Chapter 301
Chapter 301
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 301
Chapter Title: Doubts About the Archduke
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"Maria is, in a word, a dreamer."
Unlike before, Emanuel spoke with a troubled expression.
Archduke Maria had insisted on sharing information about the treasure chest with them and had gone off to Austria to retrieve the materials he'd compiled. Since the Bavaria-Austria border was right there, it wouldn't take long for him to return. He'd be back here tomorrow.
"I'm not saying the world Maria envisions is wrong. My own aspirations align with his... but we differ decisively in our execution and the paths we take to source our ideas."
"So your goals are the same, but your ways of thinking aren't."
"Exactly. Still, I genuinely like Maria as a person. That's why I've helped him all this time."
Emanuel lifted his coffee cup with the hand holding his cigarette, took a sip, and stared at its surface for a long moment. Then his voice came again.
"Did you know? The reason I said I wanted to get closer to you, Lord Everett, was partly to find a friend who could accept Maria. Though you and I also got along well, of course."
"I know."
"I wanted to accommodate Maria's wishes somehow. But this time..."
Emanuel let out a long sigh, exhaling cigarette smoke.
No one spoke. For once, I resisted the urge to snatch Emanuel's cigarette and smoke it myself, and instead asked the question that had been nagging at me.
"There's something I've been wondering from the start."
"What is it?"
"How can we exert influence there in an out-of-body state? Our bodies aren't there—how can souls from the astral plane pull old humanity's souls into the past material world? I thought we were just supposed to observe normally, so how do you plan to intervene?"
Emanuel gave an ambiguous smile and shrugged.
"That's a mystery to me too. That's why it sounds like such nonsense. Maria must be mistaken about something. ...I want to help him somehow, but I'm starting to feel a real sense of crisis. He's saying even stranger things now."
"So what now."
"...Please talk him out of it. We can't go any deeper into this."
In short, Emanuel was starting to suspect that Maria Österreich-Este was experiencing some kind of mental delusion. I agreed with him, but I couldn't stop it.
Why?
*Perugua is involved. I can't let that happen.*
There was a good chance this incident was connected.
His occult mania was partly personal taste, but in a way, it was truly for the sake of old humanity. His determination to enable old humans to use magic—even attempting astral projection for the greater good—was... Well, I couldn't quite grasp the astral projection part, but his aims and goals were undeniably upright. I'd sensed that about him. At the same time, I knew he was, in the nicest terms, an artistic soul.
Still, I'd never speculated that our family heirloom might have been roped into such astral activities—until now, when that possibility suddenly loomed large.
*Ugh... yeah. This is driving me insane.*
Who in their right mind would think to apply new technology to a family heirloom? But if it had been used in something like this...
I could only hope it was just my speculation and not reality. Otherwise, I'd have to accept that the world was full of all sorts of people and calm myself down.
I gathered my thoughts and spoke.
"I don't really think he'll find the treasure chest. I share Archduke Maria's ideal vision of the future, but I'm no visionary like him."
"......"
"But he won't give up on his goals until he's tried and failed."
Emanuel's serious gaze turned to me. I met his eyes and continued.
"I heard about his aspirations this time. Here's what I think: To keep Archduke Maria from getting too obsessed with the occult, rather than blocking him outright, we should redirect his interests to other methods first. If he finds ways to improve the welfare of many without delving into the occult, he won't go overboard like this."
"Hmm."
"So... I'll help him until this is over. In the meantime, Your Highness, please find him some more practical, tangible alternatives."
It was a long-winded way of saying we needed to see this through to confirm if Perugua was really involved. I had no desire to astral project myself. Souls be damned—I preferred my body intact. Floating around as an astral body would feel like being a snail without its shell. Like I was about to die any second.
Emanuel puffed away at his cigarette, then nodded with a resigned expression. He smiled at me.
"...All right. I understand. I'll spend that time finding a good way to redirect Maria's interests, as you suggest."
* * *
"We have a strategy."
"'We'?"
I took the spiritual experience cigarette Archduke Maria offered and shot back with a question. True to form, he'd arrived the next day and launched straight into the astral projection plan.
"Honestly, recreating Rococo attire is problematic. No one makes it even if you ask nowadays. Plus, dresses from that era are the pinnacle of ornamentation. To be frank, I found the aesthetic pretty off-putting."
So, he planned to blend naturally among old human noblewomen in France from that era. I nearly retorted that it was absurd, but it was too late. I should have spoken up when he first mentioned astral projection—or even when he brought up the golden treasure chest.
Of course, if I had, I wouldn't have gotten this close to the archduke, who I'd been pretending wasn't into the occult.
"I see... So you don't want to wear it much?"
"Precisely. That's why we'll go as time travelers from the future."
"......"
Huh. What was I hearing?
I shook my head and slapped my cheek. Archduke Maria looked at me oddly and continued.
"We can explain that in the future, everyone has become tall and robust. And it's not even a lie. Old human average height has been steadily increasing compared to ancient people."
"Then can't we just go in our current suits? Say it's future women's fashion. It's half-true anyway—what can they do if they don't believe us?"
"I considered that, but there's an issue. Old humans are sensitive to gender. Divine beings living eternal lives in the Edenic world have no need to reproduce, so no reason for sexual dimorphism. But old humans, strictly bound to the material world, unlike us, place great significance on sex chromosomes and outgroup other lifeforms with slightly different appearances. For example, when they see a human, they classify as 'male' or 'female' first, not just 'human.' Don't worry about credibility—it's all from my minor in old human studies at the University of Vienna."
"I know that already, so no need to explain..."
What was he fretting about credibility for...?
The moment spiritual topics came up, his old occult lecturer mode was resurfacing.
The archduke clapped happily.
"Good that you know! As you see, going like this risks us being mistaken for old human males. We're mixed types technically, but who's inspecting that? Crucially, we're taller than most old humans, so at a glance, we look like unusually large old human males. They might not let us into the club."
"Sorry, but while you might be mistaken, I'm actually a real male."
"But you're new humanity."
"That's true..."
I realized our conversation was subtly misaligned. I didn't want to dwell on this topic. Undeterred by my defeated tone, the archduke explained enthusiastically.
"So we'll pass our innate traits as future traits, but match the rough silhouette to foster familiarity. People reject completely novel things diverging from their era. Mix new with old, and they'll gradually accept it without resistance. In that sense, matching just the attire silhouette lets our height and slightly ambiguous old-human features highlight future human mystique. It'll instantly win over occult enthusiasts."
"Not sure it's 'liking,' but you've thought this through a lot."
"It's obvious at a glance. Explaining the obvious is harder. Come on! We can do this! Now..."
Seeming ready for more serious prep, Archduke Maria opened the clothing suitcase he'd brought. I waved my hands frantically.
"Wait. I still have a question. I get observing the material world as astral bodies. But how do we interact with them?"
"No reason it should be impossible. You know Goethe's works well? It's complex, but simplified: Mephistopheles is an astral entity. Yet he converses with human Faust, even makes a pact. Sometimes visible to all, sometimes only to Faust."
"But that's a demon... not like minor spirits like us. And it's just fiction."
Calling me a minor spirit while I'm alive felt weird.
Besides, Goethe's works—unlike our view—are divinely revered by some philosophers and writers, including Goethe himself. Those of us from across the sea see him as 'Germany's most famous 18th-19th century author,' but here, it's different. If these people listed five things to be our 'light' instead of Christ, Goethe would follow Enlightenment ideals like science and reason.
Archduke Maria spoke with utmost gravity.
"Goethe knew the spiritual world. He depicted its interactions with the material world in his work, not inventing them. Demons exist in our lives, so we must always beware—just as Christianity teaches. Spiritual astral entities influencing the material world is commonplace."
"...I see..."
No more talking. This would devolve from astral-material interactions into Satanism—though the archduke despises Satanism—and another full occult lecture.
"Of course, as weak spirits, we can't transmit our physical forms to that era via astral bodies. As you pointed out, Lord Everett. But what if an artifact projects our physical appearances onto our astral bodies, making us visible to material world people?"
"So our bodies stay here, but we become visible ghosts?"
"Exactly! We'll say we sent spirits from the future."
"......"
I was speechless for a moment. Then, pressing my throbbing head with one hand, I said,
"If we have to become ghosts... We're living people, so I can't quite wrap my head around it emotionally, but I get that Your Highness has a method. Then I'll accompany you as your guard."
"...! Then we can't get into the club."
Shock crossed the archduke's face. He seemed daunted by entering alone. My head hurt. He knew a foreign future ghost blending in wasn't normal. Though I still wasn't convinced he'd actually visited the old French court.
"You can infiltrate alone just fine, Your Highness. Just report back to me."
"Oh no..."
Becoming a ghost was maddening enough—ghosts? And now unfamiliar clothes? Couldn't he leave me one familiar thing?
The archduke, clinging to my sleeve figuratively, asked,
"Is there any part of this plan you dislike?"
"The clothes aren't familiar."
"Ah! Me too. All new humans would feel that way. What if we wear them a few days early to adjust?"
"...You're really going there. Truth is, I don't like new things much. It's a lot of mental strain."
"Ah..."
The archduke's eyes widened in surprise, then his shoulders slumped.
"Then no helping it. Sorry if my words burdened you so far."
"No, it's not that. I want to help Your Highness too—I'm the sorry one."
All I needed was to confirm if Perugua was involved as I'd suspected, and if so, whether he was enchanting it with magic or just using it as a noble accessory. If he was truly using important magic on it as I'd predicted, who else knew it was an artifact.
I figured he'd use an artifact to overlay material appearances, as he said. Normal artifacts look like regular jewels to non-mages, so no one suspects. The question of who knew about Perugua being an artifact depended on how he managed it post-incident. If he let anyone touch it, I'd suspect them.
In other words, I didn't need to go along. Non-mages can't detect mana in artifacts anyway. And the old people he'd meet were all non-mages, right?
Feeling a bit more at ease, I asked the archduke,
"But how will you convince them we're from the future? You seem confident about the club—planning to use magic? Can astral bodies cast spells?"
"Spot on."
The archduke snapped his fingers, eyes alight as if he'd never faltered.
"I plan to warp in before them, but that might surprise the club members without fully convincing them. Our sort demands occult proof too. Regrettably, astral bodies can't output magic."
"What? Problem from the start."
"We meet spiritual conditions for magic, but lack our bodies' mana reserves. Only unamplified 'emotion' dimension remains. So how to prove we're from the future?"
His expectant gaze led him to open the suitcase and pull out a box from the floor. I froze at what I saw.
On a black velvet cloth lay brilliant blue gems. The set we'd lost to theft, its whereabouts unknown—known to me only from investigation photos—was right there.
But I'd half-expected that. The real shock was the archduke's next words.
"We'll use this. Proving my nobility beyond attire is tough, so I'll wear the Perugua to declare my status. Since we're using an artifact anyway, better to convert the gems into ones entirely."
"......"
"I'll apply the unique ability replication spell I told you about before. Store various abilities in it and demonstrate—proves I'm a mage without expending my own mana."
Hm.
Yeah. That's how he'll get into the club. He turns constraints into opportunities well.
If things unfolded this way, I'd have to rethink my earlier plan.
I met the archduke's eyes and smiled.
"I'll go with you."
"...! Meaning you'll enter the club with me."
"Yes."
"I'm thrilled to have company, but why the sudden change?"
Why?
Because now there was a chance the thief wasn't from our empire.