Chapter 443

“Everyone is here.”

Once I pulled out the last chair and sat down, I saw all four of my friends around the living-room table looking at me. Ulrike was staring at me with a solemn expression.

Only Elias, Leo, Narke, and I knew that the person who had stolen the holy relics was also the one who had harmed Heike. Elias and Narke had been with me in Trier, so there was no way they could not know. Leo had been with Narke and me from the very beginning of the holy relics theft case.

The four of us had been sharing information with one another whenever we learned something, ever since last year. Aside from Narke’s personal history, which was practically impossible to read, there was hardly any information gap between the four of us. Most of the time, it was never intentional, and even when such gaps did occur, they were quickly closed within a few days. We had started doing this so that we could respond immediately whenever an unexpected problem arose.

Even after the selection of the 101st Unit, after I became close with the other three, the four of us continued doing this. But we never expanded that circle of information-sharing to the other three friends. It wasn’t because we were reluctant to trust them. There were two reasons.

First, someone could dig through their minds with divine power.

There certainly weren’t many people who could rummage through another person’s mind using divine power, but among the Imperial divine power mages, some were capable of interrogation.

Take the most important piece of information as an example. I absolutely could not let it become known that I was Nikolaus Ernst. I couldn’t even afford to give anyone clues that might lead them to that conclusion.

There were already enemies who knew my identity whether I liked it or not—about three came to mind immediately. But all three of them were obsessed with looking after their own interests and were absolutely not the kind of people who would do something beneficial to Pleroma. If they had been planning to do that, my Change Probability should have already been sitting at zero by now.

So why did I have to avoid even giving away clues about my identity? Why did I have to keep the number of people who knew the truth to a minimum?

‘First of all, the possibility of something happening to my Change Probability is obvious enough.’

But that wasn’t why I kept the truth from my friends. Sharing information meant taking on a risk, but the reverse was true as well. Knowing information meant taking on a risk, too.

Suppose someone became almost certain that there was something suspicious about my identity, and the government’s interrogators summoned them and used divine power to pry open their head.

1. They open the Junker student’s mind and find information about state secrets, Nikolaus, and who knows what else. The interrogator would feel as though they had struck a gold mine and would be ecstatic. From then on, they would keep the subject confined to interrogation rooms and hotels, using divine power to question him whenever they thought of something they wanted to know, day after day. The fact that he had possessed sensitive information would be recorded in classified documents and preserved for the rest of his life.

2. They open the Junker student’s mind and find nothing important. But after trying some leading questions, they discover traces that someone had tampered with his memories. From that moment on, everyone around him would be added to the secondary interrogation list.

3. They open the Junker student’s mind and find nothing important, nor any trace of erased memories. All they can get from him is the exact personnel structure and operational system of the Special Operations Command, along with what they had for dinner that evening. In that case, the interrogator, being a perfectly good-natured civil servant, would thank the subject for his cooperation in service to the fatherland and send him home. This sort of thing could happen anywhere, not just at the hands of a government divine power mage, but within Pleroma or any other organization as well.

This is what it means to know information in this era, in this society. Trust, love, and respect for a friend are not enough to tell them everything. Doing so would be no different from copying the burdens I carry and dumping them onto people I care about. Once something is heard, there is no taking it back.

‘At least Narke knows how to erase memories in a way that makes someone less vulnerable to leading questions… but what would be the point of telling them something only to erase it afterward?’

That was what hurt more. I had never erased my friends’ memories with divine power, but I already knew what that felt like from experiencing it through other means.

And second, beyond the social risks, knowing information close to being classified was itself a psychological burden. If my friends truly wanted to know, I was willing to place that burden on them too. But until they gave me some sign that they wanted it, I did not want to destroy their peaceful present. Their school days would never return once they passed. They already carried the nation’s burdens that they had never asked for but ended up shouldering. I did not want to burden them with everything else they would inevitably be dragged into because of me.

That was why I often hesitated to share information even with Elias, Narke, and Leo. I was the one who had the chance to recover from whatever risks I took, so I believed it was ultimately better for me to break through them first.

‘But.’

Things were different now. Heike had collapsed, and finding the person who had done this to him was no longer just my problem or my goal. This was a team matter. I couldn’t keep the information to myself and make all the decisions alone. That would have been disrespectful to my friends.

So I had to tell them that I suspected the person who had stopped Heike’s core and the person who stole the holy relics were one and the same, as well as the fact that the holy relics had been stolen. A few days ago, when there had been plenty of time left before the operation, it had been difficult to share information like this, so I had used a soundproofing spell. But with the operation right in front of us, I couldn’t do that anymore.

‘Yeah. So there’s no reason he should know…’

I glanced at Zähringen. He was sitting there as calmly as ever, without a trace of concern on his face. For some reason, he seemed to already know about the theft of the holy relics.

‘Did Leo tell him?’

Or Elias? Or had he learned through the Intelligence Bureau? Or…

Our eyes met, and Zähringen smiled.

“Why?”

I wasn’t sure whether that expression was Zähringen’s poker face. I told him it was nothing and unfolded the large sheet of paper I had brought with me. Elias watched me hand out the pens before turning to the others.

“All right, guys. There’s something I need to tell you first.”

“…….”

“The holy relic was stolen from Trier Cathedral.”

Zähringen blinked, looking unsurprised. Ulrike had already heard me mention the thief who stole the holy relics, so perhaps he had more or less figured it out already. He spoke with a grim expression.

“What? Someone actually stole a holy relic from our country? Wait, don’t tell me we have to find it ourselves. We don’t, right?”

“And?”

It was Zähringen who asked. Leo turned his gaze toward him with his arms folded, and the others did the same. Zähringen continued smoothly, his expression unchanged.

“The theft of the relics can’t be the whole story. What are you trying to tell us?”

“We have to meet the person who stole the holy relics tonight. At 11:50 PM, in Giesing, Munich.”

A subtle tension settled over the room.

Giesing was part of Munich, so it was easy to picture it as a crowded urban district full of people and buildings. In reality, it was closer to the countryside. At 11:50 PM, there would hardly be anyone out on the streets. Zähringen rubbed his chin.

“You mean the two blue notes we received before.”

“Yeah. The person who shows up there tonight is the one who stole the holy relic in Trier.”

“Then why was one of the notes in Heike’s cabinet?”

Zähringen had hit the nail on the head. The location of the note—yes, that was definitely a problem. He was trying to figure out what connection there was between the holy relics and ‘Heike’s’ cabinet.

“There’s something I need to tell you. From what I’ve pieced together, the person who stole the holy relic is the same person who stopped Heike’s core.”

“…….”

Silence fell. Apart from Elias, none of them seemed convinced.

It had started as a vague deduction, but it wasn’t an especially shaky one anymore. I had already verified a lot of it through the Extra Chapter and through the information I’d obtained by provoking the Papal See thus far. But telling them all of that would mean revealing that I was a cardinal. At that point, they would all be exposed to real danger, and I couldn’t suddenly burden people who already had so much information to process with even more confusion.

Ulrike stared blankly at me, his lips parting.

“…What?”

“I think there’s a good chance. The holy relic itself has been turned into an artifact.”

“B-But…! Wait. What does the holy relic being an artifact have to do with Heike’s core? Sir Ismailov collapsed too!”

Ulrike shouted without a trace of laughter, looking as though he couldn’t believe we were actually getting closer to finding the culprit. His face had gone pale.

“It has to do with the holy relic’s ability. From what I’ve found, it has the ability to retrieve something that two people have in common.”

“…Retrieve…?”

Zähringen gazed into empty space and muttered to himself. He sounded like he hadn’t expected that. At the same time, Ulrike planted a hand on the table and spoke in a frighteningly low voice.

“You mean the two of them had something in common? What does that even mean?”

“Exactly. The extent of the damage differed depending on how much of that shared thing they had. One of them lost almost all of it, while the other didn’t.”

“They’re complete strangers, Lukas. Especially if this shared thing is something that can be measured by proportion, there’s even less chance that they could have something like that in common.”

Ulrike’s voice grew lower and lower. They had only been made identical artificially, so of course there shouldn’t be anything they shared. I nodded readily.

“Of course.”

“…….”

“Luise. I’ll explain the connection between Heike and this incident in detail later. But there are parts of the investigation where I can’t tell you where or how I obtained the information. Even so, can you trust what I’m telling you?”

“…….”

Ulrike stared at me in silence, his expression unreadable. There was no hostility in his eyes. There was no reason for there to be. It was simply the possibility of getting his friend back that kept him on edge. In a flat, emotionless voice, Ulrike gave a brief answer.

“Alright.”

“Good. Thanks.”

I gave him a smile, then settled my expression back into its earlier seriousness. Turning to my friends, I returned to the real reason we had gathered.

“We need to find the person who did this to Heike tonight. The best thing we can do is work out our response beforehand and run through the situation in our heads as many times as possible. Now, first of all, even if we head to Giesing at 11:50, they won’t be waiting somewhere we can see them.”

“Why? They’re the ones who called us there first.”

“No. We have to find them first. Those bastards will be lying in wait and watching us.”

“So the meeting itself is a trap? More importantly… you really call them ‘bastards’ too, Lukas.”

Ulrike gave me a faint smile for a moment before his expression quickly turned serious again. I answered with the same look, then turned to Leo.

“Leo will signal us when he spots them. Someone on-site needs to locate them too, but we have to keep it quiet.”

At that, Zähringen spoke.

“So we’re borrowing the support of the Bavarian royal family.”

“Yeah. It’s safer that way. The opponent will definitely have their subordinates hiding nearby to make sure we actually show up at the meeting spot. That’s inconvenient for us, since we need to get to the leader.”

Ulrike nodded. I continued.

“So we need two people: one to show themselves at the meeting spot as bait, and another to stay hidden and take out their subordinates.”

“You’re planning to take their subordinates hostage and force the leader to come out?”

“Exactly.”

Zähringen had been quietly listening to our exchange when he looked at me and asked, “What if that doesn’t work?”

Sharp. He had been like that all along. Growing up as a leader must have made him especially quick at calculating these situations.

If that failed, I would use cognitive distortion to make the target move to our base. But I couldn’t exactly tell them that was my plan.

“I’ve considered that. In that case, we’ll have to use the Bavarian divine power mage stationed nearby.”

Leo narrowed his eyes. I ignored his frown and continued.

“I’ll be the one wandering around the meeting spot.”

“Who decided that?”

Leo’s sharp question cut in. I looked him straight in the eye.

“Who decided? I did.”

“No. I’ll go. What if they launch a surprise attack? That’s the most dangerous position.”

“Exactly. Then what’s your plan, Leo?”

Silence settled over the room. Cold, tense gazes were fixed on me, and the atmosphere in the sitting room had gone rigid. I looked straight at Leo and continued.

“You need to keep an eye on the overall situation and give us the signal. Besides, you’re the Crown Prince. Having you join a fight in Giesing, Munich, wouldn’t exactly look good.”

“Are you seriously—”

“Then me!”

Elias raised his hand with a little whistle. I answered with a displeased look.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re out too. Julia as well.”

“Then—”

Ulrike opened his mouth, but I shook my head.

“I’ll do it. Luise, being good at close-quarters combat is obviously a huge advantage, but that’s exactly why I want you to lie in ambush.”

“No. You said the position you’re taking is more dangerous than the others. I don’t like it.”

I was momentarily at a loss for words and stared at Ulrike. He answered without wavering.

“I’ll do it. I don’t want to lose another friend to someone I don’t even know.”

“…….”

My lips parted slightly as I blinked. I had better odds of surviving than he did. Ulrike knew that perfectly well. Yet because he didn’t want to lose another friend, he was insisting on taking the most dangerous position himself. The others were staring at him in surprise as well. Ulrike furrowed his brows and pleaded once more.

“Let me do it. You said this was an operation we were planning together. Even if it’s only this once, can’t you accept my opinion?”

He wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to put a friend in a dangerous situation—I felt the exact same way. I couldn’t put Ulrike there. If we were attacked, he was far more likely than I was to suffer a fatal injury.

“…Then how about this?”

I bit my lip once, then slowly raised my head.

“We both stay there. Or we could ask a divine power mage from the kingdom to take one of our appearances and go there instead.”

“Would someone who can use divine power that skillfully actually agree to our request… No. Then what about their safety…?”

“At least they’d be more experienced than me. Someone like Sir Nikolaus, for example.”

“…….”

Ulrike looked doubtful, as if he wasn’t sure I could actually bring that person. But the moment I clearly said the name, I saw the crease between his brows tighten and his expression stiffen. His eyes stopped wavering.

There was no getting around the guilt I felt when Nikolaus was me. But I couldn’t let Ulrike take that position. Just as he cared about my safety, I couldn’t help but care about his life, either. Somehow, I had to find a way.

And, in truth, being Nikolaus Ernst was far safer than being Lukas Askanien. The difference between the two identities was enormous, because one could use only mana while the other could wield divine power as well. And since using divine power felt far more natural to me than using mana, the gap was even greater.

Leo covered his eyes and let out a deep sigh. Elias simply stared down at the table.

“…….”

“Fine. If that’s possible… let’s do it.”

Ulrike answered with an uneasy look still lingering on his face. He was the sort of person who would worry even about the complete stranger Nikolaus Ernst getting hurt. He would feel the same way even if some other divine power mage came instead. I gave him a smile that barely managed to show and continued.

“Then, Julia. Will you stay with Ulrike?”

“Hmm. Sure. Leave it to me.”

Zähringen had been quietly observing us, and he answered with an easy expression, as though he was genuinely confident he could handle whatever came his way. I knew there was solid reason behind that confidence. I smiled and took the back of Elias’s hand.

“Then Elias and I will hide together, while Julia and I provide ranged support for the two of you, since you’re both specialized in close combat.”

“So we’ll have to be the first to spot anything.”

“Pretty much. The plan might change again, but let’s work out this much for now. And, most importantly.”

There was something they needed to know. I looked around at my friends and said, “Even if we meet the leader, we can’t kill them. Whether we make them use the holy relic again or find some other way, we need them alive if we’re going to wake Heike. Once we meet them, we have to settle this through words.”

“And if talking doesn’t work?”

At Zähringen’s question, I answered simply.

“Then we’ll have to use force.”

“What are our chances?”

Silence fell. Leo and Elias, who already knew who I suspected the culprit to be because I’d told them beforehand, went stiff as well. I gave a brief answer.

“I don’t think our chances are particularly high.”

“Even if all five of us took them on…”

Ulrike slowly trailed off. His face had gone stiff, the muscles around his mouth drawn downward and his eyes burning fiercely. I knew that expression. I knew it far too well. I quietly tried to calm Ulrike, who was probably grinding his teeth over his own skill.

“You don’t have to take it that hard. Killing them won’t accomplish what we’re trying to do anyway. That’s all.”

“…Yeah. I heard that from my mother. For a mage, capturing someone alive is harder than killing them.”

Perhaps realizing that I was worried about him, Ulrike gave me a faint smile before lowering his gaze. I looked around at my friends.

“I think we can negotiate with them. Even if they refuse, we’ll have to find some way to make it work. But the real problem comes before that.”

Elias raised his hand and spoke up.

“It doesn’t sound that difficult. Leo and his people can watch from somewhere like an observation post, and when they spot anyone suspicious, they can signal us through our artifacts. Then we take them down.”

“That’s right. But we can’t kill them, so we absolutely can’t let them realize we’ve brought in Bavarian government forces, Eli.”

Elias pursed his lips as though whistling and nodded. He probably knew that already—perhaps he’d simply spoken before thinking. Or maybe he wanted to hear me confirm it. I continued, looking at my friends.

“The same goes for us. We can’t let anyone know that all of us are moving around Giesing. Only the person who shows up at the meeting place should be visible.”

“…Ah. So you were planning to deploy Bavarian divine power mages anyway. We just need to add at least one to each of the teams we’ve divided ourselves into, right?”

Ulrike spoke as though he had finally understood. I nodded. Then I spread a map of Giesing over the drafting paper and layered three sheets of tracing paper over it, weighing down each corner with a small paperweight. The real operation briefing hadn’t even started yet. What kind of operation briefing would it be without a map?

But before we got into that, there was something I wanted to tell my friends.

“Before we go any further, there are actually two things I haven’t told you.”

“Hm…? What didn’t you tell us?”

Ulrike glanced between our friends, looking puzzled.

What hadn’t I told them? That I was Nikolaus Ernst. I couldn’t tell them—not only for my own sake, but for theirs as well. I looked at Ulrike and Zähringen and spoke.

“One of them… I might not be able to tell you before I reveal it to everyone else. But if I manage to make everything public on the day I’ve planned…”

I swallowed unconsciously before looking back at my friends.

“I really want you two to be the first to know. I can’t tell you right now, but… can you wait for me?”

Zähringen tilted his head.

“You can’t right now?”

“…I’m sorry. It’s difficult right now.”

“You really want to tell us… Hmm. Then don’t apologize. Don’t feel burdened.”

Don’t feel burdened? Why? At this point, I was the one who had to tilt my head. I suppressed the urge to ask what he meant with a strange look and simply waited, watching Zähringen closely. As nobles often did when offering something, Zähringen held out an open hand and gave me a warm, easy smile.

“Even if your plans fall apart and I end up not being the first to know, I’ll be fine. Your sincerity has already reached me here and now.”

“…Honestly, I don’t have a clue either, but… same. Don’t worry about it! I won’t be disappointed~”

Ulrike answered, having regained some of his usual cheerfulness.

“Thanks, Julia. Luise.”

I looked at them with all the sincerity I could muster. Ulrike gave me another small smile. Zähringen smiled back, then raised an eyebrow and rested his chin on his hand.

“So, what’s the other one?”

“Ah, right. I think I can tell you the other thing first. That blue note.”

I pulled the blue note from my pocket—the one with the coordinates of the point opposite Munich—and showed it to them. Ulrike furrowed his brow again, his eyes lighting up.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“I wrote it.”