Chapter 1, Part 2:
Tomorrow was probably going to be the longest day of my life.
I, Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, firmly believed in this. It wasn’t just because of the impending Grand Roll. My brother had also just gone into Albion in pursuit of Heartless.
It was then that I suddenly realized I was playing with a chess piece.
It was so childish of me to liken the world to a chessboard, even though mages kind of viewed the world as one. Most people gave up on their delusions of becoming superheroes at a young age. Mages were just sad fools who refused to let go of the delusions they had unknowingly caught hold of.
I was one of this group of people beyond salvation.
Every human life is equally stupid. It didn’t matter if we had only caught hold of fragments, it was more interesting this way. Scheming to make others fall, falling to others’ schemes, meaninglessly chasing after the Root, and rolling about in pain and shame— this was the life I wanted to live. I never once wished for a complete, fulfilling life. I’d rather have my heart removed than to have that imposed on me.
I was only thinking about this because I was alone for the first time in a while.
Though my brother often went on business trips beyond London, I had never seriously considered the possibility that he might never come back. As a collateral, I had taken away his Magic Crest a long time ago, but I knew he didn’t really care about it.
However, this was undoubtedly an exception.
Up until this point, we had experienced all sorts of incidents, but none of them could compare to the arcane depths of Spirit Tomb Albion. In a certain sense, it was quite close to us mages, as it was physically hidden beneath our feet. However, I could not grasp the full extent of its fearsomeness. I couldn’t help but wonder how many mages had entered, never to return. I knew there wasn’t a better way to chase after Heartless, but Spirit Tomb Albion was still too risky for comfort. Some people would probably start yelling at me until my head burst open if I told them of our plan.
I had already lost most of my cards.
That was why I kept staring at all the documents I had as the night wore on.
It seemed that my brother would not make it to the Grand Roll. Even if we had some method of communication, it would still be harder for me if he was not there. My mentor probably wasn’t aware of the true impact of a title like ”Lord El-Melloi II, who has a great influence on the New Age”.
The Department of Modern Magecraft was in a disadvantageous position to begin with. Now, we had just lost so many cards right before the game was to begin. Our unpreparedness was almost laughable.
The biggest question of this Grand Roll was whether or not someone there was our enemy.
Is it too late to surrender to the Democratic Faction? I wondered.
I can’t believe I actually seriously considered that option for a moment. It was impossible. Switching factions right now would seriously harm the reputation of the largest faction in the Clock Tower, which was headed by the Barthomelois. Doing so would completely wreck the El-Melloi Faction.
If we took one wrong step, maybe we would be completely wiped from the history of the Clock Tower.
Simply saying c’est la vie and giving up was like asking to be humiliated. Some other faction would immediately take up the opportunity and grind us into pieces. The Clock Tower’s power struggles were not kind, simple things— every player of the game must continually establish their existence in order to survive.
“…Ah.”
After a while, I felt my stomachache worsen. It was my brother’s fault.
Just as I was about to lean back on my desk chair, a voice came from behind the sofa beside me.
“—What’s happened so far? Have they already gotten to Albion?”
It was Flat, who was tired of waiting.
“I think they’re there.” I answered, frowning. “I used the strongest communication magecraft I can cast, but the connection still cut off. If they reach the deeper layers, I have no way of knowing they’re up to.”
“I want to ride the Rail Zeppelin too, even though there isn’t an auction this time! I really want to buy all those Mystic Eye thingies! For the money, I’ll just have to go on Van-Fem’s boat again!”
“If you want money, why don’t you do me a favor and sell your vocal cords?”
“Oh! That’s not a bad idea! Being mute would be annoying, so I should probably get started preparing new ones! But if I’m going to make new ones, why should I stop at my vocal cords? What if I just remove my right arm? An arm that can shapeshifter and talk would be so cool, don’t you think?”
“Whatever makes you happy.” I said, looking away from the stupid genius who was now excitedly examining his own arm.
Usually, it was my brother’s job to deal with him. If he was here, this interaction would be much more interesting.
I pressed the area between my eyebrows in an attempt to focus. Of course, I could also achieve this by using enhancement, but I wanted to conserve as much Magical Energy as possible so I didn’t die of nervousness during the Grand Roll.
Speaking of which, I was also drinking iced tea.
“—Here, Your Highness.” Svin said, handing me a new cup of tea.
Ah, yes. I was glad to have this honor student around.
“How are things on your side?”
“The rest of the students are a little shaken, but they are still helping to rebuild Slur Street. Thanks to Mr. Shardan’s dedication, many teachers have been inspired to return.” Svin replied while organizing the documents I had already read.
Of course, Flat was also running around to assist in this. The twin jewels of the El-Melloi Classroom were surprisingly well-loved. Even Flat seemed to radiate a feeling that made people want to help. This was my weakness, so I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.
“Are you attending the Grand Roll alone?”
“I’m only taking Trimmau. I wish my brother could be a bit more sympathetic.” I said with a pout.
Melvin had prepared the Rail Zeppelin, but I had gathered all the members of the team. If I had anyone else that could get things done on my side, I wouldn’t have had to find my brother.
“I promise to protect you!”
“Do you think I’ll let you?” I shouted back reflexively.
The teenager snapped his fingers, bored again.
I took sip of warm tea before I explained my outburst.
“…It isn’t actually dangerous to go to a Grand Roll. If someone managed to sneak in, they could topple the balance of the entire Clock Tower. Also, like Mr. Shardan said, you two are in charge of everything up here while the meeting goes on.”
“Leave it to me! I’m as trustworthy as the Titanic! All the glaciers and stuff will go ka-ching and fall to pieces!”
“What world’s Titanic is that!?”
As I snapped at Flat, I considered another unsettling variable.
…What was Melvin doing right now? I thought.
I knew he communicated with the Trambelio Faction after preparing the Rail Zeppelin, but I didn’t know where he went after that.
Did the Democratic Faction get ahold of him?
That was very likely. After all, Melvin was a member of the Trambelio family, which was at the center of the Democratic Faction. It was atypical for someone of his standing to help us, as we were still technically part of the Aristocratic Faction.
Although saying that, Melvin was still Melvin. Considering how he valued entertainment more than his own life, he probably wouldn’t give in to power that easily.
Also, he might not look like it, but that guy was the public face of the Weinz family. He wouldn’t be killed that easily. That meant…
The memory of the head of the Trambelios flashed across my mind.
Of course, if Lord Trambelio made a move, Melvin could be easily locked up.
Originally, Lord Eulyphis had also planned on taking action.
Lord Eulyphis seemed to represent all of the traditional side of the Clock Tower. Though the El-Melloi Faction was allied with them for the moment, he probably viewed us as a stain to be removed.
In terms of the other Lord representative, Olgamarie, I didn’t believe that the Department of Astromancy would save us. Our connection was barely existent, so I didn’t expect much from her.
…Goodness, a phrase like “
being surrounded on four sides” was almost starting to sound cute.
As I thought of this reference to Eastern history, I tried to stop myself from smiling.
The most troubling part of this was that I actually felt quite happy. If I was in a position more suited to my personality, maybe I would become a tyrant. Please don’t tell me that I’m already a tyrant. Give me a break.
“…Miss.” Trimmau said, interrupting my thoughts.
It appeared that she had received some kind of call from the reception area of the school building. Without giving me time to think, the words that I dreaded the most left her mercury lips.
“The car from the Secret Autopsy Division has arrived.”
“The Secret Autopsy Division?”
“Yes. The Grand Roll will be held tomorrow, so it is time for the attendees to head to Spirit Tomb Albion.”
My frown deepened. I should probably prepare some kind of magecraft medicine so I didn’t end up like my brother.
“Typical of them to be impatient. Also, typical of the Secret Autopsy Division to not give Lords preferential treatment. I wonder if they’ll give me some more time to plan if I ask nicely.” I said quietly, biting my lip.
Unlike the train that had taken my brother into Albion, the vehicle that awaited me did not allow me to do as I wished. Perhaps someone from the Democratic Faction had chosen to take action to avoid muddying the situation. —Damn it, maybe the meeting itself would be moved forward.
“Your Highness?”
“Are you okay, Reines?”
Svin and Flat expressed their concern at the same time.
I had to concede that these two were undoubtedly worthy of their title when it came to tense moments. Though they were mostly annoying, they made up for it by also being lovable.
“Yes. Of course. Time to head off with all my dignity. Make sure you two see me off with a serious expression.”
I drank the rest of my tea in a single gulp.
Not long after, Trimmau and I boarded the limousine that waited for us in the darkness.
*
The old man who called himself Geraff returned after exactly thirty minutes, right when Seigen and Luvia began to impatiently suggest that we head off without waiting for him.
“Oh, so you didn’t run off?”
“You’re back!”
Geraff ignored Seigen and shrugged. I suddenly realized that he reminded me of his disciple, Flueger. It soon dawned on us all that the old man had not gone somewhere random, which proven by the basket that he bore on his back.
“Alright, now follow me.” He said to us, and then turned to leave again.
This time, we also enhanced our legs with magecraft. To the outside observer, we probably looked like we were riding on the wind.
The old man took us to the foot of a small hill in the wilderness.
It wasn’t much further away than the place where the Rail Zeppelin had dropped us off. However, in place of the lush vegetation from earlier, the ground beneath our feet was full of cracks that resembled dragon scales. Maybe I was being over-imaginative, but it looked like the dead dragon’s tail. Since I couldn’t confirm this suspicion, I decided to just pretend it was regular dirt.
The dry wind wasn’t like the winter gales of the surface. It carried trace amounts of Magical Energy, exciting my Magic Circuits like needles pricking my skin. Looking up at the luminous dome above us, I couldn’t help but swallow.
Even if the ground was made of regular dirt, Albion was still unusual. It was as if it actively repelled the modern world.
“Let’s go in from the usual entrance. This way.” Geraff said, mainly to himself.
Then, he turned to look at us, placing his the basket he was holding on the rocks nearby.
“Say, monk,” he called out to Seigen. “How many strides would it take you to reach the top of that hill?”
“Wha?”
The monk in question looked toward the hill that the old man pointed at. It was around twenty meters tall, with a summit that stretched out like the head of a giant mammoth.
“Around two.”
The monk frowned and prepared to jump. Then, he extended his arms, leaping upward as if he had suddenly grown two giant wings. Though he said it would take two strides, he probably stepped on something as he made his way up the hill. He moved too fast for me to see clearly, and he was at the summit before I knew it.
“…Not bad. Is that a tengu art?”
“Yes. It’s the only thing that my father couldn’t help but praise.”
“That’s convenient. When exploring Albion, get as high up as possible. Shugendo training is very similar to the training you need to survive here. I’ve been in a team with a monk like you before, and his skills were quite impressive.”
Hearing this, Seigen blinked many times in surprise.
“Are there monks in Albion as well?”
“I guess you could say that Albion has a higher concentration of mages and spellcasters than the surface world. You lost an arm, right? Was that the price for using some kind of magecraft?”
“…Something like that.”
I looked away, even though I knew I probably shouldn’t. I just couldn’t meet his eyes because his arm had been torn away by my lance.
“That injury looks recent. Your balance was off when you jumped. You would have used seal magecraft if you still had that arm, right?”
“Well, there’s no way to get it back. There’s no point on dwelling it, either.” Seigen’s wry smile made me even sadder. “I’ve already given up on trying to count everything I’ve lost.”
Seigen had headed to the Castle of Separation to retrieve what he had lost, taking with him the Magic Crest that his brother had left behind. As a price for repairing the Magic Crest, the owner of the castle had taken away his original identity.
This ultimately resulted in our fight, which cost him his right arm.
For that reason, Seigen decided against explaining how he had lost his arm and opted to say that he had given up, probably so I wouldn’t feel as bad. However, his actions made it even harder for me to look up.
“Let me see it.” Geraff commanded.
“Huh?”
“Roll up your sleeve. Let me see your arm.”
Faced with the unrelenting old man, Seigen reluctantly complied. Geraff stared intently at the mass of still-regenerating flesh grabbed ahold of it.
“Owowowowow! What are you doing?! Are you mad!?”
“Bear with it for a bit.”
With that succinct response, the old man twisted Seigen’s arm and pressed hard on the exact place where it had been severed.
Seigen let out a cry of misery.
“Mr. Seigen!”
My mentor reached out to stop me from rushing forward.
“Don’t.”
“But…”
As I was about to argue, I saw that my mentor was not looking at Geraff or Seigen, but at the place the old man had just pressed down on. From there, a green sprout that glowed faintly grew rapidly from his flesh.
“I never knew Spirit Roots can be used this way…!”
“Gahhhhh!”
As if it was urged on by Seigen’s cries, the seedling quickly covered the cross section of Seigen’s arm. Leaves appeared on the winding branches, and then withered as quickly as they came. It was as if the life of a tree had been compressed to a few seconds.
Before I had time to process what was happening, the woody branches that remained shifted into the shape of Seigen’s arm. Though it resembled a regular tree, it appeared that Seigen could move it freely. He used his normal hand to inspect the new one as he tried contracting and unfolding his fingers.
“Spirit Roots are meant to be for controlling stone statues so that they can move while keeping their original shapes. It also works for things like this as long as the person whose Magic Circuits you’re attaching it on is compatible with it.”
“…Ah...Huh… Where… did you… get this from…?” Seigen said, kneeling on the floor because the pain had not faded yet.
“These things aren’t common on the surface, but there are certain ways to get them down here. It’s a good match with your practices, isn’t it? It’s not exactly the same as your original arm, but you’ll get used to it.”
After he finished speaking, Geraff turned away as if he had just done nothing more than handing Seigen a piece of old furniture.
“Edelfelt.”
“Can you please stop calling me by my family name?”
Though Luvia’s tone wasn’t kind, her voice was missing its usual contempt, possibly because of the events that had just transpired.
“You know plenty of techniques for using gemstones to automatically search for enemies, right?”
“…Yes, of course, since mages naturally incur resentment.”
Luvia was a hunter— that was why they called her the world’s most graceful hyena. In her mind, if someone hurt her, double the retribution was far from enough.
“Good. It’s useful here, but take care not to concentrate too much Magical Energy in the Great Magic Circuit. Every nook and cranny of this place is overflowing with it. That kind of magecraft alarm will keep going off. It might be less precise, but you probably want to limit its targets.”
“Targets?” Luvia repeated. The old man seemed to have piqued her interest.
“Yes. You should be all set if you constantly adjust the attributes it’s looking for.”
Before he even finished his sentence, the old man suddenly raised his hand. With a woosh, an assortment of things flew out of it and onto the wasteland around us. It appeared to be some minerals mined from Albion. Later, I realized that there was a contraption near his wrist that allowed him to toss things into the air while his hand remained still.
“How many did I just throw, and where did they go?”
“Testing me?”
Luvia took out a blue jewel and uttered an incantation from her lovely lips.
“Awaken(Call).”
With a single word from her, the gem changed color from blue to red and then yellow in the space of a few seconds.
“Seven.” The young woman replied, unfazed by the strange changes that the gem rapidly underwent. “No. There’s one hidden behind you. They’re in these places.”
Luvia flicked the gem. It flew toward the rocks that the old man had thrown, causing them to rise from the ground.
“So annoying. It only took you twenty seconds and a single word? I was expecting maybe fifteen minutes. If only my disciples were this talented.”
“Hey!” Flue complained in a small voice.
My mentor tilted his head and stepped forward as if he had a question.
“Do you have other disciples?”
“Oh, yes. I’m a spellcaster. I don’t need to stick to teaching magecraft one-on-one like proper mages,” Geraff explained, proudly patting the top of his bald head. “But apart from this idiot, all of them are dead.”
“…What? Why?”
“It’s just some boring stuff about the past. You don’t have time to waste on it. Take this.”
He handed us a sheet of what looked like regular printer paper. It probably had a protection spell cast on it, but it didn’t look like a catalyst or a Mystic Code. Fluttering in the wind, it looked anything but reliable.
However, my mentor gasped when he saw the its contents.
“—!”
“This is the latest map of Albion. I asked a friend who’s familiar with the underground to tell me the places where monsters have been spotted recently. With this, Flue can guarantee that you can dive to the bottom layers as safety as possible.”
At this, Flue’s expression shifted.
“Wait, how did you get this?”
“I’m an old man living at the borders of the Mining City who can’t even use magecraft well. I’ve got to have something like this. If you follow the routes on this map, you can keep fights with Phantasmal Species of the Great Magic Circuit to a minimum.”
“No, that’s not what I meant!” The astrologer shouted at his mentor. “This map and the Spirit Root… they’re not things you can get at a moment’s notice. If you asked me to get it back when I was in hiding, it would have taken me a year at least!”
I understood. This place was a giant labyrinth, so any map that showed the areas that the monsters here frequented must be worth a hefty sum.
“But why are you giving us this…?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Just like my stupid disciple said, I died a long time ago.” Geraff said, as if he was tired of explaining. “Dead people don’t need money or possessions. Since I’m not a mage but a spellcaster, I don’t have anyone to pass my belongings to. I always planned on letting go of it some day. Now, the opportunity to do that has come. …Hey, Lord over there.”
“What?”
My mentor turned as he was called on. His expression was still stiff, probably because he understood the value of the piece of paper he had just been handed.
“Your actions have paid off. Not a single person I knew in the past would believe that a Lord of the Clock Tower bowed to me. It’s already hard enough to believe that a New Ager can become a Lord.”
The old man began to laugh while the mages around me had not yet recovered from their stunned silence. Who could have known that the old man would give away something so valuable?
“…Thank you for your praise.” My mentor said, bowing his head again. “If you will allow me one more selfish request, could you please help me pass on a message?”
“Haha, that depends on what the message is.”
The old man accepted the note that my mentor handed him. One of his eyebrows rose as he read its contents.
Why? I wondered.
This was such an interesting turn of events. This old man had only known my mentor for less than an hour. However, if Flueger was right, he was willing to spend his entire savings to help us.
Something in their conversation must have moved him deeply. Though I felt something as well, its impact on me was not as deep.
“—Flue, take these.”
The old man took out some tools and handed them to Flue.
“I made some slight adjustments to the tools that are popular right now. I don’t think you’ll need me to explain how to use them. Take this as well. I didn’t get the chance to give it to you before. It’s the knife I once used.”
“…Are you sure you’re giving it to me, old man? You wouldn’t give it to me no matter how many times I asked before.”
“I don’t have any use for it now. I only kept it because I was too attached to it.”
Flue picked up his tool-filled backpack and tucked the knife into his clothes after a brief inspection.
“Got it. Thanks.”
“You don’t need to thank me. Oh, it’s getting late. You all better get going.” The old man said, waving as if he wanted to be rid of us as soon as possible. Though his actions seemed to convey distaste, I had trouble interpreting it as such.
“Live a bit longer, okay?” Flue muttered after a moment of hesitation.
“Ha, really? Are you sure your time on the surface hasn’t made you forget about who I am?”
The old man smiled, revealing a mouthful of crooked teeth. His laughter reminded me of Add’s. It was not a nice sound, but it carried an emotion that I could appreciate. As I thought this, I felt a clunk from the box in the birdcage at my right shoulder.
I turned to see Flue urging my mentor forward.
“Let’s go, Lord El-Melloi II.”
“…Is it really alright if we do?”
“Well.”
Flue began to walk forward without properly answering the question. Luvia and Seigen also followed him after quickly bidding goodbye to the old man.
After a while, I heard the distant voice of the old man calling out to us.
“Flue! Lord El-Melloi II! You don’t have to show me your miserable faces again, but make sure you make it back alive!”
Though he didn’t turn back to look, the astrologer raised his arm to tell his mentor that he understood.
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