[V9C7] I Don’t Want to Organize These Messy Emotions
Translated by Jodas 9: Battle for the TowerAs he waited on standby somewhere between the three Spires and the gardens, Gerald noticed a commotion stirring over towards the Third Spire: Water Bubble.
Odds were, Sophie’s escape had been noticed.
“Gerald, w– what do we do…?”
Finn trembled. Gerald urged himself to stay calm as he surveyed the Spires.
The First and Second Spires were still silent. There were no signs of Julius escaping yet. Roswitha and Ella’s plan would take a little more time.
They had tried to stagger the plans by having Rose start later, but Roswitha must have been having more trouble than anticipated.
(Finn has bad legs, so I don’t want to make him run any long distances. Besides… I don’t want us to be spotted if possible.)
Gerald looked down at the sword on his belt and grimaced a bit. His conflict only lasted a moment. If he was going to take action, it should be prompt. If he was slow to decide, his allies could be wiped out — Those were his brother’s teachings.
“Finn, let’s split up. I’ll go save Julius, so you head to the gardens and let Rose know.”
If things were going to get bloody, then the ones who needed the most help were definitely Julius and Agniol who had yet to escape.
Rose and Sophie had probably managed to at least escape the Spire. In that case, it would be better for Finn to head to them as a messenger and take shelter with them.
“I– I got it… Gerald… Be careful.”
“Yeah, you be careful too, Finn.”
Watching Finn run off dragging his feet, Gerald broke into a sprint.
Julius Löwenich rolled over in the dank, moldy cell.
Both of his hands were locked in shackles that prevented him from using mana. And it sounded like Agniol, who he’d left in the dorm, had a seal placed on her ring too. He’d ordered her to stand by, but it wasn’t clear just how much she’d be willing to cooperate.
There was nothing that Julius could do now. That left him plenty of time to think things over.
He organized his information, and theorized. Then, the more he thought, the more the truth began to dawn on him.
(…If what the girl in that underground room said was true, then…)
There was nothing he could do.
Julius folded his knees, hunched over his body, and held his head.
His feelings were a mess, but he didn’t want to organize these messy emotions at all.
He didn’t want to divide everything cleanly into right and wrong, nor to come up with a clear and definitive conclusion.
(Samuel, I didn’t care that you were a bad person. That you were the worst, most evil, selfish villain out there. That was just who Samuel Löwenich was.)
All Samuel had to do was take over the Wedge Tower, grasp the secrets it held, and make it all his own.
But Samuel didn’t do that. Because, within the Tower’s secrets there was one little girl — a girl around Julius’ age.
— That man was a criminal who tried to sell out his country.
That was what Assistant Headmaster Miriam had said when she visited this underground cell just now.
As if she was trying to communicate that, just by saying that alone, he should understand both what Samuel had done and the secret of the Tower.
(I’m fine with you being a criminal, Samuel. Dad.)
Instead of killing Samuel immediately once he learned the secret, they instead placed a curse on him and sent him into exile, but Julius found that strange. Did Miriam not think Samuel would go around telling everyone the Tower’s secret?
When Julius said that, Miriam responded:
“If anything, I would prefer if he had.”
Miriam was always expressionless and spoke in a dispassionate voice, but he could feel a strong passion welling up from somewhere deep in her heart.
The kind of passion only those who had absolute devotion to their faith could have.
“Those who learned the truth would surely come to respect the peace brought about by the grace and works of God alone. But it is not my place to spread the word of miracles. Thus, purely in accordance with the traditions of the Wedge Tower, I have remained silent about it.”
In short, Miriam didn’t care if people knew the Wedge Tower’s secrets.
In the first place, even if anyone knew the truth, there wouldn’t be anything for them to do. Just like Julius now.
Right, even after knowing this truth, there was nothing anyone could do. If anything, everyone would just keep their mouths shut. In the name of the peace they enjoy today.
There might be some out there who shout words of condemnation. Yet the vast majority of people would prioritize their own safety. So long as Monsters existed, no one would be able to change the way the Wedge Tower existed.
(That is why Headmaster Möbius spends all of his time obsessed with traveling to the area around the Crystal Territory to exterminate Monsters instead of protecting the Tower… No, wait.)
Thinking back to his exchange with Miriam, suddenly he found Headmaster Möbius much harder to understand than Miriam was.
(Considering Headmaster Möbius’s position, it should be fine for him to focus on defense and work to maintain the peace. Exterminations come with the risk of losing his subordinates. What reason does he have to be so dedicated to eliminating Monsters in spite of that? Could it be that he has some kind of ties to that girl? Could that girl be Headmaster Möbius’ daughter or something…?)
Most likely, while Miriam and Möbius have aligned interests, their thoughts and values are completely different from each other.
Just as Miriam devoted everything to her own faith, there had to be something to which Möbius was willing to devote everything to. And something completely different from Miriam’s goals.
As he pondered what that could be, Julius suddenly felt Agniol’s consciousness.
A contracted spirit and its master were connected by an invisible thread of sorts, through which they could send simple messages. It was a basic, mostly emotional, way of communication.
And now Agniol, who should have been sealed, conveyed this to him:
— Young Master Julius, I’m coming!!
(No, don’t come here!)
Why was Agniol out and about in the first place? Wasn’t she supposed to be sealed?
While Agniol was incredibly strong, she had a hard time holding back. No, truthfully, she couldn’t hold back at all. She was a spirit who would say ‘I’m just gonna burn it a little bit, ey ey!’ as she turned the whole place into a sea of flames.
In essence, if she’s allowed to throw that power around without Julius’s supervision, there was a chance that Julius himself could get caught up in Agniol’s fires and die. That was why he’d ordered her to stand by.
(What in the world is happening…!)
He could definitely sense Agniol getting closer. But there didn’t seem to be any commotion outside.
Then, Julius saw something floating along the walls.
A fish made of water surrounding a stick. Roswitha’s magecraft. The fish held Agniol’s ring in its mouth as it slipped in between the bars of the cell, dropping the ring right in the palm of Julius’ hand.
He could see now why that girl was constantly boasting of the advantages of Classical Magecraft. This really was some excellently precise control.
“Young Master Julius! I came for you!”
Agniol’s voice emanated from the ring. She restrained her voice compared to how she usually spoke, so she must understand the circumstances at least to some extent.
“…Was it Roswitha?”
“Yes, Little Roswitha and Ella undid the seal and took me all the way here. They’re great kids! I don’t like getting wet, but I didn’t complain! Ehehe!”
An excellent plan. Julius was honestly impressed.
The cell was beneath the Second Spire: Golden Needle, and the mages of the Protection Office above were on lookout.
Rather than have Roswitha herself steal the keys and try to sneak in, it was far more effective to just have a water fish deliver Agniol’s ring to him, and there was a much lower risk of being discovered.
The fish of water was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. This kind of thing would have no issues slipping through the dark nighttime halls without being found.
Next, it was a question of whether he could control Agniol’s flames well enough to burn through just the parts he needed to escape. As he calculated, he heard a splashing noise. Roswitha’s fish of water had fallen to the ground and dissipated.
Had she cancelled the spell once it had finished its job? … No. Agniol growled deeply from within the ring.
“Oh my, it looks like you’ve retrieved your flame spirit’s ring.”
Descending the staircase from the first floor was an elegant old lady.
It was the Spiremaster of the First Spire: Abel. In her hand, she held a staff slightly longer than an umbrella or a walking cane.
Abel was a gentle and composed old lady who would look more at home knitting in a rocking chair by the window.
Yet he could not let his guard down. She was the White Smoke’s Spiremaster.
“Assistant Headmaster Miriam believes it would be best to curse and exile you like your father, but I disagree. Those who know the truth must be silenced with certainty. The times have changed since we dealt with your Father.”
Julius lifted the corners of his mouth.
Defiantly, villainously, proudly. Just like his father, Samuel did.
“Kuku… What’s changed isn’t the times, it’s the Emperor, isn’t it? Would it inconvenience you if the Black Lion Emperor were to know the Tower’s secrets and intervene?”
“The Black Lion Emperor is a dangerous man in a whole different way from the previous Emperor. His greed knows no bounds, and anything he wants, he will stop at nothing to take.”
Abel pressed him with deep anxiety radiating from her gentle face.
“What makes you think that the Black Lion Emperor, once he knows the Wedge Tower’s secrets, won’t try to bring the Wedge Tower under his control?”
So it was quite the troublesome matter.
All three of the Wedge Tower’s higher-ups who knew the secret: Möbius, Miriam, and Abel, all strangely differing opinions.
“…Therefore, I believe it is best to silence you here and now.”
Abel raised her staff.
Julius also reached for Agniol’s ring, when…
—AWWOOOOOOO—
The howling of a wolf could be heard from outside.