CH 171

What I said made everyone in the place silent from the surprise, but Mitsuki eventually recovered and spoke while waving her cat ears. 

“…I can’t believe it. To think the city that we were living in normally had such a secret…” (Mitsuki)

“Yeah, I also doubted the sanity of this when I noticed this at first.” (Souma)

What’s strange here is that this lore wasn’t revealed anywhere in the game, and it is simply something that I concluded after putting the pieces together. 

Even though they thought of such a large-scale thing, they didn’t pick up any of that foreshadowing at all? The Nekomimi Neko staff really are crazy.

Could it be that they just love thinking of the lore, but are weirdos that don’t have any interest in revealing it? 

If there’s such hidden lore all around, no wonder the Wiki theory page would be lively. 

We are only half-way through all of it. 

There’s still more to this. 

“Of course, the center of the magic circle and the center of the city are overlapping. That’s why the mana is originally gathering at the center of the city…the Grand Church.” (Souma)

“I see! The light of that stained glass was in order to make a second layer for the Mana Congregation Circle!” (Sazan)

“Yeah, most likely.” (Souma)

I agreed at the shout of Sazan. 

The one who made this city is the founding king, Alex, and the Grand Church is deeply involved with King Alex. 

Alex is most likely the one who created this contraption. 

Gathering the mana of the city, creating an illusory pillar of light, and playing it off as a miracle of God. 

I think it is an easy to understand visual representation to evoke those feelings, but the founding king unexpectedly does some crafty stuff.

At that moment…

*Bang*

Someone stood from their chair with that sound.

“In other words, the ones in the bad are the people gathering mana at the Grand Church! Unforgivable! Let’s kill them!” 

“U-Uuh…” (Souma)

I don’t know how to react to that and fall silent. 

The one who stood up and shouted was not from our party. 

It was the priestess that was sitting at the far end of the table and we don’t even know the name of. 

“Ah, speaking of which, I haven’t introduced myself. I am the Sister, Myusurusushu Myuruttsu.” 

The priestess said this, but that’s quite the tongue twister. 

“Uhm, Myushurushu-san.” (Souma)

“Ah, sorry. It is not Myushurushu, but Myusurusushu.” 

“S-Sorry. Uhm…Myusurushu…sushu… Uuh, Myurumyurits-san.” (Souma)

“Ah, sorry. It is not Myurumyurits, but Myuruttsu.” 

“…”

Who was the one who thought of the name of this person?!

I felt killing intent for the Nekomimi Neko developers again while hearing what Myusu…Myuru…Myu-something had to say. 

This Myu-something-san is a Sister that works at a different church from that of the Grand Church in this city, and is apparently the right arm of that famous character, Priest Gratia.

I don’t remember hearing her name in the game, so she is probably not a companion character or isn’t involved in events, so she was most likely what you would call a mob character. 

“Those bald geezers at that Grand Church would always spit insults to Priest Gratia when they come to our place! They would say: ‘Living here must be so carefree. How nice!’. So persistently, every single damn time!

I am sure they don’t like the Priest-sama because he has glossy hair! 

We should go there at once and burn them down!” (Myu)

Now that she mentions it, the famous church NPC of this city, Priest Gratia, had long hair. 

But the people of the Grand Church were most likely all made bald by the Nekomimi Neko developers because of some stereotype like ‘All people from sacred professions must be like monks, so bald should be fine’.

The ones at the Grand Church are not at fault…probably.

“Aah, burning them down is a bit…” (Souma)

“Really? Then, at the very least, let’s burn down their hair roots!” (Myu)

“No, won’t the priest be more hated unnecessarily if baldies increased?” (Souma)

Even though she looks like a calm person, the insides are totally different. 

Well, taking it as her being angry for the sake of a person she respects, you could say she is a good person in her own way.

“You really like Priest Gratia.” (Souma)

“It is not on the level of ‘like’, but he is a reliable person, and also…” (Myu)

That’s when she made a distant gaze like that of a maiden in love.

“He is the only person who can properly say my name.” (Myu)

“What’s up with your name?!” (Souma)

Well, I myself can’t say it properly, so I can’t really refute her here. 

But leaving aside what kind of people the ones at the Grand Church are, the true culprit here is not them.

“I am sorry, but please hold off on blaming the people of the Grand Church. It is true that the magic circle in the Grand Church was to create a light pillar, but the old man of the weapon store said that visitors have decreased in the Grand Church recently, right? 

It has probably lost that ability. There’s a completely different group of people tinkering with it and using it for something else.” (Souma)

I lower my gaze to the opened city map. 

“Sazan, you said that you can change the place where the power gathers if you tinker with the magic circle, right?” (Souma)

“Eh? Y-Yeah.” (Sazan)

“Then…” (Souma)

I stared at the map and pointed at two locations.

“If these two locations were to get cut off, where does the mana gather?” (Souma)

“If it is there and there…” (Sazan)

Seriousness shows in the eyes inside the mask. 

Sazan fell in thought for a while, but he eventually slid his finger at a certain point on the map.

“…Probably around here.” (Sazan)

He said with a stiff voice. 

It seems like he understands plenty well what this means.

“Dead on.” (Souma)

The place that the masked mage pointed at…is the place that prides on being the tallest in the capital, the headquarters of the Mage Guild, the Sorcery Tower.

In the game days, the Mage Guild related quests had a truly straight name like ‘Crush the defiant!’.

The content of the quest was to use a siege magic golem to destroy the houses of the people that were against the ritual of the Guildmaster. 

The performance of the magic golem was unbelievable. Even though it could only do close-range attacks, it had the attack and defense power of a mid-game boss, and had the same physical resistance as the Butcher. 

On top of that, despite being gigantic, its mobility is not bad. Truly an impregnable fortress…is what you would think, but its magic defense is zero, and it is 4 times weaker to all elements aside from physical. 

Why did they lend you a golem whose weakness is magic when you are going to fight against mages? 

Players can’t destroy buildings, so you have to protect that golem somehow, and the quest had an unreasonable difficulty level because of it, but well, let’s leave that aside for now. 

What’s important is that the objective of this quest is not ‘defeat the opposing faction that’s cooped up in their houses’, but ‘destroy the houses of the opposing faction where they are cooped up in’. 

I couldn’t accept it at that time, but I can understand the reason why now. 

Because the houses the opposing faction were cooped up in are the locations I just pointed at in the map. 

In other words, they are really important locations for the Mage Guild to change the location where the mana of the city gathers.

“I will cut off the little details, but I knew that the Mage Guild were aiming for these two houses. 

Of course, I didn’t expect the reason was because they wanted to destroy the mithril roofs though.” (Souma)

“Hm? Then, does that mean the houses have been destroyed? In that case, it would have become an even bigger deal and talk of it would have spread in the city…” (Maki)

I didn’t deny the point of Maki and nodded instead. 

“It has already gotten to that point. However, not in the form of building destruction, but in theft.” (Souma)

“Ah, I see! Are you referring to the mithril theft incidents?” (Maki)

In the weapon store, there was one other rumor aside from the Grand Church, and that was the mithril used on the houses having been stolen.

I can’t really say for sure, but it would be natural to think that this is an incident where the mithril of the roofs had been taken away by the Mage Guild. 

“The mana is probably being absorbed and gathered into the Mage Guild by the magic circle. 

They are trying to use that power to perform a forbidden ritual.” (Souma)

“In other words, even this MP Drain that covers the whole city is only the tip of the iceberg?” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki asked this while tilting her cat ears, and I turned even more serious as I nodded. 

“Right now it is only sucking MP little by little. But if the ritual begins for real, that won’t be all that will be happening. It will absorb the HP and MP of the whole city without leaving a drop. 

When that happens, all the living beings in this city…will be wiped out.” (Souma)

The moment I said this, I heard someone gulping. 

At the same time as I said this, a memory played in my mind of the game days. 

—The sight of the capital devoid of a single person after the Mage Guild event. 

In the game days, I didn’t really feel the realization that it was the result of all the people in the capital having died. 

Also, because of the patch that enabled you to rewind the effect of the guild events, and the Load function, I could just go back to the beginning and redo it. 

That’s why I could just talk carefreely about it as a funny story even with an event like the whole city being wiped out. 

But it is different now. 

I don’t have a menu screen with a handy button to reset the effects, and I can’t Load data or begin a new game. 

And yet, if that event goes on all the way to the end, the people in the capital and maybe even my comrades will all die for real. 

I definitely must not let such a sight be replicated in this world. 

“The only ones who can stop them are us who have noticed their scheme. Can I borrow the strength of everyone, even if only a bit?” (Souma)

I said this and looked at the faces of my comrades. 

A sudden threat to the city and a sudden request for help. 

And yet, not a single one of them averted their gazes.

“…Thanks.” (Souma)

I could tell their resolve just from looking at their faces even without them saying it out loud. 

Now all that’s left is to move straight ahead.

“Time is of essence. Let’s go at once. The location is of course…” (Souma)

…5 minutes later. 

“Heave-ho!” 

A metal plate flew in the air with that shout. 

We exited the library and went to the location: the roof of the library. 

“Yup, this should be all of it.” (Souma)

Having obtained the permission of Seirie-san, we joined strengths and went around tearing off the mithril from the roof of the library.

I thought we would have to destroy the roof at worst, but I was a bit baffled that the mithril could be easily taken off. 

But well, I am glad it ended safely.

“Now then, we are done for today. Good work, everyone.” (Souma)

“…Huh? W-Wait a moment! What about the Mage Guild?! What about the threat to the city?!” (Sazan)

I ignored Sazan who had lost his marbles and was screaming, and I stretched. 

The more intricate and detailed a plan is, the weaker it is to obstructions. 

To the point that, by just tearing off a single random roof, the whole plan can crumble. 

“Oi, are you listening?! Hey! …Don’t ignore meeee!!!” (Sazan)

I looked at the mithril plates we tore off with the shrill voice of Sazan as BGM, and muttered this. 

“…How much would it go for if we sold this?” (Souma)

And in this way, the unprecedented danger threatening the capital came to an end with just basic carpentry skills.