Chương 65: Ch.64— The Right Path

There wasn't a nest of huge, killer, chaos-aligned rats living and reproducing in the sewers; if that was a good or bad thing, Amy did not know. She stood in the middle of the tunnel with her arms crossed, looking with a frown at exactly what she had expected to find: wet, dirty stone. Which, logically speaking, was good and yet…

"Oh my god," Iris suddenly said with a muffled voice as she spoke with her hand clamped over her nose and mouth.

"Oh my god, why? I can't do it anymore! What is that smell? Blondie, what is that smell?"

"Sewage, obviously," Amy said while also covering her nose.

"That's usually the smell down here."

"... Do you think cockroaches ever complain about us?" Amy blinked and turned to look at the girl standing on her right side.

"What?"

"Like, 'Ugh, there goes another human smelling like soap.'" Amy kept staring at Iris with a deadpan expression for a second longer before silently turning away. It was then that her eyes crossed with Lain's. The white-haired girl was pinching her nose shut with two fingers, saying nothing, and looking at Amy with a questioning gaze, clearly asking if she had found what she was searching for.

Amy did not know whether to shake her head or nod, so she instead fell into thought while going back to stare at the ground, the place where something should be. They'd reached this exact spot after roughly twenty minutes of walking, following a route that existed nowhere on any map, because Amy had made it up as she went with the help of her ability.

The first attempt at going to the nest directly hadn't worked, so she'd rephrased it for her ability to tell her to go where it would be in the future, which also hadn't worked, so she tried again by asking her ability to lead her to where the rats would have originally been placed were she not to exist in this world. That one had worked instantly. The message was obvious. If the infestation existed, "lead me to it" would have worked exactly the same as "lead me to where it would be."

The fact that only the third one landed clean meant there was no infestation to point at. Exactly what she had been expecting, and somehow incredibly surprising and somewhat troubling. Maybe it was just paranoia, but she genuinely couldn't think of a way this was as easy as it seemed. No way they came all the way here for nothing as she had originally planned; no way something would go as it should.

"So, blondie," Iris spoke, breaking the silence with her hand still clamped over her face.

"For how long are you going to keep staring at the ground? Can we keep moving? I'm itching for a fight."

"I never said we were fighting."

"Wait, aren't we…?" Amy continued to frown at the spot on the ground, ignoring Iris, who was speaking in the background. No matter how she saw it, it couldn't be that there was nothing; there was always something… She sighed, then her eyes began shining, and golden threads appeared in her vision. Contrary to the usual, she didn't ask her power to lead her toward something specific. She just asked loosely, to show her something close by related to the current situation that she might be missing.

Because the question was way broader than usual, it was considerably harder to reach the path she wanted. It wasn't the usual kind of hard that required pure mana and a strong mentality, but rather as if she had just lost her glasses and struggled to see the road, and could only follow the silhouette.

That's why when she turned her head and began walking towards the place where it pointed, she moved hesitantly, constantly second-guessing what her ability wanted her to do, as it kept pointing out unnecessary things, such as moving her left leg or blinking every ten seconds; things that probably happened in the future that she was seeking, but were not necessary to reach her objective.

"... Blondie?" Amy blinked and looked behind her. Iris and Lain were both looking at her. Right, she didn't come alone. With all the useless information currently flooding her brain, it was hard to focus on basic stuff.

"I think I found something," Amy said while nodding toward the side passage.

"This way." Iris' eyes brightened considerably, and a smile appeared on her face, while Lain said nothing and fell into step slightly behind them with one hand still pressed lightly over her nose and the other resting on the strap of her bag. They walked in silence for a while.

It was somewhere around the second turn that Amy instinctively glanced back, prompted by one of the countless useless commands of her ability, and casually she saw that Lain wasn't just walking—she was walking and reading the white book Azazel had given her; the one to help Lain with social cues and recommendation for ways to "help" a certain definitely not troubled person. Amy suddenly felt annoyance appear out of nowhere. She quickly caught herself with a bit of her lip.

Calm down, Amy, you are not the center of the world. The book wasn't about ways to "help her". It was about ways to help Lain get better at talking to people and stuff. Maybe Lain was just reading for herself, and it had completely nothing to do with Amy… She was about to look once again ahead, refocusing on her ability, when a voice stopped her motion.

"Amy." Great. Amy, once again, reminded herself that she wasn't the center of the universe before turning towards Lain.

"Yes?"

"How are you feeling?" Amy sighed, then stared at Lain's eyes fixedly, searching her expression.

"... Is that something the book told you to say?" Lain's face went completely blank for exactly one second—way more blank than usual—before she shook her head. Who would believe such an obvious lie…? Amy held back the urge to massage the bridge of her nose.

"I've been feeling good," Amy said, turning her eyes back to the golden thread flickering at the edge of her vision.

"I have had a lot of time to rest these days; slept like a rock, ate, and even found going to class peaceful. Practically a resort." Lain nodded slowly, and for a few steps, the only sounds were their shoes against wet stone and Iris humming at the side. Then Lain spoke again.

"The vote." And there went the calm atmosphere. Amy felt the air in the tunnel drop a degree, and it had nothing to do with Lain's magic—or actually, maybe it did, involuntarily.

"What about it?"

"Why did you want to kill him?" Amy kept walking while still keeping half of her brain in her ability and the other half in shifting her satchel higher on her shoulder while she organized her answer.

"Because leaving him alive was simply stupid," she said.

"He was a prophet and a father who would not only torture his own son, if it helped his objectives, but his whole strategy revolved around it. Leaving him alive was too dangerous."

"Was that the only reason?" Amy's didn't stop walking, but she did a small, irritated turn of her head, glancing sideways at the taller girl with that unreadable expression.

"You voted for it too," Amy said, completely deflecting the question.

"Doesn't that mean you agree with my logic?"

"I do." Amy watched her for a moment.

"Then what is the problem?" Lain was silent for a few steps. When she finally spoke, her voice was even softer than usual, so that Amy had to focus to catch it.

"I agree that killing Abaddon was the right decision," she said.

"But it will not always be."

"... What are you trying to imply?"

"Do you remember our conversation on the balcony?" Amy did. Of course she did; the manga had even reprinted it for her in flashback form, right before she had killed Abaddon. Very subtle foreshadowing, in her opinion. She exhaled through her nose.

"Lain. I'm not going to suddenly become a murderhobo because I killed somebody that should die." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"A... murderhobo…?"

"Someone who solves every problem by killing it." Amy waved a hand.

"Either way, my point is that one justified execution will not make me a serial killer."

"I know," Lain said.

"That is not what I am saying. I am trying to tell you that killing Abaddon was appropriate. But the next time you decide someone should die, it might not be."

"I know that."

"Would future you know?" Amy frowned. The tunnel dripped somewhere behind them. Ahead, Iris had stopped humming and was inspecting a wall with her hands on her hips.

"You were the one who left her trial the fastest," Lain continued with her eyes fixed on her.

"I have spoken with Lyra, Ash, and Iris about theirs; what they struggled with and why it took them as long as it did." A pause.

"I believe conviction was the common denominator. The trials tested how much you would endure before your conviction broke, or how much you would give up because of it." Amy's frown deepened as memories from the trial reappeared.

"You have a lot of conviction. That is why I'm worried." Amy held Lain's gaze for a long moment while the screams of her fake family as they burned echoed in her ears.

"What was your trial?" Amy suddenly asked. Lain went still. It wasn't a real question, so Amy didn't wait for her to answer.

"I don't know what your trial was," she said, which, for once, was true; she really did not know her trial since the manga had skipped it for whatever reason.

"You don't have to tell me. But I know what mine taught me." She looked ahead, at the golden thread stitching itself through the dark.

"If I had taken as much time as Crow did with his, we might not have made it back alive. The timing was that tight. You were there for the last hours; you know it was."

"Amy—""So yes. If I have to kill, I'll kill." The words came a bit colder than she expected, surprising her a little bit. Without needing a mirror, Amy knew her eyes had gone flat, yet still shone golden because of her ability.

"I'm obviously not going to do it to innocent people," Amy continued.

"I'm not insane, and I'm not cruel. But if an evil person's death saves us time—or saves somebody—then I will do it, and I won't spend nights agonizing about it." Silence followed her response. Lain looked at her for a long time, then spoke in a colorless voice.

"That path only leads to an enormous amount of blood," Lain said.

"I have seen somebody make decisions that they thought were logical for the sake of an originally almost impossible but virtuous objective. It ended with the person they were at the beginning completely gone." Amy fell silent while watching her, trying to remember who she might be talking to from the manga, but no name came to her mind. So instead she decided to ask—not who it was, but rather…

"Did they achieve their objective, or are they on their way to achieving it?" Lain didn't answer at first. The drip of water counted the seconds; one, two, five. Then, finally, at seven, Lain nodded.

"Then was it really the wrong path?" Lain didn't speak; she just stared silently and expressionless at Amy as the air between them cooled, literally—Amy could see her own breath now coming as fog as she kept staring at the girl with—"Okay, you two, stop fighting!" Both of them flinched. It was Iris who spoke. She was standing a bit ahead, still at the wall she'd been inspecting before.

"There's a rock here that looks almost like an illusion," she said.

"I almost missed it, and I don't miss stuff. Come look at this before you start throwing hands."

"We weren't fighting," Amy said automatically.

"Sure, whatever. Just come." Amy shook her head and turned toward the wall—and stopped. The golden thread went directly into the stone Iris was pointing at. Amy's eyes narrowed as she walked closer. Now that she was actually looking, she could see what Iris meant; the stone looked fake as hell. I knew it. I knew there was something down here. No way it would ever be that easy. She reached out and slipped her hand past the brick, and her fingers touched an object. Inside was something small wrapped in oilcloth.

Amy opened it and found a thin disc of dark metal with a spiral pattern in its surface.

"Huh," Iris said, leaning over her shoulder.

"Fancy. What is it?"

"No idea." Amy turned it over.

"So obviously we should touch it more."

"Obviously." Lain, who was staring silently, suddenly stepped closer and held out a hand. Amy looked at her, then back to the disc, then back at her. Then, with a bit of hesitation, she passed it over and watched as Lain turned it slowly in the dim light.

"... This is a Ward Anchor," Lain said finally.

"A what?"

"They repel chaos creatures." Lain didn't look up from the disc.

"Their existence is mostly hidden from people due to their value. They're not strong enough to hold a real siege or to dissuade strong ones, but they create a kind of pressure field. Creatures avoid the radius unless they have an incentive to go through it." Amy stared at the little disc in Lain's hand, then back up at her face.

"How do you know that…?"

"That's a new one," Iris suddenly interjected.

"Amy Stake not only does not know something but also asks for explanations." Iris grinned, then turned to Lain.

"You shouldn't tell her. Let her taste a bit of something called karma." Amy squinted her eyes, then looked at Lain, who was silent, almost as if she was thinking it over. She should probably say something to convince the girl that this was of utmost importance and that she should share it. But honestly, that was the most right Iris had been in her entire life; not getting an answer now would be a hundred percent deserved. Luckily, Lain didn't seem to share the same opinion.

"My family owns three," she explained.

"Okay. So it's a rich person's expensive ward against pests," Iris said, reaching toward the disc in Lain's hand and tapping its edge.

"Why is a ward hidden inside a sewer wall in the capital?" Lain stayed silent. Amy thought for a second, then asked, "Could you use one of these in reverse?" Amy asked slowly.

"Not to repel things away from a spot, but to push them toward one, like herding them?" Lain went quiet, turning the disc slightly, then spoke.

"... Probably." Amy exhaled and turned toward Iris.

"Abaddon," she said.

"What about him?" Iris tilted her head and thought for a second before asking.

"You think he put it here? Guy's dead, remember. Very dead. I watched you make him that way very grotesquely."

"That's my point. This—" Amy nodded at the disc, "—is probably part of one of his old plans..." She shrugged.

"But you're right, it doesn't matter now. He's gone." She expected Iris to make a joke, Lain to nod, and then from there they would all go back together to the academy. What she got instead was Lain, still staring down at the disc, saying, quietly, "Are you sure?" Amy blinked.

"... Sure about what?"

"That it was him."

"Why? You have a better theory?" Lain hesitated in a way that since Building B, Amy had learned to recognize as a warning sign.

"These aren't something you can buy," Lain said.

"Or steal easily, or fake. Only a few exist in the entire kingdom, and the Crown gives them directly. If one had been lost, somebody would have noticed it since they are tracked constantly, and my family would have received a warning to protect ours more carefully." Lain turned the disc over once more, then met Amy's eyes directly.

"It's possible, of course, that it was Abaddon; he was a prophet after all. But if you're not entirely certain it was him, I wouldn't assume it was, just because it's the easiest answer available." Amy stared at the disc for a long moment, then sighed. Well. That is annoying. It would have been so much cleaner if the answer had really been dead prophet; then it would be case closed, resume vacation. Now… Shit. Whatever it is, if it isn't urgent, I will ignore it. I haven't even had a single week of vacation yet.

Amy closed her eyes and reached inward again, this time with an actual question in mind instead of a vague, aimless want. Show me how to find out whose this is. She had only wanted to check how hard the answer would be to find, and she found something that genuinely surprised her… It was so damn easy. The golden thread that answered her was a path directly toward the person standing right next to her. Amy opened her eyes.

"Lain." Lain's expression shifted immediately. Amy had a feeling she already knew exactly what was about to be asked.

"Is there a way to figure out who this belongs to?" The silence that followed was, if anything, longer than any of the ones they had had during their conversation about the vote. Lain's jaw tightened. It was the most expression Amy had ever seen on her face yet. Then she sighed.

"... My family keeps a specialist," she said finally, the words coming out clipped and careful.

"If anyone could trace this back, it would be him."

"Okay," Amy said while turning the disc over.

"When can you ask him?" Hesitation crossed Lain's face briefly, and was gone almost before Amy could study it.

"... Next month," she said.

"It's close to my birthday. My eighteenth. I'll be going home for it."

"Since when do the Arkwrights celebrate birthdays?" Iris said, deadpan, from a few feet away where she'd been pretending not to listen.

"Pretty sure I remember you saying your family thinks celebrating one year closer to death is stupid and for brainless people."

"It isn't really a birthday," Lain said, and there was something almost uncomfortable in the way she said it, her gaze sliding briefly to the wall instead of either of them.

"I was planning not to go since it's just an excuse to summon me back... I'll bring the anchor with me and give it to the specialist myself, while I'm there." Amy looked at her fixedly for a moment, frowned, then, "Do you want me to come with you?" she heard herself ask before she'd even decided to. Lain's head turned toward her fast. For a second, she just stared, and then for the second time, Amy saw her make just as many expressions as when she talked about going to her birthday; her eyes lit up brightly.

"... Really?" she said.

"I want to come too," Iris said immediately, raising a hand.

"Should we ask the others? I mean, yeah, we're kind of not talking to half of them right now, but still, it seems rude to just—" Lain was already shaking her head before Iris finished.

"You two can come, but the others… My family has disapproved of them since the last time they met," she said simply, no further explanation offered. Then her attention swung back to Amy, and the brightness dimmed slightly, replaced by a hesitant but still expressive face.

"Are you sure you want to come? My family is... interested in you."

"Interested how?"

"Your ability isn't as secret as you think," Lain said.

"Officially, students can choose to hide their powers if they wish, as long as it doesn't interfere with the classes. You haven't explicitly shown anybody your power and aren't a Gaspard, so it's still a mystery. But in practice, your extraordinary talents get noticed and shared with the king, then word somehow leaks and moves between the big noble houses regardless of what the academy allows. Mine, for example, has sent me a letter before, asking me directly about you." Amy absorbed that in silence for a moment.

It really was insane when she stopped to actually add it up, how much of this world seemed to orbit her without her ever asking it to. If she didn't have an actual apocalypse to prevent, she thought, her ego would have inflated to genuinely unmanageable proportions by now. As it stood, it mostly just made her tired.

"I'll go," Amy said anyway. Lain's eyes did the thing again, that same startled, undisguised shine, gone as quickly as it had appeared. Amy watched it happen and thought of how funny she looked.

"But you still have classes. I have gotten an exemption for that week thanks to my family. How would the two of you…?"

"We'll just ask the headmistress," Iris responded.

"I have a feeling she likes us. I bet she won't mind." Amy nodded, then turned towards Lain, whose eyes once again were shining. The previous tension with her about the vote was still in the back of her mind, but for now, she decided to ignore it. She just hoped Lain would too.