Chapter 501

“Would you not have become friends with me if I hadn’t been like this?”

At those words, Elias’s eyes widened, and he turned toward Leo. Beneath Leo’s expressionless face, Elias could make out a subtle hint of playfulness. When all of us turned our eyes toward him, Leo rested his chin on his hand and asked with a smile, “If, as time passes, I become someone who no longer says things like that, will you stop admiring me?”

“No! How could I, when I already know who you are?”

Elias pulled himself away from the backrest and scolded him with a look that said, What kind of question is that? before falling into thought.

“I’ll probably come to love even the changes in you. I might miss the 17-year-old you sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I’ll dislike seeing you grow. And it’s not that I like you because you’ve never strayed from the right path even once. I like you because even when you do stray, you know how to try to find your way back to the center.”

“…I did? …Can you tell me exactly when and what I did?”

“You really are a funny friend. How much of you have I watched all this time? How could I pick just one or two things? When you’ve known someone this long, you just take everything together and say what you see.”

I could understand why Elias was getting irritated. From my perspective, it would be more accurate to say that Leo had been like that every moment.

From what I had seen, it would be a lie to say that Leo had never envied Elias’s talent as he grew up. It would be an even bigger lie to say that he had never lamented his own meager talent. He could have pursued magical medicine, where his talent lay, dismissed his longing and love for combat magic as nothing more than youthful foolishness, and even distanced himself from Elias, who had made him realize his own limits, with a perfectly reasonable excuse.

It was Leo himself who shattered every fate that seemed to have been laid out for him. All of this was an attitude Leo had shown subtly throughout his entire life, so it would probably be difficult for even him to pinpoint exactly when he had acted that way and explain it.

Of course, all of this was based on Elias’s personal perspective. But what he said was no different from what I had come to understand about Leo through everything I had experienced with him.

Like anyone else, Leo probably had never thought that deeply when looking at himself, which was why hearing someone else’s perspective now felt so unfamiliar to him. Leo, intrigued, asked once more.

“What if, as I continue to grow, I change for the worse?”

“Even then, I couldn’t stop liking you. I told you. We’ve already shared all this time together.”

Leo tilted his head. Elias gazed at him, then at the sea air rolling in from behind him.

“If you ever go down the wrong path, then I suppose we’ll have to do whatever we can to help you find your way back to yourself. I know how much you’re capable of putting to good use at your core. Even if you don’t realize that you’re going down the wrong path, one of us will notice. And when that happens, we’ll be there to support you so you can change in a direction that lets you stay true to yourself. Right?!”

Elias smiled as he looked at me and Narke. I looked at Leo and answered.

“Of course we should.”

“So I have friends like Catullus.”

Catullus was one of the figures who influenced Marcus Aurelius, and since all of us could understand the classics, Leo was using Meditations to make a joke. Even so, his expression remained as calm as ever.

“So this is our Elias, not my Elias.”

I wanted to tell him to stop using that thing they’d said when they were children. The two of them kept saying things in front of us that only they could understand, and all I could do was let out a helpless laugh.

When ‘our Elias’ spoke to Leo, it was usually some nonsense based on a joke, so Leo normally acted as though he was letting Elias’s words go in one ear and out the other. But when ‘my Elias’ spoke to Leo, every word was sincere. So hearing him talk about their relationship while he was in his ‘my Elias’ state seemed unfamiliar to Leo.

Ever since Leo realized that Elias was speaking from the heart, his eyes had taken on a quiet liveliness, as though he were deeply moved. He calmly blinked them shut and open again.

“I’m touched. Even more so because I didn’t come looking for you expecting this.”

“See? This is what I like. It’s so refreshing when you just say everything you feel when you’re moved!”

Elias chuckled. I couldn’t help laughing too. Leo rubbed the back of his neck and spoke with an awkward expression.

“…You’re honestly like that too! Do you really have to point it out every single time and make me embarrassed?”

“Not really! If I do that about five times out of ten, you do it about fifteen times out of ten, so it’s completely different. And the fact that I even say it five times is thanks to everything I learned from you.”

At that, Leo lowered his eyes in thought and smiled faintly. It seemed like he was remembering something from the past that we didn’t know about.

Seeing his gentle smile even made me feel a little guilty, as though we were intruding on a sincere conversation between Leo and Elias. But Leo seemed perfectly comfortable with us being there, and while I was still hesitating, he began speaking to Elias.

“I like you precisely because you’re this kind of person. You look for things to learn from in everything, and you’re able to do that because you never settle for things as they are. You reflect on them. You keep clearing out, turning over, and reshaping the streambed inside you so the stream flowing through you never stagnates or dries up, creating a path for it to reach the sea. If you hadn’t refused to yield to the land that was hostile to you, if you hadn’t kept trying to find water, would you really have been able to look at me and imitate even that embarrassing habit of mine? You say you learned from me, so it’s thanks to me, but you were the one who decided to include my traits among the things worth pursuing for good, and you were the one who decided to improve yourself. In the end, you’re the one who helped make you into the person you are today.”

Hearing that brought the racetrack to mind. If seeing himself in a horse running toward its death was also part of the process of finding something to learn from in everything, then his unconscious habit of doing so came with pain. Perhaps that pain was what had brought Elias this far, and perhaps it was what allowed him to become friends with someone who was his exact opposite, yet shared the same direction as himself. It was something he had always thought about.

Listening to Leo once again with a serious expression, Elias felt the same complete satisfaction and gratitude that Leo had shown when he thanked him for his words. He lifted the corners of his mouth into a broad smile.

I was deeply impressed by a conversation that was rarely seen between people, but I cautiously glanced at Narke, wondering if perhaps it was time for us to leave them alone. Just then, Leo rose from the edge of the bed and filled our glasses with wine. When Elias raised his glass high, we merely tipped ours from a distance, but Elias shook his head. In the end, we had no choice but to clink our glasses together before Elias finally drank his wine.

And so, without another word, the two of them brought this bizarre party to a close. For the next part, Leo sat down on the sofa with his back to the terrace. Even after sitting down, he shifted uncomfortably because of the grass and said, “All right, I think we should get started. Where should we begin?”

“Wait! Let’s go to the hot spring.”

Elias grabbed the neck of the wine bottle and stood up. Leo, making no effort to hide his bewilderment, stared dumbfoundedly at Elias’s back as he left the room. Then he looked back and forth between the rest of us, still seated where we were, and twisted up the corner of his mouth.

“Luka, you’re coming in fully dressed again. There’s no one around, so this is the perfect chance.”

Half-submerged in the water, Elias glanced at me. I had brought over a folding chair and sat down, smiling as I firmly replied, “Because I’m not getting in at all. If I stay in here any longer, my skin’s going to start peeling off. You guys can keep soaking yourselves.”

“Aaaah~”

Elias scooped up some water, trying to splash it over my legs, which were still in my bathing shorts. I moved my knees out of the way and refused.

“I’m still not getting in.”

Elias stared at me in dismay before diving underwater and popping up on the other side of the pool. He turned to Leo, who was getting into the hot spring fully dressed, and started scolding him.

“Why are you still like this? Aren’t you going to put the chair back?”

“I hurt my arm.”

“Just get it wet!”

Leo shook his head.

“You’re seriously going to keep sitting out by yourself?”

“…It’s because of my arm.”

“Just you wait until it’s healed… If it takes about two months, will it be all better by then? That’s right around summer, isn’t it?”

Elias’s eyes widened. Leo pressed his fingers against the corners of his eyes, as though even thinking about it was exhausting. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t been getting much sleep, what with looking after us back in Germany and coming abroad at dawn to take part in the diplomatic talks. Of course, Elias and Narke hadn’t exactly been sleeping properly either.

Perhaps Elias understood Leo’s exhaustion well enough, because he stopped pestering him. Instead, he looked toward Narke, who was sitting at the corner of the pool with only his feet in the water, and gave him a look that clearly said he wanted to play together.

For some reason, Narke seemed a little calmer than he had been right after returning from dealing with the duke, but he quickly fixed his expression and splashed some water over Elias. Elias let out a strange noise and spread his arms wide to take the splash head-on. Out of habit, he reached up to fix the long hair that would normally cling to the back of his shoulders, only to find nothing in his grasp. He had shaved it off to come here.

As Elias ran a hand through his unfamiliar black hair, he made another odd noise before diving underwater. He wriggled through the pool like a fish, swimming around beneath the surface. Really, it was probably for the best that I hadn’t brought him along earlier.

By the time it was impossible to tell whether Elias’s face was flushed from the alcohol or from the heat of Etna’s hot spring, Leo, who had been quietly waiting, finally spoke.

“Now, will you listen for a bit?”

“Go ahead. I can answer while I play.”

Elias was swimming on his back, slapping the surface of the water hard with his arms. Seeing that Elias’s face was still above the water, Leo seemed to have little else to say. He simply gave in and continued.

“Fine, then… First, I’ll tell you that things are much more serious than I expected. So let’s start with this. Did you find the spy?”

Narke, who had been sitting quietly, answered.

“It was Duke Orsini. He was the bridge between Terminus Eukairia and the Papal See.”

At the mention of Duke Orsini, Leo seemed to immediately recognize who he was. He looked startled for a moment before his eyes sharpened again.

“If you mean the head of the house, then the reason they haven’t caught the culprit despite all the interrogations… is it because he never entered the Vatican? Or is it because of his Special Ability?”

“If we’re only talking about the duke himself, you could say it’s because he wasn’t officially part of the Papal See. But he had already exerted considerable influence over the Papal See without ever becoming part of it. For example, whenever the Papal See claimed it needed to recruit more members for the Papal Army or the Swiss Guard, Duke Orsini would send them a list of people he recommended. Those who were selected would then faithfully carry out their duties within the Papal See as Duke Orsini’s subordinates.”

Leo nodded.

“But Duke Orsini was extremely thorough about never passing the orders he received from Terminus Eukairia directly to any one person. To give another example, the Swiss Guards he had placed there were ordered to open the gates without question whenever someone wearing yellow passed by. That person, meanwhile, was an Old Human disguised as a colleague of the plumbers who had passed through the same gate five minutes earlier. His job was to find the corpse of a rat that would be lying dead somewhere in the Vatican, cut open its belly, and retrieve what was inside. Why? Because thirty minutes earlier, another one of Orsini’s accomplices had fed the rat a small glass vial containing poison and a note, then sent it down into the soil beneath the Vatican walls. Or take a fruit delivery man who had just arrived at the Vatican. Duke Orsini ordered him to deliver a glass vial that had been left on a windowsill along with the fruit. The man didn’t even know what was inside the vial, but he did it because he was offered extra money. These are only examples, but everything was fragmented in this manner, so even through interrogation, the Papal See couldn’t find anyone who could be considered a meaningful culprit.”

Leo rubbed his chin.

“So, in effect, it’s become difficult to find the accomplices who actually carried out the theft of the holy relics.”

“Exactly. It was like having countless people each contribute a single screw and using them to build an entire building.”

“To think they’d go around it in such a way… Do you think this is Terminus Eukairia’s method?”

“Yes. And it was only possible because the culprit was an elder. An elder who appeared wise, with virtue, fame, power, and wealth, makes the perfect adviser for misleading young people. Each of the people he gathered entered the Papal See and ended up participating in the crime without even realizing it.”

When Narke finished speaking, Leo nodded. Elias began urging him on.

“Then it’s your turn to talk now, Leo. What is it that’s so serious?”

“Let’s go through it slowly. When I was at the Crown Prince’s Palace, I received a letter that said, ‘Along with the Atropos matter, the next phase will arrive soon, and there is something I need to ask of you.’”

What basis did they have for so confidently saying something as vague as ‘the next phase will arrive soon’ at this hour? I couldn’t help but think of the Pythia of Delphi. I clasped my hands together and asked, “You said it took four hours from receiving the letter to getting here. Were there any reports about us during that time?”

“Other than the news that the powerful figures among Rome’s influential families had gathered, and that the archives at Monterotondo had been breached and a cardinal had gone to deal with it, there was nothing. Of all the news coming out of Italy that we were receiving in real time through the intelligence service, those were the two most significant reports. There was no mention of a fire, but both of those incidents were because of you, weren’t they?”

Narke nodded.

“…It’s interesting to come across your traces like this. Anyway, the letter was extremely difficult to decipher, and it was also rather awkward from a diplomatic standpoint. But I had to understand that if it was classified, there was only so much that could be written down. And after seeing the plan for creating a portal written beneath it, I had no choice but to conclude that the Papal See hadn’t summoned us on a whim. Telling you all this now really puts my professional instincts at odds with themselves…”

“Ah, don’t think of it as telling a friend. You have to tell Sir Nikolaus, who’s sitting right here, everything as it is. He’s going to be the future Prime Minister, after all.”

Elias teased him. Leo looked at him as though wondering what on earth was wrong with him, then sighed.

“Even if you didn’t say that, this is something I have to tell you. The meeting was conducted through the head of state affairs relaying His Holiness’s words to us. His Holiness said that Germany was in danger. France as well. But there’s nothing particularly surprising about that. We’ve already finished our own analysis and concluded that Germany is in danger.”

Leo said this while looking at me, so I nodded. Then he continued, addressing his friends.

“Pleroma has been killing key figures in other countries, not just Germans—even the Prime Minister of Austria-Hungary. So the conclusion of our analysis was that Germany could end up being blamed across the continent. For now, things have remained quiet because many countries still don’t know that Pleroma is behind it. Countries like Spain, which haven’t been directly affected, don’t even know that Atropos exists. And most importantly, Atropos’s existence is being kept completely classified in every country and hasn’t been made known to the public.”

“Right. But are you saying Germany is really in danger because of that?”

“Yes. That’s why the Papal See said they wanted to join hands with Bavaria.”

“…….”

The sound of splashing gradually died down. Everyone except Narke stared at Leo with our mouths hanging open. From what I could tell, their conversation had been conducted less through direct statements and more through intentions hidden between the lines. There was no way we could fail to understand what the Papal See was proposing to Bavaria.

“Pleroma in Germany is the one harming the international community, and the responsibility for failing to eliminate Pleroma for over a decade lies with the German government. And Prussia is at the heart of that government. So now that Pleroma is suspected of being behind the development of Atropos, the blame lies not with Germany, but with Prussia. That is the Papal See’s position.”

Leo continued explaining to us as we sat there frozen, eventually getting to the heart of what we had been thinking.

“The Papal See intends to use this opportunity to establish an absolute alliance with Bavaria and keep Prussia in check.”

Leo’s careful wording did nothing to soften the shock of what he was saying. In other words, they wanted Bavaria to cut ties with Prussia and leave the German Empire. As a Catholic state, they wanted Bavaria to come under the influence of the Catholic world’s spiritual leader. Perhaps even return to the days when the papacy held greater power. They wanted Bavaria to become something akin to the Austrian Empire¹.

The Papal See would help Bavaria transform itself into a Bavarian Empire. On one hand, this could be seen as protecting Bavaria from an international community growing increasingly volatile because of Pleroma. But on the other, they were encouraging the breakup of the German Empire and filling Bavaria’s head with grand ambitions.

A great power like the German Empire would be coming to an end. In some respects, that might not be a bad thing, but in the current situation, it would also mean the emergence of yet another European great power. If the Papal States could successfully keep the rapidly growing Prussia in check and then put their seasoned political skills to use, they could reclaim on the Italian Peninsula the position the German Empire had once held.

Now, the former of those two possibilities seemed utterly absurd. Did the Papal See want to see a return to the days when Germania was divided into countless small states²?

Even Elias, who rarely ever took Prussia’s side, sat there blankly for a long while before finally speaking.

“Leonard. They could be violating their sovereignty.”

“Yeah. I know. That’s why… I have an idea.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“Not now. I’ll tell you after we’ve talked about this more deeply. And, Lukas.”

“Yeah. What?”

I answered, trying not to let my expression grow too serious. Leo looked at me and spoke calmly.

“I don’t intend to return to the Special Operations Command right away. I’ll ‘officially’ take some time off as soon as the Command gives me leave. Even if I have to walk around with a fake bandage.”

I nodded. It was only after that that I found the mention of a fake bandage strange. The moment I narrowed my eyes slightly in suspicion, he spoke firmly.

“But my broken arm needs to be fixed right away. Lukas, you have to help me heal. And I’ll help you heal properly too.”

Heal? I wasn’t even a doctor. What was I supposed to do, and how?

It would be a lie to say I didn’t feel a sense of déjà vu. As I felt a chill creep over my ears and the back of my neck, which were perfectly fine right now, I looked at his arm, then reflexively lowered my gaze to my own leg.

Translator Note

1. The Austrian Empire was a major Catholic power that stood outside the Prussian-led German state after Austria was excluded from German unification in 1866. ↩︎
2. This refers to the political fragmentation of the German lands before German unification in 1871. The Holy Roman Empire once contained hundreds of semi-independent territories, while the German Confederation established in 1815 consisted of 39 sovereign states. ↩︎