Chapter 80: Eye of Wisdom (Part Five)
It was a brown, heavily damaged hardcover notebook, palm-sized and looking ancient enough to be classified as a relic.
As the female swordsman handed me the notebook, I instinctively reached out to take it, only to suddenly notice that the cover was smeared with some kind of yellow-brown gooey substance. My face froze, and my hand promptly retreated.
“… You got it from under a corpse?”
“Yep.”
Upon hearing my question, the female swordsman nodded and stretched her hand forward again, indicating that I should take a look: “It seems like something that person desperately tried to protect before they died, which is why they were lying there.”
“Oh.”
I managed to maintain my cool and took a step back. “Open it and read it to me.”
With that, I ignored the female swordsman and glanced over at the now-quiet podium. It had been smashed to bits by falling stone beams, but the ceiling above was still standing strong, showing no signs of imminent collapse. Relief washed over me as I turned back, wiped the nearby bench with my cloak, wedged the torch into the iron armrest, and took a seat.
Rustle—
In the darkness, I could hear the sound of the female swordsman flipping through the pages.
“……”
She seemed to be skimming through it first. The pages rustled quickly, and aside from that, there was a long stretch of silence.
Seconds passed, and as I turned my head in curiosity towards the sword demon miss, I caught her slamming the notebook shut with a “bang,” her eyes wide and innocent as she met my gaze: “… I can’t read.”
?
“Why not?”
It should just be a notebook, right?
Could it really contain some kind of secret code?
“I’m not very literate.”
“……”
Uh…
Well, okay.
I didn’t even know what to say.
“A few simple things I can recognize… The first page says ‘The Choir of Saints…’ record or something… case file? Archive? The Choir of Saints, from what I know, is just those black-cloaked heretics.”
“……”
I opened my mouth, and after a moment of silence, I sighed and said, “Forget it, just bring it here.”
The Choir of Saints…
Case file?
Hearing these terms, my interest in the notebook’s contents spiked up.
I had actually been wondering if those Choir of Saints guys were around here. After all, places concerning church experiments often seemed to be crawling with those sneaky members that I still couldn’t recognize.
Now it seemed my suspicion was correct…
It’s almost confirmed; they are the ones behind the church experiments, the folks actually implementing it all.
Likely, they were also the ones who rescued me from that cliff…
The Choir of Saints.
As I thought about this, the sword demon miss came over and sat beside me on the bench. Suddenly, a face with a bird-beak mask flashed through my head.
There are Pope Knights in the Choir of Saints…
“Here.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the female swordsman calmly pass the notebook back to me: “Here you go.”
I even noticed that even the thumb on the sword demon’s hand was smeared with that gross sticky substance…
“Just put it on the bench, open it, and help me turn the pages… I don’t want to touch this thing, it’s too disgusting.”
“… Oh.”
She nodded, retracting her hand, and laid the notebook open on the bench, ensuring the words were facing me. But looking somewhat puzzled, she asked, “Why is it disgusting?”
“… Don’t you think so?”
I was shocked.
Yet the female swordsman shook her head nonchalantly: “Not really.”
She wasn’t lying; I could tell she was completely immune to these things, and she was instead puzzled as to why I found it uncomfortable: “When we d*e, don’t we end up looking like that?”
“… Ugh! Well, when you d*e, that’s how you look.”
How did the conversation devolve into this!?
I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t muster the energy, so I just uncomfortably shifted my b*tt to lean away from this weirdo a bit, and cautioning her quickly, I said, “Just don’t touch me with those hands.”
Then I forced myself to shove aside those chaotic thoughts, lowering my head to concentrate on the open notebook illuminated by the torchlight.
[Draft of the Choir of Saints Second Division Research Record—“Fate” Program Phase Four Progress Report (Top Secret)]
Some of the pages were rotten, yellowing, and blackened, with blurred yet neatly written words suddenly coming into focus.
[Year 1188, Woodward Forest – Castle of Silence, Phase Plan Leader: Cardinal Michel L. Borgia, Recorder: Heiler Westwood]
“……”
At the sight of this line, my heart raced with a jolt, and I instantly knew what I was looking at.
The “Fate” program…
Such a cliché name, yet a terrifying implication.
They had already advanced to the fourth phase of the experiment…
What would that mean?
What were the first three phases?
And what was my connection to it…?
“Turn the page!”
But the first opened page just had that one small line, and everything more important must be in the following ones. I couldn’t help but urge her, not waiting for the sword demon’s response. Forget about what’s dirty or what’s gross, I instinctively reached out to handle that brittle yellow page, quickly flipping it over.
[In June 1188, Commander Seattle concluded the investigation of the “Sea of Flowers” in Woodward Forest, and Cardinal Michel took control of the Castle of Silence. The “Grace Balance” is fully prepared, and the Holy City’s great “Eye of the Ancient Gods” will be reactivated using the power of the remains of Gidales, “World.” This is the will of humanity, and even though we have lost Silvya, the light of hope has not abandoned us. I believe we will overcome that evil filth, completely liberating the church’s populace from Gidales’ shackles, granting them stability and freedom…]
“What does it say…”
“Shh! Don’t talk.”
The female swordsman’s curious questions couldn’t break me out of my gradually excited state, so I just let her know to keep quiet, and continued looking down. However, the next half-page had been eaten away by bugs, and much of the content was gone. Realizing this, I quickly examined the book’s middle seam and found that a page had already been torn out.
No problem, no problem…
I repeated in my mind, flipping to the next page.
That name, Seattle, I vaguely remembered—it should be the commander of the Grace Balance… one rank above Isaac… no, maybe a lot higher…
He was the one who sent people to meet up with the old Sword Saint in the Eastern Continent; he knows the truth about the Deities… probably knows more than I do…
I know about the Eye of the Ancient Gods too…
Back in the Dragon Country, I was forcibly transported there once; it seemed to be some sort of teleportation node or focal point… something like that… so those knights could suddenly appear in the desert…
Michel? Who is that? A Cardinal?
Leaving aside the deceased Nero, and the now ‘sinner’ St. George, there are two remaining Cardinals, and he’s one of them… but I’ve never seen him…
The remains of Gidales?
Divine Reliquary, so it was the remains of Gidales?
Ah…
That piece of spine that was transferred by Teresa back in the Royal City… wasn’t it a dragon’s bone…? So it turns out it was a Deity body… Margaret lied to me!
No problem… no problem…
Now I know… I should have guessed this long ago…
It even mentions me here… they indeed thought I was dead…
Awesome…
I can read this…
Even with missing pages, just being able to read is good enough…
My mind was racing at high speed, trying to connect all the various thoughts that had flashed through my mind earlier, though my thoughts remained jumbled, and my emotions a mess. I realized these weren’t something I could figure out all at once; first, I had to finish reading this record to get more information…
So, as I opened the third page, I continued looking down.
[In July 1188, I led all members of the Second Division of the Choir of Saints along with Cardinal Michel to the Castle of Silence, accompanying the first batch of sinful flowers…]
