Chapter 351
"……."
Hm.
Command authority.
Huh?
Every head of the 101st Class friends turned toward . Leo and Tsheringen looked back at with eyes that had rarely grown that wide. The five 98th Class Team A seniors who had arrived with cklenburg were likewise struck dumb by this insanity and staring blankly at .
"A fly could walk into your mouth and you wouldn't notice."
As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, cklenburg jerked his chin and threw my own words back at . But right now, that wasn't the issue….
'Wait, hold on.'
What did I just hear? I hastily collected myself and forced out words that would at least sound like sothing a human being might say.
"Your Excellency, now is not the ti to alter the chain of command."
[You'd just co back with a more efficient plan and argue against whatever I ordered anyway, wouldn't you?]
"……."
I can't exactly say that's not…. I can't deny it because that was fully my intention. But it's not as though I always have the right answer—you could be right too, couldn't you? The mont I thought that, the reply ca imdiately.
[I know this will sound irresponsible coming from a senior. This is not a decision made on a whim. Setting aside the matter of pride, the ultimate responsibility for the command authority I delegate lies with , and I am fully aware that I am placing a disproportionately heavy burden on a mage far my junior, unfitting of his position. I know this decision will look like a rash abdication of the duties and responsibilities I should rightfully bear.]
"……."
[Nevertheless, the reason I say this now is because, as you well know, we have reached a watershed mont.]
That's right. We were at the juncture of whether or not all of Munich-Freising's allied dioceses would be pulled here.
[I know you are still in a position where you have much to learn. But I also know that the success you have shown before was not rely beginner's luck. To put it bluntly, I do not believe my operation can save more people and kill more enemies than yours.]
You lack field experience, but your strategies have been successful—that was the aning behind her words. I was truly grateful for the high evaluation, but because this alone was sothing I hadn't anticipated, my thoughts were growing complicated.
[98th A Captain, 101st Captain. Do you object to the decision to transfer field command authority to the Vice-Captain of the 101st?]
"No objections."
The answers ca simultaneously, without a shred of hesitation. No further words followed, so I knew it was now my turn to respond. Then cklenburg tapped the artifact at his ear to cut his communication and gestured for to do the sa. When I followed suit and cut my line, he spoke calmly.
"Accurately judging the capabilities of one's subordinates is also a quality a superior must possess. For the highest-ranking field commander especially, it is the most important ability of all."
Then he rubbed his face with his hand and said in a voice that trailed off.
"…Well, I'm sure you already know that without saying it."
"……."
"If this operation goes wrong, the responsibility will fall on Her Excellency Albertina Hohenzollern, who handed you full command authority. If you're worried about being punished as a mber of the 101st, that won't happen, and we don't have ti, so make your decision quickly."
"…Your thought process is very like you, Senior. That's a concern too, but wouldn't one normally also feel burdened by the fact that even a slight misstep on my part could cause others to suffer the consequences and be punished?"
When I countered, the 98th Class Team A mbers looked at with baffled expressions. The very act of talking to cklenburg like this must have been sothing they couldn't adjust to at all. Regardless, only then did cklenburg make an 'ah, right' face.
I tapped the artifact again and turned on the broadcast channel to speak.
"37 minutes. Effective imdiately, the Vice-Captain of the 101st Class has received field command authority."
[…Huh?]
[Askanian?]
Confused questions ca from teams that hadn't managed to cut their artifacts in ti. The strategy room at command also went briefly silent before repeating what I'd said to everyone.
[Effective 37 minutes, the Vice-Captain of the 101st Class assus overall command of the Corniviano coordinate system.]
Soone from the 98th urgently called out to cklenburg.
"Captain."
"I already said I have no objections."
At that, the person raised his Wand and cast Sound Insulation Magic. cklenburg, catching what he was trying to do, imdiately shattered the Sound Insulation Magic and spoke to his teammates with his usual sharpness.
"Did you not see what happened to the Brandenburg Archdiocese?"
"……."
"You were not there, but I was. In this situation, Her Excellency Albertina Hohenzollern's decision is the best possible choice."
I could see Leo's brow furrowing.
'…I should be touched….'
But it's a bit frightening. What did he eat to suddenly be this forthright? I wasn't the only one thinking that—everyone here seed to share the sentint. The expressions of the 98th Class Team A and my friends were sothing to behold. From their perspective, the guy who'd been drilling them with intensive training—disguised as ntal conditioning—just days ago was now doing this. cklenburg snapped his head toward and spoke.
"This isn't the ti to stand around slack-jawed. As you yourself said, the council of bishops may have already left this field and gone to call for reinforcents. You'll need to formulate a different strategy accordingly, so think fast."
He was right. If the council of bishops had already left this place and we were rummaging through an empty field like hunting for mice, that was the path to failure. We needed to start by thinking about where the bishops might have gone. I adjusted the artifact to connect to the 91st A, then looked at Leo and cklenburg in front of and spoke.
"We need to clearly distinguish between what we can and cannot do. First, we cannot shatter this Space Magic and simply eliminate it. Correct?"
"Correct."
cklenburg answered curtly.
Why can't we break it? Just as understanding principles is crucial in learning, if we blindly accept that it can't be broken, we won't be able to apply any clues or devise a proper strategy, so let's trace through it from the start. What we know is this: you cannot warp into a space created by Space Magic.
This isn't because warp magic is fundantally impossible, but because plugging a point P0(a, b, c) into the warp formula we know doesn't take us to P1(a, b, c). Instead, we can use another coordinate (0, b, c) to reach R0. That's an alarmingly oversimplified analogy, so let offer another: if you spread out two maps of the sa space and mark a point on Map 1, the ink lands on Map 1, not on Map 2. Naturally, even if you stack the two maps together, the ink remains only on Map 1. In magical theory, this is referred to for convenience as 'the coordinate systems are different.' Therefore, all Space Magic generates a new coordinate system.
Now consider cklenburg's assertion. Earlier, cklenburg said this place 'appears not as a simple spatial overlay, but as though a robust coordinate system has been newly constructed.' Since Space Magic generates a new coordinate system, doesn't his claim ultimately contradict itself? Can sothing be A when it is not A?
First, 'coordinate system' and 'robust coordinate system' cannot be considered synonymous in academic terms.
Next, as always, academic definitions carry a certain gap from real-world application. If I slamd my Staff down right now and deployed a Space Magic field with a 1-ter diater, it would academically possess a new coordinate system, but in practice, no one would describe such a spell as 'constructing a new coordinate system.' Such magic has a short duration, is one-ti use, and has extrely low structural stability against internal and external impacts. In the field outside academia, when one says 'construct a new coordinate system,' it typically refers to a sophisticated system on par with the Imperial Standard Warp Coordinate System our governnt has built, or the Pleroma coordinate system. In other words, when a Space Magic field has long duration, is not single-use, and has sufficient structural stability for habitation, it can be called a 'newly constructed, sophisticated coordinate system.'
Therefore, according to cklenburg's assertion, the field before us now was equivalent to soone among the council of bishops placing a 'new coordinate system' on top of the map called 'Corniviano coordinate system.'
'No, more precisely.'
They had cut out part of the original map, inserted a different map in its place, and rged the two into a single map.
Why? Earlier we established that 'you cannot warp into a space created by Space Magic.' Despite it being normal that you can't warp to an unknown coordinate system, we had chanted the archives' warp coordinates and landed in this field—so the only permissible answer for this critical variable was that inserting a coordinate system between other coordinate systems must be soone in the council of bishops' unique ability. If so, let's verify further. I looked at Narce and asked.
"In your assessnt, Farnese, are there ntal manipulation drugs dissolved in the air of this space? Given that the distance between coordinates has widened, I assu it's been diluted."
"Hmm… they are dissolved. Although they've been diluted quite significantly."
Good. Proof complete. Up to here, I had retraced Space Magic theory and finished all speculation regarding unique abilities. Unfortunately, the information available to us was woefully insufficient, so we had to squeeze out whatever we could from these clues.
'Hmm…. It would be nice if we could do exactly what Narce did before—smash Pleroma's coordinate system to nothing.'
That wasn't working, and since it had already been attempted with zero effect, cklenburg had speculated that soone was using Space Magic as a unique ability in the first place. Can't transfer it, can't destroy it….
Good. Now there was a fork in the road before . Let's verify. I took a breath and spoke rapidly.
"No matter how I think about it, the command post tests really do co in handy at tis like these. How many minutes has it been since we entered the archives?"
[Three minutes now.]
"Please send any team that can provide imdiate support to this location."
[We'll send the 91st B to Corniviano coordinate 790:345:495.]
[Moving now.]
Two responses ca from both artifacts with a slight ti gap. Ulrike, who had been beside Heike but had at so point moved behind , whispered in a tense voice.
"Could you explain your entire thought process… no, I suppose not?"
"No, I can't. We'll debrief after we're out."
"…Yeeah…."
Ulrike answered with a roll of her eyes. Thought occurs in an instant, but conveying it to others takes dozens of tis longer, so there was no ti to explain every line of reasoning now. But I understood perfectly why she was asking for an explanation. She didn't want to be dead weight and wanted to internalize my strategy at 200%—her anxiety-ridden expression said it all—and that was sothing I couldn't simply let pass. I smiled, took her by the shoulder, and whispered.
"I don't have ti to explain everything, but I'll tell everyone here what they absolutely need to know, so don't worry. And, Luise. Rember what I said before?"
"……."
Even if you can't do it, we'll hold you up.
I couldn't say sothing that soft out loud in the middle of live combat, but neither did I believe that being harsh in this mont would help this 18-year-old bring out her full potential. Whether she recalled what I'd said—her face was still tense, but—Ulrike gave a smile that was far softer than before. Just then, sothing like a faint light appeared in the distance.
[91st B, moved to Corniviano coordinate 790:345:495.]
"Mm."
Good. Got it.
From the 91st B's movent, I made my decision on which fork to take. As if they'd imdiately noticed my expression change, Leo and cklenburg began boring into with their gazes from that mont on.
"Understood. 91st B, please stand by at your position. First, can command hear ? Cease the air manipulation in the Munich-Freising archives. If the 98th C exits the Munich-Freising archives, they will arrive at the field where we are, instead of returning to that archives building. So please remain where you are."
[…91st B, stand by….]
[Relaying now.]
Sounds of various people contacting their respective teams could be heard. I tapped the artifact to extend the line to the 91st B as well, then looked at the 101st and 98th Class Team A mbers around and continued.
"First, let establish one thing. The 98th B entered Munich-Freising's archives and is still in that space rather than floating free, and the 91st B, which moved to Corniviano coordinate 790:345:495, arrived at the field where we are. What can we deduce from combining these two facts?"
"I believe soone said this isn't the ti for a capability test."
cklenburg's cool remark reached . He was saying this because he already knew the answer to my question. Everyone else was completely lost. No matter that I couldn't explain every thought process, they needed to know the bare minimum to operate efficiently. Leo, who had been watching us without expression, answered briefly.
"It ans their unique ability has hit its limit."
I snapped my fingers and nodded. At his words, even those in the 98th Class Team A and a few of the 101st who had been wearing slightly puzzled expressions seed to grasp what Leo and I ant and adjusted their faces. Good. Everyone understood without a lengthy explanation.
"Just as they left the 98th B behind in the archives when they went to search for the council of bishops, they can keep generating spaces to shake us off. If the 91st B hadn't arrived at this field, it would an the council of bishops had already abandoned us in this field and fled elsewhere—but since they didn't, it ans the council of bishops is still here, and with high probability will remain so for the next several minutes, during which reinforcents won't be able to reach them."
"……."
"In other words, the ones trapped here are the bishops."
"Until so of them recover enough strength to deploy Space Magic again, that is. And only if being stranded in this enormous swathe of land, where the distance between coordinates has expanded two hundredfold, counts as being trapped."
I nodded at cklenburg's slightly sarcastic addendum, characteristic of him.
"Trapped is trapped. Two hundredfold. Now I have a rough sense of the size—it'd be about one-tenth of Berlin."
"……."
"Shall we set the target ti at five minutes? I once rummaged through Berlin in seven minutes, so surely this is manageable?"
"…Even two minutes would be late."
"Confident, are we."
I cut off cklenburg, who had been doing fine until I goaded him once and imdiately started spouting nonsense. The bravado. Of course, since we didn't know when they might flee, finding them even a second faster was correct, but right now, I also had to consider everyone's ntal fortitude.
"First, Farnese, and Wittelsbach. Within the 101st, you two are the linchpins of this operation. Additionally, Her Excellency Alexandra Schumacher of the 91st possesses the ability to manipulate air. I will reorganize personnel around these three."
At that point, soone from the 98th spoke urgently.
"Wait, five minutes is far too tight. When Sir Askanian took the command post test, there was a predetermined answer and the clue of a newspaper article, but right now we've been given no clues at all! The field isn't an exam!"
Remarkable that soone was already crumbling ntally over five minutes. And after cklenburg and Hohenzollern had offered zero objections to transferring command, for soone like this to pipe up now—I was truly at a loss for words. I answered firmly.
"I said five minutes because of physical limitations, but in truth, as His Excellency cklenburg said, they may flee in as little as two minutes. And…."
I looked at Heike and continued.
"You said no clues have been given, but I disagree. Sir Ainsidel."
"Yes."
"Do you know which direction the wind was blowing three minutes ago?"
At that, Heike grabbed a fistful of grass and closed her eyes. After a mont, she spoke quietly.
"…South to north. Sa as now."
"Good. Where they'd need to flee has now beco obvious."
If they wanted to evade without leaving any traces of Magic Power.
I smiled at the flustered face of the 98th Class objector. Then I imdiately looked around at everyone and raised my voice.
"Her Excellency Albertina Hohenzollern, please rendezvous with Narce Farnese. His Excellency cklenburg and I will rendezvous with Wittelsbach. Each group will circle west and east respectively and move north."
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