Chapter Three Hundred and Fifteen: Dream of the Magicless 2
Karen and August moved to the temple adjoining the orphanage.
“Lady Karen—or should I address you Lady Himmel?”
“I’m still not used to either form, so either is fine.”
“Then, Lady Karen it is. What is the matter so confidential that you wished for the room to be cleared? Is it about the children?”
August spoke with such evident anxiety that his genuine concern for the children’s futures came through clearly, and Karen was quick to set his mind at ease.
“It isn’t about the children. Though it may be connected, in some way…”
Karen came into the sanctuary, looked around the room, and said:
“You don’t display a goddess statue in this temple.”
August looked caught off guard by the question, but answered:
“No… as no one knows what the goddess looks like. If we displayed a statue modeled after the human form, it would make it harder for members of other races to come and worship.”
“You’re considerate not only toward children without magical power, but toward other races as well. The temple in the royal capital has a goddess statue in the form of a human woman.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s wrong, either. Most races depict their goddess in the form of a woman of their own kind—statues, portraits, objects of devotion. But on my own insistence as temple director, we display a stone tablet bearing the goddess’s tree.”
With that, August looked up at the tablet. Karen looked up at it as well. Carved into the stone slab was a stylized image of a tree. Above, countless branches spread outward; below, countless roots extended downward. The design was simple enough that, flipped upside down, one might not immediately notice the difference.
“Is this the World Tree?”
“The elves believe so. But there are sects that argue otherwise. Since it would be inconvenient for humans if the World Tree managed by the elves were considered the goddess’s tree, the prevailing view in human nations is that they are separate things.”
“Which do you believe, Director?”
“I also believe it is different from the World Tree. I think this tree is simply an ancient people’s imagined diagram of the stairway one must ascend to reach the goddess.”
“I see, I see.”
Karen wandered around the tablet, observing the carving from various angles—and found it. Behind the slab.
“Perhaps you wished to confess a private trouble before the goddess, Lady Karen? If you would like a portrait of the goddess, we have one in storage—I could have it brought at once—”
“No, no, nothing like that. Thank you for your kindness.”
When Karen picked up the object hidden behind the tablet and looked at August, his face had gone deathly pale. He looked as though he had aged ten or twenty years in an instant, and Karen, who had been preparing to question him, found herself somewhat taken aback.
“This wooden coin—a medal? You know what this is, don’t you?”
“How did you come to find that…?”
“I ascended the steps recently. After ascending, I became able to sense the location of things with an extremely small amount of magical power—things that don’t just have none, but have magical power in the negative range. Ordinary people can’t even perceive their existence. And yet you already knew this thing was here.”
If he had tried to play ignorant, she would have had no choice but to draw it out of him—but August was already visibly devastated.
“Is what’s carved on it the goddess’s tree?”
“—To them, it is the goddess’s tree. But unlike the one we know, it is upside down.”
“That does feel rather… blasphemous, doesn’t it? My guess is that only the Children of Dark Night would be able to make something like this. Could this be their symbol?”
“So you’ve come to arrest me.”
Before Karen had even pronounced any judgment, August bowed his head as though he had already resigned himself.
“It is true that I had contact with people closely associated with them. I have heard that it was the Children of Dark Night who threw the royal capital dungeon into chaos before, and who have now caused dungeons across the land to collapse. Given this piece of evidence, I cannot blame anyone for suspecting me of ties to the Children of Dark Night. But the orphanage’s children are innocent. So I beg you—”
“Please wait, Director. Why do you think I came here alone?”
Karen stopped him before he could lower his forehead to the floor and stared at him with wide eyes. Harald had been with her on the way here, but right now they were going separately. There was a carriage waiting outside, but if she had come to arrest August, coming unarmed and alone was far too careless.
Karen knelt down before the bewildered August, brought herself to his eye level, and smiled.
“I came here because I want you to introduce me to those people.”
“Introduce? But why—”
“They’re trying to make the Philosopher’s Stone. In a way that probably only they can—I want to be able to make the Philosopher’s Stone too. So I want to meet them. I want to meet them and talk!”
Karen said it with her eyes shining, the way someone might speak of a dream. August stared up at Karen the alchemist, utterly dumbfounded.
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