Chapter 471

“Now, we’re in a place surrounded on all four sides by foreign countries.”

“Surrounded on all four sides?”

Something about Elias’s words made me realize that either his mental map was centered somewhere different from mine, or his definition of a foreign country was different. I asked with a doubtful look. After all, we were still in Germany, and we hadn’t even gotten that far from Bavaria, where we had started—we were still within its borders, in fact. So the north was still Germany.

I turned around, pulling my robe tightly around myself as the inland breeze, which had soon begun to feel pleasantly warm, blew against me. The carriage that had brought us here had been disguised as a stagecoach, so it was already heading back toward Munich Station. It would presumably be dismantled in a warehouse there and sent back to the royal palace.

“The place we’re standing in is Bavaria. Beyond here is the Kingdom of Württemberg, with Baden to its left. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is to the south, Switzerland is below Baden, and the French Empire is to the left of Baden. You can picture it that far, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re going through the village and heading to Kressbronn in Württemberg. Because we can’t cause Leo any trouble.”

“So you’re going to cause trouble for a neighboring country instead?”

Narke burst out laughing at my sour-faced question. Elias kept running a hand through his short-cropped hair as he answered firmly.

“Not exactly. We’re killing two birds with one stone. There’s also somewhere I usually go, and besides, the place we’re heading to doesn’t have a clear border. We’re going to Lake Constance.”

“Lake Constance?”

I responded casually, but the moment I heard Kressbronn in Württemberg, I understood what Elias had in mind. I knew how freely he had made connections with all sorts of people in the novel, and how much he had gotten out of those relationships. It was hard to believe that I was now accompanying him on one of the Protagonist’s journeys that I had only ever read about, albeit for a somewhat different purpose.

Rather than feeling excited, it was more strange than anything, with a faint sense of anticipation—but the road ahead looked terribly bleak.

Of course, even without having read the life story of which he was the Protagonist, anyone could have quickly figured out why he wanted to go to the lake. It was easy enough to predict without even seeing what sort of scheme he had prepared.

Thirty minutes later, after warping several times and walking a short distance across the borders within Germany, we entered the Kingdom of Württemberg’s Kressbronn without permission.

When we finally reached Lake Constance, I stared blankly at the rowboats and fishing boats securely tied to the rusted mooring posts along the pier, breathing in the damp, fishy smell of the water.

People who made their living on the water might have called a night like this—clear moonlight and a moderate breeze—a fine day, with fair winds and a sea that could be followed. But for someone like me, who had absolutely nothing to do with sailing, the moonlight illuminating the pitch-black water looked anything but a benevolent searchlight sent down by Isis. It was downright eerie.

For some reason, I couldn’t even see the Swiss or Austro-Hungarian borders somewhere in the distance. From the sparse clusters of trees stretching endlessly into the darkness came the ominous cry of a bird, its voice sounding as though it were squeezing the life out of its own throat.

The wooden planks making up the pier were so old that whenever the waves hit, droplets of water splashed up through the gaps in the floorboards.

Lake Constance was a lake, yes, but it was far too large to comfortably call it simply a lake. It was large enough that, if you crushed the administrative district of Tübingen just right, you could somehow fit it inside. It was much larger than Munich and slightly smaller than Seoul. At least, that was what I’d learned when researching the natural environment around Bavaria. Seeing it in person, though, was enough to take my breath away.

While I stood at the Württemberg-side pier of Lake Constance, staring down at the black water, Elias patted me on the shoulder and ran toward one of the houses behind us. Then he pounded on the door.

Bang—bang bang bang—

“Hey, mister!”

Elias pounded on the door of a stranger’s house and shouted in the middle of the night. Before long, angry footsteps came closer, and the door flew open.

“Who is it?!”

“It’s me.”

Elias answered with a sullen face, swaying casually on his feet.

Unlike the people I’d seen in the city, the man standing before him had a beard that reached beneath his chin. His skin was deeply tanned, and his hands and forearms were covered in scars from fishing hooks. He looked like a fisherman who made his living on Lake Constance.

And that’s exactly what he was.

Elias had quite literally roamed all over Germany, and along the way, he’d collected countless people he’d met into his circle of connections, regardless of their age or social standing. This particular man was a fisherman Elias had gotten into a fight with after stopping by a tavern in the Kingdom of Württemberg. They’d ended up becoming friends afterward—though it would be more accurate to say the fisherman, having realized that Elias was just as hot-tempered as himself, had decided to let him off first.

Since then, Elias had occasionally rented boats from him here. He liked setting off from this town right next to Bavaria, visiting one of the islands belonging to the Grand Duchy of Baden, and then coming back.

“Could we borrow a boat? The smallest one you’ve got.”

Elias spoke in a practiced Bavarian accent, mixing in the slightly rude, low-class way of speaking ordinary kids tended to use. I already knew he could speak the regional dialects from all across Germany, but seeing a Hohenzollern—whose native speech was the Berlin dialect and whose manner of speaking emphasized the dignity expected of royalty—talk like a local eighteen-year-old from the Bavarian countryside, and one who clearly had a history of being the neighborhood troublemaker at that, was astonishing.

Whether I marveled from a distance or not, the fisherman could only stare at him in disbelief.

“What? At this hour? It’s midnight, boy.”

“The three of us are going to practice a play. We need a boat.”

“What kind of school puts on a play out on the water?”

“Ours. We’re putting on an outdoor performance for the seniors who are graduating.”

“Then go down to some little stream and practice on a raft.”

“Why would I do that? You ought to play on the big water. Even if I drown and end up as food for the piranhas, I’m taking a boat out on Lake Constance. So lend me one.”

“Good grief…”

The fisherman shook his head in disbelief and leaned against the doorframe, resting an arm on it. After looking Elias over, he pointed at him.

“Well, would you look at that. You finally cleaned up that hair of yours. More importantly, you still haven’t graduated?”

“Yep, of course not. I’m still a first-year… Anyway, I’ll pay you, so can you lend it to me? We won’t be out long. I’ll have it tied back at the pier before sunrise.”

“Then pay me up front and be off. I don’t feel like getting out of bed again.”

“Deal.”

Elias rummaged through his pockets, painstakingly counted out his grimy money, and handed it to the fisherman. The fisherman counted the four banknotes Elias had given him, then raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.

“I’ve always wondered. Where does a student like you get money from?”

“Oh, there are plenty of ways.”

“You’re not stealing it somewhere, are you?”

“How’d you know?”

The fisherman’s face stiffened. Elias tightened his tie pompously and shrugged.

“Just kidding. I work after school. I earn money so I can spend it having fun.”

“And your friends?”

“They do the same.”

“Yep.”

I answered in a Bavarian accent.

In any case, the fisherman tucked the money into his waistband. Apparently taking Elias for nothing more than a cheeky kid, he gave a dry chuckle and patted him on the shoulder.

“Come visit again sometime.”

“Sure thing.”

Elias tipped his hat in farewell and turned away.

Once the door closed, Elias strode down the pier with his long legs, covering the distance to the end in a few quick steps. He pulled the rowboat right up against the pier and leaped into it. The boat rocked so violently it looked ready to capsize, but Elias seemed completely at ease, as though this wasn’t his first or second time on one.

Narke followed him into an empty seat. The two of them kept the boat pressed close to the pier so it wouldn’t drift any farther out, then looked up at me. I stared at the rowboat, which rocked wildly at even the slightest ripple, before sighing and carefully sitting down beside them.

Elias deftly untied the rope from the mooring post and tossed it onto the planks. At that very moment, a perfectly timed gust of wind pushed the boat away, sending us drifting sideways with the current. In an instant, the pier began to recede behind us.

Elias clapped his hands and proudly declared, “Illegal emigration successful!”

“Hahaha.”

“We’re still in German territory…”

I muttered as I took hold of the oars and twisted them upward to propel the boat forward. Well, at least I was trying to move forward in spirit. In practice, I was so far removed from a life of rowing that all I managed to do was flail the oars uselessly, as if I were personally demonstrating what it meant to be a city slicker.

Elias immediately corrected my awkward posture, poking at the muscles in my arms to show me where I needed to put my strength. Then he called out cheerfully, “Still! Come on, let’s all get started. Let’s find some way to prove we didn’t lie to the boat owner’s face.”

“Hmm~ I’ll pass.”

“What exactly are we supposed to prove?”

At my question, Elias went, “Oh, come on,” scolding me as though he couldn’t understand why I was being like this. I had a pretty good idea what he was planning, so his complaint was justified. He intended to practice the play.

I just didn’t want us shouting across the lake in the middle of the night and attracting attention. So, reluctantly, I cast a soundproofing spell around us for Elias’s entertainment.

“Is no one going to say anything? Then I’ll start.”

Elias cleared his throat, did a few light stretches, and then called out in a loud voice. His usual cheerful voice had taken on a solemn grandeur, almost as if he were reciting an epic. I already knew he wasn’t about to recite an epic, though.

As expected, Elias opened with a passage from an 18th century story¹ I’d read once before.

“You were already set for your departure when I left for Peterhof. I spent the holidays enjoyably, insofar as it is possible to enjoy oneself amidst hubbub and intoxication. But eager to turn my journey to benefit, I took the decision to make the trip to Kronstadt and Sisterbek.”

Elias tried to correct Narke’s rowing technique as he recited, but Narke handled the oars with such skill that he didn’t need any correction at all. Narke rowed with steady strength, watching Elias’s performance with interest. Whenever he reached a particularly fitting line, Elias narrowed his eyes and spread both arms toward the sky as he acted it out.

“Where I had been told great changes had taken place. In Kronstadt, I stayed for two very pleasurable days, feasting my eyes on the multitude of foreign ships, the stone-clad fortress of Kronstadt, and the buildings that were going up rapidly. I had been curious to see the plan of the new Kronstadt and with pleasure envisaged the beauty of the projected construction. In a word, the second day of my visit ended happily and pleasantly.”

“Hahaha. That sounds exactly like something Elias would say~”

“Right? The night was calm, clear and the salubrious air filled my feelings with a certain tenderness that is easier to feel than to describe adequately. I decided to turn the beneficence of nature to my advantage and, for at least once more in my life, to take pleasure in a magnificent view of a sunrise, one which I had not yet managed to catch on a smooth watery horizon. I hired a twelve-oar sloop and departed for S.”

Before we knew it, we were all listening to Elias’s recitation with interest. It felt as though he really were some traveler who had once set off for S aboard a twelve-oared boat. The wind tossed Elias’s pitch-black hair about. His equally darkened eyelashes would hide his irises before revealing them again. Every time he opened and closed his eyes, I could feel the passion burning in those blue eyes that could be seen anywhere in this world—even though the story he was reciting wasn’t actually a novel praising travel and nature.

Elias never let up on the oars even while reciting every one of those lines, and before long, we were floating in the middle of the vast lake, surrounded by nothing but water. No pier or forest was anywhere near us.

“We sailed successfully for about four versts. The monotonous sound of the oars incited in me a  doziness, and my languid gaze barely came to life at the passing shimmer of drops of water as they fell from the tips of the oars. My poetic imagination was transporting  me  to  the  lovely  pastures  of  Paphos  and  Amathus. Imagine it. The beaches and pastures of Cyprus at midday, and the lofty temples built back when the Greek gods were the supreme rulers of heaven and earth.”

The last two lines were Elias’s own ad-lib. I laughed softly and chimed in by calling out the name of the character Elias was playing.

“Must have been quite a pleasant time, Ch.”

“Even the drops falling on us right now look like obsidian. Pretty, aren’t they~”

Narke took it a step further. I had no choice but to ignore him. The water dripping from the oars was soaking our heads and shoulders like rain. Anyway, Elias seemed satisfied with our responses. He made a little finger gun, gave it a flick, and continued.

“Suddenly the sharp whistle of a wind arising from afar drove sleep away, and my drowsy eyes met the sight of densely packed clouds whose dark mass, it seemed, drove them toward our heads and threatened to crash down on us!”

“But then, the sharp sound of wind rising in the distance suddenly drove all sleep from me. My eyes were still heavy, yet great black clouds came rushing over my head, threatening to pour down upon me!”

“…….”

Apparently not using Insight, Narke began to let out a hollow laugh. I knew how the novel went, but I hadn’t expected Elias to recite this much, so I muttered on Narke’s behalf, “Don’t you think we picked a pretty terrible work for this?”

“Yeah, we did.”

Elias didn’t care in the slightest what we said and continued acting.

“The glassy patina of the water began to ripple, and calm gave way to an incipient splashing of the swells. I was glad about this sight as well; while I observed the magnificent features of nature—!”

“I think he’s lost it.”

I chided the character for being so delighted. For some reason, Elias almost burst out laughing at my comment, but he quickly composed himself and continued acting.

“I can say without boastful arrogance that what had begun to terrify others gladdened me. From time to time, like Vernet, I exclaimed, ‘Oh, how pleasing!’ But the wind, as it gradually strengthened, compelled me to think about reaching the shore.”

The wind was beginning to blow around us as well, making the little boat sway. I grabbed Narke’s right arm hard. Water nearly spilled over into his side of the boat, and Narke sucked in a breath and patted his chest in relief.

“The sky became completely dark from the thickening of somber clouds. The strong surge of the waves crippled control of the helm, and the gusty wind, now forcing us upward onto wet ridges, now plunging us into the clifflike ruts of watery swells, sapped the rowers’ forward-moving force. Involuntarily going with the flow of the wind we were borne along randomly. That was when we began to dread even the shore.”

“That didn’t take long.”

“And then what might have comforted us on a successful voyage began to drive us into despair. Nature at that hour looked mean to us, and we now grew angry with her for not displaying her awesome majesty by flashing lightning bolts and disturbing our hearing with peals of thunder. But hope, which accompanies man into extremes, fortified us, and we bucked one another up as best we could.”

“Hope, which accompanies man into extremes, fortified us…”

I repeated his words under my breath. They sounded exactly like something he would say, which somehow made all of this feel even more real. Speaking of which—if I were to say that the sky seemed to be getting darker for some reason, well, surely that was just my imagination. Then why did I have this chill running down my spine? The moonlight reflected on the water seemed a little dimmer than before. The clouds occasionally drifting across the moon on the wind happened to coincide with Elias’s recitation, but it was probably just a coincidence. Still, I didn’t want to let this ominous story continue any further.

“Enough. Enough.”

“Borne by the waves, our vessel suddenly stopped, immobile. All our joint efforts were insufficient to shift us from the spot where it stood!”

“It’s moving just fine. See? It moves. Eli, let’s just imagine going to Cyprus and picking oranges.”

In the novel, the boat the character was traveling in became stuck between rocks and eventually began taking on water. The captain barely managed to reach the shore and ask a noncommissioned officer for help, only to be flatly refused. He then went alone to a distant outpost, borrowed a merchant vessel, and rescued his passengers. Furious at the unfair attitude of the noncommissioned officer and his superior, the local governor, the character went to confront them, only to be told that ‘it is not my duty to rescue stranded vessels.’ He was left deeply disillusioned and was preparing to leave the city while recounting his journey to the protagonist. In any case, this was exactly the sort of book Elias would have been deeply moved by, and I had been too. But precisely because of that, reciting any more of it at a moment like this could only leave us with a grim story. I had no desire to imagine a future where our little ferry filled with water and one of us had to swim ashore for help.

“Fine. We’ll save the part two for next time.”

Perhaps Elias was beginning to sense that things were looking bad too. He fell silent after looking up at the sky and gauging the wind. Then he shamelessly said to me, “I heard you seriously talking about going to Cyprus and eating oranges. Remember that.”

“I only told you to imagine it. And… well, that’s all fine, but there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

I had come all the way to the middle of the lake trusting Elias and Narke. They had said they would handle everything, from sneaking out of the country to sneaking back in. But there was a problem.

“I have a question. If we’re going to Switzerland by boat, then the Grand Duchy of Baden is at the lower end of this lake, isn’t it? The fastest route would be to leave from Gaienhofen or Konstanz in Baden and enter Switzerland from there. Actually, we wouldn’t even need to do that. There’s land down here that connects directly to the Swiss inland.”

Paradies and Altstadt were Baden territories bordering Swiss land on the southern side of the lake, and crossing into Switzerland from there would take less than a minute on foot. Narke then spoke with a regretful look.

“Because of Atropos, the Baden government put barriers around Paradies and Altstadt to keep people from going in and out freely.”

“It’s just like the restrictions they put around the contaminated zones. I figured they would. But if we can’t pass through there, then what’s the point of heading toward Switzerland by boat? There are barriers when you cross the border by land, but none when you go by water? That can’t be it.”

“There are barriers over the parts of the lake belonging to each country, too. We haven’t been stopped because we’re still in German territory.”

“Then why are we even taking a boat?”

Elias answered confidently.

“Because we’re not going to set foot on Swiss soil. Luka, you know Reichenau Island, right?”

“Yeah. It’s right over there…”

Reichenau Island lay just below Konstanz, to the right of Gaienhofen, which I had mentioned earlier, and was the largest island in Lake Constance. Elias playfully tapped the oar against the side of the ferry.

“Okay, then. Give me ten things that come to mind when you hear ‘Reichenau Island’!”

“What? The territory of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Lake Constance, the Middle Ages, the Frankish Kingdom, monasteries, Ottonian manuscripts…”

Hm. I put a hand to my head before shaking it. It wasn’t my region, and aside from knowing it was right above Switzerland, I hadn’t really studied much about it. Everything I’d listed had come from history books, and I didn’t even know much about the Ottonian manuscripts.

Elias seemed satisfied enough and gave Narke a look.

“The Middle Ages, monasteries, Ottonian manuscripts. You got the important ones. Narke, your turn.”

Actually, I heard those from Narke, too—Elias winked as he said that. Narke then began explaining Reichenau Island to me.

“Reichenau Island was a place where a lot of Christian buildings were constructed during the Middle Ages. Churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Mark were built there, as were churches dedicated to Peter, Paul, and George. Saint Mark’s relics were also kept at the monastery here from as early as the 9th century. These days, the Diocese of Constance has expanded to include Reichenau Island, and the place has become much more secularized, so there probably isn’t much of importance to see besides the monastery.”

“So we’re going to Reichenau Island first? Since it’s still in Germany, we could’ve just warped there. If we didn’t…”

Then there must be a reason. I calmly waited for Narke to continue, and he gave me the answer I had expected.

“Right. We’re sneaking out of the country without even letting Trier Cathedral know. The Catholics absolutely cannot find out that we’re heading to Italy. So we can’t let the Reichenau monastery find out that we’re traveling by boat illegally, either.”

I nodded at Narke’s perfectly reasonable explanation. But there was still one problem I couldn’t figure out.

“So you’re planning to quietly dock and sneak into the monastery? Narke, we’re supposed to be going to Switzerland. I’d like to know what we’re supposed to gain from here.”

“The monastery on Reichenau Island used to be famous for its manuscripts. Emperors and bishops would even commission the monastery to produce copies of the Bible. Manuscripts from the Reichenau school were famous for their delicate, elaborate decorations and transcendent illustrations, and they had a huge influence on later art. During the wars, France even stole some of the manuscripts made here.”

“Hmm. Okay. So?”

I was starting to get an idea of where he was going with this, but I frowned, unable to believe what I was hearing.

“All right, then. Let’s talk about Konstanz. Historically speaking, what kind of city was Konstanz, which occupies the land around Reichenau to the north and south?”

“I remember reading that it was a major center of trade. And the Council of Constance was held there.”

“Exactly. During the Middle Ages, Konstanz was on the route from Germany to Italy. It was also one of the cities that benefited from the flourishing trade of the medieval period.”

By then, we had reached a quiet dock in Konstanz. Narke cast a concealment spell over us and got off the boat. Elias and I followed him. Elias pressed his wand against the rowboat and spoke a short incantation. The boat slowly drifted away, then began heading back the way we had come. That was how he planned to have the boat returned before dawn.

I watched the rowboat drift away before turning around. From here, I could see the dark silhouette of Reichenau Island. Narke whispered, sounding slightly excited.

“I grew up looking at a picture book made from loose pages of the Reichenau manuscripts. You know, the kind with illustrations that were clearly drawn by the Reichenau school about a thousand years ago, but were never recognized as an official manuscript.”

“…….”

We stood silently on the darkened quay at Konstanz. More precisely, Elias was grinning from ear to ear with excitement, while I could practically predict what Narke was about to say. A chill ran down the back of my neck as I barely managed to listen to the rest of what my friend had to say.

“And I found this out while studying German folklore. Apparently, there used to be an underground passage in Reichenau where illustrations meant for biblical manuscripts were smuggled. If the legend is true, then those uninspected illustrations were brought into what is now Switzerland through that passage.”

I bit my lip and let out a hollow laugh. Oh, great. As if Elias weren’t enough, there was another person among us who would actually do something like this… Even though I already knew what was coming, I resigned myself to it and asked, “So?”

Narke’s eyes gleamed in the darkness. Even though he had taken a medicine to darken the color of his irises, there was no mistaking the excitement shining in them.

“We’re going to find the underground passage from a thousand years ago.”

Translator Note

1. Elias is reciting a passage from Chudovo, Chapter 5 of Alexander Radishchev’s Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow (1790), specifically the lines of Pyotr Ivanovich Chelishchev. I used Andrew Kahn and Irina Reyfman’s 2020 English translation for Elias’s lines. ↩︎