“By the look of things, you must have regained your memory, Rae Taylor,” the pope said to start.
I was visiting her in her personal room in the Bauer Cathedral. Her room was simple and modest, with only the bare essentials, as one would expect from a practitioner of faith. With us were Lilly and the pope’s personal attendant, Sandrine.
The day after TAIM’s attack, the pope had summoned me to the cathedral, so I’d come together with Lilly. Thinking this was a good opportunity to explain all I had remembered about Claire, I had been about to speak when instead the pope beat me to the punch.
“W-wait, Your Holiness, you know about how everyone’s memories were altered?” Lilly asked.
“I do.”
“H-how?”
I wondered the same exact thing. Everyone in this world, even powerful people like Lilly and Manaria, had been affected by TAIM’s memory manipulation. So how did the pope remember?
“It is probably because I share a similar existence with you, Rae Taylor,” the pope said. According to her explanation, her memory had been wiped clean of anything pertaining to Claire just like everyone else, until last night when she suddenly remembered everything. It seemed the dream magic Dole had cast on me as insurance had broken TAIM’s hypnosis, if just a bit. “We aren’t the only ones who’ve remembered either. Please, come in.”
A nun with a face just like the pope’s and mine walked in. “Pardon the intrusion.”
“Elie!”
“Lilly! Long time no see!”
Elie was the lookalike of me that Lilly had met in Sousse during her journey of atonement. She was a fellow lost child of the spirits and had apparently been advised by Lilly with regard to some guilt she felt for falling for someone of the same gender, a story that Lilly had told Claire and me in detail. It seemed she was in Bauer with her adopted sister, Marie, to congratulate Lilly on her victory.
“What are you doing here at the cathedral though?” Lilly asked.
“Well, something’s been bothering me lately…” According to Elie, things had felt off ever since she woke up this morning, as she couldn’t recall any mention of Claire’s name during the celebrations. Elie herself hadn’t met Claire before, but the hero of the revolution’s reputation had reached her, and Lilly had also talked about her a bit. That was enough to have her thinking something was off, so she’d come to the cathedral to air her concerns.
“It would appear all those with our shared existence have all recovered our memory,” the pope said.
“Is something like that possible?” I wondered aloud.
“Perhaps. I have no concrete evidence, but I think I know what happened.”
“Even guesswork is fine. I just want to save Claire.” Even the tiniest bit of progress was welcome right now.
“Very well, then. Let me explain from the start. When I became pope, I learned many truths of our world. Among those truths was the fact that the Spiritual Faith is a part of the Loop System and functions to keep the world in-line with a predetermined history.”
I assumed the ancient religions preceding the foundation of the Spiritual Faith had also served the same purpose.
“Loop System? What’s that?” Elie asked.
“Wh-what’s all that mean?” Lilly echoed.
Elie, as well as Lilly with her altered memories, seemed confused by the mention of the Loop System. I filled them in.
“Such a thing is really happening?” Elie said with disbelief.
“H-how come I forgot all this?” Lilly said.
With them now up to speed, the pope continued. “As pope, I am part of the Loop System and, by extension, can monitor some of TAIM’s memories and actions. She used her hypnosis magic to alter humanity’s memories, but it was as yet imperfect, and it didn’t take well on those with strong attachment to Claire—like you.”
That had led to TAIM perfecting Salas’s hypnosis magic to use on me, thus fulfilling the activation requirement of Dole’s dream magic.
“Dole François’s magic hurt TAIM. She won’t be imprisoned by it like Salas Lilium was, but it broke her hypnosis slightly, returning the memories of any similar existences to Rae Taylor.”
I guessed a lot of lucky stars had aligned for me, with some help from Dole of course. I better thank him when I get the chance.
“Do you know where TAIM is now?” I asked.
“That’s a difficult question to answer, Rae Taylor. TAIM is the Loop System; she can be anywhere. It’s probably best if we assume she’s listening to this conversation right now… That said, Dole’s dream magic has hurt her. She likely won’t be able to take action for a while.”
“S-so now’s our best chance to make a move?” Lilly asked.
If anything, this could be our last chance to make a move, I thought. More importantly, I asked the thing I’d been dying to know for a while. “Okay, what about Miss Claire? Do you know where she is?”
“Claire François is here, in the Bauer Cathedral.”
“What…? Here?! Then we need to go—”
“Hold on, Rae Taylor,” the pope cut me off. “While she is here at the cathedral, it’s more accurate to say she’s under it, in the place housing the mainframe of the Loop System.”
“Wait, then…”
“Yes, it is as you fear. She’s been taken into the Loop System.”
“No…” It couldn’t be. Was it too late for us? Was Claire beyond saving?
“Don’t lose hope; she isn’t dead yet. Allow me to explain,” the pope said. “The one temporarily holding administrator privileges is TAIM. The privileges were supposed to transfer from the previous administrator—the Demon Queen—to Claire François, but the process is stalled due to TAIM holding them both in check.”
In other words, TAIM had found a loophole in the Loop System. With nowhere else to go to, the administrator privileges had, for the time being, gone to her.
“However, this also means TAIM needs Claire François alive. We can use that fact to our advantage.”
“How?”
“We can restore Claire François’s consciousness. She’s a part of TAIM now, but if we separate them, the administrator privilege transfer should finalize. Then TAIM will no longer be able to lay a hand on her.”
And just like that, there was hope again. A path to saving Claire was finally growing clearer.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s gather our forces and—”
“We cannot, Rae Taylor.”
“Why?!” I snapped, irritated. Even if TAIM did have the Loop System at her beck and call, if we kept sending ourselves at her en force, we had to win out eventually.
“Those without administrator privileges can’t enter the server room hosting the Loop System’s mainframe,” said the pope.
Oh, that made sense. If anybody could get in, then TAIM would have pulled something earlier, surely. She’s had hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to work with after all. Breaking in must be near impossible.
“Of course, that also means those with administrator privileges can enter,” said the pope.
“Okay, but none of us are administrators.”
“Don’t forget, the administrator privileges are in the middle of changing hands. That means the Demon Queen is still technically an administrator.”
“Wait, so…”
“Yes. You, me, and Elie, being similar existences to the Demon Queen—to Rei Ohashi—have the same access rights as she does.”
Finally. This time for certain, the path to saving Claire was clear as day.
“That being said, the server room has its own defenses,” the pope said. “We need to figure out a way through them first.”
“I believe I can be of assistance there.” An eerily cold voice came from Sandrine.
“Sandrine?” the pope asked.
“I’m borrowing her body. This is Rei Ohashi speaking… Hm, that might grow a bit confusing. Let me rephrase that: This is the Demon Queen speaking. Or at least, what’s left of what TAIM tried to delete.”