The reception room. It was the same place, but the reaction was different.
"... Why have you come again? I am certain I was told everything had been checked last time."
Aletus greeted me coldly. Yet, his expression was so placid that one could not fault him for being impolite. It was just that his words carried weight.
That was all there was to it, yet the sense of pressure was different. It felt like I was looking up at a colossal stone statue. I sipped the tea, which felt colder than last time, and replied calmly.
"Calm yourself. We are only doing what we are told from above."
"... That necklace."
Aletus stared at me with a look of utter disbelief.
"You're from Princess Sharmia's direct escort unit."
So that was it. No wonder the inspectors were so on edge, even though I hadn't said much.
"Someone above you... there seems to be only one person above you. Does this mean it is her command?"
"Is that what you think?"
"No, you must have deceived the princess with your smooth tongue. The princess is not one to do such things."
She's built up her image well. Aletus tapped his fingers on the table, his expression displeased.
"Don't tell me your side was the one behind the current state of affairs? Who are you? Even if the members of the direct escort unit operate in the shadows, I have no memory of seeing someone as bizarre as you."
"You may think as you please."
"I shall do so. To be granted such authority means you have the princess's deep trust, but you seem not to know your place. You of all people should know the scale of this incident. In a week at most, you will have to take responsibility for everything."
His words were remarkably accurate. Even though I knew I was safe, a cold sweat ran down my back at his words that pierced through the very essence of the matter. I focused on maintaining my composure and carefully observed Aletus.
With Tide Sense, and while checking if any change occurred in the Deep Sea. As we were engaged in a brief staring contest, a knock came from the door.
"Vice-commander, the preparations are complete."
"Alright."
I set down my teacup and went outside the mansion. All the retainers in charge of various duties, including dozens of butlers, maids, and cooks, were gathered. I turned to the inspector and confirmed again.
"Are you certain this is everyone?"
"Yes! We searched not only the mansion but every surrounding household and brought all associated retainers."
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Shall we begin investigating them one by one now?"
"No." I shook my head at the overeager inspector and glanced down at the retainers lined up in the garden below.
All of them were within the range of my Tide Sense. I searched for that unpleasant sensation I had felt when I met Ren, the feeling of one of my own kind, but... There was no one like that here.
"It's finished. Let's withdraw now."
"... Excuse me?"
"Sir Aletus."
I ignored the dumbfounded inspector and spoke to Aletus.
"The reactionaries do exist. For now, lay low. After that, you can kill me or boil me, do as you please."
Aletus looked at me with a gaze full of suspicion, but still gave a slight nod.
"I shall do so."
"Thank you."
Hmm.
Not having to take responsibility was a sweeter thing than I had thought. For about two days, I repeated the same process with every noble.
"What, why are the inspectors here again...!"
"Didn't you do this last time!"
I would hear such words, then use the authority I received from the princess to neutralize them and gather all their retainers to scan with Tide Sense. The inspectors went through a lot of trouble. It was all done, but I couldn't find the fallen one.
Of course, it didn't end there. I scanned the nobles' families and the families of their retainers without exception. The result was— "As expected, I suppose..."
I scratched my head in Brimdal's cabin. Not a single noble had so much as a speck of a flaw. They were perfectly, spotlessly white.
"Hmm..."
Now that it had come to this, the princess's purpose in hiring a fallen one had vanished. It was my turn to step up. I, who was confident that the princess would arrive at the correct answer herself. ...
Or so I said.
How?
No matter how much I pondered, I couldn't find an answer.
"If you need to shit, go and do it."
Brimdal said so as he swung his sword to cut my spine. —Crack!
"It's not that, I have something on my mind."
I hastily jumped from the chair, letting the sword shatter it instead. The blade wasn't sharpened, so it wouldn't kill me if it hit, but it would be painful enough to immobilize me. Right now was a time when I needed to be moving diligently, so I couldn't allow that.
Brimdal sheathed his sword as if nothing had happened and asked.
"Is it related to the princess?"
"Yes."
I threw the broken chair into the fireplace. There were already so many other chairs burning that I had to push it in firmly for it to fit. Brimdal had taken to attacking me with thick killing intent at every moment, except when I was sleeping.
One must always be with death to become accustomed to the world. A monkey is not born able to climb trees; it becomes so because there is a leopard under the tree... or so he said. Thanks to that, the precision of my Tide Sense was rising like crazy.
I might even be able to count the number of hairs on a head now. I could do it before if I concentrated, but now I could do it casually.
If I were to expand my Tide Sense to the same extent as before at my current level— I wasn't sure if I could withstand it even if I swallowed all the pearl-type restorative pills left in the chest. As I sighed, Brimdal sat down with a reluctant look.
"Hmm, the princess was a rather tricky opponent. A request from someone like that would not be an easy one, I imagine."
"Ms. Lumia? Or Ms. Sharmia?"
"The latter."
"No, why?"
If one had to pick, wasn't Lumia the tricky one? Brimdal drank his beer and muttered.
"Ominous. That's the feeling I get."
"Aha."
It was probably the dwarven sense. Perhaps it detected the prophetic magic. I nodded with that understanding.
"Yes, she might be hiding some unknown power or something like that."
"No. It's different from that."
He slammed down his empty beer mug and crossed his arms, looking at the ceiling as if recalling something.
"She has clearly never received knight training, her body doesn't seem that strong, and her character is extremely close to good, yet she is accustomed to death."
"... Excuse me?"
What was he talking about? As I stood there baffled, Brimdal added an explanation.
"The atmosphere of those who have killed thousands, no, tens of thousands of people... she's been exuding that since she was 13, when I first met her."
"People like that should mostly be out of their minds, yet the princess is sane and a good person who always thinks of others before herself."
"Hmm."
I thought for a moment before replying.
"Isn't that jealousy? From what I hear, she's just a good person, but her atmosphere is unsettling. Is that it?"
"Hmph, she acts for the many but does not abandon the few. That is a sentence that makes no sense. Because one day, she will inevitably hit a wall."
"The world is fair. To save something, one must give something up, but Sharmia has never done so. She has never been put in such a situation..."
At the risk of this sounding like treason, I tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but Brimdal was a bit serious today.
"The princess is definitely giving up something, somewhere. I have no idea what it is, so I don't want to get involved with her. And for what it's worth, it would be best for you not to get too close either."
"What if we're already so closely entangled that we can't be separated?"
At my bold question, Brimdal chuckled and filled his next beer.
"Well then, I suppose we must pray for Sharmia's soul."
"Excuse me?"
"The princess is certainly ominous, but compared to her, you are a hundred times more ominous. You devilish bastard."
Oh.
It seemed Brimdal could tell jokes after all.
The day after I made my report with the orb I received from the princess.
"That was the result."
In the same teahouse, the same maid greeted me. I hadn't expected her to show up in person again. As I was thinking this, she started to take a letter out of her bag, and I stopped her with a look of distaste.
"Just tell me in words. I'm sick of that."
"Is that so? Actually, I didn't have one."
"I see."
Princess Sharmia had a surprisingly down-to-earth personality. It was a disrespectful thought, but she felt more like a maid than a princess. Of course, I didn't know her real face.
Her voice was also most likely fake. But this face, with its simple hairstyle and light freckles, perfectly matched her slightly goofy personality. Of course, with Brimdal's advice-that-wasn't-advice, it was too early to trust her.
I asked again, maintaining as much formality as possible.
"In that prophecy, is it possible to know what process I went through to succeed?"
"Yes, of course."
The princess looked at the clock beside her. I followed her gaze and saw it read 3 o'clock.
"There are 30 minutes left."
"... For what?"
"That's when you tell me you've found the answer."
"Excuse me?"
"That's as far as I could see in the process. I can't see the result. I can't prophesize any further than this."
"...?"
I blinked and met the princess's gaze.
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
There wasn't a hint of doubt in Sharmia's bright eyes. Dumbfounded, I asked again.
"So I don't bring any evidence or physical proof, and you just hear that one sentence from me saying I figured it out—" "Yes."
"What if I was lying? I mean, this is the real world, not a prophecy. Perhaps there's a possibility I haven't noticed..."
"Jern."
Sharmia looked down at me with a warm smile.
"I'm sorry. We've barely met, but I'm being a bit too familiar, aren't I?"
Suddenly?
If she was asking for a yes or no, the answer would be yes, but this wasn't the right situation for such a question. While I was wondering what she was talking about, Sharmia bowed her head and apologized.
"While I was watching the possibilities, I got involved with you a lot, Jern. We have a connection you don't know about. That's why it's a little hard for me to gauge the distance."
"That much is fine."
"So I know you well."
Sharmia replied with a smile similar to her first one.
"You lie very calmly. Almost everything you say is a smokescreen and a means to deceive others."
"That's not true."
"You've lied again. However, there is one time when you speak the undeniable, solid truth."
Sharmia raised a finger as if this was familiar.
"When you speak vaguely, as if you can't be sure yourself."
"... Excuse me?"
"Well, I'll hear it soon, so I'll know. At that moment, you only speak the solid truth."
Even after hearing her explanation, she still seemed like a mad person. But prophets often appear that way. Seeing that little time was left, I wracked my brain.
It meant that if I didn't find the answer in 30 minutes, this would become a wrong worldline. From that point on, nothing could stop whatever happened. My brain's rotation for the next 30 minutes held destiny.
"Let's re-establish the facts. It is related to the Red Lotus. Is that correct?"
"Yes. It's certain they are related in some way. I confirmed their appearance in the result."
"What kind of person was it?"
"Hmm, I didn't see them, but from the nobles' testimony, they were furious, saying it was a bastard that deserved to be torn to shreds. The name... I can't recall. I don't remember the details of the first disasters I saw."
The Red Lotus connection was certain.
"Within a week?"
"Yes. It was originally supposed to be earlier, but it was delayed because I pinned the blame on all the high-ranking nobles. So it's certain the person is among those nobles."
"But they are all clean."
"That's when I realized that they don't know they are traitors. The culprit must be among them, but if no one knows they are the culprit—" "Yes, that would be it."
I stroked my chin and pondered. To deduce the culprit from these facts.
Hmm. ...
I don't know. I'm a mage, not some detective. Time was ticking away, and finding the answer with only these premises seemed close to impossible.
I had no choice but to rely on my future self.
"Ms. Sharmia."
"Ah, someone might misunderstand, so please call me something else when we are outside."
"Understood, Sharr."
At those words, Sharmia choked as if something went down the wrong pipe.
"... Oh, my. That's a bit bold of you, isn't it?"
"You said we were close."
"Ah, yes. We are close."
"In the future possibilities, I mean, in the possibilities, did I not say something about finding a clue?"
"No." "Even after I knew you were a prophet?"
"Yes. You seemed to know nothing."
My future self was in the same situation as I was now. Was I this incompetent? To not even find a single clue.
No, doesn't that mean it's impossible then? I frowned, factoring this into my calculations as well. That my future selves were very incompetent.
"Didn't you say I did a lot of things?"
"Ah, yes. You moved very diligently. Infiltrating the Imperial Palace, opening the sea gates, trying to assassinate me—" For a moment.
I caught a strange part in her words.
"I moved diligently?"
"?"
"Yes."
It was a trivial fact, but it was also important. I had moved with all my might. Sparing no effort, going so far as to try and assassinate the princess.
And the result was that I knew nothing? If that was all, it could be passed off as incompetence. However— the motivation was lacking.
I am not that passionate a person. If you were to ask me if I wanted to protect the capital enough to take such risks, hmm, by all accounts, the answer was no. On the contrary, the moment I learned the princess was a prophet, wouldn't I have just said, 'You handle it.
You're the amazing one,' and run away with the people I knew? I knew something. That's why I acted.
That much was certain. Then, another question arises. If I knew something, why didn't I tell the princess?
"Oh dear, there's not much time left."
I looked at her smiling face, completely untroubled as she listened to the ticking of the clock. Was it hard to believe? ... No, regardless of how my future self judged it, the princess was definitely a prophet, and above all, she knew the secret of my birth.
Cooperating was the right thing to do. Looking at it this way and that, fighting a prophet princess would be a terrible move.
Why.
Why did I, over hundreds of possibilities, choose actions like refusing such a princess's help or being hostile to her? Contact with the Red Lotus. The disaster being delayed when they were imprisoned for treason.
And yet, the fallen one could not be found among them. The reason my future self moved so diligently. Something I hid from the princess, even to the point of becoming her enemy.
Something I judged must be hidden from the princess.
Why?
If I told the princess, it would end immediately.
"... Ah..."
As the facts combined in my head, a single possibility came into view. The one who escaped the investigation when the nobles were placed under house arrest for treason. Someone related to the Red Lotus.
The reason my future self moved so diligently, and what he had to hide from the princess— "Jern?" I felt a cold sweat run down my back as I slowly muttered to the bewildered Sharr.
"I might... have found it. Though I'm not certain."
"Ah! I knew you would."
Watching the beaming Sharr, I forced a smile as the clock chimed, striking 3:30. Right now— There is something inside Elysia.