Azarias smiled. "Thanks. That's a ways off from my own estimate. I really have lost track of time up here… Now, what do you two say we proceed with the main event?"
He opened his arms to the crowd behind the Explorers.
"You all want a show, don't you? Grand, exciting, and artistic…"
The crowd erupted into cheers. Azarias opened his arms wide as if he were absorbing their energy.
"I can feel the love…"
He strolled away, waving for everyone to follow. The Explorers had no choice but to go with the flow to avoid making contact with the crowd behind them.
After a brief walk, the mayhem of color was cut off rather abruptly. The ground underfoot changed from a surreal mess of fractals and shapes the Explorers couldn't bear to look at, into short-cut green grass.
But it wasn't quite grass. It was too uniform, and almost too crunchy…
It was turf.
The turf led down a hillside, then evened out into a massive field. The field was walled in by towering rock faces that touched the sky.
Strangely, this field was only half as large as Enza had remembered it being. On the left side, there was now a giant pit.
The pit had been dug in an organized fashion, leaving a road that spiraled down the side. This allowed equipment and personnel to be moved up and down.
Is that… a mine? An open pit mine?
At the bottom of the pit, the distinct yellow of heavy mining equipment caught Enza's eye.
Her mind flashed back to class at the Institute.
…Back to when Azarias told of how humanity came to rule Earth…
And how it all happened through digging.
The most powerful fuel, the most useful minerals—everything required for industry came from within the ground.
What kind of game does he have planned… Also, how did he manage to dig the mine out by himself? It's huge…
Enza's head turned away from the mine, toward the intact half of the field.
Squarely in the center stood a brick building. She was too far away to make out the details, but it looked somewhat official.
As Enza stared at the building in thought, she suddenly realized how quiet it was around her. The crowd had been loudly laughing and shouting all this time, but now their mouths were shut. All of them were either lying down, leaning against something, or trying to find a comfortable spot.
Azarias stood right on the hill's edge, facing the playing field. Once the crowd had finished settling in, he began to speak without turning around.
"Discomfort is an incredible source of growth. When trying to improve at something, you don't just continue doing what you're already good at—you attack your weakest point. On the Mountain, an exploration team is almost never separated. If they are, they're likely dead already. Enza, Athalia, neither of you is used to being alone yet. That's going to change, but please don't let that worry you too much. It's just like jumping into cold water; the discomfort doesn't last forever, only until you adjust."
He gestured to the brick building and the open-pit mine. "In this game, the Explorers will be on separate paths. One will go left, and one will go right."
He paused.
"Since each Explorer will be doing their own thing, you might assume there won't be any heated competition. But please trust me… I would never abandon a core part of what makes a game a game."
He held up two fingers.
"Two Explorers, two prizes. I've already assigned a prize to each Explorer. However, only one of them will leave with anything, even if both survive. That's because this game will be a race. The moment one Explorer reaches their prize, the other's prize is automatically destroyed!"
Enza and Athalia's eyes met.
"…To begin, each will receive a clue. When both clues have been read in full, the Explorers may start."
Azarias raised his right hand. A paper airplane shot toward him from the crowd. He caught it between two fingers without glancing back, then undid the folds in the paper.
"The first clue goes to Athalia Darwin Bathory. Unbeknownst to you, you are in search of a sword. You did not forge this sword, nor are you to be its wielder. Your only task is to be King Arthur and pull it from the stone. To do that, you must find a way to grasp its hilt. You must better understand this sword. How was it forged? What about before it was forged? Understand the process of this sword's creation to that extent. Immerse yourself in raw minerals, and dig out their secrets."
He raised his left hand and caught another paper airplane.
"The second and final clue goes to Enza Peregrine Fenamore. I'm making modifications to the clue because of that light in your eyes. That glint… Enza, it appears you've finally begun to look upwards, towards the fourth stratum. I thought I'd have to try really hard to convince you, but you went and convinced yourself.
"Since it seems like there's no way up from here, I've inferred that reaching the fourth stratum must require more than the physical act of climbing to some higher location. It must require a journey of both mind and body. I thought I had done both of those, but apparently not well enough… Let's hope you succeed where I've failed, for the sake of the four of us.
"To succeed, you will need history. Enza, history isn't just something that exists within words. History is alive— it lives in the marks it leaves on the physical world, and it lives in human memories. I'm only a partial historian, but you must become a true one."
Athalia had been watching closely as Azarias read Enza's clue. The moment he finished speaking, she broke into a sprint and tore down the hill of turf without saying any goodbyes.
Enza watched as her teammate confidently headed to the left, toward the mine.
I guess her clue involving minerals made it pretty obvious… No need to discuss who goes which way…
In the interest of not letting Athalia get a head start, Enza sprinted down the hill toward the brick building.
She had an urge to look back at Azarias, but kept her eyes forward.
Atop the hill, there weren't any sounds of celebration from the Hymyläns as the game kicked off. They remained still and silent…
Their eyes were locked on the back of Azarias's head.
Azarias noticed this invisible pressure and turned to face the crowd with a sigh. "Explorers are so rude. Neither of them said goodbye, not even to each other… I wonder if they've been fighting. Anyway, can someone get my supplies and work clothes? I can't let you all miss the show. Whoever does it gets to keep the paper airplanes as a souvenir."
A group of children slipped away from the crowd and ran behind a house. They came back carrying buckets, a painter's smock covered with stains and flecks, paintbrushes of varying sizes, and two easels with blank canvases attached. They set the easels up in front of Azarias.
Azarias put on the old smock and looked down at the buckets with a smile. "Finally, some colors I can clearly tell apart. Solid colors… If I could paint this town with these, I would…"
Yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green, and white. One color of paint filled each bucket.
Azarias took a paintbrush in each hand and closed his eyes.
A few seconds later, he began to snore…
Somehow, sleeping while standing didn't cause Azarias to fall over. As soon as he fell asleep, his arms began to twitch. A second later, they lunged towards the buckets of paint. After both paintbrushes were doused, Azarias's arms flew back to the canvases and began frantically painting two scenes in unison, one arm for each canvas…
***
Enza was pleasantly surprised by a familiar sight.
She had made it down to the level of the field and was standing a short distance from the building. From here, she could clearly tell what it was.
It was a courthouse, just like the one depicted in the textbook. Red brick walls and a tall entrance with pillars on either side. In front of each pillar stood a statue of a human, for a total of four. A pair of silent gargoyles peered down from the roof.
Enza cautiously approached and climbed the steps.
No matter what, I'll have to go inside, right? I don't think I'm being careless by going straight for the door… I can't waste too much time, anyway.I bet Athalia's already made decent progress into whatever she's doing in the mine.
Enza could see the fine details of the statues now.
Two boys and two girls. However, it was only evident from their hair and clothing.
The faces of the statues had been sanded off…
Enza felt a shiver run down her spine. They didn't look like that in the textbook drawings.
She continued past the statues and found herself in front of a set of double doors. After taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she grabbed the handles and pulled hard.
The doors didn't budge at all.
Locked? How strange. I didn't even feel a millimeter of give; normal locks aren't like that. You can usually make some noise by trying to open the door repeatedly. It's like these doors are glued into place…
She frowned and walked backwards, past the statues again. She nearly fell down the stairs in fright as a scratchy voice came from above her.
"You're supposed to knock before trying a door… It's just good manners."
Enza's head immediately swiveled from statue to statue to see which one had spoken. The voice was male, but neither of the male statues had moved an inch…
"No, I'm up here."
Enza craned her neck to look at the roof.
There were two gargoyles peering down at her. She shivered as she locked eyes with the one on the left. The gargoyle on the right continued to stare into space like a normal sculpture.
"W-what the hell? How are you able to speak?"
"Why are you surprised? It's not the first time a creature that the Explorers don't consider to be human has spoken English."
The gargoyle looked past Enza and up the hill of turf.
"How… How could you possibly know about that? Did Azarias tell you when he set this game up? If he didn't, what… no, who are you? Only an Explorer could know about such matters. Are you a past Explorer who was made a Hymylän citizen, and whose soul is now trapped in stone? Do you remember your name?"
"Not even going to introduce yourself before peppering me with questions? Looks like humanity hasn't changed much… That's strangely reassuring.
"As for who I am, I'm just a stone gargoyle. I'm not sure I have a name. If I do, nobody ever told me. I've considered naming myself, but I haven't thought of any that would fit."
Enza's eyes landed on the other gargoyle. "What about your friend here? Why are you the only one talking? These human statues are making me nervous, too. Do I have to worry about them starting to move around?"
The gargoyle chuckled. "If you did, it'd be a lot less boring around here. I could do something about that myself, but I'm not the type to disturb someone while they're sleeping."