February 1926

The Deep Blue Curse Rebellion has ended. In exchange for the great number of victims Bantorra Library was able to barely achieve victory. The enemy’s leader, Kachua Beeinhaus, had been defeated at the hands of Enlike. However, this did not mean the fight has ended.

For the Armed Librarians, the month after the rebellion might have been their most difficult time yet. They had to shelter the victims at the Past G.o.d Island, reconstruct the destroyed town, and rescue the countries’ sailors scattered around their waters. The second war known as lifesaving further exhausted them.

On top of that, their fight against the Indulging G.o.d Cult still continued. There was no guarantee the Cult had truly used all of their p.a.w.ns.

They didn’t know if the former Armed Librarian Kachua, who was written about in Noloty’s Book, truly was the head of the Indulging G.o.d Cult. Even he might have possibly been a mere puppet with the real mastermind lying somewhere behind.

In the first place the scariest thing about the Cult was that it kept living even after being destroyed. The Armed Librarians have defeated the Indulging G.o.d Cult five times through history. However, they came back each time.

The Armed Librarians continued fighting with the Indulging G.o.d Cult even while concentrating their efforts of reconstruction.

Even though they defeated Kachua, there was not a single person convinced that the Indulging G.o.d Cult was destroyed.

Two months pa.s.sed since the Deep Blue Curse Rebellion. An incident that remained in history occurred then.

The trainees stationed at the Toatt Mines burned the engine of their airplane as they rushed back to Bantorra Library.

“A Book has emerged! A Book, a Book has emerged!”

Only few people could immediately understand what they were talking about after being told just this. That was because they believed that the Books of the followers of the Indulging G.o.d Cult were impossible to find.

“Calm down. What’s happened?”

Mirepoc gave some water to the upset trainee. He then shouted while coughing.

“We’ve excavated the Book of a follower of the Cult!”

Being told that, Mirepoc finally realized the importance of this event.

The Book found was that of the follower known as Uspa who was killed at Toatt Mining Town. He was following Arkit, but was confirmed to have been defeated by Noloty. His corpse was also found afterwards.

In addition to Hamyuts, almost all of the Armed Librarians a.s.sembled at Bantorra Library and confirmed the Book.

“Why so suddenly?”

They felt half confused and half happy. They still haven’t found out the Indulging G.o.d Cult’s method of sealing Books.

Thanks to Mirepoc, they established that the man known as Charl Strite was related to the sealing of the Books. However, it still kept going even after his defeat.

They couldn’t understand why they suddenly found a Book. They were all uniformly puzzled.

“Oh well. We might not know the reason, but we really were able to excavate it. It’s a cause for celebration.”

Hamyuts told the Armed Librarians.

“We’ve made the function that seals Books stop with our fight. I can’t think of anything else.”

Mattalast added.

Another matter that confused the Armed Librarian was one of Uspa’s memories. He was shown a small Book fragment by Kachua.

Uspa was told that it was the Book of a man who saw Heaven.

Until then they only thought of the Indulging G.o.d Cult’s Heaven as a delusion. But it actually existed.

There certainly was happiness above human understanding in the place called Heaven. Everyone would like to go to such a place were they shown it. It was now clear why people have joined the Indulging G.o.d Cult.

Researching the ident.i.ty of Heaven became of the top priority. They excavated the Books of followers one after another. They were also able to find doc.u.ments in followers’ hideouts. By combining those, they searched for the truth. However, they were hindered by the Indulging G.o.d Cult’s secretiveness and the investigation barely progressed.

Above all, the truth about Heaven and the ident.i.ty of Lascall Oth.e.l.lo were regarded as the Cult’s biggest secrets.

“We can probably only read the truth from Kachua Beeinhaus’s Book.”

All the Armed Librarians said. However, mysteriously only Kachua’s Book was nowhere to be found.

The facts became apparent from a surprising source. The answer was inside Bantorra Library’s Sealed Archive.

“Look at this Book.”

Saying this, Yukizona held a Book fragment. He said that he found it by chance at a corner of the Third Sealed Archive. According to the records, it had not been viewed for the last 500 years. Since there were no previous records, it might have been a Book that was never read before it was sealed.

“What is this?”

Mirepoc inquired.

“The truth about Heaven is written inside.”

The Armed Librarians scrambled to touch the Book.

It was the Book of a Magician from 1800 years ago.

Since about half of it was lost, they couldn’t read all of it. However, details about his Magic were written inside.

Should they call him the Dream User? He could control people’s dreams and make them mistake dreams for reality. He served a certain n.o.ble in ancient times. He did things like show nightmares to his opponents to break their spirits or show happy dreams to those who were close to him.

“So Yukizona-san… does that mean Heaven is a dream created by this Magician?”

Mirepoc asked and Yukizona nodded.

“…At present, humans have travelled almost all over the world created by the Creator. They haven’t been able to find that place known as Heaven anywhere.

Then inevitably it means that it is in some place other than the world.

For example, in a dream.”

“…”

The Armed Librarians were not yet convinced. Wouldn’t this long sought-after goal of the Indulging G.o.d Cult being a mere dream make a far too trivial of an ending?

Yukizona spoke to Mirepoc and the rest who thought this.

“The following is my hypothesis. Saying it’s their imagination probably isn’t a too far off. Let me explain the history of the Indulging G.o.d Cult as I see it-”

The history of the Indulging G.o.d Cult that Yukizona told them went something like this.

One time, someone read the Book of the Magician who dreamt of Heaven. The people who’ve read the Book didn’t know it was part of a dream and came to believe that it had actually existed.

1800 years ago, people only lived in a small territory at the western continent. “There is some unseen place with unlimited happiness” - such a faith was born.

Then, the people who wished to go to Heaven secretly increased.

That was the start of the Indulging G.o.d Cult.

People talked among themselves. What was Heaven? After a long discussion, they came to think of it as a place where people’s happiness was gathered in.

That delusion soon became a rumor, the rumor became a legend, and eventually became an undoubted truth. And so the doctrine of the Indulging G.o.d Cult was completed.

However, in reality no place such as Heaven exists. In order to conceal this, the fictional being Lascall Oth.e.l.lo was created, and Heaven was set up to be an inviolable place.

It was all a fabrication. Humans that couldn’t distinguish between reality and delusion, and the numerous doctrines that were painting lies with lies.  This was the true state of the Indulging G.o.d Cult.

Now they understood why they couldn’t destroy the Indulging G.o.d Cult. Even if they destroyed it, the legend still kept being pa.s.sed on secretly somewhere. And people who were unable to distinguish reality and fiction have existed everywhere at any age.

“Like Kachua Beeinhaus for example?”

“Exactly.”

Yukizona said and concluded the story.

While it sounded ridiculous, it wasn’t that much of a stretch. Delusion begot delusions and brought forth that terrible war. People have died for that delusion.

“But it’s just a hypothesis. It sounds convincing, but we can’t know yet.”

Hamyuts said. Yukizona nodded.

“We still don’t know the reason why we couldn’t excavate the followers’ Books. We’ll continue the investigation.”

She declared to the Armed Librarians. The investigation about the truth of Heaven continued.

However, even after that they couldn’t find the Book of Kachua, and were unable to grasp the truth about Heaven and Lascall Oth.e.l.lo. Even if they killed all the remaining followers, none of them knew the truth.

Yukizona’s hypothesis gradually came to be treated as fact. Ultimately, his hypothesis was recognized as a conclusion.

Six months after Uspa’s Book had been dug out…

Using her Thought Sharing, Mirepoc contacted leaders from all around the world as well as the Present Management Agency to proclaim the destruction of the Indulging G.o.d Cult as well announce the truth about them.

With this, the battle against the Indulging G.o.d Cult has officially ended.

Afterwards there were discussions with the world leaders, and dealing with everything was left to the Armed Librarians. They decided to forgo telling about the Indulging G.o.d Cult to the general populace after thinking of the huge influence that might create.

While n.o.body felt fully satisfied, the battle between the Armed Librarians and the Indulging G.o.d Cult came to a full stop. Their long fight has ended.

Present - December 18, 1926

“…mmm, delicious.”

Mirepoc got carried away and scooped out a large amount of punch. The more she drank she felt somewhat better. It truly was a mysterious drink.

Her thoughts about the fight against the Indulging G.o.d Cult a while before have sunk. She seemed to have forgotten about it the more she drank.

“Is that really fine?”

Mirepoc muttered.

“It’s fine.”

Answered Tena, listening from the side.

Mirepoc started thinking. Perhaps the essence of the Indulging G.o.d Cult was not the delusion known as Heaven.

The Cult brought forth the human heart of people who would do anything to become happy, people like Cigal. People’s foolishness to not be ashamed of their greed and pride.

These people a.s.sembled, supported the heart of the Indulging G.o.d Cult and reached that extent of fearsome violence.

The Indulging G.o.d Cult was ridiculous. And so was their victory against them.

However, the lives of the people who died along with them were by no means foolish. Noloty, Ireia, Luimon and the rest… their faces floated into Mirepoc’s mind and disappeared.

“Sorry, everyone.”

Muttering this, Mirepoc took another drink of punch.

“I will enjoy myself. After all, it finally became peaceful.”

At some point, silver b.a.l.l.s started falling from the sky. Mirepoc called a trainee and asked them to bring her another drink.

Meanwhile, Armed Librarians were gathering at one spot of the hall. Mattalast was playing the piano. His long fingers nimbly danced on the keys. Just as his performance ended he could hear a great applause.

“‘Sat.u.r.day Night at Fulbeck City’. Are you satisfied?”

Mattalast spread his arms and smiled at everyone.

“As expected of a slacker. Just how much practice did you have?”

Said Gamo while clapping his hands. He was a veteran the same age as Mattalast. His groomed mustache and cla.s.sic suit were unlike an Armed Librarian.

“What slacker? This much can be played just by looking at the score sheet.”

“Is that so? Amazing.”

Kyasariro said, and leapt on top of the piano.

“Kyasariro. The iron rule is to never believe Mattalast’s words.”

Gamo laughed.

Mattalast shrugged as if saying ‘good grief’. It seemed like the label of a slacker had completely stuck to him. Since he barely showed himself in the Library it was perhaps natural for the other Armed Librarians to think so, though.

Mattalast had devoted himself to working behind the scenes this last year. He single-handedly took over a secret mission that he couldn’t tell any of the normal Armed Librarians about.

His mission was to protect the secret of the Indulging G.o.d Cult and also to let it continue existing.

Even for him this was no ordinary mission. He had to deceive all of the Armed Librarians after all.

He went through a long, painful year as well. Its result was this peaceful party.