Tale of Discovery

Chapter 116: Travel Plans

"Michael," I mutter while guiding Ophis and Gula to the living room where most of the girls are.

[Yes, Father?]

"How are things on your end?"

[So far, we have no problems. After Father left, we were able to safely leave the virtual space. Currently, the only one that has yet to recover is the Valkyrie, Rossweisse.]

"Rossweisse? Is there something wrong with her?"

[Yes. She's presently in a comatose state.]

"I see. If there are any changes in her state, make sure to relay it to me."

[Understood.]

I suppose, only one of us falling into a coma is fortunate when things could've gone way worse. Of course, I will have to check on her later.

If my memory serves me right, I entered the second state of my Berserk which completely robbed me of my clarity.

In that state, a certain someone must've stopped me before things could go awry.

That person should be none other than Gula, which indicates that she is friendly, or at least, not hostile.

The notion of the Unknowns being friendly had never crossed my mind before. My excuse for that would be the way Irene had explained the Unknowns to me back at Project Charlotte.

Nevertheless, I did find out that not all Codes are on my side, so I shouldn't be all that surprised by not all Unknowns being my enemies.

Earlier, I tried asking the two of them about what they were, but they simply stared at me and didn't reply.

I learned that this is what they do if they don't want to answer an inquiry or simply don't know the answer themselves.

Shortly, the three of us arrive in the living room.

The first one to react is Misa who exclaims while scowling,

"Two of them?!"

"One just wasn't enough for you anymore, huh?" I hear a cold voice behind me.

Turning around, I see Sora staring at me with a deadpan expression.

"Come on," I say, "You girls wouldn't be making such comments if you knew that each one of these two can kill me."

"Oh? They can kill you?" Nao says in an amused tone.

"Could something like that even possibly exist?" Kristina adds.

"Anyways," I say dismissively, "the two of them aren't very talkative, so try to get along, as difficult as that may be."

"Uwoh!" Ayumi exclaims, "I will be a Big Sister!"

Uh... Well, I'll let her be if that's what she wants to do. As long as it doesn't negatively affect her academic studies and daily life, there is no problem with her taking care of her 'little sisters'.

As I'm about to contact Raynare and the rest of my Angels who aren't here, a bewildered voice resounds behind me,

"He's back?! And he has brought more little girls with him?!"

Letting out a sigh, I face Ravel and say,

"Can you at least try to not make me sound like a criminal?"

She immediately responds with a doubtful look on her face,

"You're not?"

Now that I think about it my actions can be seen as that of an individual with ill-intentions.

However, I know for a fact that they're in reality nothing more than me being myself.

"Brother Yu is bad?" Ayumi suddenly asks while slightly tilting her head.

"Of course, not," I say with a friendly smile on my face before turning my attention back to Ravel and wiping the smile off of my face.

"Are you dissatisfied with living here?" I directly ask her.

This question seems to surprise her a little as she begins to think of an answer for a few seconds before replying,

"Not at all. I'm glad that you abducted me here. It's much better than what it was like back in the underworld.

"Do not misunderstand. It's not like I was mistreated or not cared for by family. It's just that I always wanted to be bereft of all the responsibilities of a noble and do what I wished to

"Perhaps, my parents may have realized this already, so they haven't made any attempts to take me back."

After this, she looks down and murmurs to herself,

"I would've appreciated it if they had at least tried to contact me, though."

During the period that Ravel has lived with us, I've gotten to know her quite well, to the point that I can mostly understand what she's thinking.

Her words from earlier make it sound like she wants to laze about, but that's most likely not what she meant.

What she wants is to work on something without being pressured by meaningless things.

After all, being a noble is stressful.

You have to keep a facade on daily while making sure to not reveal troubling information whenever conversing with anyone outside your family.

Heck, sometimes you have to keep information from certain members of your own family.

An environment where everyone can share everything and interact with each other the way they want to is what Ravel seeks.

The mansion is one such place, with everyone simply living however they wish to.

[Father.]

Gabriel's voice suddenly interrupts my thoughts.

"What is it?" I mutter while walking back to my room.

[We've received information indicating a large-scale attack on numerous countries.]

"How accurate is the information that you speak of?"

[Directly acquired from a surviving member of the Khaos Brigade.]

"What did he say?"

[The reason they launched their attack on Father was that they had made contact with the Phantoms outside Asia.]

[Another reason for that was because they were confident as they had a strong individual on their side - The Infinity Dragon.]

Infinity Dragon? That's must be Ophis, as I can't think of any other strong individual in the Rating Game. Also, the word 'infinity' is quite a big hint.

Even her title has infinity in it

"Do you have any information regarding this 'Infinity Dragon' that you speak of?"

[Yes. The Infinity Dragon, also known as the Ouroboros Dragon is an existence with seemingly infinite power. It's widely believed to be the strongest existence.]

"Well, she does have infinite parameters after all, even if she can't make use of them properly."

[Could it be, Father has made contact with her?]

"I have."

[As expected of Father. Even such an enemy isn't able to bring Father down.]

"Of course. Now then, is the guy still alive?"

[Yes.]

"Continue to extract as much information as you can from him, even if it requires resorting to unholy means."

[Understood.]

The continental war, huh? Makes me wonder what method is being used to keep the 'Phantoms' from just rushing in.

Looking at the news and the way people are acting, no one would guess that a grand war between supernatural beings is going on globally.

Anyways, I need to establish myself more firmly in this country before I can move on to the whole continent.

The main requirement for this is to be powerful. Why? Well, no one knows how many ridiculous beings are out there.

Heck, just recently I met a little girl with infinite parameters and another one that could easily wipe everyone out. With one of them even being able to bring me down despite being in the second state of Berserk.

If this isn't a big hint showing how absurdly powerful one can get, I don't know what is.

In the past, when I had asked Infi for a way to get more power efficiently, she had me go over to Project Charlotte.

So, I will have to do just that.

But, several issues come along with doing so.

First, while I'm on the other side, things could get chaotic in the Rift without me even being aware of it.

Now that I think about it, the world here was frozen when I transferred over to Project Charlotte. Irene, am I able to freeze time here while I'm away to another Platform?

{Affirmative. However, Father won't be able to freeze three Platforms anymore.}

That doesn't matter, as I am planning to connect the Core of other Platforms with the Rift anyway.

Speaking of which, how many Platforms will I be able to freeze time in if I do stop time here?

{One.}

Basically, I can't make use of that with Project Charlotte already being frozen, right?

{Affirmative.}

Leaving that aside, there is the second issue, which is:

I have no idea how to go to another Platform.

...

I know how to leave the Rift and go to the Mete, but when it comes to traveling to a Platform, I simply have no clue at all.

Back then, Infi was the one who 'took' me there, after asking me which of the two available methods I would like.

Besides, where would I even go when I don't know a single thing about other Platforms? Perhaps, finding another Knowledge of the Tales would be useful for this.

Oh, right! I had completely forgotten about something.

There is Siesta's world - Halkeginia.

Now, all I need to do is to find a way to get there...