[173] 1. Kergo Autonomous Zone (5)
His friends' expressions were troubled as well. The only ones whose faces showed no change were Kanis and Arin.
"This is why the Kergo Autonomous Zone cannot be opened. The door underground can only be opened by one who has inherited an angel's power. That is why we have been waiting for you."
A door to Heaven—it wasn't sheer nonsense. Sirone had once, through the Immortal Function, gone as far as the Labyrinth's spacetime.
Only, the scale this time was different. A world made by a mage and Heaven were not the same. Kadum was speaking of the place where God was.
"Long ago, angels were the medium linking God and humans. They transcended time and space to convey God's will. We understand that an Unlocker is one who has inherited an angel's power. Please—we beg of you. Restore Kergo's glory. For that, our tribe is prepared to bear any sacrifice."
Sirone couldn't answer. Go meet God, they said. What could he possibly do by going to that star hanging in the sky?
"Kergo has weathered countless crises. There came the calamity of volcanic eruption, and even civil war. We suffered every humiliation at the hands of outsiders. The tribe stands on the brink of ruin. Our people are starving. And yet we believe the angel's descendant will revive Kergo."
Amy pointed a finger and demanded,
"Why don't you buy food? Depending on faith when you're fully capable of self-support is the same as gambling with lives. And we know, too, that the profits from smuggling Luf are beyond imagination."
"Kergo's situation is harsher than you think. The share of the ruins' revenue we divide with the Galliant government cannot feed twenty thousand mouths. Even if we endure by selling Luf, we will end up being encroached upon by outsiders as a hundred years ago. As chieftain, I prayed for God's blessing and set aside a great hoard."
"No matter the excuse—money and women? Did you really think you could persuade a Messenger of God that way?"
"I do not know. I merely sought a method through the records. According to Kergo's history, one Messenger of God once demanded one hundred million gold as the condition for going to Heaven."
Hearing that someone had already gone to Heaven, Sirone was startled. And to think he had demanded a hundred million gold—not a merchant, but a Messenger. Unless he loved money more than life, who could say such a thing?
No—perhaps he had been strong enough that even going to Heaven didn't frighten him. But was that even possible?
"What happened to him? Did he return safely?"
"Of course. Two hundred years ago, the Messenger of God departed for Heaven with his companions, and there he received the will of the great Ra and returned."
"How did he come back? Do you come out through the entrance?"
"Impossible. As you may guess, the Gate to Heaven operates by the Immortal Function. Because the door exists, the Immortal Function is possible. But in Heaven there is no medium with which to activate the Immortal Function, so to return you must use another method."
"What method?"
"That I do not know. There is only a record stating that when they returned, they said it had not been a profitable bargain."
Silence fell.
If those strong enough to pass in and out of an unknown realm where God might exist said it wasn't a profitable bargain, it meant that returning under one's own power was impossible.
At last, Kanis's words made sense. Not being able to return was, in a sense, a problem more grave than death.
This wasn't boarding a ship for a far-off land. It was passing through time and space to arrive at a star somewhere out there.
"I'm speaking frankly. I know it is dangerous. But the fate of the tribe hangs on it. If you help Kergo, we will do anything we can. If you want gold, we will give it. If you want Kergo's women…"
"No, I don't want anything. I don't think we can accept any compensation."
At the feast, they had agreed in the spirit of "let's at least hear them out," but from here the situation was different.
Honestly, even for a king's ransom, his mind wouldn't change. Only… he felt a fierce curiosity equal to the fear of death.
Having settled on the best answer, Sirone spoke without needing to ask his friends' opinions.
"I'll think about it."
@
Left alone upon the altar, Kadum looked up at the stars.
The cringing look he had shown before Sirone's group was gone. Standing with his chin raised like the ruler of Mount Toa, he sensed a presence and turned his gaze.
From the entrance to the altar, an old man approached, coughing. It was Elder Hasid.
"Will you truly send them?"
When Hasid used honorifics, Kadum's features twisted.
"Father, that's no way to speak to your son."
"Your son? You know full well my son is no longer of this world… Father."
It was a strange situation, each calling the other father. Of course, an elderly, white-haired Hasid calling the robust Kadum "Father" was stranger still.
Kadum let his true colors show. In the gleam of his eyes you could glimpse the seasoned bearing of one who had lived more than two hundred years.
"Hmph. Are you still mistaken? Kadum's death was an accident. I didn't kill him."
"Of course you didn't. Yet if my son hadn't died, a father named Kang wouldn't have borrowed Kadum's name and become chieftain again."
Kadum turned fully toward Hasid.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Father, they will not succeed. Even if that boy is the Messenger of God, he will not bring back what our tribe desires."
"Even so, it doesn't matter. The wealth remains here anyway. If they bring back what we want, I don't care how much I pay. If they fail, I'll dispose of them and that's that. All of it is for Kergo."
"Is it, truly? Two hundred years ago, Father obtained three hundred years of lifespan through a Messenger of God. That has nothing to do with Kergo, does it?"
Hasid glared at Kadum with contempt.
The son was so aged he could scarcely take a step, while the "father" strutted in youthful flesh—firm muscle and smooth frame.
Since gaining three hundred years, the chieftain had run amok. To lengthen his life he sought out Unlockers across the lands and spent vast sums. As the tribe's assets dwindled, he even sold Luf to outsiders.
And yet, in another sense, it was understandable.
Immortality. Eternal youth. If one could obtain that, what in the world would feel too precious to part with?
"Is it not enough by now? Since that day, countless Unlockers have departed, but not a single one has returned. Obsession with immortality makes one lose one's humanity. Lord Miro perceived that early and issued a warning."
"Silence! There is no chieftain who can lead the tribe as strongly as I. Have you forgotten how pitiful Kergo was in your time? You were nothing but a failed leader. Kergo needs me. I am Kergo itself!"
Hasid could only watch Kadum howl up at the sky, saying nothing.
The father was strong. A sly serpent over two centuries old, armed as well with formidable might. As he boasted, he might well raise the tribe up.
But perhaps… with him, Kergo would vanish from the world for good.
@
Sirone's group headed for their lodgings.
The cave stretching northwest from the plaza was complex, but to Sirone—who had gone in and out of Istas as if it were his own house—it was merely a region with an annoying number of forks.
The lodging was a large room, and, unexpectedly, it had beds. There were even cabinets beside the beds.
It was a room reserved for outsiders. How many people had stayed here until now? Did they depart for Heaven? Or had they already vanished from the world?
The chieftain's words had been so shocking that even upon reaching the quarters, no one spoke.
After unpacking and arranging their belongings in the cabinets, they turned to Kanis. Messenger of God, Heaven, Kergo's circumstances—it was time for him to lay out what he knew.
"I kept my promise. So explain."
"As I said. You heard it all."
Amy sat down beside Sirone. Facing Kanis, she snapped,
"Heaven? Are you saying such a place really exists? Since when did you know?"
"To be honest, I can't be sure either. And for that question, it might be faster to hear from Sirone. Hasid asked you, remember. What did you see in the Labyrinth's spacetime?"
Amy looked back to Sirone and asked,
"That's right. Sirone—tell us. What did you see?"
"Not a what, but a where."
Kanis's guess was right. Sirone nodded readily and continued his explanation.
"Yeah. It was a place somewhere."
There had been a sea, and he had seen a forest. At the center of a city ringed by circular walls stood a spire.
Drawn into the light atop the spire, Sirone had come to his senses to find himself already returned to the altar.
"That's everything I saw. If that place is Heaven, then Kadum's story isn't baseless. So before deciding, I want to hear Kanis out. Just how much did you know?"
Harvest, who had been standing guard at the door, came back to Kanis. Usually he couldn't go two breaths without something crude, but now he kept silent.
"My master, Arcane… I think he once went to the place called Heaven."
Sirone rose from the bed.
Arcane had been to Heaven. Since he had holed up in a dungeon for fifty years after being betrayed by Alpheas, it must have been long before that.
"Are you saying Arcane came to the Kergo ruins too?"
"No. Somewhere else. As Kadum said, it seems the world's various ruins are connected to Heaven in one way or another. Of course, they're under the control of their respective nations now, but eighty years ago people probably didn't even know they existed. In that sense, the Kergo ruins are unusual."
Eighty years ago, Arcane would only have been sixty. Not a small age by human years, but considering how strong Arcane was at a hundred forty-nine, his magic might as well have been at its peak.
"What is in Heaven? What kind of place is it?"
"That, I don't know."
Sirone narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know" didn't make sense. If Arcane had experienced Heaven, Kanis should know about Heaven—because Harvest had inherited Arcane's knowledge.
Harvest added an explanation.
"Kanis is telling the truth. Arcane erased his memories of Heaven. The only thing we know is that he once went there."
"He erased them himself?"
"Yeah. Wiped them clean. So we don't know what he did there. I suppose he didn't want talk of Heaven to spread in the world."
Knowing Arcane's character, Sirone found it hard to believe. What secret could be so grave that a great mage, recognized as third-class by the world, would erase his memories to conceal it?
"Kanis, what is Heaven? Is it truly where God lives?"
"Nothing is certain. That's why we're going. I have to see it with my own eyes. So take me there."
"No—I've changed my mind. You were right. It's too dangerous. It isn't a place you can go out of curiosity."
"No—your thoughts don't matter. The deal I proposed was to send Arin and me there. Whatever happens, we are going to enter Heaven."
"To be honest, I don't want to send you either. Once we enter, we can't return by the original door, remember? Besides, if I don't go, they won't permit us to use the Gate to Heaven. The chieftain looked desperate."