Chapter 4
Part 2
-This time, for sure.
Once all the others had left, my brother began examining the body.
Unexpectedly, he didn't seem all that bothered by the corpse. At least as far as the examination was concerned, he seemed pretty well composed. Just because a magus never shied away from battles that risked his life, that didn't necessarily mean he was comfortable around dead bodies.
So, if we think about where he got over the innate human fear of dead bodies...there was, of course, only one answer we could draw. There really was no separating this man's character and that Holy Grail War.
Retrieving the body from the spring, he laid it on the ground and began inspecting its injuries.
"...cause of death, a single stab to the heart, huh?" he muttered quietly.
No matter how powerful a Magic Crest one may have possessed, if the heart is destroyed that's the end. This maid may have had some manner of familiarity with magecraft, but evidently it hadn't done much to help her. Conversely, we could say the culprit had absolutely no hesitation in their intent to kill.
"What's this?"
From under her clothes, he pulled out an ornament of some kind.
A necklace, made of a string threaded around a broken stone. The stone itself had a whirl engraved on it, meaning it likely had some sort of magical significance.
"...looks like a Celtic protective charm. Unfortunately, doesn't look like it did much good."
With a pained expression passing over his face for just a moment, he closed the corpses eyes.
"Let's make arrangements for the funeral tomorrow."
And after that, we returned to the tower so he could inspect the corpse of the Princess of Gold.
As we had requested, the scene of the crime had been preserved. Upon seeing the Princess of Gold's beauty, even in death, for the first time, my brother gulped. After giving the room a once over, we once again returned outside.
The place he chose next was the grass outside, where we could look at both towers. Feeling the warm wind brushing over us, he found a suitably sized rock and took a seat, as if to say he was done with walking.
After muttering something about how we couldn't talk about important matters in the living space of another magus, my brother had decided we couldn't stay in the towers. Within the territory of an old magus family, even each pebble would be carefully monitored and controlled, but compared to being inside their Workshop this was much better.
Sitting on the rock, after a short while he hung his head, rubbing his face.
"...I honestly thought I was going to die," he said, as if spitting it out from the deepest reaches of his stomach.
"Could you not sound so weak right after investigating so quickly?"
"I barely slept at all last night, you know. I couldn't sleep on the train, and since Windermere Station I was basically running to get here. And now it's just investigation after investigation! Can you please acknowledge my effort a little bit here?!"
For a moment, I wondered how appropriate it was for a Lord of the Clock Tower to be complaining like a greenhorn Salaryman. Though, I'm not sure any company would take in someone who said things like 'please acknowledge my effort.'
As if he needed it to stave off a headache, my brother pulled a cigar out from his pocket. Clipping the end with a knife, he lit it up before taking a deep pull.
"...for now, let's see if we can sort out this situation so far," he said in a puff of thickly scented smoke.
"For the incident? I gave you the gist of it in the text I sent you."
"No, what I want to get a handle on is how the Princesses managed to become so beautiful."
At that, I couldn't help but scowl.
"Wait a minute. Esteemed brother, did you not come here to find the killer and rescue your little sister?"
"...Master..." Even Gray's tone held a reproachful air.
"Hold on, this is important. For the investigation."
"...really now?" Surprisingly, it was Gray that elected to push back on him. No doubt it was because she knew that when it came to magi, this man had a particular penchant for getting caught up in the unnecessary details. Compared to his considerably lacking talent for magecraft itself, that was really a much more magus-like part of him.
"Alright, for now I'll take your word for it," I said. "What about the Princesses magic are you interested in?"
"Hold on, if you sound that bored by the subject, I'm going to get worried. Isn't the desire to become more beautiful something held by pretty much all women?"
"Not me, apparently."
Hearing my honest reply, he gave a deep sigh.
"You are either deceiving yourself, or living a far too brutal existence. Even among the actresses in Hollywood, there are huge numbers of people who look for plastic surgery. Especially today, there are all kinds of methods available. There are ways now that don't even need a scalpel."
"...really?"
Timidly, Gray spoke up.
Oh my. That is not where I expected her to get stuck. Yet it was hard not to hear just a little bit of gloom mixed into her voice. As I made a mental note to get some cosmetics for her once we returned to the Clock Tower, my brother nodded.
"Make up was originally magecraft, after all," he said, stroking his own cheeks.
"From what we can tell, the earliest cosmetics existed before we were even the humans we recognize today - tens of thousands of years ago. Afraid that things like insects, demons, or evil spirits could enter the body through the eyes, nose, ears, or mouth, they were painted with brilliant colours. Even today you can see cultures mimicking this, from the tribes in the depths of New Guinea to the Amazon Rainforest. In contrast to stopping evils, there were also cosmetics designed to invite in benevolent spirits or gods, something that has continued in the practices of Mediums even today.
While it was first used to ward off evil and insects, around the time of Ancient Egypt it changed drastically. In a famous example, there was the princess Nefertiti in the 14th Century BC. It seems she crushed lapis lazuli into a powder and used it as an eyeliner. Of course many cases involved the use of materials that were quite toxic, but it seems more than that they were recognized for the beauty they brought. Even despite knowledge of their toxicity getting out, the fact that such cosmetics became so widespread and were used for such a long time speaks volumes of the value that had been attributed to beauty even then."
As my brother continued going on and on, I couldn't help but feel that he was stranger and stranger. The bizarre feeling of the juxtaposition of a man who looked like he couldn't care less about the appearance of women giving a lecture on the history ofcosmetics was hard to shake.
Perhaps because he recognized that himself, he cleared his throat before continuing.
"If you consider plastic surgeries that did involve knives, the oldest techniques can be traced back to ancient India. At that time, there was a punishment practiced where the nose was chopped off, but there were also techniques that involved transplanting of skin to different places in order to improve the shape of the face. There were also techniques for piercing and extending the earlobes, all located in the Suśruta-saṃhitā, a medical text from the time. Well, the pursuit of beauty performed by the Iselma here is well above the examples we can see in history. According to the records, just the research they have done in this location exceeds ten generations of work - in otherwords, a length of time measurable in centuries."
At that point, my brother's speech briefly stopped.
As if to say he had no plan on moving on for a while, he silently shifted his gaze to me. His intention was so clear I couldn't help but snort.
"As long winded as always, I see, but in short what you want to say is the fact that their research suddenly bore fruit after all this time has to have some sort of catch to it. Am I right?"
"Precisely," he nodded.
Slowly, he spun a fingers in the air, a habit he had brought with him from the classroom. Holding his cigar in two fingers, he continued.
"In regards to that, a number of suspicious rumors have started springing up. Apparently, Iselma came into the possession of a considerable treasure last month."
"Treasure?"
Seeing my frown, he shrugged.
"It apparently came from a black market auction, so the details are beyond me. It was something in the sights of a number of magi, however Iselma apparently focused all of their resources on obtaining it."
At my brother's words, Gray spoke up in a curious voice. "Is the Iselma family that rich?"
"Not according to my knowledge, at least," he replied.
As such, it would not be strange if the Iselma had thrown themselves considerably into debt. Magecraft was already a cost-intensive profession. Pretty notions like 'equivalent exchange' were nothing more than window dressing. To produce even a single gram of gold, an equivalent value to a whole pool of it needed to be spent. That was the nature of magecraft.
After all, there existed such things that could only be achieved with such lavish waste.
"Speaking of which, we did hear a similar story before, didn't we? Something about a Talisman that he wanted so badly." I decided to leave out the fact that 'he' in this case was a self proclaimed spy.
Mick Grajilie. The man who had casually requested our help in destroying the Iselma family. It was such a bizarre request I had kind of forgotten it, but thanks to that we did have confirmation that this treasure really did exist.
"I see. So you are saying that this treasure must have been used to complete the Princess of Gold?"
"...well, that's what I thought at first, at least." Speaking somewhat haltingly, he scratched his head. "But no matter how I look at it, the time frame just doesn't add up."
"The time frame?"
"Right. I said it before, but the spell for the Princesses revolved around the Sun and the Moon. In short, whatever treasure they might have obtained, they would have needed to wait for that timing...but the movements of the moon have been all wrong for that. If it was just about the Moon, sure they could have just waited for it to move into the right position. But if you also are involving the Sun, then things aren't so simple."
Hearing that much, I finally understood something. "...I see. Being my brother, you are pretty bad with people, after all."
"What do you mean?"
Seeing Gray was also confused, I continued with a bitter smile.
"In short, your little show for Lord Byron, exposing the magecraft behind the Princesses, was really about determining whether it was the Sun and Moon behind it, no?"
"...ah." As if something had finally clicked in her head, the hooded girl's eyes went wide.
"I thought that it was a bit hard to believe that anger was all just an act. My, you have become quite settled in to your surroundings at the Clock Tower, haven't you?"
"...in order to avoid discovery by other magi, they will often give things intentionally misleading names. In that case, it still has to be somewhat close, or else the strength of the symbolism is lost."
I'll have to ask you to forgive me for enjoying your mumbled excuses so much. In exchange, I'll avoid pressing you too much farther on the subject.
"Though, considering the scenery here, there was really no need to hold such doubts."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
At my question, he narrowed his eyes at me, as if to say he was fed up with students like me.
"Oh come, there's no need to be like that. If you've realized something, surely you can tell your cute little sister?"
"Stop swapping places between student and sister to suit your whims. Anyways, take a look at those two towers."
As I was told, I turned to look at the towers. Just like when we had first arrived, the bizarrely leaning towers had the look of an antlion's nest. But from this angle, the angle of the sun put it in our field of view, matching its brilliance with long shadows.
(...hm? Shadows?)
As soon as I noticed that, I understood what my brother was trying to say.
"...ah!"
"...Miss Reines?" While Gray was inquiring quizzically, I was just holding my head. How could I have overlooked something like that? I couldn't even be angry at my brother for jabbing at me for missing it.
Pulling his cigar from his mouth, he puffed out a cloud of smoke as he spoke.
"They're a sundial and a moondial. Though with how grand their architecture is, it's normal to miss it."
"Ah-" At that, Gray nodded deeply.
The Tower of the Sun was actually an enormous sundial. I thought its lean was suspicious, but I never considered it had that sort of meaning behind it.
"...then, a moondial is..."
"In short, the same thing as a sundial. But a moondial only works when the moon is full. To add to that, really they don't have the correct slant on their own, but that's likely a correction to account for the tilt of the land itself. Do you understand now, Lady?"
"Yes. With a construction of this magnitude, there's no way the towers are unrelated to the Iselma magecraft - and thus, to the Princesses themselves," I answered, hanging my head. This was really making me feel pathetic. There was really no excuse for missing something this big.
"Then, when you said the formulas for the Sun and Moon didn't match up, you were talking about this clock."
"Right. The moondial of course would only be accurate once a month, but even the sundial has a similar level of error baked into it. The orbit of the Earth around the Sun is an ellipse, thus the necessity of calculating a more precise solar time becomes hard to avoid. As such, those who use spells involving the motions of the Sun and Moon together tend to rely on the precise solar time as it coincides with the full moon...but if they included the usage of their recently acquired treasure, the timing just doesn't add up."
"The timing?"
"Right. In reality, if you are using a spell that takes into account the motions of the Sun and Moon, the best time is a solar eclipse exactly at noon. Of course, that's because the Sun and Moon are then at the same location. The next best time after that would be at noon while the moon is full, an option creating a straight line directly through the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. Technically in Astrology it's a bad omen, but in other fields of magecraft it's considered good circumstances."
Picking up a nearby stick, he began drawing a circle and pattern into the ground.
While I couldn't help being amused at the fact his habits as a lecturer didn't leave him even in these circumstances, after seeing what he was drawing, I blinked surprised.
"What, a horoscope?"
Effectively, it was a map of heavenly bodies.
Even if you weren't a magus, it was a pretty common sight in things like fortune-telling magazines. My brother continued drawing in the map, including the positions of the planets and the constellations.
"Right. Even if you aren't in the
Animusphere
Faculty of Celestials
, this is at the absolute basic level. Anyways, for this option, you have at least one point a month, but there's a reason it's called the second best. On top of just being a bad omen, you also have to deal with interference from the positions of the other planets. The fundamental points are having the Sun and Moon in either the same or exactly opposite positions, but the relevant planets also need to be within the Trigon. In this case, since it's magecraft related to the Princesses, Saturn - the planet governing art and creation - needs to be within the 120 degree mark. With the positions of the planets in this past month, that's impossible. Oh, and we're working within Classical parameters, so Neptune and Pluto aren't taken into account."
Writing down the positions of the planets, he pointed out the position of Saturn at 120 degrees from the intersecting line of the Sun and Moon.
"I see...so the full moon at noon isn't enough to produce the ideal conditions. Come to think of it, I feel like a similar thing came up in my Clock Tower classes."
"It's vital information if you use any magecraft involving celestial bodies. Though if you aren't interested in the Sun and Moon specifically, you don't need to worry about the time of day."
After a brief moment of thought, I spoke again.
"So basically, this treasure may not have been used on the Princess of Gold?"
"...quite possibly."
As he began to mumble, my brother started tapping his temple. He had a very effeminate way of mulling over his personal theories...in short, like someone who was used to being poor, he never wanted to let any of his hypotheses go to waste. As such, his essays tended to push his ideas as much as they could. He was a man whose preferences and talents had unfortunately little in common.
After a moment,
"...And then, the fact that Touko Aozaki is here completely changes the line of thought we need to follow." The sigh that followed was even gloomier than before.
In a way, her presence here was a far more important mystery than discovering who the true culprit behind the murders was. It appeared that despite our respective silence, my feelings were communicated quite clearly.
"It seems you've given that some though, Lady."
"Yes, of course I understand," I nodded, letting my frustration leak out in my voice.
"Was the Princess of Gold that died even the real one?"
Ever since the presence of the Grand known as Touko Aozaki was discovered, it was a question that had been scratching incessantly at the back of my mind.
My brother pushed the question one step further.
"And on top of that, doesn't it make you wonder if one of the two Princesses is a puppet in the first place?"
"...eh?" Gray blurted out with a stunned expression.
As if her whole world had just turned ashen, she looked between the two of us.
"...a puppet...but the Princess of Gold we saw was human..."
"Right. She couldn't have been anything but human. But the moment Touko Aozaki is in the picture, you have to throw out all your preconceptions." Saying that, I raised two fingers. "The services she provides for the Clock Tower are varied, but there are two that she's famous for."
Yes, two things. I said that she was famous for them rather lightly, but in the Clock Tower, where the most elite magi of the world are gathered, there was rarely any research that deserved attention from outsiders. At a basic level magecraft was a discipline that focused on the past, but more than that the highly individualistic nature of magi meant they had little time to concern themselves with the research of anyone but themselves. As such, for something to get the attention of others, it needed to be powerful enough to completely overwhelm each observer's own individual research.
For magi that had spent a considerable amount of time in the Clock Tower, their own individual purposes and principles is generally what drove them into one of the long-standing factions. The Clock Tower was broadly speaking the best environment a studying magus could hope for, but those who truly wished to cooperate in search of the deepest Mysteries, prising free the secrets of the already entrenched factions was a precondition to even trying.
However, from what my sources told me, after wandering through a number of
Value's
the Faculty of Creation's
classrooms, she ended up not aligning herself with any particular faction.
In any case, her work lined up as-
"First, the reconstruction of foundational runes that had fallen into decline," I said, dropping one of my fingers. "Rune magecraft itself is quite famous, and a certain portion of magi today have been using and researching it for a tremendous amount of time. However, most of them have been lost to time. Despite that, she was able to recover and reconstruct a large portion of those lost Runes. If the rumors are to be believed, even beyond recovering the 24 Runes of the Futhark alphabet that undergirds the magecraft as a whole, she also managed to parse out a number of Primeval Runes that were supposedly lost back in the Age of Gods. The rights to the former were sold throughout the Clock Tower, while the latter were apparently sealed away for safe keeping in case of her Sealing Designation being fulfilled."
The Clock Tower really pulled no punches.
Comparatively useful or low level formulas were regulated by way of patents, but the high level spells - the kind that could serve as the backbone for an entire faction, were sealed away in a treasure trove somewhere under the pretext of keeping forbidden magecrafts in check. Would that regulated knowledge ever find its way out to be used by someone? As far as Runes were concerned, the originals supposedly existed with the Thule Society, but it seemed to me like they were happy to hoard them away until the magical foundation of Runes declined to nothing anyways. Magi truly had an astonishing penchant for holding onto their secrets.
"The other is for her abilities as a peerless puppet maker," I lowered my second finger.
Gray responded by tilting her head. "...I thought...the Concept of Human Imitation was...?"
Of course, that was the same thing I had thought when the Automata first attacked us.
"Right. The circumstances are a little different than they were with Rune Magecraft, but the Concept of Human Imitation is certainly in decline. Which means, she has somehow managed to resurrect two strains of magecraft that were thought to be defunct."
Though Gray remained silent, I nodded strongly.
That's right. It was ridiculous. To bring two lost forms of magecraft back from the dead, even if imperfectly, felt more like a comedy. It was akin to bringing someone back from the dead, reaching into the realm of blasphemy. Who did she think she was, trying to play God like that?
But, that was of course why she was a Grand.
The ultimate peak of the Clock Tower, above even the highest realistic rank of Brand.
As if Gray had just realized something, she suddenly looked up.
"Then, that Automata was-!"
"Naturally, one would think it was a creation of Touko Aozaki..." I could feel my speech beginning to degrade.
Until now, I wasn't very confident. Of course, there were no other magi that could make such an Automata. If you looked at the whole Clock Tower, besides her...you'd be lucky to find one or two.
However, if that were the case, would she use an Automata like that for a crime against another magus? It was like leaving her nametag at the crime scene before leaving. She couldn't be that foolish, could she? Or perhaps, she had prepared another trap to corner us further should we attempt to expose her?
From the start, it didn't seem like there was much intention of trying to find the true culprit. If this was all a ruse to get at me as a member of the Barthomelloi faction, then that was certainly a possibility, but...
"...but there are plenty of other possibilities," my brother, who had been quietly listening, spoke up. "For example, an Automata made before the field collapsed could be refurbished to look new. Basically, the opposite of trying to make a counterfeit antique.
"...ah, I see."
That kind of crisp, clear jump to a new train of thought was very much like my brother.
The wind howled, as if taunting us. 'Only I know the truth behind this mystery.'
"...following that logic, would that mean the dead body was a creation of Touko's, and the real Princess of Gold is still alive?
"That's how it looks, doesn't it?"
"Then, the culprit's motive is?"
In response to Gray's simple question, my brother pressed his chin in thought.
"...at first, I considered it might have been a ploy by Iselma to strike a blow against us, but the risk doesn't appropriately match the reward. If there plan was to attack the El-Melloi, they'd need to do it at the lowest cost possible in order to strike a profit, as it were. As it is, they are far too deep in the game. Even if we are taken down, if it looks like an obvious trap, there's no way Barthomeloi will just sit back quietly and watch."
"...ah," I nodded.
"If their goal was to mire the Clock Tower in an all out war, then that's different, but the difference in strength between Trambelio and Barthomeloi isn't that extreme. It would just devolve into a bloody swamp where no one wins. Well, the Church would probably be happy with that, at least."
The Holy Church, who leaned towards the annihilation of Mystery, and the Magic Association, who leaned towards its preservation, were like water and oil. Well, from the start, it was foolish to think that an organization that existed to worship God and an organization that sought to discern the nature of magecraft would get along well in the first place.
According to my brother, many Western forms of magecraft operated under the presupposition of God's existence, but they viewed God more as a means to an end. To those who held a true faith in God, that was all the more unforgivable.
For a while after that, with the topic exhausted, silence settled over us.
"Oh, right." Suddenly remembering, I pulled a handkerchief out from my pocket.
Or to be more accurate, I pulled out the thing wrapped in that handkerchief.
"Dearest brother. Would you mind taking a look at this powder?"
It was the powder I had picked up at the scene of the Princess of Gold's death. I knew that it had a certain amount of magical energy in it, but beyond that I couldn't discover any more.
"Hmm...hold on a minute." From a small bag, my brother pulled out a magnifying glass.
An alchemist - or maybe more appropriately, a police investigator from a hundred years prior. He gave off that kind of impression, but somehow it felt appropriate for him. He was the type that just wouldn't get along with the magi of the Clock Tower.
"...is this some sort of ash?"
"I thought so as well, but beyond that I've got nothing."
My brother was oblivious to my shrug. For a while, he stared at the ash as if entranced. After staring through the magnifying glass for a while, he removed it and looked at it with his bare eyes. Then, he took a small bit in his fingers, and threw it in his mouth.
"Hey! Are you mad?!"
Without answering, he played with it in his mouth for a bit before spitting it back into his hand. After looking at it in his hand for a bit, he whispered.
"...ah, I think I know what this is."
"Oh? I thought your previous life as a dog was resurfacing or something."
"That's a pretty Eastern idea, if you're talking about reincarnation. But...Perrault? Basile? Or perhaps the Venus de Milo, all the way back from Greece?"
With his head bent down, he humbled for a while. It almost felt like he had forgotten I was there.
"...hey, you in there?"
"Please, let me think for a bit," he said, as if groaning.
Originally Posted by TwilightsCall
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