Chapter 531

“Why are you laughing?”

Leonard, who had been quietly staring into empty space, shook his head and spoke. I felt a sudden pain in my side, but I ignored it, trusting that it was nothing serious. More importantly, why was this a situation where I shouldn’t laugh? Even in the middle of an operation, there was nothing wrong with marveling if the world was beautiful. I smiled, squinted at the brightness, and looked up at the sky.

“It’s beautiful…”

A faint migraine was coming on. Leonard narrowed his brow for a moment, then calmly began writing something on his wrist. I stared at the back of his hand, covered in black writing, and asked in confusion, “Your Highness, what are you writing on your hand…?”

“Doesn’t the world seem rather easygoing to you?”

Easygoing? I rubbed my side and answered, “It is beautiful.”

“No. We’re in the middle of an operation. This is not the time to be appreciating its beauty.”

The longer he spoke, the longer the pain lasted. I braced myself against the wall with a thud and thought. An operation? I knew that. I was inside the Archdiocese of Bamberg. But so what? I seemed to have been determined to find a way out, but now I couldn’t remember why. The air smelled faintly of dusty, stagnant earth. As the bitterness on my tongue grew more pronounced, questions began to rise in my mind. I shivered.

Under the soundproofing spell Leonard had put up, I asked in a low voice, “Wait, if I may ask something… did I drink your blood, Your Highness?”

“No. You never did. Is there something in your mouth?”

“No…”

Sometimes you tasted something that wasn’t there. Wasn’t that normal when you weren’t feeling well?

But no. I focused on the pain that stopped the moment Leonard finished speaking. It was happening repeatedly.

“Ah—”

I drew the sound out. This time, my head hurt.

Perhaps Leonard had figured out what was happening, because he opened his mouth.

“Every time I speak.”

“Yes.”

“You’re clutching your side. Can you roughly tell what’s happening?”

I wiped my upper lip and felt sweat gathering in the hand gripping the wall. The person standing before me tilted his head.

“Every time you speak, unfamiliar colors spread across my field of vision.”

I didn’t need to hear the rest. After checking the densely written words on the back of his hand, I held up my palm and stopped Leonard from speaking.

“I understand. Our senses are being scrambled. My hearing is triggering tactile sensations—pain. And yet I can still hear the sound, which means I’m experiencing overlapping interference rather than a complete sensory substitution. In contrast, Your Highness is having what you hear copied over into your vision.”

Leonard looked momentarily confused. Again. With his memories rearranged, the muscles beneath his eyes twitched slightly, as though he had noticed something irritating, and he silently held out his wrist to me.

[Sensory Overlap] [Do not speak in front of Nikolaus. Pain.]

I nodded, narrowing my eyes as I explained.

“Your Highness. Every time you speak, it feels as though someone is grabbing the skin and muscles of my side and tearing them apart.”

Leonard looked at me as though he had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently, the Leonard from before the operation had arrived here. That composure did not last long. He saw the colors spreading across his field of vision and opened his eyes wide in alarm. His ice-colored eyes shook wildly.

But the Leonard from before the operation was still Leonard, and he quickly regained the same sharpness and dignity as the Leonard I had known just moments ago.

I took off my jacket, wrapped it around my waist, and began using my shirt as a sheet of paper. The ink seeping into the silk spread far less than I had expected. As I wrote down a summary of all my deductions in English, I spoke to him in the same language, rapidly firing off each thought.

“We need to figure out how to get out of here. This isn’t the time to run around. We need to think. I should have realized this sooner. I think I was too complacent because I trusted the monocles. Now, why do we need to hurry? Because assuming time here passes at the same rate as our time, it’s already 4:30. We’re losing our memories one after another. Divine power slows it down, but it isn’t a cure-all. Especially not for me.”

Leonard’s facial muscles gradually tightened.

He wasn’t speaking for my sake, but he had written the operation time—4:30—on his own hand, so he had no choice but to realize that the time was already up. I considered opening the status window to check the time, but that would only waste time. If we failed to return by 4:30, the King would take command. More importantly, we were still in the waiting period, so there was no immediate problem. The announcement was at six. There was no way we could launch the operation at 4:30.

I took a deep breath and spoke.

“Your Highness.”

Leonard looked down at me and answered with his eyes. I wrapped myself in divine power and poured some into him as I continued.

“If I had to choose just one person as my partner, I would choose you.”

Just as I had at the beginning, even now. The choice I made at the beginning of my story had never changed. And it never would.

Leonard neither looked surprised nor shaken by my words. As the divine power spread, the interference with my five senses faded away. I looked straight into Leonard’s eyes and said, “I have not the slightest doubt about that decision. From this point on, we have to work together. Your brain has to be my brain, and my brain has to be yours. Can you do that?”

Saying that I would choose him wasn’t something I said lightly. Leo loves averages and standards, and though he may not actually be all that average, he certainly looks like someone who is. But his ability to think is anything but ordinary. Not merely exceptional—he is more brilliant than anyone.

He can always lead whatever he chooses to victory. In the world that had already ceased to exist and now existed only in my head, he had reached down with his own hands and pulled up a distant peer who had fallen into the deepest pit, even though he had no reason to do so. Likewise, he had devised a game board he had never needed to create in the first place, followed his strategy to the letter all the way to the deadline, and ultimately made everything unfold exactly as he intended.

The paths and achievements of those two had been built on synergy. You couldn’t remove either one and still tell the same story. If Elias had not died, he would have wielded his iron will and strength to claim victory sooner or later, but because of the injustice imposed upon him by his very birth, he could not have secured his own survival without Leonard. And without Leonard, Elias would not have fully grasped, even into his early twenties, the reality of the circumstances that had repeatedly driven him into extreme conflict with Leonard. Yet because that discomfort did not always cross a certain threshold, he would never have been forged by it into someone capable of reaching even greater heights.

As I had thought before, what Elias could not bear was not so much the fact that he himself was being treated unjustly as the sight of that injustice being exposed to others. Whether others took pleasure in his misfortune or pitied him, everything unfolded exactly as the Emperor intended. In judging others, anything other than indifference was the wrong answer, and there was nothing he could do about those wrong answers. And if you dug deeper, even indifference, as a reaction to an action, was believed to be rooted in putting oneself in another’s shoes and understanding their suffering. Therefore, there was no right answer at all.

Leonard would have been fine even if Elias had never existed in the first place. But that Leonard would have been a very different person from the Leonard I had read about. Not necessarily different in any particularly negative sense, but the two Leonards would undoubtedly have turned out differently.

Life is not independent in that sense. The story I read could never have existed if either of those two guys had been missing. Everything worked together to let Elias survive, and to let him win, time and time again. And surely, part of what made that possible was Elias’s own ability.

That synergy was the spotlight shining down upon a great talent capable of carrying a great calling—and a great talent becomes great because it can endure the fate placed upon it.

I had seen and read of that magnificent strength, will, and ability: a treasure like platinum tempered through hardship, seizing opportunities that came like little streams and weaving the warp and weft of something that had yet to become anything into an ocean.

I had read about the iron-willed person who brought a stream of water into the heart of a desert with not a single source, and ultimately turned the wasteland into a dense forest; about the decade-spanning, near-unfathomable strategy that same person had refined through humility and strategy, only to reveal it to the world by making the impossible possible; about the courage that changed the fate of a continent without a moment’s hesitation.

It was Leonard’s achievement that gave a throne to a great vessel for whom that throne had never been prepared. The achievements of the one who acts and the achievements of the one who commands are not the same. I know what this person is capable of.

In the 20th century, the claim that he had planned a game board that never needed to be created in the first place would have sounded absurd to some. What did it mean for Bavaria to replace the imperial throne? Even after seeing this future, one could hardly believe that the dynamics of power would remain the same as they were now. To believe otherwise would be the height of innocence…

For the Bavarian royal family to help a coup seize the imperial throne meant that Bavaria had risen to the position Prussia held at present. In other words, Prussia no longer wielded the same power it did now. The balance of imperial hegemony had changed, and although the imperial throne still came from the Kingdom of Prussia by tradition, according to Bavaria’s calculations, real power was, at best, divided between the two.

Because of that, Leonard was often accused by Prussian conservatives of having installed a puppet emperor. But whether that was true or merely a misunderstanding, he had made it possible for his friend to pursue the path he wanted, a path that did not include Prussia. Rather than losing sight of reality while chasing ideals, he had made Bavaria the hegemonic power of the Empire.

He was the kind of person who could take something he had chosen once and raise it to wherever he wanted it to reach. He had painstakingly assembled the game board to the point where he could even save the German Empire of this world. In the two worlds I know, Leonard has continued down a road of victory, never letting go of either of the two things he held in his hands in each world.

Leonard’s love of the ordinary is a smokescreen hiding his extraordinary ascent. The fact that so many people in politics today offer the Crown Prince nothing more than fairly favorable assessments is proof of just how effectively his preference for the standard masks his exceptional nature. Perhaps, intentionally or otherwise, he is even deceiving our perception of his abilities by loving the ordinary so much…

That was why, from the moment I chose my companion the day after I fell into this world, from the moment I bet my survival on that kingmaker rather than the emperor, I had never once changed my mind. I had always thought the same thing—

Leonard Wittelsbach alone was the one most deserving of the title of strategist.

By now, there were strategists among those on bad terms with me who were astonishingly talented. But the weight of the word ‘most’ had not changed.

My opinion would not change until I knew who would be the one standing victorious at the very end.

And I slowly begin to feel the ordinariness that had served as his smokescreen melting away. At least in front of me. In front of us.

I would urge him on in response to that change. Let’s get out of here as though nothing ever happened. So even if I forget, try to carry my thoughts forward. Surely, Your Highness could act as though you had read my thoughts in advance. The words rise all the way to my throat.

“You’re asking something you don’t need to ask.”

There wasn’t the slightest trace of concern on Leonard’s face. Just as he had been until a few months ago, he wasn’t wasting time worrying about the impractical methods we were proposing while considering countless possibilities. He must have the memories from before the operation was planned as his most recent memories. The Leonard standing here could not be the one from last night, the one who had realized just how much he had taken upon his shoulders. And yet, the moment he recognized his duty, he changed his attitude as effortlessly as turning over his hand, as though the order of his memories had no bearing on the manifestation of his character.

I became certain that Bavaria had, above all else, the most perfect talent it could have asked for.

“All right.” I nodded once before continuing. “According to what we’ve recorded so far, we’ve already established that this phenomenon is the Archbishop of Bamberg’s ability. There are a few conclusions we made that were a little too ‘complacent’ and hasty. Being able to implant memories doesn’t necessarily mean being able to manipulate their order. It may be possible, but that would be a separate ability from memory implantation. And if they had the ability to extract a Special Ability and manifest it externally, then they would… No. They don’t have the ability to extract a Special Ability and manifest it externally.”

If they could do that, would Pleroma really be going after Maria Österreich-Este so desperately? Would they have gone after Emanuel Wittelsbach, either? Think about what they did to keep Terminus Eukairia in check. Would there be any reason for them to take on that much risk and burden? If the cost is comparable to the benefit, is the plan really rational?

I couldn’t tell Leonard this simple line of reasoning yet, so I had no choice but to state it outright.

“This is our premise. Therefore, every spell woven into this space is an ‘imitation.’ Much like how all sorts of spells are layered together to imbue an artifact with an ability resembling a Special Ability. Next, the problem isn’t limited to the change that confuses the order of our memories and causes us to judge phenomena primarily through our most recent memories. We still have the problem of sensory overlap. Whose ability is this? Or rather, who developed this ability? According to the information obtained from Einsiedel, no Special Ability like this has ever been encountered before. Among the seven dioceses involved this time, only the Bishops of Bamberg and Eichstätt possess abilities that similarly interfere with the mind. So perhaps this is an ability they developed independently. But judging from the state of preservation and destruction here, which Your Highness must have already assessed, whether that is the case or not is irrelevant. So, as a result?”

What would he say? What was I asking him to figure out? He should be able to answer this.

“It’s simple. It’s evidence that there’s a high probability that a lever leading outside exists.”

Leonard calmly gave the correct answer.

Finally.

I felt the tension drain out of me. I always did. Conversations with him were fast. I was reminded once again of the strategy meeting we had before the Pentathlon. Even if the problem itself was simple, in a situation this tense, it was entirely possible for one’s mind not to work quickly. If that happened, I’d have to do twice the work—not only escaping, but persuading him as well—and waste twice as much time.

I ran around the outside and said, “Exactly.”

“According to what we’ve observed so far, the levers follow a pattern. They tend to place many of them in locations that are convenient to use.”

I could hear Leonard’s voice. I was running. The world, which had been as bright as broad daylight, began to take on a mesmerizing blend of darkness and light. My five senses twisted out of alignment, and at the same time, my side hurt badly enough to overwhelm every other abnormality. What was happening all of a sudden?

I stopped with a frown. Leonard fell silent, pulled out his fountain pen, scribbled something across his palm, and held it out for me to see.

[divine power]

Leonard’s fingers were extended toward me in a deliberate gesture. I understood what he meant and wrapped myself in divine power. In the meantime, I noticed the writing on the back of his hand and read it aloud, my mouth falling open.

Only then did Leonard speak.

“Read what you wrote on your sleeve. You said that my brain must be your brain, and your brain must be mine, so I’ll continue by explaining both your reasoning and mine. I noticed something strange here. Except for the ruins connected to Road 4, isn’t this place far too pristine?”

“You thought the same thing, Your Highness.” I said it as I read the writing on my sleeve.

“If this is a training ground, there should be signs of combat. Yet, just as we’ve spent all this time thinking this was a residential area rather than ruins, only a few sections are damaged enough that we could mistake it for minor deterioration, the sort caused by the passage of time. Everything else is intact. Going back to the beginning, what would be the purpose of creating a training ground like this? You would have narrowed it down to two broad possibilities: a training ground for the bishops’ combat training, or a training ground for experimenting with spells. Of course, one could argue that they might have used these specialized spells at a training ground for the bishops’ combat as well… Now that I say it, you wouldn’t have asked such a question. My apologies. In all likelihood, it was the latter—a training ground that used ‘materials.’”

In truth, I probably should have introduced what Leonard had just said at the very beginning, but apparently I hadn’t. It would have been easier to understand if we went back to the beginning now that we knew the information he had just explained. Judging by how smoothly he spoke without stumbling over anything, it was clear that Leonard had already figured out a great deal on his own.

We poured mana into our legs and quickly reached the center of the square. Leonard stood in front of the fountain and turned to me.

“We spoke earlier about the levers being patterned. The levers are arranged according to a pattern—but what kind? They’re organized in a way that makes them convenient for humans to use. Think of their offices. Within the same diocese, they could simply warp there, yet they installed levers. That means they don’t even want to expend the mana stored in their own bodies. Nor do they want to calculate the spell. There was no reason to take a complicated detour around this convenient method. From the beginning, the chances of there being levers in those countless alleyways were low.”

“I wonder why we didn’t arrive at that conclusion right away.”

“We kept forgetting the moment we tried to think things through, and under those circumstances, we couldn’t think this far ahead. You also said that we had placed too much faith in the monocles. That seems plausible.”

“Good. …In a situation where we kept forgetting things, the fact that we even made it this far is a miracle.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead and quickly continued.

“Thank you for the thorough explanation. We already have our conclusion. What do you usually find in a square?”

“There’s a lever in the clock tower in the square.”

Leonard calmly beat me to the answer. I wondered just how many steps he had skipped to arrive at the conclusion that there would be a lever in the clock tower. I let out a disbelieving laugh, genuinely impressed.

“You skipped at least three steps, Your Highness.”

“You seem to be starting to understand the situation. That’s more like it.”

Leonard smiled, tilting his chin slightly to the side.

“Let’s go. Before we’re any later.”

“There’s something I want to think about first, Your Highness.”

At my words, Leonard raised an eyebrow and half-turned toward me. I calmly told him, “The lever is definitely going to be in the clock tower.”

“I’m glad we came to the same conclusion.”

“And when we pull it, we’ll be transported to the sky above this place. In other words, another spatial spell will activate, one that lets us look down over this entire place at a glance.”

The lever we would find in the clock tower would not be the one that returned us to where we came from. There was enough evidence to make that deduction.

Leonard smiled as he answered, “Then shouldn’t we be grateful that we’ve gone past 4:30?”