How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 561

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Noble Family (561)

10 minutes ago.

Kroll Opera House annex, guest room floor.

The Chief of Staff at headquarters was breaking out in a cold sweat. The French Minister of Magic Gaston Levi, who had appeared unexpectedly, had been subtly venting his anger at him for the past 5 minutes.

“What―on―earth― I ask you!”

The characteristic curly pronunciation of the Frenchman grated on the Chief of Staff’s ears. At least the Chief of Staff thought so sourly. The French Minister of Magic gestured around with an equally frustrated expression.

“For what reason are you detaining us French? I keep asking, don’t I.”

“As you know, there was a great fire in Berlin. In such a dangerous situation, we cannot let distinguished guests wander around freely. And it would be sufficient to speak through your secretary, so why are you here―”

“Yes, the fire. Fine. That fire broke out far away, so why are you detaining foreigners at the Kroll Opera House?”

“It’s not detention, but for the next schedule―”

The Minister of Magic pulled the Students of Académie des Puissances High School toward him, protectively embracing the children and shouting again.

“This is rude! What’s the point of luring us with talk of next schedules and rest? Isn’t the reality that you’re scheming to prevent us French from going anywhere? I’m asking carefully, so please answer calmly, Your Excellency.”

The Chief of Staff, whose words had been cut off twice, closed his eyes to cultivate patience.

Asking carefully my ass, does this bastard not even know what he’s saying? The Chief of Staff’s insides burned as he clicked his tongue. He pointed to the guest rooms where Italians and Englishmen had been placed as decoys and said.

“Other countries are also the same―”

“But the target is us French, isn’t it. Do you think we don’t know such things? I can’t tell whether you’re trying to protect us, or put us in danger by sending us out when those smelter flames cover the city!”

“Good grief, listen before you speak! You’re quite biased.”

At this point, the Chief of Staff couldn’t just stand there. He counterattacked with blazing eyes.

“Look here. Don’t they say the world appears as one thinks it does. From our German perspective, Minister Gaston Levi’s view is very paranoid and narrow-minded! Keep in mind that one’s usual thoughts are revealed in words and actions―”

Go ahead and babble, you worthless bastard. Not thinking at all about how narrow-minded your own perspective is, what mental age are you exactly? A person old enough to know better acting like an underdeveloped brat. The Chief of Staff, who had always hoped to live without major troubles and thus wasn’t very active in headquarters administration, couldn’t spit out those words. He also didn’t want to become the same kind of person as his opponent. The Chief of Staff caught his breath and continued shouting.

“That mindset of constantly trying to pick fights with us Germans. Others can see it too. Before speaking aggressively, please listen to what we have to say. Right now, Minister, you’re interpreting everything as if we’re definitely trying to put France in danger, but without considering our sincerity in creating today’s occasion to get along well with France, if you view everything with suspicious eyes, what more can we do?”

Paranoid delusions. Isn’t he actually planning to harm our country? So in fact, it’s ‘the French themselves’ who have plans to cause great harm to Germany today, and that’s why they see plans that look exactly like what they’ve set up! No matter how he thought about it, the feeling wasn’t good.

They’re good at one thing: shifting blame. That ‘blame-shifting’ is often proof that the opponent is actually that kind of person, not that our side bears complete responsibility for the matter. Looking at others with eyes uglily constructed according to their own way of thinking, then asking others why they’re twisted―’Aren’t you trying to attack us French?’―to the Chief of Staff, who knew the German government had no such plans, it was absurd―making all sorts of fuss and harboring every kind of delusion. The Chief of Staff looked at his opponent with the desire to spit at him. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t understand why this Minister of Magic was acting so unusually, as if they had some evil plan, as if laying groundwork for a fight. Whether they wanted to fight or were trying to make him let his guard down, to the Chief of Staff who had lived through all sorts of slander and conflict, the feeling wasn’t good.

This Frenchman is, in a word, excessive. Peculiar. Even if there are things that seem dangerous, if someone came as a representative of a country, they usually wouldn’t commit such discourtesy. A person in charge must remain calm in the face of any situation. If the person in charge panics, points fingers, shouts, and creates anxiety, that’s not a true leader but a fraud trying to maintain their leadership position. Could Minister Gaston Levi really not know this?

The French Minister of Magic shook his head vigorously and wheedled.

“Well, when Germany hasn’t even properly solved the Atropos problem, some unextinguishable fire breaks out, and even on today which should be the safest, you’ve ultimately failed to maintain public order, and we’re right in the middle of it, so it’s natural. I’ll have to speak with Germany’s Foreign Ministry. And everyone come out! We’ll have to stay at a hotel until the German government opens a portal for us. Let’s go!”

The Minister had the Académie des Puissances Mages knock on the guest room doors. The Chief of Staff just stood there with his mouth agape in disbelief. He turned his head about a third to the side and exhaled with a “huh.”

No matter what the Chief of Staff said, the French Minister of Magic, his aide, and the Académie des Puissances people seemed to have no intention of breaking their resolve. Well, he himself was a civil servant and combat mage from a place unrelated to diplomacy, and he couldn’t say he was from the Special Operations Command to explain that he wasn’t “just a civil servant,” and even if he said that, since the fields were so different, it would have no effect other than brandishing his badge. However, it was a high enough position for the government to express antipathy toward France afterward over this matter.

The Chief of Staff cast a soundproofing spell and tapped the artifact at his ear.

“Control room, can you hear me. These foreigners say they want to move to a hotel. I, well… I’m not someone who usually gives such orders.”

Because I don’t want to take unnecessary responsibility. The Chief of Staff, who shamelessly didn’t bring that thought to consciousness, scratched his head and spoke with pursed lips.

“This time the feeling isn’t good. Either clear the fastest route for carriages to travel, or temporarily install mana bridges on the rooftops. Warp won’t work. We can’t spend too much time on the roads either.”

Warp is…

If they warped, who knows where these damned French might jump to. And then they might pin the blame on Germany! No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t stand Germany suffering harm. The Chief of Staff glared at the French mages lining up and said.

“And go to the government immediately and tell them to open a portal. These French have lost their minds. I expected common sense and complied with their unreasonable demands, but…”

The Chief of Staff held back the curses forming on his tongue and just puffed on his pipe. He turned around, exhaling smoke, and said.

“If we don’t send them back to their homeland immediately, we’ll be the ones to suffer.”

Boom…

“…!”

The Chief of Staff thrust out his arms to maintain balance. He widened his eyes at the distant explosion he heard and pressed against the wall. Nothing had collapsed. It was just the illusion that the building was shaking that made him…

Was it really an illusion? The Chief of Staff massaged his aging ears and pushed up his glasses. Then he looked around.

* * *

“Good. What’s next?”

Right after Ulrike’s spirited question, I raised my eyebrows at the vibration transmitted through my ear and the noise from outside the window. Contact came from the control room.

[…101st Unit, can you hear me?]

I manipulated the artifact so our voices could be heard and answered.

“Yes, we can hear you.”

[This is a message from His Excellency the Chief of Staff. ‘The protests are fierce, we can no longer detain them.’ We plan to move everyone to a hotel for personal protection.]

Ulrike’s eyebrows crumpled mercilessly. The anger that was hard to see when we played together at Mimesis was easily revealed during missions. Always. Unlike wanting to press down those eyebrows with both hands to smooth them out neatly again, I well understood and sympathized with the sentiment of ‘there’s never anyone helpful’ that he must be feeling.

Since it was Narke who was assigned the task of persuading the Chief of Staff to detain the Students of Académie des Puissances High School and several French dignitaries, I gave Narke a look. Narke nodded. I couldn’t completely know what he was thinking, but it seemed to mean that this had filled the period Narke had expected.

In other words, this variable could no longer negatively affect our plan’s progress.

Sufficient. I too hadn’t expected much from the Chief of Staff.

However, Ulrike, whose thoughts differed from ours, cast a circular barrier around his face and asked in a voice made hoarse by his parched throat.

“Will the move to the hotel be by warp? And will you also block the hotel to make entry impossible? And who made the protests? The French?”

[We plan to move them by means other than warp. I didn’t receive the rest.]

“It must be the French. Didn’t they just finish dinner? Not some other country, but the French moving so urgently? Aren’t they people who spend three hours just eating dinner?”

[That’s…?]

The control room mage asks in a somewhat troubled voice. Ulrike irritably started to ruffle his hair, then became conscious of the hat he was wearing and waved his hand down.

“No, no… The prejudice is sorry, but doesn’t His Excellency the Chief of Staff have sufficient ability to block such protests―”

[His Excellency the Chief of Staff’s will remains unchanged. His Excellency conveyed that our government also doesn’t think it’s right to continue keeping foreigners on German soil.]

“Just in case, I’m asking, but is there a possibility those foreigners committed crimes?”

[His Excellency the Chief of Staff didn’t convey such meaning. We judge there’s no such possibility due to the fire at the steel mill.]

“But it’s not an ordinary fire, is it. A fire that mages can’t handle.”

[Currently the government presumes this fire to be Pleroma’s doing.]

Ulrike opened his mouth and stared at us, shocked to learn that their thoughts differed from ours. I extended my hand to convey that it was okay to stop talking and asked the control room mage.

“The rose garden hasn’t burned, has it.”

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Rose garden was a euphemism used in place of classified information. Under the rose Sub rosa, this was also used in the earlier code. The mage who knew the meaning answered.

[That’s correct. Except for the factories and training grounds in Spandau. However, if you could tell us the reason for preservation, we think we could prevent His Excellency’s plan from being abandoned midway.]

The control room mage was also concerned that the Chief of Staff might break my plan. I tilted my head briefly, then decided to explain according to their understanding.

“We don’t know where or how Pleroma might have set up their positions.”

[I’ll relay that.]

Even without saying this explicitly, the control room would have caught on. Seeing how they just responded to my code, I could feel at ease.

We said we needed to protect the Imperial 2nd Educational Institute Corps training ground in Spandau from fire and explosions immediately, but actually we demanded more. Urbi et Orbi, to Rome and the world, government mages should be scattered throughout the city and the entire world to protect people.

Here it’s limited to Berlin, and further to various parts of Prussia that foreigners have visited. If they interpreted ‘world’ well, we could expect this much, but actually it would be fine even if not. Having a state of readiness versus not having one makes a big difference, doesn’t it? Panicking when a fire breaks out versus secretly positioning people in plain clothes throughout the city center are different matters.

In terms of being able to use multiple languages as code, Narke was perfect for conveying news to the control room. While Ulrike wasn’t lacking in foreign languages given his lifelong dedication to study, a German raised in Germany couldn’t suddenly speak in foreign languages, could he.

As a foreigner, Narke could mix his native language with foreign languages when urgent and dangerous, as many people unconsciously do. Moreover, since anyone could expect that as a theology student from a clergy family, he would be very familiar with Latin masses and theological studies in Latin, he could convey meaning through Latin that many couldn’t immediately understand―using Latin unconsciously wouldn’t be particularly strange. While Cardinal Narke could speak anything freely in Latin, the Latin he used was mostly limited to idioms frequently used in Catholicism, so if someone with questions spent a little time asking colleagues or looking through dictionaries, they could understand sufficiently.

Then why did we need to use code…

Because while the Imperial 2nd Educational Institute Corps training ground was one thing, other areas had to be protected secretly. No matter how I thought about it, I had to point to the Imperial 2nd Educational Institute Corps training ground in Spandau. The government had to move as if Spandau were the real enemy’s target. They had to appear to ‘know’ that.

When they did that, the enemy wouldn’t attack the Imperial 2nd Educational Institute Corps training ground. The premise of this assumption is ‘when attacking strongholds throughout Germany, each can produce relatively uniform output,’ and there’s no basis for this premise to be wrong. Then what if they blow up all German strongholds? This becomes a matter of their risk and chances of success. That they’re approaching cautiously without confidence in their chances of success is also my premise.

When the premise holds, there’s nothing as inefficient as attacking a place the government has already prepared for. Instead, the enemy will target the gaps created by the government ‘favoring’ one place.

When we need to create those gaps, would it be a gap if the government openly protected all locations? Advertise everywhere. So openly protecting the Spandau Imperial 2nd Educational Institute Corps training ground while secretly protecting the rest―this much should be understood to work as headquarters staff. That position is such a position. Not only those of us running around in the field, but all people receiving contacts and exchanging information have countless lives depending on them, and accordingly have the responsibility to be more alert than anyone.

Even so, these bastards wouldn’t secretly protect even Spandau after hearing ‘keep it classified,’ and if that happened, everything would be ruined, but they actually did as we intended. If you’re going to sit in a position where you must alertly grasp strategy and work to protect citizens’ safety, quitting would benefit the public. Keeping it classified means keeping the request to protect ‘comprehensively’ classified―the request repeated twice with the words Urbi et Orbi and Sensus fidei.

Ulrike whispered under the thick soundproofing spell, amazed that the control room understood the code.

“We were lucky. I naturally think Spandau should be protected ‘while showing it,’ but not everyone thinks like us. If the government had really protected even Spandau in secret, it would have been a disaster.”

“If it seemed the other party wouldn’t understand, Narke would have spoken differently. Right.”

Narke nodded. I reinforced the soundproofing spell I’d been maintaining and said.

“We’ve come up to the 5th floor but Senior isn’t here. Where did he go? I think… he didn’t go far. But why did Senior disappear.”

I planned to adjust the degree of explanation while observing my friends’ expressions. I suppressed my impatience and gauged the time as I spoke.

“What benefits could be gained by making Senior disappear. And what risks would be taken on by doing so? We need to trace back to here to know where we can find Senior.”

Ulrike rolled his eyes to the opposite side. When he falls into thought, his eyelids tense up, and each time, the corners of his eyes become particularly sharp. He quickly nodded. He was saving me explanation time. I felt the wind blowing from the broken windows and remaining fires gently stirring our sweat-dampened hair. I smiled as I swept back my hair.

“It’s simple reasoning, but if they can’t attack Spandau, where will they go? The enemies and control room will tell us, but shall we figure it out once ourselves?”

No one opened their mouth. I voiced the list I’d speculated in my head.

“Now, next there’ll be trouble at Tiergartenstraße. Or Charlottenburg, Dorotheenstadt…”

I hoped to hear laughter saying I was naming too many, but everyone was frozen. So was I. I said finally.

“Luise. You’re coming with me. And, Narke.”

You know what my plan is. Though I didn’t say it, Narke nods.

[…There’s been a fire.]

It’s been a while since communication was cut off, and I can hear a crackling voice. Ulrike raises her eyebrows.

[101st Unit, I’ll call out the warp coordinates for Tiergartenstrasse…]

Tiergartenstrasse, my friends look at me after hearing the correct answer they confirmed.

Now it’s time to bring down the building to find Mecklenburg. Let’s think from the enemy’s perspective. What benefit do they gain when they kidnap Mecklenburg? First, they can slow down the fire suppression speed and rescue operations. Second, they can waste manpower. This manpower includes not only the personnel needed for fire suppression when Mecklenburg isn’t deployed, but also the personnel struggling to find Mecklenburg. For example, me.

From the enemy’s perspective, if they’ve done sufficient research, I would be a thorn in their side since I consistently find solutions to any case. If they kidnap Mecklenburg who has been with me all along, I will surely look for him. When they put my close associate in an unknown state, they can tie up my brain, hands, and feet.

Then what’s the loss when the enemy kidnaps Mecklenburg—when it becomes known that they kidnapped him? Naturally, France will face backlash. France will have one of their operations exposed on the diplomatic stage, an operation designed to corner Germany—’they precisely targeted and attacked an indispensable mage in Germany’. Isn’t this an absolutely unacceptable fact to be revealed?

I’ve repeatedly said before that I need to know how Terminus Yukairya calculates their odds of success, and they face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to send Germany to goal on the diplomatic stage, but also a crisis with equivalent backlash risk. Without sufficient odds of success, they can’t act rashly, and therefore can’t cause special harm to Mecklenburg. At most, they can knock him unconscious so he doesn’t know what happened and confine him somewhere, or use techniques on his memory. They can’t prevent him from returning, injure him, or extract his soul.

This reasoning becomes even more certain if fires break out in just one or two places rather than simultaneously across all of Berlin.

Even if Terminus Yukairya doesn’t rate their odds of success highly, they have plenty of room to escape, since this fire is already presumed to be Pleroma’s doing, and as the ordinary reasoning from the control room proved, this fire could reasonably be considered Pleroma’s work. Why?

There had never been a fire in the world that ‘absorbed’ someone’s mana or life force. And Pleroma has the technological capability to develop Atropos, a ‘new drug’ that would shock nations dependent on divine power. Both of these clues point to Pleroma as the culprit of the fire.

In other words, regarding the earth and fire, Terminus Yukairya has room to escape, but they know there are risks of a different level when it comes to actually kidnapping and tormenting people.

The reasoning is complete. By considering the enemy’s benefits and losses like this, I can easily think about why Mecklenburg disappeared, and most decisively, I can know how to save Mecklenburg.

What should I do?

Their target is me. This time too. No special methods are needed. Mecklenburg will return ‘simply’ the moment they receive me.

Then why am I treated differently from Mecklenburg? Isn’t it obvious?

I gestured to my friends to prepare and raised my hand once more. This time starting from 5. 4, the process of drawing my wand and swirling it to change it into a staff feels endlessly long. 3, I can feel mana seeping into the wooden planks beneath my feet. I raise the staff upward. 2, and… 1.

Kwaaaaang…

* * *

“Wow.”

Ulrike looked up at the ceiling. Wait, there’s actually a ceiling? A white ceiling with gold-trimmed edge decorations, and a chandelier. I’m afraid candle wax might drip, but it seems to be lit with mana… Ulrike repeatedly blocked the spreading light with the darkness of her eyelids.

The building really collapsed easily. As if it had been planned to collapse, the moment Lucas struck down with the tip of his staff, that mana seeped in and the ground shook. I saw with my own eyes the blackened window frames and roof shaking.

Even though we moved to a completely different space like this, we surely would have been hit by debris, but strangely there was no pain.

Ulrike slowly raised her body, realized she was lying on top of Lucas, and hastily moved away. Then she slapped her friend’s cheek hard.

“Lucas!”

“Ah, uh.”

Lucas opened his eyes wide as if bewildered. He grabbed his head, got up, and complained.

“…Strange déjà vu… You could just wake me up normally. Your hand is really harsh.”

“You’re just not harsh enough.”

So Lucas burst into laughter as if hearing such words for the first time. After blurting out those words, Ulrike realized her standards were too strict—realizing her comparison group had been combat mages who had trained for too long—and corrected herself.

“Relatively. Anyway, where is this? The building collapsed… and at the same time we came to a different place. Am I seeing something wrong?”

“How are you feeling.”

Lucas asked that first. He got up pressing against the red wool carpet, staggered, then went to bang his head against the wall. Who’s asking about whose well-being right now? Ulrike looked around incredulously. In the empty hall, there were only two people covered in soot. Only the two of them were wandering around this place.

“Where’s Narke?”

Ulrike asked, squinting her eyes. Lucas doesn’t answer. Her heart pounding, Ulrike took a big step and thrust her head toward Lucas’s profile. Only then did Lucas make a groaning sound while holding his head.

“Right.”

A momentary glint settled in Ulrike’s eyes. The light told her. Narke had to get out now. The forgotten memory flashed back. Come to think of it, Ulrike had thought the same until the building collapsed. One of the three had to escape outside. Preferably timed with when the building collapsed.

Using code meant Lucas had wiretapping in mind. Otherwise, wouldn’t it have been fine to just have them speak only in German? From the moment he presented the code, they should have reasonably deduced that ‘Lucas expects there to be spies or interference in one of three cases: the control room, the burning residential building, or the communication network,’ and they actually deduced it without difficulty, but to forget it! What else did I forget? Ulrike pressed her unusually smoothly functioning brain.

“Stop.”

When did he turn from leaning against the wall, Lucas was holding Ulrike’s head. He was pressing both hands against Ulrike’s temples and the back, then let go when Ulrike blinked.

“Let’s just look around. As expected, another world has unfolded as if another coordinate system was laid out, so we need to know what’s here.”

Lucas drew his wand and carefully walked toward one of the four doors in the hall. Ulrike pushed him back and held her wand up to the door. She couldn’t feel any flow of mana. Ulrike spread her fingers to signal, then kicked the door open.

Kwang—!

“Huh?”

Ulrike opened her eyes wide at the bewildering sight. It was a dining room. On a large table were fruit baskets and meat dishes. Of course, they shouldn’t eat them. Ulrike carefully approached and touched the wine glass and water glass. She sent mana into the water glass but there was no strange reaction. Ulrike crumpled a silk handkerchief into the water glass, pulled it out, and wiped the soot from Lucas’s face. Lucas was startled for a moment, then did the same thing Ulrike was doing. Ulrike felt the pleasantly cool water seeping into her forehead, then was surprised and pulled down the corners of her mouth. Then she turned her head.

“Since there’s food here, it reminds me of that.”

Ulrike didn’t mention the specific incident, being careful about what she said even here, but Lucas understood. He nodded. It would be natural to recall the incident when they met Ainsiedel.

Ulrike picked up a bunch of grapes from a wooden bowl, shook it, then swallowed her saliva. After continuously smelling only the subtle fruit scent of elixirs, she now wanted to eat real fruit. Lucas carefully grabbed Ulrike’s wrist and pulled it away.

“Shall we go somewhere else, Luise?”

“Yeah.”

Ulrike looked at the green grapes, swallowed her saliva, and put them down. Lucas asked quietly.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, of course. Let’s not worry. Who do you think I am.”

Lucas, who had been there with a face asking what kind of answer he wanted, tilted his head to both sides before answering.

“Kleist.”

“Right. That’s it.”

Lucas laughed, saying “What?” But he also trusted Ulrike. Ulrike thought she had this kind of sensor properly installed, so she could always confidently rely on her friends.

Lucas, standing in front of the door on the opposite side of the hall, checked the safety inside, then carefully opened the door. Strangely, a small hall appeared…

There was a fountain. When Ulrike approached to examine what kind of fountain this was, Lucas pushed her chest backward.

“This is obviously strange without even looking. Let’s save time.”

“Yeah. It’s definitely a bit strange.”

For some reason, even the words “let’s save time” sounded strange, but there was no basis for it. Ulrike observed the fountain made of magnetite with gold trim applied on top, and the water stream flowing with a clear sound, then left the room again. When you think about it, it was strange, but everything was aesthetically perfect.

Now they had to find another room. Ulrike backed out of the room and quietly asked.

“Wasn’t the fire hot for you?”

“It was hot.”

“Aren’t you scared?”

“I am scared.”

At Lucas’s simple answer, Ulrike whipped around to look back.

“Wow, so Lucas, there are things you’re scared of too. You’re human after all.”

Then Lucas smiled, folding his eyes like crescents. With his hair all messed up, he looked like a face I saw in passing during first year… When Ulrike turned her head forward again and walked with big steps, she heard a small voice.

“I wasn’t scared originally.”

He wasn’t scared originally? That’s quite remarkable. Ulrike asked with curiosity.

“Then when did you start getting scared?”

It seemed like a difficult question. He answered after a long while.

“From the day I stopped being myself.”

“You’re you right now.”

“Maybe so.”

“You like playing twenty questions.”

“I suppose so.”

Ulrike exhaled and chuckled. No, no. That’s wrong. What twenty questions. Actually, Lucas wants to tell her. He wants to tell her anything, but he can’t say it or there’s something slightly bothering him, so he can’t speak. That was closer to hoping friends would figure something out first. Why! Ulrike knew because she often did the same herself. She might be wrong, but it didn’t really seem that way.

If only this weren’t some unknown space presumed to be enemy territory, she would persistently dig it out! What a shame. Instead, Ulrike stood in front of the eastern door and whispered.

“You know what. What if you had attended the 3rd Education Institute?”

“In my current state? Or… like before? Well. I don’t know. If it were the current me, I would have become friends with all our team members long ago.”

“Oh. You seem confident in your social skills.”

“Making friends in class isn’t that difficult.”

“But it was difficult for you!”

“That was true.”

“It’s really like twenty questions. Think more specifically about what it would have been like if you had attended school from the beginning…”

Ulrike said this while turning the doorknob. It won’t turn. Fear struck her.

“Hmm.”

Kwang—!

Lucas kicked the door open. As if it had to be opened. Ulrike got scared for no reason and tried to go back to the western door. Lucas grabs her hand. Then he answered roughly.

“I think it would have been fun.”

“Ah. That’s too vague. Imagine it properly. Properly.”

“If that had happened, I would…”

Lucas glanced at the door behind Ulrike while looking into the air. For some reason, he didn’t seem to be looking at this place. He looked like he was looking at the past.

“How would I have lived? I don’t know. I can’t think of any possibilities other than now.”

Ulrike found that statement ambiguous, so she waved her hands and said energetically.

“Then I’ll decide for you. If that had happened, you would have been closer to all seven of us. You know what? I used to be with Leo, Elias, Julia, and also Hildegard from your class, Christel from our class, and also Melvin, and also…”

Ulrike, who was approaching the western door, gradually got a headache and squinted her eyes. She muttered to finish her sentence.

“We weren’t all that close to each other, but we would have dug in the dirt of the 3rd Education Institute’s athletic field together. We would have had at least those kinds of memories…”

Lucas shrugs his shoulders at the sudden mention of digging in the dirt.

“Why?”

“The box…”

Lucas’s hand overlaps on top of Ulrike’s hand. Ulrike had placed her hand on the door handle, then hit her forehead.

“The box!”

“Huh?”

“I hid a box there. I need to go find it. That’s right, we also need to find our Easter eggs, but how did things turn out like this!”

Ulrike pulled down her cheeks with both hands. Lucas tilted his eyebrows and laughed weakly.

“Right. Do you feel like you need to go find it?”

Hm?

Ulrike felt her cheeks stiffen as she recognized the strange atmosphere, the strange expression, the words, the sense of unease that everything was creating. Her auditory cells caught each movement of air that hadn’t been audible before. The distant view was strangely receding. Objects approaching closely were distorted in a round shape like a world trapped inside a marble. Lucas’s hand rose to her forehead.

―”Now you need to wake up from your sleep.”

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