Chapter 566

Narke’s expression hardened when he saw the dust being absorbed into my hand, and he immediately sat down beside me. I finished my brief explanation and ended the call. When he placed his hand over my fingertips, a refreshing breeze seeped all the way into my bones. The dust that had already been absorbed hadn’t caused any noticeable reaction so far, but Narke’s meticulous approach to safety was certainly worth emulating. He took off his own glove and touched the red dust as well.

“…Hmm?”

Narke examined the powder still clinging to his hand, letting out a thoughtful hum. He could hardly believe his eyes. The red powder on his hand wasn’t being absorbed. Its vivid color remained unchanged. No matter how much he handled the dust, it simply fell lightly away from his hand…

Unlike mine. A chill crept up the back of my neck. I sprang to my feet and touched my lips. All sorts of thoughts came rushing into my head. Even as I walked farther inside, my vision a blur, I kept scanning the floor. Dust caught between the tiles had worked its way slightly onto their surfaces. That was only natural. It was hard to keep a place where people came and went in their shoes from getting dirty. Wasn’t that why they employed servants to sweep and clean every morning and evening?

I ran my hand along the wall. No reddish dust came away on my palm. No—perhaps my hand had absorbed it, too. I pressed my pristine white cuff against the wall and dragged it along the surface. Nothing. Only gray dust came away.

Without hesitation, I strode down the corridor toward the rear entrance.

“Lukas!”

Narke hurried after me and grabbed my shoulder. In the otherwise empty corridor, he looked somewhat bewildered as he spoke.

“On the surface, it’s just dirt. Something like hematite…”

“Right.”

Red soil like this was common in areas with particularly high iron content. To anyone looking at it, it really was just dirt. As Narke had said, it was the color of hematite, a form of iron oxide. I glanced at the ring on his hand and answered firmly.

“But it isn’t dirt.”

It hadn’t been absorbed into Narke’s hand, but it had been absorbed into mine. And my constitution was an extraordinary trait that Narke didn’t possess.

The time for ‘maybe’ was over. Until now, I’d kept my thoughts to myself, stuck in an ambiguous place where I was about two-thirds certain and one-third doubtful. But now that those French had arrived, no mage could afford to let their guard down about security. Everyone was on edge, not just me. Mages with divine power had been deployed by the government to purify various parts of the city with their divine power and report back to one another, while most of the police, both Old Humans and New Humans, were patrolling the city without rest.

Now I knew for certain. This wasn’t merely a suspicion. Something really was happening.

Then who was behind it?

Pleroma? France?

Just then, the artifact by my ear rang. Mecklenburg was calling.

The Magical Crime Response Team arrived soon after. For the time being, they had sent only one of their members inside. The others waiting outside would soon begin carefully removing this fake ‘iron oxide’ powder.

But the mage sitting before us in a lab coat looked uncertain as he spoke, clearly at a loss.

“It isn’t toxic. At first glance, it looks like iron oxide.”

I exchanged a glance with Narke. He was saying the same thing Narke had. The mage was looking up at me as if to ask how on earth this could possibly be a magical terrorist attack. Unlike him, Narke wasn’t questioning my suspicions. Even if you were close friends, who would believe you if you pointed at some dirt on the floor and declared, “This is evidence of a terrorist attack”? Perhaps Narke had quickly reached much the same conclusions I had. Or perhaps his intuition, honed by the ability he had used relentlessly since childhood, was telling him to trust me. Then again, he might have used Insight…

The mage spoke, still looking confused.

“I am not even sure this is a magic potion. If this dust is one, then… I would have to assume it was made into a highly concentrated aqueous solution, like a potion, then frozen and ground into powder.”

“That would make sense. There is no other way to store mana externally and make it work, is there?”

“Well, there isn’t for those of us who aren’t Pleroma.”

I silently rested a hand on my knee and looked down at the floor. The mage took a bottle of water from his waist and continued.

“To determine whether it is a magic potion, we put the ground powder into a reagent and test for mana… But isn’t this just iron? There is a newspaper office and a factory nearby, and with the spring winds blowing as hard as they are these days, all sorts of powder could have been carried here.”

“Please run the test anyway. There is no way to know whether it might contain an exceptionally high concentration of ambient mana unless you do.”

“Well, if this reagent were capable of detecting ambient mana, it would have already reacted strongly to the mana in the air… However, that isn’t what matters right now, Lord Askanien. This may be disappointing, but the quantity only appears so large because the powder is mixed with other dirt. It is dispersed so finely that I can’t say whether testing it will produce any conclusive results.”

“Please do the best you can. Our citizens’ safety is at stake.”

“Of course. I will do everything I can.”

The mage replied as he carefully poured the dust he had collected into the bottle.

The answer I received a little while later was disappointing, just as I’d expected. The mage held out a bottle of murky, reddish water that looked like muddy water. Dust had settled at the bottom, and the water itself was cloudy, with only the faintest reddish tint, as though a little rust powder had been mixed into it. Greasy grime clung to the rim and surface, with dust and what looked like short animal hairs tangled in it. It was filthy all around. I was almost glad Mecklenburg hadn’t come in here.

The mage held out a dish containing the liquid mixed with another solution, then shook his head. As he poured the mixture into the sealed container he’d brought, he spoke.

“I collected as much as I could, but there is no mana to be detected. It is just dirt.”

I felt a sudden rush of relief. No mana had been detected… And yet, that dirt had dissolved into my hand without a trace, as if it had been washed away. There was definitely something unusual about it.

“As you can see, hematite is also used as a pigment, so it can leave behind a fairly strong color like this.”

The mage offered his advice in a gentle, measured tone, wearing an expression that seemed to say I should reconsider my conclusion. He glanced around uneasily as he waited for my response. He was probably wondering how on earth a bit of dirt could constitute a magical crime. It wasn’t as though I looked like some lunatic who would mistake ordinary dirt for some sinister powder and report it as a crime, but the situation was strange enough that he might well be starting to think so.

“Lord Askanien. You are saying this is a magical crime?”

As expected, the mage asked cautiously. I merely tightened the corners of my mouth and gave no answer.

That didn’t mean I could demonstrate the dirt’s strange reaction—which only occurred when it touched me—right in front of them. Anyone perceptive enough might figure out the nature of my ability. I had to admit, their thoroughness was impressive.

There was one more thing.

None of the people walking along the street had scattered this powder. Narke simply hadn’t used Insight on me. He hadn’t blocked his ability from working elsewhere. Since he wasn’t Heike, his Insight could only provide limited information about places and objects. Most of the time, he had to look into the eyes of someone connected to an object to learn anything about it. Even so, I was grateful that his ability wasn’t completely useless in this regard.

The fact that he hadn’t noticed anything particularly suspicious on our way here was worth noting. It meant that none of the people we’d encountered had done anything especially troubling to their conscience. To put it more plainly, for someone to feel guilty, they would have to be fully aware of what they’d done.

Getting back to the main point, the culprit was meticulous. Whatever method they had used, they had developed a powder fine enough to evade forensic examination. At this point, I was starting to wonder if I was losing my mind, but the dirt had definitely seeped into my hand without leaving a trace. I ran my fingers over it again. Nothing happened. All I felt was an unpleasant sensation on the surface of my skin where the dust had brushed against it. There was even a slight tingling at my fingertips, as though tiny cells were tugging at my blood vessels. But it was weaker than an ant bite, so perhaps the pain was all in my imagination.

If it was neither of those things, then I’d simply developed the ability to absorb ordinary dirt, too. Even I thought I sounded insane, just as baffled as the mage from the response team. I mocked myself silently.

“That is right. We need to clean this up thoroughly.”

Unlike my thoughts, my lips moved calmly. There was no room anymore for the vague attitude I’d taken when the situation was uncertain and I was still piecing things together on my own.

“All of it. We need to quietly investigate every destination across Prussia and find out whether this red dirt has been scattered there. Don’t let anyone know.”

The mage looked increasingly bewildered. Just as he shook his head and began to respond, Narke, standing beside him, spoke quietly.

“Lord Askanien was the one who prevented the terrorist attack during the Pentathlon, sir.”

“Oh.”

The mage furrowed his brows and nodded as if he hadn’t forgotten.

“Especially today, we can’t afford to let our guard down, can we?”

“Yes, of course. I understand.”

Still looking troubled, the mage replied. He dripped some water onto the dust, and when nothing happened, he poured on a little more. Then he nodded and tapped the artifact by his ear.

The red powder at the Rampager Control Center had been cleared away.

To keep anyone from finding out about the cleanup, everyone on the response team had to remove their uniforms and warp around discreetly, dressed like ordinary people. There might be accomplices waiting near buildings at various locations, so they had to work with as few people as possible. They also couldn’t inspect a site until they were inside with the doors locked. As a result, they hadn’t been able to visit many places yet.

I returned to the banquet hall, cast a soundproofing spell as I drank, and spoke into the artifact by my ear.

“Did anyone bring in anything that looked like dirt?”

I’d switched to another line and was now speaking with an employee who had just finished inspecting the belongings of the foreign visitors arriving at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.

— [That is strange. No one did.]

“What about potted plants?”

— [Of course not. Who would bring something like that?]

“Are you certain you opened and checked every single item?”

— [Of course. We even opened the lockets they were wearing around their necks. As you instructed, we confiscated all liquids and any boxes that couldn’t be opened.]

Hmm…

By this point, there was nothing more I could ask. I couldn’t afford to waste time arguing with someone who insisted otherwise.

I pretended to be talking to Narke beside me as I expressed my thanks and ended the call. The Italians occasionally wandered over, looking for Narke, who could speak their language, but he sent them away with an apologetic smile.

Mecklenburg had just arrived. He stood beside me with a solemn expression, as though he’d never been the one darting around with his eyes wide open just moments ago. I expanded the soundproofing spell that surrounded us like a hemispherical barrier and spoke.

“Have all the foreign guests arrived?”

“All of them. But they’re moving on to the dining hall.”

“Already?”

“You keep saying that. It’s late. That Gramont fellow and his team deliberately arrived just in time to head straight to the dining hall. Not showing up at all would have been a security threat in itself, given that they’re foreign mages who are expected to follow protocol.”

“Fine. Then we need to seal off the building without anyone noticing. We also need to inspect the belongings of the French guests still in the banquet hall, but—”

“Wait a moment…”

Mecklenburg spoke with an uneasy expression, the same one I’d seen on the mage earlier. He lowered his gaze before asking in the least offensive tone he could manage, “On what grounds?”

I let out a short, breathy sigh and nodded.

It was a fair question. The fact that Mecklenburg was still keeping his guard up and going along with me, rather than berating me for making a baseless report and asking if I’d lost my mind, was impressive enough. After all, to them, it was nothing more than ordinary rust-colored powder that didn’t seep into the skin.

At this point, even I was beginning to wonder whether I’d made a mistake somewhere, or whether the dirt that seeped only into my hand might not be some sinister powder made from a magic potion after all…

No. That wasn’t it.

Whatever the explanation, I couldn’t simply overlook that dirt. If I wanted to convince them when I was the only one who could sense something wrong with it, I had to explain how I’d arrived at my conclusions.

I rubbed my chin and began.

“First, Senior. I wondered why they’d sent high school students.”

“You’re a high school student yourself…”

Since Mecklenburg was talking nonsense, I cut him off at once.

“No. Our 101st Unit is a special case. In Germany, where a peculiar cult called Pleroma has been running rampant, we were summoned under an emergency mobilization order. France, on the other hand, hasn’t done anything of the sort. Académie Puissance focuses more on academic pursuits than our Imperial Mage Association does, so it isn’t unusual for high school students to be recruited. But that still doesn’t explain why they’d send high school mages on a diplomatic visit. Of course, I may be worrying too much.”

“So?”

“If anything, there was no reason to turn them away. It’s to our advantage to have high school students here, too. If they’re all equally talented, then it’s better to have less experienced people look around the factories than seasoned scholars. So we let them in, but… I wanted to keep an eye on how they behaved.”

“So that’s why you’ve been looking around all this time.”

“Exactly. I wanted to see whether they were staying where they were supposed to be or slipping away somewhere else. I also spoke with Lord Esperanza Lafayette earlier. He said France had sent even high school students here to keep discontent from growing as socialists became increasingly vocal back home.”

“That makes sense. France is extremely sensitive about socialism.”

“As you know, they want to prevent another Paris Commune from emerging. The House of Orléans may have established its empire without much difficulty, but they would have had to make sure the citizens didn’t band together again and establish a government of their own. Up to that point, I could understand their reasoning. And as you’ve been butting in so often, you already know this, but I also spoke with Lord Antonie Gramont.”

Mecklenburg narrowed his eyes as if to ask why I was bringing him into this. So he knows what I’m talking about, at least. I continued in a rapid rush.

“Lord Gramont picked a fight with me once before, but it was a personal matter. It never escalated into anything serious. He was simply eager to test himself against me, then went straight back to France. But he told me he’d been suspended over that incident and had only recently been reinstated.”

“Hmm?”

“Adults certainly know a great deal, don’t they? How did the adults in France find out that Antonie Gramont held a grudge against Lukas Askanien?”

Mecklenburg raised his eyebrows, apparently troubled by the same question. I continued.

“Lord Gramont said it was because his feelings showed plainly on his face. He said he was constantly being questioned about it. But… that’s not enough. He never directly harmed me. He was irritating, sure, but if anything, he was about as annoying as you, Senior. Actually, much less so. It never caused any major commotion, so how did the adults find out?”

“What did you say to him?”

“That it wasn’t something worth suspending him over.”

In other words, it wasn’t the kind of situation the adults could have known much about in the first place. And if that was the case, wasn’t there one person who came to mind from the House of Orléans? I looked straight at him and continued.

“A reprimand would have been enough. The students in the high school division will eventually advance to the university division, and those in the university division will go on to the research division. Lord Gramont was the top student in the high school division. Why would they expel a student who could one day become a major figure leading France’s future, especially one from a noble family that hasn’t exactly caused trouble? Would they really be willing to throw away his enormous mana reserves and outstanding abilities? Things would be different if he had actually done something seriously wrong, but that wasn’t the case. If a mage’s career could be ruined just for provoking a fellow mage of his own age from an enemy nation, then, knowing Lord Antonie Gramont’s personality, he must have talked back to a French noble instructor at least once. It would have made more sense to expel him from Académie Puissance for that.”

Silence fell. Mecklenburg asked, “Then are you saying the student was suspended for something he did?”

“Antonie Gramont’s only real offense was getting involved with Lukas Askanien and leaving each other with bad blood.”

Mecklenburg furrowed his brow. Narke looked away.

“And the reason the Imperial Family pressured Académie Puissance into suspending Antonie Gramont was probably to use him as a pawn. As for why they reinstated him, it’s because he’s going to die today.”

A pawn they could use to take out both me and Germany at once.

Mecklenburg’s eyes widened, but then he pressed a hand to his forehead, as though a headache were coming on. He grimaced and let out a groan.

“I don’t understand…”

“They intended to kill Lord Gramont at the Rampager Control Center today, then blame the crime on the German Empire. They needed to restore his value before he died. That’s why they reinstated him.”

“But the timing doesn’t add up. You’re saying France must have been planning this for a long time.”

Mecklenburg spread his hands as he objected, but I had no intention of arguing against him.

“Sharp as ever.”

“Well…”

“Not at this point, no. In any case, that’s why the high school division students from Académie Puissance came here. Most likely, Antonie Gramont is the only one who’s supposed to die, because every single one of them is a valuable asset. As for why the others came, they’re here to create an image of underage students who barely survived a visit to the brazen terrorist state of Germany. Of course, that’s only a theory. There may be more victims.”

Mecklenburg rubbed his face wearily. He sighed, his face drained of color. Narke remained silent. I glanced at them before continuing.

“By the same logic, someone who isn’t French might die today, too. The British are in considerable danger. Wouldn’t that be an excellent way to sour relations between Germany and Britain?”

“…….”

“The French Imperial Family would do anything to bring the German Empire to its knees. The only reasonable motive they could have for sending Gramont, their most promising talent, into a death trap is me. As for why they’re targeting me… it doesn’t really matter. If it’s all part of an attempt to strike at Germany, then it makes sense. The French are more wary of me than they are of other foreigners. They want to keep believing I’m a member of Pleroma. In that sense, Antonie Gramont is a pawn meant to send me to my grave, whether he knows it or not.”

“Then that’s why you keep fixating on that dust…”

For one thing, no matter how strong the spring breeze was, iron oxide dust from a nearby newspaper office or factory shouldn’t have made its way past an ordinary building’s entrance and onto the floor of an indoor hallway. And for another, it had unquestionably seeped into my hand without leaving a trace.

That wasn’t ordinary dirt. Something had been done to it.

“The iron oxide powder we saw earlier might be the means by which they intend to carry out their plan. At the very least, I can tell you that it isn’t ordinary dust. If you put these two circumstances together, you’ll understand why I believe we have to seal off this building.”

Mecklenburg nodded for the time being, though he muttered as if he had a headache.

“I understand that you have some grounds for your suspicions, but how exactly are they supposed to die?”

I could have told him that one thing bothering me was how Gramont had tried to meet with me again shortly before the banquet ended, but not now.

“We don’t know how things will unfold. For now, let’s assume the dirt is dangerous. If the culprit brought it here, then whatever they’ve planned could go off in this very banquet hall. But if they didn’t bring any here, then simply keeping these French visitors from proceeding to their next destination should be enough. However, if there’s a chance the culprit did bring it, gathering everyone in one place would be tantamount to suicide… We don’t know what this dirt does, or what would make it stop being ‘just dirt.’ But if the most likely culprit is the French Imperial Family, surely we can rule out the possibility that they made it for some ordinary craftwork. It was made to harm someone. It simply didn’t ‘activate’ when we encountered it.”

And what if someone other than Gramont was meant to be a backup target? Or what if they weren’t backups at all, and there had been two or three targets—or even more—from the start?

Mecklenburg finally managed to speak.

“We can only keep these people confined to the banquet hall and the dining hall for so long. If we drag our feet while looking for a solution, they’ll start thinking we’re stalling because we have nothing left to show them. The French are trying to turn public opinion against us, but the people from other countries haven’t been entirely convinced, which is why things have remained as they are. If we handle this poorly, the others will start getting the wrong idea, too.”

“We have no choice. We also can’t let the enemy realize that we’ve discovered something suspicious. Just have the guards make sure no one leaves on their own. And bring me a map.”

I conveyed the last request to Mecklenburg with a look, then entered a small room adjoining the banquet hall. Mecklenburg returned with a map. As soon as he arrived, I cast a soundproofing spell around us and addressed Narke and Mecklenburg.

“We need to consider the possibility that there’s more than one target. Among the French who arrived today, who has the poorest track record?”

“Laurent Viguier, a mage from the Research Division,” Mecklenburg replied.

I nodded, found Laurent Viguier’s next destination in the documents Mecklenburg handed me, and stuck a pin into the corresponding spot on the map.

“What about the British?”

“We’ll have to look into that now. You probably know more about them than I do.”

I nodded and placed pins on the locations of the two likely candidates I’d narrowed down.

“Which of these three locations has a facility associated with socialism? We’ve identified the people. Now, you know Berlin’s geography better than I do, Senior.”

“Socialism? Where did that come from?”

“Hmm…”

I considered how best to explain before answering.

“I haven’t connected every part of my reasoning, either. There are still things I haven’t been able to piece together because I don’t have enough clues.”

“Like what? Just tell us.”

“My initial theory was actually different from the one I just explained. It only became two separate theories later.”

At this, Narke, who had been silent until then, tilted his head. Seeing that he was listening closely, I continued.

“They intended to kill two birds with one stone. I mentioned earlier that the number of socialists in France has been growing. That’s a problem for the French Imperial Family.”

“That would make sense.”

“For one reason or another, Antonie Gramont ended up at a location near the newspaper office of Germany’s Social Democratic Party. We’ll have to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again to find out why they intended to send him to the Rampager Control Center. We can do that in a little while. For now, let’s assume they sent Antonie Gramont there and consider what that would mean.”

Mecklenburg gave a slight nod. Understanding that he wanted me to continue, I rapidly laid out the rest of my reasoning.

“France doesn’t want socialists to have a voice. They don’t want socialism to gain traction among the citizens. There’s a way to expose the security failures of the German Empire, their enemy abroad, while turning the socialists, their enemy at home, into the public’s enemy as well.”

“Ah.”

Mecklenburg’s expression grew increasingly grim. I tapped my fingers lightly against the table as I continued.

“By fabricating a German socialist organization called Pleroma.”

Ideology transcended borders. They could claim that ‘Germany’ had attacked France’s future, and, by extension, spread propaganda that ‘German socialists’ had attacked the future of ‘France.’

“But this theory conflicts with my suspicion that they’re trying to frame me as the culprit. Still, given their choice of location, it’s worth considering. So I’ll mark both possibilities on this map for now.”

“Ha…”

Mecklenburg exhaled and turned his head away. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he seemed overwhelmed by the situation. Narke had been silently studying the map for some time now. He was probably working through his own deductions.

Just then, a transmission came through the artifact by my ear. I tapped it, and an unfamiliar voice immediately pierced my eardrum.

— [Lord Askanien, it is blood.]

“Pardon?”

— [Ah, this is the Magical Crime Response Team. The hematite powder you mentioned, sir. It was blood that had been frozen and ground into a fine powder. The red blood cells have been destroyed, but we detected hemoglobin and albumin. It appears to be blood… No. Yes, it is safe to say that it is blood.]

I sat motionless for a long while, then narrowed my eyes and slowly shook my head.

“Blood?”

I could clearly picture the powder ‘seeping’ into my skin without leaving a trace. It was a reaction that hadn’t occurred when Narke touched it. But the blood had tested negative for mana… Had I detected something in such a tiny quantity that even the reagent couldn’t properly pick it up? More importantly, wasn’t it supposed to work only after being swallowed? I knew there were some exceptions. The incidents I’d been trying to ignore—the day I wiped out nearly half of Pleroma’s Diocese, and what happened during my match with Gabriele Caetani—both seemed to be telling me something. So, could it be that anything that came into contact with me…

The image of everything turning to gold and hardening flashed across my retinas as vividly as if I’d witnessed it firsthand. A sudden wave of revulsion rose within me. I forcibly suppressed the nausea churning up from my stomach and the sensation crawling along my tongue, then muttered, “Is it animal blood or human blood?”

— [It is difficult to tell because it was frozen and crushed. Serum analysis and crystallization tests are impossible, as the freezing and grinding process severely compromises their reliability.]

A throbbing pain pulsed through my head. I widened my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temples. Mecklenburg swallowed hard, unable to make sense of what he was hearing. My lips parted.

“You are saying there is powder made from frozen, crushed blood scattered across the streets?”

— [Exactly, sir. That is what I would like to know, too.]

The scientist’s voice came through the artifact, tinged with uneasy curiosity. Confusion colored his words, but he still hadn’t fully grasped the reality of the situation.

— [What on earth is happening in Berlin?]

BANG…

A gust of wind swept through the darkness, brushing past the muslin curtains. A tremor rippled from the northern part of Berlin’s Mitte district. A chill settled over us in the ensuing silence. We looked at one another, feeling our cheeks grow numb with cold.