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[169] 1. Kergo Autonomous Zone (1)
Amy's group, having sent Sirone to the Chamber of Achievement and Sacrifice, arrived at the eastern altar.
When Gis showed the pass, the native opened the stone gate.
Gis interpreted the words that the minecart had arrived.
Amy's party nodded, but Kanis and Arin looked uninterested.
Thanks to telepathy—one of Arin's mental-sense abilities—they understood the native's words.
Because they ran minecarts, the underground wasn't deep.
Rails had been laid along soil blanketed in volcanic ash, and the native waiting with the minecart chewed gum and greeted them.
His expression was mild, but the intense Kergoan gaze was the same as ever. It was alien, as if someone else's eyes had been transplanted.
Gis felt the same chill. But like the pro tout he was, he approached with a smile.
When he offered his hand, the native shook it.
"The Loop handler changed. This is Gis—the new contact."
"Gis? Doesn't look like someone who'd do this kind of work."
The Kergoan read his temperament at a glance. Loop smuggling could, depending on the case, be a capital crime. By contrast, Gis looked too gentle for a go-between.
"Where's Falcoa? He always came himself to pick it up."
"Oh—he's dead."
"Dead? As in killed?"
When Gis made a chopping motion at his neck, Gis nodded.
The native looked disbelieving. Falcoa was strong, and a man whose bent resembled Kergo's. He doubted Gis, a contact who'd come to take his place.
"You've got the pass, right?"
"Of course. Here, take a look."
The native's smile vanished as he snatched the pass.
Amy's group tensed on instinct. They'd thought it would end with a pass, but the wariness was stronger than expected.
On top of that, they hadn't come to buy Loop.
Falcoa was dead; there would be no more Loop deals. If the native learned that, it was obvious what might happen.
The pass was genuine.
Faced with evidence he could see, the native's suspicion had little power.
He led them to the minecart.
It was large enough to seat six and then some. A seesaw mechanism was installed to push the cart by lever force.
The native gripped the seesaw and set the cart in motion.
It was originally a two-person job, so Rian moved to help—but when the native glared, he had no choice but to retreat, embarrassed.
The brute strength to move the cart was certainly impressive. But it was more than twenty kilometers from here to Mount Toa. If he spent strength all the way to the destination, he'd be exhausted.
As the rails sloped downward, their speed picked up. It felt like the air in their stomachs all dropped at once.
The grade eased and a flat stretch appeared, but their speed didn't fall. The incline had been tuned minutely so gravity would keep them going.
By that principle, they'd definitely reach the autonomous zone faster than by carriage.
"Uuuuugh! This thing is insanely fast."
"Yeah. We'd better hold on tight."
The minecart shook hard. If it flipped while accelerating, there'd be no guarantee of life.
Amy's group slid down into their seats. The native curled his lips and muttered something.
The noise kept them from hearing, but it was clearly nothing nice.
As the minecart took a curve, it felt like one wheel lifted. In truth the bend wasn't that sharp; the problem was the speed.
Arin gripped the edge of the cart and tugged Kanis's collar with her other hand. As they entered a straightaway, she asked Gis,
"When are we getting there?"
"I don't know. Maybe twenty more minutes? It's my first time here too."
"But you've at least heard about it, right?"
"Not at all. You heard earlier—this is a route so secret Falcoa himself traveled it. Small-fry can't come near it, and even the brass doesn't know much."
Arin estimated roughly twenty minutes either way. She needed time to explain her ability to the party before reaching Mount Toa.
Telepathy magic lies on the border between eavesdropping and extracting a confession.
If you dominate with mental waves, you can penetrate even into a person's innermost thoughts—but the drawback is that your ability gets noticed.
By nature of mental-type magic, once an ability is revealed, the target grows wary and its efficacy can drop.
So usually, you send mental waves so faint they go unnoticed, and eavesdrop on thoughts that bob up to the surface.
She extended her Spirit Zone and infiltrated the native's shadow. Then she sent out five additional tendrils and linked them to everyone except Gis.
Arin finished preparations and asked the native,
"How much longer from here?"
Hearing Kergoan, the native looked back at Arin. If they'd been face-to-face, he might have noticed the mismatch between lip shape and pronunciation, but Arin wasn't one to make that mistake. The minecart's noise and sense of speed also helped scatter attention.
"About ten minutes. But you have to go farther from there. The grade on the autonomous-zone side is too steep for minecarts."
Amy's group was startled when his language was interpreted. But no one's expression changed. They weren't so green as to show their feelings on their faces.
Listening to Gis's interpretation, they realized his interpreting wasn't all that great. Perhaps Arin's telepathy was just that good.
—Arin, that was you?
Amy singled Arin out because her Red Eye had just manifested on its own. If you were to describe the feeling of the Spirit Zone infiltrating you, a mere breeze on the skin was about it.
If not for Self-Image Memory, their thoughts would have been eavesdropped on before they even noticed.
—Yeah. I've opened a mental channel.
—You're not reading my mind, are you?
It was terrifying to imagine Arin reading even the most private thoughts.
Thankfully, she shook her head.
A grandmaster of the mental school could easily dominate graduating-class level, but even then Self-Image Memory would catch it.
One reason Arin found Amy difficult was precisely that she was a Red Eye.
—Don't worry. Think of it like a kind of tunnel. In mental magic we classify the human mind into twelve layers of depth; this corresponds to the eleventh, the surface psyche. Only thoughts that pass through the final filter get delivered, so I can't know your innermost self.
—Then what's the twelfth?
—That's the rational realm above the surface—forced smiles, affectation, things like that. Anyway, if you resist strongly, the channel will cut. And if you don't like it, I'll cut it myself.
—No, it's fine. If you're only reading the surface psyche, that's a very convenient ability. Let's keep it up.
—Thanks. I left Gis out. I've currently blocked everyone else's transmit channels. I'll open them now. But don't let anything show.
When Arin opened transmit channels, Rian and Tess's thoughts flowed in.
—…I said I want to talk too! Why won't you let me… Huh? I can hear it now.
—Me too. Tess, can you hear my voice?
—Yeah. I hear you, I hear you. Wow, this is really cool.
Amy realized just how convenient Arin's ability was. They were each looking at different things, yet countless conversations were passing along the mental channel.
It was also fascinating as a magic they hadn't touched at the magic school.
Darkness magic is non-mainstream. Even though the line has outstanding application, it has a fatal weakness.
The darkness attribute is weak to light.
And mental-type magic is tricky to use against anyone with stronger mental power than your own.
But at Arcane's level, the story changes. And Kanis and Arin were Archmage Arcane's direct disciples, who had risen by darkness magic.
'Impressive. This will be a huge help. Ah!'
Amy checked Arin's face. Her emotions had flared, and her inner thoughts had risen to the surface.
Arin answered with a smile. Even Amy's calculating thoughts just made her happy.
A person's heart leans far more toward desire and selfishness than what shows outside.
Having lived her whole life reading such feelings, the inner kindness in Amy's thoughts was nothing to Arin.
In any case, telepathy would be extraordinarily effective in emergencies—or even mid-battle. That was why Kanis and Arin's joining felt all the more reassuring.
—Hee-hee-hee! This is so fun! Amy, isn't that native annoying? He totally sneaked a glance at my cleavage before!
—He did? He looked like he was looking down on us to me.
—I'm getting kind of hungry. Think we'll get anything to eat when we get there?
The mental channel filled with small talk, sniping, and grumbling.
Unfamiliar with magic, Rian and Tess wrung out even unnecessary thoughts and tried to use the channel any way they could.
Strictly speaking, such things aren't really thoughts. It was the moment the saying "the environment dominates the mind" proved true.
—You're driving me nuts. Arin, lower the volume. Or just turn it off.
At Kanis's word, the volume of voices traveling the mental channel dropped. It felt like someone whispering right in their ears.
Without focusing, you could barely hear it, and the chatter gradually waned.
Tess, who had just gotten into the fun of gossip, protested.
—Hey, why'd you turn it down? I can't hear well. Turn it up.
—Don't use the mental channel unless it's for strategic talk. You think this is a girls' gossip room? And it's Arin's ability. Who are you to tell her to turn it up or down?
Tess clicked her tongue. Still, since her expression didn't change, she hadn't let go of her tension.
When the chatter passed, Arin explained why she'd shown her ability.
—As you know, it's telepathy magic. I didn't include the man named Gis. He's an outsider; I don't want my ability known. And even if he's trustworthy, if he reacts to my ability, there's a risk of exposing us to the enemy.
Gis could understand the native's words anyway, so as long as they didn't show anything, it should pass quietly.
—This really is a convenient ability, though.
—Hmph. Consider it one of the rewards of our alliance. I don't know if Sirone will pass the trial gate, but if we end up forming a party, using Arin's ability is a must.
She bristled at Kanis's bragging about his partner, but it was true enough she couldn't refute it.
—And one more thing. The reason Arin bothered to cast telepathy is because there's something we haven't told you.
—Something you haven't told us? What are you talking about all of a sudden?
Amy's eyes sharpened. There was the condition of Sirone's passing, but in an ad hoc alliance, a late-emerging variable was unwelcome.
—It's nothing big. We didn't hide it on purpose; we just didn't think it was something we had to share. Anyway, to tell it straight—there was one more reason Arin and I tried to pass the trial gate. Contrary to what you expect, the Kergo natives aren't friendly to outsiders. They're hostile.
Truly, it wasn't a big deal. They hadn't expected applause and a warm welcome from the start.
But she also hadn't thought there would be reason for hostility.
The autonomous government and the Kergo tribe had chosen coexistence, and there were quite a few natives at the ruins who'd been influenced by civilization.
—The reason they're hostile to outsiders is because the Galliant government made a mistake. A hundred years ago, when they came to the island, they promised substantial compensation. The natives, judging they couldn't stop the tide of the times, negotiated. The business that started then was tourism. Did you know? At first, even the natives' autonomous zone was open. But now exchange has been cut off.
—Hmm. I can understand it in a way. When my dad first entered a colony, the backlash was severe. I think it's something unavoidable.
—That's part of it. But the Galliant government didn't stop there. They went too far—much too far.