The Ring

Chapter 36

Lisana ran.

She was gasping, nearly breathless, yet she didn’t cease her frantic flight.

Finally, she reached the Minister’s office door. She paused, composing herself, wiping the sweat from her brow before cautiously raising her hand to knock.

A voice bade her enter. Lisana opened the door and stepped into the Minister’s office, her gaze instinctively sweeping the room.

The Minister was there, as always, but, strangely, Celine was nowhere to be seen.

“Um… Wh-where is Celine?”

Seated in his chair, chin resting on his hand as he studied a chessboard, the Minister spoke.

“She mentioned needing to check some documents, and just left for the archives. You must have missed her. Did you require Celine for something?”

“Ah, no! Nothing like that… Ah, that’s not important! I’ve uncovered some extraordinary information, Minister!”

Unlike her usual composed self, she could barely contain her excitement.

The Minister, visibly taken aback by this uncharacteristic display, watched as Lisana thrust a stack of documents towards him.

“This is…?”

“W-while restoring Hans Wolf’s research notes, I discovered that he was pursuing something called a… ‘Guardian Spirit’!”

Guardian Spirit.

It was undoubtedly a key phrase related to ‘the key.’

Yet, even Lisana, who possessed a near-perfect recall of every document in the intelligence archives, didn’t know what a Guardian Spirit was.

Fearing she had overlooked something, she’d spent days sifting through dusty, forgotten records in the archives’ storage room, and it was there that she’d found these papers.

“Th-that document is an old investigation report! This Suhosu… it’s something that protects these so-called Suho Clan people, uh, a… a spirit guardian? We don’t know the specifics yet, but if we use this ‘Suho Clan’ as a lead, we can definitely unveil the key the Oracle is searching for…?”

Lisana’s excited torrent of words abruptly stopped.

The Minister’s demeanor had suddenly shifted.

‘Wh-what’s wrong? It feels like I’m being pierced by the Minister’s gaze…’

Instinctively seized by fear, Lisana was asked,

“Who else knows about this information you just mentioned?”

“I… I came running as soon as I found it, so, uh, I’m the only one who knows so far, but w-why are you asking…?”

“I see.”

Nodding, the Minister rummaged through a drawer and produced a box of matches.

Then, he set Lisana’s document on fire.

“M-Minister?!”

“Listen carefully, Lisana. Never, under any circumstances, speak of what you just said to anyone.”

“Ah, yes…”

The Minister tossed the burning document into a metal waste bin and silently watched until it turned to ash.

Then, to Lisana, who was utterly bewildered by the incomprehensible turn of events, he said,

“You’re fired. Pack your things and leave immediately.”

“…Excuse me?”

Just like that, Lisana became unemployed in an instant.

—

Lisana Zimon had been an exceptional prodigy since she was young.

Some even called her a genius, due to her perfect recall, but ironically, it was that very ability that made Lisana realize from a young age that she was no genius.

‘My, my brain isn’t a workshop for creating new things, but a simple storage warehouse…’

She had lived believing she was nothing special, except that she could memorize things in greater detail and with more specificity than others.

Or, at least, she had.

‘N-now that things have come to this… I feel somewhat wronged…’

Sitting on a park bench, Lisana stared blankly at the sky.

She still hadn’t fully grasped the fact that she had been fired.

‘M-more importantly, why did I get canned, though?!’

Judging by the Minister’s words and actions, she could understand that she had learned something she wasn’t supposed to know.

‘B-but even so, getting fired is too much! I mean, hello? I have perfect recall! I, I can replace the entire intelligence archive all by myself!’

The injustice ignited a pride in Lisana’s abilities she’d never known, and her mind whirled.

Anger mixed with a soul-crushing doubt about everything she’d done, and even amidst that turmoil, she felt a pathetic longing to see the Minister.

‘Ugh, whatever! I, I can’t accept this! Giving up now means I’ll just be a tool to be thrown away. I-I’m not just a storage unit…!’

That night, Lisana cautiously infiltrated the Intelligence Bureau.

Actually, cautiousness was hardly necessary.

Whether it was because her dismissal hadn’t been announced, or not, she occasionally crossed paths with staff or agents, but no one found it odd.

Regardless, her actions were incredibly reckless.

She was no longer an employee of the Intelligence Bureau.

Which meant she was a civilian, and a civilian caught wandering into the Intelligence Bureau uninvited would typically face summary execution.

If she was incredibly lucky, she might get a long prison sentence, spending her life behind bars.

So, despite this being an act of blatant self-sacrifice, Lisana didn’t falter.

She was terribly afraid, but her desire to understand, to die knowing why, outweighed the fear of death itself.

‘Okay, there weren’t any files on the Guardian Clan or the Guardians in the archive, so I should head straight for the storage facility…?’

It was late at night, and the storage facility had no light-emitting magical tools, so Lisana entered, relying on a lantern she’d brought just in case, and quickly began searching through the documents.

Thanks to her perfect memory, she could absorb the contents of each file with a single glance.

Even so, the sheer volume of documents in the storage facility, combined with their complete lack of organization, meant that she had to endure considerable hardship.

How many hours had passed in that state?

Just as her cough became relentless from the dust accumulated in the storage facility, Lisana discovered something.

‘T-this is a report about the Guardian Clan!’

However, as she examined the report, she quickly realized something was wrong.

The report in her hands was clearly ‘part of an ongoing’ investigation.

In other words, the Empire had been investigating the Guardian Clan for a long time.

‘B-but, why have all the previous files been lost…?’

Concluding that someone must have deliberately destroyed them, she turned the pages of the report.

The document was poorly maintained, with many damaged sections that made it difficult to decipher, but she managed to grasp the most important points.

‘The Guardian Clan… was annihilated…?’

No further information was recorded.

‘T-that’s it…?’

She flipped through the last page of the report, but there was nothing else written.

‘Huh?’

Lisana brought the lamp closer to the final page.

At the bottom were the date the report was written and the name of the author.

The date written was exactly ’10 years ago’ from now.

The author’s name was—

“I thought I had him dismissed.”

“Heeeek?!”

With a bizarre shriek, Lisana tumbled back, instinctively turning and raising the lamp.

“M-Minister?!”

“Dismissing him was a kindness on my part… but this is troublesome. I can no longer simply stand by.”

*No longer simply stand by.*

Lisana wasn’t so dense as to not understand the meaning of those words.

Of course, she was scared enough to die. Terrified, even, but this too was something she’d braced for.

Raising herself onto her upper body, she knelt.

Her body trembled, but she didn’t forget what she had to say.

“A-ah, I know. I, I shouldn’t be alive, right…? E-even so, I’m an agent of the Intelligence Bureau. I-I’m prepared…!”

Tears streaming down her face, she closed her eyes as the Minister leaned down and raised a finger.

With that raised finger, he flicked Lisana’s forehead.

“Ow?!”

At the slight pain that came with the *thwack*, Lisana clutched her forehead as the Minister sighed.

“What foolishness are you spouting. When I say I can no longer simply stand by, that isn’t what I meant.”

“T-then…?”

“Ignorance is generally considered a vice, but sometimes, knowing nothing acts as a shield. But you have just cast that shield aside. Thus, I can no longer simply stand by.”

Lisana slowly mulled over the Minister’s words.

If she hadn’t misheard, the Minister was saying he would protect her.

“T-then, the dismissal as well…?”

“Revoked. It was, from the beginning, an attempt to distance you, fearing you would become endangered.”

“W-why… why would I be endangered?”

“You are better off not knowing, lest things grow more precarious. The time will come when you learn, like it or not.”

The Minister stood and offered Lisana his hand.

Gazing blankly at that hand, she muttered almost unconsciously.

“So, Minister, you worry about us, but don’t trust us…?”

“………”

“So, wasn’t the fact that the data was all destroyed a deliberate measure taken to conceal possible information, to arrange things so we wouldn’t be endangered, while simultaneously being unable to trust us…?”

No answer came.

Lissana, who had been looking up at him, took the offered hand and rose from her seat.

Standing, she posed a question to him.

“B-but, Minister, you do believe in yourself, don’t you…?”

To this, the Minister offered a faint smile and replied.

“No.”

—

Dragging my weary body home, I found a girl I’d never seen before sitting on the living room sofa, waiting for me.

Ever since the Acero Kerke incident, I’ve thought it, but this house really has security that’s less than dirt.

I was contemplating just moving when the girl opened her mouth.

“What do you think? You didn’t anticipate this, did you? Or is even this within your predictions?”

Is she looking down on me?

There’s no way I could have predicted a development where I come home from work to find a strange girl waiting for me.

More importantly, who are you?

“Hmm, hmm. I see. Just like Erich said, you aren’t looking at me straight on. Is that the Eye of Heaven? I’d suspected it since the guardian wolf vanished from the Empire, but it seems the Minister has deep ties with the Guardian Clan.”

The girl, after spouting nonsense, smiled brightly.

“The wolf’s original role was to be hunted down and killed by us, wasn’t it? To buy as much time as possible while confusing us, that is.”

Lately, I seem to be encountering lunatics more frequently. At this point, I’m starting to suspect *I’m* the problem.

“Not being able to turn away the one that was on its last legs was a mistake. Well, the Minister himself knows that best, though.”

So, what is this girl ultimately trying to say?

“If the Minister hadn’t met that wolf, we’d still be wandering around in the wrong place. Without realizing the box on the leash was empty.”

The next moment, the girl’s finger flicked.

Of course, nothing happened.

Nevertheless, the girl smiled gleefully.

“Hehe, the absolute defense is still in place… It was there from the beginning, wasn’t it? The key was in the Minister’s possession from the very start. Ah, really, why didn’t I notice it sooner!”

I haven’t said a word, and she’s doing all the talking.

If she’s done talking, can I go take a shower?

“Enough! Return your gaze and look at me properly! And give it back!”

“Give what back? What are you talking about?”

“That ring you’re wearing! The only key to unlocking the tablet’s seal! Laplace’s Demon! It’s originally mine!”

Returning my gaze to normal, I raised my right hand and looked at the ring on my thumb.

Oh.

I’ve been found out.