“We finally meet, Federation Government.”
We’d eventually found the government dignitaries in a building that could have been described as an ice palace.
At the back of a large hall, a dozen officials were sitting in a row of chairs on a platform. One chair in the center, which looked like a throne, was empty.
“We have been waiting for you,” one of the masked dignitaries said.
Ice Doll. The government official we had the most history with.
“If you didn’t want to wait, you could have contacted us sooner,” Siesta said sarcastically, exhaling a white breath.
We’d continued to contact them through Noel and finally arrived today. It had taken us over an entire day by plane and ship to reach this fictional icy nation created by the Akashic records—the Mizoev Federation.
“I do regret that. We also have a lot on our plates at the moment, you see.”
“I don’t mean just recently.” Siesta narrowed her eyes, giving Ice Doll a piercing look. “I’ve been getting invitations to meet for seven years now.”
Ice Doll was silent. Tension rippled through the room.
“Siesta, what are you talking about?” I asked.
During the trip, we’d come up with a basic game plan for how we’d handle things here, but she’d never mentioned this.
“Hm? Oh, you don’t have to worry about it, Kimi.”
“Don’t just suddenly go off script, all right? I’ll start to panic.”
“You’ve got to be a little cooler and more flexible if you want to be the protagonist.”
We let off some steam with our usual banter, when—
“The stage has been set. You’re going to answer all our questions, aren’t you?” I asked Ice Doll. Or all the dignitaries, really.
We were inside, but it was still really cold. One step outside would put us in a world of ice. I’d been told there was a town in the opposite direction that made the place look a little more convincing as a fictional country, but this whole area was still just undeveloped plains of ice. I wanted to get down to business as soon as possible.
“It seems you two have also remembered everything,” Ice Doll said, speaking for the group as she usually did.
“Yeah. The fight with the Phantom Thief, what the Akashic records really are, and the day of the Great Cataclysm. But how much had you people already remembered?”
Had the Federation Government remembered everything before we had?
“We didn’t entirely escape the effects of the Akashic records’ forced reboot, either. However, we had a tool that allowed us to recover the bare minimum of our memories, so it was clear what we needed to do.”
A tool that recovered memories. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was probably something like the Sacred Relics we’d used. The White Tengu, the leader of Pandemonium, had told us that several tools like that lay dormant all across the world.
“Then you were aware that the world is in the process of being destroyed?”
“Yes. The world will end soon. Unfortunately, the destruction of the System shortened the lifespan of the Earth. The method chosen was Yggdrasil…which is rather ironic.” Ice Doll’s voice held no emotion.
“So it was our fault?”
Because we’d chosen to discard the Akashic records that day? In which case, it was my fault for surrendering the power of the Singularity to Abel before that.
“We have no intention of blaming you.” Unexpectedly, Ice Doll took our side. “In fact, had you not destroyed the System then, there is no doubt that Abel Arsene Schoenberg would have become the world’s administrator. Had he done so, the Earth might have met its end even sooner.”
Something about that explanation felt unnatural to me. That said, it made sense logically and even made me feel a little less guilty.
Was that really the sort of thing Ice Doll would say, though? On the day of the Great Cataclysm, she’d pointed out the danger in the choice I was making. So why was she accepting the fact that the world had plunged into a crisis now?
“You have some sort of insurance, don’t you?”
In other words, the Federation Government had already come up with a way to get through this disaster. That was why they were so composed. Having managed to hold on to some of their memories after the world’s reboot, there was no way they’d spend a year just sitting around.
“An ark,” Siesta murmured. “Saddened by how many wicked people there were in the world, one day, God decided to send a great flood and destroy the human race. However, gambling on the faint hope that there were also humans with justice in their hearts in the world, he had a handful of people and animals board a ship.”
It was an old story everyone had heard at least once.
The ship had been named after the person who built it: Noah’s Ark. The people and animals who’d been lucky enough to board it survived the great flood that lasted for forty days and became the progenitors of a new world.
“Ice Doll. You’re all trying to make that myth a reality here and now, aren’t you? So that you alone can escape the disaster.”
Why had the Federation Government done nothing when they knew the world was bound for destruction? Why did it look as though they were doing nothing now? Because they—or maybe the people they’d hand-picked—were planning to escape this Great Cataclysm by themselves. They must have used this blank, seemingly peaceful year to prepare. That was the conclusion Siesta had reached.
“But someone who might have gotten in the way of your plan appeared: the Information Broker, Bruno Belmondo. Even in the world after the reboot, he kept pursuing the truth. You used the Ritual of Sacred Return to smoke out him and other people who might have been a threat, right?”
The government had wanted to make the Tuners retire at that ceremony, which had been held in celebration of world peace. They’d wanted them to completely discard the powers bestowed upon them by their wills so they wouldn’t get in the way of their plan. They’d known the world’s destruction was already inevitable.
“…………”
It wasn’t just Ice Doll; all the dignitaries had gone silent. However, at this point, silence was as good as an admission.