NOVEL NEXT vol. 4 chapter 25 - A Story About Our Future Disposition Being Decided Somewhere We Don’t Know
Why did magic affect Ringo, and why did the man presumed to be the caster lose consciousness?
And why, moreover, did the Android Communicator who appears to have been the initial target suffer no effect at all?
They investigated the Android’s Brain Unit exhaustively but, in the end, found nothing wrong.
In any case, some kind of magic—or something like magic—was used, and the effect reached Ringo. That much is certain.
And although the caster remains unidentified, the most suspicious is surely the waiter boy who suddenly collapsed.
His background was suspicious to begin with.
It seems this had been conveyed to the navy soldiers running venue security; the unconscious man was not given aid but restrained and removed.
“Let’s strip that waiter boy down to the bones.”
At Commander Eve’s single command, Ringo and Asahi immediately set to work.
They pulled every piece of information on the waiter target recorded by the spy-bot net and began analysis.
A vast volume of data is accumulated inside the spy-bot net.
However, radio communications are the backbone, and it is not realistic to transmit every millisecond-level surveillance datum back to base. As a result, the relay hubs are piled high with data that went unused.
Ordinarily, they feed search parameters into the hub, select only the high-hit-rate data groups for download, and run detailed analysis from there; this time, they would analyze all data from the last ten days.
To move the massive data traffic, they manufactured multiple relay-dedicated drones anew and launched them out of Fortress No. 2 Black Iron.
They dispatched the No. 1 Alpha-Class carrying an information storage device for intermediate accumulation, to receive the data at sea.
This was a precaution against magic effects propagated to Ringo through the communications path: they would physically sever the path and carry the data into The Tree via the storage device.
“It’s a hassle, but it can’t be helped.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. That said, when the transfer is on the order of hundreds of exabytes, shipping storage will likely be faster than wireless. With sufficient bandwidth, the relation reverses.”
Unlike the game era, where radio conditions suffered all manner of constraints, in this world the entire radio spectrum can be used without limit. If they relayed Communications Drones in a mesh and laid them out, the ground would essentially enjoy unlimited comms.
Well, if they went that far they risked people noticing anomalies in the sky, so they hadn’t adopted it.
Ringo, while soliciting Asahi’s opinions, proceeded to analyze the mountain of data thus obtained.
Even so, because the same target is being observed from multiple angles, the resolution should be sufficient in aggregate. The problem is that to obtain it, they must synthesize multiple time-series streams.
Ringo threw the overflowing resources of her ultra-supercomputer at the problem and ran the analysis.
“So, you got something.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. The waiter target in question can be confirmed as having begun appearing in the capital Moar roughly seven days ago.”
Through analysis, they succeeded in identifying an individual whose external features matched.
Using that result as an axis and linking multiple data points, they could trace the target’s detailed movements.
“After arriving in the capital Moar, they checked into an inn, toured tourist sites and ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) cafés for a while, and that night entered a certain tavern. There, they hit it off with a man who happened to be present and drank together for some time.”
After that they returned to the inn like a normal person and went to sleep.
The next day, they again behaved like a tourist and ended the day.
“…Shady.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. On day three they went down to the harbor and, from a distance, seem to have confirmed the Paraiso fleet. That said, at this point they were a tourist, so they did not trip the surveillance net and were passed over.”
Naturally, everyone who came to eyeball the fleet directly was checked.
However, if the behavior before and after differed little from a tourist’s, no alert would be raised.
“On day four they entered a large shop and moved as if browsing goods. Then they snagged a clerk, went straight into the business room, and began negotiations. This shop has a slight connection to the Legendary Senate of Tradition group. The negotiations themselves contained nothing particularly odd, but this was likely the place where some sort of code exchange was carried out.”
The target then returned to the inn and ended the day.
The next day, they entered a different shop—
“Here is where we lost sight of the target. Most likely they disguised themselves inside the shop and slipped out a secret back exit. Spy-bots don’t intrude into every narrow alley or crevice; once the appearance changes, we can’t keep a lock.”
“Well, that can’t be helped. There are limits on both bot count and information volume.”
However, a few hours later, the spy-bots confirmed the target again, now operating as a waiter at a different company—the one that mainly handles high-end restaurants and party venues.
“We had the shop’s records scrubbed by the spy-bots too, and on paper the target had been working there for a month, transferred in from another town. If you didn’t investigate suspiciously from the start, you wouldn’t catch the fabrication.”
“I see…”
The spy-bots currently infiltrated do not carry sensors capable of instant person identification. Only by synthesizing multiple data streams do they become usable.
And if you try to run that determination instantly against every person in view, the information resources required become enormous.
“With a dedicated surveillance apparatus it would be possible, but with the current spy-bot performance it is impossible.”
“Right… It’s not like we want to put the whole place under perfect surveillance anyway. We’ll have to give that up. Ultimately, we only need to detect malice toward Paraiso.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.”
And so the waiter target continued working as a boy until the day of, and succeeded in penetrating the venue.
“Up to this point, nothing in their behavior is a problem. It stays within the capabilities of a typical adult male.”
However, Ringo continued:
“The expressions, speech, and actions of people who faced the target do not match prediction. We varied the predictive parameters in every way, but the results were skewed to a degree that forces us to suspect intentional tampering of the data.”
Which, precisely, is what Ringo and Asahi concluded to be the target’s ability.
“We judge that this target possesses an ability that, by some means, causes those they face to harbor a favorable impression of them. Asahi called it a charm power.”
“Charm… Is it that effective?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Almost everyone who spoke face-to-face with this target exhibited a response more favorable than the prediction range. The issue is that it is not a dramatic reaction. It appears to be at the level of ‘for some reason, you just can’t dislike them.’”
And with that power, you can slip into any workplace without forcing it.
This time as well, a waiter boy not on the schedule was able to work on site without feeling out of place. Despite having been there only a few days, they posted remarkably excellent results.
Strictly speaking, the Kingdom of Lepuitari Navy’s investigators should have been more wary of the target.
In fact, the officers and officials who had not seen the target directly issued more than sufficient orders for caution and investigation.
However, the on-site personnel tasked with executing those orders did not act in accordance.
“What thoughts they held—or what orders they received—that drove this target to approach Paraiso remains unknown. In the Kingdom of Lepuitari, which is a rule-of-law state at least in appearance, they likely cannot detain the target for a long period when, to all appearances, they did nothing and no harm has occurred.”
If they forcibly prolonged the detention, the outsiders would make a noisy spectacle of it.
That is not an outcome Ringo desires either.
“We cannot obtain accurate information by interrogation. We either let them swim, or we kidnap them.”
“Violent. Do you think they’re a threat?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Asahi also says that, if possible, we should secure them on our side. However, there is a high probability she is saying it out of curiosity, so it is not very trustworthy.”
“Hm… If they flee outside the city, do we grab them…?”