Yes.
It's difficult.
No, really, what kind of path is made going up at an ambiguous angle on a steep cliff, and you can only reach the final destination after fighting various monsters while circling the mountain unless you have a special magic key?
I do know that special magic, but there's a problem that it's a pie in the sky for me who can't use magic.
No, first of all, there's a rational reason for making it like some game.
First, Maleficent.
She has no friends.
Her personality is bad to the level of being set as bad from birth. The species itself is like that from the beginning.
In addition, she had no opportunity to create a round part called sociability by being scolded and shaved down by someone, so she remained pointy as she was.
However, it's not like the loneliness of the weak, but the loftiness of the strong, so it's the exact opposite of me.
Me?
A monster with nothing left but to give in and become comfortable after being tortured? Surprisingly, intelligence remains, so I know that acting recklessly will really get stuck, so I'm desperately holding onto patience.
If eating is the act of obtaining what's needed to live, obtaining warmth would also be eating.
Assuming that, I'm having restrained meals like the formal meals given in Buddhism.
It's healthy, but sometimes there are times when I want to taste violent calories like wrapping a hamburger in pizza.
That's why I'm sneakily making harvesters.
Anyway.
This is a neighborhood where monsters who think of the hordes of monsters that occasionally rush in like floods as some kind of special feast party that comes once every few years are living, drawing lines saying it's their territory.
Add to that the fact that Maleficent has no friends.
Since visitors are basically enemies, she intended to guide them to the monster's nest, wear down their strength, and then face them at the end.
Since there's no reason to consider others in the first place, there's no easy path like a shortcut for someone. Just herself and the rest.
Only those two.
What I mean is, thinking I might not be able to get in even overnight like this, I crushed reality just a little.
Since I know the framework of Maleficent's memory, I experimented if I could enter by inserting the reality itself that opens with that even without magical power, and it worked.
The most interesting thing was that if it's a magical realm, cracks don't form.
Maleficent's security magic wasn't that simple, but it didn't take more effort than the feeling of turning a stone rolling on the road into gold.
It's fortunate that I don't worry about the world collapsing with this.
Thinking that maybe I could have easily destroyed the magic called Thorn of Oblivion too, I climbed up the steep slope cliff.
Maleficent could just fly, so it was really hard because she didn't show any consideration for pedestrian travelers.
So I entered Maleficent's castle.
It's a place that was originally an abandoned old castle that was renovated and used. A nest of a size that's physically impossible to manage alone.
But Maleficent could use magic, and she used that to manage the castle alone.
In other words, now that Maleficent is gone, it's like this.
Whoosh.
Ragged stone fragments are loosely attached and shaking, and cold wind passes through the gaps making sounds.
It's on the verge of collapse.
The fortunate thing is that because I have Maleficent's memories, I don't need to search for where things are.
First, I ignore the gold and silver treasures in the castle. Things more valuable than that. Magical items or special tools Maleficent had. I gathered mainly high-value items among those.
The standard of value?
The standard is how deeply killing intent has permeated.
And lastly, to torment Maleficent who made me suffer, I take her diary. Even though it's called a diary, it's not written daily, but years have passed between pages.
It's a diary where she wrote her inner thoughts.
If this remains as a relic, it would make me cry.
Isn't Anne's diary in faded memories being restored even to the point of erased scribbles to make her embarrassed?
Believing there will be a similar effect, I take the diary.
Then I suddenly see an open birdcage near the desk. On the floor of the birdcage are the dried and twisted bones of a bird.
She had no friends, but she had subordinates.
Something that might have been a friend.
Since I can't find warmth in it, I lose interest and immediately leave the castle.
This castle will collapse in the near future.
Even inside the castle, it's creaking here and there to a serious degree. It's at a level where demolishing and rebuilding would be safer than reinforcement construction.
I hardly come down the cliff l while carrying the luggage.
My clothes are in tatters. The clothes I'm wearing aren't good attire for coming to a place like this. Rather, they're clothes a girl wears for a picnic.
But I just wore them because I don't have outdoor clothing.
I arrived at the bottom almost rolling down the steep cliff.
Hmm.
There's more luggage than I thought.
A girl carrying strange objects dangling while wearing clothes caked with soil and dust.
That's my current appearance.
First, I cross between the monster territories Maleficent was aware of and run back the way I came.
It's very heavy because there's a lot of luggage, but this body doesn't break from such things.
* * *
I arrived at the lodging.
Surprisingly, while running from the outskirts of the capital to the lodging, no one pointed me out. Seeing that people in the lodging screamed when I returned to the lodging, I guess the state of my clothes was too terrible.
After being forcibly changed out of my tattered clothes by fussing maids, I called the butler.
"Miss Belle. What's the matter?"
"Can I meet the king regarding matters related to Maleficent?"
Surprisingly, instead of asking for an additional explanation to my words, the butler answered to please wait a moment.
I thought he would at least ask for the reason, but although I made a puzzled expression, I don't put it into words.
And that night.
I got in a car that stopped in front of the lodging, carrying items I looted from Maleficent's house.
Like last time, I entered a building slightly away from the royal palace rather than the royal palace itself. And King Hyperion was waiting in the place where we always met.
"I hear you wanted to meet me regarding matters related to the witch."
"Yes. That's right."
I came with a lot of luggage. The surprising thing is that no one pointed out the luggage. I thought if it was an escort, they would examine the objects I'm carrying, but I passed completely freely.
No, isn't this too trusting?
What if I'm trying to assassinate the king?
While having doubts about royal security, I now put down the objects I brought one by one on the table in front of the man whose face has become familiar.
"What are these objects?"
After pondering how to explain, I gave an answer that could let him know everything at once.
"This is Maleficent's diary."
When I pointed to a book and said that, the king's expression hardens. And he looks down at the objects with a wary expression.
"Where on earth did you get such things?"
"At Maleficent's last moment, I found out the place where she was staying."
As far as I know, except for Victoria, no one knows what Maleficent said near her end.
That she didn't mention a word about her hiding place. But it's not a lie. I know because I obtained her memories.
"And I brought mainly dangerous items from there."
I really brought mainly dangerous items. Magical tools for killing someone, cursing someone, destroying.
Of course, I don't intend to tell how to use them.
It would be strange if I knew that too, right?
"Can you tell me the location?"
"Yes."
At Hyperion's question, I told him the location where Maleficent's fortress was.
And while at it, I added these words:
"I left behind metals like gold or silver because they were heavy, so take them if needed. However, I don't recommend going because the castle is deteriorated and could collapse at any time."
If you give a time limit and let them know there's treasure, they'll go looking, right?
The method of encouraging desire is better to prohibit something rather than ordering something. If it's a level of danger that would be fine if it were me, it's easier.
"Did you go to such a dangerous area?"
"I'm not human. And they're Maleficent's things, right?"
Just facts.
But for the listener, it could be interpreted that I moved to deal with dangerous objects.
In addition, I left behind gold and silver treasures and only brought and laid out dangerous objects. I also brought a commentary that can let you know about Maleficent in detail.
No matter how you look at it, I look kind, right?
And I'll really live like that.
I'll increase harvesters like an impulse, but other than that, I have no intention of doing anything. I'll wait quietly while sometimes acting like a good person.
Bern City is engulfed in flames of upheaval, and in the Brightshin slums, the number of people inventing technical objects has increased.
This is, so to speak, a bribe.
I'm behaving well, so let's get along well.
"You're giving so much, I have nothing I can do in return."
At that time, Hyperion said that with a bitter expression. And he approaches the table and tries to touch the objects.
So I said it's better not to touch them carelessly because they're dangerous.
Of course, magical tools don't work just by grabbing and swinging them. But if I say this, he'll think I don't know much about those objects either.
But if I only give too much, he'll rather feel suspicious. Here, let's just pretend to have a little goodwill while putting fire into Bern City.
"The screams from the south don't stop."
It means I know terrible things are happening. Whether what's happening in Bern City is done by the king or not, it's telling him to produce results.
And that will be the worst ending.
Because the Purple Twilight Society has completely lost trust in the country. Would anyone believe it now if the king says he's suppressing it?
Even if that somehow works out well, the really important problem is still under the surface.
The fundamental flaw in the power devices that go into clockwork machines.
Bern City, which had many clockwork machines because it was a cutting-edge city, is probably the first city to cross the critical point. If it's not fixed here, accidents will happen again.
And where do you think has the most clockwork machines after Bern City?
Yes.
The capital.
There's a time bomb with a slowly turning clock attached in the capital.
Can they handle this? Or will we see it explode?
Either way is fine.
I think like that while guiding the situation to move quickly.
Now, how will the situation flow?