13 Mink Street

The window was shut again. Nio and Karon each leaned back against either side of it, and Nio said, “He actually walked step by step toward godhood for the sake of a woman who was never even his.”

Unlike the captain’s sighing reflection, what continued to echo in Karon’s heart was the Sea God’s curse before his fall. Back then, Rhanedar had been full of spirit and contemptuous of a god’s curse, even answering it with a scornful, “Childish.”

Karon could not help wondering what he must have thought when Tiz and Mr. Hoffen joined hands to seal him within the body of a dog.

For a long time, Karon had remained wary of Kevin. Just as Mr. Hoffen had written in the notes where he recorded the method of lifting the seal: Are you insane?

A heretical god was still a heretical god. Even if the judgment of being “heretical” had not been entirely fair... if you turned an ordinary man into a dog, he would still fight you to the death, let alone a heretical god.

But after opening these three windows today, Karon had gained a deeper understanding of Kevin. His vigilance would certainly continue. Karon would never truly lower his guard around that large golden retriever at home, no matter what, but on top of that, it now seemed there might be a few more subjects they could talk about.

No matter how one looked at it, judging by the final outcome, the Sea God’s curse seemed to have come true.

Nio spoke again, “I truly have a hard time imagining what that must have felt like. How exactly did he manage it? I even suspect that before he became a god, Goddess Mios may not have even known his name at all.”

“Because Goddess Mios was the moon. Though the heretical god never possessed the moon, her light once shone upon him.”

“I truly didn’t expect you to describe a pathetic, one-sided hopeless love affair in such a dignified way.”

“Captain, that is itself a kind of beauty. After all, every person defines beauty differently, and some things do not need resonance, nor do they require empathy. It is enough that they move the one who feels them, themselves.”

Nio sighed. “Still, I really never expected a heretical god to have such a side. This leaves me with a strange feeling. What a pity. If outsiders could get in here, if this place could truly be reproduced in reality and opened to the public as the former residence of a famous figure, there would definitely be endless visitors.”

“In that case, the heretical god would be furious.”

“Heh.” Nio once more looked around the room. The shabby furnishings inside concealed nothing of value, and more importantly, even if there really were anything valuable here, it would not be material and could not be taken out.

Well, there was indeed something incomparably precious in that great stretch between the two doors, but that was intellect itself. Even the Church of Order did not dare dissect it, much less the two of them.

The two men came back out of the wardrobe, crossed once more through that star-filled radiance, and returned to the original red door. When they reached it, Nio pulled on it, but it remained tightly shut. Then, he took Karon’s hand and walked out through the red door.

Once outside, Nio turned around and pulled at the door again. It would not open.

Karon said, “Since there’s already an outer door that no outsider can possibly enter, there’s no need to lock the inner one. After all, if someone tried to force it open, everything inside would be destroyed along with it.”

Nio nodded. “You don’t actually need to explain things so deliberately.”

“All right, Captain. Then... are we heading back now?”

Inside this castle, the two of them had already found the true secret, but that secret did not seem to have any value that could be converted into anything tangible, so there was not much point in staying here longer.

Nio did not answer Karon immediately. Instead, he asked, “By the way, when you came in, what state was that newcomer in?”

“Mr. Eisen was asleep too.”

“Then that means he came in as well, but I didn’t see him here.”

“Yes. I originally thought you and Mr. Eisen had come in together, Captain.”

“Holding hands?”

“Uh...”

“Before I fell asleep, I left you a hint with my posture.”

“Actually, Mr. Eisen did the same.”

“He also knows you have a mask? Ah, right, you were the one who had Lemar make his mask for him. But then here comes the problem: following a normal train of thought, once someone enters this consciousness world again, the first thing he would do is come take a look at this castle, yet he didn’t come here.

“That means there is some other place in this consciousness world worth paying attention to, something even more important than this castle. If this castle is the operational core, then there must be some other place that serves as the control core.”

“You think Mr. Eisen went there, Captain?”

“The standing of the Gorman family is higher than you imagine. Families that truly possess ability and legacy can no longer be measured by priestly rank when it comes to their influence.

“At the very beginning, I realized the environment I was in wasn’t real, yet he seemed to recognize much earlier that it was all a deception. His understanding of this place is a level deeper than mine.”

“Then... shall we go find him now?”

“Of course. After reading that secret diary hidden deep in the memory of this Mr. Heretical God, we still have plenty of time left. Are we really supposed to go back and sleep?

“Besides, a squad member suddenly vanished. As captain, I obviously have to go find him and bring him back safely. Not abandoning our own is the creed of the Hunting Hounds squad, isn’t it?”

“You’re right, Captain.”

“So now the question is, in this place, apart from the castle, what else would be suitable for a control core?”

“Captain, I think we should change our line of thought. The place we’re standing in now is Arles Castle, but the real Arles Castle probably doesn’t look like this, and it certainly doesn’t have that red door.

“So where the control core is may not be something we can infer from a specific physical location.”

“You mean we trace it through signs?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I understand. You’re right. In a place like this, this is indeed your specialty. So, have you found it?”

“Yes. Smoke. It was the guidance the fake you gave us, though I don’t know if it’s still there now, or if we can find it in time.”

“Smoke?” Nio walked to the eastern side of the castle and opened a window. This was a reasonable vantage point. Around the castle, a number of Whip squad members could be seen scattered about, all “swimming.”

Farther off, down the road, five people were gathered together, and smoke coiled around them. “Well now, what luck. It really is still there.”

Karon also walked over and looked at the white mist. “This sort of haze is actually the most effective form of suggestion, yet it is also the one that leaves the clearest traces. I imagine it’s only used against particularly stubborn subjects, to make them, and anyone they drag along with them, lose themselves once more in the fractured time.”

“In other words, everything inside the castle was prepared in advance, but they made far fewer arrangements outside. This haze is more of an external contingency measure.”

“Yes, Captain. In smoke, people are easily deranged. They are easily corrupted. I think someone inside the control core is using his consciousness to affect the target.”

“Then that should be it. Your guess is correct. Do you remember the sealed room where we were sleeping, the place with the Whip of Order carved on the ceiling?”

“I remember. Fannie said that it should be an interrogation room of the Whip of Order.”

“Yes, that’s right. The interrogation room. The environment inside it can change, and that is the function of the Wall of Judgment. Every district has one, distributed to the various departments that need to use it.”

“The Wall of Judgment?”

“Not the name of the Art with the same title, but a divine artifact. In the previous epoch, there was a God of Judgment who wanted to become the mediator and arbiter between the various forces of the gods. He wanted to use that method to bring an end to the endless wars among the gods, but when he was mediating a campaign of suppression launched by the God of Light, our God of Order acted and suppressed the God of Judgment. His divine artifact, the Wall of Judgment, then fell into the hands of our Church of Order. Of course, not just that divine artifact, his entire legacy was absorbed by our Church of Order as well. The eventual formation of the Inquisitor sequence may very well owe something to his contribution and dedication.”

“Captain, how do you know all this?”

“The other night, I suddenly realized that there is a gap in my knowledge of this type, because I never liked reading books, and I like memorizing even less. Besides, sometimes when you read what’s written in books for yourself, you know full well that it isn’t true.

“But the problem is exactly there. If you don’t fill in that kind of knowledge, then when you need it, things become awkward, especially after you and I exchanged secrets. That sense of embarrassment became even more obvious.

“So recently, I deliberately went through the relevant memories of the other him inside my soul. The effect has been remarkably good. I can now even recite Light Epoch backward, and I mean the unabridged version of Light Epoch.”

“Captain...”

“Are you worried that he’s trying to preach to me that way?”

“Yes.”

“If he can save me the process of memorizing, I’m willing. After all, every convenience and shortcut comes at a cost.

“All right, let’s go down and trace the smoke back in the opposite direction, before it disperses.”

Karon and Nio left the castle and went outside. The place where the smoke was thickest, and the direction it extended toward, was not their goal. What they cared about was the direction from which the smoke came. It was faint, nearly imperceptible, but it was still there.

Nio was in front and Karon behind. The two of them jogged all the way until they discovered that the smoke was coming from beneath a road sign. The sign read “Arles Castle.”

Nio folded his arms and said, “All right. Now our problem has changed. How do we get in?”

Karon reached out and touched the sign, but there was no reaction at all.

Nio grabbed the sign and shook it, but again there was no response.

At that moment, a cloud of blue smoke began to spread out from within the sign. Nio and Karon instantly went on guard.

From within that blue smoke, the figure of a man condensed, his face covered with a silver mask. When he saw the two standing before him, he raised a hand and removed the mask, revealing Eisen’s real face.

“Mr. Eisen,” Karon said, somewhat surprised.

Eisen nodded to Karon, then looked at Nio and asked, “Captain, do you want to go in?”

“Yes. Have you already been inside?” Nio asked.

“Yes. I was just about to go back to the sealed room and sleep after coming out.”

“What is inside?” Nio asked.

“Inside, it’s very dull, like a group of fireflies having a meeting.”

Nio frowned slightly. “Fireflies... having a meeting?”

Karon said to Nio, “Captain, there’s no need to search for deeper meaning in what Mr. Eisen says. He prefers direct description.”

Nio looked at Karon and asked, “But can you picture, in your mind, what a meeting of fireflies looks like?”

“Uh...” Karon shook his head.

“So, how do we get in?” Nio asked Eisen.

“You mean, do you want me to take you in and let you have a look?” Mr. Eisen asked.

“What else?” Nio replied.

“In that case, Captain, you can simply say so next time.”

“All right, I’ll remember that. Now I order you, my squad member Memphis, to take your captain, me, and your squad member, Karon, in.”

“All right, Captain.” Eisen bent down and drew a simple ritual array on the ground.

“What kind of ritual array is that?” Nio asked.

“A very simple one.”

“Could you be a bit more specific?”

“It’s like a key. Some secret places in certain special departments of the church use this kind of thing as a key, but the people in those departments are usually rather lazy, and rarely change their keys.

“I tried several kinds of keys I used to know, one after another. The second one worked.”

“All right. Talking to you really is exhausting.”

A slight curve appeared at the corner of Eisen’s mouth. “But I like the atmosphere of your squad a great deal. This mission has also been very rewarding for me. I understand my son better now.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Yes. A good thing.” Eisen nodded.

The simple ritual array was completed. Eisen straightened up and said, “All right. I’m going to activate the array now, then I’ll go in with you, because I still need to bring you back out afterward.”

“Actually, that won’t be necessary, because I’ve already learned your simple array. You can go back to the sealed room and sleep,” Nio said.

“All right.” Eisen stepped out of the circle of the array. “Then I’ll activate it for you.”

“Wait.” Nio suddenly raised a hand. He seemed to have thought of something, and asked, “A group of fireflies having a meeting, so the inside is a pure consciousness space of Order?”

“Yes.”

“The kind where faith, consciousness, spirit, realm, aura, and all the other factors are weighed and presented in a sort of primal state?”

“Yes, that is correct. It is a security measure used during meetings between special departments. In some departments, even their own personnel are not permitted to disclose their identities to one another, so they can only communicate and meet in this manner.”

“In that space, everyone appears as a ball of light, right? So that’s why you said it looked like a group of fireflies in a meeting?”

“Yes.”

“How many kinds of color are there?”

“They range from gray to black, and then toward red, with red-black tones being dominant. Also, their sizes differ. The redder they are, generally the larger they are, and the higher their status inside.

“When I went in just now, someone even greeted me.”

Eisen was an Expositor, so the grade of the ball of light he manifested would certainly not be low. Once inside, while no one knew the others’ true identities within the Church, rank and status would still be obvious at a glance.

“In that case, I can’t go in after all. Heh.” Nio stepped out of the circle of the array.

“All right, Captain.” Eisen nodded and did not ask why the captain had suddenly changed his mind. Eisen had no interest in prying into the captain’s secrets. Anything outside his own duties rarely interested him in the least.

But Karon knew why the captain had abruptly changed his mind. Nio was worried that once he went in, everyone else would appear as red-black light clusters, while he himself would turn out to be pure white. Because the power the captain currently used was entirely of the Light system. Even in battle, the power he used was first converted from Light into Order.

Bertha had not mistaken him for a powerhouse of the Light system. In truth, the captain really was one, from the inside out, the real thing.

Eisen turned to look at Karon. He stepped back into the circle of the array and said, “Then I’ll take Karon in for a look.”

“Mm, good.” Nio nodded. “Take Karon in and let him broaden his horizons.”

“Stand properly,” Eisen said. “Once inside, there’s no need to be nervous. There are many powerful presences in there, and even more ordinary ones. Your rank there won’t be low either.”

“All right. I understand.”

Eisen activated the array. Blue light enveloped both him and Karon, then their figures twisted and vanished into the road sign before them.

***

Karon opened his eyes and found himself in a space woven from countless chains. Within each mesh formed by those chains, images were playing in real time, tracking every person, or more precisely, every marked target. The unmarked did not appear at all. In this world of consciousness, what was unmarked might as well not exist. This was why the Whip of Order member who had seemed to be swimming through the air passed straight by Karon without noticing him.

By that same logic, because Karon effectively did not exist, the captain had been able to take him throughout Arles Castle unnoticed.

Hundreds of motes of light floated throughout the space, varying in size and color. At the very center, in what appeared to be the command tier, floated more than a dozen large red motes of light.

Beyond them was a ring of medium-sized dark red motes, and further out was a ring of deep black ones.

At the outermost edge were the smallest lights, faintly tinged with grey, and by far the most numerous.

What surprised Karon was that the instant he entered, the entire space fell still. The murmuring stopped. Every awareness in the chamber turned toward him.

Though they appeared only as spheres of light, the sensation of being watched was even clearer here than in the physical world. Stripped of the body’s limitations, perception and intent became far more direct.

He had slipped in quietly, only to become the center of attention the moment he arrived.

Karon’s nerves tightened at once. He began searching for Eisen. Didn’t he say that everything would appear normal once they entered, and no one would pay attention? Then where is he? Where is Eisen’s light?

Karon searched quickly. At last, far below, he spotted a black mote hovering close to his own position. Why is Uncle Eisen’s presence so small?

No, that was not it.

Karon finally understood. It was not that Eisen was small; It was that he himself was enormous.

He had forgotten that he was wearing the mask that Tiz had left behind.

Karon turned his awareness upon himself and finally grasped the scale of what he had become. Every other light in the chamber, even the great red presences at the center, seemed diminished beside him, and his own radiance was not merely red, but was threaded with molten gold; ancient and majestic beyond words.

Then, after a stunned pause in which disbelief yielded to fact, every light in the chamber directed reverence toward him, like worshippers bowing before an altar. A single cry rose in unison, “We bow before the Temple Elder!”