Chapter 310
Chapter 310
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 310
Chapter Title: Sending Her Off Properly
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The scene before my eyes shifted. Sunlight dazzled my vision, bringing on a wave of dizziness. I found myself seated in an unfamiliar office, staring at the face of the Archduke of Austria.
"Beatrix got involved with a Gnostic group and was killed for it."
"She never got involved with them."
Emmanuel gave a curt reply. Beatrix Maria's father spoke up again.
"So, you're saying a Gnostic group from Germany killed our Beatrix. I heard everything from the Investigation Bureau."
"As you've heard, they wanted Her Highness Beatrix's magical research. This is Her Highness's research material on magic."
Emmanuel held out a box, but the Archduke shook his head without even opening it.
"Beatrix never showed any interest in magic. Lately, she'd been working on integrating the Hungarians."
"...I already mentioned this in my letter. Maria was conducting magical research based on Kabbalistic mysticism and Hermeticism. Maria was murdered unjustly because those thugs wanted this research material."
The Archduke slowly began shaking his head, his eyes filling with anxiety. Emmanuel sensed it instinctively. He wasn't crying, but he was crying; he hadn't fully grasped the loss of his child, yet he knew he'd never see her again. He loved his child and distrusted her at the same time. He was denying reality.
"Our child is a Christian. A devout Catholic."
"So?"
"There's no reason she'd get involved in that sort of thing."
"Listen! A Gnostic sect cast a curse disguised as baptism to resurrect and control Maria at their whim. That's why she died! Shouldn't you go protest to Germany right now?! Whether it's demanding they dismantle Pleroma or declaring war over an Austrian royal murdered in the heart of Berlin, you have to do something!"
"......"
The Archduke looked at Emmanuel with a face that showed no understanding at all. He was trapped in his own sobs, hearing nothing. Nothing reached him.
Words weren't getting through. This man was mad, and so was I, but I no longer had the confidence to keep talking. To him, Beatrix Maria was different from the Maria I knew. He only knew her as an exemplary politician toward her family, not as someone desperate to give opportunities to proto-humans even if it meant delving into forbidden magic. And he had no desire to know that. At the same time, he refused even more to learn that she'd grown fond of that forbidden magic. Honor, honor, honor.... He loved his dead child, but the truth about her refused to be accepted.
Emmanuel, looking down at the Archduke with a fed-up expression, forced out words from his rigidly tense throat.
"Farewell."
It was his final courtesy.
The moment Emmanuel stepped out of the room, Beatrix's dead sister's brother attached himself to his side. The anxiety rising on that face felt distant.
"Your Highness Emmanuel."
"......"
"How did my sister die? No one's explaining it to me. Your Highness..."
Emmanuel stared blankly at him and shook his head.
"You don't need to know."
"Pardon?"
Emmanuel walked right past him.
I closed my eyes once and opened them again, and my vision shifted once more.
[1888. 02. 28 Beatrix Maria Osterreichest e, Archduchess, Passes Away]
[Accidental Death During Magical Research... Waves of Mourning Sweep Through Vienna]
Shooooaaa—
Sometimes, the sound of wind is indistinguishable from rain. Having lived only in the south, it was my first time at the North Sea. Same for Maria. We lived inland. I wanted to bury her in a forest or on a mountain, but that wasn't possible, so I'm sorry. Emmanuel thought this as he gazed at the newspaper in his hand. The fake funeral procession was being broadcast through the Imperial Gazette.
'The real one's right here.'
Emmanuel sat on the cliff's edge and read the article. The Osterreichest e family's final statement was something to behold.
[We will never forget Beatrix Maria Osterreichest e, who worked for Austria-Hungary until the very end. The Archduchess Maria's dedication to magic and the welfare of the people will be remembered forever.]
Magic, sure. Though it wasn't ordinary magic, and she didn't die in a magical experiment accident. The Osterreichest e had no intention of catching the culprit. They feared the deceased being branded anti-Christian. Better to call it an accident.
'...Yeah, dying because she was dragged off by a group like Pleroma over occult magic would be dishonorable. No confidence to make a fuss with Germany, huh?'
In the process, they probably worried about learning something they didn't want to know or giving Germany leverage.
Emmanuel took a deep breath. At this point, arguing meant nothing. He fiddled with the bottle in his hand and muttered.
"Good thing I didn't tell them it was suicide."
The sound of crashing waves filled the air.
"If I had, you wouldn't even get near purgatory. Your devout father would have blocked it."
His laughter scattered in the wind. Emmanuel, who had been chuckling lightly to himself, stood up.
The conclusion was this.
Maria was dead, and Pleroma could never obtain her techniques, no matter what. At least, as far as I knew.
Splash—
Emmanuel poured oil from his travel bag and dropped a lit phosphorus match. There was a burst. The leather on the bag's surface melted, turning into a black semi-solid mass. The papers inside didn't burn as easily as expected. The words Maria had handwritten were slowly consumed by the flames. What she left behind vanished like this. Emmanuel watched as Maria's traces turned to ash, and only when the last scrap of paper scattered into the sky did he open the bottle in his hand and toss it into the sea. The bone dust mixed with the seawater and disappeared.
That was the end.
* * *
I opened my eyes.
"You really had to read it all to feel satisfied, huh. I don't even know how you did it."
Emmanuel's half-asleep voice reached me. I blinked up at the ceiling of the Bavarian hospital.
I was back.
Without rampaging from within like Adelbert or Marco Schreiber. He had simply accepted the divine power I pushed into him, purified the Vitriol himself, and expelled it. A clean end.
From Gregorio onward, countless things churned in my head, but now wasn't the time to think about them. I took a deep breath to compose my emotions and said.
"You're waking up cleaner than expected."
"I already sent her off."
"......"
"The only one who could send that friend off properly was me, so I had to do it right."
I sat up silently. Emmanuel muttered with a face drained of all strength.
"No need for apologies. You saved me from nearly dying as Pleroma, didn't you? I should be the one thanking you."
"Your personality hasn't changed."
At those words, Emmanuel looked at me.
"Have I ever properly talked with Lord Nicolaus?"
It had only been a month, yet the words didn't come easily. I stared blankly into space and replied.
"No."
"......"
No more time to linger.
I touched my face to confirm the mask was gone and realized this was a sealed hospital room without windows. Leo must have arranged it. The rampage incident at the Emmanuel estate had been tentatively resolved while I was in the Labyrinth.
After sorting out the lingering effects of Emmanuel on me, I spoke much later.
"Someone is targeting Your Highness Emmanuel. As you know."
"Pleroma, I presume."
I nodded.
"Even knowing it would make enemies of Bavaria, they're boldly targeting a royal. That tells you Pleroma wants Maria's techniques right now."
"They should know it's all gone by now."
"They want to extract the knowledge in Your Highness Emmanuel's head. And if by chance Your Highness kept any of Maria's remains or blood... they'd need that at all costs."
Emmanuel looked at me. I knew what he wanted to ask. I continued quietly.
"You're wondering why they ignored her all this time and only now, after ten years, try to resurrect Maria."
"It must be related to the Peruer."
"Yes. Do you know that Maria turned the Peruer into an artifact to communicate with people from the past? You already know simple astral projection can't interfere with the past."
"...I hadn't heard about communicating with the past, but it sounds like something that friend would do."
Emmanuel let out a light laugh and continued.
"I hated astral projection, so she didn't bring it up much. But from when she started the Hermit Society club, she talked about it more gradually...."
He paused, reminiscing with distant eyes, then asked.
"If what Lord Nicolaus says is true, do you think the French royals who stole the gem knew Maria's techniques were embedded in that Peruer?"
"Yes. Otherwise, there's no reason for France to steal Austria's Peruer, as Your Highness knows."
There were more clues, but I couldn't tell Emmanuel. He seemed to think there were too many oddities for France to simply target a foreign mineral, so he nodded and asked.
"What exactly is the technique inside it?"
"It was a technique to duplicate unique abilities. She embedded various techniques into artifacts, but that was the primary magic."
"......"
Emmanuel held his breath, then stroked his chin.
"That's one of Maria's masterpieces that I remember."
A familiar phrase. I smiled. Emmanuel looked at me and said.
"How did you investigate Maria? You... don't seem like a bad person, but you know obscure things in detail."
"......"
"For the record, it's not because the walls in my mind are down that I'm saying this. It's because you already read everything, so I'm just saying it."
He said it lightly, but it wasn't light. The reason he'd rejected me until now was likely a lack of courage to face what others said about Maria. The memories I read proved it. The fact that no rampage-inducing grudges remained was because he hadn't dwelled on what-ifs about his and Maria's actions—it wasn't desensitization to death. Sending her off cleanly was sending her off, and the wounds from that were separate.
"I understand. I'm sorry."
"I said no need for apologies earlier."
He said that and looked at me silently. Still demanding an explanation. I gazed into space, thinking, then offered the cheroot I carried just in case. Emmanuel just eyed it with a what-is-this face, so I smiled faintly.
"Take it like a Bavarian."
"......"
Emmanuel smiled with a slightly exasperated look. Yet his eyes held ambiguous confusion. That day's reply to me hadn't been tossed out carelessly, it seemed.
"You must have some unusual ability like me."
I smiled back. It wasn't a full answer to how I investigated, but nothing to be done. How could I say we were friends, however briefly, twelve years ago? It was a world that didn't exist for him. I stood up, leaving him.
"Rest. I'll come back this evening."
* * *
I waited until Emmanuel's treatment was complete, got a quick check-up myself, and entered his room. Emmanuel pointed to the bandage around my neck.
"Did I do that?"
"Yes. You noticed."
"Sorry. Your voice sounded off...."
"It's normal for rampages. Let me explain what I can first. The French royals and some noble houses know Maria had a special artifact. They might not know it's one that stores unique abilities, but given the circumstances, they probably do now."
Emmanuel quickly grasped my sudden explanation. I watched his expression and continued.
"What did Your Highness think when you heard France stole the Osterreichest e Peruer?"
"Naturally... it was absurd. I suspected Pleroma stole it and framed France."
"It's a long story, but Pleroma isn't the culprit. Not confirmed yet, but after verifying my info with outside help, the theft was done with the Orleans family's unique technique."
"......"
Emmanuel looked at me in disbelief, then put on a playful expression.
"Well... if Lord Nicolaus says so. Let's say that family has abilities optimized for thefts."
I wondered where that prickly attitude from when he first brushed me off had gone.
"...Back to the point, if France is risking war to steal a gem, it must not be ordinary. If they needed money, they'd squeeze their colonies' mines. Pleroma couldn't miss this oddity either."
Emmanuel glanced at me when colonies came up, read that I wasn't pro-imperialist, and returned to his usual gaze.
"There's another theft report I received. Trier Cathedral and the Papal Office lost relics, stolen the same way as this Peruer. But interrogation showed the culprits knew nothing about the relics."
"......."
"Orleans stole only the gem... but someone used the same method for relics. How could they have the family's technique?"
"Hm. The Orleans head could have had another Orleans fetch the relics."
"Good point. But since the family's technique isn't a unique ability, it can be taught. For dangerous jobs, wouldn't it be better to use a trusted servant than family? Royal servants are high nobles equivalent to ruling houses, so they don't face ridiculous luggage checks. And after, you can erase memories with divine power, no worry about secondary thefts by the servant fleeing with the Peruer."
"Lord Nicolaus's reputation isn't for nothing."
"......"
He's teasing again.
I let out a hollow laugh at Emmanuel's subtle smile.
"Everyone probably thought the same. That was the first possibility Your Highness mentioned."
"Second?"
"France has a Pleroma-like group controlling the Orleans. In other words, Orleans is a puppet ruler, and the puppetmasters absorbed the family's info and used someone with travel plans to take the gem and relics."
"......"
Emmanuel stared at me. His face gradually hardened.
Why hadn't the memory erasure magic been applied to Charles Orleans regarding the relics? That's the key unresolved question.
No need to explain full strategy to pawns, so the puppetmasters had all info on both gem and relics, but those used as tools like Charles Orleans only knew their assigned items and didn't suspect other thefts. Thus, Orleans family isn't the master but individual servants, so no info shared on relic plan, no need to erase memories.
The terror on Emmanuel and info from his Labyrinth support this hypothesis partially.
"Third, both are right."
"...Is it certain Pleroma did this attack on me?"
"The sedative used matches the Grand Hotel rampage. I have a suspected diocese. No doubt there."
Emmanuel grimaced, thought briefly, and spoke.
"You're thinking the second possibility."
"Yes."
The reason they'd take high risk now—attacking a royal, bracing for war with Bavaria—is because the French royals revived interest in the possibility of Maria Osterreichest e that they'd buried. But there's an issue.
"Even if the first hypothesis is right, Pleroma attacking Your Highness isn't odd. After becoming a large organization, they've been cautious, deathly quiet since Pentaron... but Pleroma was always radical. If they take bigger risks for another major incident, it changes things, but stopping here makes the second hypothesis of a France-based rival to Pleroma ambiguous."
"Yes. You get it."
"So, I'm assigning appropriate probabilities to all three. The reason I kept sending letters about Maria Osterreichest e was preparation in case of the second—if cornered, Pleroma would pull something like today. I had to ask about resurrection possibilities or if Your Highness had her materials. They might keep chasing Maria's traces for a while."
"Ah, so that's why you're explaining now."
"Yes. Sorry for the constant bother. If that's cleared up, I'll go."
Even to my rude words, Emmanuel replied calmly.
"Thanks."
"......"
"See you."
I smiled and left the room.
I wanted to talk more, but couldn't. Bavaria called an emergency meeting on this rampage. Prussia too, of course. To avoid suspicion, the king arranged for me to go to Prussia first.
I moved with Elias, who was in Bavaria, to the Wittelsbach mansion in Prussia.
"Change quickly! 10 minutes left, 10!"
Elias brushed the bandage on my neck and shoved me into the dressing room. Absurd, but this was effectively the first direct attack targeting only royals, so Prussia's Magic Division scheduled urgent meetings per academy unit. Exactly 10 minutes left.
'Why do old clothes have so much to fuss with? Looks similar.'
"Took 5 minutes!"
Elias scolded as I emerged. Unlike casuals where you throw on a one-piece shirt and jacket, this required assembling from the shirt up—no helping it. Anyway, he said that but didn't cling as usual. He carefully took my arm and raised a brow. Warp signal. I closed my eyes, and the air shifted.
"You're here."
I opened my eyes at Narke's voice. We were in the school military unit conference room.
'Hm.'
Serious. How long since last time?
Unusually, all students from 1st to 3rd years were gathered. I adjusted my necktie to hide the bandage and sat.
Thus, the meeting time of 10 PM arrived. Bafflingly, no one came.
We waited 20 more minutes, still no one. Elias, gone to fetch someone, hadn't returned. Narke glanced at me then turned away. His expression looked oddly dark.
"They're late."
Bam—!
The words barely ended when someone burst in.
"A bit late, sorry."
Doubt rose on the students' faces. Mine too.
The entrant wasn't the military unit chair but a non-mage staffer. He swallowed hard, face pale, and said.
"There's a... problem. Yes, a problem. The chair professor can't come now...."
Floundering verbally, he judged it hopeless and showed us the newspaper he held.
[[Breaking News] 204 Magic Scholars Missing Nationwide]
"We can't find where the professors went, so the Investigation Bureau is looking. You can't stay here either; guidance coming soon...."
The air froze cold. All eyes fixed on the paper.
"......"
Magic 'scholars,' of all things? Not in one city, but across Germany?
When whales fight, shrimp get crushed.
It really happened.
If this is truly Pleroma's doing, what does it mean?
We now face not just Pleroma's desperate checks but France's crime syndicate too. No—Imperial citizens caught between that org and Pleroma's rivalry. The day Emmanuel rampaged and 204 scholars vanished... is the start.
An amplified guidance voice echoed from somewhere.
[Notice to all Imperial 2nd Education Academy Military Unit members.]
'...My deduction.'
I hope it's overthinking.
[Emergency revised mobilization plan to be announced. Proceed immediately to Imperial 1st Education Academy Military Unit Operations Officer upon hearing this.]