Chapter 102

Flarette A chilling wind blew down the main street running from the station. Throughout the town, the air was bitingly cold. All the passersby who walked the cobblestone street wore heavy overcoats, and the occasional Guiding carriage carrying some wealthy Noblesse let off Guiding Light as it raced past. While some snow still lingered on the sides of the road, the harsh weather that might have buried the street in snow had passed. A young girl poked her head out onto the busy main street from a connecting alley. “It’s gotten quite a bit warmer.” The girl commenting on the weather in this northern town looked no older than twelve or thirteen. Though it was still cold enough to set most people shivering, it was warm enough for the locals to know that spring approached. The girl was a member of the world’s third and most populous caste, the Commons. Her arms and gloved hands held a large cylindrical object. She walked with thickly padded boots slicked in a snow-thawing substance. The object she carried was a Guiding vessel for heating a home, a necessity for life in the northern part of the continent. Once connected with the Guiding Force lines that ran to each home from the earthen vein, a single one of these vital objects could heat an entire home. Her family’s heating vessel had been malfunctioning for the past few days, so the girl had taken it apart and attempted to fix it, only to break it entirely. Although they had spares in case of emergency, her mother still gave her an earful for breaking the expensive Guiding vessel. As penance, she was told to bring it to a workshop to get it fixed, and now she was lugging the considerably heavy Guiding vessel down the road. Barely ten minutes had passed since she left, and she was already running short of breath. Lugging the tool around was an onerous burden for one small girl. Of course, that was part of the punishment. Since the girl’s attempt at disassembling the Guiding vessel was the reason it was broken, she could hardly complain. Thus, she carried the heavy thing as best she could while trudging down the street. Unfortunately, the main street was more than a little crowded. No great event had brought the townspeople out of their homes. Rather, since winter was near its end, more tourists were arriving to see the sights. Identifying an outsider by their clothes was easy for a local. There were two main variations: those who’d underestimated the north’s low temperatures, and those who’d clearly purchased as much warm gear as they could find in the central part of the continent. “The central folks must have lots of time on their hands to come all the way through the Wild Frontier when they’re not even on a pilgrimage,” the girl grumbled. If you looked up outside, you’d see the sky. Whether sky blue, cloud white, sunset red, or night black, everyone understood that if you gazed upward, you’d see the sky. However, that assumption didn’t hold true in the north. “What’s so fun about looking at that stupid thing?” In the north sky, the only thing visible overhead was a giant sphere surrounded by flowing white liquid. The luminous white sphere moved across the sky with the leisurely pace of a heavenly body. Although the movement was too slow to recognize by tracking it constantly, it was apparent when comparing the sphere’s position by the hour. This one passing over the girl’s town wasn’t the only sphere known as Starhusk. There were seven in total, circling in the sky above the northern continent in an elliptical orbit. According to one excitable researcher, their route followed the heavenly vein. While the spheres of Starhusk were remarkable enough to attract tourists, the girl wasn’t impressed or interested. They had been floating above all her life, and frankly, she was sick of looking at them. Her local errand was far more important to her than some globes that existed for no readily apparent reason. “You know, it’d be a waste just to drop it off and leave. This time I’ll get them to show me how it’s done. Maybe they’ll even make me an apprentice!” The girl had long been interested in the occupation of conjuring engineer. In fact, she was interested in conjuring in general, but a Commons girl hoping to become someone capable of such things would know many rivals in the Faust and Noblesse. Conjuring was a difficult profession with high prerequisite qualifications and few job opportunities, which meant most Commons conjurers would become adventurers at best. However, conjuring engineers were different. Their work with everyday Guiding vessels was closely linked to the Commons. While it wasn’t glamorous labor, there was no shortage of demand. Between combining materials and repairing crests, being a conjuring engineer was one of the few ways a Commons citizen could be a part of the conjuring world, albeit in a backstage sort of fashion. The girl was a regular customer at the workshop she headed for, all the more so because it was close to her home. The taciturn male conjuring engineer who ran the place treated her as an annoyance, but she carried on pestering him in hopes of laying the groundwork to eventually become his apprentice. Even if that wasn’t likely to happen today, she hoped to at least learn what had gone wrong with the heating Guiding vessel and the proper way to fix it. She would slowly but surely learn his techniques and position herself as the perfect student. It was a flawless plan. Even as her labored breath came out in white puffs, she determinedly pushed forward. Then she heard a loud voice. “Extra, extra! Big news! We’ve got a huge scoop— Ah, hey, wait, form a line… Line up, I said! Come on, single file… Ah, dammit. Fine, whatever, just take ’em all!” People were clamoring all around the newsboy. The headline had to be interesting. Rather than hand out the papers among the surprisingly large throng, the boy gave up and tossed them into the air. In a bit of misfortune, one of the papers landed right on the girl’s face. “Oof!” She shook her head to dislodge it, but the wind kept it stubbornly glued to her face. Reluctantly, the girl put down the Guiding vessel to peel the paper away. Grisarika Kingdom in the East Declares Revolutionary Class System Reform Due to Fourth Ideology! The headline proved to be very sensational indeed. Grisarika Kingdom was famous, even in the north. It was the biggest nation in the east and was home to one of the few royal family lines that had persisted for more than a thousand years. For such a major kingdom to side with criminals really was an upset. No wonder the paper had issued an extra edition. Her interest piqued despite herself, the girl skimmed the article. Rejecting the holy first caste of the Faust and steadily dismantling the second caste of the Noblesse, the kingdom claims that it will open all occupations to anyone and reconsider taboo conjurings on a case-by-case basis. The royal family has also declared protective custody of Governor Sahara, a new Fourth leader, as well as Menou, aka Flarette, a criminal wanted for the destruction of the holy land. “The Fourth and Flarette… They’re just a bunch of terrorists! What in the world is that kingdom thinking?!” The Fourth governor and Flarette. Those scoundrels were known for their heinous crimes even in the north. Sahara, the Fourth governor, was an especially hot topic among the Commons. The Fourth had once been scattered and reduced to a small-time terrorist group, but it had since regained its strength under Sahara. Previously, the Fourth had been an ideological group spread across the continent. Now it used Grisarika Kingdom as its base to aggressively expand as a major organization. As for Flarette, the wanted criminal who’d temporarily brought down the holy land, there were rumors that she’d fought the Inquisitors a few months ago. One or two ships that traveled the bay linking the northern and central regions of the continent had been sunk. Supposedly, Flarette had died there, because no one had seen her since. Apparently, she’d been hiding out in Grisarika Kingdom all along. While the girl huffed in indignation, this had nothing to do with her or her homeland. She wasn’t seriously upset. An inland sea almost entirely separated the central and northern regions. While there was a thin land route that just barely connected the two, Grisarika Kingdom was still a far-off eastern nation beyond the sea and the Wild Frontier. And since the only way to get there was by paying an obscenely high price to make the trip, it may as well have been a world away. The girl enjoyed the news as a piece of gossip, but she still folded up the paper and stowed it in her pocket instead of tossing the extra aside. With her break ended, she heaved up the Guiding vessel and resumed her trip. Before long, she reached the workshop that was her destination. In a strange sight for the season, a dragonfly rested on the plain signboard that hung outside the workshop. The girl was impressed that the bug managed to stay alive when there was still snow on the ground. She entered the open workshop door with the vessel clutched in her arms. “Hey, mister, can you fix this…” The girl trailed off. The brusque engineer usually tinkering with a Guiding vessel was nowhere to be seen. Assuming he was in the back, the girl hurried to find him, but she stopped when she heard voices from deeper inside. Evidently, she would have to wait her turn. The girl secretly listened in, hoping to get an idea of how long this would take. “I thought you said you’d never come back. Don’t try to tell me you’re sightseeing.” “Actually, that’s exactly why. I’m very interested in the Starhusk. And while I was here sightseeing, I figured I’d drop in on the talented engineer who left such an impression on me.” “Cut the crap. Engineers with my skills are a dime a dozen. And it doesn’t explain why someone like you would come around these parts.” The usually stoic man was being surprisingly talkative. And judging by the other person’s voice, his visitor was a young lady. Maybe they had a special relationship? Being a curious adolescent, the girl couldn’t help but peer in through the cracked-open door. The engineer spoke to a young woman with plain features and a yellow mantle. Having imagined a more romantic figure, the girl felt somewhat disappointed. “Besides, I figured you must be curious about what’s going on in the east. Am I wrong?” “…This is nothing like the equipment you brought in before. Is stuff like this common in the east these days?” “No, I wouldn’t say that. My equipment is custom-made.” Clearly, the conversation concerned Guiding vessels. The man returned an object the girl must have shown to him. It looked like a cutting instrument with an unusual grip, although the details were too difficult to make out. As someone aiming to be a conjuring engineer, the girl listened even more eagerly. “It’s still in the experimental stage, since the restrictions on technology have only recently been lifted. You’re aware of the two different kinds of taboo, correct?” “Obviously. There’s the concept kind, which is way too dangerous to handle. And then there’s the tech that’s restricted to keep humanity from advancing too quickly.” “Correct. The east is slowly lifting bans on some parts of the latter, that’s all. Dangerous taboos like Concepts of Original Sin are still strictly forbidden. Any engineer who goes against those morals is still a criminal in the east.” “Beats me who decided on those morals…but if you’re telling the truth, then easterner engineers have gotta be overjoyed. The Faust had a monopoly on good tech for too long. Thanks to you, engineers with real skills are—” The young woman suddenly put a finger to her lips. Immediately, the man shut his mouth. He followed the young woman’s gaze to the crack in the door and noticed the eyes of an eavesdropping child. “S-sorry…!” Her peeping discovered, the girl shuffled sheepishly into the workshop. The young woman inside didn’t seem especially troubled by the girl’s presence. “Is this a regular customer of yours?” she asked. “Uh, yeah. The kid lives nearby… What brings ya here?” “R-right, um… I wanted to ask you to fix this heating vessel…” As the girl held out the Guiding vessel, she stole a glance at the young woman. Unlike the flustered engineer, she seemed cool and collected, even smiling back at the girl. For some reason, the girl’s heart skipped a beat. She felt something like a premonition, yet with none of the discomfort of a bad omen. The girl had never experienced this feeling before. She didn’t know what to call the stirring in her heart. “All right. Leave it over there. Come back in three days. We’ll settle payment then.” “Okay…” The girl carefully put down the Guiding vessel as instructed. She found herself watching out of the corner of her eye for a reaction from the young woman, who only watched quietly with that same gentle smile. After placing the broken heating vessel, the girl bowed her head in thanks and left the room. As she closed the door, she looked at the young woman one last time and saw that she was still staring at her. “…!” The girl rushed out of the workshop. The cold outside felt more intense coming from the warmth of the workshop. Oddly enough, the girl’s heart was pounding. She still felt the young woman’s eyes on her for some reason. Feeling increasingly frantic, she headed home, spurred to a jog by her racing heart. Then, as she turned the corner into an alley, she bumped right into someone. “I-I’m s… Eek!” Her apology quickly turned into a little shriek upon realizing who she’d bumped into. It was a group of very out-of-place priestesses. There were four in total. One wore indigo robes, while the other three were dressed in the white of assistants. All four wore hooded cloaks to shield them from the cold. “Did you come from that workshop?” the priestess at the head of the group asked abruptly. The girl spied a large scar beneath the lead priestess’s hood. She was undoubtedly a holy woman of the Faust, yet she was a far cry from the gentle women who worked at the church. The girl shook her head, frightened. “See anything strange in there?” the priestess with the scar pressed. The girl still couldn’t speak. There wasn’t anything particularly threatening about the priestess’s tone, yet it struck the girl with terror. The priestess seemed cold, almost inhuman, and meeting her eyes made the girl’s skin prickle and her throat tighten. She felt compelled to deny everything and kept shaking her head frantically. The scarred priestess narrowed her eyes darkly. “Take her away. Find out what this child knows, even if you have to get a bit rough with—” The priestess paused at the sound of footsteps. “Good evening, gentle allies of the Common people.” It was the woman in the yellow mantle who’d been speaking with the engineer. As she stepped into view and addressed the priestesses in a friendly tone, all eyes went to her. “I’d like to say I’m impressed you tracked me down as soon as I left Grisarika…but I couldn’t help but overhear something that sounded downright wrong. You want to take her away, perhaps even hurt her? Surely, that was just my imagination.” The young woman moved closer, and as she did, her features blurred. It was like the flickering of a Guiding lamp with a faulty Guiding Force connection. While her clothing stayed the same, a mask of light melted from her face. By the time she walked past the girl, the young woman’s plain facade was gone, revealing someone new. “The Faust would never dream of interrogating an innocent Commons child, right?” Now her appearance was anything but ordinary. She was a beautiful young lady, with light chestnut hair tied up in a black scarf ribbon. Her almond-shaped eyes complemented the rest of her face, and their color was breathtaking. After seeing her Guiding Force disguise fade, the girl immediately reached for the newspaper extra in her pocket. “Making a child cry is an utter disgrace to the name of pure, noble, and strong priestesses.” Even the girl recognized the face of this young woman so unfazed by the hard glares of the priestesses. “…Flarette.” The quiet word from the scarred priestess removed all doubt. This was none other than Menou, Flare’s successor. She was wanted all across the continent for inflicting untold damage to the holy land. She cut a more vivid impression in person than as an image in the paper. “You’ve finally left the east, then. What is your goal in the north?” “I’m just doing a little Starhusk sightseeing. What’s wrong with that?” “Do you really have to ask? Consider the past six months. The pinky finger of Pandæmonium that escaped from the fog, the loss of the Sword of Salt, and the Mechanical Society’s conjured soldiers—every time you come close to one of the Four Major Human Errors, some new change occurs.” The priestess in indigo robes pulled down her hood. “I don’t know what you want with Starhusk, but we can’t let you get mixed up with another Major Human Error.” The girl heard Flarette take a sharp breath. “Teach…?” “Been a while. You’ve come a long way since you were that little nun girl.” With her hood removed, the girl saw that the priestess was a woman in her late thirties. Evidently, she knew Flarette, who looked somewhat shaken. “Why is an instructor priestess out in the field…? What is going on with the monastery leadership?” “The Executioners have been left in a difficult position because the worst traitor in history came from our ranks.” “A difficult position?” Flarette chuckled as though she’d heard a joke. “Yes, I’m sure it’s gotten more difficult, but so what? We never had much of a ‘position’ in the first place. We always operated in the shadows, treated like we didn’t exist. What Executioner isn’t prepared to be discarded someday?” Anger seethed from the white-robed priestesses standing behind the one Flarette had called Teach. They drew their weapons and readied their scriptures. As devout servants of the Lord, the members of the Faust had powerful crests, even in their robes. The scripture was an especially complicated and powerful conjuring tool that seemed unbelievably advanced to anyone in other castes. Teach gestured for her subordinates to lower their weapons, even as she scowled at Flarette. “Don’t act like you’re still one of us, traitor. Our deeds are nothing to be proud of, but our lives still have meaning.” “Yes, of course. I’d never deny that.” With that, Flarette cast off her yellow mantle. Beneath were the priestess robes from her wanted picture, although they’d been altered, possibly because of her fall from grace and pursuit by the Faust. She wore black underclothes beneath the indigo robes and small shorts. Tight garter belts around her thighs held up her high socks, lending an extra allure to her long legs. “However, that’s not enough to justify what the Executioners are.” Flarette drew a weapon from the holster on her left thigh. Teach’s eyes widened in evident surprise. “Is that…a Guiding gun…?” “Correct.” The weapon in Flarette’s hand was no ordinary Guiding gun, though. It was a dagger with a hilt shaped like the gun’s grip. While Guiding guns worked by automatically hardening the user’s Guiding Force into bullets and firing them at high speeds, the weapons were useless without actual barrels. How the strange device operated only became apparent when Flarette sent Guiding Force into it. Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger Gun, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Branch: Barrel] The missing barrel of the gun began to take shape, thanks to the Guiding Branch crest conjuring carved into the dagger. By changing the shape of the Guiding Force branches, the dagger with a seemingly useless gun grip turned into a Guiding gun with a glowing barrel in the blink of an eye. The priestesses cautiously kept their distance. They had never seen this kind of Guiding gun before and wanted to gauge its power. Flarette pointed the muzzle at them and fired. Guiding Force: Connect—Priestess Robe, Crest—Invoke [Barrier] The Guiding Force bullet bounced off the priestesses’ barrier conjuring. While Guiding guns were convenient, since anyone with Guiding Force could use one by pulling the trigger, they were unfortunately useless against experienced conjurers. A bullet formed of a small bit of Guiding Force wouldn’t even pierce a basic crest conjuring. In fact, if someone with a large amount of natural Guiding Force employed Guiding Enhancement to strengthen themselves, a direct hit from such a bullet would accomplish as much as a peashooter. The bullet Flarette fired was no exception. It failed to break through the priestesses’ shield. While the weapon’s barrel was unusual, it was clearly no stronger than any other Guiding gun. Perhaps that was why one of the white-robed priestesses leaped to attack Flarette. “Wait!” Flarette was on the move before the indigo-robed priestess could stop her subordinate.