Chapter 471

After it became clear that the improvement in the criminals' technological capabilities was due to Belkerp, the conversation shifted to the finer details of the crimes.

“Once the theory was complete, actually building it would require an enormous amount of time. While completing it, I could not afford for my existence to be noticed. That is why I limited myself to abducting only as many people as would not cause much of a problem even if they disappeared.”

“You said they were killed by the people of this country, but weren’t ordinary citizens uninvolved? In short, they got caught up in a power struggle among the big shots, right?”

“When my house was being attacked, the surrounding households apparently noticed that something was happening. But those people did nothing and just shut themselves inside their own homes, I was told. I had repeatedly risked my life for the sake of the people of this world, yet they neither reported it nor did anything else, and simply let me be killed just because they did not want to get involved? Those people are equally guilty.”

Because their circumstances of birth differed from those of the Clear Elf, Tatsuro thought it might not be right to make such a blanket statement, but he decided to simply listen to the rest of the story.

And so Belkerp used the people in the capital Maron of the Adorarim country as compensation while conducting experiments on the core. In parallel, he prepared the site and built what was necessary.

Incidentally, he also used criminal organizations to operate in the shadows in order to reduce the nation’s power. For that reason among others, many countries turned away from it, and the country itself gradually shrank.

Without being noticed in particular, he created magical tools that combined transfer and dispel magic for identification, obtained materials little by little so that no one would see, and while sometimes repeating failures, the preparations steadily advanced.

However, he ran into a wall that even he could do nothing about. That is to say, time.

“I ended up needing more time than expected to complete all the preparations. If I had had infinite time, I probably could have carried things out with the utmost caution to the very end, but I could not afford to wait, so I resolved to gather materials on a large scale even if it meant risking discovery. Because of that, my selection became lax and I ended up involving people who were not even citizens. I do feel sorry about that.”

“But you used them as materials, didn’t you?”

“Of course. I no longer have time. I resigned myself to killing them for her sake.”

“Hmph.”

Ishtar snorted as if to say she did not like it.

But Belkerp could no longer stop. Before his lifespan ran out, he wanted to bring his wife and child back to this world by any means necessary.

“And just when I was one step away, you all arrived. From the footage sent by my elite golems, I learned that I could not win and that Setepuenritisherera was present, so I decided to repel you with underhanded methods. Well, that little young lady there………n?”

He was about to say that she had seen through it, but when he turned his eyes toward Leah, he felt something off.

The moment he thought something was strange, he realized that what he had thought was Leah was an illusion, and he saw a familiar magical tool lying on the floor.

“Some kind of illusion-type skill combined with my thought-guiding magical tool to make it seem as if she was here. So, where is the real her?”

“Right here. It’s all finished, brother.”

“I see. Thank you, both of you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So she was part of it too……”

When Leah and Nana entered through the room’s entrance, the illusion of Nana created by Athena’s Phantom Dragon Arts that had been beside Leah vanished.

Belkerp had naturally assumed that Leah would follow into this room, so he had been completely taken in by his own magical tool and convinced himself that Leah was there as well.

In reality, however, before coming to this room, she had been asked by Tatsuro to explore the outside of the room together with Nana to check whether there were any troublesome devices.

Because this man would surely have prepared some last resort.

“I have disabled the explosive magical tools prepared outside so they cannot be activated remotely. Therefore, even if you press that switch now, nothing will happen. I also destroyed every trap-like thing I could find.”

“Which means…… my wish is completely over……?”

Belkerp dropped the matchbox-like switch he had been holding onto the floor and, dumbfounded, sank to his knees and leaned against the capsule containing the corpse.

Even if he rampaged here now, he could not defeat Tatsuro and the others, and if he tried to escape, he would only be caught.

Even if by some one-in-a-billion chance he managed to flee, he no longer had any time left to start over from the beginning.

Just as he was about to resign himself to the fact that he would never see her living form again, an unexpected hand was extended from an unforeseen direction.

“No. For our own convenience as well, we will have you carry out her revival.”

The one who spoke those words was Leah. Belkerp stared at her with wide eyes as if he did not understand what she had said.

“…Huh? What did you just say?”

Even Tatsuro had thought it would be fine to help with the revival alone, but from the previous conversation he inferred that there were probably still not enough core materials.

He had even thought they had no choice but to make him give up, since they could not allow any more victims.

Yet Leah had declared that the revival was necessary from the Tatsuro side’s perspective as well.

The other members besides Belkerp also froze, unable to comprehend the situation.

“Having seen the magic circle drawn here, I am convinced that revival is indeed possible with this. Well, strictly speaking, it could also be called a different person possessing the memories of the original her from when she was alive.”

“I myself understand that. More importantly, you said earlier that you would have me carry out the revival? Is it really all right to continue like this?”

“T-that’s right! We can’t possibly help with murder, Leah-chan!”

“No, I will no longer allow such a thing, sister. The amount we have now cannot be helped, so I will allow it to be used just this once, but for the missing portion I will provide my Magic Brain to complete the computational device.”

“Magic Brain? What is that?”

Belkerp made a dubious face at the unfamiliar term, but the conversation proceeded while leaving him behind.

“But Leah. Why is it necessary for us as well?”

“That is because, Ishtar-san, activating this revival magic circle will cause World Force to gather here in an instant. I believe the World Force reservoir that we needed to deal with this time is the surplus World Force that will gather then. There were no other signs or indications that fit, after all. Rather, thanks to that magical liquid generation device, this area is extremely stable, so something on that scale would probably be required.”

“Which means the World Force reservoir we have been searching for was still nowhere to be found. It was only by him activating the revival magic circle that it would finally become possible.”

This revival magic circle required filling the room with a massive amount of World Force.

Only by creating such a special environment filled with World Force could a soul be forged.

After that, the process of imprinting and transplanting the target’s memories would consume some World Force, but a great deal of surplus would still remain.

The leftover World Force would then become the World Force reservoir that Tatsuro and the others had been seeking, and by adjusting it with Level Eater, their mission in this world would be completed.

And to accomplish it without producing any more sacrifices, Leah had no choice but to help.

“Then first please show me the location of the computational device. I will link it with my Magic Brain to greatly enhance its capabilities.”

“Eh? Huh? Just what do you……”

“Come on, trust her, Belkerp-san. It seems we also need to activate this magic circle, so we’re saying we’ll help.”

“…Understood. This way. Follow me.”

Though he did not understand it well, there was no point in deceiving Belkerp in this situation.

Tatsuro and the others already held his life and death in their hands, so there was no need to do anything more.

Having reached that conclusion, he raised his face, staggered to his feet while forcing his aged body to move, and stepped into the passage that continued deeper from the magic circle room.

“So this is your computational device…… It is nauseating, but I cannot help but admire the technological prowess.”

What lay deeper inside was countless cores placed inside glass cases filled with aqueous solution, all connected by cables to one giant box-shaped magical tool.

Furthermore, the cables extending from that magical tool dove underground and connected to the magic circle in the neighboring room.

“Is that so. Then what do you plan to do now?”

“Please connect this in place of the cores.

It is inferior in flexibility of thought compared to one that uses your brain, but it far surpasses it in computational ability, so you should not need nearly as many.”

“What!? Let me see it.”

When Belkerp received the activated Magic Brain, that Leah had taken out from her Item Box, he brought out another magical tool, connected it, and began checking its performance.

“Th-this is impossible…… Are you really not using a human brain for this?”

“Yes, of course. It can all be made from inorganic materials. In exchange, a separate energy source must be prepared.”

“I see, so you place a Return Stone here…… and then here…… I understand. To think there was such a method……”

“Hey, hurry up……”

Somehow managing to bring Belkerp, who kept exclaiming in astonishment while analyzing it with Dispel Magic, back to his senses, they began the work.

Once he got into the task, things moved quickly. He immediately understood the differences between the Magic Brain and the cores, and in no time at all he had installed all the missing portions.

Belkerp was simply dumbfounded at the shortcut that made all his previous hardships seem pointless.

But he soon took it positively as meaning he could now revive her, and proceeded with the final checks.

After completing the best double check with Leah’s All-Seeing Eye and his own super-expert genius technician skills, they finally returned to the room where the capsule in which she slept was located.

“It’s finally time…… I can finally meet her……”

“Let me say this first. While I helped with her revival, I have no intention of forgiving your crimes. After this is over, I want you to promise that you will confess your sins and atone in the appropriate place. If you make that promise, then we will properly arrange time for you to part with her—Lucy-san, and we guarantee that we will protect Lucy-san and her child so that none of the repercussions from your crimes reach them.”

This had been decided by the others while Leah and Nana were helping Belkerp with his work.

If he confessed his crimes as things stood, he would turn every citizen of this country against him.

It was possible the country might not make it public, and considering his achievements as a former Clear Elf who had protected people all over the world for tens of thousands of years, along with the circumstances leading up to the incident, there might even be extenuating circumstances that could reduce his sentence.

But if he became known as a major criminal, anger would probably be directed at his bereaved family as well.

Leela had strongly insisted that they at least protect them from that.

Tatsuro and the others had agreed that if he himself atoned for his sins, that would be fine, and they had volunteered to take on the protection of Lucy and her child.

In normal circumstances, without a reduced sentence, execution would be unavoidable, but in that case there was also the final option of taking Lucy and the others to Tatsuro’s era and guaranteeing their livelihood.

“If it is you all, I can trust you more than anyone else. ……Tatsuro-kun, I promise. After I regain them, I will without fail confess my sins and accept any punishment. So please, please protect only the ones I have left. I beg you.”

With tears streaming down his face, Belkerp pressed his forehead to the ground and bowed his head.

To anyone’s eyes it did not look like an act, nor did his words seem to contain any lies.

“I believe those words. Since I have promised to protect them once, I will not let anyone harm Lucy-san or the child who will eventually be born. We will absolutely keep that promise as well.”

Tatsuro replied sincerely to the sincere words, and thus the promise was made.

All that remained was to bring her back to this world.

They immediately began preparations to activate the magic circle.

That said, all that was left was for Belkerp to pour magical power into the center of the magic circle and add one final character to the activation magic formula, after which the computational device would do the rest on its own, and the matter would be accomplished using a massive amount of World Force.

Tatsuro and the others stepped out into the passage to watch over it, while Leah performed the final checks with Belkerp.

“Then let’s begin. Leah-kun. Is there any problem?”

“Yes. I have checked everything up to this point, and there is no distortion or missing part anywhere in this magic circle. It is fine. Your theory is perfect.”

“Then all that remains is to activate it—”

Leah also returned to where Tatsuro and the others were, and together they watched Belkerp’s movements from the passage.

If he tried anything strange here, they could attack at any time.

Belkerp was well aware of that, so he had no intention of doing anything suspicious.

He quietly stood at the center where the capsule was placed and gazed lovingly at Lucy’s face.

Then he crouched down, held a smithing magical tool in his hand while pouring in magical power, and inscribed the final activation key character.