RAY VAN CAMARO
---
The only people heading to Lalatina to investigate the nearby rune were the Camaro unit (plus Tank), the Clegane unit, and Chris—who was acting as our guide.
Port Town was a well-known target of attacks. If word got out that the brigadier in charge had taken a leave, the smugglers and pirates that were being kept at bay would leap at the opportunity to turn the city to ruin.
So in the cover of darkness, our party of soldiers marched onto one of the ships dragging behind a line of chained and hooded prisoners. The prisoners were actually my Dolls, Czeslaw, and Chris. It was a precaution to make sure they weren’t spotted.
In his absence, Czeslaw instructed his most iron-fisted subordinate to take care of Port Town. None of the city’s soldiers knew about this retreat.
We sailed the ship through the estuary and down the Mizu River. The town of Lalatina was two days along the river. During this time, we instructed Czeslaw not to go on deck. If he was spotted, news of the brigadier of Port Town on a ship heading away from the city would travel fast.
“This is more boring than I thought,” Czeslaw complained as he paced back and forth in the great cabin of the ship. “There’s nothing to do down here.”
Hendrik, Doria, Rudolf, Gama, and Chris were on the floor studying the spread pages from the cookbook that made the map. Kaiser, Czeslaw’s men, and several of my dolls wearing military uniforms treaded on deck.
“You guys know we drew the map, right?” Czeslaw said to them. “You don’t have to keep organizing a spread every time you want to check it out.”
“We know,” Hendrik said. “But there might’ve been something we missed. We’ve already confirmed that they’re hiding something within this book. It’s not out of the question for them to hide multiple things.”
“Ray’s really lucky he put you on his unit. You’re very thorough with paperwork and research.”
“That’s the work he doesn’t like so he just piles them on my desk.”
Doria groaned. “There’s no way that this only hides a map. There has to be something hiding under our noses.”
The cabin remained silent for a while but was broken by Rudolf’s loud sneeze. It caused the pages he was sitting in front of to scatter.
Gama, who was the closest to him, held as many of the pages down as he could. “Cover your mouth, you idiot!”
“I’m allergic to cats!” Rudolf said, rubbing his reddened nose. “I’m sorry, Chris. It’s not that I don’t like you. My body doesn’t. The sneeze comes out of nowhere and I’m not fast enough to cover my mouth.”
“Then at least turn your head the other way!” Gama began rearranging the pages. “Your snot is all over the place.”
“It’s okay. It’s not something you can control,” Chris said. “I’ll help fix this and head up to the deck.”
Czeslaw got off his chair and collected the pages that had flown across the room. “Now we have to reconstruct this thing? Most of these pages don’t have lines or anything. You can’t even tell which side is right side up.” He sighed. “Whatever, putting this puzzle back together at least keeps me busy.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I bent over and picked up a page that was by my feet, studying both sides of the paper.
Both sides of the paper…
I laughed. “Rudolf, you red-nosed idiot. You figured it out.”
He scratched his head. “I did?”
“How many sides are there on a piece of paper?”
“Two.”
“Yup. Hendrik, you’re right that there’s a hidden message on this map. The only mistake we’ve made is that we’ve been staring at the wrong side.”
Doria chuckled. “Right under our nose.”
“Reconstruct the map and flip everything over,” I ordered.
Everyone, except for Chris who was sitting in the corner, began putting the map back together. Once we were done, we flipped each page to find…
“Nothing, it’s completely blank!” Gama complained.
“No, it’s not,” I said. “Look at the symbols. The way they are spread out is… inorganic.”
I grabbed the ink and quill on the captain’s desk and began connecting the symbols. It made a giant circle with a hexagon in the middle and the symbols were on each point.
“That’s…” Chris said. “That’s an incantation circle!”
“It very much is.”
“What does it do?” Czeslaw asked.
I shrugged. “I’ve never seen it before. Chris?”
The cat woman shrugged as well. “Nope.”
“Can you test it out for us?”
“Why me? You’re a State Jynxist, Colonel Ray Van Camaro.”
“Because I made a contract with myself that limits my jynx. The only jynx I can perform is summoning and contracts. And even with that, I can only summon my Dolls. The limitations make them strong.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
Once the sun came back out, we anchored in the middle of the river and surrounded Chris, who stood in the middle of the deck with a glove that had the incantation circle drawn on it. She tried for about half an hour but wasn’t able to squeeze out a spell.
“It’s not working,” she pouted.
“Do you feel something starting, though?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t know how the spell works?” Kaiser suggested.
“No, that shouldn’t matter if a circle is used.”
“Maybe her gates aren’t strong enough.”
“No, her gates a very strong.”
Chris cleared her throat. “Excuse me, Sir. I almost passed the State Jynxist Exam this year. Don’t you dare say I have weak gates.”
Kaiser raised his hands in defence. “I apologize.”
I ran back inside the cabin and returned with a bucket of paint and brush, drawing the incantation circle on the deck.
“Maybe the size of the circle matters,” I theorized. “Usually, the more powerful the spell, the bigger the circle.”
She stepped in the middle and aimed her palm towards the riverbanks. The circle began to glow and the sky just above us began swirling in a familiar hue of different colours. After a while, a light began building in the middle of the storm’s eye before exploding into a downward beam.
The squirrels sitting on the log where Chris was aiming were engulfed by the light. And when the beam faded away, they were gone.
Doria’s eyes widened. “Th-that’s the beam! That’s what hit Gilead. L-l-l-look! The squirrels disappeared just like us!”
“Only not as big,” I said. “But if multiple of these spells were used at the same time, then…”
“It’d be big enough to cover all of Gilead. That’s why it happened at noon. It’s easy to coordinate this when the sun is at its highest.”
“So that means Abel—” Gama said.
“When Pops’ men found him, he was paralyzed. His gates were on the verge of breaking.” I turned to Chris. “Do you feel anything?”
The cat woman shook her head. “Nope. I feel great.”
When I focused mana into my eyes, her gates were indeed completely fine. But about five minutes after she cast the spell, she collapsed and was unable to move.
“I-I-I can’t move my body.”
When I checked her gates this time, they were on the verge of breaking. Just like Abel’s.
“So this wasn’t naturally occurring,” I said. “This wasn’t an accident. The beam of light was set to target Gilead.”
Chris was completely paralyzed until we arrived in Lalatina. She regained her ability to move once we landed.