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Reborn as the Doomed Heir of a Mage Dynasty (Web Novel) - Chapter 253
Chapter 253
This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl
[Waaaaaah!]A thunderous applause and shouts were heard. Confetti flew down from the sky. Countless flowers thrown from the audience seats fell onto the stage.
I looked around, feeling a twisting in my stomach.
I no longer wanted to see the seats where these numerous humans were sitting. Winning was winning, and in the first place, I wasn't interested in victory at all, except for a single goal.
Perhaps if there hadn't been a national terror incident, I might have been happy right now. In fact, since I had lost my mind a little after turning back time and re-experiencing the magic lamp terror, I had even enjoyed the excitement of this cheer and the coolness of the fight... but after Farnese, no, Caetani, got involved, it became ambiguous.
That's right, it's because he kept saying things I couldn't understand. The way he dismissed me as a wicked being for being an atheist was something I had experienced a lot in other places, so I could let that slide, but I didn't know what he was trying to say to me by dragging in the Buddhist concept of karma even though he was a Christian, what relationship he had with Narce, and what relationship the two of them had with me, so my mind was complicated.
And also.
It was also because he had overturned my old memories, reviving a me that no one but me remembered, a me who now didn't know the way back and couldn't even know the possibility of it. Not content with that, he had even brought a person I could never see again in front of me.
'...Right, that was it.'
I've figured out all the reasons why I'm happy and not happy at the same time.
There is no solution. At least, I can't find a solution by staying here. Now that I know the cause, it's time to regain my composure and do what I have to do. I took out a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped my nosebleed.
The moment I tried to get up, Gabriele grabbed my hand.
"."
Gabriele looked at me and slowly wiped the blood that had fallen on his face and clothes.
His Divine Power, which I could feel through his hand, had regained its stability. His core had recovered quickly and was now sending Divine Power throughout his body again. He hadn't recovered enough to move his body on his own yet, but even so, to produce this result with just a short rest, his recovery power was extraordinary.
Gabriele made the sign of the cross with a trembling hand.
"...In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen."
Then he pulled my left hand and kissed the back of it.
It's a typical gesture of a Catholic of this era. It's a greeting usually made when meeting a high-ranking cleric such as a pope or a cardinal, but there was something a little questionable about it. If he was going to greet me knowing that I was a cardinal, he should have done it as soon as he met me, not now. Rather, he would have been displeased that an atheist held the position of cardinal.
To show such behavior all of a sudden. Either his thoughts had changed, or there was a reason I didn't know.
I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. He looked up at the sky again and said in a faint voice. The amplification magic artifact attached to our clothes was not working.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
"."
Truly, truly, I say to you....
I waited for the rest of the words, but instead of speaking, he used Divine Power on me. A light shone from his hand that was holding mine.
"...!"
I narrowed my brows.
I felt something like a healing spell seeping into my veins. It was strengthening the power of my core.
Leo's magic and his Divine Power clashed, but the healing magic quickly cleared my head. I felt the stamina that had been drained returning.
Before I could ask for the reason, he spoke first.
"I now know what you are going to do."
"."
He knows what I'm going to do now. I looked at him silently.
The announcer began to appear from the passage below the stage. He would be coming up to the stage soon. I saw the Minister of Magic, who had contacted me during the competition, hastily running after him.
An announcement was being made that the medical team would also arrive for us, but I was not in a situation to listen to it carefully.
Gabriele cast a soundproofing spell and said.
"Now that I've confirmed it, I fully understand. You and I are different, but we are in the same situation, and yet we will become very different. But we have clearly become this way for the same reason."
"...I don't know what you're talking about all of a sudden."
I certainly know that we are different. In the same situation? And for the same reason?
"We've become this way for the same reason. What has 'become this way'?"
"Someday you will fully understand my words."
"I want to know now."
"Don't you have something you've decided to do now?"
"."
"As you would already know, my name is Gabriele Caetani. Remember it. My name will be of help in the day of trouble."
He can help me in the day of trouble.
I just stared at him, who spoke like Luther's German translation of the Bible. I couldn't tell if it was because German was a foreign language to him or if his way of speaking was originally like that. He smiled for a moment, as if he had read my thoughts, and then gave my hand a light push.
"Go now, brother."
"."
I don't know why this man is suddenly acting like this.
What's important is that, as I felt during the first illusion, he came to test me, and for some reason, I passed that confirmation process. He is now willing to help me when a problem arises. Since he called it a 'tribulation', I can guess it won't be an ordinary matter. Though I hope such a thing doesn't happen.
I slowly stood up and looked around. Someone from the medical team coming up from below the stage waved their hand to get my attention. The cross imprinted on their hands had shortened a little. The top of the cross had disappeared, making it look like a T.
Now, the 600,000 people have 20 minutes left. Maybe about 19 minutes.
During the match, when I was looking at the memories of my old body, a message from the Minister of Magic arrived. It was about the three book codes that had arrived at their office and that they had deciphered all of them. They asked me to forfeit immediately and come to them.
'After ignoring my words so much.'
The message had arrived about 5 to 7 minutes after the match with Gabriele had started.
Then, the book code had appeared about 65 minutes after the first appearance of the cross. This time, in private.
Compared to the 40 minutes after the curse in the first timeline, it was 25 minutes late, and thanks to that, I had to fight foreigners I had never seen before in this tournament for 25 minutes. It happened because the Minister of Magic didn't grant my request, so maybe I should blame the minister.
"Nice to meet you for the first time, Your Excellency Askanian. May I have your hand for a moment?"
The voice of the medical staff broke my thoughts.
In any case, the Emergency Committee would not have met the professor of magic at the University of Jena. Because that's a fake.
And as soon as he heard the third book code, 'I have shown the answer to over 100 people,' the minister would have remembered what I had said about the white phosphorus codeSagt es allentell it to everyoneand the 'answer'. That question about whether he could let me use the sound room undisturbed for just one minute.
I didn't even feel like smiling and just looked down at my hand held by the medical staff. Gabriele Caetani had now been taken down below the stage by other medical staff.
'Then why did I deduce that the dispel and the curse would have the same mechanism?'
It's time to think about it again.
Now, let's go back slowly.
The day before yesterday, no, three days ago in the evening, I had this conversation with Leo.
***
The top floor of the Crown Prince's palace in Bavaria.
We were sitting on the balcony behind the hall with drinks. Pai's influence had also reached this place. I remember being dumbfounded at the sight of the stone tower placed on one side of the balcony.
At that time, I was comfortably leaning back in a white wooden chair, admiring the vast forest and city of Bavaria at dusk. We had set up a space magic barrier so that we could see outside but no one from outside could see us, so there was no need to worry about my escape from the hospital.
I looked at Leo, who was sitting in front of the table with a serious expression, and the on-the-rocks glass in front of me and said.
"The curse and the dispel will work with the same mechanism."
"."
"Then, to break the curse, you'd have to make the people under the curse 'hear' the input that triggers the dispel magic. Actually, up to this point, it sounds as obvious as 'if you tighten a screw by turning it to the right, you have to turn it to the left to loosen it'. Right?"
Leo replied with a not-so-convinced look.
"To some extent, yes. More than half of the magic in this world is broken this way. But you can't be sure."
"Listen carefully. I first set up a hypothesis and then found the answer. Remember what I'm about to say, and after hearing the conclusion, think about it from the beginning again. Then you'll understand why I'm making this claim."
"So you weren't sure from the beginning either."
I nodded and drank.
The cherry flavor at the end was bitter. I realized too late that it wasn't my kind of whiskey, but there was nothing I could do.
"Let's begin. The real problem here is this. I think the trigger that activates the dispel magic is the 'answer' that the terrorist claimed to have shown to over 100 people."
"What makes you so sure?"
Leo asked sharply.
It was a good question. [The answer presented by the terrorist will be the dispel trigger], on what basis could I make such an inference?
Isn't the terrorist too merciful, giving us the answer to break the curse?
And if you get the answer right, he'll really break the curse? It seems there's no bigger fool in the world.
But I still think the 'answer' is the dispel trigger.
Why?
"Leo. Before I turned back time, the Minister of Magic asked, 'Why doesn't the terrorist kill us immediately?'"
"Right."
"To that, I answered, 'Because they want something else'. Remember?"
"...Yes."
"The lives of the people are just being held as collateral to get what they really want. With that in mind, let's think about it again. The fact that the terrorist, after trapping so many people in a curse, kindly gave a hint that he had shown the 'answer' to break it, was not because he was bored, nor was it to torment us."
Leo rested his chin on his hand and tapped the table with his other hand. It wasn't a gesture he often showed as the crown prince, and he looked quite impatient.
"Of course not, Lukas."
"Right. Let's dig into this part again slowly. Why did the terrorist give the hint that he had 'already shown the answer'? First, because he wanted everyone to be freed from the curse and for peace to be restored."
At those words, Leo released his hand from his chin, drank his drink, and let out a light laugh.
"He shouldn't have cast the curse in the first place. Does he want unity in a crisis situation?"
"So this is a non-starter. Then next. Second, he wanted someone who couldn't bear to see this crisis to solve the answer. Third, there are no other possibilities besides the first two."
Leo's eyes narrowed. He knew what my next words would be. I avoided his piercing gaze, drank, and put down my glass.
"Between the first and second, the second is more reasonable."
"."
"Then again. 'Why' did that culprit want the answer to be solved? What would come out if the answer was solved? And 'who' did he want to solve the answer? Don't interrupt, just listen carefully."
"I won't. Speak."
In order, I had laid out the most reasonable possibilities.
I spread my fingers and said.
"First, the 'answer' is another trigger."
"Hmm, you mean the terrorist has put a trick in that 'answer'."
"Right. In this case, the moment you say that answer, another magic will be cast in the same way as the curse."
"The technology is no joke, this is a headache...."
Leo uncharacteristically ruffled his hair. He seemed to be very frustrated.
It was only natural since their technology had advanced to a point where we couldn't even catch up.
"Second, who did he want to solve the answer? The culprit has already said himself, 'I have shown it to over 100 people'. It means that anyone among those 100 people can say the answer."
"But in reality, that sentence targets only one person. No matter how much I say it's not, you'll think so. Right?"
I nodded.
Leo clasped his hands with a furrowed brow, his expression asking for an answer.
"You'll want to ask why. Now, the terrorist said he showed the answer."
"Right."
"And over 100 people saw that answer. This in itself is a hint. An answer seen by 'over 100 people', that is, a majority.... It means it was in a position where people could see it in passing, even if they didn't read it carefully or decipher it. The many methods used in this terror so far have been consistent. Whether it's due to the machinations of several culprits or the compulsive obsession with codes of a single person, we've 'seen' many codes so far."
"Right. The book code, the white phosphorus match."
"And there were five more codes we haven't solved yet."
I rummaged through my jacket and, realizing I didn't have a pen, gestured to Leo with my hand. Leo, looking dumbfounded, took a fountain pen from inside his jacket and handed it to me.
I pulled out a stiff napkin from the holder on one side of the table, so stiff that it made a rustling sound, and wrote on it.
[Audienz dubioses schockiertes]
[Bocuse dasitzende risikoscheu]
[Cookie diesseits zuschraubend]
[Diozesan dubiose tuckischeres]
[Auszurichtendes Cookies Diebs]
"."
"We haven't been able to solve this code so far. How long has it been since we've been struggling with this?"
"It's been a while."
"In the first place, I tried to interpret this as a coherent sentence with a meaning. Like 'arrange cookie thief' for 'Auszurichtendes Cookies Diebs'."
"Didn't you also use something like the Caesar cipher decryption method?"
"I did. I tried all sorts of decryption methods. But I was wrong."
Leo stroked his chin and looked at me. I leaned forward and said seriously.
"I thought about it too much. This code is not a difficult code."
"What makes you so sure?"
"The fact that all the white phosphorus codes and book codes that have come out so far have been easy codes is the primary basis. Of course, you're not convinced, are you? I'm not either, so I'll continue."
"Go on...."
I turned the napkin around and showed it to him, pointing at the letters one by one.
"There's a common point in these five sentences. They are all 3 phrases and 27 letters long. And the alphabet composition is the same. When the umlauts O and U are treated as regular O and U."
"...!"
The umlaut O refers to O.
The latter two of these common points, 'all five are 27 letters long' and 'the alphabet is the same', tell us a great deal.
'What does it suggest?'
I looked at Leo's expression and put one hand in my pocket. And I drank and tilted my chair.
"You seem to have gotten the gist."
"."
Leo nodded with a serious expression.
Right.
These five sentences are all simple anagrams that converge into a single sentence. The culprit was kind enough to show us five codes.
'The problem is, when am I supposed to put all this together?'
If I had been putting it together for the past month and a half, I would have solved it by now, but two days was not enough. If I kept trying to put this together one by one, the preparation period would be over. I couldn't let that happen.
"Instead of putting this together first, I found a clue to make the assembly easier. You must know by now what clue I've found."
Leo's face was hardened. He knew what the key word of this code was. Then I could move on to the next topic.
"Now do you see why I have to say that code, and why I believe the curse will be broken if I 'tell everyone' the code?"
"I get the former, but the latter is still insufficient."
"Good. You're quick."
I drank and then said with a smile.
"We're exactly halfway there. Now we have to talk about the remaining half."
"."
Leo looked at me with his lips tightly shut. I shrugged and said.
"Why the long face?"
"I never had a long face."
"Well, alright. I'm going to tell Elias and Narce this tomorrow."
"."
Leo looked at me silently. It was the face of someone facing something they didn't want to face, a face that wished no one would get hurt. I knew it well, having seen it many times.
"What can't we do if we're together."
I held out my fist.
Leo looked at my hand with a sullen expression, then relaxed his face and lightly bumped my fist.
I smiled and said.
"Let's do well."
"...Yeah."
Leo seemed to know there was no turning back. I said to Leo, who had answered with a serious expression.
"Now, Leo. I need your help from now on."
***
Thinking about it now, I want to go back a little.
The atmosphere of that evening was comfortable. Even though I knew the end was coming again, perhaps because I had already experienced the end, we were both exhausted. The uneventful minutes and seconds seemed to be eternal, but I don't know how time has passed so quickly, and now I am facing a new end.
But this time, it will be an end to move on to the final chapter of this terror. Even if it's not the last page.
The medical staff is chanting healing magic and various recovery formulas on my hands and back. For some reason, their level seems to be lower than Gabriele's, but in any case, I was thinking while receiving the treatment silently.
'What I told Leo back then.'
'I found a clue to make the assembly easier,' right.
That's right. Fortunately, I have obtained the materials so far. Now, let's put the information together again.
Clue 1.
Richthofen, before he died, came to me and said he knew what kind of magic was cast in this curse. Why did Richthofen, of all people, quickly notice what kind of magic was cast on it?
A mere high school student from the Catacombs, not a magic expert, knew, and it was a magic that the Imperial government didn't know the identity of, and it was a magic that didn't break even when attacked from the outside.
As I thought back then, doesn't it smell overly familiar?
That's right. What was cast on the curse was a dual-space magic.
A magic that doesn't break unless it's hit by a critical amount of magic power. Considering it was so powerful that I couldn't tell where the limit was, and that it couldn't be dispelled even after all sorts of experiments, they must not have installed the dual-space magic in one direction, but overlapped it in both internal and external directions to defend against any kind of dispel.
To think of using dual-space magic in this way, although it was a curse completed by stealing the Catacombs' technology and supplementing it with their ideas, the idea is praiseworthy. The technology that made it possible to cast this just by reciting a sentence is also amazing.
Clue 2.
The sound director of the previous timeline and the athlete of this timeline both fell under a pre-prepared mind control magic and lost their memories of reciting Revelation 7:10. This means that the mind control magic was pre-set like a curse, and that a 'Divine Power mage who can use mind control magic' was on their side.
There are countless other possibilities, but if we solve it according to the creator's intention, then that's how it is.
Clue 3.
Each of the Pleroma dioceses often acts separately from the leadership and tries to secure its own private interests. We have already witnessed such a scene at the beginning of this year.
Clue 4.
The places where these five codes arrived were mymy buquet, the Catacombs wall, and in front of Heike's family mansion.
Where were these three connected? The intersection of these three elements clearly points to one place.
Up to this point, if we just look at the situation from the 'creator's perspective', we're almost there. Now we just need to put these four clues together.
There are a few blind spots that need explanation, but this is the end of the logical development needed for this opening ceremony. I have solved the five codes over the past two days based on the above clues.
There's still a little more to explain about the question Leo asked, 'Will the curse really be broken if I shout the answer?', but in any case, there's no room for a different outcome there.
I let out a light laugh and exhaled.
'It's been a long time.'
This is why I hate Pleroma.
No, to be precise, I hate the bishops.
I'd rather find the Imperial government, whose intentions are so transparent, lovable. I even know what kind of plan Abraham has now. Though he also knows that I know his plan.
The bishops never move carelessly even once, and as if to prove that they didn't rise to that position for nothing, they make full use of their own excellence.
So, now.
It's my turn.
The treatment was over, and I slowly turned my head. A rose that had fallen on me was caught in my foot.
I slowly approached the announcer who was waiting for me below the stage.
The announcer also welcomed me and approached me.
"Welcome, Your Excellency Lukas Askanian. You have won the final of the International Friendship Tournament at the 1st Pentalon opening ceremony! It was a game that was adjusted in a hurry, so there must have been a lot of confusion, but you showed us a wonderful match."
[Waaaaaah!!]
The audience shouted. I smiled faintly and looked at the announcer. Confetti exploded again and scattered in the air.
"Do you see this excitement? How do you feel, could you give us a few words?"
"My feelings."
I opened my mouth, feeling the air in front of me, which had been enhanced by a magic spell.
My eyes were on my Eszett teammates. I soon turned my gaze back to the broadcast camera. Now, all the people in the stadium were silent, waiting to hear my words.
"I heard you're looking for someone."
***
"Where are you going?"
Yulia grabbed Elias, who was trying to leave this stadium. Elias, who had looked back at her with a hardened face, looked down at the stage again.
"My stomach hurts. I'm going for a big one, guys~"
"."
Yulia didn't answer and just stared at Elias. She knew Elias was just making an excuse.
Heike, as if she had no thoughts, said with a flushed face from the excitement of the victory.
"Come back quickly. Since Lukas won, we have to go for a drink."
"Yeah~"
Elias smiled at Heike's words and went outside.
I hope he can come back quickly. But he probably won't be able to come back so quickly. Elias's face grew more and more hardened.
At the same time, the Italian restaurant at the event grounds.
A silence flowed through the restaurant.
"."
[A person...?]
The announcer forced a smile with a bewildered expression.
"A person?"
"What?"
A small question was heard in the silence.
Because it was a random remark, the people who were eating stopped their forks and looked at the screen. In the first place, there were few people who were idly eating, as they were completely engrossed in the match.
Leo looked at the newspaper with a calm face. The light from the palms of the people around them was getting shorter and shorter. The curse had already taken effect, and they had only about 15 minutes of life left. The sound of his own heartbeat began to sound like a countdown.
[Could you tell us in more detail what kind of person you're talking about?]
[No, maybe I should just say what I saw as the answer.]
"What? Didn't he just ask for your feelings?"
"That's right."
Someone spread their fingers and brought them to their mouth. It was a sign to be quiet so they could listen.
[.]
Narce's hands clenched as he watched the screen. Leo also held his breath without realizing it.
Lukas's lips moved in the screen.
[I'll only say it once, so listen carefully.]
[Once....]
['The Diocese of Osnabruck is looking for you'!]
Booooom!
Black smoke blew into the stadium. The screen turned completely black, and now the sound of wind, as if trapped in a storm, was heard.
"Huh?!"
"Wh-what's going on?!"
"That was surprising, why is it like this?!"
Leo, with cold eyes, looked at the screen and traced back his memories.
Die Diozese Osnabruck sucht Sie. The Diocese of Osnabruck is looking for you.
At the beginning of the year, this was the result of decrypting the code that had appeared on Lukas's bouquet, the Catacombs wall, and in front of the Ainsidel mansion.
[You have to keep your promise.]
A clear voice was heard from the pitch-black screen and in the midst of the storm. Once again, the sound of the wind blowing like an explosion was heard. Surprised screams from the people were heard through the screen.
Narce, who was looking around with a tense face, gestured to the people with his chin at Leo.
"Leo."
"."
Leo slowly turned his head.
The many small lights from the palms of the people, which had been flickering all over, went out.
His heart is pounding like crazy. There is nothing in their hands now. Really nothing. It felt so much like a dream, as if he were seeing things wrong. The ground seemed to have shaken once, and people looked at the floor, speaking in surprised voices.
'...The end.'
It's the end. Lukas was right. All his judgments were right. Now I will go and apply the dispel that Richthofen has prepared to each of those who have not yet heard the 'answer', even though Lukas had drawn their attention and shouted it out.
And after that, I have to move according to Lukas's plan.
This damn terror is now over. In disbelief of this still unbelievable fact, his vision trembled greatly.
At the same time, it was a new beginning for us.
Leo wiped his face with his hand once, caught his breath, and stood up from his seat.
He extended his hand to Narce and said.
"Let's go."
