CHAPTER 430: ARC 6, CHAPTER 46: BREAKTHROUGH

"The cult? You want me and my sister to get involved with that business?" Clyde questioned with widened eyes.

"I’m not forcing you to, I thought that I might as well as ask, you know?" Ben shrugged.

"I don’t know, that sounds bloody mad; a good way to be killed I’m sure," he crossed his arms.

"True, the risk is high. But the stories they’ll tell and the fame it’ll bring for you and your party would carry over for generations—aided in the defeat of the Deuctus Cult, initiators of the great fire and scourge upon Burnetrout," Jotou worded.

Although his face remained sceptical, his foot was tapping against the floor alongside the leg that was shaking in potential excitement. "Hmm, I can’t speak for Colwyn, but this is like a, briefing you say?"

Jotou winced an eye, "Sure, if you wanna see it that way."

"I’ll hear you lot out," that reply was too quick.

"Noice!" Ben fist-pumped.

The next day had arrived and the morning was like any other in the bustling guild hall. They escorted Clyde through the tables, towards where Tiffany and Asobi were.

Fumeko stood on the other side of them behind a table, like she was at an office desk. Notes and tomes were arranged and spread out over the table in no particular order that anyone understood.

"What’s all this then?" Clyde reached for a book.

Only for Fumeko to smack his hand away, "My work. Now, where’s-"

"I’m here," Hotaru’s voice came from behind. "Sorry to be late."

"It’s okay, Meko hasn’t started yet," Asobi bounced.

The redhead walked right up next to Jotou and stood beside her—hands politely clasped and resting above her lap. She seemed a lot brighter; her tail fluttered a little.

Fumeko squinted one eye with scrutiny, "...Alright then. Here’s everything I could piece together in this case," her hands pointed and gestured towards each book and note as she explained.

"The books themselves are stuck in the details of the past, so there’s no direct information about the cult or the present. But it does entail some sort of anomaly within Casten Castle.

The room or chamber or place that’s called by the writer as the heart of a labyrinth. However, looking through all the pages, the writer seems meticulous in how they detail their day-to-day.

Meaning, they often wrote about rooms they entered or used. They don’t do this always, but each room is at least mentioned a few times. The one exception to the rule being, this heart of the labyrinth.

No entry, no door, no specified wing or hall of the castle; they always just end up there and add no further details of the labyrinth itself.

With how everything’s written, it’s clear that the writer had an ample amount of time to waste on their hands. So it’s not any mistake that there’s an error here. Which then gets me to my first theory.

There’s some sort of teleportation porthole within the castle itself that would take them to this labyrinth. Because the writer also details when they leave the castle, which means we can narrow down the location.

The writer mentioned being able to use some necromantic magic, but these journals are just that—journals. They’re not some kind of magical tome, though I suspect if Ambrose or the cult were there, they would’ve cleared out anything important like that."

"Slow down, you guys told me about how meticulous or whatever the cult is. Wouldn’t that mean that whatever you have here would all be useless information to put together," Ben interrupted. "Cause you know, they would’ve cleared it up?"

"To most people this would be useless information. Lucky for you, I happen to be a good detective who did figure things out from this," Fumeko glared.

"Fair point, continue," he replied.

"As I was saying," Fumeko continued in a theatrical detective-like tone. "It means that the writer themselves weren’t capable of any mobility magic like teleportation.

Based on this information and the layout of the castle that I remember, from going through different tomes and sections where certain locations are detailed and the writer frequented, I was able to deduce that the porthole or gateway—

A, would have to be activated or revealed by some mechanism or magical command within the castle; and B, that these certain locations must have the means and mechanisms of opening them up.

Whether it’s a combination lock or its just one mechanism I’m not sure, but based on the Ever-Labyrinth and our Gauntlet experience, there seems to be a theme in South End.

From all the history, lore and adventures and magic that I’ve heard about from Hotaru and Clyde makes me inclined to believe that the mechanism should be similar if not completely identical, especially if this portal leads to a labyrinth-like structure."

"Is it a porthole, a gateway or a portal?" Asobi tilted her head.

"They’re all the same thing, who cares!"

Hotaru replied, "We didn’t find anything resembling a portal or a gateway in that castle..."

"Yeah, neither did we," Clyde added.

Fumeko palmed her own face.

"We weren’t looking for one, know what one looks like and besides, Meko just mentioned that it’s probably hidden and needs mechanisms to activate," Jotou crossed her arms.

"I understand that, I’m just saying the proof’s a bit lacking. I didn’t thoroughly go through the books as much as you did," Hotaru faced the brunette. "Just, keep going. I know you can explain it."

Fumeko took a breath and found comfort in the redhead’s encouragement. "It’s a theory, just a very likely one.

And if there was some sort of teleportation involved, it stands to reason Ambrose was using said portal to exit from within the castle, which adds up with the lack of bodies or sheep and why all the rooms looked dust-ridden and unused.

I can’t imagine any other possibility for the disappearances. By all accounts, no bodies were found. You can say burying, burning or whatever else, but surely that would be discovered by the most common villager.

Beyond that, the rooms would show signs of use. A hair, fingerprints, blood, drag marks—nothing there to me seemed to throw me off the idea that they were teleported elsewhere.

Keep in mind, there’ve already been other people who searched that castle from top to bottom and around. The lack of evidence reported is uncanny, I don’t care how good Ambrose was at covering his tracks.

And if that’s all the case, it’s highly likely that through that portal might be the cult’s base of operations—a back door into it at least."

"How so?" Hotaru queried.

"We know that Ambrose got caught on purpose and clearly could communicate with the cult. Ceridwen’s appearance and apprehension of that ghost kid was also odd.

If there’s nothing there, why would they care? If there was something there, why would they leave it there and not move it already?

Some sort of teleportation device, gateway, whatever, I imagine is not so easily moved. Even then, who would check an abandoned castle for something like that? It’s better to keep it there anyhow.

And think about the cult’s activities so far. It’s plausible that the cult with all their magic would easily be able to teleport and have high mobility across Burnetrout, which explains how they can pop in and out without being noticed."

Hotaru hummed and decided to retort, "The Burntish government would’ve noticed if they were using large amounts of mana like that."

Fumeko put a finger up, "One, we don’t know exactly how mana-tracking things work and if the cult could block that somehow—it wouldn’t be unbelievable that they could, in fact we should assume as much.

Two," she displayed a second finger. "That would make even more sense as to why they were mucking about Dolpool at abandoned and closed factories.

Maybe whatever mana-tracking has a more effective range and operating with powerful magic within Dolpool, right under the noses of the country’s most governmental buildings, would’ve been harder; the last bit’s a stretch, but not important.

Point is, pairing it up with what they were doing in Dolpool, stealing furniture and supplies essentially, pretty much proves they were building up a base of operations."

Ben scratched the back of his neck, "If I’m following this right, we don’t know where this portal leads to exactly, it could even be under the ocean."

"Could be," Fumeko shrugged. "Regardless, with the murders in Burnetrout and the secret meetings going on, they’re re-amassing the cult into full swing—now we have the whole picture."

Jotou smirked, "Meticulous, huh?" her eyes sparked yellow.

"What’s she smiling about?" Clyde gave an odd look to the side.

"You never really know," Hotaru fluttered her lashes.

Jotou came out of thought. "Oh? You don’t get it yet? If that’s all the case, then why wouldn’t the cult wait to finish operations before ’setting us up’?

We assumed after the fiasco at the court that we were being set up from the beginning into the cult’s plan—to put on a grand display. But now, it feels like a rush job. I think at least, that we forced them to expedite their plan.

Their strategy after we got involved, wasn’t to lead us anywhere. It’s more like sacrificing a few chess pieces to guarantee a checkmate—you didn’t want to lose those chess pieces, but unfortunately that’s how you set them up.

But by winning, you made the mistakes look like strategic plays instead."

"Exactly," Fumeko finally sat down. It seemed a lot of her notes were not of the books themselves, but rather all her thoughts scattered across writing.

Asobi nodded along to everything and rested her chin on her wand. "I don’t get it..."

"Tis deception of the highest calibre. To fool one into thinking that thou are brilliantly meticulous, however, twas merely an act to make it seem as such.

Surely an illusionist such as thee comprehends putting on a great show filled with flair with which to blind the audience of thy faults," Tiffany posed with a few fingers hovering over her eyepatch.

Asobi nodded, definitely caught up to everyone.

"Sooo... what now?" Ben looked to all of them.

"Onwards~ To Casten Castle we return—our mission, crash the party," Jotou giggled.