Chapter 62: The Wind Blows (4)

Actually, though it was called a conversation, the 「Spirit Talk」 skill was, strictly speaking, more similar to the process of extracting information from a dead person's memories.

Of course, since memories based on strong emotions harbored in life remain, there were cases where they refused to speak, like before.

They especially show such reactions to the one who killed them.

However, that was ultimately just a kind of 'data' called memory, not real emotion.

“Who sent you here?”

『Ethesia… the Great General….』

Indeed, no emotion could be felt in the tone of the spirit, which had begun to speak after succumbing to the [Intimidation].

It wasn't angry at us, nor did it feel wronged; it was simply extracting information as ordered, dispassionately.

“What orders did you receive from Ethesia?”

『I was ordered to... induce a clash between the adventurers who received the request and... the priests... to cause a disturbance….』

But that didn't happen.

Because we succeeded in reaching this place while avoiding the eyes of all those who received that order.

『If we failed to cause a disturbance... we were instructed to eliminate the adventurers who reached the ‘core’... and to shift the responsibility for letting outsiders into the blessing room onto the priests... to create a pretext….』

“A pretext for what?”

『To send our army's forces to seize the shrine... and to arrest and take Grand Priest Mistral into custody….』

For a moment, the priests stirred.

“What's the plan after that?”

『After removing the Grand Priest... either co-opt or eliminate the council members we have already secured... and finally, dismantle the current three-wing system... and have our military rule Daian….』

So the plan was to establish a military dictatorship.

The priests all reacted with disbelief.

It meant that one of the three wings was plotting a rebellion.

Moreover, the hero who had personally suppressed such a rebellion in the past.

“Can you reveal the identities of all those who received Ethesia's orders inside this shrine right now?”

At my question, the spirit began to name them one by one.

As each identity was revealed.

“…!”

The priests couldn't hide their astonishment.

Not just because of the large number, but more importantly, because like the 「Priests(?)」 lying there, they were people who had been together here for a long time.

In other words, Ethesia's conspiracy had been meticulously planned for several years.

What they needed was the right time, and recently, the wind had stopped.

The time had come to break the stopped windmill.

On top of that, as if by ‘fate’, the alliance from Stout had timely intervened, adding icing on the cake.

Us, that is.

This meant that they could now even suppress the resistance of those who might oppose them when they seized power in the future by framing it as hostility with an external force.

If anything happened to us here, especially if that incident was used as a pretext for a coup, Stout would by no means stand still.

Creating a new external enemy to foster a sense of crisis was the most efficient way to unite a group, and for that reason—especially for those who seized power through unjust means—it was a path many leaders chose.

“…….”

Meanwhile, Mistral, who listened to the names calmly until the end, unlike the other priests who were shocked each time a name was called.

“Secure their persons.”

Finally, when all the names had been revealed, he gave the order dispassionately.

“Please proceed as quietly as possible to avoid resistance.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Hearing this, the priests hurried out of the room, taking the unconscious 「Priests(?)」 with them.

Thus, only we and Mistral remained in this place.

“What's the next plan in case of failure to eliminate us and secure the Grand Priest?”

Ah, and the spirit was here too.

『Our agents disguised as priests... will attack the citizens to induce a riot... and using that as a pretext, declare martial law, seize the council... and arrest the Grand Priest….』

Attacking citizens while disguised as priests.

Even Mistral seemed unable to hide his shock at these words.

“Ethesia…….”

He muttered the name of his old colleague as if in lament.

“Rine, exactly how much time has passed since he started answering?”

“4 minutes and 33 seconds.”

“It'll be time soon.”

There was a time limit to the act of extracting information through 「Spirit Talk」.

An unascended spirit remaining in the mortal world wasn't a big deal, but a mortal being speaking to that spirit and making it ‘intervene’ in the mortal world was an act that would disrupt the balance with the Netherworld, so the God of the Netherworld disliked it or something.

Therefore, the lore was that after a certain amount of time, the God of the Netherworld would notice the intervention and forcibly summon the spirit, and that time limit was considered to be about 5 minutes.

So this would probably be the last question.

“Where do you plan to imprison the secured council members?”

『In the... prison... prepared in the basement of the City Guard Command….』

As expected, with that answer, the spirit suddenly dissipated like clearing fog.

The God of the Netherworld, having noticed the interference in the mortal world, had forcibly dragged the spirit away.

Perhaps because the story was on a much larger scale than they had thought, Miki and Lily looked rather shocked.

“I-Is it gone?”

Ibi, who would have normally been the first to react, only peeked her head over my shoulder to check after the spirit had completely vanished, making me doubt if she had even heard the story properly.

At the same time, the quest was cleared, and the reward, experience points, came in.

--

Level Up!

Lv. 5 → 6

--

And so I became level 6.

This meant I had reached a level where I could learn one of the very important skills for this build.

But, the points I earned weren't going anywhere.

For now, there was something else I had to do first.

“Since Plan A of causing a disturbance in the shrine has failed, they will now try to execute Plan B.”

“Inducing, a riot….”

“W-We must stop them!”

“We must.”

I first calmed Miki, who was shouting urgently and at a loss, then turned to Mistral, who seemed lost in thought, and said.

“Mr. Mistral, you trusted the other two, so you tried to find the cause elsewhere than the core, but now you must know that's not the case.”

“…Yes. I know it well now.”

Mistral let out a pained breath and nodded.

He had learned that a long-trusted colleague was no longer a person he could trust.

So now, there was nothing more to consider.

“The reason the wind stopped is undoubtedly because there's a problem with the core.”

And that wasn't the perfectly fine core here, nor the council's core that Khamsin managed, but.

“The core of the holy land that Ethesia manages.”

“…I think the same.”

“So I would like you, Mr. Mistral, to go to the holy land right now.”

Seeing Mistral flinch in surprise at these words, I immediately continued.

“Go, and ‘purify’ the core.”

“……!”

Mistral had the power to purify a tainted core.

He was virtually the only person who could, in a few hours, accomplish what a hundred priests might not be able to do even after performing rites for weeks and months.

“To quell the citizens' discontent, the wind must first blow again.”

That was why Ethesia was trying to secure Mistral's person one way or another.

Eventually, she would execute him under some pretext, but before that, she needed to return the core she had tainted to seize power back to normal.

What would be the point of ruling a Daian where the wind doesn't blow because the core remains tainted?

“She must have deployed most of her troops to the city to stage a full-scale coup. The security at the holy land must be lax.”

Mistral looked surprised at how I knew he had the ability to purify, but that reaction was brief.

He shook his head once as if to scold himself that such questions weren't important right now, then.

“──Understood.”

He finally answered with a voice full of resolve.

“If it weren't for you all, I would have still been played by Ethesia's schemes without a clue.”

With a gesture of bowing deeply, unbefitting of his high position as Grand Priest.

“I will trust and follow your judgment.”

“Thank you. Then── Ah, and I have one more favor to ask.”

“Ask me anything.”

“Could you possibly hand over your ‘Dandelion’ to me?”

“The Dandelion… you say?”

“Yes.”

‘Dandelion’.

This, like the ‘Wings’, was one of the magic (engineering) tools developed by Khamsin.

Of course, it had a different official name, but the function of this ‘Dandelion’, which was rarely called by that name, just like the ‘Wings’, could be simply described as a ‘loudspeaker’.

In particular, the ‘Dandelions’ possessed by the three wings of the windmill were high-performance loudspeakers capable of making one person's voice resonate throughout the entire city.

I think the principle was something about amplifying the voice with the wind, but honestly, I don't remember the details.

However, what I did remember for sure was the lore that it was given this name because the way the voice spread on the wind was just like dandelion seeds spreading everywhere on the wind.

Anyway, for that reason, it was also an item that couldn't be used properly if the wind wasn't blowing.

Ethesia might draw on reserve magic power, but we didn't have such means.

In other words, to use the ‘Dandelion’, Mistral first had to succeed in purifying the core and make the wind blow again.

“Understood. Certainly, you all would be able to make better use of it than I, who must go to the holy land.”

Answering thus, Mistral detached a brooch in the shape of a dandelion flower, as its name suggested, from his priest's robe and handed it to me.

“Thank you.”

After receiving it and pinning it to my clothes, I turned to my companions and said.

“We're going back to Daian immediately.”

At that, the three of them nodded immediately as if welcoming the decision.

Ibi, the only one who snorted in disbelief instead of nodding.

“Always looking for trouble.”

She muttered a complaint typical of her and finally—a gesture the other companions had become quite accustomed to—made the ‘do whatever you want’ gesture.

--

Main Quest

「The Wind Blows」

Return to Daian and stop Ethesia's coup.

--

“So? What's the plan to stop it when we get there?”

“First, we need to rescue Khamsin.”

Although Khamsin's personality often made him the subject of gossip among pleasure-seekers, he was still a figure who had earned the deep trust of the citizens and was elected as their representative.

And this was possible because he was the genius engineer who brought the magitech revolution to this city.

That's why Ethesia would try to keep Khamsin alive at all costs and use his popularity and abilities.

Whether as a trumpeter who moves according to her will, or as a machine that continuously churns out new weapons.

In other words, to stop Ethesia's plan, we also needed his popularity and abilities.

--

Rescue Khamsin.

(Optional)

--

Even if only to stop the winds of war that had begun to blow in the city of wind.

“Let's go rescue the philanderer who must have been royally stood up.”