Chapter 63

Chapter 63 : The Edge of Truth (5)

When the mist cleared again and the shape of our surroundings appeared, we had already moved.

The first thing I saw through my gradually clearing vision was a clocktower rising high into the air.

The clock attached to the end of the square, angular building was so enormous that its size could not be guessed, and its hands were visible even from hundreds of meters away.

Right.

We had arrived several hundred meters away from that clocktower and set foot on a terrace of a castle lined with sharp spires.

When I leaned out and checked below, the mist that had not fully cleared lay thick across the ground, making it impossible to judge the height.

Ding!

[Achievement 〈Stepping into Mist’s Domain〉 achieved.]

[You gain points +1P.]

Fluffnix, who had suddenly flown in before we moved, was startled by the unexpected situation and flapped above my head a few times before landing on my shoulder.

“Welcome. This is my land.”

Retu looked at my bewildered face, smiled faintly, and pointed toward the inside of the terrace.

Since the clocktower had been visible straight ahead, I had roughly expected it. This was Mist’s Domain, and more than that, it was the residence of Retu, its ruler.

“So you can just…… move like this.”

It was fortunate, at least, that I had asked Ru in advance to look into Pering’s movements.

“If it is about the aide, there is no need for concern. I gave my Ochel advance notice.”

“Ah, that is a relief.”

It really was a relief. Since Ru monitoring Pering beyond her authority was illegal, help from someone like Ochel, who could read energy and easily infiltrate by turning into mist, had quite a few advantages.

“Blech, urk!”

Fluffnix, whom I had been worried about because she had said this was a place difficult for Phantasmal Species to endure, was staying still, but Murel clutched the railing, stuck his head out, and retched.

I patted Murel on the back, then grabbed him by the nape and pulled him inside the terrace.

Perhaps he was having a hard time getting a grip on himself, because Murel crawled across the floor like waterlogged cotton before hugging some pillar and swallowing back another retch.

“By any chance, Lady Retu, do you know why he is acting like that?”

“It is simple motion sickness from travel. That child is mixed with human blood, so his sickness is worse.”

“Mixed?”

With a human, at that? Was that why he had drawn a cold yet firm line about humans being fine when we left the former Sky’s Domain?

At that moment, Fluffnix, who had been sitting on my shoulder, gagged painfully as though retching up something invisible, then shrank further and turned back into the old crow-tit form.

Then, perhaps even sitting on my shoulder was too difficult, he flew into my pocket and showed no intention of coming out.

Since I had brought him to a place like this without warning, I would have nothing to say even if he sulked.

“He will adapt with time, so do not worry.”

Since I felt guilty being relatively fine compared with those two, I handed Retu the tea tin I had brought along.

“I will enjoy it gratefully. Wait here a moment.”

Retu set the tea tin appropriately on the table, pointed to an empty sofa, and said she would explain the business once I had rested for a little while. Then she went outside.

The moment she did, Murel, who had been dipping one foot in the river to the next world, recovered completely, draped both arms over the back of the sofa, even crossed his legs, and settled into a relaxed posture.

“You were mixed-blood?”

I also sat beside him in a similar posture, having known that Murel had already finished adapting after that first retch.

Tilting his head back, Murel said,

“Yes. Had I not told you?”

“You probably did before, but the current me is hearing it for the first time.”

“Hmm. I hope this memory loss ends quickly. Only then can Lord Iwon and I look back on everything we experienced together and reminisce, can we not?”

Knowing that those memories had not all been happy, I shook my head at his shameless claim. I hoped he was not beautifying even pain and preserving it as a lovely memory.

“To think I have come not only to the forest, but even to Mist’s Domain. It is a peace I could not have imagined in the past.”

Unlike his words, Murel looked indifferent.

I glanced at him and asked,

“So are you dissatisfied?”

“Of course not. More than that, I am a little afraid. Of the aftermath when this peace breaks.”

“It will be harder than before,” Murel added, then shrugged and pointed toward the door Retu had left through.

Soon after, the door opened, and in her place entered a neat-looking man with red hair, like Retu’s, cleanly swept back.

“My lord instructed me to guide you both. Ah, I am Archivist Katesa.”

The monocle on one of Katesa’s eyes flashed.

This Archivist looked quite normal, able to communicate with outsiders and apparently free enough to take on guiding duties.

In other words, everything about him was different from Ru.

“What about Lady Retu?”

“My lord must recover her energy after a long outing. She will be back to normal in a few days, so you need not worry.”

“I…… see. I have not yet heard the details of Lady Retu’s commission.”

“I will explain that as we go, Riwin.”

He gave off the impression of a clean, polished butler.

Katesa opened the door, placed one hand lightly over his stomach, and indicated outside with the other as he waited for us.

I tapped Murel on the shoulder and rose.

“Let us go.”

The castle interior was not very different from the Ruler of the Forest’s castle or the Ruler of the Sky’s castle.

If the image the forest gave off was wood, and the sky gave off something antique, then the only difference here was that every object formed a black-and-white space made solely of black and white.

It was modern interior design that did not suit an old medieval castle, yet the image fit surprisingly well and made it worth looking around.

“How much have you heard about the commission?”

“Nothing?”

“Then I shall explain slowly from the beginning.”

A red pattern shaped like a crown of thorns appeared on Katesa’s forehead.

At the same time, a small mist bloomed softly before my eyes, gathered tightly, and created a virtual space.

It held a small transferred image of the clocktower and the ruler’s castle.

The gathered mist scattered again, this time creating the image of the clocktower alone in focus.

“For us, the clocktower is extremely important.”

“Does it have meaning?”

“That clocktower represents the boundary dividing life and death. It is a bell tower that announces the end of life, and like fireworks that welcome death.”

As if for emphasis, the mist model greatly enlarged the clocktower and shifted to a composition that looked up at the clocktower from the ground.

Just as Archivist Ru read text and recorded it in books, it seemed the Archivist here saw phenomena through mist and revealed them through mist as well.

The mist model, enlarged enough for the clock to be visible, spun the clocktower round and round until it made me dizzy.

I pulled my gaze from the model, looked at Katesa, and asked,

“Has something happened to it?”

“Yes. It has been nearly a year since the clock in the clocktower stopped.”

“That sounds rather ominous.”

He had said it was a clock that represented the boundary dividing life and death. If the clock stopped and could no longer announce that boundary?

It meant the dead might become the living, and the living might become the dead.

“Rather than ominous, to be precise, if the boundary of the dead collapses, both the Surface World and the Underworld will be devoured by ‘them.’ Mist’s Domain also serves the role of holding them in place.”

Katesa shook his head, wearing a serious expression.

But he soon gathered his expression and saved his words all the way until we reached the entrance of the ruler’s castle.

“I believe it would be best for you to see it yourself, so I will guide you to the clocktower.”

After leaving through the main gate of the ruler’s castle and crossing a long arched bridge, the mist grew even thicker, making it difficult to distinguish objects right in front of us, and our pace gradually slowed.

Even merely following Katesa’s back and trying not to lose the way was exhausting.

Not being able to see ahead truly gnawed at the nerves in a frightening way.

Katesa seemed to understand that too, and he focused on guiding us. Additional explanation only continued after we arrived at the clocktower.

“Members of the Mist are specialized in repairing things from birth. They are good at handling tools, and it is not difficult for them to understand how to use those tools.”

“Ah, I heard the original person in charge of the Dock streetlamp in the Forest’s Domain was also a member of the Mist.”

“Yes. Our members are also responsible for repairing Gates in each region.”

The entrance to the clocktower was empty, with no guards standing watch.

Katesa pushed open the arched door and said,

“That is why we thought too lightly of it. We thought it could be repaired quickly.”

When we entered, a spiral staircase climbed along the wall all the way upward, like in an ordinary bell tower or clocktower.

Katesa stepped onto those stairs and continued guiding us.

“We called in repairers from every region. One day, two days, then that became one month, and when it was almost a year―.”

The hardness of the stone stairs traveled up through the tips of my feet.

I listened closely to Katesa while pushing Murel’s back as he made it clear he did not want to climb.

“―my lord realized this situation was not a simple clock malfunction.”

Because the clocktower itself was so enormous, I had to climb hundreds of steps, and near the end, I grew a little tired.

Just as I was resenting my pathetic stamina while looking at the perfectly fine Katesa and the slightly tired Murel—

Katesa pointed to the back of the clock and continued the final part of the commission.

“Two hundred years ago, an Underfolk visited this place.”

A familiar time, a familiar pattern.

Was this Sek again?

“During the period when Lord Sek, who wanted peace despite sitting on the Underworld Lord’s seat, visited this place, this clock stopped in the same way.”

I did not bother asking whether the clock had broken because Sek visited, or whether Sek had visited and solved the broken clock.

Though it seemed as if cause and effect had been reversed.

“The clock flowed again. As if nothing had ever happened, and without anyone knowing.”

“So that is why you brought me here?”

“Yes. Because Riwin resembles Lord Sek.”

“He does not resemble him. He is Lord Sek himself.”

Murel, who had kept his mouth firmly shut the entire time, popped out and corrected him.

I sighed inwardly, covered Murel’s mouth, and smiled awkwardly.

“That was merely a rumor for finding the traitor. I cannot guarantee that I can repair this.”

“It does not matter.”

Katesa shook his head.

“Did I not say so? Every repairer has been called in and clung to this task, yet they failed.”

Katesa stared at the stopped gears and frowned around the eyes. It was an expression of sorrow from someone who could not cry.

“If there is even a single tear’s worth of possibility, we intend to mobilize everything. Even if it meant an Underfolk, even if it meant calling the current lord Karon, we would have considered it.”

No, would that not be rather dangerous?

“Would the possibility expected from Riwin not be more than a single drop?”

I removed my hand from Murel’s mouth as he complained noisily, then moved a little closer to examine the clock. In truth, from the moment I had entered this place, my head had been filled with warning alarms.

The mist native to this place and the tangled Red Mist were gathered together uneasily, and the red lines guiding the way were cut off here and there, sagging loose.

Still, I could not ignore a man who seemed to be grasping at straws. For some reason, his worries seemed to concern not only the clock, but also Retu’s safety.

“I will examine it, but I cannot give you a definite answer.”

“Yes, that is enough. While you stay here, we will provide every convenience, so please call my name whenever needed.”

Ding!

【Time】 Where Do the Clock Hands Point?

Mist’s Domain clocktower is said to be the largest in the world.

For some reason, that clock has been stopped for nearly a year. Before one full year passes since the clocktower stopped, you must identify the cause and move the hands.

Restore it before the boundary of death collapses.

▶Success – Major Contribution increase, Truth 1g

▶Failure – Boundary of death held by the Mist expands worldwide

▶Time Limit – 7d : 01h : 44m

〈Tip〉 Use the Power of Phantasm.

〈Tip〉 Original Work Loading strongly recommended.