edition, so I remembered it. It was heavy.”

“An encyclopedia… I see. Excuse me for a moment.”

I placed a hand against her forehead and murmured.

— Enter through the narrow gate.

Her eyes immediately lost focus. Staring into those unnaturally dilated black pupils, I asked, “Miss Wechsler. You said you found this letter in the bookcase yesterday.”

“…….”

Her eyelids fluttered as though she were about to fall asleep. Her lips moved soundlessly before she finally gave a faint nod.

“Before you found it in the bookcase, you already knew this letter existed. Is that correct?”

This time, she shook her head. It looked like she wanted to answer, but no sound came out.

“Have you ever handled or touched the rosary relic that was recently discovered?”

Again, she shook her head.

“Have you ever felt this flow of mana that I am releasing right now?”

She shook her head once more. I withdrew my hand, pulling back the divine power.

“Very well. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“…What just…?”

I smiled at the servant before dispelling the soundproofing spell. Then I turned to the Chairman across from me.

“Chairman. Do you know which book this letter was found in?”

“Yes, of course. I asked where it had come from after I saw it.”

“I would like to take a look at the book.”

The Chairman readily instructed a servant to bring it over. Flipping through the encyclopedia, its page edges faintly yellowed with age, I remarked, “It is quite old.”

“I bought it about ten years ago. That is probably why.”

“Chairman, I will spare you the obvious questions. There is something else I would like to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“There are people who believe certain stones have special properties, aren’t there?”

“Ah, yes. Of course. Believe isn’t the right word—they really do.”

“…….”

Stones actually have special properties…? What? Rather than voice my skepticism and ruin the mood, I simply nodded.

“Can relics possess special properties as well?”

The chairman’s eyes lit up. Wearing an earnest expression, he gave a firm nod.

“Absolutely. Let me give you an example. This pen here—I have been using it for five years. You could say a part of my soul has seeped into it.”

“How so?”

“Think of all the documents we have gone through together. Every contract that helped me reach this position was signed with this very pen.”

“…I-Indeed…?”

I was so dumbfounded my response came out awkwardly. Still, it wasn’t so absurd that I couldn’t humor him. Nodding, I listened as the Chairman continued. Reaching into his jacket, he took out a pocket watch and flipped open the lid for us to see.

“And this watch was passed down to me by my late mentor. After spending so many years with us, it has become a kind of spiritual artifact. In the East, they call it qi. The qi this watch carries resonates with my own. You could say a part of one’s soul seeps into an object.”

“…….”

“I see. How fascinating.”

Since I couldn’t quite find the words, Emanuel answered for me with a faint smile. The chairman visibly brightened, and Emanuel snapped his fingers before continuing.

“So the object gives off an invisible energy that affects both our bodies and our minds. Is that what you are saying?”

“Exactly! The object’s own qi blends with the qi we leave behind, and the two interact. The same goes for holy relics—they possess even greater power. The Arma Christi, for example, are said to possess abilities connected to the purposes they served in the hands of Christ.”

I raised a hand, signaling him to stop for a moment.

“‘Are said to’? According to whom?”

“Among us occult researchers. The occult is both the foundation and the future of magic. Most people dismiss it as nothing more than superstition, like a fleeting visage glimpsed on Walpurgis Night, but that isn’t the case. The magic community—especially magical science—rarely studies the possibility that relics possess abilities. Presumably because they fear those relics would be looted or stolen.”

At that point, even Emanuel, who had been listening quietly, seemed unconvinced. Smiling, he shook his head.

“…That is not it. If relics really emitted mana, or possessed obvious abilities that anyone could recognize, they would already be in the textbooks.”

“Fair enough. I will admit that. The truth is, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, people simply can’t perceive an object’s qi—or rather, the power it carries. However!”

If a relic’s power was so imperceptible that no one could detect it, then for all practical purposes, it didn’t have one. It wasn’t about qi or anything of the sort.

The chairman leaned forward enthusiastically, insisting on his point.

“Every living and nonliving thing possesses a latent ability.”

“I see. In that case, I have another question.”

“The soul is no different. Every body has its own innate qualities, and so does every soul. Aren’t we simply the result of those two coming together? In the case of mages like yourselves, that combination becomes visible through magic.”

“…….”

I’d been listening with an amused scoff at first, but by the time he finished, I found myself listening in earnest. It was a perspective on the relationship between mana, the body, and the soul I’d intended to ask Narke about. Nodding, I finally asked the question I’d been holding back.

“Then what ability did that rosary possess?”

“Unfortunately, it belonged to the ninety-nine. My secretary is a New Human, yet even he couldn’t sense anything from it. Even so, I asked His Highness Duke Emanuel Wittelsbach to take a look, just in case it had some hidden property. It is a shame it disappeared. Still! We may not be able to perceive it, but every relic unquestionably carries its own unique resonance in the spiritual world—something akin to qi.”

I nodded, glancing down at the letter I’d received earlier before looking back up at the chairman.

“I see. Does the Hermetische Gesellschaft have a group dedicated to studying holy relics?”

I couldn’t return to Trier Cathedral. Instead, I was invited to Emanuel Wittelsbach’s residence.

Earlier this month, I’d wanted so badly to get inside that I’d practically camped outside the place. Now I walked through its doors as though it were nothing.

“…….”

The drawing room was lit only by the orange glow of the fireplace. It hadn’t changed much in the past twelve years. Even Emanuel—who hadn’t aged significantly, as if we had met just yesterday—made it feel as though I’d slipped back into a single moment from twelve years ago.

As I quietly watched him, Emanuel reached over, removed my mask, and held out a glass.

“Drink.”

“Sherry again, I see.”

“Not cream sherry this time. I didn’t think it suited your tastes. And don’t worry—I didn’t lace it.”

“Thank you.”

Our glasses clinked together, and I took a sip. Warmth spread through my stomach as the sherry went down. Emanuel drained his glass in short order before getting straight to the point.

“Well then, we have gathered enough clues. Time to put them together. Or rather… I’d appreciate it if you did.”

“…….”

“At the very least, we have established this much. Someone is trying to put me in a difficult position. Or perhaps they’re trying to destroy Maria’s Hermetische Gesellschaft instead.”

Even without a response from me, Emanuel continued on his own.

“Either I’m the target, or the Hermetische Gesellschaft is. Whoever this ‘X’ is, they knew I was friends with its founder. I’ve spent over ninety-five percent of the Society’s existence completely uninvolved with it. Naturally, hardly anyone would even think of me.”

“That is true.”

“And yet the French thieves who stole the jewels knew about Maria Österreich-Este. If they knew about the countless techniques Maria created, then dragging me into all this isn’t strange at all. In fact, it’s only natural.”

Emanuel paused for a moment before speaking quietly.

“Just like when Pleroma tried to drive me into a rampage. This time, they used someone old enough that his mind was no longer as sharp to lure me.”

Anyone would have suspected the chairman of being a spy, but he hadn’t. I’d questioned him briefly and found nothing suspicious. I even tried the same method I’d used on that French royal, wondering if some of his memories had been erased, but the result was the same.

“Could they be after all the information you destroyed?”

“…….”

Emanuel finally fell silent and looked at me. Watching the pale amber sherry ripple inside my glass, I began.

“Let’s start from the beginning. That letter was never delivered years ago. I can’t say exactly when it was placed there, but one thing is certain. If it had really been wedged between encyclopedias, sealed off from both light and air all that time, it wouldn’t have yellowed like that. The encyclopedia was only yellowed around the edges after ten years, but the letter wasn’t. Judging by the ink, they used a high-quality pen, but the paper itself was ordinary wood pulp—the kind that yellows easily. The envelope and the letter inside had both aged to almost the same degree, which is unlikely unless the envelope was unusually thin. Even if the outside had been exposed, people’s eyes naturally linger on the letter inside, not the envelope. Whoever did this was so focused on creating the appearance of age that they overlooked the details. And besides…”

“…Something about it felt off, so I already suspected it hadn’t really been sent long ago. But Your Excellency certainly has no shortage of evidence. Just how far were you planning to take this?”

“…That is all. One last thing—if it had really been wedged between those encyclopedias, it would make more sense for the damage to show localized insect wear rather than uniform discoloration.”

“I’d love to hear the rest. But there’s something else I want to know first. Who would go to such lengths just to make my life miserable?”

“Judging from the circumstances, either the French Imperial Family… or Pleroma.”

I fell silent after that. He knew I was withholding something on purpose. A playful smile tugged at his lips before he asked, “Back then, the day you searched through my memories—you mentioned the holy relics as well. What became of that? Surely you haven’t solved it already?”

“I am still working on it.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“The stolen relics were the True Cross and the Holy Nail. I had already begun investigating some time ago, and at the moment, I suspect that someone within the Papal See was behind both thefts.”

“Whew… I imagine that didn’t go over well. You’re claiming there’s a criminal hiding among users of divine power…”

“It didn’t. Naturally.”

“And you actually said it out loud? Haha… impressive.”

Chuckling, he took another sip of sherry before gesturing toward me with his glass.

“What’s your reasoning for believing someone inside the Papal See is responsible? I’m wondering if it might connect to my case.”

“First, the relics were moved through Spain, the Vatican, and Italy in that order. Second, no one even knows that holy relics can possess abilities, yet someone specifically targeted two Arma Christi relics. That led me to believe someone within the Papal See knew what abilities those Arma Christi possessed.”

Emanuel draped an arm over the back of the sofa and leaned back.

“A solid theory. But now we’ve learned two more things. First, a rosary supposedly teleported the other day. Second, we’ve just met someone who insists relics possess their own qi.”

“…….”

I smiled faintly, rolling the sherry over my tongue as its aroma spread across my palate. I watched the fire dance in the hearth while Emanuel looked at me with a grin that was half teasing, half the expression of someone watching a hopeless case.

“What I don’t understand, is how you’re staying so calm.”

I glanced at him, curled my fingers slightly around the wineglass, and finally spoke.