Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase4 (section)

===Part 3===

Once they finished eating, it was time to get going.

“You eat more than I expected, Miss Henrietta. How many pieces of toast was that?”

“A Striker needs energy to protect the people in combat.”

“But the knights are supposed to be the fancy upper class.”

“Don’t act so disappointed! This is necessary!!”

It was a bright morning with the sun shining from the starry sky. The beautiful Striker’s red face may have been a sign of her surprise upon seeing how little the girls had eaten.

Ayato and the others left the inn in Earth Castle Town Grouviv and made their way to central Light Castle Brightio.

They were not yet at the site of the Temple Moving Ceremony, but there was already a clown standing on the side of the road handing out fliers. All the stores along the road were open bright and early and calling out to potential customers in a way they normally never would.

“If you want some drinks and sandwiches, now’s the time! There are no normal shops in the central area!!”

“How about some opera glasses? Don’t assume you can get a front-row spot!!”

“Thomas Robergin! His name is Thomas Robergin! Now, will he blink or not after the guillotine lops his head off? Come see us if you’d like to place a bet!!”

A Maid Trainee girl was rushing all over the place, so she must have been willing to help out with anything asked of her, even if it was related to a grisly execution. People were gathering around a Fortuneteller woman with a veil over her mouth, so her real job may have been to predict gambling results.

“Uheh,” said pale-faced Teleria. “Th-they really are turning this into a show. Urp, how are you supposed to sell juicy tomato and cheese sandwiches for a guillotining?”

“On the surface continent, they prefer to read a newspaper article about it after the criminal is strapped to a lightning chair in a closed room, don’t they? The only real difference seems to be whether you enjoy it live or not.”

“Um, Henrietta? I really don’t think this is about enjoyment…gulp.”

But the truth of the matter was that even righteous Samurais and Ninjas were chatting while grabbing a bite to eat. A Martial Artist in an exotic dress with bold slits was walking around, perhaps hoping for some trouble during the confusion of the event. It was all so peaceful that they imagined Nirvelphany would have little trouble maintaining her anger.

Dark Elf Mamilis spoke up while hiding her long ears to look human.

“I’ve heard the king plays no role in the executions.”

“?”

“My grandma said he keeps his distance from any bloody killings outside of war, so he lets the Forturiana Church handle all the death sentences.”

Whatever the pros and cons, they had no choice but to take advantage of the aurora-like Free Audience Restriction barrier being down to allow the general public into the central area.

“Okay.”

Ayato glanced around the street, which was more lively than normal this early, drew the Linkage Plug sword from his hip, and started stabbing blades into streetlights, sprinklers, and other sorcery devices. He was of course preparing to resonate with their processing space by interfering with their manaflow circulation. The earth core had been destroyed, but unlike the boldly unique water and wind towns, the earth town used its normalcy as a selling point. It contained a lot of street stalls that brought their equipment in with them, so the people there would not have too much trouble in their everyday lives.

“This is really easy with so much stuff around. I’m already at Level 20.”

“(I will not forget. I will not. I will never forget this barbaric criminality. Yes, unlike those girls, I have not let him emotionally manipulate me into accepting his actions.)”

“Miss Henrietta, do not forget that I can hack your precious sorcery armor at Level 20. Try anything funny and I will hijack that and make you do a wonderfully lewd dance out here in public.”

Ayato lowered his voice and drove the point home while a new blade was supplied from the ones compressed in the hilt.

The celebratory mood that brought all these street stalls felt inappropriate, but it did give them a lot to work with. They bought some cheap paper bags and musical instrument cases and stored their weapons in there.

Central Light Castle Brightio had opened its gates from the fire, water, wind, and earth sides, so they simply made their way to the large castle gate facing the Earth Castle Town. For today alone, there was no sign of the Free Audience Restriction that had beaten down sturdy Henrietta. The gate acted as a bottleneck, so the crowd grew denser there and some children selling fruit from baskets wandered through everyone waiting there.

Ayato’s group blended into the crowd and other people were soon pushing in from behind. They were quickly stuck where they were.

“Um, is everyone packed in here because the gate is too narrow?” asked Teleria.

“Can’t you see how ridiculously big it is?” replied Ayato. “Even if it’s open to the public, the king lives in that castle. The bottleneck is probably so they can check people’s belongings and have them pass through a sorcery detection gate. That way no one can bring in sorcery guns.”

They all exchanged a glance at that.

Ayato’s group naturally needed as many sorcery guns as they could manage if they were to fight Nirvelphany and her extraordinary firepower. They could not even start to fight if they had their weapons confiscated here.

“H-hwe-hwehhhhhhh!? Wh-wh-wh-what do we do, what do we do!?”

Teleria looked all around in a panic. She might have wanted to leave the line of people and get a fresh start on this, but this was more like a current of people than a line and the entire crowd was slowly headed in just the one direction. A thick wall of people had already formed behind them, so there was no escape now.

“(Eeeeek. My sorcery guns and floating skirt are one thing, but what about the Mimic Option for my legs? If they notice that, my fish parts will be revealed in front of all these people. Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, no, no, no!!!)”

“Miss Teleria?”

“It’s nothing! I’m fine! Everything is fine and dandy!!”

Teleria was pouring with sweat, her eyes were wandering around, and she was acting about as suspicious as could be. The deep voice of what seemed to be a knight called out from ahead and the push of the crowd grew stronger.

“Next!! Walk through the gate slowly!!”

“We will not be upset even if it buzzes, so do not stop! We will only take temporary custody of your sorcery gun!!”

That oppressive voice brought a cloud to Mamilis who was hiding her long ears. The Dark Elf seemed caught between her love of her grandma and her fear of this sorcery device.

“I don’t like this. How much can that gate see, Coach?”

“At the very least, it can’t see the color of your underwear, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Meanwhile, Henrietta spoke up while tilting her head at how Teleria was nearly foaming at the mouth.

“Hey, what are you panicking about? …H-hey! Stop that! Don’t use my name here, girl! Stop clinging to me and giving me those puppy dog eyes! Hey, I said stop it! Hey!!”

Teleria was short and gave people upturned looks as a matter of course, so her looks could be quite powerful at times like this. It was neat how many different nuances you could find in the word “hey”. And as Ayato glanced over at them…

“Your name, hm? Does that master key work in the king’s castle? If not, we need to go with something more guaranteed to work.”

“You stop too, dangerous individual. That is also a problem. I don’t know what exactly you plan to do, but I cannot sit idly by while a Sorcery Hacker commits crimes. I am supposed to be upholding the rule of law!!”

“Ha ha ha. Stop trying to hide how you really feel, you straitlaced young woman. You’re only making this more complicated. Anyway, Miss Henrietta, a certain someone was handing out wanted posters with our faces on them, so they aren’t going to attack as soon as they see us at the inspection point, are they?”

“Do not brush off my complaints and I am not hiding how I really feel. Also, that should not be a problem.” Henrietta put her hands on her hips with her ponytail-style blonde braid. “This is the Forturiana Church’s crucial Temple Moving Ceremony, which means a public execution. That means they have to slay a great evil or their religious balance will crumble. There will be some level of amnesty at work, so even if they realize you are a dangerous individual at the gate, if you insist you are here to see the holy ceremony, they might just overlook it. There is precedent from past national ceremonies and I can speak up to help your case.”

“Th-that sounds like how they stopped a war for the finals of a sports tournament on the continent. And are you really sure this will be okay!? Searching our possessions is fine, but aren’t those detectors bad news!?”

“Don’t be silly. This is much easier when they are not using their own eyes.” Ayato breathed an exasperated sigh. “Have you forgotten that I am a Sorcery Hacker?”

“I do not like that smug look on your face, dangerous individual!!”

What he had to do was simple.

The castle gate itself was more than 30 esoule<ref>Approximately 36 meters.</ref> wide, but small, boxy metal gates were lined up in front of that. Needless to say, those were sorcery detectors that reacted to the mist mana flowing through sorcery devices. Ayato’s group had hidden their sorcery guns and trigger-equipped sword by wrapping it in their coat or stuffing it in a long bag, but those would be detected by these smaller gates.

However…

“Oh, excuse me.”

As Ayato approached one gate, he hid his drawn sword behind his back and pressed his back against the gate’s metal frame as if clearing the way.

He of course stabbed the tip of the blade in as he did so.

He needed Level 10. The same level as those scorpion-shaped Zootoxin Mk. III sorcery devices seemed like a lot for a simple gate, but it was not a problem since he had already built up to over 20.

The boy smiled and made a suggestion while using his own body to hide the evidence of his Sorcery Hacking.

“Ladies first. Go ahead, miss.”

“Eh? Huh? What?”

“Get going, Miss Tits.”

Teleria was still nervous, so silver-haired Mamilis had to push on her back with both hands. The supposedly functioning gate had been hacked by Ayato’s blade, so its buzzer did not go off. They walked right through.

“(Oh, no. I’ve finally done it. I’ve stooped to the level of that dangerous individual!!)”

“Hurry.”

After seeing sullen-faced Henrietta pass through the gate after those two, Ayato stepped away from the detector and walked through himself. With so many people, the knights must not have had time to check every single person’s appearance. They did not even notice their colleague Henrietta.

“Huh? Did that blonde girl and brown girl just walk right through with Expansion Armor around their hips???”

“Those’re probably fakes held up with fishing line. I mean, the gate didn’t react.”

The knights in charge of the inspection tilted their heads, but they were too reliant on the results of the digital sorcery to trust their own senses and let Ayato’s group go through without saying anything to them. It was weird to think this was all it took to get inside the place usually protected by the Free Audience Restriction.

“Wh-why did you call me Miss Tits!?”

“Would you prefer I used your real name in front of the knights?”

Ayato looked around while listening to the conversation between tearful Miss Tits and the calm Dark Elf.

The overall silhouette was created from several towers and castle walls while the center contained the courtyard and halls of the castle proper. This area almost seemed made out of various branching staircases and it contained the important government agencies and the cathedral that functioned as the Forturiana Church’s headquarters.

There were a few open areas shaped like plates in the middle of all the stairs and those seemed to function as public squares. They were about 360 esoule<ref>Approximately 432 meters.</ref> across. Everyone was headed in the same direction. The “plate” in that direction would be the stage for the public execution they were calling a Temple Moving Ceremony.

“Uwehh. It’s such a big space, but it’s crammed full. How many tens of thousands of people are in there, I wonder,” said Teleria.

“And that probably isn’t even a tenth of the total number of people visiting the central castle right now,” added Henrietta. “I want to believe that not all of them are here to see that bloody show. Surely most of them are here to see the castle and have no interest in the public execution.”

“Coach, are those newspaper reporters’ cameras flashing over there?” asked Mamilis. “It seems too soon for that.”

“…”

There were Bards and such working as reporters, presumably to make ends meet, but that aside, Ayato silently looked upwards as he continued listening to the others speak.

Several towers rose up and had countless loopholes in their sides. Thick wires ran between the towers and cable cars shaped like upside-down spiders slowly moved along them.

Nirvelphany wanted to ensure the guillotine execution failed so she could save the old man named Thomas Robergin. Sabotaging the clockwork execution device would be the best way of doing that, but the executioner would check over it time and again before the big moment since their life was on the line too. Sabotaging it while backstage was useless if the executioner noticed something was wrong.

That was why Nirvelphany was guaranteed to do something while the execution device was in front of the crowd. Once the event began, the executioner could no longer inspect it.

That said, the stage was surrounded by so many people, so no one could approach from the front, back, left, or right without being noticed.

Which meant…

(From above.)

Ayato looked up at the many towers and renewed his resolve.

(She must be hiding somewhere that overlooks this public square. She must hope to stop the gears with coolant while disguising it as a blizzard!)