Kiriko
KIRIKO locked the captured Heath up in the designated location and returned to the interrogation room.
“Tch, you came back?” Lovel pulled a face when she saw Kiriko. She was lazily kicking back on her chair. “Where’d you go that was so important you had to leave me hanging?”
“Work related to another case. Although this case doesn’t seem unrelated to you,” Kiriko answered with a sigh. “An academy schoolgirl suspected of murder is at large. She denies the charges… She says the real culprit is a man called Jair.”
“Wait, are you talking about Erie?” Lovel asked.
Kiriko nodded. “It’s strange. Several completely unrelated cases are beginning to intersect and bleed into each other. I’m starting to get the sense that your nonsense is closer to the truth than I give you credit for…” She leaned across the table until she was nose to nose with Lovel. Glaring fiercely at the girl, she said, “If this Jair you children speak of is real… Who in the world is he?”
“I honestly don’t know much about him. All I know is that he’s trying to Tame Sephiroth and use it to destroy this Church.”
“Pretending that’s true, for argument’s sake… We would have to start looking into him in earnest.”
“Why doesn’t the Church just get rid of Sephiroth? Wouldn’t that solve the problem?”
Kiriko frowned. Staring back into Lovel’s eyes, she growled, “…Get rid of him? You think it’s that easy?”
“Sephiroth is located somewhere on this archipelago, isn’t he? Jair can’t steal it if you just dispose of it first—”
“We can’t do that. This archipelago would effectively lose its meaning.”
Lovel gaped at her. “It’d ‘lose meaning’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Haven’t you ever found it strange? These tiny islands have the Church, an academy, many residents, and a hardworking population. Despite the countless inconsistencies and issues, people stay unnaturally crowded together here.”
“Isn’t that because there’s a good mine and work here?”
“On extremely rare occasions, cubes have been excavated from that mine. The mine is connected to the Church by an underground railway, and the Rabbis frequently inspect it in order to snatch up any discovered cubes and promptly bring them back to the Church. Don’t you think the process is a little too good to be true?”
“…!”
“The ancient documents had a record that stated, ‘the source of life is buried in the archipelago located in the South Seas.’ The military authorities zeroed in on that bit of information and joined hands with the Church—all in order to build the strongest militarized Golem.”
“…You mean…” A look of comprehension flashed across Lovel’s face.
Kiriko nodded once and confirmed, “They built the Church complex and tunnels all in order to excavate and research the cubes that are buried somewhere on this archipelago. Everything functions for that sole purpose. I would even go as far as to say this entire archipelago is a giant factory, existing solely to create Sephiroth.”
Lovel’s eyes flew open. “Is that why the Church charges obscenely high prices for official Golems?”
“Yes, it’s just another means to raise funding for their project. But going public with such information would invite mass revolt from the residents… Thus, we Rabbis have no choice but to destroy anyone digging into Sephiroth,” Kiriko concluded with bitterness in her voice. Lovel said nothing, she only looked straight into her eyes.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ouka
AFTER successfully escaping Spinoza, Ouka arrived at the clinic built on the outskirts. The lights were off inside. The owner Getz had to be either sleeping or away.
“What to do now?”
In any event, the owner of this clinic was no ordinary town doctor. According to the rumors Ouka gathered, he was willing to treat anyone regardless of their background or circumstances. There were rumors of him doing surgery on gangsters with knives sticking out of their gut, and going as far as to help them change their appearance with plastic surgery to deceive those chasing them. An Academy lecturer was his cover; his true identity was an underground doctor.
Erie seemed to trust in Getz completely, but it was strange for a simple town doctor to know about Sehem-hamphorasch. He was as suspicious as they come.
Then there’s no reason for me to hold back.
Ouka smashed a clinic window with his quarterstaff. Entering the building from his newly made opening, he relied on his lighter’s flame to help him search the pitch-black room.
The building was an old mansion that served both as a clinic and the doctor’s house. Ouka searched room after room for anything out of the ordinary, but he didn’t discover anything suspicious.
What’s the deal here?
Ouka decided to wet his parched throat before further investigation and headed to the kitchen to fetch some water. On the way, something caught his eye.
Three large cabinets ran along the wall. The cabinet to the far right had barely any tableware inside.
Does he just not have a lot of dishes? But he wouldn’t need so many large cabinets if he didn’t. He’s got a reason to leave it empty. But what is it…?
Ouka suddenly figured it out. He grabbed the empty cabinet and moved it to the side. The cabinet moved with ease, revealing a door behind it.
A concealed door wasn’t standard fare for an innocent doctor’s home.
“Oooh! This is gettin’ interesting now…!” Ouka whispered and quietly opened the door.
A descending staircase was on the other side. It was probably originally built to serve as a storage space. Darkness concealed the bottom of the stairs.
Ouka carefully descended the staircase. He was inside the home of a man who served as a lecturer at the Academy. It wasn’t unthinkable for him to have a Golem somewhere for security purposes.
But nothing appeared by the time Ouka reached the bottom step. Only a small desk and large water tank rested against the wall of the dark, empty square room that was about six meters in length.
“Is it just a cellar…?” Ouka approached the water tank against the wall. All of a sudden, something flashed red inside the water.
What was that?!
Ouka braced himself and took another look. It was a large tank capable of holding big aquatic animals. The tank could easily fit a person—
The red light came from whatever was inside.
“…!”