Chapter 533

Time stopped.

Or perhaps that was only an illusion. Maybe it felt that way because so many thoughts were rushing through my mind, or because not a single thought was passing through it.

The memories I had accumulated were arranging themselves in chronological order. In that span of time, I had reworked the deduction about whether the levers existed four times, and thought through the square more than thirty times. I had also considered the insurance plan at least twice.

Thought itself occurred simultaneously across three broad areas, but if I considered only the thoughts that took place within my conscious mind, they could be divided into two sections. Far more thoughts had surfaced in the lower layer than in the clear, simple surface thoughts that we could express, even partially, in words.

In an instant, I opened their status windows.

I didn’t recognize any of them. None of the bishops belonged to the various dioceses I had passed through until now, nor were any of them names I had heard from Einsiedel.

Good.

They had to be bishops from central Germany or eastern Germany near the Russian border, places I had never encountered.

The bishops’ eyes gleamed, and their movements as they rose from their seats seemed sluggish. I signaled Leonard with my eyes. He was already searching for a lever that would take us somewhere else without paying any attention to my gaze.

Then he looked at me and blinked.

I knew what he meant.

“We have finally found it. I apologize for intruding on you over such an urgent matter, Your Excellency Bishop Hoffmann. You need to see this immediately.”

I quickly stepped in front of them, pulling out the documents I had tucked under my arm.

The bishops looked at me, then at Leonard behind me, with expressions of utter bewilderment. They hadn’t expected us to enter this place.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

Could the space accessed by the lever itself be protected by security magic? It seemed possible. Surely they had some technique for it. Could the lever itself be deactivated?

Apparently not here.

I couldn’t help wondering about it, but if that really was the case, it was extremely welcome.

I placed the documents in front of the bishop who appeared to hold the highest position among them and said urgently, “This is a copy of King Hildegard’s letter that was delivered to the Imperial Palace. It states that the coordinate system across the country will be changed in stages over the week beginning the day after Easter, and that a warp permit system will be implemented. His Majesty sent me here because this could interfere with our plans going forward.”

“This is a copy of King Hildegard’s letter that was delivered to the Imperial Palace. It states that the coordinate system across the country will be changed in stages over the week beginning the day after Easter, and that a warp permit system will be implemented. We were sent here because this could interfere with our plans going forward.”

I finished by pointing first to King Hildegard’s signature in the photograph, then to the Prussian Imperial Household postal receipt stamp that Elias had taken out of his own box of stolen collectibles and photographed for me.

“The coordinate system?”

A bewildered, disapproving voice came from somewhere.

If the coordinate system were overturned, they would be unable to operate outside this place without obtaining the coordinate-system formula available only to nobles, and the levers used to travel in and out would become useless as well.

They would be wondering how the Empire could have decided to undertake something that would cost an astronomical amount of money.

As I thought that, I pulled my outer coat down so the words I had written on my sleeve could not be seen.

Then someone noticed the Pleroma cross hanging over my chest and asked, “Which diocese do you belong to? How did you come by a copy of this letter?”

“I’m Wilhelm Schmidt, a vicarial official from the Brandenburg Vicariate. I obtained this information by paying a large sum to the new poison examiner recently appointed in Prussia. Since I’ve only just acquired it, I need to pass it on to the other bishops as well, so I’ll be moving on to another location.”

Their eyes remained fixed on me to the very end. They repeatedly looked down at the paper, then back at me. My heart began to pound.

I walked toward the platform by the door where Leonard and I had arrived, turned, bowed in alarm, and reached for the spot where Leonard’s gaze had fallen—the ornament on the door handle.

I had to be grateful I hadn’t ripped it off.

We didn’t return to the place we had come from.

Thud. Thud. Thud…

The vibrations rang beneath my tongue and in my eardrums, then gradually began to die down. We hadn’t gone back to where we came from, but several levers could transport us to the same space. We had already been able to infer as much from the peculiar cases of the Archbishop of Bamberg’s residence and the training grounds we had seen earlier.

“Ha.”

A breath escaped me before I could stop it. I twisted up the corner of my mouth, quickly gestured for Leonard to follow, and strode through the building.

They might come after us.

Quickly.

But more fundamental than whether they chased us was—

What if we were discovered?

It was fine if we were.

At the Archdiocese of Brandenburg, we learned through Gerda Assmann and the priest who turned her into Pleroma that their states were connected. Isn’t this ability to establish a connection similar to the ability of a certain someone? I’d found it suspicious even when I copied my Special Ability and passed it on to my friend, but I thought it wasn’t time to act on it yet. What’s certain, though, is that the two abilities happen to be remarkably similar.

Even if the Archdiocese of Brandenburg had been destroyed, their techniques remained. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that the very small number of surviving clergy would remain in the territories directly administered by the vicariate, and that the Brandenburg Vicariate had operated with the Archdiocese of Brandenburg at its center.

The moment the bishops before me heard that I belonged to Brandenburg—whether it was the ‘Vicariate’ (I had deliberately left out the part that would make it clear I meant the directly administered territory) or the ‘diocese’—they would have suspected that I was connected to someone. And if they later found anything suspicious about me, they would care less about us than about who our superior was and track them down.

Who had sent their subordinate here?

No one in the Brandenburg Vicariate would take our side.

Even if they had heard the name Wilhelm Schmidt somewhere before, they would easily realize that someone with such an absurdly common name wasn’t one of their own.

And we already knew that the particular person we had been thinking of was very closely connected to both the Pleroma system and the Imperial system.

The plan was clear now.

I would be mistaken for Abraham’s spy.

Under the soundproofing spell, I asked Leonard, “So, since things have turned out like this, we’ll have to look around a few other places too. What do you think?”

“We’re bound to run into them a few more times on the way back.”

“Good.”

I answered that, then looked around and said, “This is… Fulda.”

The flag of the Diocese of Fulda was attached to the building. Fulda or anywhere else, we needed to head for the Archbishop of Bamberg’s office.

“Your Highness, I understand you’ve tested quite a few levers in the Archdiocese of Bamberg. Did you find any levers that lead outside from Bamberg Cathedral or the bishop’s residence?”

“I did.”

Leonard hesitated for a moment, his answer colored by the confused memories from earlier, before finally replying. Leonard and I both knew without needing to be told which part of a mansion or fortress held the master’s office, and the moment we made our decision, we ran there.

It was clear what we could gain by dragging Abraham into this. First, I don’t know how that bastard who’s suspicious by nature yet always acts so shamelessly would react to this. But Bavaria was already pushing this operation forward with the resolve to settle things with Prussia once and for all. If the operation ended and I was going to be summoned there anyway, wouldn’t it be better to make a grand show of it while we were at it? This wasn’t a question. It was a certainty.

Pleroma would first be briefly confused by our operation disguised as a warning from Abraham. Second, they would realize that every piece of the puzzle in what I had said fit together under his name. There was a chance they might accept the information as coming from me, but it would be more useful to examine the possibility that they would find it suspicious instead.

Under that assumption, they would conclude that Abraham had figured out their six o’clock plan. They would think that Abraham was using his knowledge of Pleroma to intervene in the world, and that there had to be some special purpose behind it. Pleroma would become wary and decipher the political language behind the move.

Third, they would carry out the six o’clock announcement without a hitch. They would warn their forces they had sent above ground to spread the announcement throughout the world that they would never be attacked, and in doing so, they would actually waste manpower and mental strength. Their surveillance network would end up focusing on trivial elements related to the six o’clock plan rather than the armies of Baden or Bavaria.

Can you see the picture?

If a crisis can’t be avoided, turn it into an opportunity.

That was the insurance policy I had prepared for the Kingdom of Bavaria.

We opened the door to the empty office and went inside, looking at the countless clock chains displayed along one side of the office table.

These weren’t quill pens. They were clock chains.

“Thankfully.”

I muttered with a whistle. I wouldn’t touch the old, rusted levers. They were probably the ones that led to the offices of the Diocese of Fulda or dioceses closely affiliated with it. There was no need to even say that Bamberg was closely affiliated with them. I shouldn’t touch the decorations around the door, either. Ah, but what if there wasn’t a lever leading to Bamberg at all? Then…

I opened the drawer. For a moment, my eyes met Leonard’s. Footsteps sounded outside. They were getting closer. A chill crept up from my heart into my chest. Reflexes alone wouldn’t be enough to stop me. I didn’t know where the lever inside the drawer would take us, but… we couldn’t stop here.

I took Leonard’s hand and pulled out the fountain pen from the table. By the time I realized where the changed view had taken us, Leonard was already beside me.

This place was… a city center I had never seen before. Countless clergy were passing through a vast square decorated for Easter. None of them paid us the slightest attention.

“Father.”

Leonard strode off on his own to inspect the other buildings. He even went inside a huge, modern-looking building that anyone could have mistaken for the heart of the place, then stepped back out and called for me. When I entered, Leonard was standing a short distance away from the mail department.

I wondered for a moment what we had come here to do, then crouched down in a blind spot where I couldn’t be seen from the desk. I dropped a sheet of paper from the documents I was carrying and picked it back up. Then I took the piece of mail I had picked up over to an employee.

“This photograph fell here. Is it a document belonging to this place?”

“A photograph?”

The Pleroma employee looked at the photograph I handed with a smile. Their eyes gradually widened until, eventually, their mouth fell open. Their face went pale, and without saying a word to me, they took it to another employee. The other employee went pale as well, then left with it.

“What is it?”

I asked, my eyes darting around in confusion. The employee’s expression had hardened as they answered my question with another question.

“Was this lying on the floor here?”

“Yes. Where else would it have been?”

“Did you see what was in it?”

“No. Is this mail that came to this building?”

“It most certainly is. If you didn’t know, then that’s all that matters.”

“Wait a moment. I handed it over to ask whether it was mail being processed here, not so you could take it away. Shouldn’t we verify what it is?”

“It doesn’t belong to you, Father, does it?”

“Well, no…”

But before I could say anything more, the employee held out their hand firmly.

“Then that settles it. It’s ours.”

I stood there speechless and dazed. At the employee’s gesture telling me to leave, I nodded bewilderedly, took Leonard with me, and left the building.

“That’s quite a powerful piece of news.”

A powerful false piece of news. When a lie was backed by enough credibility, most people wouldn’t question it too closely. After all, no one would be able to forge royal stationery or produce a receipt confirmation stamp.

I strolled through the square as casually as possible before turning into a quiet alley. After waiting for a while, a priest entered the alley. I pretended not to notice him until he had passed me, then grabbed him by the back of the neck once he was just out of arm’s reach.

“Ghk, wh—?!”

The world of Pleroma was still a world inhabited by people, so their reactions could be remarkably human. I held the priest by the back of the neck with one hand and asked, “Random inspection. Which diocese are you from?”

“M-me? A random inspection? I haven’t heard anything about…”

“If you had heard about it, it wouldn’t be a random inspection, would it? I’d appreciate your cooperation. I’ll let you go right away.”

I read the fear in his eyes. He didn’t seem to think I was necessarily lying, since if I were an outsider, I wouldn’t have been able to get in here in the first place. The thought that someone could be a complete outsider didn’t exist in their minds. Unless someone had a unique ability to discern baptism, like Ludovica Schneider, or they came rushing at me specifically to determine whether I had been baptized, I could perfectly pass myself off as a member of Pleroma.

The priest answered calmly.

“Ah, yes. I’m… I’m with the Archdiocese of Hamburg.”

“Are you connected to your mother or father?”

“What?”

“I mean your godmother or godfather who baptized you.”

“No, not really.”

The priest answered as he grabbed my hand and tried to pull it away so he could back off. I released him, smiled, and straightened his clothes for him.

“So you really are from Hamburg.”

At that, the priest seemed to think the interrogation was over. His relieved expression returned, though he looked slightly displeased.

“Could I see your police ID…”

— Enter through the narrow gate.

I struck him on the forehead and infused divine power into him. His pupils spread black across his eyes.

“Do you remember which building you need to go to if you want to return to the Archdiocese of Hamburg?”

“Y-yes…”

“Tell me.” I slowly let divine power flow through the priest’s forehead as I muttered, “I need to find out whether you truly are Pleroma.”

Leonard rubbed his chin and lower lip with the fingers of one hand. I could read satisfaction in his expressionless face. The priest murmured with his eyes unfocused.

“First…”

We returned to Bavaria around 5:00. The allied forces had been anxiously waiting, worried that we might not make it back, and only now did they finally relax. Leonard and I had no time to talk any further. We had to reorganize the ranks, revise the operation, and make a new artifact right away. Leonard agreed to explain everything we had experienced, while I went to the Extra Chapter.

I had been leaning back against the sofa when I suddenly opened my eyes and stuck an empty syringe into my arm. I drew blood, transferred it to another container, then drew more. The secretary approached me in shock.

“Your Excellency, why are you doing this? You need to avoid becoming anemic before the operation.”

“There’s another artifact I need to make urgently.”

It would naturally sound insane. The secretary answered with a stiff expression.

“There are only twenty minutes left until we begin preparations for entry. It’s impossible.”

“The final entry time isn’t 5:30.”

Between 5:50 and 5:55. That was when we would send the Baden forces in first. I wrote down the approximate size of the object on a sheet of paper I had set beside me and told him, “It has to be done. Even if the device doesn’t perform perfectly, mobilize everyone available. We will need to have it delivered shortly. The enemy has the ability to rearrange a person’s memories, overlap their senses, and throw their thoughts into confusion. If we lose today, we will have no choice but to stand by and watch the lives on this land get caught up in a struggle among these cultists. We must win today to prevent continental-scale damage that cannot be undone or brought under control. And to do that, we need a device capable of implementing this technology. The commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment will come to protest to me, so tell him I’ll arrange a meeting with him after the operation.”

The secretary didn’t hesitate. Without looking at the clock again, he answered, “I’ll pass everything along.”

5:56 PM.

I was at City Hall. After arriving on the third floor of Bamberg City Hall, which I had already passed through countless times, I contacted the Royal Army Command Center for the final time.

“All personnel of the 10th Infantry Brigade have assembled at Bamberg City Hall.”

— [Stand by for one minute.]

“Understood.”

I raised a finger to the mages gathered on this floor, standing in formation. The mages nodded. Even though it was a brigade, it was under the Mage Corps, so the number of personnel was extremely small. But we had to make do with this. We could do it. We had to.

As I stared at the clock in silence, an order that had begun circulating throughout Bavaria reached us as well.

— [5:57 PM. Entry begins as of this time. Within three minutes, isolate the Bamberg–Eichstätt Diocese from the Bamberg Vicariate.]