Walkthrough Prep (21)
Isabelle and Phoebe didn't lift their heads until long after I had finished every procedure. Isabelle looked ready to burst into tears the instant anyone so much as poked her, and Phoebe's face was flushed scarlet — honestly, the pair of them were a lot to deal with, so I just played dumb.
Any wrong move and I'd be striking a match next to a powder keg.
Fortunately, Isabelle didn't carry on any further. She headed off to her warehouse and returned before long with a small pouch in hand.
"It's a sub-space pouch. The items you requested are inside."
A pouch worth hundreds of platinum, huh. I fully intend to return whatever's left over once the job's done, but my conscience is still going to sting a little.
If you're going to lay down a steel plate, you have to lay it all the way down — and I can't quite manage that. Ugh.
...I'll just come visit whenever I get the chance later. If I make a show of praying for Isabelle every time, she'll probably be pleased. Probably.
Anyway, with that, the groundwork for performing the miracle was done. All that remained was to gather the people.
People — though at this point, there were only three I absolutely needed. Everyone else was window dressing. Nice to have, but dispensable.
I'd resolved to clear this with the bare minimum roster, so even with additions I doubted the count would go past one or two more.
"Um... Lady Arln?"
I was reviewing the plan in my head when Isabelle ventured a careful voice.
"Might I ask what sort of miracle you intend to perform?"
"I'm curious too, Lady Arln. We haven't heard a word about the specifics of your plan."
Explaining it wouldn't be hard. I'd already told them all about the Chief God's Apostle and the Evil God and the rest of it, so laying out my plan was only natural.
But if I explained it now, I'd just have to explain it all over again later.
Even Halbae had called this plan insane, which meant I'd have to walk them through why it would work, too.
So while I couldn't gather every single person the plan required, I wanted to at least bring in Johann — the pillar the whole thing rested on — before laying it out.
When I asked Isabelle to fetch him, she gave a light nod.
"Bishop Johann of the Arlen Estate, I presume? Of course. I'll send a spatial mage to bring him here."
'...A spatial mage?!'
"A creepy inbred family like yours has spatial mages on staff?"
Spatial mage was the blanket term for mages who focused their training on space-related magic. Telekinesis, teleportation, sub-space pouches — the kind of people you could live without, but who made life a great deal more comfortable when you had them.
"Yes. I may look like this, but I run a massive merchant guild. One can never have too many spatial mages. I hold personal contracts with several, and more work on the guild's side as well."
True enough. Isabelle had acted remarkably scatterbrained and gross in front of me, but at her core she was the head of an enormous trading house.
Naturally, her position demanded she work herself to the bone traveling from place to place, so it stood to reason she'd have spatial mages under personal employ.
Well, this worked out nicely. I'd been needing a spatial mage I could use privately anyway.
My original idea was to go through the Newman family and scrape someone together on short notice, but if House Artea had one available, that was a different story entirely.
'This spatial mage of yours...'
"What kind of noob would sign a contract with a degenerate zealot like you?"
"Could you tell me the conditions you require?"
The instant the question left my mouth, Isabelle straightened her posture. She'd caught on immediately to what my interest signified.
A merchant, through and through.
'Well, let's see...'
"Has to be able to move about seven people at once. Has to be tight-lipped. Other than that... hm. Just so long as they're not a sniveling little coward who pisses themselves at every little thing."
"In that case, our own spatial mage would be an excellent fit."
"Defeating the Evil God of Darkness, is it."
Having heard the broad strokes from Lucy, Johann let out a long, slow breath.
An apostle of the Evil God who had swallowed the Burrow family whole. A great working of black magic being prepared there. A strike team sent to stop it.
Not a single piece of it was anything short of absurd.
Had any ordinary child spouted such talk, he would have scolded them — told them those weren't words to be tossed about lightly.
But the one who had delivered this explanation was Lucy. The one who had worked a miracle at Menesteil. The one beloved by the great Chief God Himself.
Could her words contain a lie?
Impossible.
"I understand the substance of what you've described."
As Johann nodded, Phoebe beside him let out a sigh of relief.
It didn't last. The moment her eyes met Johann's, her face hardened all over again.
Johann had known Phoebe's origins, and so had treated her with severity since long, long ago. Even now, old memories lingered, and she found him intimidating.
Frankly speaking, Johann still didn't like Phoebe. Her very existence was a symbol of the Main God Church's corruption.
But the one beloved by the Chief God kept her at her side, and it was clear that she, too, was someone the Chief God wished to protect — so he did his best to smother that feeling.
Johann pulled his gaze from Phoebe and met Lucy's eyes once more.
"However, the most important part is missing. How do you intend to drive out the Evil God's corruption?"
"I was getting to that, you shit-brained bishop. Always in such a hurry, aren't you."
At the insult, Phoebe beside him sucked in a breath — but Johann remained perfectly composed.
He'd known the feral little Lucy of years past. Compared to then, this much was nothing.
'That's why the kids run away the moment they see you, you demonic little hellion.'
...Though maybe it's a little much. Fine.
"The plan is simple. We're going to create a sun at the very heart of Burrow Territory."
"A... sun, you say?"
"A sun?"
"We're making a sun?"
Everyone gathered in the Artea family's parlor voiced their confusion — yet on Lucy's face, the one who'd said it, there was nothing but sheer confidence.
"I'll explain. Slowly, so that even suspicious noobs like you can understand."
When Lucy first began her explanation, what took root in Johann's mind was doubt. Create a sun? How could that possibly be done?
But as Lucy's explanation progressed, his thinking changed.
Johann had risen to the rank of bishop despite standing at odds with the Church's mainstream faction. His only thing to lean on had been his own ability, and having honed himself with desperate devotion, he ranked among the top five in the current Main God Church when it came to knowledge of divine magic.
That was precisely how he could tell. The outlandish tale spilling from Lucy's lips was entirely, demonstrably feasible.
"I believe I've explained it thoroughly enough that even a monkey could follow."
When the full explanation ended, Lucy puffed out her chest — while Isabelle and Phoebe beside her still looked utterly bewildered.
Johann understood exactly how those two felt.
"It is an unstable, wildly dangerous gamble with no precedent. That is my assessment."
Even Johann, who had understood Lucy's words perfectly, would pass that judgment. Anyone who swallowed it easily would be the strange one.
"What are you trying to say, shit-brained bishop?"
"It's simple, Lady Arln."
And the Johann of this moment said:
"I want to take part."
He was, without question, a strange man.
The one beloved by the Chief God was prepared to stake her own life to save others.
She intended to cast away her very existence to topple an Evil God and deliver humanity.
And he was being offered the chance — not merely to stand beside her, but to participate in the miracle itself?
Ha! If that's on the table, then an old codger's remaining years are a cheap enough price to wager!
"That said, Lady Arln, there are a few things I'd like to propose."
"Spit it out, shit-brained bishop."
"Yes. In the early stages of the plan..."
Leaving the Artea estate and heading back toward the dormitory, I congratulated myself on the decision to recruit Bishop Johann.
Originally, I'd wanted him around as insurance for emergencies and to give Phoebe justification to act — but he'd turned out to play a far bigger role than I'd imagined.
Because the plan was built on knowledge from the game, it had its fragile points, and he shored them up with his own expertise in divine magic.
Thanks to him, the gift I'd prepared for Tariki had become one degree more perfect.
Of course, it still wasn't finished. One last road remained before I could put the final period on the plan.
Finding the muscle to protect us until the sun was complete.
According to Alsaetin's report, Burrow Territory was already in the grip of the Evil God's corruption.
If we set about creating a sun there, every soul in the territory would come swarming at us.
A handful of people I could handle on my own. But if the entire territory tried to crush us, that was a different story.
That crossed into territory no amount of improvising could answer.
Even bringing Karl or Alsaetin changed nothing.
They wouldn't fall, but they couldn't perfectly guard the miracle in the face of a human tide.
The ideal answer here would be to make use of the Arlen knight order under Benedict — but they were far too conspicuous. The moment the knight order began preparing to march, everyone would sense something was wrong somewhere.
Same with everyone else, really. Either their movements would be too visible, or I couldn't be certain they'd actually follow my orders.
Adri came closest to fitting my requirements, but dragging her along risked her getting purified right alongside everything else, so that was out.
After turning it over every which way, I finally resolved to reach for the forbidden option.
"...You wish to bring this one's true body along?"
'Yes.'
"Very well."
The Face-Connoisseur Fox's true body.
Asking the Lord of the Forest for aid.
Thinking it over coolly, the fox was the optimal pick.
It had the power to hold back a human tide.
It was permanently rooted in one forest, so its absence would trouble no one.
And on top of that, I had every confidence it would keep the secret.
So why, knowing all this, had I put off asking the fox until the very last possible moment?
The reason was simple.
"To the Lord of the Forest, the guarding of the forest is the very meaning of its existence. No matter that the request comes from you — there are bounds this one cannot cross."
I had no idea how much I'd have to give up to ask the Lord of the Forest to empty out its own woods.
But now I had no other way.
Among the cards I currently held, this was the best play.
So I'd throw away my dignity.
To save the people of Burrow Territory.
To shove a nice big pile of shit in Tariki's face.
To ram my mace into Nakrad's face.
To clear a brand-new dungeon.
"Are you listening?"
At some point the fox had taken human form and settled onto the bed, mid-lecture. I crept up beside it — close enough that my breath could reach those ears twitching upright with anticipation, in spite of the scowl between its brows.
"Really?♡"
"Hiiik?!"
"I've got something prepared that a gross pervert like you would just love♡ Aren't you curious?♡ Hm?♡ You pervy fox♡"
"Th... threats and sweet words will not move this one."
"Bunny girl. Don't you want to see it again?♡"
The moment the words bunny girl left my mouth, the fox clamped its lips shut.
Haha. What a degenerate.
Called it.
"Pffth♡ Why's your mind drifting to the past?♡ Well, of course it is♡ You drank in every inch — the nape, the collarbones, the armpits, all of it♡ Just like the gross pervert you are?♡"
"Th... this one has never once—"
"Please trample me, I'm begging you~♡ — now, whose voice was that, I wonder?♡ Strange♡ It smells like garbage in here all of a sudden♡"
I could see the fox's profile trembling uncontrollably.
Locked in a war between instinct and reason, no doubt.
"B... but no means no! This is sin carved into this one's very soul!"
"Hmm♡ So it's all unnecessary, then?♡"
"That is so!"
"Oh well~♡ Guess I'll have to throw away the collar I prepared for the masochist-pervert-fox~♡"
"...A collar?"
"Actually♡ Maybe I'll gift it to the Incompetent Dog instead?♡ Kheheh♡ If it's her, she'd probably be so happy she—"
Amid the snickering and chatter, the fox suddenly seized both my hands in desperation.
The grip was startlingly strong and I flinched for a moment, but the fox didn't spare it a thought.
It simply dropped to its knees on the floor and cried out with everything it had.
"No! There is no need for that! This one shall aid you! No — I beg you, let me aid you! I ask it of you, I ask!"
So it couldn't beat its own instincts after all. You garbage pervert fox.
This is the Lord of the Forest? If the living things in that forest ever saw this display, they'd be horrified out of their minds.
Well. Whatever. With this, the preparation for the plan is complete.
...
Haah. Life, man. Just... life.
Bring it on.
Tariki, you son of a bitch.
Everything piling up in my heart right now — the frustration, the humiliation, the rage — I'm going to pour every last drop of it into you.
You'd better not plan on dying peacefully.