Not every teacher of Temple was actually strong—some would only teach and guide the students in their classes.
However, the leaders of Temple were also made up of those faculty members, so they shouldn't be ignored. Although Temple was an institution affiliated with the Empire, it still held enormous amounts of power. Of course, they couldn't exercise this power outside of Temple-related matters, but if it had something to do with Temple, then their authority was incredibly strong.
If it concerned the safety of Temple's students, of course, it would be a matter of concern for Temple.
Protecting the safety of their students was one of Temple's highest priorities.
Adriana looked at me with a puzzled expression after listening to my explanation.
"I-I'm not sure if this'll work…"
In the end, it wasn't any different than us just running up to them and saying, "Teacher, there's a big problem!"
It wasn't just that…
"This would also attract the attention of the student council."
Another influential power—Temple's student council.
Ceres van Owen, the student council president of Royal Class, was part of the religious club "Grace". She could talk to the student council president of the whole student body—which encompassed 100,000+ students—at any time.
They were the president of Temple's student council, where the sons and daughters of prominent families gathered. I didn't know who they were, but it was clear that they wouldn't get ignored if they decided to push for something in the name of Temple's student council president.
If the faculty and the student council made a move, even the Knights Templar wouldn't be able to ignore it. The combination of both of those powers could be seen as the Empire itself making a move.
When people gathered, power would arise; if extraordinary people gathered, extraordinary power would arise.
Additionally, the justification that they were worried about a student's safety was absolutely perfect.
"Okay, junior, I understand what you're talking about."
A first-year and a second-year in a dingy alleyway were conspiring to move the entirety of Temple.
"But… Will it be okay?"
"What?"
"This is very dangerous. If something goes wrong, junior and I might get sent to the inquisition or taken in directly by a heresy inquisitor for insulting the Church."
In any case, if we were to take that route, we would have to go to the teachers as well as the Royal Class' student council president and tell them the whole truth about the incident.
We didn't have any proof for our story yet. If we played our hand badly, or if Temple ended up colliding with the Knights Templar and they were able to identify the two of us, we would become their target.
Of course, the whole thing was rather risky.
"Let's act a bit more discreetly."
I was of the same opinion.
"Let's start things off with an anonymous letter."
"Anonymous?"
"Yeah, we'll just write them a letter telling them what happened."
"…Would they trust an anonymous letter?"
"Of course they would."
An anonymous letter saying that the Commander of the Knights Templar was torturing his own daughter—who the hell would believe such slander without any hard evidence?
However, the people that receive the letter would believe it.
"They can't help but believe it because we'll be the ones to deliver it to the club."
Adriana and I would send this anonymous letter by delivering it ourselves, acting as if we found it. We would probably say something like: "I don't know what this is about, but we should check things out first.".
We would create some suspicion within the club and make them cry out for action. The club's opinions would then get delivered to the student council and the faculty members.
Doing it that way, the source of all those rumors would remain unknown, but it would still lead to decisive movement.
Our plan of action had been decided. We had to move quickly. We didn't know when they would start to torture Olivia or how long she would be able to hold out without breaking or dying.
We had no actual proof. After all, I had only overheard the Commander's and Olivia's conversation.
"Well then, let's go back…"
Adriana and I were about to enter the station when we had to stop in our tracks again. We stared at each other numbly once again.
"Money…"
"…Right."
When I begged someone for money, they only gave me enough for two tickets; I didn't even think about getting enough money to buy a ticket back.
"…We think so hard about these important matters but end up making stupid mistakes like this."
"…Yeah."
Up to that point, we were thinking hard as if we were planning the coup of the century, but we didn't even have enough money to go back to Temple.
Adriana looked at me expectantly.
"J-junior… Erm…"
I pretty much knew what those expecting eyes meant.
These eyes made me regret having done what I did earlier.
"Nope."
"H-huh."
"You do it this time, senior."
"J-junior…"
Adrianna looked at me with tearful eyes, but I just crossed my arms and smiled at her. Were you trying to sit back and not move a finger?
"No. You go and do it."
"Uuurg… O-okay…"
In the end, Adriana started begging for the money to buy two train tickets in front of the Knights Templar's headquarters.
Adriana succeeded immediately, perhaps because this elegant and cool-looking girl looked like she really was about to cry.
-Thank you! Thank you! May the Five Gods be with you!
-W-well… It's fine. You don't have to do this…
-Thank you!
Adriana thanked the passerby for giving her the money so much that he seemed to feel sorry for her. It looked ridiculously cute from a distance.
Adriana's face turned bright red as she probably had never thought that she might end up having to beg for some money in her life. She seemed to be deathly embarrassed. I just laughed with my arms folded.
"You succeeded on your first try! Aren't you talented?"
"D-don't…"
Adriana stared at me and trembled. Oh, she was cute in a different way than Harriet.
And did she forget that I was a crazy bastard that would do even more if I was told to stop?
"I feel like your true calling isn't with the Knights Templar. Although your major is…"
"Shut up!"
-Bam!
"Urk!"
Adriana hit me seriously that time, and not on my back, but on my head.
I wondered if I would end up fainting from that hit.
"Are you trying to fucking kill your junior just because he joked around a bit?!"
"Shut up! Just shut up and follow me!"
Adriana grabbed my arm and started to drag me behind her.
It was also kind of interesting making Adriana, who only spoke elegantly and politely, talk roughly.
After begging two more times, we managed to return to Temple. I couldn't help but feel insanely grateful to have money in my pocket.
The sun was already pretty high up in the sky, as dawn had already passed.
Our mission was simple.
We had to bring the letter I wrote to the clubroom. Club meetings were held every Thursday, but the club members often gathered in the room on other days as well. I was told that bored members sometimes gathered in the club room to pray, study, or chat.
If we just left it in the club room, someone would end up finding it and checking its content. Since its contents were so unusual, they would pass the information to the vice-president, Crese van Owen.
After that, they would hold a club meeting, so Adriana and I had to play along.
This was necessary to prevent it from revealing that the two of us were the sources of the information.
I immediately wrote up an anonymous letter and handed it to Adriana. Since I wasn't an official member yet, Adriana would draw less suspicion when she snuck the letter in.
"But can I really not take part in the meeting?"
I didn't know if Adriana would be able to manage without me, but I doubted that people would understand why I had to be present in an emergency meeting.
"You haven't signed up yet, but… I could say that I brought you along because this involved Olivia, junior. Can't I just use that? You actually talked to Senior, right?"
"Well… It's a good excuse."
"Yes."
Adriana nodded her head with a serious expression on her face.
It was just a letter, but depending on how we acted, Temple's student council—as well as Temple's leaders—might end up battling the Knights Templar. It was unclear how things might turn out, but Olivia Lanze's life was at stake.
Adriana knew fully well what we were trying to do, so she probably was nervous.
Would the student council and Temple's faculty actually move because of this?
Would it really be possible to pressure the Knights Templar enough to rescue Olivia Lanze if they actually moved?
Nothing was certain.
It was the best we could do at the moment.
It was my usual time for my training on weekends, but I just stayed in my room to organize my thoughts.
I didn't know Olivia Lanze well, but she left a strong first impression on me.
Putting the achievement points aside, someone like her—who tried her best to help people—shouldn't face such an end after only 22 short years.
Good people should live a long and happy life.
I wanted something as unrealistic as that to happen right in front of my eyes at least once in my life.
It was hard to predict how things would unfold, but I really wanted this to succeed.
I was trying to use the Revise Function to ensure that Olivia Lanze would manage to safely escape from the Knights Templar.
[Overly abstract Revisions will not be carried out.]
The order 'Olivia Lanze will escape safely from the Knights Templar' was too abstract—I had to come up with a more detailed plan.
There was a limit to my mental capability to organize things, so I wrote down the specific steps of the event I wanted to happen.
The Temple student council and faculty members will try to bring Olivia Lanze back to Temple, and the Commander of the Knights Templar will be forced to hand her over to them.
[You are trying to do too many things at once. To make events happen as stated, 10.000 achievement points are required.]
[Just start writing a novel, but… lol.]
"This little fuck."
It had been some time since I wanted to punch the people behind that notification window. They were intentionally trying to insult me.
Don't put 'lol' at the end!
I got even madder because I felt like I knew what it was trying to say.
Just write a novel. Oh right, you already did that, right? But your skills are just… lol.
That's what you meant, right?! You little fuck!
Anyway.
If there were too many parts—even if it was probable enough—it required a truckload of achievement points, as various scenarios had to be generated while removing any variables.
Then, how about this?
[Preview]
It was a function I had never used before. It was explained that it was only available in certain situations, but at that moment, it was shown as available.
Damn it, how could there be a cheat I couldn't use at all times? Still, I was glad that I was able to use it then.
Anyway, I decided to try working with it.
With it, I would be able to see how events would unfold in the future; if a problem arose, I would be able to correct it through my actions in the present so that it wouldn't happen in the future.
[The limitedly available 'Preview' function allows you to see the results of future events.]
[If you use a great amount of achievement points, you can grasp the overall flow of events. However, as you probably already know, you won't be able to do this.]
Previewing the entire version of the future is expensive, so don't even dream about it.
Why couldn't you just keep it to yourself? Why did you have to mention my achievement points? You weren't going to let me do anything, right? In the end, even if I had 200,000 points, I wouldn't be able to do it because I would need 200,500!
I realized that this fucking bastard would tell me that I was short on achievement points every time I tried to do something slightly more convenient for myself with achievement points! They did that intentionally!
Like: I see what you're going to do with that Revision, so don't even dream about it.
[How surprising—you figured it out.]
What? Something flickered in front of my eyes, but it was gone so fast I couldn't read what it said. What did they write? They insulted me again, didn't they?
Now that my level of anger had exceeded a certain point, I was about to give up.
[Anyway, Preview will show you major future events of the scenario you wish to see. Usually, there are multiple major events, so they will be subdivided. Of course, every event holds its own hints.]
That meant it wouldn't do something as stupid as show me the events happening in some neighborhood bar somewhere in the southern parts of the continent.
I would be able to see the future of something of my choosing.
But wait, what kind of events would they be? If I preview them, wouldn't my way of thinking change? That would mean that the future would change accordingly, right?
[Considering this case, it will be assumed that you had not used the Preview Function. Thus, your behavior leading to these outcomes won't be affected by any future knowledge your current self may have.]
Damn it.
The rules of this Preview function seemed unnecessarily twisted.
I had to be really aware of how I'd usually act in these situations without knowing the future. That way, I could take other actions during those major events.
Of course, Preview might also just show me the result of everything. Well, I was only using it right then because I really didn't know how things would turn out.
Please, I hope everything goes well.
Let's use Preview.
[Do you want to use the 'Preview' function?]
[Since this is the first time you are using this function, a discount will be given.]
[The prices may be subject to change the next time you use this function.]
[1000 Points][500 Points][200 Points][100 Points]
As if I was supposed to choose between products, four prices appeared before me.
It was my first time using that function, so these were supposed to be discount prices.
Goddamnit, there were multiple options. The more I paid, the more definite the hint I would get would be. Since I could use it several times, I chose the 100-point option.
[You have spent 100 achievement points.]
One of the key events involving Olivia Lanze began to unfold in my head.
I saw a completely different scenery around me as if I was dreaming.
The 100-point option showed me a stationary picture, not a video.
It was nighttime.
I could see the date.
June 28th, the 323rd year of the Imperial Calendar. Around 10pm.
The current date was Saturday, May 23rd.
This scene was from about a month later.
Even though I wasn't absolutely sure what happened, I could guess.
Olivia Lanze was sitting on the cold stone floor in rags—they were tattered and covered in blood.
There was saliva dripping down the corner of her slightly opened mouth. Her eyes were unfocused.
Whatever happened to her, one could see something that seemed a little too artificial to be scars on her bare skin visible through the tears in those rags. It was a stationary image, so I couldn't properly see what they were, but I could guess that they were traces from certain magic circles.
The strange thing was that, even though her clothes were covered in copious amounts of dried-up blood, I couldn't find a single wound or scab on her body. All I could see were those things that seemed like magic circles.
However, there were fragments of things all around her.
A closer look revealed that they were blood-stained toenails. It was clear that she was tortured by getting her finger- and toenails pulled out.
However, her toenails were still attached.
I roughly understood what had happened.
"Motherfuckers…"
It was the Knights Templar.
They tortured her, restored her to her original state using recovery spells, and then tortured her some more. It was an infinite loop. Witnessing with my own two eyes what insane things could be done with divine powers, I felt goosebumps rise up all over my body.
You couldn't stay sane if something like that was done to you.
Olivia Lanze was completely broken.
After she was imprisoned in something similar to a dungeon and tortured, Olivia Lanze was thoroughly destroyed.
If we continued as we had been, we would definitely fail.