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Tournament this year, and attained the honor of becoming an integrity knight.
"Those are... lies! How could have my disciple, Knight Thirty- one, possibly been born in one of those depraved upper cla.s.s n.o.ble..."
"Listen here, Eldrie didn"t collapse during our battle because he got cut. There weren"t any severe wounds on his body, were there? It"s because my partner remembered his original name, Eldrie Woolsburg, and ended up stimulating the sealed memories of his mother. Eldrie tried to remember his mother.
But he couldn"t no matter how hard he tried. That was only natural; those memories had been extracted from his soul by Administrator and kept safe on the top floor of the cathedral."
"...Memories... of his mother...?"
Alice"s lips shivered slightly. Her two eyes drifted off my face and wandered through the air.
"Eldrie has... a human... a n.o.ble mother...?"
"It"s not just him. Probably half of the integrity knights were experts with the sword who won the Unity Tournament and most of those should be n.o.ble children specially educated with swordsmanship since they were young. In exchange for entrusting their children to the Axiom Church, the n.o.bles attain a generous amount of money, goods, and land. That 146.
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arrangement had already been in place for over a hundred years."
"...I can"t believe it... that story of yours is much too preposterous."
The golden knight, who had likely believed in a unblemished sanct.i.ty of the Axiom Church and integrity knights without the slightest misgiving, shook her head left and right like a child to reject the notion.
"The upper cla.s.s n.o.bles of the four empires... I cannot claim all of the aristocracy to be the same, but they are addicted to their languid, extravagant manner of living. That is the meaning behind our existences, we integrity knights are here to protect the Human World. And despite that... you claim Eldrie and the other knights were born out of those upper cla.s.s n.o.bles sunk in utmost depravity... that is impossible. I cannot possibly believe that."
"The depravity of the upper cla.s.s n.o.bles was caused by the high social position and the numerous privileges granted to them by the Axiom Church. But that"s the exact reason why n.o.ble children can receive education in swordsmanship and sacred arts from childhood. In the remote regions, sacred tasks are bestowed upon child merely ten of year and they can"t afford the luxury of time to practice something like swordsmanship... And the most talented ones among those n.o.ble children partic.i.p.ate in the Four Empires Unity 147.
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Tournament and the sole victor is summoned to the Central Cathedral. ...Alice, have you ever met any of those champions in the cathedral?"
Alice averted her eyes in slight unease at my question and softly shook her head.
"No... -But many ascetics and their apprentices live on the lower floors of the cathedral, so... couldn"t the champion of the Unity Tournament be striving in daily studies as one of their numbers..."
No, they aren"t. Immediately, I thought to deny it with that, but I closed my somewhat open mouth right away.
Eugeo and I had went through fifty floors without any detour-though we were dragged through twenty of those floors by the child knights, Fizel and Linel, paralyzed by their venomous swords-after taking back our beloved swords from the third floor of the cathedral without encountering any ascetics. However, I did have a guess on where their birthplace could be.
Most of those ascetics, likely on the lower floors of the cathedral only to toil away for the Axiom Church, were probably not adopted from outside the church, but were born and raised within it. Like Fizel and Linel. It would be like producing functional units within the tower from Administrator"s point of view, wouldn"t it?
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Alice was definitely utterly unaware of the church"s darkness.
There was no need to broach that topic now and place an unnecessary burden on her.
"...No, you have met with them, with the champions of the Unity Tournament. You just weren"t aware of it. You integrity knights should have your memories modified by Administrator"s hand not just during the "Synthesis Ritual"...
but also after becoming knights."
"Ridiculous!"
Alice clearly shouted with her face turned up.
"Impossible! The esteemed highest minister couldn"t possibly commit an act like fiddling with our..."
"She did!"
I cried out in return.
"After all, not only do all of you not have any memories of the tournament champions... but also of those criminals you have taken in!"
"Cri-Criminals...?"
Frowning, Alice closed her mouth once again. Turning my gaze straight towards her face appearing pale under the starlight, I sped on in earnest.
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"That"s right. You brought my partner and I here to the church from the Sword Mastery Academy by flying dragon. I suppose you do remember that much, right?"
"...I couldn"t possibly forget that. The two of you were the first criminals I was ever commanded to bring in."
"But Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven didn"t remember about you. Eight years ago..."
After pausing for a short while, I gathered my resolve and stated "that name".
"...He brought someone here with his own hands from Rulid Vil age in the northern outskirts; he brought here the young Alice."
Alice"s face turned whiter than the marble wall after she heard my words. Her lips, lacking in color, trembled and a parched murmur escaped from them.
"Rulid Vil age... I was born there...? Deusolbert-dono brought me from there as a criminal...? In other words, I had once committed a taboo... that is what you claim...?"
I gently nodded at her faltering voice.
"That"s right. I said half of the integrity knights were champions of the Unity Tournament earlier, didn"t I? The remaining half were humans brought to the cathedral as criminals. Those who possess a wil firm enough to oppose the 150.
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Taboo Index would manifest unmatched power after they became knights. It must be kil ing two birds with one stone for Administrator, being able to give those humans, capable of swaying the influence of the church, another life as her mighty p.a.w.ns. ...Let"s talk about you."
Alice could accept my words or reject them. This was the critical moment.
I stared hard at the integrity knight with as much strength as I could in my gaze. Sitting onto the stone terrace with a plop and contracting her shoulders forlornly, Alice looked back at me with half-shut eyes as though awaiting some sort of judgement to be pa.s.sed down onto her.
"Your real name is Alice Schuberg. Born and raised in a small village called Rulid in the remote northern regions, practically at the foot of the mountain range at the edge. You"re the same age as Eugeo... my partner, so you should be nineteen this year.
You were taken to the church eight years ago, so that means the incident happened when you were eleven. You went to explore the cave going through the mountain range at the edge with Eugeo... and after exiting it, you ended up going beyond it a little, over the border between the Human World and the Dark Territory. In other words, the taboo you committed was "Trespa.s.sing into the Dark Territory". You didn"t steal anything or hurt anyone... no, rather, you tried to help a darkness knight on the verge of death back then..."
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There and then, my mouth fell shut.
Had I heard Eugeo describe Alice in such detail...?
Of course he had. There wasn"t any way I could had known exactly what happened a whole six years ago when I only woke up in the Underworld a mere two years ago. But despite that, I could vividly see the black knight falling while drawing a trail of blood and Alice running off there in my mind, as though I had witnessed the scene myself. It seemed I could even recreate the gritty noise of Alice"s hands making contact with the pitch-black ground of the Dark Territory in the depths of my ears.
The scene I conceived from Eugeo"s story must have mixed in with some memories of reality without my notice. I raised my face, convincing myself so, but it appeared Alice hadn"t the composure to mind that unnatural pause in my words. Her bluish cheeks trembled faintly and a feeble voice flowed out from her, barely audible.
"Alice Schuberg... That is, my name...? Rulid... the mountain range at the edge... I can"t remember, anything..."
"Don"t force yourself to remember, you"ll end up like Eldrie."
I cut into Alice"s words in a fl.u.s.ter. It would be chaos if something happened like Alice"s "piety module" becoming unstable and rendering her immobile like in Eldrie"s case, inciting the other knights to come retrieve her upon sensing the abnormality. However, Alice glared at me with eyes that 152.
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seemed to have regained some of their strength and spoke firmly even if her voice did tremble.
"What are you saying even after revealing so much. I... want to know everything. I have yet to believe your story... but I wil make my decision only after you"ve spoken all that you have to say."
"...Got it. That said, it"s not like I know that much about the old you. Your father"s the village chief of Rulid and his name"s Gasupht Schuberg. Unfortunately, I don"t know your mother"s name, but like I said earlier, you have a little sister. Her name"s Selka and she should stil be serving as a sister apprentice in the church in Rulid, even now. I chatted with Selka when I was under the church"s care two years ago. She was a good kid who thought highly of her elder sister... you remained on her mind after you were taken away to the church. Apparently, you were also a sister apprentice when you lived in Rulid and you were called a genius in sacred arts. She was putting her all to follow in the footsteps of her elder sister, to become a splendid sister."
Alice showed no response even after I had spoken out all I knew and shut my mouth.
Her trembling from earlier ceased and her porcelain-white face didn"t make the slightest movement. In all likelihood, she was trying to recall the numerous proper nouns I had voiced out from the bottom of her memories, but it seemed there was no chance for success there.
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-So it was hopeless...
I muttered in my heart. I figured that it might be possible to awaken some memories, even with her "memory fragment"
stolen, if I slowly gave her the information while she was in a calm state-but apparently, the seal Administrator applied possessed power beyond my expectations.
I guess the only one who could return Alice to her original self would be Cardinal with her supervisor authority. And that came attached with the catch of retrieving Alice"s memory fragment that was being safeguarded by Administrator somewhere.