Lumina nodded before turning to the Valkyries and giving them instructions to take the demonized and almost-but-not-fully demonized knights to the cells, minus Dongahar. Speaking of which, I cast Extra Heal, Recover, and Dispel on him one more time for good measure. Then, I decided to put him into a hermit coffin for the time being.
Now, I could finally take a breather, albeit a short one. Oh, wait. I figured I should probably apologize to my master and Lionel while I was at it.
“Master, Lionel, sorry for having gotten you two involved in this mess.”
“It’s all good. More importantly...” My master trailed off, his eyes drifting to the crowd of knights who hadn’t moved an inch despite my earlier order for them to return to their duties.
I had a pretty good idea of what he was getting at, so I once again turned to the knights and announced, “Everyone, let me make some introductions. This man right here is my combat teacher, and this is the leader of my followers. Some of you may be familiar with him already,” I said, gesturing in turn to my master and Lionel. “They have offered to hold mock battles to help you all improve your fighting abilities, so if you want to become stronger, you should definitely take them up on that. You’ll get to witness for yourself the kind of training I’ve been undergoing on a daily basis. Well then, master, Lionel, I’m leaving them to you.”
“Sure thing. They’ll be in good hands,” my master said.
“Don’t mind us and take your sweet time with your investigation,” Lionel added.
“Okay. Ketty, can you assist them while I’m gone?”
“Yup!”
With that settled, I left the knights to deal with the two battle maniacs—or “battle demons” might be more fitting—and followed Kefin to the Executive Division’s building.
“This place has so many twists and turns, it’s like a labyrinth,” I remarked. “I’m impressed you’ve managed to remember the way after coming just once.”
He chuckled. “It’s something I picked up in my childhood. Once I’ve walked a path, it tends to stick with me.”
“That’s a pretty damn useful skill. Do you have any tips and tricks to remember directions?” I asked.
I’d spent so long in the labyrinth below HQ and drawn countless maps of it, I still knew that path like the back of my hand. But drop me in any other labyrinth I’d cleared and I’d be completely lost.
“Tips and tricks, huh?” He hummed pensively. “One easy method is to identify landmarks as you go. And always look back once you’ve turned a corner. Even though you just came from there, it’ll be a completely different view, so by mentally trying to retrace your steps, you shouldn’t get lost the next time you walk the same route. Once you get used to it, you’ll even become able to picture your steps from above, almost as if you were looking at a map.”
“So it’s not something I can learn in a day. Got it. But I guess it wouldn’t be as rewarding if it was that easy, right?”
“Indeed. Once you feel like you’ve finally mastered it, you’ll run into yet another challenge, so you basically have to train your routing skills every day.”
“Fair point. Daily training, huh? Is it just me, or is that all I’ve been doing ever since coming of age?” I mused out loud.
“But that training is exactly what allowed you to become a sage. Besides, scouting and navigating unknown paths for you is my duty now, and I take great pride in that role. I don’t plan on losing to anyone on that front.”
“Thanks! I definitely feel more secure with you by my side, Kefin,” I said, eliciting another chuckle from my companion.
As I chatted with Kefin, I found myself thinking back on my past life.
I’d once had the opportunity to listen to a Buddhist monk give a sermon. He’d said that we humans borrow our souls from Buddha himself and, as such, have to polish them to ensure they are spotless when we give them back. We’re already polishing them just by living, but the more effort we put in, the more our souls sparkle—and, as a result, the happier we become. And if the Buddha is satisfied with our work, he might lend us a soul to polish again, along with a few bonuses along the way.
Thinking back on those words, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was doing a good job of polishing my soul. Even if I was, with all the help I’d been getting from Monsieur Luck, I might need to put in some extra effort to make sure it shone as bright as it could. After all, with all the chaos I’d been dragged into despite my desire for a peaceful, tranquil life, I must’ve accumulated quite a bit of bad karma in a past life. The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that the peaceful life I longed for would remain out of reach unless I trained diligently while I still could. With that realization, I made a firm resolution to dedicate myself to my training.
After about five minutes of walking along the twisting hallways of the labyrinthine building, Kefin eventually came to a stop.
“I take it we’ve arrived?” I said.
“Yes. This is Dongahar’s private room.”
I retraced our steps in my head and looked around, noticing that there were no other rooms in the vicinity.
“Is it just me, or is this room really far away from the others?” I asked.
“You’ll see why once you’re inside,” Kefin replied as he opened the door. “Come on in.”
I stepped inside and was immediately struck by the size of the place. It was far larger than my own. Even Lumina’s room, which I had thought spacious, felt like a closet in comparison.
“This place is ten times the size of my room,” I commented. “Looks like the Executive Division has plenty of money to throw around, huh?”
The walls and ceiling were white, and the furniture was understated, calming, and quite visibly expensive. As I took in my surroundings, I couldn’t help but think that Dongahar had great taste when it came to interior design.
“It does indeed seem so,” Kefin said, “though the documents I handed you weren’t in this room, but in the book storage next door. We found them on the desk beside the bookshelves.”
I couldn’t help but wonder how Dongahar avoided feeling overwhelmed living in such an enormous place. Or perhaps he didn’t?
With that question in mind, I headed for the mini-library connected to the room, which, to my surprise, was quite snug and cozy. Perhaps it was the warm, dim orange lighting that made it seem so calming.
The desk Kefin had mentioned was plain and simple, much like the one in my room. I opened the drawer and found a necklace with a glowing orb the size of a baseball encased in metal chains. Upon closer inspection, it seemed less like an accessory and more like the orb was trapped by the chains.
“Did no documents mention this thing?” I asked Kefin, pointing at the necklace.
“It looks like a regular necklace to me, so I don’t see why they would. But Mister Galba quickly skimmed Dongahar’s journal just in case, and there didn’t seem to be anything about it,” he replied.
I should’ve known the two of them would’ve looked into it already. They were pretty much experts at intelligence gathering. But...a regular necklace? Really? I held a hand over it to inspect it. “I can sense a bit of mana emanating from it,” I said.
“Is it an artifact?” Kefin asked. “Mister Galba and I aren’t very good at detecting mana, so we didn’t notice.”
“Well, we all have our strengths,” I reassured him. “But still... Hmm. I can’t shake the feeling that these chains are blocking the orb somehow. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like there are two distinct mana signatures emanating from it, and the one from the chains is suppressing the other.”
“What orb? To me, it just looks like a necklace made of some chains.”
Could Kefin not see it? “There’s an orb in the center of the chains,” I explained. “There might be some sort of condition to be able to see it. Either way, I don’t want to break this seal. I’m scared of the mess we might get dragged into if I do.”
“What about putting it in your magic bag for the time being?” Kefin suggested. “Assuming you can touch it, of course.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that...if I can touch it. Kefin, can you search the room one last time to make sure we didn’t miss anything?”
“Yes, sir,” he replied with a nod before leaving the storage room.
“All righty, then,” I muttered, reaching a hand toward the necklace without giving it much thought. To my surprise, I was able to touch it without issue, which made me hesitate. Perhaps I shouldn’t put it in my magic bag just yet.
For the time being, I decided to leave the necklace where it was and read Dongahar’s farewell letter. I had no intention of letting him die, so the letter had kind of lost its purpose anyway.
I took a seat on the desk chair and began.
“I am quite reluctant to write a farewell letter not knowing whose hand it might end up in, but all I hope is that whoever reads this sincerely cares about Her Holiness and the Church.”
Dongahar then went on to recount his childhood and the events he had witnessed within the Church since the labyrinth had appeared, all in minute detail. A little later, he explained that two years ago, he had begun looking into the missing person cases in the Luburk Kingdom, suspecting that the demon sightings in Illumasia might be connected to the disappearances. Then, six months ago, the paladins had brought the bodies of the demons we’d killed on our way to Merratoni to HQ, confirming his suspicions that someone was turning humans and beastfolk into demons. This prompted him to investigate Blanche and Illumasia.
But shortly after, his chronic illness had worsened, causing him to vomit blood and collapse. Knowing that he didn’t have much time left, he’d decided that his final mission would be to uncover the truth behind the demonization cases. He couldn’t afford to waste time, so he had decided to use his position as head of the Church’s foreign relations department to get in direct contact with Blanche and Illumasia. This had proven relatively easy, as he had received numerous secret reports about rebellions brewing in those nations. All that had remained was for him to provide them with concrete evidence of his intent to betray Shurule, which he had accomplished by using me and the paladins as bait.