Today, too, she woke from a terrible dream.
"…Not again…"
On her bed, she pressed a hand to her forehead.
Her beautiful features were heavy with fatigue and hardship.
Niina von Frodite murmured.
The reason she was this exhausted—
Was the power she had been granted. The power she had been cursed to receive.
At the end of a cruel chain of cause and effect, of spiteful coincidence—
One day, she had unluckily obtained the same ability as Archbishop Johan.
—A power beyond all measure: the ability to see visions of the future in dreams.
One of the reasons she had been driven into this situation—her family manipulated, held hostage, forced to obey—was this very power.
Night after night, visions of despair were thrust before her eyes in dreams.
As if shaking them off, she staggered to her feet.
"…I will. I'm the only one who knows… so I have to do something."
She had learned of Archbishop Johan's schemes through this power—yet Johan himself had sealed her lips, preventing her from telling anyone.
Still, she resolved to fight with what strength she had.
To overturn the worst possible future—the one known only to her, revealed night after night.
And so, the girl set out once more today, toward her lonely battle.
---
"—It's called 'Precognition.'"
When Ermes revealed the true nature of Archbishop Johan's "inexplicable technique" in a single word—even Liliana's camp, long accustomed to surprises—was gripped by its greatest shock yet.
"A precognitive ability. That is the true nature of Archbishop Johan's power—its very core, and the only answer that explains everything up to now."
The more one knew about magic, the more impossible those words sounded. Utterly preposterous.
"…Is that really true?"
Even Katia, who so rarely doubted Ermes, stared wide-eyed and posed the question to him.
He understood that such a reaction was perfectly natural, and nodded calmly.
"Yes. Rather than saying I've grown certain… it would be more accurate to say there is nothing else that could explain it. —Let me elaborate."
At his follow-up, the group listened—shaken, but attentive.
And so he began to speak. The course of his reasoning. How, backed into a corner and scrambling to respond, he had piled deduction upon deduction, hypothesis upon verification.
"First, regarding the defense of this stronghold. We've encountered several incidents that could only be explained by 'our information being leaked,' haven't we?"
The group nodded.
From Earl Harvest's infiltration, to the Northern Federation soldiers' precisely targeted offensives. And then Niina's intrusion. They had been allowed such easy breakthroughs that calling this a proper defense would be an overstatement.
That was precisely why everyone had first suspected a traitor among them—
"…So how does that lead to the deduction of precognition?"
Receiving Albert's question, Ermes continued to unfold his reasoning.
"That information was being leaked—that much was certain. So the next thing I considered was: 'where is it being leaked from?'"
In his characteristically logical, methodically exhaustive fashion.
"The traitor we just identified is one route, certainly. I had in fact already considered the possibility of someone among the soldiers."
"…Ah."
"But—that alone didn't explain everything."
If the enemy had merely listened to the soldiers and used that for guidance, their responses would have been limited to what could be gathered from soldiers alone. In that case, we could have countered accordingly. But—
"It wasn't just that. They anticipated even last-minute defensive adjustments and irregular tactics. What truly sealed it—they had flawless countermeasures against a method using magic that only I can perform. Something no one else in this entire fortress should even know about."
The result was the anomalous strategy of targeting Ermes alone—day and night, without rest—to wear him down through sheer attrition.
And yet, even in that state, he had continued his verification. He had done exactly what needed to be done. The group once again wore expressions of admiration for his mental fortitude.
Whether he noticed or not, Ermes pressed on.
"At this point, the possibilities narrowed to three.
First: every corner of this fortress is under complete surveillance.
Second: somehow, my thoughts are being read.
And the third—least believable of all at the time—was precognition."
From results, he built hypotheses, then peeled them back one by one through verification.
This was his defining trait—his extraordinary analytical ability. And so, the enemy's hand was revealed.
"For the first, there would need to be a surveillance mechanism somewhere inside the fortress. For the second, something near me extracting information. Without either, neither can be explained.
But no matter how thoroughly I searched… I found nothing."
"If even you couldn't detect it, Ermes, the likelihood is slim… So what was the conclusion?"
"Yes."
With a nod confirming Sara's supplement, Ermes delivered his conclusion.
"We arrive at: 'The enemy possesses the power to foresee the future.' That is where the evidence leads.
After dismissing every other possibility one by one… the most impossible explanation turned out to be the one that remained."
Of course, this was merely a conclusion reached through elimination. Even he hesitated to call it definitive on this basis alone.
But—there was one more thing. He began presenting additional evidence to bolster his theory.
"Slightly off topic, but—do you remember the first skirmish when we arrived here?"
Of course, everyone remembered.
They had tried to help the retreating soldiers from the Harvest territory and push the front line back—when Archbishop Johan, Lord Lucius, and Lady Niina appeared as a trio, forcing them to do nothing but retreat. A bitter defeat—
"—Why, so conveniently, were all three of them there, I wonder?"
Those words froze the room.
…Now that it was pointed out—indeed.
"Lady Niina and… Lord Lucius, I can almost understand. But the Archbishop himself—their supreme commander—appearing on a battlefield where, had we not intervened, they would have won easily? That was clearly unusual. What that implies is—"
"…That from the very beginning, they knew we would appear at that location."
At Yurugen's addition, everyone present felt a chill of understanding.
Even if the enemy could have predicted that Ermes' group would show up through various intelligence, predicting that they would appear at that exact place was clearly too much.
But if they had precognition—that, too, could be explained.
All of this, taken together—
The enemy's actions in this Northern Rebellion—their timing, across the board, was simply too perfect.
That pervasive sense of wrongness was the final factor that confirmed the enemy's hand in his mind.
And hearing this—
"…I understand the argument. Much of it is convincing."
The last to speak was Toa, the Knight Commander, who had been present throughout.
He shared a look with the captain standing beside him, then continued.
"But—I can't quite believe it. Being told it's all an overactive imagination would make more sense… Can such magic truly exist?"
"Tell me about it. And if there really is magic like that, and the enemy's foreseeing everything we do… then what the hell are we supposed to do…!"
…Their feelings were entirely understandable.
Ermes' reasoning was, by any measure, outrageous. "Knowing the future" was a feat beyond all measure—something that was impossible even for Bloodline Magic. But—
"…I can't say I believe it either, and I know it seems impossible. Honestly, I don't understand the principle behind it."
Acknowledging their incredulity—even sharing it—
"—But.
What does that matter?"
He declared, without hesitation.
"What?"
"Not believing it. Thinking it's impossible. All of that is just my own current assessment.
Because it's unbelievable. Because it's impossible. Because I don't understand it, because I can't make sense of it— and so I dismiss it as something that doesn't exist. As long as that way of thinking holds, there will never be any progress."
"…"
"A phenomenon is occurring in reality, and if there is only one technique that could account for it, then I will treat it as something that exists. I'll analyze it as a given, hypothesize that it works. If I can't see it directly, I'll infer its shape from the shadow it casts, and devise every countermeasure within my power—even when it seems hopeless, I'll find a way."
—and there, Toa and the others finally realized.
The greatest difference between them and him. The reason he was extraordinary.
He was not afraid of the unknown.
Not knowing was not a reason to stop. The inexplicable was not a cause for cowardice. Without the slightest hesitation, he plunged headlong into the unknown.
And so, one after another, he overturned common sense. Because he was someone who—
Destroyed even his own common sense without the slightest hesitation.
That was precisely why, now—faced with Precognition, a technique impossible even for Bloodline Magic—
He remained perfectly calm. Unhurried. As always, he began his analysis.
"…You truly are something, Master."
Perhaps moved once more by his way of being, Liliana—who had listened quietly until now—directed at Ermes a gaze full of respect and trust.
"Then… could you teach us? Now that you've exposed the enemy's technique—how should we go about confronting them?"
"Yes."
Smiling at his disciple's words, he nodded.
"I've said a great many things—but don't worry. There is no need for excessive fear."
Indeed—up to now, Ermes had explained the enemy's threat at length.
But Ermes—the Ermes who had overcome so many hardships until now—
Having properly begun this explanation, there was no chance he would end with "and so there's nothing we can do."
watched by the trust of Liliana and those around them, he spoke once more.
"Fundamentally—if the enemy could perfectly foresee all of our movements, this would have been over from the start. We wouldn't even be in this situation.
—Their precognition is not perfect. There are openings to exploit, and I've already identified their patterns."
"!"
The explanation of the threat was done.
From here on—it was time to advance the counterattack.
"How to disrupt their precognition. How to counter their non-precognitive abilities. That's what I'll address now.
…I'm sorry for not being able to share much until now. But to make up for it—I will absolutely present a strategy that everyone here can use to defeat them."
Watching him speak, Toa and the soldiers began, little by little, to understand Ermes better—and at the same time, felt a faint stirring in their chests at the renewed promise of transformation.