Half a minute later, a dozen or so figures came rushing in. They were all from Intis's Department Eight. The scene they found left them stunned — they had no idea what had happened here.
Until one of them shouted: "Captain, over here!"
"Tell me what happened."
The Boundless Sea. Somewhere on the dark, fog-shrouded waters, the Dawn was swaying gently with the waves.
It was night, and the whole ship lay quiet. Aside from those on watch or posted as lookouts, everyone else was below.
Then, without warning, vines spread across the deck — and in the blink of an eye they wove themselves into a verdant forest path. Bernadette stepped out from the path, three figures bound by vines behind her.
She made no effort to move quietly. She was spotted the moment she appeared. Several crew members rushed to meet her, bowing. Half a minute later, Kreuch the "Wraith" condensed out of thin air, pressed a hand to her chest, and bowed. "Good evening, Your Majesty."
"Mm. It's been a long few days. Thank you, Kreuch."
"It is our honour to serve you~"
After Bernadette had learned that Father's final resting place might be somewhere on the Boundless Sea, she hadn't immediately dropped everything to go searching — but she had sent Kreuch ahead with a small contingent of the crew to the Boundless Sea, to try their luck.
"And they are...?"
"Mystic Order members. I need a word with them."
She lit the deck with starlight and released the three from their bonds.
The three had spent the entire journey wondering how to escape. Now, realising who had taken them and where they were, they let go of any such thoughts entirely — and knelt obediently, waiting.
Bernadette said: "What is your standing in the Mystic Order?"
The three answered in turn, one over the other:
"I'm a full member."
"So am I."
"My teacher was one of the Mystic Order's senior figures — a Sequence 5 Marionette Master."
Bernadette was mildly surprised. "Sequence 5? A senior figure?"
The Mystic Order had been founded in the Fourth Epoch. Surely by now, even in decline, a Sequence 5 shouldn't qualify as senior.
"...To many people, the Mystic Order is steeped in mystery — an ancient and powerful secret organisation. But the truth is, ever since the leader vanished over a hundred years ago, the Order's power collapsed rapidly. That's why its surviving members are so desperate to find any trace of the leader." He added, "Though most of the newer recruits don't know this. They still believe they've joined the same great Order it once was."
Vincent frowned inwardly. In his memory, Zaratul's "disappearance" was because he had been trapped in the Eternal Night Town — though only a fragment of his soul was imprisoned there. His true body should still have been free. So why had the Mystic Order's decline started with his "disappearance"?
"Where did all the Mystic Order's high-sequence members go?"
Bernadette pressed her brow. The last time she had encountered members of the Mystic Order had been over ten years ago — and at that point, they had still had at least one Sequence 3 Scholar of Yore.
"All I know is that a few years ago, the Order's high-sequence members mounted an operation together — and then vanished collectively."
Vanished? That would explain why the Antigonus Family's notebook had ended up circulating freely in the outside world.
"What operation?"
"Something to do with searching for a place called... Castle Delang."
Bernadette vaguely recalled the name. It was a castle that Zaratul had constructed specifically for himself — his personal stronghold — hidden away by some particular method He had devised. After Zaratul's disappearance, Father had theorised at one point that He might have retreated into it.
But why would searching for Castle Delang have caused the entire senior leadership of the Mystic Order to simply vanish?
"Ha. Even those high-sequence members were lost looking for Zaratul — and yet here you lot are, undeterred."
She gave a cold smile, then continued: "Tell me the Mystic Order's known locations."
"Strictly speaking, we don't have any real locations left. There's a former gathering site in Trier — but it's been stripped out over the years."
Bernadette considered, then asked: "Does the Mystic Order have any information concerning Emperor Roselle — either from his lifetime, or after his death?"
The three exchanged a cautious glance. The one who had been speaking lowered his voice: "That... we don't know. But the man you killed tonight may have known something — he had taken a considerable number of materials from the old gathering site."
Killed? He wasn't killed by me — he was silenced. A crucial difference.
The frustration of it made Bernadette want to dive back into the Trier underground immediately and drag out whoever was operating behind the scenes.
"Stay calm," Vincent said quickly. "What if you ran into your own Mirror Person down there? That would be a real problem."
"What if I did? It's only a cheap imitation."
"The worry isn't just your Mirror Person — it's whoever is pulling the strings behind the curtain, ready to silence people."
She considered this for a moment, then looked back at the three.
"Do any of you know what Mirror People are?"
"You mean... the Mirror People from the Demoness Pathway?"
Clearly they didn't understand.
Not surprising. If they had, they'd never have walked so willingly into that underground passage.
Bernadette turned to Kreuch. "These three are in your hands for now. I may need them later."
"Of course, Your Majesty."
"One more thing." She spoke almost as an afterthought. "I encountered two members of the Temperance Faction in Backlund — Sharon and Marichi. Do you know them?"
Kreuch's expression shifted. He nodded. "Of course. In the past, when we were trying to find allies, they were among those who reached out most actively. Their teacher was the Temperance Faction's leader herself — Her Highness Renette Tinichole. Sadly, she fell in the Indulgence Faction's assault."
He was quiet for a moment. "If they need anything, they should let me know. I owe Her Highness a life."
"I'll pass that along when I can."
Bernadette turned toward the bow of the ship. She produced the Wishing Compass and gazed out through the fog into the darkness ahead, her eyes going deep — and then she called up her Oracle abilities, reaching through time and space, attempting to catch some fragment, some vision, of Father, of that mysterious primordial island.
After a minute, her eyes returned to their usual blue. Still nothing. Every trace of Father lay buried under layer upon layer of fog. Her divination, when it came to finding that island, was completely useless.
That puzzled Vincent. In the original story, Bernadette found that remote island without too much difficulty after getting the information from Mr. Fool. Surely she didn't just get lucky?
After leaving the Dawn, Bernadette didn't return to Trier. She came back to the Wunderkammer in Backlund.
"Back in the underground, it seemed like the Intisian government was already running an operation targeting the Mirror People," Vincent said. "So they've clearly known about them for some time. Which makes me wonder — what is Trier's underground actually hiding? What's worth both the Church and the government allowing ordinary people in, knowing full well it produces Mirror People? Aren't they worried that one day the entire country's leadership gets quietly replaced?"
Bernadette was quiet for a while. "The old Trier underground is the former capital of the Tudor Dynasty — a city where gods waged war. Whatever they left behind almost certainly touches on divine matters."
"Any decision to keep it open to the public would therefore have been made by the two gods Intis follows. Divine behaviour has its own logic that we can't easily second-guess. Whether the country's leadership gets replaced — to a god, that's nothing. The conflict, disorder, and death it causes — they don't care about that, either."
"Which is why I say: trust in the power of gods. Not in their mercy."
"Those who are merciful cannot become gods."
To be continued…
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