Toaru Majutsu no Index-Volume 11, Chapter 3: Aboard the Capital of Water’s vessel. Il_Mare_e_la_Sconfitta.

Part 1

The outside was made of ice, and so was the inside.

The corridor, the walls, the ceiling were made of transparent ice. Even the door, the handle and the bolts on the hinges were of the same material. Some of the items inside would make one wonder whether they could even work or not. The inside of the cabin, which was made of ice, was just like the outside, the walls and floor giving off a faint white glow. Was it the effect of moonlight being reflected like crazy?

The glow wasn’t as bright as sunlight, and though the walls and ceiling could be seen clearly, the space itself was rather dark. It felt like the weak lights in a cinema.

Kamijou and Orsola opened the hatchway linking the deck to the inside of the ship and ran into the nearest room. Nobody was stopping them. Basically, if they were found out, they would be finished. But even without anyone around, Kamijou felt that there was an invisible pressure attacking them. Maybe it was the psychological effect of wanting to hide for safety.

Both of them entered the room, closed the door and leaned on the wall inside. Suddenly, they heard the hatchway being opened and closed. Besides footsteps, they could hear growling in some foreign language. One could hear that they were all males. However, because Kamijou didn’t know anything about the language, and since he was unable to understand the situation from the voices, this made him even more worried.

“Damn it, what’s going on?”

Kamijou muttered.

He had finally gotten a ticket to Italy and came here, and not only had he been attacked by some weird dude, he was forced to ride on this huge ship. It was too unfortunate.

The place where he and Orsola were hiding in should be the fort. A row of cannons were arranged on the wall of the ship, such that they looked like small separated rooms.

From here, one could see the base of the cannons. There were several chairs in front of the cannons, a shelf on the wall, and some large buckets. These were all made of white translucent material—in other words, that was all inside the room. He couldn’t see the gunpowder for the cannons that should be in some buckets or the volleyball-sized shells. Kamijou was unable to tell whether it was because the cannons were all duplicates or if it was because these were magic cannons that would ignore the laws of physics.

From the inside walls to the furniture, the entire body of the ship was glowing. As the texture was the same, it gave a sense of slipperiness. Light was everywhere, but it was hard to read in this situation. This was truly an abnormal space.

“I’m rather mindful about this ship — why must they use such a huge thing to attack us?”

Orsola said uncomfortably. She did have a reason for saying this because the enemy was after her life. When this kind of situation happened, it was naturally hard to counter.

Kamijou remembered the spear-wielding man that had appeared out of the river.

“That idiot who just attacked you... he seemed to be wearing a male version of your nun's robe.”

“Yes, that is priest's attire. If so, the enemy should be the Roman Catholic Church, right?”

“Is it because of ‘The Book of the Law’? I can’t think of other reasons that would cause any conflict.”

“But that case should be over ever since I was transferred to the English Puritans... according to the current situation, if they kill me, it’ll be disadvantageous to the Roman Catholics... would they specially make a vessel out of ice, destroy the banks of Chioggia and the Vigo bridge just to get me?”

“Yeah, that’s a bit too much of an overkill...”

Kamijou cupped his head and thought.

In all the magic commotions that had occurred in Academy City and Japan, the magicians seemed like they wanted to avoid exposing the event. But this time it was different; the ship basically had appeared outright, destroyed everything, and then left just like that. Orsola should be quite confused now. Basically, even if a giant ice ship was to emerge from a narrow canal and destroy the streets, nobody would believe it. If they did, wouldn’t the existence of magicians be revealed?

“Where’s this ship going?”

“If the ship is going north from Chioggia, maybe Venice? If not, the only way out to the Mediterranean Sea is south... ah, there’s a window over there.”

The window that Orsola was pointing at was one that allowed a person to aim the cannon, but all they could see was the darkness of the sea. Everything in the horizon was water, and at the end, it was the dark sky; there was no clue to tell them where they were.

Suddenly,

‘BOOM’ an explosion could be heard from the surface of the sea. With that sound, an ice ship, similar to the one Kamijou and Orsola were riding, emerged from the water as if it was a killer whale. After that, 5, 10 translucent ships also appeared. They could only see in one direction, but it was likely that the same thing was happening all around.

The empty horizon of the Adriatic Sea was now covered with numerous ships.

The dark surface of the sea was now illuminated by these weak white lights. The light caused by a ship wasn’t that bright, but it was a different matter when there were that many of them.

“...This ship isn’t the enemy base, but one of them?”

“The main brigade is here, perhaps they couldn’t launch because Chioggia’s too small?”

Said Kamijou as he gritted his teeth.

One ship was already hard for them to handle. Now that the scale had increased, it felt like it was harder for them to escape. Now, they would have to abandon the idea of getting off the ship and hide till the ship reached port.

“Really, Index shouldn’t have any problems now. Handphone... nope. It’s alright even if a phone made by Academy City drops into the water — I can honestly praise that...that kid’s 0-yen phone probably hasn’t been on ever since I turned it off before our flight. Can the electromagnetic waves pass through the sea?”

“Ah, my luggage got washed away. All the contents of the luggage got spilled onto the roof, and then this ship forced the canal water out...”

The trunk should have had quite a lot of women cosmetics. Orsola looked a bit awkward, and Kamijou replied in a slightly irritated yet impressed tone,

“...You’re really strong, to think of anything after this is over.”

“Oh my, cuttlefish isn’t Chioggia’s speciality, but of Venice.”

Hearing Orsola ignore him as she changed the topic, Kamijou really felt weak, but he couldn’t keep this up for long.

Ka chang.

The handle of the cabin door twisted.

“!?”

Kamijou and Orsola, who were standing beside the door, were shocked.

Both of them turned towards the door.

It wasn’t just a single door being opened.

Numerous doors were being opened. It was likely that all the doors on this level could be automatically opened at the same time, as the sounds could be heard from right to left.

There was nowhere to hide inside the room.

And outside, the person checking through the corridor made of ice with changed melting temperature was suddenly standing in front of Kamijou.

This person wasn’t one of those mere grunts.

The one opening the door was a nun. What made her special were her pencil-thick braids of red hair. She had the cheeky expression of a naughty child with a body even more petite than Index. Though she was wearing a similar nun's robe as Orsola's, her outfit revealed a lot more skin, like a mini-skirt. The thing that made them recognise her was the pair of 30cm thick sandals.

“Agnese!?”

Kamijou couldn’t help but shout out.

Agnese Sanctis.

A battle nun who had led a company of the Roman Catholics to try and assassinate Orsola Aquinas because of the incident involving ‘The Book of the Law’. 𝐟𝓇ℯ𝒆we𝒃𝘯𝒐νe𝑙.co𝚖

Oi, this is no time for a joke! Why is she on this ship!? Don’t tell me that she’s involved in the incident when Orsola got attacked just now!!

Stunned, Kamijou couldn’t say anything.

“—”

She didn’t seem to notice that the people inside were Kamijou and Orsola. She slightly widened her eyes, and after staring at that boy’s face—

BAM!!

She punched Kamijou’s face without any hesitation.

“ACK...!?”

Being hit like this, Kamijou’s vision started to waver. He could hear Orsola’s little cry. He was almost unconscious, not due to pain, but due to him being unable to react in time. Right away, Agnese stepped forward and punched his waist. Then, when Kamijou was unable to guard himself, Agnese’s small fist targeted the youth’s flank from below.

DONG!! A blunt sound could be heard, as if a hammer smashed into luggage.

An irritating sound reverberated inside Kamijou. After that, Agnese punched down on Kamijou’s back as he was bent in a ‘[’ shape. Kamijou was unable to fight back, and was only capable of lying down on the ground. After Agnese backed away from him, she turned to look at Orsola.

“Erm...please hold on for a moment...!?”

Orsola frantically opened her hands. On seeing this, Agnese frowned, but she didn’t swing her fist. While she was still alert, she heard...

“...I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. No, I’m really shocked. The back of your nun robe had such a large hole that I nearly saw your butt — even on your abdomen, there are hand-sized holes; you’re revealing a lot of skin...”

The boy lying on the floor and remaining in the ‘[’ position muttered as if he was reciting a chant.

In this narrow room, Agnese moved away while maintaining her distance from Kamijou and Orsola.

“EH! Over there!!”

She shouted, using the thick soles of her sandals to step on Kamijou’s leg, and pulled up his trousers.

“You! As expected, you brought a weapon onto the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea...!!”

The suspicious voice of Agnese suddenly stopped.

What was strapped tightly onto his leg was a backup wallet, as if Kamijou was declaring that he was not used to travelling overseas.

“...”

Agnese remained silent, instead of saying that she felt awkward that her guess was wrong; it was more like she was suspicious of them because she didn’t understand their intentions. After that, she slowly re-estimated the distance between her and the rest.

Though Agnese hadn’t let down her guard, the sticky situation now could be counted as ‘we can communicate without fighting each other’. Orsola gently sighed, and said more than she normally did,

“I... was attacked by the Roman Catholics as I was moving houses, and after that, I had to ride on this ship. ‘The Queen of the Adriatic Sea’...is it the name of this ice ship?”

Seeing Orsola ask in surprise, Agnese relaxed her shoulders. But she continued to keep her eyes on Kamijou, who was on the floor.

“She’s still... is it still a character flaw?”

There was a sense of irritation in her tone, but Kamijou was unable to hear anyone as he continued to lie on the floor.

“—So I’m really sorry, Agnese, and I’ll take this chance to confess that during the first time I met you, you looked rather perverted wearing that mini-skirt nun robe...!?”

Being kicked in the flank by the 30cm thick sandals, Kamijou bounced up. Agnese repeated her question again, and Kamijou coughed as he got up, saying,

“No... eh, why... why are you angry? Did Orsola say something weird again? Queen of the Adriatic Sea? What’s that? I think I heard of it before.”

“Really, I did explain it to you clearly, you know?”

As both of them didn’t know what the question to that answer was, both of them decided to ignore Orsola first. Agnese looked like she finally let her guard down, saying in a relaxed manner,

“...The name of the fleet is the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’. This is just one frigate ship. Seems like you really do not know what’s going on. Either you don’t know how to negotiate or something, I can tell from your expression that you really do not know anything. If this is also an act, I’m really impressed.”

“What on earth are you doing here...”

“You don’t have the right to ask me that. I’m helping to look for an intruder.”

Agnese then proceeded to say something astonishing.

“However, if you’re the intruders, I can make use of that. If it’s me alone, it’ll be hard to settle this troublesome problem, but it may be faster if I make use of you.”

“Wait a sec...”

Kamijou couldn’t help but blurt out.

Troublesome, problem, hard to settle, make use, it’ll be faster—no matter what the keyword was, it was still dangerous.

“I have an irritating premonition. First, Orsola got attacked, and then I’m forced to ride on this weird ship. We’re just involved in this somehow, and we don’t know what you’re doing here—”

“If you continue to chatter like this, you’re going to get louder and louder. I advise you not to anger me if you want to escape this place. That is, if you want to escape ‘The Queen’s fleet’.”

Kamijou and Orsola stared at Agnese in surprise.

Agnese didn’t mind as she continued,

“However, it’s alright if you don’t want to escape. I can call people to come here and let you die here. How about you jump into the water and swim all the way back to the shore? I don’t know how many kilometres is though, and once there’s a sound on the sea, they’ll fire the cannons immediately.”

Now that she was reminding him, Kamijou had nothing to argue back with.

That was right, this was the sea; there was no way for them to escape. Forget about swimming, even if they were to get a lifeboat, they would be shot down quickly.

Just as Kamijou was pondering, Orsola asked,

“...Is there any benefit for you if you help us?”

“Benefits? We’ll have a lot to talk about if you can think about it.”

Agnese immediately replied.

This already troublesome situation seemed to have taken a turn for the worst. Agnese and the gruff sounding men should be of the same search party, but they seemed to have different motives. Orsola sighed before turning back to Kamijou.

“Looks like we can only listen to what she says. No matter what, if we don’t assist her, we can’t escape, and if she gets angry, the rest of them will rush in here.”

“Humph, at least you’re clear about that.”

Seeing Agnese reveal such a competitive smile, Kamijou carelessly let his jaw drop.

Though the situation had now gotten complicated, he still said in a reluctant manner,

“I’m not really motivated for this, but let’s see what you have to say.”

Part 2

“What’s this ‘Queen’s fleet’?”

In this narrow gunnery room, Kamijou asked this question.

“Well, this is a fleet formed to monitor the Adriatic Sea.”

Agnese seemed to have released her tension now. Though she was still keeping her distance, the tips of her hands and feet were relaxed.

“Right now, we’re collecting data from the starry night, the wind and the surface of the sea. After that, we’ll check a certain part of the Adriatic Sea, and see how much magical energy was used. Because the sea is different from the land, we can’t investigate it like normal. It’ll be terrible if the enemy casts some weird magic experiment.”

“...Monitoring the Adriatic Sea?”

Orsola sounded somewhat surprised and looked around the room that was made of ice.

“But is it really necessary to build such a large facility?”

“We should be able to build it a bit smaller if it’s now, but the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ was built several centuries ago... at that time, a lot of attention was placed on the security of the Adriatic Sea.”

Agnese replied in an uninterested manner.

“There’s also the meaning of suppressing other religions. The organisations of the magic side have been shaken by quite a few recent events. They had to hold some huge event to reorganise themselves.”

If so, the English Puritans and the Russian Orthodox Church should know about the movements of this ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’. If they didn’t do this, they would not achieve the aim of ‘warning others’.

Upon hearing her say this, Kamijou asked,

“What? Then the higher-ups knew about this, yet they choose to remain silent over it? If it’s a containment game, there’s no need to cause such a huge event. Wouldn’t a bigger problem occur if the underlings are to run riot? You see, like now?”

“...Wait a minute. I still don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know what the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ is. If they know of this disastrous situation...”

“Do you think they’ll think that much? In other words—”

Agnese suddenly stopped.

Footsteps could be heard from the outside the door. Agnese placed her ear on the ice door waiting for the footsteps to cease. How many people were there on this ship? The black habit guy who had attacked Kamijou and company, and the coarse-sounding guy on the deck—these guys didn’t seem like they were Agnese’s men.

“But I have never heard of this thing while with the Roman Catholics.”

“I didn’t know that as well before I got here. The Roman Catholics do have 2 billion followers, and they have quite a lot of deployed squads. All we know are the areas that we’re familiar with or some high level ones.”

“...Now that you mention it, I have no idea exactly how many people are in a company[1].”

Upon Agnese mentioning this, Orsola seemed to start thinking about the deployment and the groupings.

However,

“What? This ship is only meant to be a surveillance facility?”

Kamijou looked stunned as he asked Agnese.

“We were suddenly attacked by the people on this ship, saw a gigantic ship that came out of nowhere and broke the banks, and before we knew it, we’re smack down in the middle of this fleet. Why must we always end up in this kind of situation?”

“Humph.”

For some reason, Agnese snorted.

“I’ll ask you this again: you have nothing to do with the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’, right?”

“I said before, I was in the midst of moving houses. Speaking of which, are my Amakusa friends alright?”

Orsola worriedly asked. Agnese, looking rather tired, sighed and said,

“Don’t tell me you were being watched? You’re people who disrupted the plans of the Roman Catholics, so you’ll be on the blacklist, and one of you came all the way from Japan, while the other came all the way here from London, leading a battle group like the Amakusa. All the important people related to ‘The Book of the Law’ are gathered here, so it’s not weird for you to be suspected of ‘coming here to do something...’ by the enemy.”

I see, Kamijou tilted his head.

To be honest, it was hard to imagine what the ‘normal response’ of the magic side would be.

At this moment, Agnese grinned,

“However, to feel weird about ‘this facility that’s meant to maintain surveillance’, it seems like you’re rather sharp.”

“What?”

Kamijou asked. Agnese continued,

“‘This facility is meant to maintain surveillance’, in truth, it’s an excuse on the surface.”

“What’s going on?”

“The real reason is that this is a labour facility.”

A tinge of darkness could be seen in Agnese’s smile.

“This place is meant to gather sinners and failures like me, and have them repay the damages done to the Roman Catholics. All the people on the ship are from my company... no, they’re from my ex-company. The remaining ones are here to control us.”

If so, was Agnese working here as well? Looking for intruders should be part of the work as well. But no matter whether it was those people that suddenly attacked or the existences that were hidden, he did feel an uneasy atmosphere.

“What are you doing, basically?”

Kamijou asked.

“The basis of the work is extremely simple; the working hours are long, about 18 hours a day. For those nuns who aren’t used to this kind of environment, it’s no different from Hell.”

These words shocked Kamijou and Orsola.

This... feels rather similar to a punishment...

The currently banned form of punishment called "futility".

In other words, the punishment was to torture the prisoners by forcing them to do simple and futile tasks to wear them down psychologically. The more meaningless the work, the larger the impact it was psychologically. This feeling of "working to such an extent yet completely useless" was like the pain of running a marathon and nearly making it to the finish line, only to be suddenly told that they had to re-time the run.

“Then, back to proper business. The price of letting you off is... Sister Lucia and Sister Angelene. They’re my underlings, and I hope that you can save them.”

Lucia and Angelene.

Kamijou didn’t remember them at first, but thinking in retrospect, he remembered that they were the nuns he had met during the battle involving ‘The Book of the Law’ and Orsola. He had been fiercely attacked by them at the ‘Parallel Sweets Wonderland’.

“However, what’s this with saving them?”

“About that... well, they got what they deserved.”

Agnese sighed impatiently,

“Both of them escaped from the ‘Queen’s Fleet’, most likely to save me and the other nuns. I can only say that I’m really grateful for their kind intentions. They got outside and were preparing to save us.”

Hearing Agnese’s reply, one could feel that she was bored, the tone being rather cold.

“As for the method, well, seems like they could escape the spell that the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ uses to identify enemies... never mind, anyway, they escaped, so you can believe them.”

What was the point of asking someone to save somebody who had escaped from a prison? Before asking this question, Kamijou thought of the answer.

After they escaped, they had been caught again.

“So after they got caught, they’re being lectured?”

“How can it be just a lecture?”

Agnese looked uninterested as she said,

“...This is a prison. Including me, all the nuns here are criminals to the Roman Catholics. The most important thing is to ‘seal the escape hole’ in order to prevent prisoners from escaping. But this isn’t an execution ground, so they won’t kill them just for the sake of sealing the exit. The most they’ll do is to add extra labour, forcing those two to be unable to use those spells.”

“What do you mean by extra work?”

Kamijou casually asked. Orsola frowned, and as if she was trying to confirm it, asked,

“Forbidding them to use magic, you mean taking away their reasoning? Destroying their brain structure?”

Hearing this, Kamijou sat on the icy surface, wide-eyed. Though he hadn’t heard of the exact way, it sure added on to that irritating image.

Agnese sighed,

“They’re not corpses that are meant for an Uetara spell (some spell used to control corpses), just mindless labour alone is enough to make people sick of it. Thus, I hope that you can save them before they end up like that.”

She scratched her head in frustration,

“...Just those two for now. The other nuns have the minimum amount of food and clothing given to them, so it looks like they don’t have the strength to fight back. As for those two, if we save them before their brains get destroyed, we can get the spell to escape the prison.”

“But wouldn’t the Roman Catholics know of this escape spell?”

“The ‘Queen’s Fleet’ has a lot of things to do. Only the higher-ups know about the specifics. As they have already deployed people here, the Roman Catholics won’t really care about one or two people escaping; they’re not stupid enough to focus on something trivial and neglect the major things.”

After motivating herself for a bit, Agnese said,

“So if we want to escape, this is our only chance. If you two are willing to help, this problem will be easier to settle. I want to create a distraction, so I have to go to the flagship of the ‘Queen’s Fleet’. During this time, please think of an idea.”

In other words, there was a way to go from this escort ship to the flagship? Since this was a magic facility, there might be some strange bridle device.

“...You’re willing to help us?”

“Not help, I’m going to use you. If you don’t, I won’t be going to the flagship. On the contrary, I’ll go and report to them.”

Agnese maliciously twisted her lips as she said this. Seeing her like this, Orsola just smiled and said,

“Alright, alright. You don’t have to say such words to hide your embarrassment. You wouldn’t tell us all this if you didn’t want us to help you.”

“Eh!? Wait... why are you hugging me all of a sudden!?”

Agnese was now being hugged by a kind Orsola, her face stuffed in Orsola’s breasts. Kamijou instantly turned his head away to look away, and a cracking sound could be heard.

Right now, the important thing was—

“You just said that we have to think of a plan during this time... aren’t you captured as well? Then come and escape with us.”

Kamijou asked as he looked up from the floor and stared at Agnese.

Hearing this, Agnese broke free from Orsola.

“I have a symbolic purpose.”

“...I don’t really understand what you mean.”

“I’ll explain it simply. Most of the people on this fleet are members of my captured squad. The people watching them would be most worried about a rebellion among the workers. Basically, I’m a psychological safety mechanism that’s meant to prevent this from happening. Say... for example, like how a leader among the prisoners is meant to control all the prisoners.”

She smiled sarcastically,

“In the ex-Agnese’s forces, I’m the one with the most influence. If I submit completely to the ‘Queen’s Fleet’, my squad members will think ‘I can’t do it if she can’t’...this is basically just a mistaken view.”

Agnese sighed gently.

One could tell that she had the authority to do this if she was able to act on her own. It felt like Agnese was looking for Lucia and Angelene.

“Though I’m imprisoned, I do have the freedom to walk around the fleet, and so I’m excused from labour. Besides the basic meals, I have the luxury of choosing coffee or fruit juice after a meal. Not bad, huh? In order to maintain this comfortable life, I have to make everyone work.”

“...”

“To me who’s enjoying the treatment of being like a guest, Sister Lucia and Sister Angelene efforts should be considered a waste, they’re like fools. The other nuns are all so obedient, so if they want to defy any further, they could have just escaped on their own. Yet they came all the way to this tightly guarded room and told me, “We’ll save all of you”.”

It was hard to hear any sense of seriousness in Agnese’s voice.

But these words continued to echo out from her mouth,

“They didn’t even need to escape; I have no obligation to work. All I needed to do was to wait on the sofa, and one day, I can return back to work. Don’t you find that pitiful?”

Hearing Agnese’s words, Kamijou couldn’t help but feel impatient. It may be a troublesome thing to the people involved, but did she need to use that tone to say it?

“So, what are your intentions? Anyway, if you want to safely escape from the fleet, you still need their assistance. Though it’ll be troublesome, try your best.”

“What do you mean by ‘try your best’?”

“This is just my honest opinion. On a side note, if you can escape here safely, don’t ever get involved with the Roman Catholics again.”

Though Kamijou didn’t like the tone, Agnese was right. They couldn’t keep hiding in the same place. They had to do it fast if they wanted to escape, and the means of escape was right in front of them.

Kamijou sat on the floor, slumped as he sighed heavily.

“...I know. But we’re outnumbered; there’s a chance that we won’t be able to save them.”

“Is that an appropriate line for a man who challenged 250 nuns?”

Looked like she recognised Kamijou’s ability as an enemy. Agnese laughed in an ironic manner before bending down and extending her hand out to Kamijou, as if she wanted to hold Kamijou’s hand.

Seemed like she wanted him to stand up.

“Oh, thanks.”

Kamijou immediately reached his right hand out and grabbed Agnese’s hand.

Just as he grabbed the slender fingers, and the cloth of the nun's habit—

*Rip*

The stitches on Agnese’s habit broke apart instantly, causing her clothes to drop down.

“Oh my...”

Orsola put her hands on her face.

“Well, I did feel that the design was somewhat weird. So this revealing nun robe has a magical binding effect.”

This was now pointless.

Right now, the most important thing was that in front of Kamijou, Agnese, who was still bending down, was now wearing only undergarments, cute white laced underwear. As the hole in the back was extremely big, she wasn’t even wearing a bra. As she was bending down, the little chest was amiably advocating its presence.

At first, Agnese revealed an unexpected look. However, once she started to look down...to confirm how she looked now...

“WAAA—”

She finally started to scream.

“——!!??”

Kamijou and Orsola suppressed Agnese from behind, covering her mouth to avoid causing a commotion.

Part 3

Index was standing on the dark street of Chioggia.

This little waterfront street was in the midst of chaos. The historic banks and bridge had been destroyed, but the questions of “what should we do?” were even bigger. With the people who had seen this terrible situation raising questions, and with many different people voicing answers, more questions were created, and answers get repeated.

The seawater-covered roads that were up to 100 metres away from the canal before flowing back into other parallel canals. As the ship had left, the overflowed water started to flow back into the canal, but some water had flown into houses, especially restaurants and cafes, where the buildings meant to cater to guests were lit up, and frantic sounds of people sweeping could be heard.

Among them,

Index stood blankly at a street, staring in the direction where the ice boat had vanished.

“The ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’... related to the history of Northeast Italy.”

The words she spoke had lots of knowledge behind them.

“Hm, it should be one of those escort ships among the ‘Queen’s Fleet’.”

Her mind was busy scanning through the knowledge of 103,000 magic books, pulling out the necessary knowledge and removing unwanted information. She started to guess whether these were correct, and continued to hypothesize them in her mind.

If so, the Roman Catholics are responsible for this. But why send the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ to attack?...Orsola Aquinas and the Amakusa. Are both of them the reason? If they want to use the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’, Touma and the rest shouldn’t be much of an obstacle.

This time, her mind was thinking of how to counter it.

If the enemy is the ‘Queen’s Fleet’, I alone can’t handle it when I don’t know how to use magic. No, it’s at a level when even a mage can’t fight it one-on-one. But if this continues, Touma and the rest... will...

Index looked up.

She looked around before running off in a certain direction.

Part 4

Kamijou and Orsola had been chased out of the room.

Agnese had borrowed a sewing purse that Orsola had and said in a low voice,

“...Anyway, I’ll be exposed if my clothes aren’t well done. Hurry up and go.”

She then started to sew her specially-made habit. After mending it, she would most likely head to the flagship.

There was no point in worrying about it now.

Kamijou exposed only his head from a corner on the corridor, checking the situation in front of him.

Moonlight was reflected wildly on this straight corridor that was made of ice that had its melting point modified, like the shine of a white light bulb. Different from a normal ship, the corridor was extremely narrow. This should be a characteristic of a warship. It felt like if people gathered, it would be so packed that nobody could move about.

Like a cinema with screens on all four sides, the floor and the walls were rather obvious, but the hollow part of the aisle was rather difficult to see. Kamijou narrowed his eyes as he looked around.

“...No one’s here.”

“Just like Agnese said.”

Just as Kamijou and Orsola said this, they walked out of the corner and moved forward.

It took them quite a while just to confirm that no one was around. A lot of courage was required to take the first step.

Agnese had said,

“The fleet’s control, operation and attacks all rely on magic. More than half the people on the fleet are originally from my company, and there’s a danger of them revolting if the fleet relies only on them. The squad has about 250 company, and the number of ships totals about 100. After calculations, there are only a few people controlling many workers. Of course, they would have done quite a lot of work. But because of that, there are loopholes.”

It seemed to be that way.

But if the ship is manned automatically, what are the nuns’ jobs?

He had heard that their work was just some simple menial labour, but he hadn’t asked for the specifics. He would just ask Lucia and Angelene after he saved them.

Even if they had confirmed that no one was in the aisle, they couldn’t get rid of the nagging insecurity that they may be ambushed. They were wary that there could be people hiding behind the straight rows of doors, or around the tight corners of the corridor.

According to Agnese, Lucia and Angelene had been taken to the 3rd level. The place where they kept the useless workers should have been a cabin near the bottom of the ship, but it seemed like the psychological control centre to ‘force people to be unable to use the escape spell’ was upstairs.

The duo climbed up the steep cliff-like stairs.

Part of the corridor on the 3rd level consisted of windows. There was an entire row of gunnery rooms below the deck. As the top of the structure didn’t need a gunnery room, the walkway was positioned on the outside.

“Oh my.”

Orsola casually looked outside the window.

Kamijou looked at where she was looking, and suddenly gasped,

“...It’s definitely not an ordinary method.”

Though this was the third level, it was counted from the deck. In fact, it was about 10 metres from the deck to the surface of the sea, so the view from here was about 5 levels high.

It felt like looking down from the top of a lighthouse, but what was below was a huge fleet. Like this ship, a fleet full of giant ice ships, like fish covering the sea completely. Just by looking outside the window, one could see more than 50 of them, all of them giving a white light bulb-like glow, covering the dark surface of the sea with a layer of light.

“Hm?...Agnese has started to move as well?”

While mindful of his surroundings, Kamijou stared outside the window.

Between the ships, arch bridges could be seen. There was a small figure moving about. After the figure moved away, the ice bridge vanished. Looked like she had started on her distraction strategy.

The place which Agnese was moving to was most likely the ‘flagship’ that she had talked about. In the middle of all the ships, several hundred metres in front, a larger ship was surrounded by many ships. The length and breadth was about three times as large as this escort ship. It felt like looking down at a city from the top of a castle.

Kamijou looked back inside.

“I don’t want to count how many... but the largest religion sect can’t be underestimated.”

“...It’s more like this entire fleet is as big as a city.”

As Kamijou proceeded on, he thought that their priority wasn’t to ‘engage in combat’, but ‘to escape’. And Lucia and Angelene knew the key spell required for them to escape.

“—eh!?”

Once Kamijou reached the corner, his thoughts got interrupted. He pulled Orsola’s hand as he leaned his body against the wall.

He timidly revealed his head out from the wall.

The room that Agnese told them about was ten metres ahead.

There was someone guarding the room.

No, was that really human? That giant rock-like ‘thing’ that was blocking the door was a 3-metre tall golem made of ice. The sculpture was giving off a light-bulb like colour, and the transparency level was rather low. The entire thing looked like it was some kind of heavy equipment. Wielding a pole...it should be some kind of rod or stick, right? But it looked more like it was wielding a rectangular steel frame that had been cut off.

Kamijou retracted his face, his back leaning on the edge of this slightly shining wall.

Damn it, that thing can’t be taken down in a hit... it’ll be bad if there’s help when we’re fighting it.

The walkway was extremely narrow, there was no real way to escape. If there were ten or more people rushing in from the back, it would be hard to even graze past them. After that, the ending would be that they would lose under the condition that they were outnumbered.

“Damn it...”

Kamijou cursed. Just as he was trying to confirm how narrow the corridor was—

DONG!!

With this sound, his vision was blocked by the light-bulb coloured ice.

At first, Kamijou didn’t know what the thing in front of him was.

The ice statue that had been just guarding the door around the corner had passed through the corridor in an instant, turning past the corridor... it took him quite some time to realise this.

The feet of the golem glided to the side.

When the melting point was changed, ice wouldn’t melt, so it couldn’t glide. But on a closer look, the tips of the toes of the golem were touching the floor, as if it was swimming on water.

But Kamijou was unable to calm down and check it.

Wha...!? f𝚛e𝗲𝔀e𝚋𝑛o𝘃𝒆𝗹.c𝗼𝒎

Kamijou’s eyes widened in surprise as the ice sculpture’s wrists moved before his eyes. It was a strike from below to above. The steel frame-like stick easily pried the thick floor, moving towards Kamijou’s body without a loss in momentum.

The weight and speed was enough to smash this place like an empty container.

“Eh!—YAAAAHHHH!!”

The wind pressure touched Kamijou’s cheek just as he was avoiding. While he was knocked aside, Kamijou knew that he couldn’t avoid it. He swung his right hand in reflex, not caring as he slammed his palm down to take on the incoming attack.

PIANG!! The sharp sound echoed throughout the ship.

Irritatingly cold sweat emerged from Kamijou’s palm to the shoulder and elbow.

“...Ugh”

Kamijou couldn’t help but let out a groan.

The huge piece of golem in front was not moving either.

Pachang! The rod that the ice golem was holding onto broke in half. The shoulder holding the pole then started to break, and there was a crack down from its chest to its abdomen. Its thighs and kneecaps also started to crack, before the entire thing collapsed sideways.

Crack.

As the ice broke apart, the degree of refraction changed, the glow surrounding the golem disappeared.

Orsola, who had been holding her breath till now, finally made a sound.

“Are... are you alright?”

“Sort of.”

Maybe he was thinking too much, but Kamijou felt that his wrist hurt.

“Broken...this, is kind of like a magical robot, right?”

“Hm...this isn’t a stone golem. Instead of it, it’s more like a part of the ship has changed shape. In terms of a fleet’s attack, it’s more like a cannon aimed inside...or something like that.”

Orsola touched the ice statue that was rolling on the floor, slowly reading every single word and sentence slowly.

“A part of the ship...?”

Kamijou touched the wall nearby gently with his right hand, but the thick ice didn’t break.

...This is a golem that uses magic to maintain itself, so does it have any difference as compared to the ship’s wall which has transformed completely?

He pondered, but there was no time to verify his doubts.

(Even though...)

Luckily, that golem is made of magic, Kamijou thought as he felt really relieved. If it was just a head-on fight, he didn’t know whether they would win even if they had a modern-era tank; Kamijou could have been beaten in an instant.

Anyway, he didn’t win by his ability, but by the special characteristics.

Kamijou now walked around of the corner and into the empty corridor.

“Then, we’ll go and save Lucia and Angelene. Though it’s somewhat troublesome.”

“Regarding that,”

Orsola said worriedly,

“Is it possible that the room has only Lucia and Angelene inside? There should be some mages torturing them using magic. If we open the door like that, we might start a battle.”

Orsola picked up an ice block that was on the floor. It was the one the ice golem was holding, the rod that was cut in half. She looked like she was holding onto a musical instrument with both hands.

“This will be my weapon.”

She revealed a smile that definitely didn’t fit the atmosphere.

And,

“This and... that, hm, that looks strong.”

After saying this, she picked up the leg of the ice golem. It’s attack power should be equivalent to that of a large rock that’s used to crush things, right?

“...Really?” ‘‘But it sure looks useless’’.

Kamijou swallowed his words.

“The rest is up to fate. We can only pray that this kind of thing doesn’t happen consecutively.”

“Alright, I’m done. Let’s go.”

Kamijou and Orsola nodded to each other and began running down the corridor. Their pessimistic view of wanting to avoid being seen in the corridor was much stronger than their enthusiasm to fight.

Both of them reached the door.

While grabbing the handle of the door, Kamijou noticed that the door wasn’t locked.

To be honest, they were afraid, but continuing to hesitate wasn’t a solution. They opened the door without hesitation.

A loud sound echoed throughout.

“Eh!?”

It was a neat room, it looked like... it looked like a doctor’s clinic. Even so, the beds were made of ice as well. To be honest, Kamijou didn’t know what it did.

There were about 7 men and women inside the room. Among them, two of them were wearing habits with yellow sleeves and skirts. They were Lucia and Angelene. Both of them were wearing gold rings that were secured tightly on their cloth headpiece. The remaining five people were unhealthy men that were skinny like needles. They seemed to be researchers, and they had pitch-black habits on. On the ice table nearby, there were many metal rods that were for some unknown purpose, and these were the only things that weren’t made of ice. The tips of the metal rods were as sharp as a pencil. The unique shininess that was like a cinema made them even more mystifying.

They couldn’t see an ice golem anywhere.

But in terms of numbers, 1 on 5 was still disadvantageous for Kamijou.

Cheh...!!

They would lose if they took them head on, Kamijou thought, ‘‘we have to take them down while they’re still shocked’’ as he took a huge step to the middle of the room.

But.

A person suddenly stepped in front of him.

“Don’t move.”

The one saying this was Orsola Aquinas. She tossed the ice block that she was holding onto the floor. The remains of the rod landed on the floor together with a heavy sound. Instead of saying that she threw them, it was more like the ice block had slipped out of her hands.

The Roman Catholic men, who heavily outnumbered them, stopped in unison.

“How do you think we broke this?”

Said Orsola confidently and reached her hand into her sleeve.

Kamijou stared at his right hand, still wondering what Orsola wanted to do.

The enemy didn’t know anything about the Imagine Breaker.

“Oh my, I casually spoke some Japanese unknowingly, can you people understand? It’s alright if you don’t. If you don’t listen to my warning, I’ll use this.”

After saying this, Orsola reached her hand into her sleeve.

“Wait...”

One of the men spoke in Japanese.

Once the other party made a response, it meant that they were starting to concede.

“...What kind of spiritual tool are you hiding inside?”

Before Orsola could reply, the other man said,

“If it’s just ice, you could have broken some normal ice and carried it in.”

“Oh my, then does this ship have this kind of thing?”

Orsola tossed another ice block.

This time, it was the leg of the golem. The shape was a lot more intricate than the rod, as it was part of the kneecap that was smashed.

“—”

The men backed away.

In contrast, Orsola forcefully moved forward by one step.

“As for your problem just now, if you want to know how I did it, then it’ll be alright to let you see it. However, you’ll be turned to ash before you can see it clearly. Oh my, since you still need a bodyguard, I really wonder if you can take it?”

As she shook her sleeve gently, the men were terrified to death. Even Lucia and Angelene, who weren’t involved, were looking slightly fearful.

Kamijou was marvelling at this.

To use this technique of bluffing on them, one had to first accurately predict the enemy’s capabilities before using it.

“Then, please tie their hands and feet up.”

Orsola smiled to Kamijou as she said this.

Part 5

The Roman Catholics surrendered easily.

As Orsola had bluffed that she had a ‘secret weapon’, Kamijou couldn’t just go near them just like that. Thus he was only in charge of tying their hands and feet. The entire ship was made of ice, there was nothing that could be used as a rope. In this hopeless situation, Kamijou could only undo the men’s belts and use them. Kamijou really hoped that there wouldn’t be a second time of doing such a disgusting thing as removing a man’s belt.

Once Kamijou confirmed that the men were tied securely, Orsola finally let out a sigh before removing her hand from her sleeve. It looked like she was even more nervous than what she let on. Orsola turned towards Lucia and Angelene and said,

“We’re here to save you.”

Hearing her voice, both of them backed away.

The nuns seemed to be wondering why Kamijou and Orsola were here.

Kamijou thought, such a radical duo. The short one was Angelene, while the tall one was Lucia... or that should be it. Angelene was blue with shock, her teary eyes staring over, grabbing onto Lucia’s waist. In contrast, Lucia’s white face was slightly blushing due to defiance against an enemy, looking for weaknesses. She placed a hand on Angelene’s shoulder, while Angelene was clinging onto her tightly.

Both of them were wearing a similar type of black habit as Orsola, but with yellow sleeves and skirts attached. Was this the clothing of the workers? In contrast to the short sleeves that Lucia had, which revealed her slender white arms, Angelene’s wide sleeves only revealed her fingertips.

“...Here to save us? Do you think we’ll believe that nonsense? We’re here in this place because we lost to you.”

Lucia continued to let out a low voice full of wariness. Angelene, though, was terrified to the point of her teeth chattering, such that Kamijou was more worried about Angelene’s condition than Lucia’s antagonistic pressure on him.

“We... didn’t come here because we want to ride on this ship. Actually, we were being hunted by the Roman Catholics for some ridiculous reason, so our primary objective is to leave the ship.”

There was no point in hiding it, so Kamijou just revealed everything.

“According to Agnese, you know the key magic spell to get away from this place. They need your help to get away from here. So she wanted us to save you before some weird punishment.”

“Sis...Sister Agnese said that...?”

Hearing the familiar name, Angelene’s face became a lot more cheery, the frightful look slowly dissipated. She was probably such a lively kid.

However, Lucia tidied her slightly short sleeves, pressing down on Angelene’s head from above.

“Sister Angelene, those are the words of an infidel. Can you please consider the possibility that it may be a trap?”

“So...sorry! But...but...those people have just seen Sister Agnese. Maybe she may have...”

“That is why I’m saying that that’s only our wish! They know our relationship with Sister Agnese, so they could have lied to bait us!”

While Lucia continued to press down on Angelene from above, Angelene’s body became smaller and smaller, and she would sometimes glance at Kamijou once or twice.

(Damn it, I could have just asked Agnese to write a letter.)

How are we going to explain this? Kamijou sighed. In truth, it was just as what they feared; Kamijou and Agnese didn’t really have such a good relationship. There was no harder way to do this than to talk it out.

At this moment, while Kamijou was still frustrated, Orsola said,

“Then, why do you think we’re here?”

“Eh?”

“Just as you feared, this is the base of the enemy. We came here by beating the guardians. What other benefits do you think we’ll gain by risking our lives and coming all the way here besides coming to save you?”

Orsola again glanced at the men that were tied up and chucked into the corner.

“...About that...”

Lucia looked somewhat lost before she could finally utter a word.

But before she could arrange her thoughts, she stopped midway.

“We can’t possibly be here just to be enemies with you, right? Even if we don’t care about you, we can’t even guarantee our own safety. In this situation, why do you think we came all the way here, and even using Agnese’s name to save you? I can’t think of any other reason.”

Orsola glanced at a corner of the room.

The men that Kamijou tied up were over there.

“—”

Hearing Orsola’s words, Lucia didn’t say anything.

As for the question that got no reply, it was due to an alternative of creating a scenario such that the other party was unable to reply, instead of trying to convince the other party. Deep inside, Kamijou was really amazed; this was really a powerful negotiating tool. They didn’t even need to make any concessions or excuses to shut the other party up; this didn’t feel like Orsola’s usual method in handling this.

She stealthily whispered to Kamijou,

“...My job is to convince those people who do not know about God in the pagan lands.”

Maybe relying on this kind of language was her speciality.

Lucia looked like she was searching for something, as she exchanged glances with Kamijou and Orsola. After that, she said,

“What you mean is that without this value of helping others, you wouldn’t have bothered with us?...you’re really opportunistic, huh?”

“Sister Lucia!”

Angelene moved her wide sleeves as she continued to tug on Lucia’s waist. The taller Lucia sighed tiredly,

“I got it. Your words make sense. Also, Sister Angelene, didn’t I tell you that it’s itchy if you pull the cloth near my thigh?”

Hearing her say this, Kamijou turned away for some reason.

Maybe they were all girls, so they were not really mindful about it?

Seeing Kamijou blush as he turned his head away, Lucia scowled.

“What are you thinking about?”

“No...nothing! Nothing at all!”

Kamijou tried his best to change the topic back.

“No...oh ya, I do want to get away from this weird ship as soon as possible. Basically, how do we do it? The necessary tools were confiscated, right?”

“No...no problem. If it was as easy as confiscating our tools, they wouldn’t do this to their fellow Roman Catholics just to prevent this escape spell from being used...”

“Sister Angelene, if you’re really serious about this, then I’ll reward you with a pat on your head.”

After saying this to a sullen-looking Angelene, Lucia casually said,

“Let’s make this clear, no matter whether we swim or move on a rescue boat, we can’t get away from the security of the ‘Queen’s Fleet’. And once we’re found out, we’ll be the target of many huge cannons.”

“...Hold on. You two did escape from here, right? Did you fly away from here or something?”

“Even if we do that, we’ll be fired at by anti-air cannons...it’s too troublesome to explain it. We’ll perform it to you. Sister Angelene.”

“Yes, Sister Lucia. Ah...that, no matter your intentions, thank...thank you very much! Almost, this spell almost got broken with our minds.”

Angelene wanted to say her thanks, but frantically got back to work upon being prompted by Lucia.

Lucia and Angelene’s palms were touching each other, but their palms weren’t sticking tightly. On looking closely, they seemed to have considered which fingers were to touch each other and which ones weren’t.

“Normally, the tool used to cast magic is by a special item that the caster finds suitable to use...”

Orsola said in a somewhat impressed tone,

“But they used the clothing that’s used to contain them as a temporary tool. In this spell that has two people’s power in it, to cast a different magical power as the original, resulting in a completely different magical effect. For them to actually think of this in this confined situation is...”

This was probably like using a normal and unnoticeable item like a spoon or a shoelace and maximising its use such that the user could escape from an impenetrable prison.

Just as Kamijou was thinking about this, something happened.

Lucia and Angelene raised their hands that were on each other; it looked like an international dance. After that, their fingertips touched the cupboard that was made of ice that was giving off a white light bulb glow.

Like a pupil in the eye expanding, a large hole 1.5 metres in radius appeared on the translucent cupboard.

“This is one of the spells that uses the ice ship. It can be used to open such a hole, and through this hole, the seawater can be solidified to form an underwater pathway down to the bottom of the sea, and escaping from here.”

“W...we cut off a bit of the ice to check the composition. The ‘Queen’s Fleet’ specialises in sea surface defense, but it’s hard for it to defend against what’s inside the sea...IT HURTS!”

Once Angelene scowled, the huge hole on the cupboard closed up. The palms of both girls separated, as sweat flowed down Angelene’s temples.

She shook her head slightly.

“The...binding clothes really added on a counter-spell.”

It hurt, Angelene muttered as she pressed against her temple. The gold ring was tightly secured around the nun’s headdress.

“This can be solved by destroying part of the binding function. Magic was cast on the sewing and weaving of the cloth, so by following the pattern and destroying them in order, there’ll be no problem.”

Lucia picked up an ice pen, which did not seem to function anyway, off the table.

Destroy? Kamijou turned to stare at his right hand.

“Then...wouldn’t my fist be faster!?”

Just as he said this, a slow impact hit him on the back of his head.

Turning around, Orsola had a hand on her face and a clenched fist as she said,

“Alright then, you don’t want those two to be completely naked, right?”

“IT HURTS! Okay, it’s my fault! I’m sorry! But why are you so angry—IT HURTS!!!!”

Seeing a smiling Orsola swing a few punches, Lucia and Angelene tilted their heads in confusion. They used the ice pen to poke small holes onto the binding yellow sleeves. In this situation when only the walls and ceiling were glowing and the middle couldn’t be seen clearly, this precise work seemed very tough. But Lucia and Angelene were doing it without hesitation.

“An underwater pathway, so is it like a slide? If it’s slow, won’t the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ catch up?”

“No, ac...actually, it’s rather fast. The fastest...is...is about 300km per hour.”

“The average speed is 90km per hour, because friction will slow us down.”

On hearing this, Kamijou’s face turned green. Wouldn’t 300km per hour be like the Shinkansen? Would their breathing be alright? He was really mindful about how to reduce the speed. But since Lucia and Angelene were so energetic even after trying this, there shouldn’t be any problem. However, he really didn’t want to use this spell that used some supernatural theory. He glimpsed at his right hand for a while. It was alright as long as he didn’t destroy the path...

Kamijou’s eyes were staring at the movement of the nuns’ hands.

“Anyway, as long as we have that, we can escape from here immediately. Right?”

“...Actually, it’s a lot more complicated.”

Angelene replied,

“This underwater pathway is made by seawater, so we need to get to the bottom of the ship.”

“We’ll make a hole at the bottom, and use the seawater to make a channel pathway. Once we get down, we need to seal up the entrance at the ship. By getting away from the bottom of the ship, it’ll be hard for the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ to catch up with us.”

It seemed that they couldn’t relax though. In contrast to Kamijou, who was sighing, Lucia and Angelene looked rather optimistic.

“Sister Lucia, we must bring Sister Agnese along with us.”

“If possible, I hope that it won’t be just her, but Sister Agnese remains our top priority. If she doesn’t move, the other Sisters won’t move. OI, SISTER ANGELENE, YOU CAN’T OPEN A HOLE THERE!”

Lucia frantically grabbed Angelene’s hand.

Maybe she was letting her guard down slowly, as her movements were somewhat rough and she was showing more emotions. Though it was a small change, one could feel the expectations hidden in her.

“Whe... when can we meet up with Sister Agnese?”

“It’s not so simple. She may be working secretly.”

At this moment, Kamijou wondered if he should say something.

He remembered Agnese’s words.

“I have a symbolic purpose.”

She definitely wanted to go and save Lucia and Angelene herself, but those words sounded very cold, as if she was a bystander.

“Not bad, huh? In order to maintain this comfortable life, I have to make everyone work.”

Most likely, these words had been said more out of pity and compassion than care for her comrades. To Lucia and Angelene, who wanted to stand alongside her, these words would hurt them all the more.

“To me who’s enjoying the treatment of being like a guest, Sister Lucia and Sister Angelene efforts should be considered a waste.”

Kamijou thought, Why has it become like this?

Because Lucia and Angelene were slowly revealing a smile on their faces, this made it even more heartbreaking. Normally, smiling was a good thing. They were smiling because of the goodwill in their hearts, and not out of malice.

“...I’m sorry, but Agnese most likely won’t be coming along.”

After Kamijou said this, Lucia and Angelene froze.

The emotions that they had been showing up till now was dead.

It was like a sprout, that had emerged from the ground with much difficulty, suddenly being trampled on.

“Wh...why?”

The first one to speak up was Angelene.

“But didn’t you meet up with Sister Agnese? She requested you to save us, right? O...erm, where did Sister Agnese go?”

Though Lucia didn’t say anything, she was staring at Kamijou with probing eyes as well.

“Agnese...”

Kamijou decided to get straight to the point.

“...She said that to help you, she has to cause a distraction. Right now, the ones in most danger are you two. If someone is to be rescued, it’ll be you two. This ... ‘Queen’s Fleet’ ... right? She went straight to the flagship.”

“What...she went to the flagship?”

Unexpectedly, the one making this shocked reply was Lucia.

Either out of anger or anxiety, her white face was now paler.

“QUIT JOKING AROUND!!! WHY DO YOU THINK WE RATHER RISK OUR LIVES AND THINK OF A WAY TO ESCAPE FROM PRISON? IT’S TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING! IF YOU’RE SAYING WHO’S IN THE MOST DANGEROUS SITUATION, OF COURSE IT’S SISTER AGNESE!!”

“Wait...”

Kamijou thought of something.

He felt that there was a misunderstanding between him and the two nuns, as both of them looked a lot different from before.

Again, Angelene looked like she was about to cry.

“Don’t you know what this... this ‘Queen’s Fleet’ is?”

“This is...isn’t it to monitor the fleets around the Adriatic Sea?”

“But Agnese did say that this is an excuse to outsiders.”

Orsola frowned, and said,

“...I heard that it’s a labour facility to imprison people who did something disadvantageous to the Roman Catholics...”

“How is it possible?”

Lucia seemed to be gasping for breath as she said,

“...The ‘Queen’s Fleet’ is an escort fleet meant to protect a large scale magic and ritual centre called the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’, the same name as that of the flagship. We’re tasked with manual labour in order to do the preparations. If it was just for surveillance and manual labour, there wouldn’t be a need for such a large facility, right?”

“The Adriatic Sea...?”

Kamijou repeated this again.

Indeed, when he had met up with Agnese, it seemed like she did say this.

“This... what the heck. You’re saying that this gigantic fleet is just the prelude to that whatever Adriatic Sea? What kind of magic is this ship going to do?”

“We don’t know...only the supervisors know the details—the Roman Catholic officials who were assigned to the ‘Queen’s Fleet’.”

“We...we know that the large scale spell ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ will be activated on the flagship, and the key to activating is another spell called the ‘Appointed Time of the Rosary’.”

Angelene looked like her fingers were snapped as she said,

“A...and, the ‘Appointed Time of the Rosary’ requires Sister Agnese to be used.”

Hearing this, Kamijou was shocked.

He was wondering whether Angelene wasn’t used to speaking in Japanese, and thus he had mistaken her Japanese.

But,

“We don’t know the specifics, but she’s definitely required. At least her brain would definitely be damaged. In contrast to the ‘additional work’ that’s saddled on us, the scale and methods are of a completely different level. Sister Agnese...may end up being a body with ‘only’ her heart beating.”

Lucia’s words were certainly chilling.

A chill flowed up Kamijou’s back, straight into the middle of the brain.

Having a symbolic purpose, and under good conditions with a certain level of freedom...what did Agnese mean when she said that?

“However, if you’re the intruders, I can make use of that.”

Agnese’s words appeared in his brain.

He should have noticed it earlier.

He could finally understand the hidden meaning in those words that seemed like some random mumbling to herself.

“If it’s me alone, it’ll be hard to settle this troublesome problem, but it may be faster if I’m to make use of you.”

The troublesome thing wasn’t the alert situation. When Agnese went to look for Lucia and Angelene, if she wanted them to escape, those two definitely wouldn’t agree.

He should have noticed that earlier.

Regarding the incident involving ‘The Book of the Law’, it was definitely hard to say that what Agnese did to Kamijou and Orsola was of goodwill. But even if it was her, she had the authority to think for others.

To Lucia and Angelene, the ‘Queen’s Fleet’ was the prelude to the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’.

The key to activating this large scale spell was Agnese. If she was to escape with Lucia and Angelene, the pursuers would come after them.

“The ‘Queen’s Fleet’ has a lot of things to do.”

Indeed, Agnese did say this before.

“Only the higher-ups know about the specifics.”

If this was true, when she decided to go to the flagship, had she really intended on causing a distraction? I gave up on everything just to help her comrades.

Kamijou thought, how was she feeling that time?

“You just said that we have to think of plan during this time... aren’t you captured as well? Then come and escape with us.”

In this critical situation, what were her feelings when she heard those words?

Also,

Even so, she had continued to hide her emotions. When she led Kamijou and Orsola to Lucia and Angelene, what was she feeling?

“Is this an appropriate line for a man who challenged 250 nuns?”

The feeling hidden in this casual tone.

Understanding the wish that Agnese couldn’t say, Kamijou was at a loss as he stood around.

Beside the ear of this useless boy.

Clang!! An explosive sound of ice being blasted could be heard.

The ice wall seemed to have been broken from outside. The wall that was far away from Kamijou and company dropped like a raindrop. Like broken glass and wreckage, the remains of the ice wall flew away at a terrifying speed above Kamijou and the rest, who were lying down on the floor.

“...It hurts!?”

The reason why Kamijou would say this wasn’t because he fell down, but because a sharp pain could be felt in his ears.

“What going on now...!!”

The sound seemed like it came from afar, as if he was wearing earmuffs while listening to others.

“An...attack!? From where...!?”

Angelene said in a trembling voice. She was under the protection of Lucia, who had leaped over to save her. Lucia gave a suspicious look as well, and this wasn’t without reason, as this ship was surrounded by the same ships. Was it even possible for an attack to come from outside?

Orsola, who was lying on the floor as well, lifted her head up in realisation.

“Don’t tell me...”

She was looking at the other side of the broken wall—the night scene 5 stories tall.

“...This is friendly fire from the other ships!!”

NO WAY!? Kamijou wanted to shout.

“But this is their ship, right?”

“No.”

Lucia seemed to be in pain as she said,

“The material of the fleet is seawater. As long as the Adriatic Sea doesn’t dry, no matter how dry it is, they'll have no problem in repairing and building this ship!!”

On the other side of the destroyed wall, a flash could be seen.

It was the flash of a large number of cannons being fired at them.

It was different from an ordinary cannon shot. The cannon shots flew over like small waves.

“—!?”

The sonic boom reached instantly, as if it was thunder.

Kamijou couldn't take action, the numerous cannon shots not only destroyed the room, they destroyed the entire ship. The dim glow of the cracked wall vanished, and the tied men near the wall dropped down. Just as Kamijou wanted to extend his hand out to save them, the ice shrapnel that was created by the destruction of the cannons hit him in his temple. With this hit, the strength in his limbs was lost.

As this was a firing within the fleet, the ships around Kamijou and company were firing cannons at them without hesitation. The mast was destroyed, the cabins were destroyed, but on the outside of the destroyed wall, one could see that the other ships were freezing the seawater to repair the ship.

Except this one.

The auto-regeneration function seemed to have ceased, as the ship tilted heavily.

Grabbing the ice floor with all her might, Orsola said,

“It hurts...the cannons’ structure seem to be based on the legend of St. Barbara...”

“Eh!! That means it’s magic. Then I can use my right hand!!”

“You can’t possibly block all the cannon shots that are aimed at this ship!!”

A larger sound from an explosion could be heard, as if it was trying to block off all the other sounds. The sound of the colliding cannon shots struck like rumbling thunder. Though Kamijou was on the floor, the shockwave from below caused him to float him up. The entire ship was tilted sideways because of the continuous cannon fire. The pillar supporting the entire room seemed to have shattered.

As the vision was tilting together with the walls and floor, SWOOSH!! The sound of gravel colliding could be heard. It was the sound of things being dropped into the water.

They were sinking.

As Kamijou sensed this, the ice ship was blasted into smithereens like a small model being smashed by a hammer.

Between the lines 3

Both of her parents had been killed.

This was the reason Agnese Sanctis started to live a vagrant life, and after that, she had been through many setbacks.

For food, if she didn’t care about the texture, it wasn’t hard to get. However, it was harder to identify what could be eaten from the trash cans in the alleys behind restaurants. What was even worse was the harsh winter. Once the winter that covered the entirety of Europe struck, the cold air could become a killer weapon.

When she had been young, she stayed in Milano, a commercial city. On the overly clean streets, it was impossible to find anything that could resist the cold. In the morning, nothing was left on the several-hundred-years-old stone buildings and asphalt roads. The entire world was like a sharp and hard freezer. If she fell asleep accidentally, her fingers and ears would drop off by morning.

Even if she searched through the garbage, the ‘food’ would be hard enough to hammer nails.

In this situation, the ones who had taken in Agnese were the Roman Catholics.

Besides Agnese, they took in adults, children, men, women and all other kinds of people. Though the reasons were different, they didn’t seem to have fallen into some huge situation like Agnese and have lived the vagrant life. It felt like a lot of them lived normal lives, and like they were very honoured to be chosen.

At that point, Agnese didn’t know that the Roman Catholic Church was a large religious sect made of 2 billion believers. Instead of grooming ordinary people, they chose people with talents, which was much more ‘direct’. Even if there was only 1 person that had talent out of 100,000, they could have at least 200 of them. This was the advantage of having more people.

There were several conditions to be selected, but she was not sure what the conditions were.

“Wh... what will happen to us in the future?”

The one who said this was a nun called Angelene. It was said that she was from France, and was abandoned by her parents in Milano after they moved over. If she wanted to, she could have gone back, but she just bitterly laughed and noted that she didn’t know how to go back. In comparison to Agnese, she was a lot luckier. But she was considered one of those more serious cases.

“There’s no need to have any doubts. If God says that this is necessary, the believers have the duty to respond.”

The one saying these serious words was a girl called Lucia. She was a lot bigger than Agnese and Angelene, and seemed to notice that she was chosen by the Roman Catholics. Besides Agnese, she knew of two other girls called Agatha and Cathleen.

“Is that so?”

Agnese said.

She believed in the existence of God, but God wasn’t someone who would appear on call. Her parents, who were clergymen, died as they were praying. Before Agnese could ask the murderer’s name, her parents had been killed. If God was with her, this wouldn’t have happened.

“More importantly, I’m concerned with what’s for dinner.”

Because Agnese’s way of learning Japanese was rather unique, her Japanese was somewhat crude, but her Italian was rather polite.

Hearing this, Lucia said,

“What do you mean by ‘more importantly’? There’s nothing more important in this world than God—”

“Well, I’m rather mindful about it as well. We got olives to flavour our food for three days, and I’m sick of it. That Or...Or...that novice Sister called Or-whatsoever must have forgotten to use her speciality. And the bath pool, I feel that it’s very hot. What about you, Lucia?”

“THERE’S NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE SEASONING, RIGHT!? AND I FEEL THAT THE BATH POOL IS TOO HOT!!”

“Is...is that so? Now that you mention it, the adults don’t seem to mind it... then... this means that your age... those older looking Sisters, Agatha and Cathleen said that it’s hot as well. Are... are... you older than them...”

Lucia glared in the direction that Angelene was pointing at. Slightly far away, the two girls frantically turned away.

Hearing the commotion, Agnese narrowed her eyes.

She didn’t believe that God was with her.

She also didn’t believe that He was a convenient tool that would save her when He heard the call.

But.

Lucia, Angelene, Agatha, Cathleen—to be with these people, it was all thanks to the Roman Catholics. Agnese thanked God with all her heart. With this thanksgiving, she decided to follow the teachings of Christianity.

Also,

If being with these people was a blessing, she wanted to protect this blessing with her own hands.

No matter what happened.

She wanted to use this chance that God had given her to prove her faith.

“What now? Why so serious?”

“Lu...Lucia. Agnese’s saying that the water in the bathroom is too scalding. I’ll go along with you to negotiate! Look, Agatha and Cathleen are standing up as well!!”

That was right, Agnese nodded proudly at the wrong speculation that Angelene made.

From that day onwards, this would be where she stayed.

First, she should turn this place into a comfortable place.

References

1. ↑ Size of a company