Chapter 359 |
Chapter 359
Staying still was the wisest choice. Turns out it wasn't bad to take a gamble on a quack at least once in your life. I saw Leo return and burst into a sputtering laugh as I opened my mouth.
"Hey."
Leo, who'd been closing the door with an inscrutable smile, raised an eyebrow.
"You were right."
Suddenly? I could see a smile that carried that meaning. The bastard laughed at my words without knowing why, and I laughed because of the sound I'd heard moments ago. And so we both laughed. And in the middle of that laughter, irritation suddenly surged up.
'Wait a second. What did this bastard do right to beat someone up and then laugh?'
But considering his motives, I couldn't say he'd simply beaten me up. He had beaten me up, sure. But even so, wasn't it wrong to repay a friend who'd found a way to restore my hearing in kind? Then again, if this was a training situation, shouldn't I be free to look for an opening to counterattack whenever I wanted? All sorts of thoughts alternated through my mind.
'I need to calm down.'
"——."
I could see Leo speaking to me from above with a gentle expression. Since the journal wasn't with me, I could only raise an eyebrow in response, and he widened his eyes before gradually taking on a flustered look. He'd clearly assumed I could hear again and was thrown off when I couldn't reply to what he'd said. He picked up the journal and thrust it in front of me.
[Looks like it didn't work.]
"Didn't work, my ass."
If it hadn't worked, would I have said you were right in a situation like this? I savored his flustered face and continued.
"I could hear for a moment. Senior Hohenzollern was looking for me. Right?"
The moment I mentioned something that hadn't been written in the journal, Leo's mouth fell open. He pressed his hand over his mouth and shot to his feet. Even without sound, it was unmistakable that he was more than a little shocked.
In that instant, the journal in his hand came flying at me. Simultaneously, sharp magic power surged up from the grass covering the floor.
"...!"
As I reflexively sprang up, magic power erupting from the wand tip pinned me down. Words being written in the journal flickered through my vision.
[Great. Good. Let's keep going just like this.]
***
"......"
I blinked at the ceiling light, its glow bleeding across my vision. A stray droplet of blood had spread across my cornea, obstructing my sight. The journal had been gone for a while. I didn't know where it went, and I couldn't look for it. My head was ringing so intensely that whatever resolve I mustered or thought I formed, every last bit of cognition was incinerated white and vanished. At this point, my core was reacting even to the blood splattered on the floor, as if it had steeled itself to devour any magic power that came its way. I pressed both hands against my face in a wave of revulsion.
"Can you hear me?"
"......"
"You should answer."
CRASH—!
I stamped the floor with what felt like leaden feet. When the magic power burst, Leo, standing below me, sidestepped by a single pace. It must have been a feeble enough attack for that lukewarm response to suffice.... Every ounce of strength had been wrung out of me, so there was nothing I could do. Leo didn't mind the attack I'd sent in lieu of a reply and spoke with a smile.
"Good. Want to test how long it lasts this time?"
Why are you asking me? Do I even have a choice? You've been doing whatever you want this whole time.
Leo soon sat down beside where I lay. He opened the book he'd brought from another room dozens of minutes ago and read aloud.
"...It was as though, no matter how endlessly one ran toward the horizon where the blue sky met the earth, the sky would always flee ahead. And so, with the sky above the land before him, the child would never reach the horizon, and at last grow weary."
Right, I just had to signal when the sound cut off. On the first attempt, my hearing held for about thirty seconds; on the second, over a minute. On the third attempt, it lasted around ten minutes. When it kept going well and then cutting out repeatedly, Leo said it seemed the magic power from the blood I'd absorbed hadn't fully settled into my ears yet.
'So, wouldn't it be right to stop attacking me then?'
Why would the magic power I'd absorbed from drinking blood travel to my ears but fail to fill them? Obviously because it was being used to fix the damage in the surrounding area. That was what I thought, but Leo saw it differently. He judged that the existing magic power in my ears hadn't been fully destroyed, which was why the effect was marginal.
It was a judgment that made my vision go dark, but it made sense. Normally, sensory organ magic power wouldn't be destroyed by standard attacks rather than specialized incantations, so right now might be a situation where I'd have to endure a volume of attacks beyond "normal"—a volume one ordinarily couldn't withstand.
And on a slightly different front, he gravely declared that he couldn't just stop at destroying the corrupted magic power but had to ensure not a trace of it remained in my body, and proceeded to squeeze out every last drop of my magic power. So.... Ah, now that I'm reviewing it, I've realized something again. Since I kicked the floor and used magic, I'd revealed that I still had magic power left to be extracted, so this might not be over yet. I should've just answered.
"...Even so, even if we were to trace our way back there, what on earth could we learn from it? Still, I think I can yet remember the day I first saw the stars. Perhaps the stars have been gazing down on me since long ago."
Leo's calm voice evoked a theology lecture drifting out of a monastery in early summer. It was the polar opposite of my core, which was pounding like mad and endlessly craving the metallic blood lingering between my taste buds. Perhaps Leo, who would know my condition, thought the same. Yet even amid the swelling revulsion, the sense I'd so desperately longed for—the sound of wind settling on my ears, the dry friction of blades of grass touching one another, the familiar resonance of a speaking voice vibrating through my body—put me at ease, and soon drowsiness crept in.
I steadied my breathing, buried in the sounds of the world I'd craved so dearly. With each breath, consciousness drifted a little further away.
"Lukas, you asleep?"
"......"
"That was perfect timing, though." I twitched my fingers in place of an answer. It didn't take long to surrender to the haze again, and each time, Leo shook me awake. This round passed thirty minutes. When it crossed an hour, Leo kept waking me so relentlessly that all drowsiness was gone, and the only way to combat boredom was to talk to Leo. I cleared my throat, which was a bit wrecked, and spoke.
"What did Senior come by for earlier? Nearly gave me a heart attack."
"He wanted all the captains and vice-captains from every class to have a meal together. Since you weren't around, he said he'd push it to tomorrow morning."
Hm, not as important as I'd thought. I nodded and asked another question.
"I see. But why did Luise come?"
"Her, well, she's sociable enough to strike up a conversation anywhere. She must have told His Excellency Hohenzollern that I'd know where you were."
My take was the opposite. Ulrike would've been dragging Albertina Hohenzollern around, poking into every place outside the Crown Prince's Palace looking for me, and Albertina Hohenzollern, after being pulled along for a while, would have finally come to Leo to ask about my whereabouts. Since Ulrike was convinced she and Leo were the only two in this team—a team where everyone was friends—who couldn't even manage to be friends, the chances of her voluntarily bringing Albertina Hohenzollern to the Crown Prince's Palace first seemed low.
Just then, Leo closed his book and checked his watch.
"By the way, it's already been over an hour. Could it be that now, really...."
SNAP—
"......"
Like pressing the power button on a radio, every sound was cut off at once. When my expression shifted sharply, Leo also froze with his mouth open. He flipped open the journal and murmured as he held it out.
[I think we should make what I just said a forbidden phrase.]
"You believe in superstition?"
[Whatever, fine. In any case....]
Leo seemed at least self-aware that he was doing something insane, because he was gradually losing his grip. He sat there with that soul-wrung expression from before, then slowly smiled.
[Seeing you use magic to answer earlier, I was already thinking we'd need to do it one more time.]
"......"
I'd retract the self-awareness comment. If it were possible to wring a human being out like a half-dried rag, this bastard would be the first to achieve it. So, in other words, I had to go through all of that again. My heart pounded. The instant I rose at maximum speed, a plant stem snagged my leg.
"...!"
As I hit the floor, a thought flashed through me and my eyes went wide. It wasn't the physical impact that startled me.
[This time, let's see how many more hours your hearing can hold.]
"......"
The passing thought struck my head hard as it went by. The anticipation of absorbing magic power again crept up, slithering between the revulsion. That was the problem.
***
CRASH—!
I fixed my shoes on my feet and ran like a madman. It felt like a plant stem could shoot up from the marble underfoot at any moment and grab my legs. Leo's attendants who encountered me greeted me in a hurry with wide eyes, but I had no capacity to return the gesture. I wiped away with my sleeve the blood droplet that had landed on my face from a poorly aimed turn of my head. It wasn't enough. I upended one of the vases lining the hallway over my head, washing the blood from my face, and kept running. The sound of my own heartbeat filled my ears so completely that I couldn't tell whether Leo was chasing after me or not.
'For now.'
For now, this was not okay. I had no idea why Leo wasn't stopping me. He'd claimed the magic power in my ears had been sufficiently destroyed, so now he'd test whether the duration of my hearing scaled proportionally with the amount of magic power absorbed—and naturally I hadn't accepted that, and just as naturally, my refusal was not honored. I couldn't be certain whose it was, but magic power that was unmistakably Leo's lingered in my mouth. Nausea surged. No—maybe it wasn't just a physical sensation. I think something like a retch came out. My vision was too blurred to know what I'd even done. If I went and dunked my head in the Isar River over there, I'd probably die, but at least I'd come to my senses.
"Sir Askanian, where are you—"
CRASH—!
I shoved aside the Crown Prince's Palace guards blocking my path with a spell and escaped out the back of the building, still running. As I cut across the rear garden toward the back gate, a dark silhouette came into view. Again. Someone was in front of me again. I aimed my wand and shouted.
—Enter through the narrow gate...!
"...Wait, wait!"
Before I could even register whose familiar voice it was, my wand was seized. My reaction speed had clearly deteriorated. The person standing before me scanned me with deeply furrowed brows, then recoiled in horror.
"You...!"
It was Mecklenburg. Why was this bastard here, of all people? The place had become a full-on tourist attraction. I'm sure he'd be delighted by the wonderful news that Nicolaus was a blood-drinking Pleroma. Stomach churning, I raised my wand again. Mecklenburg, startled, held up his hands in a calming gesture and shook his head.
"I knew you'd be here."
"......"
At the unexpected words, I tilted my head with a blank expression. Mecklenburg eyed the blood on my clothes warily and answered.
"His Excellency Hohenzollern said he'd been all the way to the Crown Prince's Palace and still couldn't find you. I'd seen it for myself before, so I wondered what he was talking about."
"......"
"And I'd already heard about you not being able to hear. I did come because there's something that needs to be relayed immediately, but... even before that, when I heard you couldn't hear, I figured I should come in person."
He said he already knew I couldn't hear, yet he deliberately brought it up in spoken words, and then on top of that handed me a letter. What a fascinating contradiction between words and actions. Though I was no different. I unfolded the letter briefly—condolences regarding my hearing loss were neatly written in elegant handwriting. I caught my breath, grabbed him, and started running again. Once we reached a secluded corner, I cast a concealment spell, smiled, and waved the letter.
"I can hear you. Thanks for the sympathy."
"...?! You can hear—!"
It was hard to play it cool in my current state. I cut off his shock and answered.
"I received treatment. What brings you here, Senior?"
"I'm a senior from the Imperial Mages' Association—did you think I couldn't get in? Seems you've forgotten why we're in Bavaria during a time when anything could blow up at any moment."
This bastard never misses a chance to be snide. Anyway, understood. After the 91st Class Representative left, Leo apparently hadn't specifically asked for no one else to be admitted. Then again, there probably wasn't anyone else likely to visit at this late hour. As I leaned against the wall and slowly steadied my breathing, Mecklenburg narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"So, you—"
"What?"
Mecklenburg cautiously pointed at the blood on my clothes and asked.
"What's this about?"
"It's not my blood, so don't worry."
"Who said I was worried about you?! I should be asking whether you went and buried someone—what the...."
"Buried someone? If anything, I was the one nearly buried by the 101st Class Captain."
"...?"
Mecklenburg tilted his head, squinting.
"Hold on—Sir Wittelsbach? This is almost...."
"We were just messing around a bit. We sparred."
"This is well beyond messing around. Your restraint...."
His tone was growing increasingly serious—answering was a pain, but honestly, I would've asked the same thing in his shoes; after all, saying it wasn't my blood meant it was Leo's—so I waved my hand at him, since he was clearly laboring under some strange misconception about Leo's skill level.
"So what brings you here? I can't stay out here forever."
Only then did he compose his expression. He was still watching me with an ambiguous look, but he recovered the voice he used when putting up appearances and spoke calmly.
"The two most symbolic dioceses of the Pleroma organization have been annihilated by our hands. How do you think they'll move now?"
"I see my manner of speaking has rubbed off on you."
You're not going to lead with the main point right now? I clutched my throbbing head and exhaled, then recounted the command's plan I'd heard in passing before.
"You said the other dioceses would unite, so forces from other classes previously deployed for Berserker elimination would be mobilized to strike additional Pleroma targets. So...."
I got that far before I felt my head starting to ache for an entirely different reason and opened my mouth.
Don't tell me—another diocesan incursion? Right now? It hasn't even been thirty hours since the last operation ended?
Mecklenburg pulled an envelope from inside his jacket. It was an official order. I watched it, feeling the color drain from my face.
"The Pleroma leadership has proposed negotiations."
Negotiations?
I squinted. This, too, was a shocking thing to hear. In the Pentalon terror timeline that had already been erased, they'd delivered their message directly through the Imperial Newspaper. That had been the first instance of Pleroma publicly revealing themselves to the world. And by my turning back time, that instance had been rendered nonexistent.
"If that's the case, since negotiations are now out of the command's hands, the Imperial government should be the ones to step forward. But then why the official order...?"
Mecklenburg moved his lips as if to say something, then answered with eyes more serious than usual.
"They want to meet Sir Askanian."