Chapter 5
Part 2
The sun dropped completely below the horizon, and the Castle of Separation was cloaked in darkness.
Being a castle nestled within the mountains, it wasn't really one that could be used for a traditional battle. The closest village was easily ten kilometers out, and the only way to reach it was to follow animal trails through the forest. No matter how much of a mountaineer you were, in this situation, there was no getting in or out.
Of course, that made no difference to 'it.'
Crawling up the walls of the castle like a spider, 'it' took a position near the top of the bell tower and listened carefully.
Its objective was a single person.
The flames of hatred that burned in its lungs wouldn't die as long as that person still lived. It understood that so much it was painful, but that pain only sharpened its resolve. No matter what happened here, the one thing it couldn't allow was for that person to escape. In order to prevent that possibility, it opened all its nerves and magic circuits wide.
The Castle of Separation itself was its ally.
Wherever there were angels, so were its hands and eyes.
Those eyes quickly discovered a familiar wandering near the walls of the castle.
A butterfly.
Several butterflies, shining with an ephemeral light, fluttered around the grounds of the castle. The castle gardens, the walls, even the keep entrance was surrounded with them. No doubt, they were attempting to secure an escape route. Either way, it seemed the familiars were just being used to look around, for now.
Those butterflies...there was no mistaking it.
The fact that that old magus was still alive was beyond its wildest expectations, but all it meant was that it would have to kill him again. The ritual could continue after that was accomplished.
So, it turned its ears toward finding the source of those butterflies.
The sound caused by the activation of magecraft was something that couldn't be avoided. On top of that, the magical energy used had unique effects on the sound waves themselves, and it knew from experience how to turn that knowledge into an advantage. If it could capture a single one of those butterflies, it could use it to find a path directly to its master. It didn't know how that master was hiding itself, but it would just have to drag him out anyways.
It began walking across the wall.
Its destination was the castle keep.
If there was one thing it had confidence in, it was its own agility. As far as it was concerned, getting from the wall to the keep was no more difficult than breathing.
Immediately beside the entrance to the keep, a butterfly fluttered upwards, completely unaware of its presence. Unable to suppress its glee, its lips curled into a smile as it reached a hand out towards the familiar.
An instant later, there was light.
Taken off guard by the unexpected brightness, it flinched. It was like a vampire suddenly thrust into the sunlight.
"...as expected, here it is," a young boy spoke.
In the boy's hand was a rusted copper lantern. Apparently taken from somewhere within the castle, the scent of burning oil rapidly filled the air.
"Of course. I'm sure there is other valuable prey as well, but there was no way it would let its number one target escape, now is there?"
The sound of footsteps.
From behind the boy, several magi stepped forward. Not one of them attempted to hide the surprise on their faces.
"Wait, what's going on here?"
"It's exactly what it looks like."
The boy lifted the lantern up.
The wavering light of the lantern clearly illuminated the figure of a man.
Even without his headwrap or his conch, his figure was unmistakeable. His face, which normally gave the impression of an idiot even with his eyepatch, was somehow softened by the darkness of the night.
If it had been anywhere else...
Lifting another old lantern up high, Lord El-Melloi II made his declaration.
"The culprit is you, Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen...or should I say, Geryuon Ashbourne's son, Granide Ashbourne?"
***********
From the darkness of the night, I slowly peaked my head out to watch.
There were already five magi gathered in the entrance of the Castle of Separation's keep.
My master.
Luvia.
Flue.
Orlocke, now in the figure of a young boy.
And finally, Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen.
The first four had all been standing concealed within the forest of the front gardens by magic circles, as I was now. Clown alone was inside the keep, in case of an emergency situation.
The one who had set up the circles had been Flue. Though he complained that setting up multiple copies of the same circle in a single area made them weaker, in the end he was the most skilled of any of us when it came to directional magecraft, so my master had been able to persuade him.
Flue's eyes now were darting back and forth like mad.
"Whoa whoa, are you serious? Sure, I can buy that he's the culprit, but you're saying he's Ashbourne's son on top of that?"
"Y-yeah, what are you talking about?" Seigen waved his hands in denial in his typical over-exaggerated manner. Pointing to his headwrap and conch, and even pulling at his own cheek, he spoke again. "No matter how you look at it, I don't really match the pattern, don't you think?"
My master gave a small sigh. Lowering the lantern to his feet, he cleared his throat.
"Then, shall I explain everything from the beginning?"
The night wind blew, bringing with it the sound of the leaves rustling in the nearby trees. It was like listening to the voices of fairies. Or maybe, being the Castle of Separation, it would be more appropriate to call them the whispers of angels.
Lord,
where are you going
quo vadis
?
Where was he, who was fit to sit on the throne of judgment before us?
My master reached into his jacket and pulled out the invitation.
"First of all, what is this invitation?"
"What is it? It's for the selection of Ashbourne's heir, is it not?"
Cutting off Luvia, my master continued. "Let's be more direct. Why were we gathered here at this castle? A riddle game, to determine who was suitable to inherit Ashbourne's secrets? That's way too far removed from the normal nature of a magus. Every one of you should be painfully aware of that."
No, that was wrong.
The one who was painfully aware of that was none other than my master. That no matter how much he pursued magecraft from the avenue of knowledge, he would never get even a step closer to it. It was the opposite, really - the more you pursued knowledge of it, the more you would understand that it was a fruitless path to pursue.
'Why do you think I was able to bear that pain?'
I have no idea.
Or maybe he knew that's how it would be from the start.
With a groan, Flue addressed my master. "What was the point of all of us coming here then?"
"The whydunnit. Maybe nothing else, but at least the reason I understand. No, maybe it would be better to say I understood the whole time," he replied with a nod.
"All it was was a magus passing on his inheritance to his child. Nothing more."
Silence fell.
Everyone present could sympathize with that reality. As a magus, that was just the way things worked. But at the same time, in this case, it was a logic that just didn't seem to apply.
"Lord El-Melloi II, are you just crazy or something? First of all, this is the first time I've heard that I'm Geryuon Ashbourne's kid," Seigen, even having already been named the culprit, spoke as he poked a finger at his own temple.
"I was there for Ashbourne's son's funeral. There was zero doubt, he was definitely dead. Or are you saying that the corpse I saw was a fake?"
"Just like Orlocke said, that was no doubt Granide Ashbourne's own dead body."
"'Orlocke'? Wait, are you telling me this kid is Orlocke? The hell?" Ignoring Seigen's interruption, my master continued.
"The very fact that Geryuon Ashbourne's son died is what set this whole incident in motion."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Master of Restoration, who was capable of even restoring damaged Magic Crests." Quietly, my master mentioned Ashbourne's Second Name.
The Master of Restoration. Rare even among the world of magi, one who could restore a Magic Crest to its original state. An existence incomparable to that of an ordinary Tuner.
"Have you ever heard of the stories of people who displayed strange characteristics after receiving heart or liver transplants? Like, changes in personality or strange new memories that reflect the organ's original owner."
Transplant surgery. After receiving a serious transplant like a heart, the recipient would suddenly have a change in their tastes or personality. Or would suddenly develop a talent for the piano, despite never having even touched one before. Even I had heard of news like that from magazines I had read, though they sounded more like urban legends to me.
"Wait, when did we start talking about organ transplants? Ashbourne's secret was supposed to be about restoring Magic Crests---"
"And what materials are necessary to do so?" My master deflected Luvia's question with a question of his own. "What could possibly serve to fill the gaps in a damaged Magic Crest? What would be most suitable to replace a part of a Magic Crest that has been lost?"
"If you want me to say other Magic Crests, then you've got a fundamental misunderstanding. It's specifically a Magic Crest because it isn't compatible with others, no?"
"...Papilio Magia."
It wasn't my master that had spoken.
...it was me.
Without noticing that the gathered magi had all turned their attention to me, I began to recall the important details.
---The Master of Restoration, who restores damaged Magic Crests.
---A Magic Crest, a thing similar to a person's organ.
---Papilio Magia, a mystery aimed at creating a coccoon like a caterpillar, only to emerge later as a butterfly - a completely different being.
If that was true...
If that was true, and Seigen was actually Granide Ashbourne...
"Orlocke Caesermund. You said you had done research with the owner of this castle, did you not?" my master asked the now-young magus. "I guess we now know what kind of research that was."
Orlocke couldn't answer immediately. Instead, Seigen rose his voice with an angry yell.
"This is ridiculous!"
"Is that so? That's a pretty un-magus-like thing to say." My master turned his gaze on the shouting Seigen as if he was playing dumb. Then, he took out a leather-covered notebook. "This is something Miss Luvia discovered in one of Ashbourne's hidden rooms earlier. It seems like a list of people who had their Magic Crests restored. Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen...your name is listed right here."
"Wha-?!" Seigen's voice turned from anger to surprise. In contrast, my master continued his lecture without slowing.
"You've already had measures taken to restore your Magic Crest at this very castle."
Even in the dark, I could see Seigen's face turn pale. Like the falling of an executioner's axe, my master's words continued on unabated.
"It's almost like a resurrection. But even if the memories and emotions are transferred, its still a different person. All you've done is written the same data to a different hard disk. It comes close to the level of True Magic, but it doesn't quite reach. Anyone who uses a similar magecraft should be well aware of that."
"How embarrassing. Unfortunately, yes, the Third Magic is still quite a ways off."
"So it goes without saying that a magecraft that can't even reach the level of Papilio Magia has no chance of making it there."
Interspersed with Orlocke's commentary, my master's voice took a decidedly chilly tone.
"The result was that the deceased Granide Ashbourne was torn apart. Then, he was mixed in with the ingredients used to restore Magic Crests, and implanted in your body."
Like a hacker.
Or the Trojan Horse.
"...you're joking, right?" Seigen said, spreading his hands wide. "I'm Seigen, you know? Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen?"
"I've already explained that. There's no contradiction between what I've just said and you believing that anyways. If you want to deny it, you'll need better evidence than that. Also, I suppose I should add it removes the credibility of your alibi for Heine's murder, doesn't it? If you're Granide Ashbourne, then it's only a matter of course that the servants would gladly conspire to create an alibi for you." My master spoke sadly. "That also explains why we all weren't killed at once, right? After killing your victim, it probably takes about a full day to process and preserve the Crest that's removed from their body. The whole scenario of a ritual involving the Angelic Names was just to avoid casting suspicion on the fact that we were killed one by one. And to keep that illusion going, Hishiri and Heine's bodies were both presented in the same place."
"I didn't-"
At the same time as Seigen, who was beginning to waver, something else responded.
No one had noticed the presence of the thing that had jumped down from the keep of the Castle of Separation until the last moment. Landing on the ground, its impact kicked up a wave of dust the billowed out towards us.
"Master!"
"Ah..."
As if to protect Seigen, the monster stepped forward.
The torch, still on the floor, illuminated the creature from its feet upwards. It looked like some sort of enormous wolf or spider, with a height easily over two meters. Its skin, covered in mud and blood, looked like armour made of metal. What was more unsettling though were the bits and pieces of human remains stuck to it.
"...I ask you, the angel's name."
The creature growled.
***********
"...I ask you, the angel's name."
The creature growled.
Was that the same question Heine Istari had been given? What about Hishiri Adashino?
And now,
"...if you are unable to answer, you shall be torn apart."
With a sigh, my master whispered.
"Aladiah."
The monster suddenly tensed up. Seeing the creature's reaction, my master took a single breath before picking up the lantern at his feet. Opening the window of the lantern, he stuck a cigar into the flame inside.
"This was nothing more than a game set up by Geryuon Ashbourne. Who knows if he actually planned on giving the inheritance to someone if they could find the answer. Though I would put money on the guess that he didn't."
Taking a drag on his cigar, he continued.
"The Castle of Separation, Adra. No doubt Adra is a truncated form of Adramelec, the fallen angel. I had considered it could be referring to Adrasteia, the Greek goddess, but as she has no connections with angels, I ruled it out fairly early."
Luvia raised an eyebrow. Of course, she had considered the same thing. Before she had attempted to steal control of the Workshop, she had found the foundational formula written with the names of various fallen angels. Naturally, Adramelec was one of those used in the formula.
"But a fallen angel would be no good as an answer. If we are asked for the name of an angel, we have to get back to the holy variety." As if bored, my master waved his cigar around in the empty air in front of him. "So the next step is to use the three letters given by the Shemhamphorae to reconstruct the original name. So for example, my Angelic Name being Mihael, we would end up with the letters MIH. Luvia's Michael would be MIK. Oh, right, because the names were originally in Hebrew, you have to take into account how they've changed in spelling. We're not really interested here in the letters, but the sounds, so the CH turns to K."
My master moved his cigar around to spell out the letters of the alphabet.
M.
I.
H.
After that, he spelled out the whole name, Mihael.
Reconstruction.
The opposite of Notarikon, the abridgement used in the Shemhamphorae.
For example, taking the word 'amen,' and reconstructing the phrase 'Adonai Melech Ne'eman.'
"For Adramelec, we could come up with ADR, ADL, or ADM. So if you play with the order of the letters, and switch them for their base sounds...the matching angel from the Shemhamphorae is Aladiah. See? Simple enough a child could do it."
My master gave a small sigh.
Now that he mentioned it, it was really just a code. Even if it was a technique important for magecraft, it was still far removed from magecraft itself. It was no wonder my master had said it was no more than a game set up by Geryuon Ashbourne.
"Oh, by the way, the message regarding the zodiac - 'The angel becomes a beast. Glaring at the western sky, it swallows the sun.' How kind of him, to give confirmation that you were on the right track, connecting the angel's names to the zodiac. But really, it was just a red herring, attempting to distract you from the real issue at hand."
"Yeah...yeah, you're right about that." Behind the beast came a voice of confirmation.
A voice that I recognized, and yet still seemed unfamiliar.
It was the opposite of what happened with Orlocke. While the voice no doubt belonged to Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen, the manner of speaking was nothing like him.
"You..." my master began.
In response, he nodded. Forcefully he tore the Yamabushi robes from his right shoulder, exposing the faintly glowing Magic Crest on his unexpectedly burly upper arm. It took the form of two separate patterns, with one of the patterns having just finished receiving the meaning of the other.
"...I am Granide Ashbourne."
Seigen...no, Granide laughed. At the same time, the beast cried out.
That howl, with the power to disable the Magic Crests of others, knocked us out once again.
Originally Posted by Kotonoha
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