Chapter 81: An Unobserved Story. The Windowless Room
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 81: An Unobserved Story. The Windowless Room
When the Synchronization Magic is released, a sense of immense distance washes over you. It’s like exiting a long, narrow tunnel in reverse. Your lonely body pulls your consciousness back, and the connection between the golem and Abbey stretches thin like a spider’s thread at its limit.
Then, with a snap, it breaks.
Captain Abbey was back in reality.
Abbey opened her eyes on a mat. She had laid it out in her room, just in case she fell and hurt herself while synchronized.
It was also there for stretching.
“Hoo.”
Exhaling deeply, Abbey hugged her arms for a moment. Beneath her uniform, she could feel the soft texture of her own skin.
Her senses were normal. This was her own body, not a golem. Frequent use of Synchronization Magic could sometimes blur the line between self and golem, so she had to perform these simple tests.
Her check complete, she crawled on her knees off the plush mat.
Outside her personal space was a cramped, dark, and cluttered office. It was a sterile room, filled only with mission essentials, pathologically excluding anything else.
On one wall, palm-sized ‘windows’ were clustered together like a honeycomb. Most of them were dark, as if reflecting the night. Only two ‘windows’ showed any trace of light.
One of them displayed a blue sky and a vast wasteland. The other was dark and blurry, as if covered by storm clouds.
Abbey pulled a key from her bio-receptor and inserted it into a slot next to the blurry ‘window’. The gray storm clouds swirled and gradually formed a scene….
Soon, the window showed the cafeteria of Tantalus. The darkness had not yet lifted, and the hazy scenery was visible through the window.
“The Progenitor… What on earth is she thinking?”
Her intentions were impossible to guess. What was certain, however, was that the Progenitor was still in the Abyss and wanted to learn how to cook.
The very fact that she wanted to learn to cook implied she would be staying in the Abyss for the foreseeable future. There shouldn't be any problems for a while.
More importantly, the golem inside Tantalus was currently restrained, and she needed to address it. Abbey moved on to her next task.
Sitting before the ‘window’, Abbey closed her eyes and focused her mind. The air trembled, and a new set of laws began to overlay the world around her.
She was a soldier of the Military State, but the magic she used was different from the standard-issue spells. It was the manifestation of her own world, one that required no incantations or spell names to reshape reality.
Her Unique Magic. Morning Glory.
An annual flower that blooms only in the morning and fades by afternoon.
Vines of Morning Glory, woven from mana, wrapped around her entire body and slowly began to bloom. It was as if a beautiful vine was embracing her warmly, or perhaps a hungry snake coiling to devour her.
It didn't matter which. As long as she could perform her duties.
Abbey drew upon her mana, and the Morning Glory, nourished by it, formed a bud next to her cheek. It soon bloomed beautifully, revealing a fresh, violet hue.
The preparations were complete. Opening her eyes, Abbey spoke to the pistil of the Morning Glory.
“This is Captain Abbey, Signaller of the Military State. Calling Yuel, from Abbey.”
Words no one else could hear.
Words that could never be delivered from this remote, isolated place.
But the Morning Glory, possessing the power of ‘Synchronization’, would deliver the message to another flower, blooming somewhere else in the world.
As if it had been waiting, a voice flew in from someone far, far away.
『Abbey! I was waiting!』
The exuberant voice was the same as it had been a few days ago. Abbey responded to the voice from the other side.
“Yuel. Connection confirmed.”
『It’s been a while! To be precise, 6 days, 21 hours, and 34 minutes! A little longer and it would have been a whole week! Don’t make me worry, Abbey!』
“I appreciate your concern, but there was no reason to contact you. I had no new information to report, as the only ‘window’ in my possession was restrained.”
A clapping sound came from the other side.
『Oh, right! You said almost all the ‘windows’ were broken, didn’t you? Are the last two broken as well?』
“Negative. However, the last unit monitoring the interior of Tantalus has been restrained. Is it possible to get a resupply of ‘windows’?”
『Hmm. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait. As you know, our ‘windows’ are incredibly hard to make. They don’t just churn them out… especially not if they get broken so easily.』
Originally, Abbey had forty-nine ‘windows’. It was the maximum number she could control, a generous amount provided by the Military State considering the unique circumstances of Tantalus. The idea was to have spares, as the lawless inmates of Tantalus, who could tear apart humans with ease, would hardly leave a golem untouched.
Their predictions had been accurate. Of those many ‘windows’, forty-seven had been easily destroyed, leaving only two.
But Abbey had her own side of the story.
“That falls under my purview, but the responsibility is not entirely mine. It wasn’t uncommon for trainees in Tantalus to break the ‘windows’, but none were as pathologically and meticulously destructive as ‘him’. In the first place, the responsibility lies with General Patraxion for arresting a criminal without even disarming him…”
『Ahaha. That’s dangerous talk. Even if we’re not under his command, you can’t talk about a general like that~.』
Yuel cut her off at the perfect moment. Abbey, who had been about to vent her frustrations on the innocent Yuel, took a deep breath and calmed herself.
“…I stand corrected.”
『No, no~. It happens! We’re Signallers, not emotionless vampires! Though, not being able to see the sun, there isn’t much of a difference!』
A self-deprecating joke flowed out—Yuel’s attempt to diffuse the tense atmosphere.
Feeling the uncomfortable guilt of having burdened her friend, Abbey changed the subject.
“What is the status of the mana herb supply I requested?”
『Yep! It should be departing soon! But, you know the rule, right? Signallers are absolutely forbidden from using mana herbs! An overseer will be dispatched to confirm this!』
Yuel, who was always gentle, never used a harsh tone with Abbey. For her to emphasize the word ‘absolutely’ meant it was something that truly had to be avoided.
But Abbey knew. She knew that Yuel, the one giving the warning, had gone to great lengths to secure those mana herbs for her.
That was why she couldn't bring herself to say that the laborer had betrayed her and the supply should be canceled. She could clearly picture Yuel’s happy face when she had first heard Abbey’s request.
As she was choosing her words, an alert sounded on Yuel’s end. An order had been received. A flustered voice came through the Morning Glory.
『Ah. Hold on. An urgent order just came in.』
It was too long to be a report, too short to be a chat. It was time to end their private conversation.
Abbey straightened her uniform and said.
“My apologies for disturbing you while you were busy, Captain Yuel.”
『Not at all. It was nice to hear from you after so long. Let’s… talk again later.』
Her voice, tinged with longing, faded away as the Morning Glory’s petals began to wilt. Yuel’s voice echoed like a faint, lingering scent.
『This is Captain Yuel, Signaller of the Military State… Regarding your request…』
The voice grew faint. With that, the Morning Glory on Abbey’s shoulder withered. The vine-like stems snapped and broke as if they had dried out completely.
As they fell to the ground, they dissolved into the air like mist.
A Unique Magic is unique. That is because the inner world of one person is different from any other.
This was a fundamental truth, established the moment the mystery of magic first took root in the human body.
However.
What if you gathered those with similar aptitudes and refined their inner worlds through strict, standardized education?
Could they not learn the same magic?
The Military State had actually done it. They were the Signallers, talents carefully selected from the secondary military schools and cultivated through special training.
Their magic, while different in form, shared a common trait.
Synchronization.
With this magic, Signallers could communicate with one another without any machinery or magic circles, and they could connect to specially made golems using a bio-receptor and a key.
Considering that even the most rudimentary communication equipment was as large and outrageously expensive as a building, the Signallers were a success for the Military State, greatly reducing that burden while adding mobility.
However, those with such talent were few and far between. Thus, regardless of age or experience, a Signaller was commissioned as a captain immediately upon appointment.
Though becoming a captain meant they could only command golems, making them more akin to rank-and-file soldiers than officers.
“Good luck, Yuel.”
Wishing her closest friend happiness, Abbey turned away.
A single small lamp illuminates the suffocating space. On the small desk, documents and coded messages are scattered about in disarray.
With Clothing Packets, there is no need for a wardrobe. With canned beans, there is no need for other food. All necessities for survival fit into a single cupboard.
Other than that, there is nothing to adorn her life.
Not a comfortable sofa to rest on.
Not a silly magazine filled with content that would elicit more scoffs than laughs.
Not even a window to catch a glimpse of the outside world.
Nothing.
This was a windowless room. There was no door leading outside. Not even a window.
Opening the curtains to greet the pouring sunlight, opening a window to let in the breeze—such things were impossible from the start.
For Captain Abbey, the Signaller, the only ‘window’ she was permitted, her only channel to see the outside world, was her golems.
A Signaller’s room must be sterile. If there were any distractions, they would surely neglect their communications.
To receive supplies, to handle their duties, or even to observe the world for a change of pace, they had to go through their own windows: the golems.
It was their only way to interact with the world.
The only solace permitted was… conversing with other Signallers. But even that was not easy.
She went to the sink and washed her face. After drying it with a towel packet, Abbey looked at her reflection in the mirror. A neat uniform and cap, and short hair, cut cleanly to match, swayed gently. Perhaps from the lack of sunlight, her skin was pale even under the dim lighting.
It used to have a slightly sallow look, but that had disappeared recently thanks to some unintentional stretching.
Not that she was grateful for it.
Her thoughts returned to the ‘windows’. Abbey sat back down in her chair and looked out at them.
The golem on the surface, watching the passing clouds and the distant wasteland.
And the golem in Tantalus, sitting in a corner of the cafeteria, silently observing the dark room.
Staring blankly like the golems themselves, Abbey suddenly muttered.
“…Should I go back?”
As if possessed, Abbey reached out. Of the two remaining windows, she hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the key for the golem inside Tantalus.
And then, without realizing it, she began to stretch. Her body remembered the constant stretching she had done over the past three days in order to synchronize.
As Captain Abbey stretched her legs, she suddenly recalled something.
“Ah. Right. They’d loosened up.”
Abbey ground her teeth, recalling the past humiliation.
The synchronization rate increases the more similar one is to the target of synchronization. That was why synchro-type golems had human forms and senses similar to humans.
Naturally, to synchronize, one had to mimic the target’s posture as closely as possible.
Even if it was doing the splits.
When she inserted the key into her bio-receptor, her Synchronization Magic, resonating with her, informed her that she needed to do the splits. Captain Abbey would then have to clench her fists, tremble, and force her legs apart.
There is a saying: when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Captain Abbey’s body, from controlling a rigid golem every day, had become as stiff as a golem itself. It was only natural that her flexibility would vanish, cooped up in a room controlling golems all day.
The new trial given to her inflexible body was far too cruel. But for Abbey, trapped in a windowless room, enduring it was her only option.
The first day.
She placed both feet against the wall and pushed her body forward. Holding her breath and pulling on the wall, Abbey’s legs formed an awkward obtuse angle.
For the golem, doing the splits was merely an arrangement of parts. The only one feeling pain was Abbey. Experiencing the unfamiliar sensation of her own body hurting more than the golem’s, Abbey screamed.
The second day.
Perhaps thanks to a full day of what could barely be called stretching, her range of motion had increased. As a side effect, she couldn't close her legs the next morning, but that was a minor issue. In any case, her synchronization rate was relatively higher, and she could maintain the connection.
And the first thing Captain Abbey saw after connecting to the golem through such arduous effort was…
A speaker, placed just out of her hand’s reach.
Snap. Something inside Captain Abbey broke.
The third day.
Some things cannot be achieved through effort alone. Repeated stretching makes the body more flexible, but doing a forward bend while in a full split is not a feat accomplished in a day or two. The body is honest; it doesn't allow for cramming.
But she couldn't give up. If she remained trapped like this, not only would she fail her mission, but the thought of one of her ‘windows’ being permanently shut was terrifying.
And so, thinking of the one who had bound her, Abbey continued her vengeful splits.
“You petty criminal… I will not forget this humiliation.”
Although the one who had restrained the golem this time was the Progenitor, it was nothing compared to the grudge she held against him. No, if it weren't for him in the first place, she wouldn't have been restrained like this.
Vowing revenge, Abbey connected to the golem in Tantalus.