I Favor the Villainess - CH 262

“It appears that you’ve regained your memories, Rei Taylor.”

Those were, the very first words, the Pope said to me when we met.

We were in the Pope’s personal room within Bauer’s grand cathedral.

The room was simple without much decoration, but also refined. The room seemed exemplary for a religious leader.

Aside from the Pope, Lily-sama, and I, Sandrine, the Pope’s personal attendant was also with us.

The day after TAIM’s attack, I had received summons from the Pope, and had come to the cathedral together with Lily-sama.

I felt that it was perfect timing, as I also wanted to explain about Claire-sama, but those words from the Pope had started the conversation.

“M-memories… then Pope, you know about the fabricated memories?”

“Yes.”

“W-what is going on here?”

Lily-sama’s confusion was to be expected.

It had appeared that everyone in the world―even strong individuals like Lily-sama or Manaria-sama had fallen victim to TAIM’s memory alteration. Then why was the Pope okay?

“It’s most likely because I am your equivalent existence, Rei Taylor.

According to the Pope’s explanation, things had proceeded as follows.

At first, the Pope had received the fake memories as well, forgetting about Claire-sama and other related details.

Yet all of a sudden, last night, all of her memories returned to normal.

It would appear, thanks to the insurance that Dor-sama had cast on me―Dor-sama’s Dream Magic, cracks had formed within TAIM’s Suggestion magic..

“This morning, someone came to confess. Please, come in.”

“Pardon me.”

Summoned by the Pope, the one who entered was a nun who looked exactly like both the Pope and myself.

“Irie-san!”

“It’s been a while, Lily-san!”

This nun named Irie, was someone that Lily-sama met on her travels who looked just like me.

She too was one of the Spirit’s lost children. It seems during Lily-sama’s journey for atonement, they had met in Sousa.

Some time ago, Lily-sama had helped Irie sort through her feelings having fallen for another girl. Claire-sama and I had heard that story from Lily-sama.

Now, Irie was staying here in Bauer together with Mari.

It appears that they had come to visit and celebrate the victory with Lily-sama.

“Why is Irie-san here?”

“I mean, suddenly everything became strange…”

According to Irie, she too had felt no doubts until last night, but this morning she woke up to an inexplicable discomfort.

During the celebrations, everyone was sharing tales of the main contributors in our fight against the Three Great Archdukes (more accurately, the Demon Queen), and yet, not a single person had mentioned Claire-sama’s name.

Even though Irie had never met Claire-sama herself, through word of mouth she had heard about the Revolutionary Maiden and also heard stories from Lily-sama, so she had come to find it strange.

It was then that she decided to come to Bauer’s great cathedral to confess.

“It appears that only Rei Taylor and those who are equivalent to her, have recovered their memories.”

“To think such a thing happened…”

I wondered, what in the world was going on?

“If you don’t mind conjectures, please allow me to explain.”

“Please do. Right now, I want anything that might help me save Claire-sama.

At this point, I was grasping at straws.

“First, let me start by explaining some background. When I became the Pope, I gained knowledge about the truth of this world. The Spirit Church is a part of the system, in charge of regulating the world’s history.”

Before the Spirit Church was formally recognized, even before the concept of religion had existed, the system was in place, functioning to regulate human history.

“System? The regulation of history?”

“W-what do you mean?”

Irie and Lily-sama, who still retained her altered memories, had no knowledge of the system, so I explained it to them.

“Such a thing…”

“H-how could I forget…?”

Now that they were caught up, the Pope continued.

“As a Pope, I’ve more or less become one of the system’s terminals. To some degree, I even share TAIM’s memories and actions. She had used an incomplete form of Suggestion magic to change the memories of all humanity. However, because it was incomplete, it appears the effects were shallow on people who held a strong obsession for Claire such as Rei Taylor.”

Then, once she used the complete form of Suggestion that she had copied from Salas on me, the conditions for Dor-sama’s Dream Magic were fulfilled and the situation flipped on her.

“Due to Dor François’ magic, TAIM has suffered some damage. Though she won’t be forever ensnared by the Dream Magic in the same way as Salas Lilium, cracks have formed within her Suggestions. As a result, Rei Taylor and those equivalent to her have regained their memories.

To me, this was incredible fortune.

Now matter how much thanks I could offer Dor-sama, it wouldn’t be enough.

“Do you know where TAIM is at this moment?”

“The answer to that question is difficult, Rei Taylor. TAIM is but a system, so she is everywhere. It would be best if we think that TAIM is listening to our conversation even now.”

“!”

“However, it appears TAIM is still suffering within the Dream Magic. I believe that her range of action will be restricted for the next bit.”

“S-so our greatest chance is now…”

It appeared that right now may be our best chance.

“In that case, what about Claire-sama? Do you know where Claire-sama is?”

I asked the one question I had wanted to ask the most.

“Claire François is… here, in the great cathedral.”

“Eh?”

Claire-sama is… here?”

“In that case, let’s save her as fast as―!”

“Please wait, Rei Taylor. Though she is here in the cathedral, more specifically she’s in its basement. That place also serves as the location for the Loop System’s mainframe.

“So basically―”

“That’s right. She has already been taken in by the system.”

“!? …There’s no way…”

Then… then, was there no way to take back Claire-sama?

When I expressed my doubts,

“No, there is still a chance. After all, she’s not dead yet.”

The Pope proceeded to explain in order.

“The system’s administrator privileges are currently, temporarily in TAIM’s hands. That is part of the process to transfer the privileges between the previous administrator, the Demon Queen, and Claire François. In this situation where TAIM has a hold of them both, the transfer of privileges has been paused.”

As the administrator privileges had nowhere to go, TAIM was acting as a stand-in.

The Pope explained that TAIM had basically hijacked the administrator privileges by exploiting a loophole within the system.

“Simply put, TAIM would also be in trouble were Claire François to die. If we had an advantage to take, it would be there.”

“What should we do?”

“We must get Claire François to recover her consciousness. Though she is currently in TAIM’s clutches, if we tear her away, the administrator privileges will certainly transfer. Once that happens, even TAIM won’t have any power over Claire-sama.”

We had found hope.

One way or another, we managed to bridge together a path to take back Claire-sama.

“In that case, we should gather people as fast as―”

Even if TAIM has the power of the system, if we took advantage of our numbers―.

“The system mainframe room is only accessible by people who have administrator privileges.”

In retrospect, if something like that were possible, I’m sure TAIM would have countermeasures in place.

Our opponent had managed history for tens of thousands… no, perhaps even billions of years.

There’s no way that routing such an opponent would be a simple task.

“However, in reverse that means that as long as one is an administrator, they can enter.”

“But we don’t have an administrator among…”

“As I had mentioned before, the transfer of administrator privileges is currently up in the air. That is to say, the Demon Queen still has them.”

So that would mean…

“Yes, the Demon Queen―and Oohashi Rei’s equivalent existences such as Irie, I, and you, hold those qualifications.”

Yes!

Our hopes had connected.

“That being said, the Server Room also has its own defense systems in place. First, we’ll need to break through those…”

“I have a suggestion for that.”

“? Sandrine?”

In an oddly cold tone of voice, Sandrine suddenly said those words.

“I am currently borrowing her body. I am Oohashi Rei―, no that’s become ambiguous, so I’ll rephrase.”

With Sandrine’s face, she declared.

“I am the Demon Queen. Though I had very nearly been deleted by TAIM.”