“You don’t think Hans is the seventh? Why not?”
Adlet supplemented his explanation a bit, adding that he and Hans had mutually recognized that neither of them was the seventh and that they’d fought Chamo afterward. “The important part is that someone guessed when I would enter the temple and then activated the fog. If we can catch the person who caused the fog, then I can prove my innocence.”
“I see.” Fremy considered this for a while. “I think your idea is great. I’m impressed.”
Adlet made a fist and struck his other palm with it.
But then Fremy said, “But it’s wrong. Definitely wrong.”
“Huh?”
“Because it would be impossible. You couldn’t create fog without activating the barrier.”
“Couldn’t the Saint of Fog do something like that?” he asked.
“You have the wrong idea about the Saints. You think they can use the power of the Spirits to do anything. That’s not true. The power Saints wield is limited to certain abilities.”
“But there is a Saint who can create fog, isn’t there?”
“Yes, the Saint of Fog, one of the Saints who created the barrier. But it’s unthinkable that she could have created this mist.”
“Why?”
“First of all, when the Saint of Fog uses her power, it’s activated directly around her,” explained Fremy. “Her radius is about fifty meters. And the fog would take time to spread over the whole forest. I think it would take her at least fifteen minutes, considering the scale. But yesterday, the fog appeared over the whole area all at once.”
“Wait. When the barrier is activated, doesn’t the fog cover the forest instantly?” asked Adlet.
“It did. But that was because they spent a long time building it up. The Saint infused the power of the Spirit of Fog throughout this whole forest over the course of ten years. That’s why the barrier was able to generate it immediately.”
“So what if they made another barrier?”
Fremy shook her head. She pointed at Adlet’s feet and said, “Try digging there.”
Adlet used his sword to dig a little in the ground and found a stake there with text written on it in hieroglyphs.
“That stake is imbued with the power of the Phantasmal Barrier,” she said. “There are countless others like that buried all over the forest. Oh, and I forgot to tell you—you can erect only one kind of barrier at a time in any given location. If you were to try to erect two or more, one would be nullified.”
“B-but…”
“It wouldn’t be possible to create the fog without the power of a barrier, and you can’t create two barriers in this forest in order to generate that fog. In other words, your proposal is impossible.”
Adlet was speechless. He’d thought it was a brilliant solution, but she’d overturned it so easily. And he didn’t think there was any other way. There was no room for rebuttal.
“Do you have any questions?” Fremy emotionlessly asked the stricken Adlet.
“You fools!” Mora’s shriek echoed throughout the temple. She punched the floor with a gauntlet-clad fist, and the ground all around shook slightly.
“M-meow. Ya don’t have to get so hollerin’ mad.” Hans quickly explained to Mora what had happened.
As Mora listened to his story, her face grew redder, and when he finished, she laid bare her anger. “Chamo was out of line. But, Hans! I’d thought you an utter simpleton, but not to such an absurd degree!”
“Hey meow, that’s not a nice thing to say,” the assassin protested.
“Why did you allow Adlet to escape? That may have been our best chance—no, our only chance!”
Hans sounded fed up as he said, “Hey, hold yer horses, Mora. I think I can prove he’s innocent.”
“What are you talking about?” Mora demanded.
“He’s quite the guy. He saw through the seventh’s ploy.”
“I’m listening. Pray that my patience will hold until the end.”
Hans told Mora of Adlet’s deductions. Mora listened quietly, but once Hans was done talking, she heaved a large sigh. “You have no understanding of the power of the Saints. It would be impossible to create that fog.”
“It’s more possible than breakin’ into the temple.”
“No difference. Nobody could have broken into the temple, and generating such mist would be unworkable.” Mora explained why it would have been impossible to create the fog—that in order to generate it instantaneously, it would be necessary to create a barrier, and that two barriers could not exist simultaneously.
“Meow, you’re a stubborn woman. Even after hearin’ that, I still figure it could be done.”
“Chamo, can you think of anything? A way you could generate fog instantly?” asked Mora.
Hans was still restraining Chamo’s arms where she stood. The little Saint shook her head.
“You guys ain’t got it right. Just thinkin’ for a minute ain’t enough to figure it out. The seventh put this plan into motion ’cause they came up with somethin’ we totally wouldn’t expect.”
“Oh, I see. Well then, go ahead and think all you like. I will search for Adlet.” Mora was turning away from Hans when she found his knife stuck in the ground at her feet.
“You hold on. I know Adlet ain’t the seventh,” he said.
“Haven’t you been scolded enough?” Mora glared at him.
“If Adlet is the seventh, then why didn’t he kill me? Why was he protectin’ Fremy? Why didn’t he kill Chamo? Ya can’t explain that.”
As if to express her complete exasperation, Mora sighed. “You fail to grasp why? Allow me to explain in simple terms why Adlet did not kill you.”
“…”
“Why did he appear in our midst in the first place?” Mora posed. “If his goal was simply to shut us in, showing himself at this temple wouldn’t have been necessary. He could have secretly activated the barrier and then concentrated on evading us. But he deliberately created a fake crest for himself and blended among us. To what end?”
“Meow, well—”
“To sow confusion. He raises doubt to incite conflict. What if Adlet is a real Brave? What if the seventh is someone else? His trap is one that assaults our hearts. How can you fail to understand that?!” Hans was unable to reply. Chamo,
