Horizon:GT2 Chapter12

Chapter 12: Swords and Sorcery

That is the pinnacle of examination

That sword can

Break even the stained lock

Point Allocation (History and Outcome)

○

Scarred: “What is a data restriction spell?”

Asama: “Well, it restricts divine transmissions, so you can think of it as a defense used for offense, I guess?”

Wise Sister: “Heh heh. Simply put, it basically forcibly applies a god mosaic.”

Asama: “I was trying to avoid saying it that way! Why must you be like this!?”

Flat Vassal: “Um, the point is, it’s physical harmless. But it places all data interactions under inspection, so it was honestly a blow to Asama-san’s pride. She had a lot of her authority in Mikawa taken away, so she couldn’t use the Musashi’s power. It was kind of a pain.”

Unturning: “So the spell was meant to show who was the superior data administrator?”

Horizey: “In other words, it applied a mosaic to Asama-sama! So what should we say to support her? Uncensor her! We want Asama-sama uncensored! Oh, and Mitotsudaira-sama and Naito-sama too! Depending on how the censorship is applied, it might give Adele-sama some hope!”

Flat Vassal: “N-no, what matters is what’s behind the censorship!”

●

Mitotsudaira didn’t feel the need to take a fighting stance, but she didn’t let her guard down either.

…Now they’ll compete to see who’s better at controlling data.

Simply put, it was a battle over whether or not their sign frames would be usable.

Without their sign frames, they couldn’t contact anyone or receive additional divine protections.

A strong enough data restriction would be able to cancel the divine protections included in their hard point parts, but that would be treating them like criminals.

So no one would be making any noticeable actions, but they had to stay alert.

“––––––”

Rodrigo swung her right hand and light scattered in a cross shape. An image of a large tree appeared and seven trumpets played.

…Here it comes!

It came. Literally. A wall of sign frames slowly approached like advancing troops.

“You can see that visually, but it’s actually moving through the divine transmission network in the ley lines! Assume you won’t have control of your divine transmissions or anything else once it touches you!” warned Asama.

“Um, what can we do about it?” asked Naito.

“I am fortifying our defenses. Once that’s in place, I’ll put together a counterattack spell, so stay put and wait!”

“You mean our only defense exists in the data and the divine protections?”

First, Asama sent Mitotsudaira a defensive data spell. The emergency package had likely been prepared by the Asama Shrine for localized battles.

But at the same time, the enemy attack had more or less already reached them. Because…

…We’re inside Mikawa’s field.

The field surrounding the crime scene had been set up by Mikawa. And Mikawa was working with Tres España at the moment.

Being inside that field was the same as being in the effective range of the enemy’s spells.

So it was already too late to be figuring this out.

…Tomo!

We’re counting on you!

●

Asama made the right first move.

She responded to the enemy’s restriction attack by activating a data defense spell.

Generally, access to data could be defined in three ways: allow, disallow, or remove.

There were several ways of handling permission. Passwords were the most common, but you could also set up a wall or detour of dummy data or you could construct a multilayer barrier of different passwords.

Asama was constructing and expanding a barrier like that.

By fortifying their defenses like that, the restriction would lose its hook and she could hide what was meant to be prohibited.

Starting with defense and then shifting to a counterattack was the standard defensive tactic.

So Asama first closed down the divine transmissions for her, Mitotsudaira, Adele, and Naito.

The enemy spell was rapidly approaching.

Tres España had worked with Mikawa to set up this field, so she had to focus on defense instead of trying to fight the speed of approach.

In an instant, the four of them were surrounded by the 8 glowing walls the enemy had produced. But…

…Activate!

Asama added a password barrier to the interior of the barriers.

For the password, she created a wafer shape of Shinto prayer divine protections. The primary effects were reverse-speedreading and careful enunciation. That would forcibly slow down anyone trying to crack the password. But…

…Eh!?

The initial barrier was already breached.

That seemed fast, but this was a name inheritor. And an inquisitor. It was best to assume she was decently skilled at her specialty, just like Asama was.

So Asama added another barrier. Then she adjusted the position of the password and added another.

But they were destroyed too.

“––––––?”

That seemed too fast, but then Asama saw something.

The enemy’s spell sign frame displayed a drawing of a sword.

…Is that…?

It was a password barrier destruction spell. It was known as the Sword of Confession and the Catholics only allowed inquisitors to use it.

After Asama confirmed that all eight sign frames were the same, another of her barriers shattered.

She still had two barriers left. The enemy swords were approaching, slowly but surely.

●

…This isn’t right!

Asama had set up a barrier as a shield within the spells surrounding them. But it was easily shattered by the sword spell.

Mitotsudaira looked to the spell to see how it could do this, and realized it was the Sword of Confession.

For the history recreation, inquisitors were granted two special rights.

The first was the right to hold emergency trials. And the other…

…Inquisition spells!

Inquisitors were meant to question anyone suspected of being a heretic and determine their guilt.

So they would question the suspect before holding the trial.

And that questioning used a single method to determine if the suspect was a heretic: confession.

A confession made before god would be the truth.

But people had a mind, made up of their emotions and reason, so it wasn’t so easy to persuade someone to confess.

The inquisitors in the Age of Gods had put a lot of effort into that issue.

During their questioning, they would use physical methods of persuading the suspect to confess.

Or to be more accurate, they used torture.

Regardless, the inquisitors – who saw themselves as “servants of god” – had shown a lot of creativity when it came to this “persuasion”. In the early stages, they had used a lot of gruesome torture while hunting for witches and heretics, but as time passed and those methods became a thing of the past, people started saying, “We still have those inquisitors around, but doesn’t torture kind of contradict the entire purpose of the Testament?” That had forced the inquisitors to rethink some things.

Ultimately, they had modified their torture implements, tied up the suspects, and…

“Now! Suffer at the hands of our torture devices! This one will give you a six pack just from falling over and getting back up repeatedly, leaving you with a devilishly muscular body! It’s such a gruesome device, I call it the WonderGore!”

“Are you ready for some water torture!? Listen up. Once you drink this one cup of water, you’ll feel so full you won’t want even want to eat! If you’re demon possessed, you’ll lose so much weight! This purifying water will take off 8 kilos in a week!”

“Look, we’ve put a bunch of spikes inside this iron doll. You know what that means, don’t you!? If you don’t confess, I’ll just have to put these fruits and veggies inside and demonstrate. Oh, but you can’t just put them in! You rotate it! Hurricane Mixerrrrrrr!! What’s this!? It’s squeezed all the juice out of the fruits and veggies!”

It became popular to knock on people’s doors or run late night divine TV ads with those overly emphatic demonstration sales tactics for the torture tools. And…

“Eeeeeek! I don’t want to confess! Torture me! Please torture me!”

The people fell to their knees and begged and the sales figures were perfect for the beginning of an age of plenty. As a side effect, the indigenous Technohexen were treated as scammers for the natural detox methods they recommended, which led to a lot of harm against them, but…

…That does technically align with the history recreation.

It had differed between regions, but it had apparently been especially bad in Naruze and Naito’s homeland, but this enemy was from Tres España, home of the inquisition.

They used straightforward spells and divine protections rather than torture tools meant to force a confession.

Of course, forcing people to “confess” things which weren’t true would be seen as a social problem in the current age and could even lead to international conflicts in some cases. So the confessions the inquisitors were after required a certain condition.

…That we don’t lie!

They used a divine protection which forced people to only tell the truth.

The words of god were unsullied. Light was found in the truth.

In court or when a testimony was required, that divine protection would preserve and prove the speaker’s righteousness. It meant everything spoken was the truth, so it could not be overturned by the defendant, the plaintiff, or even the judge.

But out of all the data defense spells, this one was the most offensive one. If you were asked to provide the password for a password defense, you would be forced to open it.

Hence why only inquisitors were given the authority to use it.

They did not restrict the spell.

The inquisitors were only granted the authority to use the spell for righteous purposes.

This placed the inquisitors above the law. These spells could not be used for wicked purposes. They were only granted the right to use this divine protection spell because they had agreed to that condition.

Of course, the terms “good” and “righteous” here used…

“The Catholic definitions.”

But, thought Mitotsudaira. That fact told her something, so she asked about it.

“Are you treating us as heretics!?”

○

Art-Ga: “For reference purposes, what did you set your password to, Mitotsudaira?”

Flat Vassal: “Probably ‘MYKING’.”

Horizey: “Then she might as well have set it to ‘DUNGBEETLE’.”

Smoking Girl: “Is that what you would set your password to?”

Horizey: “If the need arises, I will have no other choice!”

Silver Wolf: “Um, Horizon? You don’t need to get that worked up about it. And, Adele? I wouldn’t use such an obvious password.”

Still Got It: “Of course not. You would probably add the year you became your king’s knight onto the end.”

Silver Wolf: “––––––”

Wise Sister: “Heh heh heh. Another L for Mitotsudaira!”

Silver Wolf: “F-fine! I’ll add the month and day from now on!”

Horizey: “Mitotsudaira-sama, I am not sure that really solves anything.”

●

“Heretics?”

Adele noticed Rodrigo didn’t let up even as she repeated that word.

She was using 8 confession spells, which meant 8 restrictions. Those divine protection swords forced them to spend a set amount of time following 8 of the commandments Catholics were meant to obey.

…That’s probably really hard.

The restriction setting was something like a Catholic version of substitution and it forced you to do some really annoying things depending on the spell. You couldn’t give money or Blessings instead and labor didn’t count either. It came down to their religious morals and was a huge pain.

Substitutions in Shinto were an offering made to god, but restrictions were a limitation placed on yourself. It could honestly be pretty bad.

Of the ones Adele had done in the past, the easiest were the food restrictions. But the one time she had chosen a drink restriction, it had specified the brand and amount of wine she had to drink. Everyone gave me such cold looks when I carried a small wine cask into the classroom! And why did Asama-san have a bamboo bottle ready to go!?

There were also restriction spells that required meditation or exercise, but those were actually among the easier ones.

The worst was the “early to bed and early to rise” restriction for a health divine protection. Because her classmates – especially that idiot – would have events at all hours. And as a vassal, it was her job to assist.

After failing that one once, she had gone as far as posting a sign on her door saying, “Wake me between 10PM and 5AM and I will charge at you with my spear.” A week later, she had woken up in the morning to find she could see the ceiling of the room above her underground room and she had no idea what had happened. You could at least wake me up in an emergency!

But anyway, she could guess this Rodrigo went to even more trouble in her life.

…It can’t be easy.

“Eh? Um, why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Oh, no reason. Don’t mind me.”

Rodrigo tilted her head and Adele looked to her classmates.

Mitotsudaira, who was three steps to her side, had asked if they were being treated as heretics. So Adele asked the same thing.

“Are you treating me as a heretic too?”

Rodrigo raised her right index finger before answering.

“Um, listen carefully.”

The used the movement of her finger to direct the swords, sending the blades into the invisible seams between the sign frames. The sign frames shattered and ether light scattered as she spoke.

“You are Shinto, which makes you pagans, not heretics. But if any of you are using the hidden setting to mix Catholicism with Shinto, then you will be considered a Far Eastern branch of Catholic heretic. Do you understand now?”

○

Asama: “Huh, so even convenient features can have a downside.”

Flat Vassal: “Asama-san! Asama-san! You’re supposed to fight back, not smile weirdly!”

●

I can’t believe this, sighed Asama.

Confronting an inquisitor was a rare experience in Shinto. Frankly, it wasn’t normal at all.

At the start of the Harmonic Unification War, the inquisitors had apparently been a major problem whenever you let your guard down, but Shinto had received relatively friendly treatment after they acquired the Far Eastern infrastructure using their own methods.

But both sides had remained somewhat hostile to each other even after the Harmonic Unification War.

Rodrigo knew the circumstances here, so she must have prepared for a confrontation like this.

Asama was at a disadvantage.

So she had to start by fighting back as much as she could. Of course, Rodrigo would have planned for that, which was why she had used the confession spell, which was essentially her most powerful weapon.

…We’ve already lost if I don’t do something!

Asama needed a defense spell first. The password barriers weren’t even slowing Rodrigo down now.

“But what about this?”

Asama used a physical defense spell instead of a data one.

Barriers capable of stopping artillery were produced in compressed form and decompressed in front of them.

These were fairly thick from a data density perspective. They were masses of ether, after all. But…

“Too bad,” said Rodrigo, her swords sinking into the shields.

…Wow!

They didn’t pierce or destroy the shields. The swords sank in as if fusing with them.

“These are pure data, so I can pass through them no matter their thickness. Catholicism seeks confessions with the greatest sincerity. I will pass through even if it takes time.”

Rodrigo was coming. Her progress was slow and the attack had no physical power, but…

…None of my defense spells work!?

●

Mitotsudaira saw Rodrigo order her subordinates to move.

Managing eight confession spells at once had to be tricky.

So Rodrigo assigned two assistants to each of the Musashi side’s barriers. They would provide additional viewpoints and ensure her operation of the swords was on target.

…And the swords keep coming all the while. She doesn’t leave any kind of opening.

These movements suggested these people had combat experience with the Chancellor’s Officers. The way they opened cadena firmas and linked their operation to the confession spells meant they were part of a trained special duty unit and not just assistants.

Once those personnel had them surrounded, they targeted the weak point of the defense barriers.

This was a tricky one.

For anyone wielding those swords, password defense spells were no barrier at all. The password itself became the weak point. But…

…It doesn’t work on anything else, does it?

Mitotsudaira had seen the confession swords pass through Asama’s physical defense barriers earlier.

Those swords were slow and had no attack power, but they could pass through any defense.

If one hit you, you had already lost.

All divine protections would be identified and hijacked.

“What are we supposed to do?” muttered Mitotsudaira as two swords approached her. They were very close. Four of them were already nearly to Asama. Margot and Adele each had one approaching them.

The number of swords showed the enemy considered Asama the greatest threat. Mitotsudaira probably had two because of the shrine maiden uniform she wore. Then something occurred to her.

…What do they do if I move?

She tried taking a step back. And…

“Oh.”

It followed her.

“Mito, their position is based on their ether distance from you at the moment the spell was activated, so don’t move!”

If it simply followed after her, she could have tried moving too quick for it. But that wasn’t how it worked.

…It’s even closer now!?

When she stopped moving, the sword was closer than it had been. And the blade caught one of the defense spells around her.

The spell shattered. Broke. Only two layers of defense remained. But…

“Why did it get closer!?”

“Well, I would guess moving created enough instability for it to move in,” said Naito. “That won’t happen if you stay put, but moving creates some noise it can use.”

“So holing up and staying put is the best tactic?”

“Ordinarily, yes.”

“Testament,” replied a voice from up ahead. It was Rodrigo. She nodded before continuing. “If you surrender, I will claim your management rights, but I promise I will not view the data within. I say this as an inquisitor, so please view it as an unbreakable promise.”

Rodrigo’s offer came from the absolute advantage she currently enjoyed.

And the swords moved closer yet again.

Mitotsudaira had two defense barriers left. Asama could create them, so there had to be more she could do. But Adele and Margot were in trouble. They each only had one barrier left and their swords were quite close.

A moment later, another of Mitotsudaira’s barriers shattered. One of her two swords had reached it.

One left.

“Tomo!”

She knew it was a bad idea, but she raised her voice.

There was nothing they could do. Their only real option was for Asama to fortify her own defenses and fall back toward Mitotsudaira. That should have been what happened, but…

…The confession spell is too powerful, so Tomo’s spells aren’t enough!

What were they supposed to do in that case? Mitotsudaira could only think of one answer.

…Fight back physically!!

○

Art-Ga: “And there it is.”

Tachibana Wife: “If you lose in information warfare, you rely on the physical. There it is, indeed.”

Silver Wolf: “B-but all that really matters is that I found a fundamental solution!”

Vice President: “Found a fundamental international incident, more like.”

●

Adele realized the people in Tres Españan uniforms behind Rodrigo had taken fighting stances. They really only lowered their hips just a bit, but they were now ready to move in front of Rodrigo and defend her or fight back if necessary.

…I bet the Extra Special Duty Officer can handle three or four of them.

But while she did that, she would be stabbed by one of the confession swords.

That would strip her of all management rights over her divine protections and such, granting control to the enemy. If she was fighting, it was possible even more spells would be restricted.

Adele looked to Asama, wondering what they were going to do, but…

“Hey, Adele!”

Naito raised a hand to get her attention.

Adele turned toward Naito instead to see what this was about.

Naito suddenly stepped toward her, eliminating the space between them.

Naito was right in front of her now. And the confession sword following Naito came with her.

“Eh?”

It hit her.

●

“Huh?”

Mitotsudaira heard Rodrigo’s confusion.

Margot had apparently done something surprising behind her.

…What was that?

The Schwarz Hexen had self-destructed. Or rather, she had guided her confession sword into Adele.

How would the spell handle that?

“Ah!” shouted Adele as light scattered around her.

The defense barrier protecting her was shattered by the collision of the two confession swords.

That left Adele entirely defenseless, but…

“Whoops.”

Margot took a quick half step back, but her confession sword and Adele’s confession sword…

…They aren’t gone!?

Mitotsudaira had honestly assumed one or the other would have disappeared. But both remained and were approaching their respective girls.

Adele’s defense was gone, but the sword remained. She had nothing to protect her, putting her at risk. Margot’s action had created enough noise for the sword to approach her more. And Rodrigo…

“They will not cancel each other out. These are perfectly tuned spells, so acting on your silly ideas will only put yourself at greater risk.”

That appeared to be true. But Mitotsudaira felt an odd sense of relief.

Because Margot had acted just as she had decided to try a physical attack.

That Schwarz Hexen did not rush to act. She always made careful preparations before she was ready to take action.

It wasn’t like Margot to take action only for it to backfire.

She must have understood something about this divine protection and set something up that simply looked like backfiring.

…Which means Margot hasn’t made her actual move yet.

We’re in this together, thought Mitotsudaira. They faced the same situation and shared the same problem.

So she knew exactly how to respond.

“You set the stage for me, didn’t you?”

Mitotsudaira readied her arms to fight. She knew any actions would create noise that let the swords approach. But she would do it anyway. Physical attack was her only plan, so she would use that to draw attention to herself as a diversion. She would buy enough time for her classmates to use whatever Margot had set up.

“Tomo can’t move, so we just have to do this ourselves. Isn’t that right?”

“What?” Rodrigo frowned. “What can you possibly do? Trying to trick the confession spells into destroying each other will only shatter more of your defenses. That is not how I want this to go, but if it is the result of a heretic’s resistance, I cannot overlook it. It is a meaningless and dangerous act. You saw your friend’s defense spell destroyed just now, didn’t you? Can you really allow that to happen again?”

As soon as Rodrigo said that, a new noise came from near Adele. It sounded just like shattering glass and it came from…

…A sign frame!?

That hadn’t been open before. And it wasn’t Shinto. It was…

“A Catholic sign frame!”

Someone whistled.

It was Margot. She turned her head, pointed to Rodrigo, and…

“Welp, now you’ve done it.”

What had she done?

“Adele removed her Shinto hidden setting in an attempt to prove her Catholic allegiance, but you still hit her with the confession spell. Even though she’s no longer a heretic.”

●

Adele mentally prostrated.

She was Catholic. Technically. Yes, technically. But when you were Catholic on the Musashi, it was most beneficial to do things the Musashi way.

She had realized what she needed to do when Naito approached her and shattered her defense barrier. Naito had said “whoops” to disguise it as an accident, but she hadn’t been trying to destroy the confession spells. She had been trying to destroy Adele’s defense barrier.

The lack of hesitation in her actions had made that clear. She had known exactly what her actions would cause.

…Does she know how the confession spell works!?

The spells hadn’t canceled each other out, but they had destroyed Adele’s defenses. That meant the one was about to hit Adele.

What could Adele do to prepare in that situation?

What unique ability did she have that the others in this group didn’t?

My chest? No, the Extra Special Duty Officer is here.

Being a vassal? The Extra Special Duty Officer is a knight, so a vassal wouldn’t be any more help.

My money? What good is something I don’t have!? Well!?

“Um, Adele, calm down and keep the story going.”

Adele obeyed Asama’s comment from behind.

Yes, the answer was simple.

…I’m Catholic!

She used the hidden setting Asama had created in order to effectively be Shinto and Catholic at the same time. That made her a heretic, but if she removed that setting, she would go back to only being Catholic.

But the setting wasn’t so simple to remove. Not with the confession spell already on its way. If she removed her Shinto affiliation, the defense barriers and all of her divine protections would vanish and the confession could hit her right away.

But, she thought.

An inquisitor’s job was to capture heretics. What would happen if one captured a Catholic citizen?

Also, Adele was a Musashi resident. She was Catholic, but she was not Tres Españan. So…

“––––––”

She removed her Shinto affiliation and watched the confession sword pierce her Catholic divine protections.

…Did that do it!?

●

Mitotsudaira saw Adele’s sign frame shatter.

…She did it!

Rodrigo had overstepped and self-destructed.

Because she had tried to attack them as heretics, she had fallen for Adele’s risky feint and forced the Catholic girl to confess.

That was a mistake. Now the rest of them could handle this. This was no longer a battle of spells. They only had to accuse Rodrigo of wrongdoing to put a stop to this.

And since Asama was busy, that job fell on Mitotsudaira as a knight.

○

Unturning: “So a physical attack?”

Tachibana Wife: “That must mean a physical attack.”

Art-Ga: “Those are a pain to draw, so please don’t.”

Silver Wolf: “N-no! That isn’t what I meant! It isn’t!”

●

Mitotsudaira turned toward Rodrigo. She knew exactly what she had to say.

“Stop your confession spells! You just used one on Adele, who isn’t a heretic!”

“So what if I did?”

Rodrigo did not even look her way.

Her eyes were on Adele.

Or more accurately, on the object floating in front of the vassal after slicing through two sign frames.

“The confession stops when it detects its target is Catholic. This is the latest version of the spell. Also, I am supporting it and I would never make such an obvious mistake.”

Sure enough, the sword spell circle had stopped in front of Adele’s chest.

…Then what did it slice through?

“It destroyed a pair of Catholic cadena firmas, but they were not hers. Those were additional spells I included to stop the confession spell. Thus, they were my spell circles.”

○

Gold Mar: “Oops. Mito-tsan made a fool of herself.”

Unturning: “That sounds like a mistake the Secretary would make.”

Silver Wolf: “Now that’s a painful insult!”

●

Adele sensed danger.

Rodrigo smiled and spoke beyond the sword spell circle floating in front of Adele.

“The technique you attempted was used long ago to combat the heretic hunts. I assume the idea came from that Technohexen there. This was not your responsibility. But,” she continued. “Eastern Europe’s heretic and Technohexen hunts happened a long time ago. The techniques developed there traveled west and the spells have been improved in Tres España to assist our pursuit of pure blood and a pure religion.”

…Wow, this is not good.

As soon as Adele thought that, Rodrigo pointed at Naito.

The defense barrier in front of the Technohexen shattered. And…

“Naito-san!”

The only defense the Technohexen had left was her own magical divine protection. If that was destroyed, the confession spell would affect her. Rodrigo would steal away the management rights to Naito’s divine protections and the Technohexen would essentially be a hostage.

It was obvious that Naito had interfered with Rodrigo’s actions earlier. With that sin to charge her with, there was no stopping the inquisitor from labeling her guilty.

…Which means…!

What could Adele do? As a vassal, she turned toward her superior, Mitotsudaira.

Mitotsudaira held her hands in front of her face and gestured as if shoving them into her face.

…That must mean…

○

Flat Vassal: “I completely ignored it at the time, but that was a ‘chow down on some meat’ gesture, wasn’t it?”

Silver Wolf: “I was telling you to grab the confession spell and make it hit you.”

Smoking Girl: “Do the spell settings allow that?”

Asama: “Adele was Catholic at the time and I don’t think it would activate for another Catholic. But it was worth trying anything we could and Rodrigo-san was relying on others to help control the spells, so it was possible Adele grabbing the spell could have thrown the enemy off balance. Naito’s confession spell was being supported by the same person after all.”

Horizey: “In other words, Naito-sama is in trouble. Now, let’s see what happens next!”

Gold Mar: “Ohh. Horizon, you really know how to hype it up.”

●

Adele saw something else shatter.

This time, it was Naito’s Magie Figur. A defense one. That meant her protection had been destroyed.

“Now, this should be more or less settled,” said Rodrigo.

When the blade struck Naito, she held her chest and fell to her knees.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Wait, wait a second! I honestly don’t even know why you’re stopping us here.”

“Mikawa is at risk.”

“What does that have to do with stopping our investigation?” asked Naito.

“I want to eliminate as many causes for concern as possible,” replied the enemy.

In that case, thought Adele.

…This really is a major incident!

●

Even we qualify as a cause for concern? thought Mitotsudaira.

They were here to investigate the murder case.

That meant the two victims were likely important people. They had been part of something big that had to involve Rodrigo somehow. And Tres España was starting something.

…That would mean Rodrigo is pursuing the people involved in the case.

Why do that? Mitotsudaira didn’t know, but she did know Tres España was serious about this.

That led Mitotsudaira’s thoughts in a different direction.

…Honda Masazumi!

●

While they pursued this case, someone else was being pursued by the case for unknown reasons.

That person was Honda Masazumi.

Mitotsudaira had some questions for the girl concerning the attack last night and the origin of her knife.

They needed to secure Honda Masazumi against Tres España who were making moves to take control of the case.

…Rodrigo’s group has taken control of Mikawa, but how well do they understand the situation here?

Honda Masazumi was not in Mikawa. She was on the Musashi.

Tres España probably already knew that.

That part didn’t make sense.

If they had their eye on Honda Masazumi, then they would have had Mikawa’s Chancellor’s Officers tell them what she was doing. Yet they had just let her go to the Musashi.

…Could it be?

This was only a guess, but Mitotsudaira could think of one possible reason. So…

“Margot! That is enough!”

●

Adele saw the black Technohexen stand back up and take a deep breath.

“Whew. That was way too close.”

Rodrigo turned Naito’s way.

“Stay where you are! I have control of your management rights!”

That was meant as a warning, but the corners of Naito’s lips rose and she viewed the Catholic spell circle sticking into her chest.

“Do it then. You’re an inquisitor, aren’t you?”

Rodrigo let out a sharp breath and the blade glowed.

A moment later, a new shattering sound rang out. Ether light shards scattered from…

“…!?”

Adele followed Rodrigo’s puzzled gaze to see the sword had shattered.

The confession spell had suddenly exploded at Naito’s chest.

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