Ch.234The Seventh Entanglement – Variations on a Blind Revolution (4)

“Michael!”

The reporter shouted in a nasal voice. The ozone and gunpowder smells were too overwhelming for an elf’s sensitive nose. Only upon hearing her voice did the detective finally decide to relax a little.

“I have to admit, you have a talent for breaking serious moods. Come with me. Let’s talk about the culprit.”

The reporter followed behind the detective without any particular resistance or fear. After letting the reporter go first, the detective turned his head toward the Hemicult leader who had been watching them.

He lifted the gun resting on his shoulder and touched the adjustment lever. Both the detective and the leader knew he had no real intention of firing, but it was a signal acknowledging the surveillance.

The leader didn’t feel threatened either, but out of respect for the death-dealer, he made a gesture of surrender by raising both hands. He had no reason to unnecessarily antagonize someone he could actually respect.

The detective was accustomed to surveillance. Sometimes there were fools who didn’t even trust the detectives they hired and assigned detectives to watch their detectives, and sometimes surveillance led to connections, like with President Clichy.

Only after shaking off the gaze directed at him did the detective head outside the temple. The body of the Blingkerton terminal controlled by the Hive Mind looked like it was about to get drunk from smoking a cigarette after a long time. The Hive Mind was the same.

Naturally, it had never considered the terminal’s preferences. The elf approached, and though the terminal threw down the cigarette and stamped it out, it was still clearly longing for that cigarette.

The reporter looked with confusion at the Blingkerton detective standing before her. He didn’t look particularly old, but he was completely bald. His eyes also seemed somewhat lifeless.

Come to think of it, this detective hadn’t entered the temple. That made sense. Someone who came to protect the temple wouldn’t be slacking off inside when the situation wasn’t yet resolved.

However, perhaps… the reason this detective hadn’t come inside the temple might have been something else. The reporter swallowed once. Though there was some life in his eyes, he was also emotionless like a terminal.

Fortunately, the worry didn’t last long. The detective removed his hat himself, revealing the characteristic bald head and emotionless eyes of terminals to the reporter. The fact that he showed this meant it was okay to relax.

“We… don’t know how to introduce ourselves. We are The Idealists. But those things outside are not our terminals. We only have three terminals left.”

“Michael said someone was trying to steal The Idealists’ magic. He suspected it was a contractor, but the contractor was already dead.” The reporter recalled, thinking back.

If they had been attacked and all their terminals stolen, then this person too was a victim of this blind uprising. The reporter believed that since The Idealists were a collection of human minds, they were people too.

“We, we thought you were trying to deceive Michael. The contractor you suspected had already passed away. The Industrial Spirit King said that contractor was murdered. Unless someone deceived the Industrial Spirit King and all the New York newspapers, I thought he must really be dead….”

The Hive Mind made a groaning sound. Someone had planned things better than they had anticipated. It tried to think of an entity with the authority and ability to deceive the Industrial Spirit King, but it suffered from a chronic lack of imagination.

Instead, it turned around. It showed them the back of the terminal’s neck where magic flowed. It just needed to convey what it knew. It would leave figuring things out to them.

“Put your hands up. I’ll show you the evidence. I’ll show you how we were attacked. I hope you can figure out more than we could.”

The detective looked around once more. Though they had only moved to the side of the building, angels were loitering at the front and back entrances, and no more terminals were rushing over.

It would be fine for a while. He wasn’t worried about himself. There was no need to worry. His cursed vitality had reduced even the mana shells fired by dwarf mana artillerymen to the power of matchsticks.

Complex magic that required direct contact would hardly work. Instead, he positioned the reporter between himself and the Blingkerton terminal. Protecting the weakest link was fundamental.

The detective placed his hand on the back of the terminal’s head along with the reporter whose ears were perked up. The President of Clichy Corporation seemed to have said he had no intention of embracing anyone unless a woman threw herself at him first… well, this wasn’t that yet.

The moment their hands touched the back of the terminal’s neck, they felt their minds riding along the flow of the vast Hive Mind flowing through it. What the terminal’s body had seen began to appear to the two of them.

The scene showed the New York branch building of the American Idealist Union. Standing in front of the building with a gun in hand, it seemed the terminal had been on guard duty. It’s always good to place a big guy at the front door.

The terminal’s emotionless eyes, which had been gazing into the distance, spotted a figure approaching the building in a straight line from far away. Judging by its walking trajectory, it seemed connected to the Hive Mind.

Someone approaching the building by walking on the road, which was almost empty in the early morning, as if their destination had been predetermined from the start, had to be watched carefully. The two each saw the appearance of this intruder.

Judging by the body type, it was human or a human hybrid. The head was shaggy, and though it was too early in the season for a coat, the figure wore a thick coat that concealed the body and even gloves.

The skin was pale. As blue as Agent Desmond. Unless the news of his death had been greatly exaggerated, he was already dead when The Idealists’ Hive Mind was attacked. Was a dead man walking?

The detective also found the body shape strange. It was clearly a human male over forty, but the middle of his chest was abnormally bulging. Not in a round way. It looked like something hard and artificial had been implanted.

The reporter observed the man’s expression. The movement of his eyes was strange. Just like how the Industrial Spirit King adjusted his lenses to look at her, the man’s two eyes mechanically moved to focus on this terminal.

Every part of his facial muscles moved only for purpose… it was mechanical. The Industrial Spirit King had humanity, but this human contractor seemed to have lost all traces of humanity.

Shortly after the terminal detected the smell of ozone, the attack began. The ozone smell came from magic that manipulated concrete and steel, commonly used by spirit management officials contracted with the Industrial Spirit King.

Although the American Idealist Union building was outside the factory district, when he gestured, chunks of concrete that formed the building’s outer wall flew toward the Blingkerton terminal.

Fortunately, it seemed the terminal avoided it with blink magic and immediately returned fire, but the attacker approached without stopping even after several large-caliber revolver bullets were lodged in his body. It was almost lucky that this terminal was saved at all.

Another terminal standing on the opposite side of this one was caught by concrete chunks that sprang up from the ground, and the moment that humanoid something approached and placed a hand on its head, it came under his control.

This time, he didn’t take over the terminal from a distance. It seems he couldn’t merge minds from a distance outside the factory district, the detective thought.

The reporter, with her sensitive elven senses, observed more minutely. The magic activated slightly faster than when he gestured. He wasn’t the one using magic.

After that, all this terminal saw was the attacker disappearing with only the terminal he had taken control of. The purpose of this attack was a final test. To confirm whether he could really attack and take them.

With no bullets left and fearing that careless contact might result in losing the terminal, the Hive Mind contacted the detective instead of pursuing. That was all this terminal remembered.

As soon as the mental connection broke, the detective checked the surroundings again. There was no attack. He shook his head as if trying to shake off the feeling of having briefly ridden along with the Hive Mind’s thoughts, then spoke.

The situation was quite different from what The Idealist Hive Mind had said over the phone. It seemed they hadn’t explained in detail, perhaps thinking there would be time to meet separately or show like this.

“Did you really think that was human? Even I couldn’t withstand such a large-caliber revolver. And, I’m not sure exactly what was embedded in his chest, but probably….”

The detective thought again before blurting out what came to mind. Does this even make sense? At least it was more believable than a dead person walking around. If forced to choose between the two, he’d pick this one.

“It looked like an engine. The spirit core of Industrial Spirits. No matter how thick the coat was, it wasn’t thick enough to stop bullets, yet not a single drop of blood splattered from where he was shot. And yet he used magic that’s normally used by those contracted with the Industrial Spirit King quite naturally outside the factory district. But seeing that he couldn’t take over terminals from a distance, it means he gains more power inside the factory district. Do you understand what this means?”

The Idealist Hive Mind felt a mental sense of nausea. It wanted to vomit, but being just a mind without a body, the Hive Mind couldn’t even retch.

“Are you saying they’ve put an Industrial Spirit into a corpse?”

The detective nodded briefly. The reporter also made a nauseated expression after hearing this, but only the detective showed no change in expression. He was cursedly familiar with human sacrifice.

“That’s the conclusion I’ve reached. Well, did you see anything else?”

At the detective’s words, the reporter, having calmed her stomach, opened her mouth. What she said had little to do with the detective’s conclusion, but with each word she uttered, it felt like she was getting closer to that conclusion, making it hard to breathe.

“Yes, well… the way his eyes moved was similar to how the Industrial Spirit King manipulates his lenses. It felt mechanical, moving to identify objects. And, usually people who cast magic with gestures make the gesture first and then the magic follows, but that person… was the opposite. The magic moved simultaneously with his hand, or his hand was a bit slower.”

The reporter’s first statement was a simple reinforcement, but the latter was evidence. If he wasn’t directly using magic, then there were others who used magic typically used by Industrial Spirits.

The culprit wasn’t the dead contractor. The culprit could have died, but it was rare to become a culprit while dead. The culprit was the person who killed him.

They clearly said his wife and child were also found dead in the house. Then it must be someone close enough to be let into a house with a wife and child. Perhaps a work colleague.

And the culprit could use magic that manipulates concrete and steel, which Industrial Spirits use. To use such magic, being contracted with an Industrial Spirit wasn’t enough. The counterpart had to be a Spirit King.

Ironically, there was a group of people who simultaneously met both conditions. The New York City spirit management officials, excluding the dead human contractor. They had sufficient ability to do this.

The motive was still unknown, but that wasn’t important. The detective, reviewing the evidence once more, spoke in a voice tinged with a sigh. A blind man walking with a cane should trust the cane, not common sense.

“Other spirit management officials contracted with Spirit Kings could easily do this. To be precise, only they could do it. There might be many motives, but one thing is certain. They’re trying to eradicate terminals in this city and wipe out The Idealists completely. But if that was the case, they could have just raided a National Guard base. Was there anything that could be a motive?”

The Hive Mind, straightening the terminal’s clothes, shook its head. It was something it couldn’t even imagine. In fact, it was almost tempted to suspect the detective was making a bad joke.

But the reporter had something that came to mind. She had seen the Industrial Spirit King beginning to break down internally from anxiety. If it were people who had contracted with him and shared his hardships….

“Well, um… this is just my thought, but what if they’re trying to show the Industrial Spirit King? The Spirit King has been extremely anxious since prophesying the end.”

The Industrial Spirit King seemed to have somewhat composed himself after Rose’s comfort to talk openly with people instead of issuing revelations and guidance, but doomsayers continued to exist afterward.

Perhaps communication wasn’t that good. The Industrial Spirit King was a being who hid even his heart in a concrete temple and received protection from angels.

“First, by causing such a big incident in New York City, they show ‘The Idealists are dangerous enough to bring about the end that the Industrial Spirit King saw!’ Then, after completely annihilating them, they want to say the threat of the end is gone, and now it’s okay to relax. They’re offering a burnt offering to comfort a god trembling with anxiety. Like the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn.”

Rose was also familiar with fanaticism. Because the object of that fanaticism was her father, she could look at it with eyes wide open. And this incident also had that smell.

Indeed, most of the damage was concentrated in the factory district. The Industrial Spirit King was also fighting back by releasing his spirits. If they annihilated the terminals like this, it would feel like overcoming the threat of the end.

It’s something that couldn’t be done by someone in their right mind. But the detective knew very well that things that couldn’t be done by someone in their right mind were already happening. Knowing the motive also makes it easier to infer the location.

“Then they must all be inside the factory district. Inside the industrial district with the Spirit King… fighting back, right?”

The detective said the words “fighting back” as if he was about to swallow them.

It wasn’t fighting back. It was no different from children playing war. It was no different from running around all morning with wooden sticks and returning as imaginary heroes.

“That’s probably right. In such an emergency, those people can only be in the factory district. The concentration of terminals in the factory district might also be to create such a crisis while preventing others from coming in from outside.”

They’re putting on a play for an audience of one who believes the content of the play is real. With the theater doors firmly locked. The maxim that always accompanied him was by his side this time too.

No matter how perfect a plan might seem, it couldn’t account for a member of the Argonne Invincibles. If they couldn’t account for it, they couldn’t prepare for it. If they couldn’t prepare, they couldn’t respond.

The detective decided to borrow their excuse. Those who should be dead will die, and those not worth living will meet the same fate.

“Come with me, Hive Mind. We’re going to tell the angel in charge of this building that we’re volunteering to go check on the situation of the Industrial Spirit King at the center of the factory district. The angels won’t refuse an offer to do their job for them, and they’ve made the situation look dangerous enough.”