episode_0192

Many buildings stood densely along the streets of the village. Fairies flitted about, visiting each other’s homes or stopping at shops to buy necessities. After walking through the maze for twenty-three minutes and finally arriving here, I was so surprised by the sight that I forgot how difficult it had been to navigate the maze just moments before. What is this…?! It’s more vibrant than the Karizan I saw before?! I had expected it wouldn’t be lively due to the cult crisis…!

“Oh my… I thought everyone would be disheartened because of the cult. I didn’t expect such vibrancy. I thought some people were taking sides…”

“Haaah… Actually, Lady Aria… The fairies you see being lively now are not on anyone’s side, believe me. The fairies who have taken sides are probably in some building right now, holding strange meetings… Right, Rubaea? Saphia…?!”

“Gasp…!”

Even Aria remarked that she hadn’t expected Karizan to be so lively. Kelly explained that the fairies who had taken sides were likely holed up somewhere, plotting, and turned to Rubaea and Saphia. Rubaea and Saphia, whose eyes met Kelly’s, flinched, covered their mouths with both hands, and began trembling. Seeing Rubaea and Saphia like that, I straightened my face. If that’s the case, why did they even take sides in the first place…? The argument Rubaea and Saphia had earlier seemed completely meaningless. I simply couldn’t understand the actions of the fairies who had chosen sides. At that moment, Kelly placed her hands on their shoulders, causing Rubaea and Saphia to flinch again. Kelly forced a smile and spoke to them.

“Now… I must respectfully usher our guests inside… You two had better go warn the fairies who have taken sides… If they don’t accept their punishment immediately, I’ll chase them down and beat them half to death…!”

“Yes… Yes!!!! We’ll do it right away!!! Ahhhhhh!”

Kelly issued a terrifying warning, threatening to beat them half to death if they disobeyed and told them to accept their punishment. Terrified, Rubaea and Saphia frantically scurried away, one to the left and one to the right. What kind of punishment was it that Rubaea and Saphia so vehemently refused earlier…? Was it so severe that they’d rather not be beaten half to death? Just as I, alone, was bewildered, not knowing Karizan’s severe punishment, Kelly pointed to a one-story building with a purple roof and spoke.

“That is my house. How about we continue our conversation inside?”

“Ah, yes. In that place…”

“Wait, Kelly… It seems the fairies have been glancing at Sir Zeke with strange looks… How dare they look at Sir Zeke with such suspicious eyes… I cannot forgive them…!”

“Huh? Fairies…? It’s true…?”

Just as Kelly was suggesting they continue their conversation inside her house, Aria pointed out that the fairies had been giving us strange glances. I intently watched the fairies in front of us. When they truly made eye contact with us, they quickly averted their gaze. A bitter feeling rose within me, realizing that Karizan’s fairies had grown wary of outsiders because of the cult. It couldn’t be helped, but it was still somehow disheartening… As I inwardly sighed, realizing that even Karizan had grown wary of outsiders, Kelly looked at the fairies with a chilling smile and spoke.

“Hoohoho… So, there are fairies who dare to disobey this Village Head’s warning not to be swayed and are suspecting you…? Now… which fairy is still harboring strange thoughts…?”

“Gasp…?! The… The Village Head-nim was here…!”

“….”

As Kelly clenched her fist, muttering about who was suspecting them, the fairies who had been glancing at us flinched and began frantically running away. I immediately knew that the Village Head had previously warned the fairies never to suspect us. I was slightly bewildered that despite this, some fairies still didn’t heed Kelly’s words. Of course, individual thoughts are free, but… if they’re going to be this terrified, why are they opposing Kelly’s words in the first place…? Did they just pretend to accept Kelly’s words out of fear, thinking they had no choice?

“Hohoho… It seems the fairies won’t be approaching you right now. For now, let’s go to my house. I also have a lot to tell you.”

“Ah… Yes… But why don’t you suspect us, Village Head-nim? The places we’ve been through…”

“I will explain that inside, but… since Sir Zeke is so uneasy, I will just tell you the conclusion. Akada trusted you enough to guide you to her workshop, so I trust you too. Furthermore, didn’t you hear the past from Akada? When I heard that story earlier, I judged that I could completely trust you. Because Akada trusts you that much.”

“It’s quite strange to trust us for that reason alone, isn’t it? If Sir Zeke and I had been here for five years instead of at the Revard Facility, things might have been different, mightn’t they? Although my love would never have changed…!”

“No need to emphasize that, Aria…”

When Kelly said she trusted us because Akada trusted us, Aria pressed her, asking if that wasn’t too insufficient a reason. Kelly simply smiled and guided us to her house. Aria frowned, seemingly displeased with Kelly. But I understood. Why Kelly trusted us. Because they were people trusted by her precious, irreplaceable friend, who, like her, had achieved extraordinary longevity… Thinking that made Kelly’s back seem somehow more pitiful. Following Kelly, we entered the house and sat at the dining table, beginning to drink the tea Kelly had prepared.

“I don’t know if it will suit your taste. I don’t have Akada’s talent for brewing tea…”

“Hmm… It’s not bad, though. It feels a bit frustrating since brewing tea for Sir Zeke is my responsibility…”

“Hohoho… By the way… Although you are people Akada knows… I am still meeting you for the first time… If it’s not too much trouble, could you tell me your story?”

“Of course. That way, the Village Head-nim can completely dispel any suspicions about us… So, what we’ve been involved in so far is…”

When Kelly asked if we could tell her what had happened to us so far, we readily showed her our record book and exploration logbook, explaining everything. Upon hearing the entire story of the Revard Facility from us, Kelly was greatly surprised and said,

“That’s astonishing. To think that was the cult’s core base… Then you indirectly disrupted the cult’s plans.”

“But I think it was too late, Village Head-nim. From what Rubaea, Saphia, Rapien, and Kartun said, it seems the cult has already spread its influence across the world. They’ve probably gathered enough Tiavel and have already begun to move. Haaah… If Aria and I had gone to that place earlier…”

“Speaking of which, it’s exasperating. Karizan is protected by special magic that disrupts divine power, like that passage earlier, but places that didn’t prepare for this… especially the places we’ve been to, have all been ruined. Honestly… I’m not some kind of detector…! I am merely the Black Saintess who loves Sir Zeke, not a tool! Especially not a tool for those detestable wretches…!”

As I sighed heavily about not having gone there earlier, Aria, still annoyed that the cult had used her to scout locations for their statues, emphasized that she was my Black Saintess and fumed. Kelly saw our reactions, chuckled, and explained to us.

“It seems the fairy children only told you what they knew, perhaps due to their strange notions.”

“Yes? What do you mean? Does that mean Rubaea and Saphia’s thoughts were wrong?”

“Hmm… They might be right, or they might not be. What’s certain is that it’s not accurate information… Ah, right. I should show you this first.”

Kelly said that what the fairy children said might or might not be true, then suddenly walked to a cabinet, opened it, and began searching for something. Then she came back to the table with a large piece of paper and spread it out. It was a map of Krentid World. But… huh? There were markings all over it?

“Kelly Village Head-nim. What is this…?”

“This is the last thing Akada left for us. We, including myself, went to these marked locations, hoping to find out something about the cult. However, what we saw there were Camilla Cult statues and crazed peop—”

“Oh? Sir Zeke. These are all places we’ve visited. Even Boska, where it used to be in Alteon…”

Kelly was about to explain that she had gone to the marked places on the map and only found Camilla Cult statues and crazed people there. But when Aria realized that all the marked places on the map were places we had visited, I was surprised and began comparing them with our exploration logbook to confirm the marked locations. It’s really true…! And most… no, all of them are marked in the Magrion region… With the place where Boska used to be, this is definitely…!!

“Wait a minute… Then, Kelly Village Head-nim, you learned our story from a copy of the record book we gave to former Village Head Akada…?”

“Yes. The other fairies know too. But they had no idea what experiences you had in the Herlos region. They also didn’t know about the existence of the talking trap mimic. So, we had no choice but to check the status of the villages in the Herlos region near the Criton region. Of course, they were all in the same state.”

“So that’s why Rubaea and Saphia thought that…? Aria?”

After hearing Kelly’s story, and realizing that the fairies had mistakenly thought we might be connected to the cult through Akada’s map and the copy of the record book we had given her, I saw Aria suddenly staring intently at the map. Curious, I looked at the map just like Aria. But when I couldn’t grasp anything, I asked Aria,

“Why? Do you have any idea?”

“Hmm… Sir Zeke. No… Kelly-nim? May I draw a line on this map?”

“A line? Uh… it’s fine, but… why suddenly?”

As if Aria had discovered something, she suddenly asked if she could draw a line. Kelly, who was as bewildered as I was, not grasping anything, absentmindedly gave her permission. Aria then took a pen from her backpack, rotated the map to a certain orientation, and began connecting the marked dots. Kelly and I watched from the side as Aria drew the lines. What on earth did Aria discover to make such a significant expression? It was as if she had received a huge shock…

‘For Aria to make such an expression… what on earth did you discover, Aria…?’

I wondered what Aria had discovered that made her look so flustered. Aria drew lines connecting the dots for three minutes, and Kelly and I couldn’t help but be astonished as the shape of what Aria was drawing with the lines became clearer. The drawing Aria created by connecting the dots for about four minutes. It was a picture with several lines below and a single circle above. And around the circle, there were many characters… It was a single picture, as if it had some meaning…

“Wh-what is this?! We fairies also copied the map with Akada’s markings and drew many lines… but a picture like this never appeared…!”

“It seems the cult devised various methods to prevent this picture from being deciphered. Look at the map upside down. Don’t you see some dots here and there that aren’t connected to any lines?”

“….?! It’s really true…? There are dots within the lines Aria drew that aren’t connected…?”

When Aria flipped the map and said there were dots here and there not connected to lines, I was surprised to see that, just as Aria said, some dots were not connected to lines and stood alone. But what is this picture…? This picture, like a circle sitting on countless lines… And what are those characters on either side of the circle…?

“So what exactly is this picture? No matter how long I’ve lived… I’ve never seen a picture like this before…”

“…..This is a cipher… used by the cult. It contains two overlapping meanings. Do you have any other colored ink or pigment, Kelly-nim?”

“Ah, yes…!! Here…”

Aria said that this picture contained two overlapping meanings and began looking for a different colored ink or pigment. Kelly quickly brought blue ink. Aria dipped the pen in the ink and began connecting some of the lines again. This time, a distinct pattern of a circle with a tail and wings seemed to emerge, further astonishing Kelly and me that the picture indeed had two meanings, just as Aria said.

“Wh-what is this pattern?!”

“This pattern is known only to the Saintesses in the cult. It is a common pattern seen at altars dedicated to worshipping the goddess Camilla. And this pattern represents the goddess Camilla herself.”

“A pattern representing the goddess Camilla…? Then what is this picture, Aria?!”

“I think this picture… holds this meaning. If the lines below represent us humans, then this circle represents the goddess Camilla herself. And the characters on either side refer to those who have received Camilla’s teachings and gained enlightenment… that is, those who have gained enlightenment and can make wise choices. When referring to wise people, they are often depicted with books or similar things, aren’t they? This is the same. In other words, the meaning of this picture is… the goddess Camilla and those who have received her teachings and gained enlightenment rule over those below them. And those below worship those above them.”

“….?! Isn’t this exactly what’s happening in the world right now?! Wait a minute… Among these dots, there’s Proserpina from the Criton region…!”

As Aria was greatly astonished that the content of this picture was exactly like what was happening in Krentid World, Kelly said that there was a dot marked on Proserpina among the points. Hearing that, I flipped the map and looked at the Criton region. Seeing that Proserpina indeed had a dot, just as Kelly said, Kelly stammered as if realizing something.

“Then, could it be…? Could it be that the World Tree’s sudden strange transformation… is also the work of the Camilla Cult…?”

“Then the Camilla Cult has been active for a long time, just as we thought… But this map was clearly marked by former Village Head Akada before the world became like this, right?”

“Yes… that’s right, but…”

“What on earth did Village Head Akada realize to mark this map…? Or more precisely… what exactly did she realize…?”

What Akada had discovered, who had marked the map based on their activities before the Camilla Cult began its full operations… It was completely incomprehensible to us now. All we knew was that the marked places were all places we had visited, and that among those dots, there had been some incident.