The Conductor's Stage
A few days earlier.
Charlotte had received a single piece of intelligence from her information network. One of the Licht branches had been raided. Though it was only a minor outpost and the incident hadn’t spread widely enough to reach the public, the fact that black magicians were responsible made the situation gravely serious.
Upon hearing the report, Charlotte immediately set out to investigate.
The usual scolding rang in her ears, but she brushed it aside. She had been tracking the cultists for months now, so she headed straight to the scene without hesitation. She had not informed the imperial family of her movements. There were simply too few people she could trust.
Charlotte moved with only a small number of escorts.
This is tricky.
When the girl arrived at the branch, she had the chapel sealed off for investigation, but there was almost nothing to be found. The only thing present was the thick bloodstains she had been told about. It was a horrifying scene, yet there were no corpses or flesh anywhere. For the investigators, it was utterly baffling.
Charlotte mulled it over with her usual indifferent expression. Had the victims truly been smuggled out? If so, where should they begin searching? Should they redirect the search to the surrounding cities?
She was still turning these questions over in her mind when—
"What the…?"
The guards who had been watching the chapel had all collapsed unconscious by the time she returned from stepping away to send a message. Even her close escorts were out cold. The chapel doors stood wide open. Something was clearly wrong.
Charlotte held her breath as much as possible and moved toward the interior where she could sense presences. She didn’t forget to grip the sword at her waist.
……
A dark corridor filled only with an eerie aura. She walked following the faint light. As she descended the stairs leading to the basement, she spotted unidentified figures standing beyond the corner. Every one of them wore pure white robes.
Those are…
The strangers appeared to be searching for something. Charlotte watched their hurried movements carefully, and soon noticed a familiar face among them. Her red lips unconsciously murmured the boy’s name.
"……Yuda Snakers?"
The person Charlotte had been keeping an eye on for some time. A few months ago, by pure chance, she had learned that Yuda was hiding a terrifying power. Ever since, she had been circling around him, observing. Of course, it wasn’t out of wariness. It was pure curiosity.
Anyone possessing such power would normally reek of danger, yet the boy gave off no such scent at all. Instead, he carried a refreshing winter fragrance that made her want to keep breathing it in.
Why is he here…?
Could he be involved in this incident? Charlotte hid behind the wall and continued to spy on the unfolding scene.
A short while later—
"Shatter."
The boy suddenly chanted a single word. The shot bullet struck a dead-end wall and instantly shattered countless barriers, revealing a hidden space. The traces that had been invisible even to Charlotte’s eyes were now laid bare.
"Tricks like this won’t work on me."
With that light mutter, the snake stepped forward into the corridor of the unknown. The other robed figures followed behind him.
Charlotte hesitated where she stood. Logically, she should withdraw here, but her instincts kept pulling her forward. She had the feeling that if she didn’t follow, she would miss something crucial.
This might… give me a clue about the Roses.
After a brief moment of thought, Charlotte made up her mind and took a step. She suppressed her presence as much as possible. The pure-white robes fluttering ahead. The long, blood-red corridor. The strangely lingering sound of music in her ears. It was an oddly eerie landscape, but the young princess did not falter. She thought of the Rose waiting for her among the stars.
We strode down the corridor without hesitation. It was wide and endlessly long. Perhaps because everything was dyed red, the sight was aesthetically repulsive. Then again, what could one expect from cultists?
"Master."
While I was scanning the empty surroundings, the girl beside me spoke up softly. It was Neria, who had been flipping through documents. She seemed to have finished roughly analyzing the current phenomenon.
"I examined the chapel’s blueprints, but there was nothing particularly unusual. The corridor we are walking through right now should not exist. It appears to be a space the cultists created themselves."
"I thought as much."
"What do you think, Master?"
"Considering they created such a large space and hid it behind a barrier… there must be something beyond it."
"Indeed, the deeper the corridor goes, the thicker the magi in the air becomes."
"Then we continue forward. Stay on guard at all times."
"As you wish."
We began walking again across the blood-soaked corridor. How long had we been moving? Roughly ten minutes had passed when—
"Master. Someone is collapsed up ahead."
In the distance, I could see a figure sprawled on the ground. It was a man covered entirely in black. Judging by the priestly robes, he was likely one of the people who had gone missing during the recent raid.
"I will check his condition. If he is still breathing, I will immediately call for the medics to—"
"There is no need."
"Pardon?"
"Just stay where you are."
Even though I had spotted the man, I did not allow the members to approach. There was a reason I kept them from getting too close. Those who had experienced the great subjugation seemed to have already noticed. The robes that should have been pure white were now stained pitch black.
I had hoped it wouldn’t be the case.
A faint melody could be heard from somewhere. At the same time, the collapsed priest twitched several times before suddenly leaping to his feet and charging toward us. His face was drenched in bright red blood. His once luminous pupils now held only darkness.
"Kiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa!!!"
Though the scream came from a human throat, it was nothing like a human sound. It resembled the howl of a beast wandering through hell. Rotten blood flowed down like tears.
A priest corrupted and fallen to magi. Having surrendered to fear, accepted despair, and lost his faith, this was the price paid by one who had abandoned his beliefs.
The mindless priest swung the iron mace in his hand violently.
……
Shweeeeee—!
Along with the monstrous shriek, the rosary in his chest rattled. On the cross that had once loved God, an indelible sin now clung.
I quietly flicked my finger.
Then—
Slice—.
With a rather anticlimactic sound, the priest’s head flew off. The body, having lost its center of gravity, staggered for a moment before collapsing pathetically to the floor.
A wretched, crumbling corpse.
"……My ominous premonitions are never wrong, it seems."
I muttered through gritted teeth. I slowly scanned the surroundings. Come to think of it, the terrain felt familiar. Though this was my first time visiting this particular branch—even counting my previous life—I had cleared stages with similar layouts multiple times. It was probably another “work” touched by the same hand.
"Vice-commander."
"Yes."
"From now on, kill every priest we encounter. Only rescue those whose minds remain intact. Dispose of anyone who shows even the slightest abnormality."
"Understood."
Neria nodded without a word. I shook off the shadow clinging to my fingertips and looked down at the corpse at my feet. A priest whose eyes had rolled back after being steeped in magi.
I didn’t expect them to start moving so soon.
Only then did the faint music become audible. A single, maddeningly beautiful melody that flowed along with disgusting greed. Within the unknown performance, I murmured the name.
The Conductor.
A mid-boss who appeared in the latter half of the original story. A self-proclaimed artist. At the same time, the nightmare responsible for the highest number of casualties during the great subjugation five years ago.
We had just stepped into the world he had designed.
If the structure here matched the other stages I remembered, we didn’t have much time left. The lives of our missing allies were hanging by a thread.
"From now on, we break through at full force."
"I’ll take the lead."
"Irene?"
"I’ll be faster at cleaning up the small fry."
Fwoosh—!
Irene stepped forward, igniting flames at the tip of her blade. Her orange hair instantly turned crimson. The dark black eyes that had once held only shadow now burned with a vivid red light.
The girl swung her sword without hesitation.
Shweeeee—!
"Kiiiiiiik!!"
Another priest came running from the opposite end of the corridor. One already too far gone to be saved was struck by the red line, then instantly engulfed in brilliant flames. It was the fire of life that purified corruption.
Fwoooosh—!
"Let’s go."
Even in the darkness, the flames danced clearly. The fox turned to look at me in silence. I and the other members, who had paused for a moment, nodded and began kicking off the ground.
Behind our sprinting steps, only the pure white robes fluttered in the wind.