Chapter 532

Then we should be grateful that we’ve gone past 4:30. I widened my eyes at his words, then nodded and matched Leonard’s pace. In other words, the fact that we were getting closer to 6:00 worked in our favor.

Leonard, naturally, had already realized that the lever in the clock tower was not a lever for returning to the bishops’ offices. He had even finished considering whether it was safe for us to go up there now.

But why wasn’t the lever in the clock tower one that returned us to their offices? If they needed something like an observation deck, wouldn’t the other space in the sky we had anticipated have been enough without going all the way to the clock tower? Why assume they would go to the trouble of installing yet another lever between the ground and the sky?

The reason was simple: they needed a way to reach the experimental site.

If there were a lever that led down from the sky to the experimental site, that would make sense. While no experiments were being conducted, they would naturally need to maintain the space, verify that the spells were functioning properly, and even prepare for problems that could arise during an experiment and could not be resolved remotely.

Then how did they get from the experimental site to the sky? The first possibility was warp, and that made sense. Since Pleroma needed to isolate the civilians they used as test subjects in this place, they might not have installed a separate lever.

Given everything that was happening now, there was another possibility we could consider highly likely: the lever installed on the doorknob leading down to the basement of the bishops’ residence was actually a lever for bringing civilians into the facility.

The basis for that deduction was ergonomic patterning.

A bishop’s residence was essentially a fortress, and in most fortresses or buildings, the first floor was less the domain of the building’s owner than a space meant for outsiders. The lever on the way from the first floor down to the basement was not something the bishop used. It was something intended for the ‘materials’ brought into the diocese.

There was a high probability that the basement contained a prison and a storage area for materials. The materials that were not meant to be sent to storage had been sent to the experimental site by having them touch the door ornament at the entrance to the basement.

That was why we had arrived in the same manner as the materials and opened our eyes in the middle of the square rather than in the clock tower.

But then, where exactly did this warp lead from and to?

From the ground to the sky? At this point, we had to go back to the beginning and think it through again. Would the bishops really want to set foot in the chaos where the experiments were being conducted? If I were a scientist, even if I knew something was going wrong, I wouldn’t stick my bare finger into a culture medium. But even setting that analogy aside, if the cost of installing safety equipment was clearly lower than the potential cost of any damage that might occur, and the value of that fixed asset did not significantly decline over time, there would be no reason to hesitate to install it.

Judging from what we had seen, they made liberal use of levers both inside and outside Pleroma’s world, so we could assume that the cost of installing and maintaining levers was not particularly high. Therefore, there was no reason for the bishops not to install a barrier that would first separate themselves from the ‘materials.’ In other words, it was reasonable to assume that the warp from the clock tower to the sky was the intended route.

However, one fundamental question remained: which was more economical, a warp or a lever? They had concluded that a lever was more economical. Our speculation that ‘there would be a lever in the clock tower leading up to the sky’ had been reached through this process of reasoning.

The clock tower had to be some kind of intermediary outpost separating them from the ground below where the experiments were being conducted. The lever in the clock tower would lead to a separate space from which they could look down over this entire field at a glance, and since that space would be somewhere we could come face-to-face with Pleroma, it could hardly be considered safe.

The fact that we have yet to be discovered suggests that no one has remained in the tower since we entered this place. If it were much earlier than six in the evening, we would have to remain highly vigilant, since we could not rule out the possibility of them stopping by for an inspection or as part of their schedule. But now that the time was drawing close to six, the likelihood of them coming here was much lower.

We knew that they would not launch any attack on the outside world today, on Easter, so it was unlikely that they would inspect the space or conduct a mock drill at a time so close to the announced hour. If it had been noon today, things might have been slightly different—even then, it would still have been relatively safe, but we would have had to prepare for the greater possibility of a routine inspection of the facilities.

If they came here at this hour, we would have to conclude that even Einsiedel’s prediction—that they would not carry out an attack on Easter—was wrong, and revise our strategy on the assumption that Germany would be plunged into physical chaos at six this evening.

The reality of the place, the purpose of the place, and what could be inferred from them. If I left out a few of the deductions, the gist was this: we could determine that this was a testing ground for experiments on civilians.

It was possible that they had restored a damaged space, but that theory was not particularly convincing. If the bishops needed a space for combat, such as testing their spells on one another, they would have chosen some other empty area, a cathedral, or a natural environment rather than a residential district. They had chosen a residential district because they wanted an ordinary German setting. So when would there be a need to test a specialized spell on civilians in a field resembling an actual German environment?

Einsiedel had said this.

‘If Pleroma is going to find the end of the world, shouldn’t there be a prophecy that looks convincing enough to support it? They’ve already gathered their clues. The reason they haven’t announced a special joint operation for Easter in this particular year, when they believe they’ve found the ‘half-Messiah’ known as the ‘Messenger of the Covenant,’ is… because the leadership is trying to decipher those clues first.’

They were going to great lengths to find evidence that they had received a prophecy concerning something as momentous as the End, and they proudly claimed that they would announce that prophecy to the entire world at six this evening. They firmly believed that Christ was on their side, which meant they could carry out Christ’s will—that is, Pleroma’s will—without hesitation.

Therefore, we could figure out what they had been using this place to test. Once the time came after Easter, they intended to cast this spell over German soil. Why? To pass judgment according to the revelation they had received, to forcibly expand their influence, or to spread their faith by showing people a miracle. It would happen tomorrow, the day after, or someday in the future.

The problem was that we were going to attack them ‘today,’ and they might apply the spell to us ahead of schedule. For that reason, we absolutely had to find a way to break their spell or defend against it.

And yet, we had secured enough time to ransack the clock tower they used to oversee the entire area at our leisure. At least until 5:30, we could happily roam their territory to our heart’s content.

Leonard followed all of my reasoning without missing a step. In a situation where we had to take any risk necessary to make the operation succeed, and when it came to reasoning rather than planning the operation itself, he thought at nearly the same speed as I did. Once Leonard had decided to accept a little irrationality and ingenuity, that became even more apparent. When it came to devising an operation, I was somewhat more willing than he was to stray from the norm, but at a time like this, he wouldn’t try to stop me. He worried about my safety, yet he still trusted even my seemingly reckless decisions, and he had already put safeguards in place to keep me from crossing the line. As long as I didn’t cross that line, the unconventional strategies I came up with were, in themselves, Leonard Wittelsbach’s intention. After all, he was the one who had brought me into his service and supported me all this time.

We knew exactly where the lever in the clock tower would lead, and, as Leonard had said, it was already past 4:30, so there was no reason for us to hesitate. But Leonard stopped me.

“Should we not check the ruins beyond that fourth path?”

“The ruins…”

That might actually be worth checking. I checked the time and said, “Your Highness, it seems that the spells affecting us change depending on which path we enter. Just as a spell was applied when we entered the eighth path… there could be some kind of problem with the fourth path as well. Do you still think we should take a look?”

“We came out of the last one unharmed. Let’s give it a try.”

I nodded at something that would have been difficult to hear from Leo, yet somehow didn’t sound strange coming from Leonard. I continued channeling divine power as we headed toward the fourth path.

The field strewn with gray or milky-white debris was visible even from a distance. We were facing a space that looked like ancient Rome after being struck by a disaster. I stepped onto the place where the paving stones of the residential area ended and the dirt and dust of the field began. The field seemed to exist in a stretch of severed time just beyond the boundary of the residential area.

I picked up a piece of debris, examined it, and slipped it into my pocket. I planned to have its composition analyzed when we returned.

Leonard slowly swept a hand through the air, sensing the mana, and asked, “Was there a battle here? If so, why would they have set up something resembling a religious building?”

“It’s a shame Heike Einsiedel isn’t here. It would have been useful.”

“I’m not even sure they really did imitate a Special Ability within the bounds of ordinary magical theory.”

Leonard spoke with his eyes slightly narrowed. This space seemed to strike him as deeply suspicious. We walked farther inside, but nothing particularly problematic happened to us.

“Principles are important, but this isn’t the time to worry about them. We still don’t know what kind of spell they used. For all we know, they may have done something beyond the limits of our perception.”

In other words, all we could do for now was make the minimum reasonable inferences necessary to keep our reasoning going. We would have the stone we picked up analyzed later. For now, it was time to return to the square.

Once we realized there was nothing more we could do in the ruins, we immediately headed for the clock tower. Its wooden door was firmly locked. Naturally. Before going inside, I once again infused Leonard with divine power and cloaked myself in it as well. Leonard reached a hand toward the door and said, “It’s secured with mana.”

“That’s why we saw it and moved on earlier.”

Leonard raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Do you remember that?”

“I wrote it on the back of my hand.”

I continued, wondering what would happen if I broke the security spell on the door.

“If the door is secured with mana, it was probably meant to prevent the ‘materials’ from opening it and taking shelter in the clock tower.”

“Exactly.”

If our deduction that Pleroma had herded the civilians they brought here into this place and used them to test their spells was correct, then naturally, their purpose was to observe how civilians responded to magic. They wanted to see how the civilians would evacuate and react, which was why they had left the doors of the shops on the ground floor unlocked. For the sake of realism, however, they had locked the doors of the individual residences. And for a different reason than the residences, they also had to keep the entrance to the clock tower locked.

So what were we supposed to do?

I looked up.

“Well, as far as I can tell, there’s no glowing mana field or anything like that. So now seems like the perfect time to find out whether they’re paranoid or not, and whether they’re of sound mind.”

Leonard understood what I was getting at and answered in his cool, measured voice, “If they went that far even on their own turf, they’d have died of neurosis long ago.”

“Coming from Your Highness, that’s reassuring.”

I stamped my foot against the ground and reached upward. Mana wrapped around the arch pillar of the belfry above the clock, then came back down. I immediately created a barrier in midair and kicked off it. The barrier shattered beneath my feet.

I continued upward, creating plank-sized barriers the same way. Knowing that looking down would be the end of me, I ignored the crunching sounds coming from below. Once I reached a suitable height, I kept climbing the steps while rapidly sending mana outward toward the pillars high up in the belfry. I had to calculate the spell so that it would have elasticity. If I got it wrong, I was finished—

Why the hell was I thinking about something like that at this height?!

Muttering a curse under my breath, I laid down a safety barrier beneath my feet with my other hand, then kicked off the air once more, letting the mana pull me toward it. A roar of wind, unlike anything I had heard until now, slammed against my ears.

When I neared the floor of the belfry on the opposite side, I switched hands and sent mana toward the exact opposite pillar, wrapping it around the arch of the belfry ceiling. All the mana instantly unraveled and scattered.

“Phew.”

By the time the red mana returned to the air, I was hanging from the belfry ceiling. I let go, landed on the floor, and caught my breath.

Leonard climbed up much more easily than I had. Only now did I look down and see the plants he had grown returning to their original positions. Since the wind kept roaring up into my face, I gave up on looking down into the belfry.

Leonard said to me, “I was supporting you from the ground. I didn’t expect it to return to its original position like that.”

“I wasn’t watching what was happening below. As you know, it was a perilous situation.”

“Next time, I suppose I should teach you how to make barriers in the shape of stairs.”

“If possible, teach me today.”

“If we have time. Your Excellency, divine power.”

Leonard quickly said it as a reminder to wrap myself in divine power again. I raised an eyebrow and surrounded my body with divine power. I put the monocle I had removed before Leonard climbed up back over my eye.

He looked around and found the lever without difficulty, then said calmly, “The lever is here.”

I nodded. The belfry was open on all sides, with granite pillars supporting the space between the tower and the ceiling. At the center of one pillar was a relief of a lion’s head, and the stonework on the northern side was itself giving off a faint trace of mana.

I exchanged a look with Leonard before saying, “No one should be upstairs, but let’s make one precautionary measure first.”

I blended together the faces of all the Pleroma priests I knew to create a reasonably ordinary-looking face, then did the same for Leonard. After that, we counted down with our fingers. 3, 2, 1.

The moment I touched the lion relief, a familiar scene unfolded before my eyes. Oh, wow. I looked around, quietly impressed. There was no sign of anyone around. Just like the scenery I’d once seen in the Mimesis strategy game at headquarters, I could see the entire landscape below my feet. So we’d been running around that maze with all those branching passages this whole time… Once we were out of there, my head felt much clearer.

I looked up at the sky. If we went a little higher from here, it seemed we might reach the clouds, just like in the Catacombs’ space. Not that we would. I walked over to the strategy room deck behind us and examined the levers to see what they connected to. Before long, I had to stifle a hollow laugh. The levers here…

“They really do look exactly like levers.”

Leonard said quietly from behind me. I pressed a hand to my forehead and finally laughed.

“Did you read my mind?”

“Anyone would think the same.”

The levers here really were just ‘levers.’ I stood there silently, staring at the more than twenty levers jutting up from the floor. They hadn’t expected anyone to come here. They hadn’t even bothered trying to hide them. After all, who would have something like these ‘lever-finding monocles’? It was an object that couldn’t even be made without my blood. If anything, it would be more accurate to say that they had gone overboard with the elaborate mechanisms in their offices and cathedrals.

I gathered the papers scattered across the table on their deck into neat stacks and began reading through them. I had to remember everything. Leonard gathered the few materials in the three bookshelves behind us, handing me only the ones I needed, and said, “I imagine you’ve reached the same conclusion I have.”

“About what happens after the operation begins?”

“Yes.”

“Then I suppose we’re thinking the same thing. All we need to know now is how to get home.”

I adjusted my gloves as I stared at the countless levers.

“Which one do you think leads to the bishop’s office in the Archdiocese of Bamberg, Your Highness?”

Leonard then repeated something I had said earlier.

“It would have been wonderful if Heike Einsiedel were here. Or Narke Farnese.”

In other words, there was no answer. I stared at the levers and swallowed.

“There’s no other way, Your Highness. We’ll have to pull them one by one ourselves. To be fair, this first lever… looks dangerous since it seems to lead to the leadership conference room. So let’s start with the middle lever in the first row. Do you agree with my decision?”

“As you said, there is no better way. Do that.”

I nodded as I examined the wear on each lever. They were all worn to roughly the same degree, so there was no way to tell which ones had been pulled more often. So, as I had said, I slowly stepped in front of the middle lever in the first row.

“Just come over.”

Leonard nodded at my words. I took a slow, deep breath and yanked the lever back. As my vision dimmed, Leonard appeared beside me almost at the exact same moment.

Before my eyes had even adjusted to the darkness, I felt a chill run over my skin. I instinctively held my breath. In the yellow glow of the candle, the only source of light, I could see the gleaming points of the spheres. Then the color of the trim around them came into view.

People dressed in bishop’s robes were sitting around a round table, staring at us.