Abyss Calling
To the Abyss.
Through the City Military, they said.
It wasn't as if the thought had never crossed my mind.
If neither a guild nor a school would take me, I'd wondered whether throwing in with the soldiers might not be such a bad idea. The Grand Ducal House and the City Administration made for an awfully appealing backer, after all.
But I discarded that option almost at once.
The City Military breaks down into three main branches.
The Guard, which defends the city from outside threats.
The Peacekeepers, who suppress crime within the walls.
And the Expedition Force, which deploys into the Abyss.
Of those three, the only place I could possibly belong—if I meant to descend the Abyss and raise my rank—was the last. The Expedition Force.
But the City Military's Expedition Force entered the Abyss under regulations stricter than those binding any unaffiliated explorer, stricter even than the guild- or school-affiliated ones. You operated strictly in teams. Before you were an explorer, you were a soldier of the City Military, and chain of command was absolute.
It was the organization furthest from the free Abyss exploration I wanted.
Safe, yes—but a path that wound far too long a way around.
That was what the City Military option meant to me.
And that assessment hadn't changed even now, with Fiona as a connection.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid I have to decline."
"Well. Figured as much. Getting you into the Expedition Force would have been simple enough, but the City Military comes with no end of internal constraints."
The Director spoke as if he'd known exactly how I would answer.
"Still, there is nowhere that can protect you more reliably than the City Military. That much is fact. Not even the Five Great Guilds. Not even the Six Schools."
He wasn't wrong. The largest, strongest organization in Res Limen was the City Military. Set aside how its sheer size made it slow and clumsy, set aside the factional bickering among its three branches—pure weight class, nothing surpassed it.
But still.
"Does it have to be just one?"
One of the Five Great Guilds.
Three of the Six Schools.
Add them all together?
"I've got some outstanding classmates, you see."
The Alexandria School.
The Celsus School.
The Blostma School.
And Arthur's Frontier Guild on top of that.
If I could put those four at my back, I'd have backing inside the Abyss sturdier than even the City Military's.
"…You really are a demonologist through and through. I wasn't wrong about you back then."
The Director shook his head slowly, then asked,
"Did you save all of them yourself?"
All he'd seen was the final moment—me getting Fiona out. If my classmates had all exercised their right to remain silent, he couldn't be sure whether I'd rescued Fiona alone or the entire group.
My last remark had settled it for him.
"How much did it cost you? Don't you regret it?"
"There's a saying about love of classmates and love of country, isn't there?"
"Ha. Don't give me that nonsense. From the second the lower floors were cut off, you ran the numbers. You weighed the City Military against your classmates' backgrounds and decided on the spot which was the better fit for you."
Well. Not exactly.
The City Military had never been in the comparison to begin with.
But the Director already wore the look of a man convinced his judgment was flawless.
"But is it worth that much? Is securing a backer that lets you operate a little more freely really worth shouldering a price that steep?"
A steep price?
Saying there wasn't one wouldn't convince him, and I could hardly spill one of my greatest secrets either.
So I gave him a more fundamental answer.
"Because there's something I have to do that matters more."
For that, I would gladly shoulder even the steep price the Director was talking about.
I was going to explore the Abyss more freely than anyone.
Wherever mystery waited, I would go. Whoever stood in the way of raising my rank, I would fight.
Even the far side of the deep that no one yet knew.
Even the very floor of that bottomless pit.
I would descend.
"For that, any price is light."
Because I was going back.
No matter what.
"…So you'll see the end of the Abyss by any means necessary. No wonder even the City Military's protection feels like a shackle."
The Director accepted that pressing the City Military offer any further was pointless.
Instead, he said he would recommend somewhere else.
"If free Abyss exploration is the goal, a major guild or school would feel just as burdensome. And joining one of your classmates' affiliations would look like picking sides—not ideal."
True to a man who'd clawed his way to a directorship through civil service, he mapped the political balance in an instant.
"As it happens, there's a place that fits rather well."
"What kind of place?"
A recommendation from the Director was bound to be a solid option.
I'd heard he'd nearly single-handedly cleaned up the instructors who'd turned traitor from within and the Abyss cultists who'd attacked. The title of Training Director might sound modest, but it was a post that shouldered Res Limen's future—higher rank than it looked. Nearly vice-ministerial, supposedly.
With a recommendation from someone like that, I had no reason to refuse.
Especially one that already accounted for my relationships with my classmates.
"A mid-to-small school where you won't have to watch anyone's face—and one that specializes in demonology, same as you. The Thelema School."
"Thelema School?"
I'd never heard of it.
Even back when I'd been pounding on every guild and school door before entering the training center, no one had ever mentioned a place called the Thelema School.
"Hardly surprising. Thelema is currently up for the City Administration's regular school reauthorization review."
"Because it's a school of demonologists…?"
The ostracism of demonologists was a constant in my life by now.
Given how rare it was for a once-authorized regular school to fail reauthorization, the Thelema School the Director was describing was almost certainly a place even mage society kept at arm's length. Enough that fellow regular schools found its very existence galling and were trying to strip its credentials through the review process…
"No. It's just small."
Only five members, you see.
"Ah…"
So it was just tiny as hell.
After Roman left, Skyler sat alone in the Director's office and quietly regarded the empty chair where Roman had been sitting.
"Any price is light, is it."
He hadn't heard those words in a long time.
It had been quite a while ago.
Before Skyler took the post of Training Director. Before he ever joined the City Military.
Back when he'd still been an explorer with the Nippur School.
When the depth of the Abyss—its sheer, unreachable vastness—had broken him, and he'd chosen the road back to the surface, a friend of his had gone the other way.
That friend had said the exact same thing Roman just had.
If I can reach even the farthest edge of the Abyss, any price is light, Skyler.
That friend had lit a beacon into a darkness that was never fully mapped.
Among the tens of thousands of explorers who lived and died in Res Limen, there were those who stood at the absolute peak.
Pioneers who carved into the unknown and pushed into new territory.
His friend had risen to that place.
To the highest honor an explorer could hold—a title granted to only eight people.
Pioneer.
"Roman. You're going to make a fine explorer."
Hadn't Skyler assessed him that way once before?
Either a raving lunatic, or a delusionist convinced he alone was special—
And either way, that was the temperament of an explorer who stood at the summit.
The half-hearted ones died and dropped. But those who chased that madness all the way and still survived always ended up standing higher than ordinary people.
"Done?"
Had they been waiting?
The moment I stepped out of the Director's office, Ray and Leaf were standing outside the door.
"Yeah. Were you waiting?"
"Yeah. Went by the infirmary and you weren't there. An instructor said you were here, so we came."
I'd figured it would be quick and hadn't left a note. If I'd known, I would have.
"Morning—no, it's almost lunch by now, isn't it? You haven't eaten yet?"
"Obviously not. The cafeteria's wrecked. Yesterday's soup we just threw together ourselves out of whatever ingredients still looked halfway decent."
"The City Administration didn't send any support?"
"They did. An investigation team and the Peacekeepers got deployed on emergency orders. But, well—today's the last day here anyway. Figure it out yourselves, basically. We can just go outside and buy food."
Fair enough.
The training center's schedule was over.
Ordinarily, on the day of the midterm exam, the center would have wrapped every course and graduated the trainees with provisional licenses. The only reason the trainees were still here two days later, holding nothing but those provisional licenses, was so the authorities could take witness statements about the incident.
And I was no exception.
They'd put it off while I was a patient, but now that I was conscious and mobile enough to move around, it was time to sit for questioning.
"Then for now…"
"Roman!"
I nearly jumped.
Leaf, who'd been silent until then, suddenly called my name, and Ray's shoulders twitched in surprise too.
"Th-there's a place I'd… I'd really like you to come with us…"
"A place you'd like me to go?"
"Mm… ah—right. Truth is, we came to fetch you too."
Ah.
I see.
I understood.
We did need to have a proper talk at least once.
"Alright. Let's go. They're waiting, I take it. How many are there?"
The three captains would all be there, at minimum.
With Alejandra around, Amaya and the brown-haired one would be too.
And that vaguely dazed-looking girl who always stuck with Fiona—Theresia, was it? I'd heard they were friends. A rising star of the Blostma School, which had been expanding at a breakneck pace lately. Birds of a feather, and all that.
Factor in Arthur's people as well…
"More than half, then."
"Half? What are you talking about."
Ray snorted like I'd said something ridiculous.
"Obviously everyone, you idiot."