Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume8 Chapter3 (section)

===Between the Lines 3===

A gray-haired old man breathed a heavy sigh aboard the Missing Princess cruise ship. He was inside his office which contained an odd combination of thick Western tomes and fairy tale picture books.

He wore a formal tailcoat since he had been on the party stage earlier, but he had removed the bowtie and the restrictive coat.

But that was not enough to improve his mood.

He wanted to stand up from his leather chair, but he could not lift himself from it, as if he were glued down. That prevented him from looking away from the flat-screen monitor directly in front of him.

“We are in front of the White House here in DC! The official go ahead for the Silver Resource War was just announced, but they did not allow any questions from the press and it seems the press secretary has already left. This is unusual behavior, but according to an insider…”

The old man asked himself how this could have happened.

The Blue Film war promotion videos had been scheduled for 4 episodes in all, but a number of problems had caused the distribution plan to fail after only the first episode. They had likely caught scent of the plan stalling out and forced the war through in advance, but the normal people would be unable to keep up with these world events. Even if the Silver Resource War ended in complete victory, they would only be met with a storm of boos. What would happen if an airport’s runways were only half built and you decided to send the airplanes out anyway because construction was behind schedule? The answer was obvious.

Something had gone wrong in this supposedly fixed game of old maid.

If the nonexistent East Europe Axis could not be made into the villain, then the dirty joker would end up with those who had started the war. Real war was complex, but the common people always viewed it as a battle between good and evil. And a country that was said to have never once suffered defeat would not accept a stain on that record. So who would end up holding the old maid in the end?

It no longer mattered who had come up with the idea and started gathering members.

They would ''make it so'' Toy Dream had been manipulating the US all along.

Thus they could say they did nothing wrong.

“…”

He felt like he was watching his own castle crumbling while in some removed location. It was like building a grand estate in Beverly Hills as the prize for many long years of effort and then watching it collapse due to a freak sinkhole.

He repeated the word “why” in his heart just once more.

But the nuance was different this time. The gray-haired old man suddenly wondered why he had wanted the Silver Resource War to succeed. He had been obsessed with getting that done, but now that he thought back, he had no idea why he had wanted it to succeed.

If racking his brains was not enough to find a reason, had it been planted in him by someone else?

While he thought, he heard a soft electronic beep.

It did not come from the LCD monitor.

It came from the personal smartphone he had for his family. It was a character mobile device that let you include illustrations and icons of Toy Dream characters. He had bought up a major ISP and social media company to make it.

He had received an Assort Message, which was like a combination of an email and chat service.

“Have you caught on yet?”

It was a short message.

But for some reason, the attached ''icon of a heroine he had never seen before'' brought a prickling pain to a corner of the old man’s mind. He could not seem to process what it was and that inspired an impatience he simply could not suppress.

He would never find the answer no matter how much he thought about it.

Not when he could not remember why he gave the Missing Princess its name.

“You used Kingdom F as a motif for the children’s books and movies you made, but a government official convinced you they were actually a den of villains and you felt like your works had been defiled. That is why you helped this blatant resource war.

“Psychologists use the term ‘dyadic group’ to describe how people take criminal actions more readily in groups than as individuals. A more familiar example may be how anonymous message boards are more prone to violent statements than social networks with visible screennames.

“You cannot properly perceive the White Queen.

“That means you are in no position to directly know of her death or to be hit by the resultant confusion.

“But the general unease and confusion that has widely permeated society after the White Queen’s death may have influenced this bold action of yours.

“However.

“You should already know the truth about the East Europe Axis.

“I have no sympathy for you. You are literate enough to make an informed decision, so you must take responsibility for your decisions. If you were aware of your influence and still intentionally spread malicious disinformation, then there is no room for lenience.”

Normally, he would have shrugged off unilateral accusations from some faceless and nameless person. He was a world-renowned fairy tale author. Any online store would be flooded with millions of reviews. He felt far more pressure on a daily basis than the average person.

And yet.

He felt an unpleasant sweat coating his back. He could not shrug this off. He felt an explosion of overwhelming shame that he could only compare to having his own child or grandchild see him doing something truly foolish.

“You lost the right to author fairy tales from the moment you decided to harm others by manipulating the emotions of the readers. Especially when it involved a war that would take countless lives.”

The old man’s vision wavered at this criticism that came with no room for negotiation or compromise.

This went beyond the inexplicable icon.

Tears wet the corners of his eyes and he saw an illusion of a small girl pointing at him.

''Even though no such girl should exist.

“It’s too bad. I had hoped there was a miniscule chance everything could return to normal and I would one day be completed by you and turned into a book that spreads smiles around the world.

“But this proves it.

“I will never be completed. This fairy tale will always remain incomplete.”

“Wait…”

He had not opened a voice input app, but the old man spoke to the character mobile device without thinking. His trembling lips shouted at the smartphone to stop these mysterious Assort Messages that kept pouring in.

“Could you be…no, that never existed… Who are you? I never had anything to do with the Phantom Girl. That’s only a rumor that my passionate fans have spread around. Or…it couldn’t be, but are you saying it really did exist…!?”

The strange feeling in a corner of his mind grew bigger than ever.

He was on the verge of grasping something. He was sure of it.

But that terribly fleeting outline sent more merciless words his way.

“Break your pen today and retire immediately. A fairy tale author who has forgotten how to make people smile has no place in Toy Dream.”

Not even a silver bullet straight through the heart would have been as great a shock.

The old man was certain of it.

He could form no more words with his index finger or his trembling lips.

He was finally feeling the loneliness of having left his ideals behind in some distant land.

He needed a long time.

His fingers were trembling more than an alcoholic going cold turkey. He could not sketch a single image or even place his fingers on that 5-inch screen. He took his time to take deep breaths and barely managed to pick up the smartphone without dropping it.

This time, he did open a voice input program and managed to force out his voice despite having trouble breathing.

Even the high-quality program failed more than three times to interpret his voice properly.

“But the war has begun. I doubt my head alone would be able to stop it.”

“Yes, of course it has. Because I used my authority with Government to push it in that direction. I mostly left hints that an environmental group was preparing to buy the land and investigate the effects of mining there. I was telling them they had better claim that land and the mining rights in a hurry or this would be a heap of trouble for them.”

The old man did not understand what most of that meant.

He did not even know what Government was, but the messages continued.

“The US will not lose. Or rather, no matter how badly things are going for them and no matter what happens, they will find a way to claim they did not lose.

“Stopping the first and second attacks is meaningless if the US will only propose further operations to reclaim their reputation.

“So we need to drain all the pus the first time around.

“It is only by doing that and then stopping the world’s most powerful army that we can stop the giant gears of the Silver Resource War. There is no other effective resolution when looking at the big-picture strategy instead of the small-picture tactics.”

“That’s crazy. Are you saying you’ve started a war to stop a war?”

“Yes, but worry not.”

There was no hesitance in her response.

And that told the old man something.

This mysterious person was using the icon of a heroine he did not recall designing. This Phantom Girl had slipped from the palm of his hand. But this told him there was someone who stood much closer to her than he did.

Was it possible he would have been the one closest to her if he had not done this?

And the girl relying on that trump card had more to say.

“I have the ultimate ace up the sleeve, so it doesn’t matter who I’m up against. When he is supporting the life of someone seeking help, there is no chance whatsoever he will lose in combat.”



A thunk ran through a distant luxury apartment as a character mobile device was flipped over on the table so the screen could not be seen. It was a lot like flipping over a card.

The striped bikini girl buried her small face in the thick fur of the 5m wild animal she used as a sofa.

“What’s this sudden outburst of emotion?” asked the modified China dress beauty. “Did you come across some moving masterpiece?”

“…Id’s nuffing, you idyit…”

She did not want anyone at all to see the look on her face.