Episode 256: To Britain in Search of the Enemy (11)

After I'd watched the footage through to the end, I sat back in the chair and set my thoughts in order.

The vision I'd seen on rising to C-Class, and the one I'd seen on becoming B-Class, were without a doubt parts of one continuous thing. The first question that struck me was whose eyes it had belonged to.

Had my premonition, lifted on the surge of a rising class, shown me a distant future in the shape of a vision? And if so, was that woman someone close to me?

The woman in the vision had unmistakably had East Asian skin, and her build looked to be late teens, roughly. Not Mom. Mom was a non-ability user, already past thirty-six, and there was no chance of her being dragged by force into the Phase World. Siha, Hwayeon, and Yeongeun didn't have that faintly sallow tone either — theirs was a pleasant apricot. Franc was out from the start.

So who was she? What had that illusion meant to show me?

I couldn't simply write it off as an idle dream or a delusion, not when I had the footage for evidence. Even if the demon in it looked a grade beneath what I'd seen in the vision.

Ugh.

My head was a tangle. The frustration built until I raked my fingers hard through my hair, and Franc — who had been looking through the collection with Lydia — came flying over to me in a flash.

"Seoha?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. My head just got a little complicated."

I thought of telling Franc, of puzzling it out with her... but for now, I ought to keep it in. Lydia arrived a beat later, a trace of worry on her face, about to ask something, so I asked first.

"Is the host of that Phase World still alive?"

Most hosts moved with their raid teams, but I knew there were occasionally ability users who served as entry aides, finding a Return Point the moment they arrived and leaving again at once. I asked with that in mind, and sure enough, she shook her head.

"I see... Well, it was worth the look."

"Is there anything else you wished to know? Her Majesty has given leave for you to view whatever information you desire, so far as it can be arranged."

There was plenty I wanted to know. I was curious whether anything existed on the Masters of the Earth, the Sea, the Sky, and the Beasts, whom I'd learned of on the Floating Sky Islands, or anything tied to the Asumpfre Sunken Ruins. I was curious, too, about the colossal whales that flew the sky, Album Cetus among them.

But search for any of that, and every last scrap of it would find its way to the Queen's ear. The thought sat wrong enough that I didn't want to search. I didn't even think anything related would turn up.

Still, the rest of it I could check, couldn't I? Album Cetus had already been made known through Grand Bleu's promotional footage, so looking that up ought to be safe.

"Then could I see something on elves? I'm curious about the blue-skinned demons of the dark castle, too, and about the colossal whales that fly the sky."

A rough account of the Dimension Whales I'd already had from Hiarid, but I wanted to know whether this place held anything related as well. Whether elves were aberrants, or ability users like people, I was especially curious to learn. And I wondered about the spirits they were said to command.

They simply hadn't been made known, that was all. Beings one could actually communicate with lay scattered all across the Phase World... did they, though?

Miho and the merfolk, for a start. The Elephantros, with whom communication had failed, but who certainly possessed a language of their own. The Flauvis of the Floating Sky Islands, and those things called the Sabi that had fought the Flauvis tooth and nail — they would have intellect to match the Flauvis. Nuhodi, besides, and the elves...

Quite a few, when I lined them up. Not a great many. Not a small number, either.

"The materials concerning Alastor's Terrible Dark Castle were everything I showed you earlier. As for whales that fly... there is nothing. Would you care to see what we have on elves?"

"Yeah."

At my answer, Lydia brought up a single hologram window at once.

"...That's all?"

"Oh — oh my? No. There is more. Video material."

And what the hologram window showed next set Lydia's face hard — Franc's as well.

A stark-white operating room. On two tables, the dissection of a stripped male elf and a stripped female elf was underway — and, horribly, both of them were still alive. Cut open from beneath the collarbone down to the lower belly, organs laid bare, they drew thin continuing breaths while hands in surgical gowns kneaded at their entrails.

I was looking at the female elf's breast, carved away and sealed in a bottle of bluish liquid, when voices came through.

Two hearts, shaped a little differently from a human heart, thudded on and on, and the sight of the entrails strewn in disorder was shock enough. Worse was the female elf's skull, split open, the brain laid bare.

The camera moved between what looked to be anatomists, and caught the brain from a low angle.

Lydia startled at her own murmur, and I, beside her, flinched as well.

Wait. Why was I startled? Hiarid was an aberrant! A confirmed aberrant! And I had never dissected her like that! So Britain was worse than I was...

...Enough.

Lydia's brows trembled, and she cut the footage off. She kept her deeply bowed head down for a long while, and the shock on her looked enormous.

But the brief file on the first screen had listed them as aberrants, hadn't it? Had Britain and the Ability User Alliance classified elves not as a humanoid race, but as aberrants?

"I'd been curious about spirits and that sort of thing, and this was completely out of nowhere. Did they take the elves off the ability user who found them and brought them out into reality, and dissect them?"

"That cannot be! Our country would never... never..."

"A nation is people gathered together. It can't be perfectly clean. Turn the footage back on, skip the dissection, and show me the other screens."

"..."

At my request Lydia turned the footage back on with a half-dead look and skipped through it fast.

But every screen that passed was nothing but experimentation on elven bodies, and there was not a word about elven abilities. It was on a level to put the Maruta experiments — Japan's vivisections of centuries ago — to shame.

The one thing that could be called better was that nothing like rape had been done.

I watched the doctors taking elves apart for the sake of pure scientific inquiry, then shook my head. Whatever they'd gotten up to where the camera didn't reach, only the ones involved would know.

In any case, seeing that, I resolved it once more. No matter what happened, I would never cooperate with Britain's investigation.

Careful that Franc wouldn't catch on, I gave this order and that to Lydia, who had gone passive after a single viewing, and tried searching keywords. In the end, the archive on the third basement floor of Buckingham Palace held nothing on spirits, and nothing on the sky whales.

All shine and no substance, then. A shame, but there was nothing to be done. Judging by this, the chance that the things I was truly curious about weren't here either was a hundred percent.

I didn't have much else I wanted to know, so I left the archive. Franc felt nothing more than displeasure at having seen a cruel scene. Lydia, not a trace of color in her face, swayed this way and that, and looked badly unsteady.

With a mind that weak, could she ever become Queen of Britain? I didn't know whether the Queen truly meant to raise Lydia as her successor. But a glass heart like that — if she really planned to make the girl the next queen, I wanted to advise her to think again.

Buckingham Palace was a remarkable thing. By the measure of my own country it was the Blue House, the presidential residence, and yet aside from a few zones the whole of it was open to tourists.

It wasn't open all three hundred and sixty-five ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠days of the year, granted. Even so, to throw open everything but the important rooms for a month or so — did the Queen have no private life at all?

By the time we took the elevator up to the first floor it was nearly lunch, and still the tourists were packed in shoulder to shoulder. I'd heard the palace's upkeep was paid out of the admission those people handed over. Keeping a place this large and this old standing, and in repair, would certainly cost more than a coin or two.

Anyway, I'd expected that once the viewing was done they'd catch me for a lunch invitation or the like. Lydia still hadn't climbed out of the shock of the elf dissection.

...There was no reason for me to fuss over her. The information I'd agreed to hand over in exchange for seeing Alastor's Terrible Dark Castle was already sorted in my head. When the British government called later, I'd tell them then.

Right. While Lydia was out of her head, I ought to slip out, quick.

"...Ah?! Sir Seoha, one moment!"

Tch. She came to.

I'd taken Franc's hand, meaning to run, when a startled Lydia came scrambling after me — and her feet tangled, and down she went with a crash.

"Kyaa!"

I tried to ease out in the gap, but Franc caught my hand and turned a pitying look on the princess. She'd tangled her own feet and fallen all by herself. Why...

Tsk. She clutched the scraped knee, tears standing in her eyes, and looked up at me. I held out a hand, and sniffling, she took it.

I got her up and set a Healing Touch on the scraped knee, and she hung there with the tears still clinging, grinning ehehe. Honestly. She was a lost cause.

"Cry and then laugh, and hair grows on your backside."

"Whaaat?!"

At that Lydia startled and covered her backside with both hands. Franc hurriedly whispered at my ear.

"That is sexual harassment! It is not something one says to a princess!"

"Then shall I call her a half-wit princess who trips on her own feet, whimpers, and then goes hehe?"

"...Good grief."

I looked at Lydia, making a tearful face, and asked.

"Anyway, why'd you call? If it's nothing, I'd like to go back and rest."

My head was a mess, besides.

"Ah — Her Majesty said she wished to invite you to luncheon. If you are not otherwise engaged, would you attend, and lend the occasion your presence?"

"...How many are invited?"

"...Thirty-nine, sir."

"I refuse!"

I knew it. She'd been stealing glances at me the whole time we talked! My head was a mess as it was, and she wanted me laughing ha-ha, ho-ho at a party of high officials?

I turned on my heel, and Lydia, startled, caught my arm.

"It is a gathering of notable figures from every quarter of British society! If you make their acquaintance, it would be of great help to your own connections, Sir Seoha...!"

"Will they be a help to me, or will I be a help to them?"

"..."

Nothing to say, it seemed. She made a tearful face. I shook my arm and told her to let go, but she wouldn't release me to the last, so I pulled free by force and walked on — and up ahead, Aaron Tempest was coming this way.

The man took in me, and Lydia hanging off my arm, and all at once his face went sly and pleased.

"Well, well. They say a strong man is all the fashion these days, and it seems that's the truth of it!"

"...What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean, what? Here in Buckingham Palace, holding the hand of a British princess who wants none of it and dragging her off by force. The very model of a strong man."

"That's a dangerous thing to say. Are your eyes on crooked? Can't you see who's holding whose hand right now? I'm not the one holding on and dragging her — Lydia's got my hand and won't let go!"

"Hm? Oh, come now. So that was it?"

Only then did he notice Lydia's hand clamped around mine, and he clicked his tongue.

"Well, so much for that."

They called him Britain's hidden sword, but wasn't his personality a little too light? Watching Aaron Tempest click his tongue, I started to seriously worry about Britain's future — princess, queen, and all.

"Hey. People are getting the wrong idea, so let go already! Let go!"

"Eeeh, Sir Seohaaa. Please attend the banquet just this once! Uncle Aaron, don't just stand there watching — say something too~!"

"Child. This is a banquet I'd like to skip myself. Asking the likes of me for help is a bit much, wouldn't you say."

Lydia looked up at Aaron Tempest — his face gone grave in an instant — with a flustered expression. Come to think of it, he was dressed in some glittering formal suit himself.

Now.

"Ah?!"

The moment the strength in Lydia's grip eased even a little, I snatched my arm free and made to run — and Aaron Tempest cut across my path with a movement like lightning.

Whoa. The man's burst of acceleration looked faster than me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moving under Mana Mode - Acceleration. Was a Calamity-rank aberrant's movement on this level? If so, close- and mid-range combat against one would be dangerous.

Mana Mode - Acceleration included an acceleration of thought, so in a split-second judgment I'd still hold the advantage. In raw bodily speed, though, honestly, I was a little behind. Quite a lot behind.

"Sorry about this. I can't be the only one to take the fall, now can I! For that poor child's sake, come along to the banquet hall!"

"Oh, give me a break. I haven't even been to a single banquet thrown by my own government, you know? Show my face at a foreign banquet first, and what do you think my government will make of it?"

"Hm? Is... is that so?"

Of course Yeongeun knew I hated the kind of banquet where eyes collected, and so she'd never once called me. Still, it was true I'd never gone.

When I snapped back, Lydia and Aaron Tempest both looked troubled.

Certainly, if I — who hadn't so much as set foot in my own country's political world — debuted in a foreign one first, it would be a problem. But the only one in a bind would be me. Britain, the country, would be swimming in profit. These two didn't seem to think that far. If it had been the Queen, she would have thought this is the moment and clung on like a leech.

"Last time I went because it was an unofficial dinner, just three of us. If it had been a large banquet like this one, I wouldn't have attended then either."

"R-right. I see."

Whether the excuse had landed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or not, Aaron Tempest stepped back a pace with a troubled look, and Lydia let out a groan. Had the Queen been there, she would have called it an opportunity and clung all the harder, and dragged me off. These two really did seem to lack any political instinct.

"Even so, you've come all this way, and to simply send you off... ahem."

"You know that agents and headhunters from every country in the world are gathering at the Savoy Hotel right now to meet me, don't you? Think about it. If word gets out that I attended this banquet, I can't even guess how those people will carry on. Yesterday some American deputy undersecretary — or was it an assistant deputy undersecretary — came looking for me with a sub-manager from G.S. Don't you think if I show up here, they'll rise like a swarm of bees?"

"Ha ha. Not even a minister — an assistant deputy undersecretary? And not the head manager either, a sub-manager. They took you rather lightly, didn't they."

"...Don't change the subject. Look down on me or don't. So long as they don't lay a hand on me, it's fine."

The rest I added under my breath.

"Start being a nuisance, and I'll make the world's largest lake."

At that the two of them flinched, then smiled with troubled faces.

"Anyway, step aside. Block me again and I'll go straight through the palace."

"Nnngh. Our Queen's going to give me an earful again."

Faced with me coming on hard, Aaron Tempest stepped aside. I walked through with Franc's hand in mine, and spoke to Lydia as she followed.

"Anyway, the materials were worth the look. Come find me at a proper time later, and I'll sort out the information I said I'd share, and give it to you."

"Yes..."

Failed in the invitation, Lydia went from tearful to thoroughly wilted.

I came back to the hotel and stepped into the bedroom. A hotel maid had been through, it seemed — the bed was neatly made — and I dropped straight onto it.

A bed steeped in the fruit-sweet scent of my lovers was good. A bed that smelled of sunlight was good, too.

"Haa. I'm tired."

"Please rest. I'll come for you once lunch is ready."

"Yeah. Make ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vegetable fried rice."

"Yes! I'll make it for you right away!"

I waved to Franc, who looked delighted at the request, and sprawled across the bed spread-eagled.

I shifted about for a while, then buried my face in the pillow Franc had slept on, and thought.

No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't begin to guess who the woman in the vision from the Floating Sky Islands had been. I didn't know whether the visions I'd seen on rising to C-Class and to B-Class had shown me something yet to come, or something already past.

If, as one Phase scholar claimed, the Phase World was split into a different time-axis for each ability user, then was the Phase World in the footage I'd just watched a world running ahead of the one where I was host, or a world coming up behind?

The castle lay in ruins, so it could be the future. But it was hard to throw out the other assumption — that the demons had restored the castle, and the place had grown bleak and sunless.

Where was that place. Why did I keep seeing that castle — visions of it, dreams of it.

.........

"...Seoha."

A faint shaking brought my eyes open, and Franc was looking down at me. When had I fallen asleep?

"Please wake, my prince."

"Hehe. So I'm the sleeping prince of the forest?"

That face, beautiful as a goddess, shaped a smile that lifted my mood just to look at it. She leaned in and set a light kiss on my lips.

"You have received a princess's kiss, so you must get up."

"I'd like something better than a kiss."

"Th... that, I shall give you that at night. At night."

Drawn along by Franc's hand — a flush of heat blooming over her embarrassed face — I went into the dining room, and there was vegetable fried rice waiting, steam curling softly off it.

"Oh. Looks good."

"Are you feeling all right now?"

"Yeah. I slept a little, and I'm fine."

I'd slept so soundly, and for so short a time, that I hadn't even noticed falling asleep, and the weight in my head had gone back to what it was. Sleep really was the best medicine.

I looked at the bowl of fried rice, then brought Sophia out of her room and ate lunch with her. But the food didn't seem to go down her throat well. Before she'd managed half, she set her spoon down.

Sophia watched, eyes quiet, as I took up the fried rice — thick with Franc's care — and inhaled it clean, like a drink.

"Eat all of it. Starve yourself sick and die, or drop dead of shock, and there are a lot of people who'll follow after you."

"Yes..."

The mention of family got her to lift the spoon again and start eating, though it looked less like eating than like forcing it into her mouth. It wasn't even half what was in my bowl. If she couldn't manage that, when was she ever going to put on any weight.

I folded my arms and watched until Sophia had finished, sent her back to her room, then caught Franc — about to start the cleaning up — brought her to the sofa, sat her on my knee, and asked.

"Franc. What do you think about revealing what you are?"

"You mean to let it be known that I am not a spirit?"

"Yeah. The reason I hid what you were, at the start, was that I was afraid I couldn't protect your Soul Stone with my own strength. I'm strong enough now that I don't have to worry about that. So if you're all right with it, I want to reveal who you are, and let you live like an ordinary person."

I said it while turning the pendant at my neck over in my fingers. Franc stared at me for a moment, then smiled brightly and kissed my cheek.

"Either way is fine with me. But if it became known that I was human, IWO, the Ability User Alliance, and all manner of research institutes would likely make trouble for you, Seoha. So I would rather it stay hidden."

"If they make trouble, I can always threaten to turn the whole lot of them inside out."

"But there is no need to go stirring a hornet's nest for nothing, is there? So long as I can remain at your side, Seoha, I do not mind. Let us simply keep it a secret among our family."

If that was what Franc wanted, then that was how it would be.

I nodded, watching her smile.