Or it could have been simply the effect of her youth and inexperience. She is only 22

  years old. She might be not able to handle her emotions by chance. Especially if it is the first time she feels a sense of failure.

  Evelyn stood up with the boarding announcement. This country had become a place of difficult memories for her. But even with the prospect of being in her country again, she couldn't disperse the cloud hanging over her heart.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  "Ms. Simons, may I come in?"

  There wasn't a knock at the door, instead a voice called from outside, to which Laura granted, saying, "Come in."

  A click, the sound of a key turning in the lock.

  193

  "Excuse me."

  Opening the door with the key was the owner of the mansion himself, Izayoi Shirabe.

  "How are you faring?"

  "Terrible, thank you."

  Laura replies, making sure to willfully convey her emotions as well as the meaning of her words.

  "Oops."

  Shirabe's right index finger draws nine strokes in the air.

  Laura's hexes fired at him vanish with the ancient magic [Hayakuji].

  "Hmph."

  Laura only gave a small snort at this outcome. She wasn't expecting a simple trick, without any ritual or catalyst, to work from the very beginning.

  "Quite a welcome. I hope to show you my hospitality to the best of my ability."

  "You are. The tea and sweets are quite delectable."

  Saying this, Laura left the cup of black tea back on the table and replaced it with a brandy bonbon, pinching it and tossing it into her mouth.

  "But it's hardly enough to compensate for the discomfort of the lack of freedom."

  Laura didn't have a key to the room herself. She was under house arrest.

  "You should have some understanding of your situation before thinking of inconveniences. You entered the country illegally and caused a scene with magic."

  "What's the point in locking me inside?"

  "It's not safe to let you roam around at your discretion."

  Laura raised her teacup to her lips with a "I'm sick of this". The same exchange has gone over and over again in these past three days.

  "I'd prefer if you could sit quietly here for a while until things cool down."

  "And when do you think that, 'things will cool down'?"

  Shirabe only gave a blank smile as usual to that question.

  As usual, Shirabe only smiled vaguely at that question.

  194

  Shirabe left the room.

  Laura stood up, walked over to the door, and kicked it as hard as she dared with her indoor shoes.

  The door didn't budge even a little. The kick didn't even make a sound.

  This door is reinforced by the Izayoi Family's magic. And for that Shirabe chose not to knock on it, as a side-effect of the magic, even if he did, it wouldn't make a sound.

  ─On the day of the failed attempt at stealing Artificial Relic and her escape from the FLT, Laura ventured to go her separate ways with Lü Dongbin. Intuition was the reason. She had a clear vision in her mind that the "Grim Reaper" would catch up with her if she accompanied Lü Dongbin.

  Vision that came without the use of tools or salves. Laura doubted its trustworthiness.

  But she chose to believe in her own "witch" powers.

  Yet, as soon as they parted, she was at a loss. The entire strategy depended on Lü Dongbin, from the entry to the escape.

  She had decided on "north" as the course of her escape based on divination, a skill she is very proud of. Her divination skills are well known. West of Machida is Yotsuba's main house. East is Yotsuba's Tokyo headquarters in Chofu. South is Makouin and the Kuroba base that protects it. She was driven away to the Sayama Hills by a hitchhiker who she took mental control of.

  To avoid being traced, she changed cars after a certain amount of driving, keeping a distance that would not be unnatural. She would find a new driver at shopping centers or restaurants. On the fourth switch, she was caught by the driver she chose, and failed to mentally control Izayoi Shirabe.

  Laura struggles to understand why she believed his words of "I'll hide you" at the time.

  Her mind may have faltered after the unexpected hard struggle, and the unexpected failure. Or perhaps she had lost her nerve.

  She then was brought to this mansion and put under house arrest on the same day.

  She was not treated badly. As the man, Shirabe, claimed, she was provided with good food, drink, a bath, and a comfortable bed. Unfortunately, the bathroom gets locked from the outside when she bathes, but if she pays no mind to the fact, she can enjoy a pleasant bath time at leisure.

  195

  Even when asking questions, she would be provided with the answers. For instance, yesterday she was brought the news of Lü Dongbin's murder at the hands of the Yotsuba Family. They also didn't lie as to the fact that, in addition to the Yotsuba Family, the Saegusa Family was also looking for Laura.

  Perhaps it would be wise to accept the advice and hide here for a while.

  However, Laura could not bring herself to stay put.

  Izayoi Shirabe could not be trusted.

  This was another intuition, and another conviction.

  ─And that man, who she did not trust, was in control of her.

  This thought irritated her to no end.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  August 15th, evening in the heart of Tokyo, Mayumi dressed up for a visit to a three-star restaurant in a high-rise hotel. Not a self-proclaimed "three-star", one with much endorsement of a capricious rating agency.

  The garcon (waiter) led us to a table by the window.

  Against the backdrop of the shimmering night skyline, the stalwart of a handsome man stood up.

  Of superb physique, and greater, overwhelming, demeanor. Despite being at the young age of early twenties, he bears the dignity of a Great General, capable of commanding a thousand riders and ten thousand horsemen.

  This man, with an imposing aura that would keep a young woman from approaching him, is but an old friend of Mayumi's. She stepped up to him casually, without a single trace of fear.

  "Juumonji-kun, it's been a while.

  "Indeed, Saegusa, been a while."

  196

  197

  Mayumi waved in greeting, and, the head of the Ten Master Clans Juumonji Family, Juumonji Katsuto, nodded his head, a friendly smile on his stern face.

  Mayumi sat down on a chair drawn by Garçon, while Katsuto drew his own chair. After ordering an apéritif, Mayumi turned away from Garçon, now walking away, and faced Katsuto anew.

  "Thanks for having me over tonight. But what's the occasion to suddenly invite me to dinner?"

  Mayumi inclined her head down, eyes upward to Katsuto, giving him a devilish smile.

  "And to such a nice place at that. My sisters were having a fit when they heard about it.

  Even that tanuki of a father was a little skittish, would you believe?"

  Teasing tone and predatory eyes.Teasing tone and predatory eyes.

  But Katsuto was unfazed.

  "I believe that it has to be in a place if I am to invite a Saegusa."

  Katsuto replies in all seriousness.

  "R-Really?"

  Mayumi was the one taken aback.

  She bought herself a moment to recover by recurring to a slow sip of the apéritif that had just arrived.

  "So, may I ask what called for the invitation? Don't tell me that you're in line with what my sisters and that tanuki of a father are expecting. are you?"

  Katsuto's expression was one of puzzlement.

  "I am not sure I know what they might be expecting, but…"

  The puzzlement promptly vanished, however.

  "In fact, I have a matter my sister has asked me for advice on, and, if you don't mind, I wanted to have your opinion on the matter, Saegusa."

  "Your Sister?"

  Mayumi's "you caught me by surprise" was apparent on her face.

  "Don't you mean my sister? Kasumi-san? Or is it perhaps…?"

  198

  Mayumi recalled, knowing, as his friend, and the eldest daughter of the Saegusa Family and also part of the Ten Master Clans, that Katsuto has a complicated family situation.

  "It's Alisa."

  "So, Alisa-san…"

  This girl was at the center of the complicated family situation at the Juumonji household: she is the illegitimate daughter of the former head of the family, a half-Japanese-half-Russian girl who was brought to the family from Hokkaido four years ago.

  Needless to say, the girl, Arisa herself is not to blame for her own situation. Yet, from what Mayumi has heard, she chose to keep a distance from the Jumonji Family out of concern for what her presence might mean to the family.

  When Mayumi heard about this, she formed an image of a gloomy girl, always fearful to speak up and never able to say anything to her family. She would never expect such a girl to go to Katsuto, who is by no means an approachable person, for advice. If she did, then it must be a very serious problem.

  Mayumi gasped at the thought. ─Though this was but a misguided assumption of hers.

  "Saegusa, you are currently working for Shiba's Magian Company, correct?"

  "Ye-Yes, that's right."

  She choked briefly on her affirmative. The question seemed a bit unexpected as to the topic. Mayumi couldn't connect how her employment might be remotely connected to a grievance of Katsuto's half-sister.

  It was hardly a surprise Katsuto knew where and to whom she was working.

  The eldest daughter of the Saegusa Family, had become an employee of an organization owned by the next head of the Yotsuba Family. This was an easy headline to spread like fire throughout the entire Japanese Magic Society.

  "Then you must know this man, Tookami Ryousuke, he works in the same company you do. He was hospitalized the other day with serious injuries after a fight with a foreign magician who tried to steal from FLT. ─Am I correct?"

  "Yes, indeed. You seem to know a lot about it."

  "My father happens to be a patient at the same hospital."

  "Oh, I see."

  Mayumi nodded in understanding.

  199

  Ryousuke was admitted not at a hospital particularly belonging to the Yotsuba Family, on the contrary, it was a hospital attached to the police department, which is famous for receiving many magician patients. The police officers who had rushed to the scene had arranged for Ryousuke, who had been the victim of an assault, to be taken there.

  "And I say this not just as a magician with the same roots, but also because of our connection to the Tookami Family. When my father heard the whispers that a patient named Tookami, who had fought bravely against foreign magicians, was hospitalized, he pressed the hospital to give him the details. I'm personally sorry for the annoyance caused to the hospital, but I suppose my father couldn't help doing so."

  One fact that Mayumi has yet to know is that Katsuto's half-sister Alisa was taken in by Katsuto from the Tookami Family in Hokkaido four years ago.

  "May I ask what particular relationship there is between the Juumonji Family and the Tookami Family?"

  So, unaware of the underlying details, Mayumi asked without thinking.

  "A close friend of Arisa; her best friend, I believe, is Tookami Ryousuke's sister."

  Not wanting to keep Mayumi too much in the dark, Katsuto stated the simple and straightforward truth.

  "Oh, I never would've imagined…"

  The answer was satisfactory to Mayumi.

  "From what I've heard from this sister of mine, this Tookami Ryousuke has been missing for a long time."

  "Eh?!"

  The next sentence was of great shock, any curiosity about the relationship between the Juumonji and Tookami families was swept away from Mayumi's mind.

  "Missing? You mean, Tookami-san was avoiding contact with his family?"

  Questioned a wide-eyed Mayumi, to which Katsuto nodded gravely.

  "He returned to his home country, but that changed nothing, he never tried to contact them. I can only assume there are special circumstances involved. Which brings me to Alisa, she is not sure if she should tell his sister that she could find Tookami Ryousuke in the hospital."

  Hearing Katsuto's words, Mayumi felt in the same boat; she suspected that Ryoysuke was holding something back after their trip to Canada.

  200

  "I personally would prefer to confirm with Tookami Ryousuke himself whether he wishes that his sister should be informed of his hospitalization, but I'd like to know what you think about this, Saegusa."

  This was the matter Katsuto invited her to consult on.

  "─I'll ask Tookami-san myself."

  And this was Mayumi's answer.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  As the day turned to midnight, Tatsuya returned to the shores of Lake Tudakul.

  He was accompanied only by Hyougo, with Miyuki and Lina waiting at the hotel. It took a lot of convincing to persuade them not to go with him, but that is a digression.

  Tatsuya emerged from the box-type camper, clad in the same space suit from the visit to Takachiho the other day. At first glance it was not unlike a dry suit used for diving. And it's for that very purpose that Tatsuya is now wearing this suit.

  [Tatsuya-sama, I'm sure there is nothing to fear, but I ask that you be careful.]

  "Please be vigilant of the surroundings."

  After a brief exchange over the comms, Tatsuya plunged down into the lake.

  Tatsuya walked slowly through the pitch-dark lakebed. He didn't make use of any sort of physical light source, and with purpose.

  So that Tatsuya's "eyes" could see the psionic light undisturbed by physical light.

  Normally, psionic light emitted by non-living things may dimmer but does not flicker.

  But here, the psionic light flickered all around as if the lake was alive. Gently, as if taking slow deep breaths.

  The shades changed as he went on, from time to time, another phenomenon that is not usually observed. The changes were so minute and so gradual that only someone with "eyesight" as keen as and as "comprehensive" as Tatsuya's would have noticed them.

  ─Lakes are often mentioned in the legends of Shambhala.

  ─There is, for example, Lake Mansarovar, which reflects the shadow of Mount Kailash.

  ─The [Near Lake] in the east of Shambhala and the [White Lotus Pond] in the west.

  201

  ─The [Belovodye], handed down by a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church as apparently synonymous with Shambhala.

  After their daytime exploration, his words from the conversation with Miyuki and the others back at the hotel came and went in his mind.

  ─Though it may be a stretch, the toponymy of these locations may all correspond to

  "lakes" related to Shambhala's legacy.

  ─And, as the [Compass] points out, this place may be one of those lakes.

  Tatsuya's eyes were drawn to a single stream of psions.

  It did not have a particularly strong glow, but the current was strong.

  This narrow stream leads not to the center of the lake, but to the shore.

  Tatsuya brought his [Elemental Sight] to examine where the stream led to.

  The underwater lakeshore had been edged out to form a small cliff. Not an uncommon geographical formation. It would pass unnoticed if one were not aware of it.

  Tatsuya walked toward that underwater cliff.

  His [Elemental Sight] caught sight of an artificial object buried there that was sucking up the psions.

  With his right hand clad with [Decomposition], he retrieved the object.

  Holding tightly onto it, Tatsuya floated to the surface.

  "Is this the artifact that you discovered from Lake Tudakul…?"

  Puzzlement escaped Miyuki's beautiful red lips as she was presented with the result of Tatsuya's excavation at the hotel.

  The unearthed object is a white stone disk about two times larger than the [Compass].

  One face was carved with a "lotus flower with eight petals" ─ the symbol of an eight-petaled lotus flower. Something you would expect to see in a cultural treasure.

  Miyuki's source of puzzlement was the symbol carved on the other side.

  Three adjacent circles, arranged equilaterally in a triangle, enclosed by a larger circle.

  "…Isn't this the 'Banner of Peace'? That one, of the Roerich Pact."

  Now Lina looked as bewildered as Miyuki.

  202

  The Roerich Pact, an international treaty for the protection of cultural properties, which was signed in 1935, in other words, in the middle of the 20th century. It was a good question for the girls, why would a stone tablet engraved with that symbol have anything to do with the remains of a prehistoric civilization?

  "In the memorial of Nicholas Roerich, who led the Roerich Pact, they claim that the symbol is derived from one that existed since antiquity."

  "I know that story too. But isn't it just the three circles in the center? If I recall correctly, it was Roerich's idea to add an outer circle around the three circles."

  Lina retorts to Tatsuya's words.

  "Couldn't it be that symbols became simplified as civilizations retreated? Nicholas Roerich is well known not only as an artist but also as a researcher of Shambhala. It is possible that the symbol he adopted is the original and that the simplified symbol without the outer circle is a derivative."

  "Well, Yes… It is conceivable."

  Miyuki's back-channeling was non-committal in nature.

  "Isn't that pushing too much?" Lina didn't say, but it was quite clear in her expression.

  Tatsuya, however, was not discouraged. He had an argument ready for his theory.

  "Then, look at this."

  Tatsuya then laid the "Compass" on top of the concave carving (counter-relief).

  Each of the octagonal vertices of the [Compass] dovetails perfectly with the tips of the lotus petals.

  Tatsuya poured psion from above the overlapping artifacts, keeping them on the table instead of the palm of his hand.

  The stone disk carrying the [Compass] moved slowly. It did not slide on the table, but rather, rose a slight distance, levitating.