The Ghost of Time's Offer
Click.
Simon pulled out the briefcase he'd received from Kizen Headquarters. However unremarkable it looked, it was actually a secret weapon. Instead of documents, the case held an installed artifact, and the magic circles engraved across its exterior were linked directly to that artifact.
He'd learned how to use it from the staff member in advance. He turned the dial on the device until it lined up with the correct position, then pressed the activation button.
Vmmm!
The moment the device came to life, gray-skinned figures and historical anomalies began springing up all around Room 38, and the device quietly recorded every one of those scenes.
[How fascinating! So this is that Nephthys's handiwork.]
The Ghost of Time, apparently just as intrigued, let out a hearty chuckle.
[Her power truly is remarkable! It's on a whole different level from my own ability.]
-$@&%^@$!!
-@$*#%?
Time and events tangled together so chaotically that no single scene could be made out, but that didn't matter — once he brought this back, Headquarters would handle the decoding and extract exactly the footage they wanted.
More importantly.
Simon turned his head toward the Ghost of Time.
The ghost had said it plainly:
-The Ivory Tower Master is without doubt using this tower to hatch some suspicious scheme!
And the Kizen Headquarters staff member had said the same.
-I can't go into detail since it's classified top secret, but this mission concerns the peace of the entire Continent. The Ivory Tower Master is plotting something.
The two accounts matched perfectly. And both had pointed to the Ivory Tower Master as the mastermind.
At this point, it seems certain something is going to happen in this tower.
To sum it up: Kizen Headquarters had caught wind of the incident, and to uncover whatever scheme the Ivory Tower Master was brewing, they'd sent Simon here to find clues.
But there was a problem.
-In four days, something terrible will happen in this tower.
The timing was far earlier than Headquarters had anticipated. If the ghost's words were true, there was very little time left.
At this rate, this wouldn't just be an information-gathering mission — Simon might get swept directly into the incident itself.
He turned to face the Ghost of Time.
"You said you wanted to help me."
[I did, aye.]
"Then what do you want out of it? What do you get from helping me?"
[My purpose is but one! I wish for the Tower of Time to still exist four days from now.]
Simon nodded. It was a clear enough goal — easy to understand.
[So long as the tower stands, so do I! And to that end, your role is an important one.]
"What is it you want me to do?"
The Ghost of Time drifted down to the floor and drew closer to Simon.
[The reason I approached you was no accident.]
He made a gesture as though reaching into Simon's hair, then drew out two thread-like strands from Simon's head.
One was sky-blue. The other was ivory.
[Two girls bound tightly to this tower's fate.]
As the strands fluttered through the air, the figures of two girls took shape in the empty air above them.
Simon flushed crimson and hastily averted his eyes. They were only illusions, but the two of them were rotating in the altogether.
[These two are entwined with your past as well, I see. What is your relation to them?]
"We're classmates. We attend the same school."
[I see. Then they are the very key to holding back the calamity to come!]
Simon's face twisted in confusion.
"Mayrin and Serne?"
[The very same.]
"But neither of them is even in the Ivory Tower right now."
[Where the girls happen to be matters little.]
The Ghost of Time smiled meaningfully and spread his palm open.
[I shall squeeze my power dry to show you their pasts, piece by piece, along with the secrets of the Ivory Tower.]
"...The secrets of the Ivory Tower?"
[Indeed! When you learn the whole truth within their pasts, what judgment you make and what action you take shall be your own choice. Everything rests on you.]
His fingers waved as if gliding across piano keys.
[And depending on the choice you make, this tower's fate shall change as well.]
Shaaaaaa—
Before his words had even finished, Simon's vision was swallowed by gray.
Simon slowly opened his eyes. When he collected himself, he found he had stepped into the gray-tinted past.
Squealing and shrieking laughter rang out. Children were tearing around the garden in a wild game.
"Follow me!"
"Yeahhh!"
And one child stood out above them all.
Ah!
Simon couldn't hold back a wry laugh. Sky-blue hair, blue eyes — anyone could see it was Mayrin as a little girl.
"Kyahaha!"
Even here, Mayrin was the ringleader. She sprinted every which way with boundless energy, her fierce personality enough to cow even the boys her own age.
"Mayrin! Time to eat!"
Just then, a bespectacled man walked into the garden where the children were playing. It was Daniela Villenne — younger-looking by a wide margin than he'd been at the banquet hall.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
Little Mayrin scampered over and held a marble up to him.
"Look, I did it again! I froze this marble all by myself!"
"That's impressive."
Daniela knelt on one knee and patted her head.
"The grandfathers and grandmothers love it when I freeze marbles! None of the other kids can do it — only me! They said I really am cut from the cloth of the next 'Ivory Tower Master'!"
"Did they, now."
He was smiling as he spoke, but Daniela's face was clouded with worry.
Little Mayrin seemed to sense it too, and tilted her head.
"Daddy, don't you want me to become the Ivory Tower Master?"
Daniela's pupils wavered violently for an instant. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and forced a smile.
"How could I not? I couldn't be prouder. My daughter."
"Ehehehe!"
Mayrin buried herself in his arms.
Daniela hoisted her up with a laugh.
"Well then, shall we go get some din—"
"Sir Daniela! Trouble!"
A crowd of robed figures came rushing up to him.
"What is all this commotion?"
"There's an uproar outside! The Ivory Tower Master has returned!"
"I see."
Daniela gazed off into the distance.
"Two years since she was summoned to answer for herself... She certainly took her time."
"Two whole years away with not so much as a word, and now she shows her face!"
"Now, now. Let's all go together."
Daniela smiled thinly and looked down at Mayrin.
"Shall we go too, Mayrin?"
"Yeah!"
Daniela and his party descended the stairs and arrived before the main gates, where a crowd was already gathered and waiting. Daniela and the Moderate faction took their place on the far side, opposite the Radicals of the Ivory Tower Master's camp.
Before long—
"The Ivory Tower Master now enters!"
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
At last, after two years, the Ivory Tower Master Vermund came into view. Like Daniela, she looked far younger than she had at the banquet.
And then—
"This is unacceptable!"
The crowd began shouting in outrage. Wondering what was wrong, Simon looked closer — and saw a tiny hand no bigger than a fern shoot clinging to the Ivory Tower Master's.
"She's brought a child!"
The girl who had come with her was a scruffy, bedraggled little thing with matted platinum-blonde hair.
Daniela's Moderates, needless to say, poured out their fury — but even the Radicals of the Master's own camp, who prized the tower's discipline and bloodline above all, turned on Vermund.
"A child? A child, at this late hour?"
"Have you no shame, pulling a stunt this transparent?"
The Ivory Tower Master's power was absolute, her magical prowess beyond reproach — yet there had always been one flaw. She was incapable of bearing a child of her own.
Because she had no heir, the opposing Moderate faction had only grown stronger with each passing year, until at last a Moderate's daughter — Daniela's own — had been named the next successor.
And now the Ivory Tower Master had brought a child home.
"We refuse to accept this, Tower Master!"
One of the Ivory Tower's elders stepped forward.
"Do you mean to claim you can bear a child after all this time—!"
"I found her."
At the Master's single utterance, silence fell over the crowd.
"I could not pretend not to see a child dying, so I brought her here. That is all."
The Ivory Tower Master's lust for power was legendary. Everyone had expected her to insist, tooth and nail, that the girl was her own flesh and blood — yet, unexpectedly, she had admitted outright that the child was simply one she'd taken in.
The crowd fell silent for a beat at the unanticipated declaration — but only for a beat. Shouts began erupting from every corner.
"Don't toy with us!"
"Then let me say it plainly! Unless the child hails from one of the Ten Great Families, she cannot be recognized as Ivory Tower blood!"
The elders poured out their rage. And the fury of those who lacked the courage to vent it at the all-powerful Master herself turned instead on the child.
"L-look at the filthy little thing!"
"That gutter-smelling brat, the Ivory Tower Master? Impossible!"
Even the children giggled and pointed.
"She's a beggar! A beggar! They say she's a beggar~"
"They say she's a guttersnipe!"
Hahahahaha!
The platinum-haired little girl, terrified, hid behind the Ivory Tower Master.
"Stand up straight."
But the Master pushed her forward again.
"If you let them cow you now, you will not survive this place."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Just as every noble in the Ivory Tower was spitting venom and the atmosphere threatened to turn ugly—
"Hi there!"
One girl stepped boldly up to the frightened child.
"What's your name?"
Blocking the Ivory Tower Master's path without a hint of hesitation, taking the beggar girl's hand and flashing a bright smile — this child was none other than the next successor.
Mayrin.
Wh-when did she get all the way over there?
Daniela's mouth hung open in bewilderment. He'd been sure she was standing right beside him, but somehow she'd crossed the entire courtyard.
The platinum-haired girl avoided her gaze and murmured quietly.
"...S-Serne."
"Hi, Serne! I'm Mayrin. This is your first time here, right? Let's play together!"
And with that, she grabbed Serne's hand and started running.
"I'll show you around the whole place!"
"...Huh? Um... my hands are dirty, though."
"That's okay!"
The adults watched the two little ones dash off toward the garden, wearing hopeless, dopey expressions.
"Well, well."
The Ivory Tower Master smiled.
"All of you ought to be ashamed. Even we adults have a thing or two left to learn from the children, wouldn't you say?"
The elders of the Ivory Tower exchanged awkward coughs.
Whoosh—
The memory ended.
Simon blinked and glanced around. He was back inside Room 38.
[Well now, a minute or so has passed. What say you to a glimpse of their past?]
The Ghost of Time asked. Simon pressed a hand to his forehead, stood dazed for a moment, then spoke.
"Is this really the past you've shown me?"
[It is. You can tell by looking, can't you?]
"If this was all fabricated to deceive me—"
[Heh heh! How unkind! Why, you're welcome to ask the two parties themselves.]
"..."
It was true.
Simon had always known the rough outlines of Mayrin's and Serne's pasts. In fact, from the very beginning, he had been fairly confident that the histories of the two girls were genuine.
[Ah, it seems the artifact has finished gathering its information as well.]
Click!
The briefcase shut down. A blue light glowed in one of its compartments — the footage had recorded properly.
Through the window, dawn was slowly creeping in. He needed to get back to the guest room before anyone caught sight of him.
[You'll be heading to the 63rd floor in the small hours tomorrow, I take it?]
"...Yes. That's the plan."
[I shall see you there! I'll lend you my aid in breaking the security tomorrow as well. And then you must hear the tale of the next of the two girls.]
He toyed with his rabbit mask as he went on.
[That is, if you so desire.]
Simon slowly nodded.
Morning came.
After no small struggle, Simon finally made it back to their room — only to find it a disaster zone, courtesy of Merida's sleep habits. Still, she seemed to have worn herself out at last, and the strange curse-flinging sleepwalking had stopped. Simon managed to lie down and snatch at least a little sleep himself.
He was sleeping like the dead when a knocking sounded at the door.
"Who is it?"
"...M-Mird."
It was Mird, the Ivory Tower Kid who'd been so thoroughly traumatized by Merida.
The moment Simon opened the door, she flattened herself against the floor.
"I-it's breakfast time, so I came to notify— no. To escort you down!"
"Got it."
Simon woke Merida, and the two of them rode the magic-circle elevator down to the banquet hall on the first floor, where the guests were already deep in their morning meals.
"The finest night of my life! I witnessed the founding of the Shahed Kingdom with my own eyes! I wept hot tears, I tell you!"
"Then I simply must go see it right now! Pray tell me which floor you watched from!"
The guests were eagerly exchanging information about the anomalies they'd witnessed the day before, faces flushed with excitement. Simon and Merida sat down at a table wearing half-asleep expressions.
"I'll bring your meals right away!"
Mird said, trembling. The dark circles under her eyes were so heavy she clearly hadn't slept a wink since Merida had put her through the wringer.
"Relax. Talk normally."
Merida said.
"The grown-ups might look at you funny otherwise."
"...Yes! I mean — yeah, okay!"
Merely meeting Merida's eyes was enough to make Mird blanch. Simon stood up from his seat.
"We'll grab our own food. Oh, and Mird?"
"Yeah?"
"Could we use a guest room on the 60th floor range today? We'd like to do some cleaning up there."
His real goal, of course, was to be able to reach the 63rd floor quickly in the small hours of the next morning.
"W-well, sure, we'd love to have you clean the upper floors — they're much more troublesome... You're sure about that?"
"Yeah. There's an anomaly on the 60th floor range I want to see for myself."
"All right. I'll go look for an empty room."
Once Mird had gone, Simon and Merida enjoyed a light breakfast. Before long, Simon spotted a familiar face.
"You still haven't caught Girdon?"
"He's a necromancer who wields space magic, so the search has proven difficult. We've sealed off everything from the 70th floor up, though — he won't be coming down."
A familiar voice drifted over. Daniela Villenne was talking with a group of people.
"Merida, I'll be right back."
"Mm."
Simon approached Daniela. As it happened, the conversation had just wound down, and Daniela spotted him and greeted him warmly.
"Ah, Simon, Student Council President. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes! Thanks to your hospitality."
In truth, between the secret mission and Merida, he'd barely slept at all. The two of them sat down in a pair of chairs nearby.
"Oh, that reminds me — I heard Mayrin visited the Tower of Time once before."
"Heh heh, a few times, when she was little."
Simon traded small talk with Daniela for a while. Naturally, the main topic was Mayrin.
"I'm worried, actually. Mayrin and Serne don't get along at school."
Simon cast out the bait without warning, and Daniela laughed sheepishly.
"It's a headache for us here at the Ivory Tower as well."
"From what I've heard—"
Simon's eyes gleamed sharply.
"The two of them were incredibly close as children. At their very first meeting, Mayrin blocked the Ivory Tower Master's path, took Serne by the hand, and dragged her off to give her a tour of the tower. Am I wrong?"
At those words—
Daniela's expression flooded with bewilderment.
"...Hmm! Hmhm. Heh heh. My daughter certainly has told you all manner of stories, hasn't she."
The longer Simon talked with Daniela, the stronger his conviction grew.
Everything he had witnessed in that past was true.