The Man Chased by the Red Sky (1)
#146
"..................Huh?"
I questioned my own ears and asked again.
"So you're saying I should do it... with Lady Risie?"
"...Yes."
Estelle answered as nonchalantly as if she were telling me today's breakfast menu.
No. Looking closely, the tips of her ears were bright red. She clearly had a very firm grasp of exactly what she was saying—her blush was just an accessory.
Yet she continued speaking.
"I spoke too hastily, so my words got a little tangled. Anyway, Mr. Do-yun, you must sleep with the Countess Valenor."
That's the same thing, young lady.
It felt like her words were getting more tangled the longer she tried to explain, but I decided to listen quietly.
"We need to make it so the Countess Valenor cannot use her unique magic. As it happens, according to Sister Rubel, her unique magic has several constraints."
"So that is why you demand I sleep with her."
"Yes, because a direct confrontation offers no solution. The broad stroke of the plan is this: while you, Mr. Do-yun, have the Countess pinned down, we will use Lucien's unique magic to permanently seal the contaminated parts of her mind."
The way she said it sounded plausible, sure...
"That's all well and good, but it's not like I can just say, 'Hey, Maman, let's sleep together?' and then actually sleep with her, is it. Especially since you're saying she's not in her right mind."
Estelle twirled a lock of her swaying blonde hair around her finger, her lips moving faintly.
"Could you please stop saying 'Maman'? Anyway. Hmm... on that point, you really needn't worry so much. I heard a thing or two from my sister last night."
"What did you hear?"
"She said the Countess Risie Valenor kept calling out your name this whole time, Mr. Do-yun. She wept so sorrowfully every night, asking where her master had gone."
"............"
Maman... forgive me. I didn't know what had happened, but her son-in-law would go to her.
"When I listened to the story, it sounded like you two were in a rather deep relationship? You playboy."
No, I only recall having sex with her once, though...
I had a hell of a lot I wanted to say, but Estelle's speech poured out like rapid gunfire and swept my objections away.
"So I think the strategy of Oneness is a fairly valid plan. The only variable is that the Countess herself is not in her right mind."
"That variable seems like the most important one, though..."
At my counter-question, Estelle let out a long sigh and answered.
"I have requested that you sleep with the Countess, Mr. Do-yun, but it does not matter if that fails to achieve full success. Whatever the case, we only need to create a fleeting opening where the Countess Valenor cannot exercise her unique magic."
To sum it up, it went like this.
The best outcome was me having sex with Maman and subduing her in bed.
According to Estelle, in a state of Oneness, she would be unable to exercise her unique magic, 『Commencement of War—開戰』, so as long as we could sleep together, the campaign to capture the Countess would end right there.
But even if that failed, it didn't matter much.
If my mere presence created a moment where she could not use her unique magic, the expedition team would seize that opening to launch a joint attack and take Maman down.
Anyway, just how loose-lipped was Rubel? This was an invasion of privacy!
"Good. Then, assuming you now fully understand the strategy for this offensive, Mr. Do-yun, I'll tell you the information you need to know."
The blonde girl, seeming to think I now basically understood the plan, began telling me a few points of caution.
Guidelines for action if casualties occurred, the approximate limits of the power that Maman's half-destroyed Imprint could generate, methods of escape if problems arose concerning my personal safety—
And finally, even the unique magic of Risie Valenor.
Honestly, when I heard the explanation of her unique magic, I felt just what an incredible person Maman was, to the point where I was humbled by the fact that I had mixed my body with hers.
Having finished her explanation thus, Estelle rose from her seat, dusted the dirt from her legs, and spoke.
"Then I'll start heading back down. When you're done cleaning up, don't forget to bring Lily with you."
"Understood."
"Ah, and don't come too late. You have to eat breakfast."
With those words, Estelle vanished.
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#147
"Uung... Lily wants to sleep more."
Wake up, you damn girl!
Your mother said your mouth will twist if you sleep on the floor!
Lily talked in her sleep as if she were some kind of princess, but given how much was riding on today, I decided to thoroughly ignore her whining.
*Thwack!*
In the end, after I smacked her on the butt, Lily grumbled but had no choice but to be carried piggyback back to the camp.
The two of us returned like that, everyone ate a late breakfast together, and we listened to Estelle's boring lengthy speech for a full thirty minutes.
Before we knew it, the sun had risen to the zenith and was shining brightly upon us.
"Then we shall now commence the operation. Sister, grant us entry authority to the Watchtower."
"O-okay."
Rubel's distinctive red eyes flashed as she began chanting.
Turris Vigiliae, ne hos vestigia aliena putes.
Watchtower, do not regard these as unfamiliar footprints.
Non sunt fures murum scandentes—
sed spiritus aurorae nebulae mixti,
They are not thieves scaling the ramparts—
but breaths mingling into the dawn mist,
Non sunt umbrae ferrum fugientes,
sed viatores sicut ventus per campos fluentes.
They are not shadows fleeing the edge of a blade,
but wayfarers flowing past like the wind across the plains.
Sub nomine Valenor,
gressus eorum sicut aqua crimen non relinquant—
Under the name of Valenor,
let their steps leave no sin, as water leaves none—
Oculi vigiliae, sicut astra noctis numerant—
eos tantum ut lumen praeteriens numerent.
Let the watchful eyes, as they count the stars of the night—
count them only as passing light.
Portae, sicut silva bestiae iter dat, aperimini.
Lapides, sicut imbrem non prohibetis, hos ne prohibete.
Gates, open as the forest gives way to beasts.
Stones, as you do not bar the rain, do not bar these.
Cum rubrum sigillum Valenor
sicut vesper super corpora eorum descendat
When the red seal of Valenor
settles upon their bodies like the evening glow
Turris Vigiliae eos invasores non scribat.
Let the Watchtower record them not as invaders.
Fwoosh—
When Rubel closed her eyes, a crimson energy frosted over me, and the heat of something warm yet blazing like a flame bloomed in my heart.
Ba-dump.
Ba-dump!
The sensation of a great power awakening new senses within my body.
When I raised my head to look at the sky, there stood a tall grey tower, invisible until now, stretching beyond the clouds above.
A truly magnificent sight.
The question came to me: who in the world could possibly build such a magnificent structure?
And I apparently wasn't the only one thinking that, because Lucien and Estelle also seemed to be staring at the majestic form of the tower, their eyes round as saucers.
The only person who wasn't surprised was Lily—only Lily. She had said she'd visited once when she was little—so she probably already had entry authority. Not that it really mattered.
The blonde girl opened her mouth.
"Then let's be on our way."
***
***
The closer I got to the tower, the more sighs I let out. How long and how steep could the stairs of this tall tower possibly be?
Seeing a tower soaring up above the clouds made me wonder if perhaps my legs would be the first to shatter while climbing the stairs.
If I die of muscle pain before Maman Risie can pierce me to death, that might actually be a rather novel ending in its own way.
While I was walking and entertaining idle thoughts, I came upon the tower's entrance.
The entrance was shabbier than expected.
A single, rather charmingly small wooden door, entirely mismatched to the scale of the magnificent Watchtower, greeted us.
Bored, I tried striking up a conversation with Estelle.
"Um, Lady Estelle. Is climbing the stairs factored into today's plan?"
At my question, the blonde girl tilted her head.
An expression that said, Huh?
"Er... I mean, I was asking whether the time it takes to walk up was factored into the plan."
Lucien and Rubel also reacted to my question and turned to look at me.
The look in their eyes as they gazed at me was, how should I put it—the sort of look one gives a very pitiful creature.
Just what meaning did those looks carry?
"Ha Do-yun..."
Creak——!
As Rubel called my name and opened the wooden door of the Watchtower—
"There's no way such a tall structure wouldn't have an elevator..."
Inside the tower sat a device that anyone could see looked exactly like a modern elevator.
Four of them, no less.
Hmm. So those were the looks of people who saw me as a primitive who didn't even know about elevators.