Chapter 220

"Fools!?!"

Finnina's accusations against Linney and Linnet caused an uproar in the opera house - even Sora, who was invited to defend the magician, fell silent in the dock.

——Obviously, everyone thinks it is not surprising that fools would do such a thing.

——As for the obvious time issue, why can't the missing girl case be a large-scale crime committed by a group of fools?

"Fools..." Lanser-Mero knocked on the armrest of the chair to focus the attention of the Chaldeans. His eyes crossed the audience and fell on Linny. "Well, compared to the members led by the executive officer who was driven out of Sumi, Fengdan and his boss are definitely better than him - after all, those fools in Sumi are much more deserving of a beating than these two."

"But, in the Hearth House... children always have privileges in front of adults, especially good children."

Finally, before the Shadow Chasers lifted the blockade of the Opiklet Opera House, the magician was acquitted - the traitor who infiltrated the Shadow Chasers members turned into water and scattered all over the ground in full view of everyone.

"So that's it, dissolving, the water of the original fetal sea..."

Kirshtalia, who was inspired by the thesis during the trial, walked behind everyone, muttering to himself, and immersed himself in the revision of the thesis - until Fujimaru Ritsuka grabbed his cloak, he came back to his senses and followed Lancermello to stop in front of Lujingquan.

Fujimaru Ritsuka raised his hand to take off the disguise that he had just removed and used suggestion magic to restore it to everyone - the magic eyes of the Paradise Fairy turned into gray past vision, and the whispers of the girl in the flowing water were heard by all the Chaldeans who stopped here. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the water-blue magic flowing in the fountain, and their expressions gradually became serious.

——『Vashey』.

"Running water."

"Girl."

"Missing girl case." Holmes, who had already collected all the case information that could be collected from the Maplestory folks, spoke up and looked at Edmund who was standing opposite him without saying a word. "You are not planning to come to the Maplestory base, are you? I remember that the current owner of the Rose Thorn Club in Baisong Town seems to be one of the victims that the murderer chose."

"I see - I'll keep a close eye on that place." Edmund shifted his gaze to Fujimaru Ritsuka, responding to the detective's warning based on the intelligence he had gathered. "If Ritsuka deems it necessary, I will show the Servant's power to others... No, let's do this after all."

Edmund casually pulled out some things from his spirit base and stuffed them into Fujimaru Ritsuka's shadow.

"Then let's meet again when we leave this world." Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, and signaled Kirshtalia to support Edmund with the magic of a Command Seal. "Shirsong Town is quite far from here, right? I've heard them say that you always use your Noble Phantasm as a means of movement... although Taigong Wang is also like this."

"No, didn't Holmes just give me a new job?" Edmund reminded Fujimaru Ritsuka, shaking his head to reject the support of the Command Seal. "The Thorn Rose Society also has a base in Maple Court. Considering that the Main Story has already begun and her participation in this trial before - I think she will stay in Maple Court for at least a considerable period of time."

"I'm going there tonight to disturb the Thorn Rose Society. If anyone is curious, you can come and take a look. Isn't your base in the central area of ​​Maple Court? You must have never seen what other places look like."

“Then I will go with the Cave King.” Holmes took the initiative to leave the team, showing his strong curiosity about the place mentioned by Edmund. “I knew that Maplestage, whose power system seems to be more advanced than that of other countries, must be divided into aristocratic areas and slums like London after the first industrial revolution.”

After the two of them left the Opikle Opera House, Lansemello used the magic of the mirror to transfer everyone back to the base in the central area of ​​Maplestage. After all, if they continued to discuss, some of their conversations would reveal things that were not suitable to be discussed outside.

——Even if I use suggestion magic to make others ignore them, it is still dangerous to talk about these things in public.

"There seems to be a consciousness aggregate in the water." The transformation of the Servant's body and the third law made Fujimaru Ritsuka still look energetic in the middle of the night. As soon as he came back, he began to discuss the abnormal situation of Lu Jingquan. "But I have never so clearly perceived that there is a kind of consciousness somewhere--"

"Aren't you one of the 'people' of the triangle?" Gilgamesh sat on a chair near the communication base, looking at Fujimaru Ritsuka, and answered Fujimaru Ritsuka's question with a question before Lancermello spoke.

"Perceiving other consciousnesses and being able to read the consciousness of lower beings - this is the ability that Alaya consciousness 'you' should master." Lansermello used the communication array to input and upload the action report of this collective activity, while supplementing Gilgamesh's answer, "But you should only be able to read the consciousness of life belonging to the category of 'humans', and now you are still a Servant..."

"I think that's because the three of us were there at the time." Kirshtalia, who was revising her thesis, also joined the conversation. "The essence of that tuning magic is a kind of amplification effect achieved when three people coexist. The Lord probably knows what the original purpose was, but after all, this is a brand new version that has been upgraded, so the original purpose is not taken into consideration for the time being."

"The water flow is part of the earth 'Gaia' - we stopped there because the Lord, who is the earth 'Gaia', stopped in the first place; then Ritsuka, who is the collective subconscious of humanity 'Alaya', stopped and pulled me, who was immersed in the thesis as the sky 'world'. Ritsuka probably read the voice of that consciousness because of the amplification of me and the Lord?"

"But, Mr. Holmes, didn't they also hear the sounds in the Rokkei Spring?" asked Fujimaru Ritsuka.

"Did you forget something?" Kirshtalia stopped what she was doing and looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka together with Lancermello who was transmitting the report. "You only temporarily transferred the sovereignty of the Cave King, and the other servants are still the lords of you - even if we ignore this point, Alaya itself is directly related to the Throne of Heroes. Not to mention that we are actually tying the entire Throne of Heroes to you now."

"After all, it's your first time using a new skill, so you're definitely not proficient at it." Lansermello smiled and looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka, finishing uploading the report. "Just like when you caused everyone's dreams to become disrupted, this time you just couldn't control yourself and used your consciousness to transmit the sound you heard directly to other people's consciousness. This actually proves that you're ahead of us."

"Fujimaru, don't panic because you're walking too fast. Because even if we fall behind you, we will still catch up with you."

One day after the missing girl case was solved, Edmund, who had successfully completed the mission of protecting Navia proposed by Holmes and entrusted by Fujimaru Ritsuka, took the initiative to come to the base of Maplestage for the first time.

"Are you here to see the Master? Or do you have something else?" Jeanne Alter opened the door and frowned the moment he saw Edmund. "At this time, the Master should still be asleep. Last night she was trying to study whether astrology could be used in the world of Teyvat, but in the end she was forced to go back to sleep."

"...In the end, that paradise fairy used a hypnotic suggestion magic on her, otherwise Ritsuka would have gotten up long ago." Edmund sighed deeply and walked into the base helplessly, "I'm here to relay the details of the missing girl case - although the trial has ended for several days, the Steambird News has not yet published the first special article on the missing girl case."

The two magicians from the astronomy department who had been studying astrology with Fujimaru Ritsuka all night were still in high spirits. Soon after Edmund entered the base, the members except Fujimaru Ritsuka surrounded him inside and out, waiting for Edmund to tell them the details of solving the missing girl case that he had followed throughout the whole process with Navia.

"...In short, this is the complete situation."

After Edmund finished speaking, he stood up and prepared to leave the base, but was stopped by Lancelmero.

"After that, you should pay attention to the changes in the water level in Baisong Town." As the date got closer, Lansemello, who was already able to see a few paragraphs without actively using the magic eye, chose to change some insignificant details of the destined fate. "I saw that the prophecy began to appear in Baisong Town."

"Isn't this why you chose to be a shipbuilder?"

"I heard that the magician's third paper was finally passed." Edmund, who had his back to Lansemello, chose to answer a question that was not related to the question. "I thought you were going to tell me what you had deduced about the prophecy. I didn't expect you to just tell me what you saw with your clairvoyance."

"I think that at this moment, essence is unimportant." Lansemero chuckled and denied Edmund's speculation. "You built the ship to save the 'people' you know here - what's important is that you know them, not whether they are human beings... Am I right?"

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is - hahahahahahahaha!!!" Edmund, who discovered the truth from the words of the Paradise Fairy, suddenly laughed, "The reason why only Maple Dan people can be dissolved by the water of the original fetal sea is so straightforward - hahahahahahaha!!! Humph, thank you for telling me, but this will not change anything I plan to do next."

"Of course I know that this truth will not change your decision - that's why I didn't plan to tell you this from the beginning." Lansemello sighed helplessly, and like every day in the past period of time, he sank deeply into the soft cushion of the single sofa, "But don't forget -"

"When the flood engulfs Maple Stage, we should leave this world and return to the control room in Chaldea."