🌷 🌷 🌷
THE moment they entered the chapel, Ophelia’s legs folded, and she would’ve fallen if not for Bruno and Angelo holding her up from both sides. With their assistance, she managed to hobble along, but not without drawing curious stares from the soldiers guarding the chapel.
“Oh, oh my… I-I think it’s… in the room in the back… Oh, oh, oh, oh… It feels like we’re getting close!”
Unable to maintain an upright position, Ophelia swayed perilously as she pointed to a chamber at the rear of the chapel. Stumbling along while Ophelia’s companions practically dragged her, they somehow made it to the ceremonial chamber, which was congested with staff working tirelessly on preparations for the ceremony. Four soldiers stood at even intervals atop the dais at the rear of the room where the altar was located. These soldiers were in charge of protecting the holy remains.
After entering this chamber, Ophelia could no longer stand at all. Her legs were shaking wildly, and she couldn’t force her trembling hands to obey her brain’s commands to grasp on to anything. Even so, they identified several spots where her body’s shaking somehow cranked up yet another notch, and each time Bruno passed Ophelia to Angelo so he could go confirm the cause.
Close to the center of the chamber, a chair had a hairline fracture in one of its legs, intentionally rigged to break the moment anyone sat on it. One of the oil lamps on the wall was sabotaged so that the wick would burn out within moments of being lit, causing the light to go out. No matter how many tampered items they discovered, there always seemed to be more. There were just too many.
“Hey, I’ve got big brother Bernie!” Samael appeared, carrying Bernard into the ceremonial chamber over one shoulder.
It looks like Lord Samael wasn’t convinced a messenger would be able to find Bernard, so he went to get him personally.
Ophelia, who by this point had collapsed on the ground, raised just her head and called weakly, “B-Bernard…”
“Ophie?! What are you… Oh…”
Samael set down Bernard, who started to rush over to Ophelia’s side, but it seemed he’d also picked up on the strangeness in the room because he suddenly stopped and looked around inquisitively.
“…This place feels… dangerous, somehow.” Bernard continued over to Ophelia and, with practiced movements, slid an arm under her arm and around her back and helped her to stand. Then he slowly gazed at each wall in turn.
“B-Bernard… There are people trying to interfere with the Ordination Ceremony. I can’t pinpoint everything they’ve done. Please, help us search for anything dangerous. If we don’t do something, someone’s going to get hurt.”
“I think you’re right… But where? I can tell something is wrong, but… I don’t know what.”
“B-But if you can’t figure it out, there’s no way I could…!”
As he watched, tears began pouring from Ophelia’s eyes. Bernard frantically wiped away her tears with his sleeve and stood a bit taller.
“I’ll find it! I promise, I won’t give up until I find it. So don’t cry, Ophie…”
“Bernaaard…!”
Claudio, who up to this point had been silently watching their exchange, began examining the room with his sharp gaze. But by all appearances, the chamber seemed normal. What were the Narve siblings sensing? Bernard’s eyes were drawn to the same spot where Ophelia had been shaking the strongest.
“Hm, it feels like something big, but I just can’t seem to pinpoint anything definitive…” Bernard adjusted his hold on Ophelia and then slowly began walking. Ophelia was so focused on forcing her wobbling knees to hold her weight that she could hardly speak. “What do you think, Ophie? Does it feel like we’re close?”
With tears welling in her eyes, Ophelia shook her head emphatically from side to side. They continued on, necks craned to look all around, until suddenly Ophelia’s whole body began quaking dramatically.
“Huh? Whoa! Ophie, is this the right area?”
Ophelia kept her jaw clenched shut so she wouldn’t bite her tongue and settled for nodding repeatedly. Claudio and the others all froze in place, listening to the Narve siblings.
The spot where the siblings had stopped was right in the center of the ceremonial chamber. An aisle extended from the entrance at the rear straight to the dais in the front of the room, so it was an open space with nothing around.
“Um… Maybe the floor?”
Bernard stomped experimentally on the floor, and the sound echoed throughout the chamber. Everyone in the room froze, not daring to so much as breathe as they strained their ears to listen carefully to the noise, when suddenly another sound rang out—the creaking of a door opening.
“Excuse me! I’m from the Ministry of the Magical Arts. I’ve come to deliver the ‘solemn music’ magical item,” a young man dressed in an iridescent teal robe announced in a cheerful, carefree tone.
Shocked, Bernard lost his balance and fell hard on the ground, taking Ophelia down with him.
“We’re in the middle of conducting an investigation! Get out!”
The young man cocked his head quizzically, seeming confused rather than terrified by the orders Claudio had roared at him.
“What are you looking for, crawling around on the floor like that?” The young man, clearly having no sense of self-preservation, ignored the fact that he’d been told to “get out” and lightly pranced into the ceremonial chamber.
“Ahh!”
Just as everyone tensed with irritation at the young man’s irreverence for the very serious situation, Bernard suddenly let out a shout. From his position splayed out underneath Ophelia like her own personal mattress, Bernard pointed up at the ceiling, his eyes wide.
“That’s it! The chandelier!”
Everyone in the chamber looked up. A massive chandelier hung from the ceiling in the spacious but austere ceremonial chamber. The candleholders affixed to its wooden arms bore the only ornamentation in the entire room. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they seemed to be engraved with a pattern of lotus flowers.
“Hm? What about the chandelier? Ohh, it’s too dark, and you can’t see well; is that it? In that case, I’ll light it for you.” The young man, the only one who didn’t know the situation, pulled out a wand from inside his jacket. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he waved the wand at the chandelier.
That wand must be a magical item with the ability to light candles.
“N-No…!”
“Agh!”
Bernard let out a pained yelp when his sister accidentally kneed him in the gut while scrambling to rise. Ophelia dashed toward the young man as fast as she could on wobbly legs and barreled straight into him with her full momentum.
“Whoa! What?! What is it?”
“Don’t light it!”
“Huh? Why not?”
This time, it was the young man from the Ministry of the Magical Arts that Ophelia was using like her own personal mattress. Still lying on top of him, she reached out and used her shaking hands to hold his outstretched arms in place.
“How long do you plan to lie there cuddling, huh?!”
Claudio grabbed Ophelia under the armpits and peeled her off the young man. For a moment, Ophelia was flabbergasted to be picked up like a child, but then, with a gasp, she remembered what was going on and looked up at the ceiling.
…Just in time to see the chandelier being lowered down.
“Ophelia, why are you still crying?”
“Waaagh! Until just a moment ago, it was from worry, but now they’re tears of relief!”
“Maybe you should try plugging up your tear glands…”
Reacting to Claudio’s incredulous tone, Ophelia frantically wiped the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands.