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Volume 5 Prologue Part 9

Be it a God, Spirit or a human hero, it is a word that describes those who would stand at the apex of the respective groups they belong to, and quite possibly even at the top of the world itself. And since Little Garden was a literal gathering ground for all kinds of 「strongest」 existences, using that word to single out one particular individual from among all of them seem pretty much pointless. Under normal circumstances Alma would have outright ridiculed Lamia for using that word without apparently knowing that it loses all of its intimidating meaning in Little Garden, but she decided to put that matter aside for the time being.

Just like Alma said before, only those who would have correctly saw through the mystery of the mistranslation of Plato’s Stone Tablet and saw through the double meaning of the words in the Game’s Victory Conditions would be able to arrive in the place where they were currently standing, and figuring that out would undoubtedly require those who wanted to come here to possess a certain amount of knowledge, the one that could be safely said to be greater than just your average amount of knowledge that ordinary people possess. Some of the people would take the same approach as Suzuka did and tackle the problem from the geopolitical point of view, while others would end up being drawn to this place simply because of 「The Stone Pillars of Heracles」and the fame associated with them. However. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as far as she could have deduced from the bits and pieces of the conversation between Lamia and Leticia they managed to overhear before Asuka blew their cover, it would seem that this Lamia girl managed to find this place simply by following nothing more than the line of legitimate reasoning alone. To give you a comparison, something like that would have been impossible for Suzuka, who still needed to read what was written on the original text from Plato’s Stone Tablet to realize that something was wrong with it, which in turn pointed her towards the conclusion that she ultimately arrived at. That is why Alma felt like it would definitely be worth her while to investigate the matter of this Game Maker whom Lamia spoke of for a bit.

「Since you went as far as to call the Game Maker of your Community 「The Strongest」, then I hope you will not hold it against me  and do me a courtesy of answering  simple question: what were the means that this Game Maker of yours suggested for you to use in order to find this place?」

「Well, do you not think that an answer to that should have been a pretty obvious one? Everyone could have solved that riddle if they just read the original text left behind by Plato on his stone tablet, so that is exactly what we did. That being said, it was not easy to find the original stone tablet because it has been kept in a place which made reading its contents not an easy matter in the slightest, not to mention that initially we did not even have much to go on in the way of clues where to find it, but since he is as perfect as he is, once he managed to deduce where the stone tablet has been stored and why was it being kept there in the first place based on the tablet’s background, it was all smooth sailing from there.」

Hearing Lamia’s words, Asuka and Suzuka looked at each other and nodded their heads. Suzuka did say earlier that she was only able to read the contents of Plato’s Stone Tablet only after they have been opened up to the public for viewing in the digital form, but Lamia does not seem to be aware of the fact that it was opened to the public for viewing in the first place. The implications of that peculiar contradiction were pretty big.

(If that is the case, then this Game Master of theirs must be someone hailing from the time period from before the contents of Plato’s Stone Tablet were opened to the general public. . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . so he is probably from a different time period than Izayoi and his siblings.)

(Moreover, it was someone who was able to deduce how did Plato’s Stone Tablet found its way into the Secret Archives of the Roman Curia, and on top of that they seem to have a lot of influence in the Vatican itself. . . . . . . . . . .  eh? Whoever that person might be, is he not someone who is super bad news?)

It was not until well into the modern times that the contents of the Secret Archives of Vatican have been opened to the public, and the Secret Archives themselves are a place the most of the researchers would not have been permitted entry even if they had a mountain of connections to all sorts of powerful and influential people. So even if he was someone capable of making the most advanced of deductions, he would still need to physically confirm the stone tablet’s and its text’s existence, which would be impossible without the appropriate status, and just thinking how influential you would have to be in order to be allowed entry to the Secret Archives of Vatican made Asuka’s head hurt.

(. . . I see now. If the person this girl spoke about really I someone capable of such achievements, then as much as I do not want to admit it, she might be right in calling that person 「The Strongest Game Maker」, even in the context of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority, which is the biggest of the big stages where the most prominent figures from across all of Little Garden would clash with one another. Although much will depend on the combination of the differences in our circumstances and positions, then is it really possible for us to take this competition as a chance to increase our own fame just as long as we continue to be ahead of all the other Players?)

Alma decided that it would be best to take Lamia’s story with a grain of salt. Whoever that 「Strongest Game Maker」 truly is, at least now they know that it is someone who has connection to the Roman Curia, and most likely Roman Catholic Church in its entirety, and for the time being, that much information should be enough if they ever needed to take advantage of him if he ever became their opponent.

「Fufu, you do seem to have truly wonderful friends, Miss Lamia. If the opportunity ever presents itself, then I would very much like you to take the lead. . .  now then, I believe it is about time for us to be moving to the main event.」

Saying so, Alma took one more step forward. And when she did that, the stone monument in the innermost part of the cave began to shine with a faint light, as if it was waiting for the arrival of those who proved with their wisdom that they are worthy enough to reach it. Alma was about to touch the glowing monument with her fingertips, but was quickly pushed away by Lamia, who thrust herself forward and touched the stony surface with her chest.

*          *          *

In the very next moment, their field of vision has been swallowed up by a flash of brilliant white light. Even though they managed to notice it and closed their eyes fast enough to avoid suffering direct damage to their eyes, that flash of light still dazzled them even with their eyes closed, to the point where they had to cover their faces with their hands. Almathea instantly realized that this happened because the {Boundary Gate} has been opened, but she had no ide where it was leading to or where it would throw them to, but wherever it would be, she had to be ready for anything and be prepared to act at a moment’s notice, so she braced herself for the inevitable impact, which came about all too suddenly, even for her.

Suddenly, all of them found themselves thrown into the air in a completely different cave.

「Uwaaaaaaahhhhh. . . . .  ! ! ! ! ! !」

「Kyaaaaa. . . .! ! ! ! !」

「Master. . .!」