Chapter 2, Part 4:
My mentor leapt onto the table.
It seemed like he was physically stronger than the regular version of my mentor. Perhaps it was because Trimmau was the one performing most of the calculations. …I actually would have wanted to see my mentor struggle to get up there, though.
He held one of his hands to the lapel of his mercury jacket and began to speak.
“…Before I explain what it is, let’s have a lesson.” Maybe because he wanted to confirm his size, he stomped the table twice before he continued. “What do you first think of on the subject of mazes?”
“Mazes?”
The first thing that appeared in my mind was a famous story in Greek mythology.
The legend went that the wife of a king fell in love with a bull because of the wrath of the gods. The child that was born from this was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a person. In order to imprison him, the king demanded the great inventor Daedalus build a maze that nobody could escape from.
“…The labyrinth of the minotaur, or something like that. The sort that’s complicated, and impossible to escape from.”
“Indeed. One of the most prominent mazes in legends and mythology is the Labyrinthos that trapped the minotaur. Besides that, the maze constructed by Amnemhat III of Ancient Egypt and the circular labyrinth of Epidaurus are also well-known.”
My mentor nodded with his mercury head. The swaying of his long hair looked like the waves of a faraway sea.
“However,
and
used to be different (
TN: They’re the same word originally, so I might have messed up earlier on which word was used where but it’s impossible to tell). Mazes are just as you described: complicated, and with an abundance of dead ends, constructed to make explorers disoriented. By contrast, originally, a labyrinth had only one path.”
“…Huh?”
The unexpected statement surprised me.
“This is evident if you look at illustrations. Until around the Fifteenth century, though labyrinths looked complex, like the outer layer of the brain, there was only ever one path. In other words, it wasn’t made to make explorers lost, but rather, to have them walk a long, winding path, and to eliminate the feeling of the outside world.”
To eliminate the feeling of the outside world.
“There’s a reason behind only making one path. Since it doesn’t branch outward, the explorer must arrive at the deepest part of the maze. Once they are removed from the outside world, their consciousness will naturally turn towards themselves. Walking deeper into the labyrinth is like exploring deeper and deeper into yourself. In this way, the
that the explorers see at the deepest part of the labyrinth is actually a version of themselves that brings their death.”
My mentor’s words were so impactful that for a moment, I forgot to breathe.
“Isn’t that… my hometown…”
Though there was more than one path, what was waiting for us down there was undoubtedly another version of myself. She wore a mask, but had the same body, the same lance, and even knew how to use it as a Noble Phantasm to oppose me.
“—To you, your hometown was a labyrinth,” my mentor said. “Once you arrived at the deepest part, you must return the same way you came, looking back into the past, when you entered it. The explorers who experienced death then revive themselves step by step, re-experiencing the past. …Or perhaps you could say that labyrinths are not just structures to make people lose their way, but rituals of initiation, from death to life.”
My mentor’s words piled up inside me like snowflakes.
That was what my hometown used to be to me. It wasn’t just the caves, I had even gone into the past that one of the Atlas Institute’s Seven Superweapons had created, and had returned alive with my mother. If what he was saying was true, did that have a symbolic meaning?
“Ihihihi, are you crying?” Add said in a quiet voice from his hook. I really hoped that he could stop doing this. It was really embarrassing.
“This initiation ceremony gradually became used by religions over time. These labyrinths are also called church labyrinths, and you can find them on the floors and ceilings of various religious establishments. Usually, they are Cretan(
TN: Alternatively, ‘classical’) seven-course or eleven-course designs. In this situation, ‘eleven-course’ represents an incomplete number of sin, less than the number of Apostles and more than the commandments. Or you could say, it’s a number that represents the common realm.”
My mentor bent down to touch the table beneath his feet. Was this also how the labyrinths on the floors of churches were carved?
“Labyrinths in churches are meant to rid of sin. Using this worldly number lets the sin and defilement that has accumulated on the living to be purified in the labyrinth. Here, the minotaur that sits at the depths of the labyrinth can be exchanged for the voice of Satan coiled in the hearts of people.”
Though what he said was profound, I could mostly understand it.
Basically, it was like the deep desires or impulses that were hidden in everyone’s hearts, which were difficult to see normally. And the role of labyrinths in churches used to be so people could face these desires.
“Similarly, labyrinths exist within mages as well. Nobody can understand themselves perfectly, and that is why only those who can draw things out from this maze in their minds can become powerful mages. Of course, the talent necessary to draw them out is prerequisite for any of this to work.”
After he said that, my mentor bit his lip silently. It seemed like something he would do.
Perhaps some people would find it laughable, but to me, it felt a little bit sad. How did my mentor feel about this himself?
“—I see, so this is a lesson from the El-Melloi classroom,” Touko said, watching from the side with a bemused expression.
“Apologies, this is all very basic.”
“Don’t apologize, that was all very detailed. We mages keep bumping into mystery every once in a while. Though we’ve learned the history behind it all, the link between history and magecraft gets fuzzy sometimes. Hearing this kind of class, it’s not hard to understand why students other people couldn’t deal with managed to learn from you. Of course, there must be teachers out there who think you’re wasting time.”
Though I didn’t think there was any deeper meaning behind her words, they made me feel terrified.
As a Grand mage, she probably thought that the highly-ranked mages of the Clock Tower were the same as my mentor, who was constantly troubled by his lack of talent. Both of them were inferior to her, and that was why Touko Aozaki could see my mentor’s lectures with that kind of perspective.
I heard the sound of coughing.
It was my mentor. Though he shouldn’t need to cough with this body, he probably wanted to use this sound to attract our attention again. I turned my head in guilt, and my mentor nodded lightly when he saw that. He stomped on the surface of the table again, and a crisp sound ran through the air as metal hit wood.
“However, what you need to know about now isn’t what I just talked about. There’s a famous labyrinth underneath the Clock Tower, too.”
“Is that the one where the Survivors from just then came from?”
I felt like we had finally reached the heart of the matter, like a ray of light had finally shone into a dark cavern I had been wandering about in.
“No, the order should be the other way around,” my mentor corrected.
“The other way around?”
“Yes. I should probably say that the Clock Tower was built here because of the existence of that labyrinth.”
I couldn’t grasp the meaning of that sentence immediately.
“What does that mean?” I asked, just as I wanted to sink into a despair because of my lack of intelligence.
“After the Common Era, the mystery of the Age of the Gods disappeared. True, ancient magecraft was lost, and only small, insignificant things were left behind.”
I had heard something similar before.
Apparently, compared to what magecraft used to be, magecraft in the modern era was like an empty shell. There was a definite split between those two ages. That was also why Faker was so terrifying.
She was an ancient mage, from the age when the hero Iskandar rode across the world.
In the battle on the Rail Zeppelin, if she managed to use a single spell, we might have all lost our lives.
“However, underneath the Clock Tower— No, underneath London, there still rests a giant, mysterious corpse of immeasurable size,” my mentor said, pointing to the floor.
“By corpse, do you mean—”
“Compared to the surface, the texture of the Human Order influences the underground much less. For that reason, there will be fragments of things that have disappeared aboveground there. However, there are some items that can’t be explained as fragments buried beneath the Clock Tower.”
I felt that something terrifying was concealed behind my mentor’s steady words.
It reminded me of a secret treasure buried underground.
“That’s inside the labyrinth, right?”
“Yes. For instance, there are the scales and teeth of dragons, lost spirit stones, corpses of juvenile hydras trapped in amber, all sorts of artifacts that are impossible to find above ground. You could say that labyrinth is the backbone of the Clock Tower.”
“Exactly! It was just as I thought! Hack and Slash games are the essence of RPGs! You can turn your character into a ninja straight away with the first rewards, and you can raise dozens of your own demons! The strongest wizards won’t wait for you in your room all the time either, because they work in shifts!” (
TN: Wait how is this related at all)
Flat happily struck a victory pose.
Though I was already vaguely aware of that fact, hearing it was still impactful. If that was the case, it made sense why my mentor would say that the Clock Tower had been built here because of the labyrinth.
However, the most important aspect of this was still shrouded in mist.
“…Why would there be a labyrinth like this underneath London?”
“……”
For a moment, my mentor was silent.
My mentor, who always gave people the impression of someone who always had something to say, looked like he was unsure of where to begin.
Was this that difficult to explain?
Just as I thought about that, my mentor began to speak slowly.
“Even amongst the people who know of the labyrinth beneath the Clock Tower, not everyone knows about this… It’s an ancient legend.”
That word immediately piqued my interest.
A legend of the Clock Tower. What would a legend passed down through time amongst mages who lived lives wreathed with mystery be like?
Of course, the story started somewhere completely outside of my imagination.
“In the distance past, there was once a giant dragon. Some say that it was larger than mountains, and that each of its claws was the size of a tower.”
“...Huh?”
Suddenly hearing something that felt like it came out of a dream made me blink several times in surprise.
I barely managed to understand all the talk of a labyrinth beneath the ground, but why would something as surreal as a giant ancient dragon appear?
“Wait, Sir, weren’t we talking about the labyrinth?”
“Just listen to what I have to say. Though it was passed around the Clock Tower like a fairly tale, in a certain sense, there are traces of it in the present. Ah, you even think it sounds like a ridiculous story used to trick children, even though you have echoes of mystery inside you.”
My mentor cleared his throat again somewhat awkwardly and continued.
“Most dragons sensed the end of the Age of the Gods, so they moved the Reverse Side of the World(TN: Alternatively, the Inner Side of the World?) before the disappearance of Phantasmal Species. However… that giant dragon stayed here for a long time. Perhaps it was because [he] thought he was strong enough. Or perhaps it was for some other reason.”
My mentor told the story of the dragon like a storyteller sitting in front of a campfire.
The reason why he called the dragon a “he” was probably because he resonated with the story somehow. Though I thought that maybe this was part of what mages were inclined to do, as pursuers of fading mystery, that might be a bit far-fetched.
“However, the dragon was eventually forced to succumb to the changing times. This was now the age of humanity. Once the dragon accepted that, he finally prepared to head to the Reverse Side of the World. However, it was too late. The gate from the surface, where mystery had already faded, to the Reverse Side of the World had already closed.
“The dragon roared, regretting his arrogance. However, he did not despair or give up. Since he could not rely on mystery anymore, he would physically make it down there, he thought. So he used his giant body to sink into the depths of the earth, where traces of mystery still remain to this day.”
It felt less like a lesson and more like a story, and a somewhat sad one, too.
I couldn’t help but think of the dinosaurs. They once flourished in this land, sitting at the very top of the food chain. However, they ended up going extinct, maybe because they were too well-adapted to their age.
Perhaps I was the same as them.
“However.” My mentor said. “However, it stopped breathing while it dug through the earth.”
“What happened after that?”
“Not much else happened. His corpse, which was larger than a mountain, remained in the ground, gradually being torn apart by the movement of the earth. That was enough to make the body of the dragon turn into an even larger labyrinth.”
Finally, it came back to our original topic.
As I muttered to myself in confusion, my mentor continued.
“That labyrinth is called Spirit Tomb Albion, and rests [even deeper down] than what is below the Clock Tower.”
A tomb.
The instant I heard that word, I felt an electric current run through my body. I never thought that the word would return after I thought it had cut off from me after the case at my hometown.
However, this story was too absurd and nonsensical for me to believe.
Until now, I had experienced many things that seemed unbelievable, and they made me feel unsure enough in myself to face something like this. This time, however, I felt like I had been dealt a fatal blow.
“…Um,” I managed to say. “So Spirit Tomb Albion is right underneath us?”
“Like I said, that’s a legend that’s treated like a fairy tale. But regardless of whether it’s true or not, there are remnants in the present. Beneath our feet, there is, indeed, a giant labyrinth— No, it wouldn’t even be wrong to call it a separate world. And that place yields great benefits for the Clock Tower.”
My mentor’s words echoed back and forth in the room full of potions.
Though this was a mage’s workshop, it was still too plain of a stage compared to what we had just talked about. Or, perhaps it was fitting because it was so plain. After all, for a mage that was familiar with the Clock Tower, this was no more than common knowledge.
“—Haha, it’s pretty absurd, isn’t it?”
Touko, who had been listening all along, smiled.
“I was speechless too when I first heard about it too. It seems strange that people can say that mystery has disappeared when something like that exists.”
“I was confused when I heard about the corpse of the dragon, too,” Svin said, expressing his thoughts.
Hearing that their thoughts were similar to mine made me feel more at ease. If these two people were shocked by hearing this, then of course I wouldn’t be able to accept it immediately.
“I’ve believed it all along! Aren’t we part of the clock tower? Since rich people have catacombs under their mansions, wouldn’t it seem weirder if there wasn’t something like that under the Clock Tower? Closed gates! Hidden treasures troves! Monster surprised you!(
TN: This is a reference to some graffiti on the wall of a maze in the game The Portopia Serial Murder Case, which itself is a reference to something in some other game which I couldn’t find the name of)!”
“Shut up, Flat. —As I was saying, there are enormous benefits to be reaped from Spirit Tomb Albion. For that reason, the Clock Tower set up a special organization to excavate and manage the artifacts obtained from the labyrinth. This is to prevent any one of the twelve families to take over it and gain an overwhelming advantage.”
Suddenly, discussions of power and advantages came up.
It was like riding a roller coaster. Words that were too fantastical and words that were too grounded came one after the other, like they were holding hands in a waltz and spinning around and around.
I felt dizzy, and rubbed my temples through my hood.
“W-wait a second, please.”
“Are you alright?”
“Y-yes, um, I haven’t managed to take everything in…” I said honestly.
All this information was too much for my sluggish brain to take. It wasn’t just the amount, either. The combination of information was too special and complicated, and I couldn’t combine them together properly.
“I see,” my mentor said, nodding. “If that’s the case, let’s draw a diagram. Svin, you’ve attended a related class, yes? Can you redraw the diagram from then?”
“Oh, sure.”
As he said that, Svin took a pen from his pocket.
First, he wrote down the name “Spirit Tomb Albion”. Then, he drew a sketch of the maze as an upside-down pyramid that had been split into layers. Then, he drew a couple of lines, and added labels to them. From shallowest to deepest, they went Mining City Magisfair, the Great Magic Circuit, the Ancient Heart, Carillon Observatory… and so on.
Finally, he added the name of the organization we just discussed on top of the diagram. The Secret Autopsy Division.
(
TN: Enjoy my image edit with a random sideways stroke that I didn't realize was there until it was too late. Please tell me if you can read what it says properly)
“Is that… the organization in charge of excavating Spirit Tomb Albion?”
“Yes. Everything in the labyrinth is under the sole jurisdiction of the Secret Autopsy Division. Even the Barthomeloi who lead the Aristocratic Faction and the Trambelio who lead the Democratic Faction have no say in their arrangements. In a certain sense, though they belong to the Clock Tower, they are also not part of the Clock Tower. So there’s nothing worth being ashamed about, as you’ve only been here for half a year.”
Belonging to the Clock Tower, yet not part of the Clock Tower.
An organization specifically in charge of the labyrinth, outside of the control of the twelve families. Though I couldn’t completely understand all of it, I had a vague grasp of its importance.
“Sir. …So what are the implications of the owner of this workshop being a Survivor of Spirit Tomb Albion?” Svin asked, putting down his pen.
Finally, we returned to our original topic. Because there had been so much in the middle, I got the feeling of having been on a long journey, and I couldn’t help but exhale deeply.
The giant labyrinth of the Clock Tower, Spirit Tomb Albion. According to Touko, all of Heartless’ students were its Survivors.
What truth would be connected to this fact?
I swallowed.
But at that moment, my mentor let out a groan from the table.
“Sir?”
“My apologies. They’ve finished the preparations. Allow me to concentrate over there for a bit.”
With that, the expression disappeared from the face of the mercury figurine of my mentor, and he sank into silence like a robot who had been unplugged.
-End of Part 4 of Chapter 2, Book 7-
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Originally Posted by Comun
