ODDD 09

Chapter 9

“If the cores have vanished, doesn’t that mean the power of the Central Neodymiums has weakened?”

“That’d be the case. When I asked why they didn’t report such an important matter, they said they thought they would be able to find them. The Hedrons were classified information to begin with, after all.”

Aidan also shook his head several times as if it were giving him a headache.

“Then they go on to say that since it’s still performing its function as neodymium properly, it doesn’t matter?”

“They’re out of their minds.”

“An insensitivity to safety. It’s been eighteen years since the gates vanished, after all. They probably think such a thing won’t happen again.”

Even so, how could they? Shouldn’t a matter like this be reported to superiors immediately?

“So, what I’m saying is.”

My eyes met his refreshing gaze.

“Today, we are going for the purpose of investigating the cores. Since the cores couldn’t have grown legs, this is likely a case of theft.”

“You’re not suspecting my dad, are you?”

“Even if I do suspect him, he can’t be announced as a suspect. You are the only one who remembers Ashford.”

That means you do suspect him, doesn’t it?

“Why would my dad do such a thing! What would he even do with the cores!”

“I wouldn’t know that. However, why gates form, what on earth lies beyond the gates, down to the true identity of those monsters—nothing has been uncovered.”

“What about it?”

Sharp words burst out of me without me realizing it.

But isn’t it obvious?

My dad is being suspected of being a thief—there is no way gentle words would come out of my mouth.

“So, what I mean is… I’m not saying we should suspect him blindly. In the first place, a person’s very existence vanishing from everyone is an absurd thing, isn’t it? Something that can never be proven scientifically. Yet, co-incidentally, the cores are not things of this world.”

“…So you’re saying that whatever made Dad vanish from this world might be the work of the cores?”

“Yeah, exactly. Whether it was your father’s intention or whether it just happened by chance, I don’t know. But I think that holds the highest possibility.”

Hedrons that generate frequencies. Cores extracted from those Hedrons.

“If… if it’s because of the cores that my dad vanished…”

I turned my head toward the window.

We certainly do not know about the gates.

“Will we… be able to find Dad?”

The only thing we know about the gates so far is that they close due to magnetic fields—is bringing Dad back even possible?

“Nothing has been confirmed yet. That’s why we came here.”

Right on cue, the door opened with a clattering sound.

“Come on, let’s get down.”

The knights guarding this place bowed respectfully the moment they saw Aidan.

“Young Lord Winslow, we heard of your visit in advance. Will you be needing an escort?”

“No. There’s no separate need. I’ll call if I need help.”

“Yes, sir.”

So he gave them advance notice that we would visit today.

Aidan took steps forward as if he had been here a few times before, and after bowing my head briefly to the knights, I followed closely behind him.

“Wow, it’s enormously intimidating.”

“Is it?”

He seemed unbothered, but out of fascination, I eagerly looked around to my left and right.

Usually, neodymium took the form of a black tower.

A massive black pillar whose four corners extended vertically upward.

However, unlike ordinary towers, the pillars that shot up as if to pierce the sky gradually narrowed as they went higher, forming a sharp spire.

Yet, unlike ordinary neodymium, the Central Neodymium consisted of four black pillars drawing a square to form an outer wall, and inside it, a set of slightly smaller pillars repeated in the same structure and connected continuously.

The pillars, which grew lower as one moved toward the center, changed to a height that barely reached my waist at the very middle.

“They said this is the space where they kept the core.”

Unlike other neodymiums, the black pillar at the center had a flat top—it was a truly rectangular pillar—and at its center was a round groove.

“Was the core inside this groove?”

“That’s right. They said it was designed so that it couldn’t be removed by ordinary strength, but how on earth did they take it? To make off with this while evading the gazes of the knights standing here and there, they must be a person of formidable skill.”

I knew very well that the ‘person of formidable skill’ he was referring to implied my dad, but for now, I pretended not to notice and examined the groove.

“Can I touch this?”

“Yeah.”

Having received permission, I carefully stroked it with my hand. As I smoothed over the area around the groove, a subtle mark invisible to the eye was felt beneath my fingertips.

“What’s wrong?”

“When I touch this place, I feel a sense of incongruity.”

“Is that so? I didn’t hear any separate report regarding that.”

“Since it’s not visible to the naked eye, they might not have thought to touch it.”

The moment I removed my hand, Aidan also took off the glove he was wearing and carefully touched the edge.

“…I see. There are quite a lot? It seems to be marks left behind when taking out the core. I should tell them to investigate these sword marks.”

“No, you don’t have to. These sword marks definitely belong to my dad.”

Though invisible to the eye, these thread-thin sword marks…

No one in the Empire other than my dad could leave marks like these.

Did my dad really steal the core?

Why?

“I see.”

Aidan answered calmly, as if he had expected it.

“Let’s look around a bit more.”

We examined the Central Neodymium here and there.

We examined each of the thirteen neodymiums one by one, but the only one with sword marks left on it was the single one in the exact center.

“Even though they attached a grand name like Central Neodymium, it’s really just several ordinary neodymiums placed together.”

“That’s right. Now that the core that connects and amplifies all these magnetic fields has vanished, it’s no different from ordinary neodymium.”

He let out a sigh and shook his head.

“As expected, there don’t seem to be any other distinct clues.”

“How about asking the knights?”

At my suggestion, Aidan also nodded his head.

“Hey. Let me ask you something.”

“Yes, Young Lord.”

One knight approached quickly.

“Did any suspicious person happen to approach this place?”

“Oh, no, there was no one. If there had been such a person, we would have reported it immediately. That is why we are frustrated as well.”

“How far do your usual patrols go? Do you come all the way inside here?”

“Of course. Every thirty minutes, we inspect the entire neodymium.”

“All of you?”

“That couldn’t be! As you can see, we operate in five-man squads, so two watch the entrance and three inspect the inside.”

There was no slack in their security.

I called out the date Dad had last visited this place.

“Then, did anyone come here on April 18th of this year?”

“Uh, well. Since it was a matter from several months ago… I will check who was on guard duty that day.”

He ran off somewhere and returned after some time had passed with another man.

“It is said that this man here was on guard duty that day.”

The man who came along bowed his head and spoke about what had happened on that day.

“On that day, I heard a noise coming from the back. However, everyone else said they didn’t hear a thing.”

“Did you not check it yourself?”

“Just in case, I headed to the place where the sound came from together with another person, but as expected, there was no one. Everyone suggested that I might have heard the sound of a wild animal. In fact, things like squirrels or rabbits occasionally appear here.”

“Which direction was the sound coming from?”

“It was toward the neodymium in the center.”

“Was the core there on that day?”

“Yes. The day the core vanished was in June, as stated in the report.”

A few days before the academy graduation ceremony took place, the core vanished.

“Understood. You may go now.”

The two bowed and moved off to stand guard once more.

“In the end, other than the fact that it was my dad who took the core, we haven’t found out anything at all.”

“When all traces except the diary have vanished, it’s strange of you to think we could find anything easily.”

He answered nonchalantly.

Is that so? Is it strange?

I don’t know anything anymore.