I couldn't tell if Beatrice just didn't want to say it or just couldn't explain right, but she clearly couldn't find the words, so I spoke up.
"It's a magician hunt."
"Magician?"
"Yeah. Well, at least that's how it was the previous times."
We used the word "anomaly" to describe strange events. Supernatural phenomena, basically.
The fact that something like that was happening could only mean there was something abnormal involved.
"Though, we weren't killing actual, real life magicians. From what I hear, they pretty much went extinct over the last century. As far as I know, the only ones still alive are Malleus and Mercurius... Can't really put them on the same level, but yeah."
"And then there's the United Kingdom's Crowley. Those three are about the only real magicians still alive."
Despite falling silent a moment ago, Beatrice joined the conversation again. Bitch just didn't seem to like letting me say what I wanted.
"It began with the industrial revolution. As industries developed and grew, the arcane of old faded proportionally."
"I see. I think I understand. With there being less believed, you have less of those who dabble in it, correct?"
"Well, a world where planes soar through the skies leaves little room for dreams, after all. From what I can tell magicians are running against the times."
"Of course they are. You're talking about old farts who think anything older is better."
They're the kind of people who rejected phones and telegrams and chose to waste time and energy sending messages themselves, all while acting like hot shit because of it. They'd also fuck around with nature's elementals or whatever instead of using a fucking match.
On average, that's how most magicians and those influenced by them were. Malleus wasn't too big when it came to this, but she also wasn't different enough to be an exception.
"Not like that mentality is that rare. You have plenty of modern people who are about as good with machines as the clueless grandpas. They just don't give enough of a shit to learn. 'The good old days' and all that crap. Most of that's bullshit, by the way."
The word "traditionalism" came to mind, but I didn't know if that fit. Basically, these people believed the past was always better than the present.
Sure, that was probably right in some cases, and I didn't reject the notion of lost technology, but the magicians' worship of the past was fucking insane.
"In their mind, the people of old used some strange powers to wage wars that'd make modern people pale. Dumbass bullshit. They were fucking cavemen throwing rocks at each other, nothing more. If those powers really existed, then why the fuck aren't pyramids flying fortresses?"
The fact they didn't survive into the modern day meant that, at best, the powers had existed, but were defeated and vanished. And it was stupid to believe that some shitheads who'd lost were superior.
"That's why I think that—"
"Bey, you keep going off on a tangent. That's not at all what Claudia wants to hear. Anyway, modern magicians are few and far between. I hear the strongest of them have the means of prolonging their lives, but even then, there are limits. Malleus recently told me that people who can live beyond their first century are extremely rare."
"A century? But that isn't much different from a normal person's lifespan."
"I hear she's been around for about two centuries, though."
"Really?"
"Yes, that's what we've been told. Still, she may have just been talking herself up, so don't dwell on it. What I want to say is that both the anomalies from before and the one in Katyn are not caused by magician themselves. They're but the remains. Much like the flying pyramids Bey mentioned."
"Excuse me?"
Claudia tilted her head in confusion, and no one could blame her. What I'd said and what Beatrice added didn't click at all.
"But Wilhelm just claimed that flying pyramids do not exist."
"I tried to explain, but this bitch just had to open her mouth. Fuckin' bimbo can't shut her trap for a second."
"I merely wished to prevent your warped outlook from being imprinted in her mind."
"The fuck'd you just say?"
"What? Was I not clear enough?"
"Oh, please stop it already, you two. Of course I would find it hard to understand if you fight while explaining. So I'll ask you to do it, Wilhelm. Please tell me all you wanted to."
"Man, being told that makes it seem like such a bother."
"Bey..."
"Again, 'please.'"
I was being urged by two women. I had no intention of giving in, but resisting seemed like an even bigger pain in the ass.
"All right, all right. I'll explain. Magicians are usually just some old farts romanticizing the good old days, but what makes them a real pain is that their ideas conflict with reality."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that their precious magic is actually improving day by day. Modern magicians are way stronger than those from a thousand years ago. Back to pyramids again. Those things don't fly — everyone knows that. But the fuckers just refuse to believe that. They think that they did fly. That of course they flew. After all, modern airplanes fly, and there's just no way that modern things can be better than ancient things, right? Cause of that, they think, 'Then I will make it fly.' See what I'm getting at? As civilization advances, so does the standard for the arcane."
In the ancient past, even a magician who could light a simple fire was a cut above the rest. And knowing how to cure diseases could probably make you a God of some shitty settlement.
These days, though, no one gives a rat's piss about that. Thus, the past-worshiping old fucks are constantly trying to surpass the reality before them.
"The sublimed and refined past, full of supreme arcane, just cannot lose to this machine-based civilization. I am a proud inheritor of their will — a magician with a duty to show the greatness of old to the world. That's probably more or less what they think. Fucking braindead morons, right there."
"And that is why it's constantly improving?"
"Yeah."
From what I can tell, magicians went extinct because they became unable to compete with civilization's progress. Back then, you probably had magicians of all skill levels all over the place, but when the times changed, only the best of the best remained.
"Obviously, just like with science, the new stuff is stronger. The hurdle they gotta leap is bigger, after all."
Mercurius was the prime example of that. Though, I didn't know whether his whole thing counted as "magic," since it could even involve fusion with machines.
Still, though this was an age where tanks cracked the earth, airplanes soared the skies, and bombs could reduce hundreds to dust, the manifestation of his arcane surpassed even that.
Listen, I'm the last man who'd wanna praise him, but I wasn't stupid enough to deny that he was the real deal. If he wasn't, we wouldn't be like this.
"Well, I more or less share his viewpoint, but this is merely the way we see it. Magic isn't our field,so we don't know how it really is. Even so, going by this logic, the anomaly at Katyn is surely the work of a relatively new magician."
"Because it's something that's odd even in this day and age?"
"Exactly. You know how I said the last century was a turbulent time for magicians? This was probably left by someone from that period. We still don't know how it functions, but we believe it was activated by the mass execution. And so, it's now our job to eliminate it."
"And that's how it is. Satisfied?"
Claudia momentarily fell silent before nodding.
"Yes. I understand the relevant history and share your sentiment. Though it is important to respect the past, revering it so much that you ignore history is contradictory. It's not right to disregard all that humanity has built and assume that we are already past the zenith."
"Yes, I feel much the same. And from what I've heard, many magicians had apprentices, which makes it all even more absurd. They were basically building toward the future. What they were doing was clearly evolution with tomorrow in mind, but all they were thinking of was the past — 'the supreme glory of the ancient times,' and all that. I don't even know what to make of them. Honestly, I'm inclined to call them insane."
"Pff, ahahah!"
Claudia's sudden burst of laughter surprised both me and Beatrice. I looked at her face and saw her wiping the edges of her eyes.
"You two truly despise magicians. Despite fighting all the time, you badmouth them in a very similar fashion."
"Nh..."
"You two actually get along quite well, don't you?"
"Like hell!"
"Certainly not!"
It was less about magicians and more about just Mercurius for me. I couldn't stomach the man, and everyone besides Lord Heydrich felt the same way.
This matter was on a different level than "getting along." Beatrice and I said everything we could to fix Claudia's demeaning evaluation, but she just smiled and nodded all the way through.
At that moment, the train suddenly stopped.
"Ah, we're here. Now, onward to the next mission!"
I could only hope that we'd meet up with Babylon as soon as possible.
I knew it was my own fault for dragging her along, but taking care of the "substitute leader" was about to make me snap.
After getting off the train, we traveled to Katyn by car, constantly switching vehicles along the way.
Even with Babylon's prep work, the fastest route was unusable, so it took us pretty damn long to get there. About two days or so, I think.
Oh yeah, we went without stopping ever once. Sure, we took turns driving, but we weren't in a situation where we could chill in a hotel camp, or sleep in the car.
I wanted to get there ASAP, while Beatrice said something about not wanting to let me see a woman while she's sleeping. I thought that the knightly thing to do in that case would be to let the women get a good night's rest, but fuck, what do I know about that?
Anyway, Claudia didn't complain at all, so we went all the way without a proper rest. Though she looked like a walking corpse during daytime, she was all smiles, as usual.
The woman was a dim idiot who really loved the sun despite the fact that it burned her.
Claudia saw herself as "half person," 'desperately lacking,' so she probably just really wanted to feel the world she didn't have.
Or maybe she just wanted to feel like she was walking toward what she believed to be her bliss.
Even if her means and their results made her look like a dumbass, I decided to stop ridiculing her beliefs. Though, that sentiment came further down the line.
Anyway, after two or so days of travel, we met up with Babylon. Our meeting point was at the side of a nameless lake not too far from the town of Smolensk.
It was shortly after dusk.
"I would say 'welcome,' but that might not be apt. Nevertheless, I've been waiting for you. Was the journey troublesome?"
"You fucking bet it was. I'm doubting your ability as a leader already, I swear. Like, come the fuck on. At least pick a proper substitute. Fucking hell."
"This again? You are much more bothersome than you look."
"Truly. I worked really hard, you know?"
"Oh yeah, you sure as shit did. When we didn't fucking need it! No one told you to try and seduce that one sentry, yet our venerable leader here insisted and made a fucking mess of things."
"B-But I wanted to be like Mata Hari."
"Shut up. I don't give a rat's ass about whatever hag that is."
"Ohh... I know that I ended up failing, but..."
"Ended up? What? The fact you ever thought you could succeed makes me cringe. What kinda man would ever give a shit about those tits and that ass!? There ain't nothing there, you fucking idiot!"
"H-How mean! Even I can be hurt by this, you know?"
"Truly. You went a bit too far just now."
"I don't really understand what's happening here, but basically, Bey is jealous, right?"
"Fucking what? Are you nuts?!"
I snapped at them, but quickly concluded that my logic was too weak a force against three women. Claudia had pulled tons of other shits, but I figured that dawn would break before I was done naming it all, so I decided to change the subject.
"Anyway, the hell's going on here?"
"Wow, look at that. The one who complained is running away."
"Huh? The fuck'd you just say?"
"All right, you two. Don't cause a ruskus now. That is an order."
"How long are you gonna act like you're the leader here, you dumb bitch?!"
"Hehehe. Well, I'm glad you three had an exciting journey."
Well, I'll just leave all that pointless bullshit aside. Let's get to the meat of the matter.
Babylon's smirk faded as she coughed and began acting like the leader she was supposed to be.
"Enough of the chatter. Let's see to the task at hand. First, a brief review of the situation. Until a year ago, this area was occupied by the German army, but unfortunately, it was retaken, so it would be best if we didn't make too much noise. You might think of reclaiming it, but that is not why we're here. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. I don't give a fuck who it belongs to."
"I would consider retaking the lands stolen from us, but I'm not too fond of invasion."
"I feel the same way. Still, there's no denying that we invaded it, and the resistance against that once created a time period when the ownership of the area was vague."
"Is that when the massacre took place?"
"That's what the Soviets claim. Because of that, it's unknown who was truly responsible. I do hope that they uncover the truth someday, but just as His Excellency the Vice-Commander said, that isn't the issue at hand. The Red Cross has already left, and all we have is a mysterious mountain of corpses. Those they've located so far amount to approximately 5,000."
"5,000... And that's just the tip of the iceberg?"
"They say that four or five times more could be buried deeper. You see this as wasteful, don't you, Bey?"
"Yeah. It's a waste of useful lives."
Polish people killed by the Soviet shitheads didn't even go to Lord Heydrich's castle. No matter how you looked at it, they had all died in vain. A shame, really.
"So what's the anomaly, then? Do we have some generic ghosts floating around?"
"Close, but not quite. It's more simple and... Raw. The corpses are walking around the forest."
"Ohh...?
Babylon's straight-forwardness emphasized the reality of the situation. I could easily form an image what'd gone down from her spiel.
A forbidden forest that was the location of a mysterious massacre... A horde of undead that haunted it every night... Needlessly to say, it was a pretty enticing situation for me.
"This is likely a foolish question, considering that the Vice-Commander said it herself, but is that really true?"
"At the very least, there have been victims, so there's no mistaking that there's something dangerous here."
"What if it was done by animals? Like bears and wolves."
It could've also been survivors who were doing so bad you could mistake them for corpses, but Babylon rejected all such rational assumptions.
"Their deaths are abnormal. No man or beast could've done it. They were all dried up. Like mummies."
"Mummies...?"
Beatrice looked at me. No one could fault her for that reaction, but it still really pissed me off.
"Yeah, sorry, but no, I don't have any 'friends' around these parts. Fuck, if we're dealing with a magician, then that ain't all that too special."
"True. Magicians need sources of energy unlike your common electricity or oil in order to weave their sorcery. In a word, they need 'life force,' the concept as it's found in old natural philosophy. It's the 'mana' living in water, earth, fire, and air, among other things. It wouldn't be wrong to call it the blood of the planet. Because of this, it's not rare for them to use the blood or souls of living creatures. Though, from what I've heard, humans make for very hard-to-use fuel."
"You mean they just can't use them even if they want to, right?"
This wasn't my specialty, so I didn't know the details, but apparently using people to fuel magic wasn't a good idea.
Not because it was weak, but because controlling it was hard and risky as hell.
Basically, humans are just too lowly and depraved. Their greed alone is enough to drive them to destroy nature, so though they make for fuel that outclasses all that nature can provide, trying to use it is just fucking suicidal.
You know all that shit about pollution and environmental damage, right? It kinda proves we're above nature, doesn't it? To make use of such power, you need to emulate that "feature," which is tantamount to destroying yourself.