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Chapter 113
Chapter 113
Chapter 113
A single teacher at the Temple did not hold much power on their own. They merely taught or guided students in the classes they were responsible for in their assigned schools.
However, the leadership of the Temple was also made up of educators, and they were not to be taken lightly.
Although the Temple was an affiliate of the empire, it possessed a tremendous amount of power in its own right. Of course, it did not exercise authority outside of matters related to the Temple, but when it came to issues involving the Temple, its authority was formidable.
If the well-being of a Temple student was at stake, the Temple authorities would naturally step in to address the matter. After all, protecting the students’ well-being was one of the most fundamental responsibilities of the Temple.
Adriana looked puzzled by my explanation.
“I-I wonder if that would work...”
Essentially, no matter how much I argued for it, what I was suggesting was basically the same as going, “Teacher! There’s a big problem! Please help us!”
But that was not all.
“It’s not just the teachers. We should also involve the student council as well.”
The student council was yet another power within the Temple.
Ceres Van Owenne was a member of the religious club “Grace”, and she was the president of the student council that represented the Royal Class students. That meant she could speak to the head president of the student council, who represented the entirety of the Temple’s students that numbered in the tens of thousands, at any time.
The head president of the student council of the Temple, a school where children from notable families gathered, was undoubtedly someone influential. Though I was not sure who, simply mentioning the name of the head president of the student council at the Temple would make others take notice.
If the faculty and the student council were to take action, not even the Order of the Holy Knights could afford to overlook them. The combination of the two could, in a way, be interpreted as the will of the empire itself.
When people came together, it generated power and authority, and when noteworthy individuals gathered, that power would become exceptional.
Besides, doing all this under the pretext of ensuring a student’s safety made perfect sense.
“Alright, junior, I understand what you’re saying.”
A first-year and a second-year were conspiring in an alleyway to make a move that would involve the entire Temple.
“But... Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“What do you mean?”
“This is very dangerous. If things go sideways, you and I could be accused of slandering the Order and handed over to a religious tribunal, or dragged away by the Inquisitors.”
If we choose to go down this path, we would have to go to the teachers to explain the situation, and do the same with the president of the student council representing the Royal Class.
Our claims remained unverified. Hence, if they believed we were spouting nonsense, or if the Order of the Holy Knights identified us amidst a confrontation with the Temple, we would become targets of the Order.
It was a risky approach.
However, I had a plan in mind.
“Let’s put on a little performance,” I said. “We’ll start with an anonymous letter.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, we’ll write a letter alleging that such and such was happening, and send it.”
“... Will they believe the allegations in an anonymous letter?”
“Of course they will.”
An anonymous letter, alleging that the commander of the Order of the Holy Knights was going to torture his own daughter? Who would believe such a letter that lacked any evidence or proof, you might ask?
However, I knew for a fact that it would be believed.
“Since I’m going to send it to the group that we are both members of. They’ll have no choice but to believe it.”
Adriana and I would act surprised, and express our wholehearted belief in the contents of the letter we would send to the club we belonged to. We could just put on a little performance and say to the rest of the members that we should at least investigate the claims made in the letter.
We would slowly stir the suspicion within our club, and then move into the next phase of action. The opinions that the club formed would be presented to the head president of the student council, and then to the faculty. Thus, while the source of the rumor might remain unknown, action would still be taken.
***
The course of action was decided; now, we had to move quickly. We didn’t know when the torture would begin, or when Olivia might die or be broken beyond repair.
We had no physical evidence, and the only concrete lead was the conversation I had overheard between Olivia and the commander of the Order of the Holy Knights.
“Okay. Shall we head back—”
Adriana and I tried to enter the station, but were forced to stop in our tracks. We looked at each other blankly once more.
“Money...”
“... Right.”
Our begging earlier had procured us enough money for two ticket fares, but we hadn’t considered that we would need the fare for an additional two tickets.
“... We’re really smart about the important things, but utterly dumb about stuff like this.”
“... Yeah.”
We had racked our brains to plot the ploy of the century, only to realize afterward that we hadn’t even secured enough money to return home.
Adriana stared at me intently.
“J-Junior... um...”
She had an expectant look on her face, and I had a pretty good idea what she wanted from me. It was a look that said, “Can you do what you did earlier again?”
“No.”
“U-Uh, hmm?”
“This time, it’s your turn, senior.”
“Ju-Junior...”
Despite Adriana’s pleading look, I crossed my arms and put on a serious expression. How could she even think of taking advantage of me?
“No. Go on.”
“Ughhh... A-Alright...”
Eventually, Adriana began to scramble about, pleading for money outside the temple of the Order of the Holy Knights. A neat and well-composed girl begging with an almost tearful expression was so genuinely heart-rending that Adriana succeeded immediately.
—Thank you! Thank you so much! May the blessings of the five gods be with you!
—Oh, no... don’t mind it, child...
—Thank you again!
Adriana bowed repeatedly to the passerby who had given her the ticket money, so much so that the passerby might have felt sorry for her. From afar, she looked unbelievably cute.
“...”
Adriana’s face turned bright red, as if she had never imagined that she would ever have to beg in her life. She seemed mortified. I chuckled, arms crossed.
“You succeeded in one go. You must have a knack for this!”
“Don’t... don’t say that...” Adriana said as she glared at me, trembling.
‘Ah... she’s cute in a totally different way from Harriet. And had she forgotten that I’m the kind of person who does more of what I’m told not to?’
“It seems like you’ve lost all your affection for the Order of the Holy Knights. How about switching your major to this field—”
“Shut up!”
Smack!
“Ouch!”
This time, Adriana’s anger was genuine, and she hit me on the head instead of my back. The blow was so hard that my head swam for a moment.
“Was that an attempt on your junior’s life, all because of a joke?!”
“Quiet! Just shut up and follow me!”
Adriana grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and started to drag me back toward the station.
Making Adriana—who always spoke in polite and refined language—swear was slightly amusing, in its own way.
***
We begged for money twice, and barely made it back to the Temple. I couldn’t help but feel profoundly grateful for having money in my pocket.
It was well past dawn, and the sky was bright.
The plan was simple: just leave the letter I wrote in the clubroom.
Though the club meeting was scheduled for Thursday, members frequently visited the clubroom, and it was almost never empty on weekends. Members often gathered out of boredom to either pray, study, or chat.
Simply leaving the letter in the clubroom meant that someone would eventually open it and read it. Considering the seriousness of its contents, the information would surely reach Ceres Van Owenne, the vice president of the club. From there, a club meeting would be called, and from that point, Adriana and I could play our roles to influence the situation.
It was necessary to go about it this way to ensure that the source of the information, namely Adriana and I, would remain undisclosed.
I immediately drafted the anonymous letter and handed it to Adriana. Since I wasn’t officially a member yet, it would arouse less suspicion if Adriana was the one to casually leave it there.
“But wouldn’t it be odd for me to attend the meeting?”
I wasn’t sure whether Adriana would be able to steer the discussion in the right direction on her own, either in an emergency meeting or a regular one, and if the members would even accept my presence there.
“‘Although he isn’t officially registered as a member, I brought my junior with me since this is related to senior Olivia.’ Maybe we could say something like that? After all, you actually did talk to her, didn’t you?”
“Hmm... That kind of excuse should work, I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Adriana said with a nod, her expression rather serious.
It was just a single letter, but depending on what we did, it could lead to a standoff with the Temple’s student council and the Temple leadership on one side, and the Order of the Holy Knights on the other.
It was hard to predict how things would unfold, but Olivia Lanche’s life was on the line. Adriana had to be feeling the tension, knowing full well the gravity of what we were about to undertake.
Would the Temple’s student council and the Temple’s leadership act? And even if they did, could they exert enough pressure on the Order of the Holy Knights to rescue Olivia Lanche?
Nothing was certain, but this was the best we could do right now.
***
It was the weekend, and under normal circumstances, I would be heading out for my morning training. However, I returned to my room instead, in order to collect my thoughts.
Although I didn’t know her well, Olivia Lanche had left an incredibly powerful first impression on me. Setting aside her achievements and talents, it seemed wrong for someone who had spent her short life of only twenty-two years helping others to meet such an end.
“Good people will live happy lives.”
I wanted to witness the reality in which this saying, which seldom proved true in real life, unfolded at least once. Predicting how this situation would unfold was hard. But this was one task that I definitely wanted to succeed in.
I tried to use the Revise function to ensure that Olivia Lanche safely escaped the Order of the Holy Knights.
[Excessively abstract Revise tasks cannot be performed.]
The thought that “Olivia Lanche safely escapes from the Holy Knights” was apparently too abstract. I needed to propose something more concrete.
Since organizing it all in my head had its limits, I jotted down a detailed progression of events in my room.
I wrote a lengthy scenario in which the Temple student council and faculty members attempted to bring Olivia Lanche back to the Temple, and the commander of the Order of the Holy Knights unwillingly returned her into their custody.
[You are attempting to perform too many tasks. You’ve written way too much. Manifesting all of that in the way that you described it would require 10,000 achievement points.]
[You might as well just write a fictional novel while you’re at it... Lol]
“... You’re an actual piece of shit.”
For the first time in a while, I felt an urge to punch the system message that seemed deliberately designed to infuriate.
Mocking me and typing “Lol” at the end of their sentence infuriated me because I actually understood what the guy was implying.
What did it mean when it said, “Why don’t you write a novel while you’re at it?” Clearly, the system was mocking my identity as a writer, and on top of that, making pointed jabs at what it considered my apparent lack of writing skill.
‘Ugh, you absolute jerk!’
Anyway...
Even if each individual action was sufficiently plausible, if there were too many actions that needed to be manifested, it would require a ridiculously large number of achievement points to bring them into reality, especially since each action would also spawn numerous other events that might not have happened in the first place.
‘Okay then, how about this?’
[Preview]
It was a feature I had never used before. It was said to be available only in specific situations, and this time, it was available for use.
‘Damn, a cheat without any control over when it can be used.’
Still, I was glad that I was allowed to use it this time.
I could use the Preview function to analyze this incident and watch how events would unfold, and if there were any problems, I could alter my actions to prevent that future from coming true.
[The ‘Preview’ function, which can be used in a limited capacity, allows you to see the outcomes of upcoming events.]
[Using an excessively large number of achievement points, you can grasp the overall flow of events. However, as you might have already guessed, doing so is practically impossible.]
The system was basically telling me not to even dream about having a full preview of the future, because it was way too costly.
Why did it even bother saying that doing so was impossible because it required a massive number of achievement points? Whatever I tried to do, it was just going to make it impossible anyway. Even if I had 200,000 achievement points, it was probably going to say, “Sorry, you actually need 200,500 points. It cannot be done.”
When I looked back on things, every time I’d tried to use the achievement points to trigger an action that would improve my situation, I’d always been short on points.
‘I get it! I’m onto this malicious trickster now! It was all intentional! Even now, when I’m trying to do something with the Revise function, it’s making up reasons to not let me!’
[It looks like you’re catching on.]
‘Wait, what was that just now?’
Something had flashed before my eyes so fast that I hadn’t been able to read it properly. What did it say? It definitely felt like a curse.
This level of annoyance was so over the top that I felt practically enlightened.
[Anyway, the Preview function shows you key future scenarios related to the event you’re interested in. These key situations will likely be diverse and will only be available in short segments. Of course, every situation carries its own clues as well.]
The system was essentially reassuring me that it wouldn’t show me something completely irrelevant, like a scene from a tavern in the southern part of the continent.
If things panned out this way, I would be seeing a preview of the destined future.
‘Wait, but what do I mean when I say “this way”? If I view the preview, wouldn’t my thoughts change just by seeing it, therefore altering the future because the actions I might take would also be altered?’
[In this case, we assume that you have not used the Preview function yet. Hence, consider how you would have acted in a situation where you do not know the future, as you normally would.]
‘Damn it.’
Just wrapping my head around this Preview function was giving me a headache.
First, I needed to clearly understand what action I would usually have taken, without any knowledge of the future. Only then could I make a different move at crucial points in the future.
Of course, it was possible that the Preview would show me that everything would work out fine. This was just a precaution, in case something unpredictable happened.
Hoping for the best, I decided to use the Preview function.
[Will you use the ‘Preview’ function?]
[Since this is your first use, a discounted price will be applied this time.]
[Cost changes may occur from the next use of the function.]
[1000 points]
[500 points]
[200 points]
[100 points]
As if choosing products, four price options appeared, all of which were at a discounted price for the first use.
‘Damn it, there are different prices.’
Choosing the more expensive options likely provided clearer hints.
Since it seemed possible to use it multiple times, I initially opted for the 100-point option.
[You have used 100 achievement points.]
One of the key scenes related to the incident involving Olivia Lanche began to unfold in my mind. It was like a dream, and a completely different view appeared before my eyes.
The 100-point future did not show a moving image, but a static world instead...
It was nighttime.
There was a date.
Year 323 of the Imperial Calendar, June 28th, around 22:00.
The present day was May 23rd, Saturday, which meant that this image was from roughly a month in the future.
Even without examining it thoroughly, I could tell what had transpired. Olivia Lanche was sitting listlessly on a cold-looking stone floor, dressed in tattered clothes stained with blood.
A trickle of drool was visible falling from her slightly open mouth, and her eyes lacked focus.
Whatever she had been subjected to could be inferred from the unnatural marks visible on the patches of skin through her torn clothing. Though I could not see clearly because the scene was frozen, I could discern that these were traces of a magic circle.
Bizarrely, although her clothes were blood-soaked and her body was covered in dried blood, there was not a single wound or scar on her body, aside from the odd magic circles.
Around her, however, were small, scattered fragments.
Upon closer inspection, they were bloodied fingernails and toenails. It was clear that she had been subjected to torture that involved the removal of her nails.
Yet, in the picture, her nails were still intact.
I formed a rough idea of what had happened.
“Damn you...”
It was the work of the Order of the Holy Knights.
They tortured her, and then used healing spells to restore her to her original state before repeating the torture. Seeing how such heinous acts could be performed using divine magic sent shivers down my spine.
After experiencing such an ordeal, it was impossible for her to remain sane.
Olivia Lanche was completely broken.
Confined in a place resembling an underground dungeon and subjected to endless torture, Olivia Lanche had lost her mind completely.
If things continued the way they were, we would fail.