Chapter 159.1: Investigation Report (Part 1)
「Let's talk about what you saw and found now.」
Solomon carefully stored the document, then brought over a silver cart. It was loaded with plenty of cookies, cake, and a tea set. He quickly took the tea set and began pouring a few cups. Once he had everything ready, he sat down on a couch in front of Mira.
「Simply reading a report isn't that fun.」
Solomon already knew the gist of everything that went down in Sentopolly and Roseline from various sources of information. But he still liked hearing the story from someone who was there, in part to crosscheck with everything he heard before, and in part because he enjoyed listening to stories. Regardless of his motives, his eyes twinkled like those of a boy yearning for adventures.
「You're truly helpless...」
Mira muttered as she reached out for a slice of chocolate cake. She then sipped a bit of the milk tea Solomon prepared, and took a long breath like an old man in retirement.
「Where shall I start then... I feel like I already told you half through a call before.」
「Since you're here and all, please start from the beginning.」
When Mira was traveling from the Fifty Bells' headquarters towards Sentopolly, Solomon had called her wagon as Patronager S, and Mira had updated him on everything up to that point. Solomon remembered that as well, but he still asked her to start over, his eyes looking at her full of expectation.
「Hmm, alright then.」
Her adventurous tale would take some time to relate. Mira tried to remember everything as she slowly began to talk.
「And that's about everything I was involved with.」
Mira had found one of the people she was looking for, Kagura, and the organization she had founded. Many famous adventurers had joined her, as well as skilled spies like Sasori and Hebi. Along the way Mira had gained new spirits to summon, and met the Spirit King by chance. Then she ran into Écarlate Carillon again, and helped rescue the alchemist Johann, his family, and his assistant Mylenne.
After that they began infiltrating Chimera Clauzen. Discovered the Graveyard of War Memorials, the past of demons, and the curse they left behind. After fighting with Chimera Clauzen's heads, they discovered who had been behind everything. A ghost of the demons, who had possessed the angel who gave her life to seal the curse away. In the end, Mira also learned about the past of devils and angels.
Mira told him everything, from the moment she left Arkite to visit the Fifty Bells' headquarters until she came back. Once she was done, she muttered, 「Now that I think about it, that really was a long time,」 before stuffing her cheeks with a cream puff.
「Yeah, hearing you talk about it all uninterrupted does go to show how much you did, good work though. I'm a bit disappointed that Kagura won't be coming back any time soon, but from what you said I can tell she's busy. We know where she is, and I'll trust she'll keep her promise too, so that's alright.」
With Mira's recount of her experiences complete, Solomon looked satisfied and took some sheets of paper from his desk. He frowned a bit as he thought, then began writing down everything Mira had told him.
「Still, I feel like there was one surprise after another in what you told me. Especially when it comes to devils and angels.」
「Mhm, I have to agree with you on that.」
It felt like there was an endless number of various topics all intermingled in Mira's story. There was the fact that a devil was involved with the creation of Chimera Clauzen, but even more shocking was the past of devils, which was almost enough to completely overturn the common view of those entities. And it had all been corroborated by an angel.
「I feel like trying to research such topics can be complicated though. Even more considering a devil might have sparked that entire issue.」
「You're right. The past has passed, and now's the present. Who's to say other of our current issues weren't caused by other devils? They're always working in secret after all.」
「There's always a chance a different organization as large as Chimera Clauzen might spring out of nowhere again. It's not like it didn't work once.」
Solomon grunted, looking exhausted just thinking about that. The Graveyard of War Memorials, a name given to the resting place of many demons, had been excavated decades ago. The devil who had led that whole operation was still missing since then, so it was only a matter of time before he would attempt to blow open a different coffin.
Kagura and the angel Tiriel were planning on investigating the remaining coffins, so Solomon decided to bet on their success and safety.
「Oh right, talking about devils...」
Solomon finished writing the new information about angels and devils, and stored those papers in his Item Box instead of his desk. Then he seemed to recall something, going to a nearby shelf and taking out some files which he spread in front of Mira.
「Oh, it's that place.」
Taking a glance at the documents, Mira seemed to notice something. Though they had been talking about devils for so long that she had also thought about that place.
「I kept receiving reports while you were away. First, here's everything we learned so far.」
Solomon took out a group of documents out of the countless pages and pointed at a map drawn on it, starting to talk about what he had heard. The reports came from the last floor in the Ancient Temple Nevrapolis, where Mira had once run into a devil.
There were various notes attached to the map, but Solomon began with what a devil would want in such a place. To put it simply, he still had no idea.
「So far all we've found was a tunnel at the bottom of that lake, it looks man-made, but it goes incredibly deep.」
When Mira was there, the devil had come out from the lake. That was why the investigation focused on the lake, where they found that strange tunnel, but it seemed to go on endlessly.
The lake on the last floor was only about twenty meters deep, but the hole was around two meters in diameter. It seemed like it had been dug out only recently. The investigation team decided that was probably a devil's handiwork, so they proceeded with extreme caution.
They found out the tunnel went at least a hundred meters below the lake's surface, and it was strangely slanted, as if heading towards a specific location.
「We presume the hole was dug by a devil, and it goes far enough to reach the area beneath that white castle.」
Saying that, Solomon produced a cross-section map showing the white castle and the lake out of the papers, placing it in front of Mira. The tunnel was shaped like a V, going down at an angle, then sharply turning up until it stopped directly below the white castle, at an unnatural hole in the earth.
「This large bubble of sorts has apparently been there for ages.」
While the tunnel was likely dug by a devil, the space it reached had been there since before the devil reached it. Everyone seemed to agree that the devil's objective had been to reach that place.
The question remained as to what the devil hoped to accomplish there. That was where Solomon's ultimate conclusion came from. He did not know. That open space deep below the white castle was similar to the last floor, filled with countless glowing crystals making any artificial light needless.
One striking difference was that the ground of that opening was covered with withered plants. As far as they could tell, those plants had withered during the last couple of months, intoxicated by some powerful mana thought to be a devil's, but researching exactly what it was would still take some time.
There was another mysterious fact about that place. In the center of that underground bubble there was a hole shaped like a perfect cylinder around 5 meters wide. The walls of the hole seemed to indicate it had been dug out recently, but they found nothing worth investigating even after examining it all the way to the bottom.
「Let's forget about the specific location for a bit. Considering the state of those contaminated plants, I feel like it's fair to assume that the devil you defeated was trying to gain some sort of power from that place.」
Solomon was done filling Mira in, muttering 「This is all so mysterious」 as he gathered the documents he had placed in front of Mira.
「I'm also surprised there was such a place below the castle. I also wonder what kind of plants were growing down there.」