Chapter 326

“…Treptower, huh.”

Mecklenburg cleared his throat and quickly regained his composure. He still didn’t look particularly pleased, but his attitude to engage seriously was genuinely felt. He scanned the status table I thrust at him earlier and shook his head.

“It makes sense, but there is something bothering me. Of course, you must have spoken linking the Dahme River and Müggelsee, but even so, it is the same.”

‘Better than Erich Reichenau.’

The Dahme River refers to the river where Langer See is located. Earlier, I said Langer See-Müggelsee are southeast of Treptower Park. He grasped that I mentioned Treptower Park as a landmark for a regional chunk. Indeed. To be precise, to reach this conclusion, one must consider everything starting from Treptower Park and encompassing the area below it.

Anyway, when dealing with Erich Reichenau, I felt he was a person with not much to see in terms of strategy, but I feel this side has quite good processing speed. Playing the clueless fool for the whole 5 minutes was worth it.

I adjusted my gloves while watching 1 minute already pass by.

“I will go there for now.”

“Did you not say there is something bothering you? Do you think the other side will not know the proposition we confirmed?”

I glanced at him and said what I had to say instead of answering him.

“Wittelsbach will probably also be at Treptower Park. Since they likely departed before us, they might have already been there. So let’s turn this disadvantage of departing slightly late into an advantage.”

He tried to say something, but his instructions are not needed at this point. Because I thought what he is thinking, and he must have thought what I thought. I had no intention of handing over the opportunity to speak. I stood in front of the map and gestured.

“Listen well for the last time, Senior. I will tell you what needs to be done.”

***

Do I think the other side will not know the proposition we confirmed?

Mecklenburg said Treptower Park is suspicious, but at the same time, there is something bothering him to call it the correct answer.

It is a good point. First, the ‘proposition’ he speaks of refers to the basis on which I rejected Pfaueninsel as the correct answer.

Thinking from the beginning, it is like this. If Pleroma installed a base at Pfaueninsel and operated actively enough for us to find meaningful clues there, Jungfernsee-Tiefersee should not have been contaminated at least at 10 AM.

Then, although a low probability, we can consider this number of cases. What if Pleroma actually installed a base there, but since everyone coming and going is high-ranking—aptitudes—they intended to endure momentary mental haziness, or are using a special new defensive technology? If they contaminated the area on purpose to prevent us from approaching their stronghold because they have such countermeasures? Doesn’t the severe contamination level of three stars appearing in the outskirts of Berlin, not just downstream of the river penetrating Berlin, seem fishy? Were we deceived by their strategy and hastily ruled out the place where the base is located?

We even have to consider the point that they can deploy Space Magic to avoid contamination, but we must recognize that while they can certainly deploy Space Magic for the purpose of avoiding poisoning, its limits are clear. Since wide-area magic exceeding the level of one or two buildings cannot be executed by just anyone for a long time due to Magic Power amount and stability issues, their Space Magic is created in the form of a base at major strongholds. We have to find the area where that Space Magic is laid.

‘Then shouldn’t we rather search Pfaueninsel, which has high contamination levels?’

Such a question may arise. It is a valid question. However, we must go back to the beginning and remember that Pfaueninsel had a three-star contamination level ‘even at 10 AM’, and since newspaper articles of previous times that can be checked were not given, considering the test environment, we can know that situations before 10 AM should be excluded from judgment. Also, along with this, we can solve the problem by checking the examiner’s requirements. The examiner said there are portals and prisoners. If it is ‘prisoners’ and not berserkers, we can typically recall the victims of the high-educated Mage kidnapping case. Why would Pleroma kidnap those high-educated people in a sane state without exposing them to berserk potions?

‘Because what is immediately needed is brains. Even if they are likely aptitudes, there is no reason to capture them if they rampage and die by mistake.’

Now, there is a fact we can naturally know here.

The place where the portal that moved the prisoners was installed was at least clean at the time the incident occurred, or weakly contaminated—★☆☆—to a level difficult to rampage with just breathing.

This is the proposition Mecklenburg spoke of.

‘So why I pointed out Treptower Park is.’

I stopped thinking and looked around. The smell of grass in the park is nice. The Spree River right next to it is slightly contaminated, but at least it couldn’t be seen as a two-star contamination level as shown in the 12 PM status table. If one were to be picky, maybe about one star. For a place Pleroma swept through, the park in broad daylight was truly peaceful.

At the same time… I think it is natural to be afraid standing in a grass field in this kind of test situation. At least for me.

“It would have been nice if there were detection dogs here. No matter how much I think about it, the base area to knock on is too wide.”

I spoke to Mecklenburg through the artifact and turned my head. Beyond the artifact, sounds of smashing something continuously rang out, and the sound of wind, a bit more vivid than that, is coming from around.

The smell of soil hit me suddenly.

BANG—!

Before the grass rushed at me, I cast a barrier on the floor, kicked the ground, and retreated. The sky-blue Magic Power trying to grab my arm split at the tip of the sword I swung.

Although no person was seen looking anywhere, it was clear whose doing it was. I scoffed and called him.

“Leo.”

***

3 minutes ago.

“Treptower? Why?”

“I don’t understand.”

Questioning words poured out from the Mages sitting around Narce and Elias. Everyone was watching the Mimesis broadcast.

“Wow. Now both pointed out Treptower Park.”

Elias muttered expressionlessly. Narce, who was sitting guarding his side wrapped in Sound Insulation Magic, smiled.

[Let’s go quickly. Senior will know why I pointed out Treptower Park.]

On the Mimesis broadcast screen, Lucas tapped the map and spoke quickly. Since time was of the essence, he was speaking so fast it was really hard to understand, and because of that, Narce burst into light laughter. Anyway, the data Lucas was pointing to was this.

[Treptower Park temporarily closed]

[10 AM] Berlin Spree River ★★★, Berlin Havel River Southwest ★☆☆, Jungfernsee-Tiefersee ★★★, Langer See-Müggelsee ☆☆☆, Tegeler See ☆☆☆.

[12 PM] Berlin Spree River ★★☆, Berlin Havel River Southwest ★★☆, Jungfernsee-Tiefersee ★★★, Langer See-Müggelsee ★★★, Tegeler See ☆☆☆.

Narce stared at the screen and said.

“There were fifty lists but he picked almost only rivers~”

Though it is natural since more than thirty out of fifty are located in Old Berlin. Before Berlin’s expansion, contamination measurement points are concentrated in the central 6 districts that were Berlin from old times, and the points become fewer as it goes to the outskirts getting closer to Brandenburg. Especially, the points listed as Langer See-Müggelsee and Tegeler See are the only measured places in southeast and northwest Berlin respectively.

The reason Lucas and Leo simultaneously pointed out Treptower Park in this situation must be because of Langer See-Müggelsee, whose contamination level surged from 0/3 to 3/3.

“They are trying to point out that the figures for Langer See-Müggelsee are strange.”

“Must be.”

Elias answered briefly to Narce’s monologue and concentrated.

But then, why did they choose Treptower specifically instead of Langer See-Müggelsee? Even around the seats sitting now, sounds of senior Mages expressing doubt about this were heard. Although Narce also had such a doubt for a moment, he could quickly follow his friends’ thought process.

First, it can be known by seeing that the hundreds of kilometers of the Spree River were not lumped into one but written separately like Langer See-Müggelsee, etc.; the contamination level of the Berlin Spree River written here is the contamination level measured in Mitte District, the center of Berlin. The contamination of Mitte-Spree River was cut by one star in 2 hours. Because the contaminated water of Mitte-Spree River flowed out to the Havel River Southwest and Tegeler See, and was pushed by the clean water of Langer See-Müggelsee.

Then out of nowhere, Langer See-Müggelsee was hit by Pleroma’s concentrated attack. Langer See-Müggelsee has the lowest population density in Berlin. Where is the reason to spray chemicals in the place with the lowest population density? Is it to contaminate the river from upstream? Then they should have contaminated Langer See-Müggelsee first, not the Spree of Unter den Linden earlier.

‘So, the conclusion must be this~’

Pleroma aimed for a diversion.

Lucas and Leo were certain that the change in contamination level of Langer See-Müggelsee was a smokescreen and tried to find Pleroma’s real base. The result that came out is Treptower Park.

“Both are intense. In a situation where the announcement for Treptower Park contamination level hasn’t even been made.”

Elias muttered from the side.

Even the Treptower Park contamination level was not announced. Even though contamination status announcements are being made, since it is not measured by machines and sent to the center, they cannot put the contamination levels of all spaces in the newspaper. In other words, they were in a situation where they had to deduce only with the currently given data.

First, based on the current time of 12:30, the entire Berlin area is empty, but looking at around 10 AM before that happened, the situation is like this. Pfaueninsel in southwest Berlin and Unter den Linden in Mitte District, central Berlin, received concentrated attacks from Pleroma, and subsequently, the entire Old Berlin, which accounts for half of Berlin’s population, was contaminated. In such a situation, checking the article [Treptower Park temporarily closed] from that time, one can sufficiently guess why they picked Treptower Park. Unlike the article titles for Unter den Linden or the Spree River which blatantly advertise ‘contaminated’, the article title for Treptower Park only states ‘temporarily closed’, and actually according to the article content, Treptower did not receive concentrated attacks like Unter den Linden. However, the problem was that this place has a significantly high risk of being hit by chemical bombardment at any time in that it is a large park adjacent to Old Berlin, has the currently properly contaminated Old Berlin nearby, and is a good place for citizens to evacuate out of Old Berlin. The government closed the park so that citizens wouldn’t make a wrong judgment and evacuate to a dangerous place in a situation where they must leave Berlin immediately.

But anyway, Treptower Park borders the Spree River, and according to the investigation results, it is true that the Spree River boasts considerable contamination levels. Seeing these figures, from the perspective of Pleroma holding prisoners, there is no reason to move to Treptower Park.

But don’t we know where that Spree River contamination level was measured?

The Spree River’s contamination level was measured in Mitte, and geographically, the Spree River on the Treptower side is located upstream of the Spree River in Mitte. Therefore, it can be guessed that the three stars of the Berlin Spree River are a result that appeared entirely due to the chemical bombardment situation in the Mitte Unter den Linden area. The basis for this lies in the zero-star figure of Langer See-Müggelsee located upstream of the Treptower Spree River.

In short, Treptower is a representative place that is practically less contaminated but has the advantage of being avoided on paper due to bordering the Spree River. It means it is a good place to target the loophole of numbers right now.

‘Besides, it will really become contaminated now because of the water coming down from Langer See-Müggelsee….’

Thinking from Pleroma’s perspective, Treptower is the optimal place to buy time until Imperial Mages enter.

Elias, who was watching the two friends with a blasé face while resting his chin on his hand, smirked and said.

“Well, let’s say Treptower Park is so. But I feel like both are behaving a bit ambiguously? Splitting up team members one by one is also like that.”

“I guess….”

Narce burst into light laughter and contin…ued.

“Isn’t the time of 7 minutes too long to wrap up here? Like Leo said earlier.”

“Woah.”

Elias, who was nodding at Narce’s words, suddenly raised his eyebrows. A familiar omen began to appear on the screen relaying Treptower Park.

“The two ran into each other.”

***

BANG—!

I ran like crazy cutting off the plant stems rushing at me. Laughter came out, but I had to try to suppress it.

Anyway, let’s return to the main subject. Would Pleroma really not have known that many Mages could suspect Treptower Park like this?

The words Mecklenburg said earlier are fundamentally not different from this. The words ‘there is something bothering me’ was a question of whether Pleroma are fools. Would Pleroma really not know a matter predictable like this—I don’t know what Leo and the 91st Class representative Mage judged, but I expect they picked Treptower Park like me.

Although it is said that it’s not a very simple task since one has to go around knocking on most of the suspicious ground from Treptower to in front of the lake, still, isn’t it not a task worth giving 7 minutes for? With the range of magic used by two Imperial Mages, they can easily find the catching part.

WHOOSH—

“…!”

Because I concentrated on thinking, I was almost attacked for a moment. I shouted while turning direction to avoid the plant stem that blew away my hat.

“If you’re going to fight, come out and fight!”

I feel like I’m fighting against Mother Nature right now. Every piece of grass around me is rushing toward me.

‘Screw it.’

It won’t work like this. If I run until I die, the remaining 5 minutes, no 4 minutes… maybe 3 minutes will all go. I have to negotiate with Leo.

[Peace I leave with you.]

I swung the sword, changing it into a staff, and struck it down.

[My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives!]

BOOOOM—!

Before the momentary light and noise even faded, I felt something striking me down. It was obvious who rushed in front of me. A familiar voice was heard.

“Why did you come so late?”

I pulled my neck back, barely looked down at his hand grabbing my collar, and laughed.

“Do I have to go around looking for you?”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

Leo tilted his head with a face showing no damage at all.

“If it were you, you would have gone to the most suspicious area first… so I asked why you came to this place with low probability only now.”

“…….”

Quick-witted indeed.

I laughed and swatted his hand away. The suspicion was good, but from my position, it is just the beginning.

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