Chapter 239

“As Your Excellency said.”

While crossing the hospital corridor, the researcher in a black coat next to the guard spoke to me with a solemn face. He was the current advisory chairman of the anti-terror emergency committee, a doctor of public security studies.

I was now on my way to assist the anti-terror emergency committee under the crown prince’s order.

The guard mages assisting us from behind cast soundproofing magic.

“We discovered the real terror plan, that is, their main plan. We already completed the procedure to check how far the problem has spread without stimulating the criminals. Now, what remains is only the help from mages including Your Excellency Askanian.”

“…….”

“You must have burned the note our emergency committee sent.”

“I burned it.”

I burned Elias’s letter too. The letters written by Leo and Yulia, and Heike and Ulrike were in the safe, but I put them all in the fire and came out after confirming they turned to ash.

Personally, I wanted to keep at least Elias’s letter, but I couldn’t ruin things by being swayed by personal emotions.

“Good. The items in Your Excellency’s room will be checked one by one by an inspector from our emergency committee and sent to your home. More than that, you probably haven’t heard the detailed matters yet. I will explain quickly now.”

The doctor cleared his throat, adjusted his voice, and opened his mouth again.

“As Your Excellency said, the contaminated magical beast incident discovered at 6 PM on February 21 was merely a decoy. All Pentalon tourists’ entry to Brandenburg is finished, and currently, warping from Brandenburg and abroad to the interior is impossible. From last night, the First Guard Infantry Division of the Guard Corps in charge of Pentalon inspections reported no mana abnormalities.”

They deployed a lot of people for inspections. Of course, with many visitors, it was a natural measure.

The Guard CorpsGardekorps, a corps-level command located in Berlin in charge of capital defense, currently had three divisions, and that First Guard Infantry Division, contrary to the name, was a group composed of 15,000 general mages. Mages who couldn’t enter the Imperial Mages’ Association were mostly incorporated into the imperial army this way. It was a system the empire established to eliminate noise about mobilization since the Alsace-Lorraine battle I saw in Marco Schreiber’s memory before.

Anyway, the point that no particular problem was discovered could be accepted positively.

“In other words, no biological weapons have been confirmed in Berlin and Brandenburg until now. We installed barriers and other defensive mana fields from underground to 300m above ground between the city boundaries and Brandenburg boundaries, various checkpoints. No contamination attempts were discovered here either, and all mana fields are operating normally without damage until now.”

“Is that so.”

“Now, I will speak about their terror.”

In front of the hospital elevator, the doctor extended his hand to me.

I looked down at his pitch-black leather glove and looked at his face again. The doctor stared into my eyes and said in a weighty voice.

“From now on, if you move, Your Excellency will officially participate in this anti-terror plan. You will take on the mission to save millions of subjects.”

“I know. Isn’t the entire Eszett already participating in the anti-terror plan.”

“Precisely, only one is.”

I nodded.

I knew what he was saying. It was true the entire was mobilized for the plan. But among our seven, the one who put name on the document with the highest secrecy label was still only Leo. Narce was a foreigner, so couldn’t access secrets unless in special situations, and Elias was intentionally excluded by the imperial family.

I took his hand. The moment his glove pressed my wrist, my vision darkened.

I put strength in my legs and steadied myself. Fortunately, since I didn’t show noticeable abnormal reaction, no one looked at me strangely.

The trace of the hospital smelling of disinfectant couldn’t be found anywhere. The place unfolding before us now was an underground strategy room with plaster walls on all sides, dim lighting, and all sounds echoing.

The one waiting for me here was visible.

The commander of the Guard Corps I saw somewhere in the meeting seat three days ago extended his hand to me.

“Hugo Strauss. Since I already know about Your Excellency, let’s omit introduction. I sincerely thank you for participating in our plan. Now, in the remaining 1 hour 53 minutes, we must protect the subjects in the 100km² event grounds spanning Berlin and Brandenburg.”

The number entering the opening stadium was 150,000, but more people were at the Pentalon event grounds for tourism purposes.

It wasn’t strange that he omitted proper self-introduction and ceremonial greetings. Because it wasn’t the situation for that now.

1 hour 53 minutes. The ticking sound of the second hand on the wall clock sounded loud. It was the only time to stop those guys’ new plan.

“I want to know what the new plan is and what role I must take.”

“Your Excellency’s role is to provide the most efficient ideas to us. Her Highness the Crown Prince directly ordered to entrust the review of countermeasures for this terror plan to Your Excellency as you are the right person for strategy.”

“My shoulders are getting heavy. I’m merely a new class of the association, yet to take such a heavy responsibility, I didn’t expect it.”

Hundreds of thousands to millions of subjects’ lives in the Pentalon event grounds now were in the hands of less than ten people including me. In my inference, this terror incident wasn’t the end, but first, processing this plan didn’t change.

This crown prince guy, I don’t know if national affairs are a joke or whom she’s attaching to the plan.

Honestly, discussing terror in the same place with this person itself was absurd. It was just fortunate that they took me seriously.

Knowing well that I said with such intention, the other party shook his head.

“No need to worry. After 72 hours of thorough preparation, our government and military have established a system to defend any attack. Also, not only Your Excellency but including me and the doctor, there are three more responsible persons, so there is sufficient opportunity to share opinions.”

He looked at the clock and tapped my shoulder.

“Within 1 hour 51 minutes, if there is physical opportunity.”

He extended his hand to me.

It was clear we had to move to another place. I swallowed and took his hand.

The scenery changed again. It was similar to the place we were before, but intending to prevent mana from spreading around, walls and ceiling of low saturation turquoise made of anti-mana mineral were visible.

It was an utterly empty room. The only things were a small desk in the corner and fire extinguisher, and the mana light illuminating us, thick iron door. No, including the red button the commander was holding.

While looking around, I quietly opened my mouth.

“The terrorists tampered with the mana lights, I see.”

“As expected, you notice right away. That’s right. This is a set replicated by our emergency committee 2 hours ago.”

The commander pointed up.

“It looks like a general mana light, right.”

“Yes.”

“It’s actually a general mana light too. However….”

The commander pressed the button hard.

Kwaang—! Jjaenggeurang—

I reflexively closed and opened my eyes.

Glass of the light was scattered shattered on the barrier installed 30cm above the head.

Fire caught on the wooden base attached next to the glass tube supplying mana to the mana light.

“It’s white phosphorus. Fine white phosphorus powder is inside the light. If fire melts the glass tube and heat transfers to the pipe inside….”

Kwaang—!

The same roar as earlier was heard.

Even the other light installed close to the wall burst.

“Chain reaction, explosion incident occurs more quickly.”

“Hm…. White phosphorus, huh.”

“That’s right. Your Excellency judged the white phosphorus match as a code before. Checking the match disappeared tracelessly from the police bureau and today’s explosion attempt using this white phosphorus, that match is likely not intended as code but to foretell this terror today.”

The commander said in a soulless voice and shook his head, immediately continuing.

“Up to here is only the police bureau’s opinion, personally I think those eleven letters are code as Your Excellency’s opinion. It must have been a code foretelling this incident today. It would have been good if decoded early, but unfortunately, because the match was stolen, we couldn’t notice today’s matter.”

Instead of answering, I blankly stared at him.

There was no information to get by discussing this topic further.

I asked about the earlier topic.

“White phosphorus has an extremely low ignition point, so it could easily burst inside the light. But if so, it would have burst long ago, why didn’t it burst and burst now?”

“That’s exactly it. That point is the problem. It was made with a very sophisticated system. The white phosphorus powder was wrapped in protective mana. In that state, if new mana is injected into the mana light pipe, the mana that was surrounding and trapping the white phosphorus moves rapidly and collides with the white phosphorus. The magic formula is cast to do so. The reason I said ‘more quickly’ is here. Along with the mana flowed into the pipe, the heat of fire transfers to other mana lights and increases the pressure of other lights at a faster speed.”

I slowly nodded while listening attentively.

Who put this crap, still in the guess stage and no certainty, but it’s an opponent worth fighting. Just a few days ago, there was an opponent who made me think like this.

The point that this threatened the safety of at least hundreds of thousands to at most millions of citizens wasn’t fun at all.

The commander continued.

“There’s another problem here. An unknown drug is injected into the mana light pipe.”

The commander waved his hand to remove the barrier and bundled the glass shards with mana to throw on the floor.

He took out a small bottle from inside the jacket, opened the cap, and lightly shook three or four times. The transparent reagent turned black.

“Hm.”

“You know, right. It’s berserk drug. Currently, we lowered the concentration to 1/5 level, made to the line not affecting health. White phosphorus was injected to increase the pressure inside the light to break the glass, and the real is this. The criminal flowed high-concentration berserk drug into the mana light pipe. That is, the berserk drug is mixed in the air along with the mana that emits light. If the light’s glass breaks, the berserk drug will mix into the air the subjects breathe. Also, currently there is no easily combustible material so fire doesn’t spread, but in places like banquet halls or botanical gardens, another problem can arise.”

“It’s sophisticated.”

“That’s right. A plan truly like Pleroma.”

“…….”

While I was silent, the commander extended his hand. It was time to warp again.

We moved to the underground control room we were before.

Now, even the emergency committee chairman, the Minister of Magic, was at the table surroundings. Seeing some more people who could join the meeting didn’t come besides this person, already some must have been deployed to countermeasure preparation.

The commander silently shook hands with him and said to me again.

“Perhaps in this Pentalon, we might get the opportunity to wipe out Pleroma leadership through this terror. Because the leadership must be desperate not to miss this good opportunity. An enemy blinded by gain and moving boldly is always a good opponent to bring to knees.”

Well.

Pleroma leadership decided to pull out from this plan.

At least information obtained from a privileged Pleroma around monsignor level, but no meaning in telling this. Even if told, only to be dragged to the imperial intelligence torture room?

I organized my thoughts and said to them.

“You seem to have already found a solution. Isn’t there no need for me to be here?”

“What solution do Your Excellency think?”

“Flowing divine power from the point where the mana pipe starts is all. But the criminal must be watching the pipe start point attentively. Then, remove the ceiling finish of boiler rooms or storages between rooms to make the pipe visible, and cast purification magic there. Rather, if shooting mana in the middle, we can solve the problem more quickly.”

This simple solution, they didn’t call me because couldn’t think of it.

As expected, the commander smiled. The tension of having to finish all processing until the opening about 1 hour 40 minutes left was still felt, but it was a confident face from having prepared countermeasures already.

“Right. We are also preparing such a method. Also, for post countermeasures, we developed a purification drug that neutralizes the berserk drug in the air within 5 seconds in cooperation with the Bavarian Royal Pharmacy University, and from 72 hours ago, installed the mana sprinkler newly developed in the US early this year on all event venue ceilings. Even if the lights burst, our subject protection countermeasures are set to operate clearly.”

As the commander’s words ended, the advisory chairman, the doctor of public security studies, opened his mouth.

“But problems still remain.”

“What?”

“First, we don’t know exactly how far the contaminated mana is injected. We discovered all this truth by confirming abnormal reaction of the mana lights in the opening ceremony venue steam room, but that’s it. In other places where temperature hasn’t risen, we don’t know where this problem occurred.”

I nodded.

It could be so.

“Second, there is no way to recover the white phosphorus powder injected into the lights. Suppose we suck the air of the pipe from both sides of the pipe right now. In this case, as natural, the mana light mana is also sucked, inevitably blacking out the entire grounds. You know we cannot put time difference when casting cooling magic.”

‘Hm…’

So, they called me to quickly think of the optimal way to solve this.

“There is no need to recover the white phosphorus right now.”

Everyone silently looked at me.

I immediately continued.

“Didn’t you say that targeting the hole of the pipe means the terror execution is approaching.”

“That’s right. The criminal must be monitoring the point where the pipe starts everywhere, or the valve at the connection point between pipes. Because magic must be cast there.”

“Could you give me the building section drawing?”

Actually, no need for section drawing or anything. But it was better to pretend thinking something.

I pretended to look at the section drawing, and tapped the gap between floor height and ceiling height with my finger.

“Cast cooling magic between floors.”

“…….”

“Between floors, as you know, precisely the mana light pipe is laid between ceiling finish and slab. Since piercing walls is whatever, limit to the concrete of that height and cast magic. No matter how the programmed magic activates the movement of gas, if due to the cold applied to the light, the temperature approaches absolute zero and cannot tour near the ignition point, white phosphorus won’t react easily like earlier. Of course, spectators might complain about the cold coming up from the floor, but I see it’s better than becoming a sea of fire.”

The doctor of public security studies stroked his chin and nodded. I continued.

“If that’s not feasible, you can cast cooling magic directly on the ceiling indoors, but in this case, you must anticipate complaints pouring about the indoor temperature approaching subzero. …Likewise natural words, but.”

Since silence continued, I looked at the clock.

1 hour 34 minutes, now 33 minutes. The hour and minute hands moved with clunks.

I continued while looking at the people around the table.

“You might be disappointed that it’s not using special drugs or special magic spells. However, with 1 hour 33 minutes left until opening, the method I can give without new facilities or techniques is only this.”

“No, it’s not because disappointed. You surely produce countermeasures quickly. Low cost high efficiency, if the economics field saw Your Excellency’s economy, they would applaud. It’s really regrettable not to have been with Your Excellency earlier.”

It was the words of the Minister of Magic.

In my feeling, people of this era tend to speak too like writing compared to modern. Meaning they use a lot of exaggerated metaphors.

Anyway, it seems they also thought of this method though it took a bit of time.

Rather relief. How many heads gathered here, if they couldn’t think of this, I would have prepared emigration from that moment.

The commander opened his mouth.

“If Your Excellency also thinks this is the best… good. There is no other idea.”

“Yes.”

“Then, now selecting the position to cast cooling magic is the key. To cast magic on every floor, every room of all buildings in the grounds, at least 1,000 mages are needed. As you know, numerous mages with unique abilities like freezing or cooling disappearing at once is a situation good to buy suspicion. Since they are also an organization, they must be dividing labor and monitoring us. Since there is limit to mobilizable manpower, we must aim exactly the point where contaminant is injected and cast cooling magic only on minimal space.”

Beep—

1 hour 30 minutes.

The moment I was about to answer, everyone’s gazes met. All were standing without any expression, but I could feel the weight of this space gradually getting heavier.

If a person decorating terror, naturally would aim for when the tension of the act is at its peak. Therefore, even after opening starts, there would be a brief leeway, but if mistaking that as real leeway, it’s the end.

Considering the time to summon mages, set each deployment time, and have them wait, that is, time for execution, now we must decide.

Seeing their drug wasn’t caught by the barrier means they intentionally avoided barrier positions and injected contaminated drug. No way to easily catch the drug injected into the pipe that way.

Here are newly built shopping districts and theme parks of each country for Pentalon tourists, art galleries and botanical gardens abound. We can’t inspect all those buildings.

I took a big breath once and looked at them.

“…To summarize, if putting time difference in cooling magic installation, our action will look suspicious to the criminal and then the criminal will immediately burst all mana lights in the grounds at once, so to block this terror, we must cast cooling magic on the entire grounds at once, but for that manpower is insufficient, and if massively recruiting related series mages from various places, the possibility of buying suspicion increases, you’re saying. Therefore, find the position where drug is injected and through selection and concentration, cast cooling magic only on accurate position, you’re saying.”

“Right.”

“But selection and concentration is impossible time-wise. Rather, bringing mages in large quantities and collectively casting cooling magic is faster and safer.”

“We think so too.”

The commander said that while nodding.

Openly telling me to produce a clever plan.

“You would. Then, wouldn’t it be good to use a slight expedient even?”

“If expedient?”

“Let’s do a performance.”

“Performance?”

As if absurd, the commander almost scoffed but recalled the crown prince and fixed his expression. The Minister of Magic was waiting for the following words.

The doctor of public security studies who grasped my meaning shook his head with serious eyes.

“I understand what you mean. It’s a plan like kids’ play, but it’s not something to call expedient. Rather, since ancient times, the state has systematically utilized entertainment to disperse citizens’ attention focus, so it’s a standard method.”

Boasting by saying this. I thought while seeing my brought stopwatch starting to display 1 hour 28 minutes on the screen.

The doctor said while looking at others.

“However, the point that the target we must deceive today is not subjects but Pleroma is different. Though not in the plan, it would be good to do a performance using ice and snow in the entire Pentalon branch. Then, recruiting cooling magic ability holders may not be seen strangely. Your Excellency Askanian, this is the plan you meant, right.”

“Hm.”

There is always a human who says nonsense even when fed.

From suddenly making and performing a program not in the plan 1 hour before opening is suspicious. The criminal would be even more on edge. The point of coincidentally doing a performance not even scheduled using cooling magic, fearing the plan would be hindered, possibility of moving extremely. It might seem too oversensitive, but as the thief’s foot tingles, rather the mind might hurry.

So, isn’t there a way to go more safely.

I shook my head.

“It’s similar, but no. How about this?”

*  *  *

I looked at the sky.

Now it was 9:40 PM, time for the sky to be completely dark. However, the sky was bright like 6 PM when sunset.

Because everywhere doing all sorts with fire. Mages using fire as unique ability and career circus troupe members were gathered from across the empire and deployed everywhere in the Pentalon grounds.

I was now in front of Heiligthum, that is, the new art gallery created for Pentalon. Right in front of the art gallery was the Spree River, and on the small boats floating on the river, kids were flying lanterns. When reaching appropriate height, the lanterns scattered into the air, and the mana inside turned into fire in the sky forming shapes. In my view, it wasn’t a very new sight, but the kids were jumping madly on the boat screaming squeak.

The mana that burst like fireworks in the sky came down to the ground. A few bourgeois Old Humans strolling the park in front of this art gallery laughed and caught the mana with hands. That was fire too.

I caught the fire embers flying in the air—mana processed so doesn’t transfer—with hand. Due to the surrounding mana, the fire rolled completely like water drop in hand.

‘Could use as hand warmer.’

Hot. Now it was February 24 midwinter night, and right in front of the river, but how strong the heat of fire was, I felt like throwing away the coat right away.

Of course, such leisurely thought soon flew at the fact that time left until opening was 20 minutes.

I sent that fire flying back into the air and looked at the Old Human approaching the door.

One Old Human untied the scarf and fanned with hand while shaking head.

“It’s hot.”

“Soon cooling magic will enter every floor indoors. Stay inside.”

“Oh.”

The middle-aged Old Human woman saw my eyes, rolled eyes, and smiled while greeting. She seemed no intention to openly express hostility, but seemed a bit surprised confirming who I was.

When I opened the door, the Old Human felt the wind escaping from inside to outside and raised eyebrows.

“Hm, really inside seems cooler. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“It would be good if cooler, please tell to cast a bit earlier.”

The Old Human handed a joke and hand-greeted me and went inside.

Even if outside is hot, if inside here is affected—no, if wrong, all white phosphorus will burst—, we surrounded the building outer wall with mana field blocking heat. Because of that, inside is cool, but nevertheless, people feel heat.

I smiled while greeting and closed the door again. And, tapped the artifact.

Now a natural foundation was prepared. No need to delay further.

I raised my head like a person with nothing happening. Everyone focused on the flames flying in the air, so no one watching me.

Beyond the artifact, the emergency committee was waiting for my words. I cast soundproofing magic and said one of the pre-determined codes.

“I’m a bit tense since the start is ahead.”

[…….]

“Would you read Ezekiel Chapter 34 from the beginning?”

*  *  *

“It’s been a bit cold since earlier.”

Inside the opening ceremony venue, Elias standing on the outside of the first floor spectator seats quietly said while looking at the screen high up far away.

Beep—

The alarm sound started to be heard.

1 minute before opening. Already most officials and spectators had entered. The officials’ faces were all stiffly hardened.

Elias looked at Leo standing next to him.

“Luca?”

Instead of answering, Leo shook his head. His gaze turned to the faint mana lights illuminating the spectator seats. Since this place had open ceiling, the possibility of problem occurring here was small. But the gaze turning there naturally couldn’t be helped. Because from now, whether this opening would be the start or the end would be decided.

Leo opened the pocket watch, looking at the rapidly decreasing second hand.

Pwoong—

The firework bursting sound continued.

At the same time, petals scattered. The divine power falling from the endless sky sparkled like stars. Seeing this sight in the vast stadium widened with space magic to accommodate 150,000, for some reason it felt like being in another world. People’s cheers already started, and the band music laid from 10 minutes ago was soon buried.

Beep—

‘10.’

The sound notifying 10 seconds before came from the artifact officials wear, at that moment, Elias who had been looking straight ahead spoke to Leo.

However, nothing was heard. Leo only looked ahead without reply. Elias also didn’t speak expecting answer, now just standing with hardened face without opening mouth.

Flags of over 50 participating countries unfolded below the spectator seats. The countdown sounds of spectators from each country got louder and louder. In the time of slowly closing and opening eyes several times, 4 seconds passed.

‘5.’

High notes of wind instruments continued in fast tempo. Then, a large trumpet sound was heard.

With cheers making ears unable to function properly, now ears were catching sounds hard to hear.

‘4.’

The divine power falling from the sky stopped.

The light of mana lights turned off, and now the light of the night sky was seen brightest here. Somewhere the sound of stage device pulley moving was heard.

Slightly missing the beat, during counting three, the alarm sound passed once quickly.

‘2.’

All music sounds ended.

Leo closed the pocket watch lid while moving his lips.

‘1.’

Light came on.

The emperor’s figure was visible from one side of the stadium. When the mana screen illuminated his face, the fanatic cheers of 150,000 hit the eardrums.

The emperor opened his mouth with a solemn face.

[Dear New Humans and Old Humans of all nations, welcome to Berlin.]

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