Volume 5 -A Chapter 7 (1/2)

04/20/1944

I watched them until they vanished into their den on the slope.

Excuse me for using a pseudonym once more. This is Rose Francisca. I received your question-laden letter the other day, but I believe it would be meaningless to answer the majority of them.

You are fighting this war to liberate France from Germany and I a.s.sume you want answers to these questions in order to accomplish that. But what France needs now is the true liberation found in escaping the Primitif of the Rondeau. With France as it is, even someone who leaves the country remains bound by France's Formules and cannot escape this cage of time.

Everything that has occurred outside the country during this year is a false world created from the memories within France's Formules.

You had Jean Missel negotiate with people outside the country back in February, didn't you? But those negotiations are held every year and Sir Jean is negotiating with France's memories of that group outside the country.

France is a meticulous creature. It so fears the outside world that it refuses to Ajouter, uses its immune system to fully establish its own Signe, and even includes the actions taken outside the country during that year. You could say the world we Ajouter is a world created by France's Signe.

The outside world has decided to let France close in on itself.

Because if France were liberated, the world would be forced back 55 years.

The outside world is currently 1999 while our France is connected to 1944.

If we liberate France into the world of 1944, the outside world of 1999 will be annihilated by a 55-year paradox.

So in just a few years more, all external intervention will be cut off and France will fully close up. Once that happens, France will come to a stop with no chance of moving forward. It will repeat this year forever, with us closed inside.

You asked in your previous latter why France wishes to close up.

I think that is because the explosive known as the Wort Bombe had the power to transform the word structure of the spatial Formules. When the Wort Bombe detonated above France and caused the first Primitif, an all-encompa.s.sing change occurred to the Formules that form France. Formules are easily affected by the Messages that carry people's wills. Plus, this is a city formed entirely by journal entries. My view as a Correcteur is that the gathered wills of the majority acted as a Message which changed France.

That would mean the people in France at the time were filled with regret and doubt.

”Why is this happening?”

”Can't we redo the past?”

”Why do I feel nothing but anxiety about the future?”

Those thoughts are a given during times of war and they are likely what changed France. They remade it into a world where France could redo itself over and over again while preventing anyone from harming it.

Knowing that, what do you think of France?

I have nothing but contempt for it. And I know how to liberate it. There must be someone in the outside world who knows that as well. Someone on the outside has sent a key here so that this loop can determine everything. And I have a good guess who that person is.

So I believe everything will be decided this time. If it does not work this time, then any further attempts would be meaningless. That is how perfectly everything has been set up.

But this liberation is not something that can be forced onto France.

This world was closed by the will of the people, so it can only be opened by the will of the people. All of the people must break free of the Rondeau or it will be meaningless.

Now, I have a request for you.

Could you think about truly liberating France?

If you agree, then I will send you prophecies at regular intervals from now on. Those prophecies will combine the victory and sacrifice needed to liberate France.

Please think about it.

A lot of happy things happened this morning. I have so much to write that I will be writing this first entry now. I think I will try to use the ! and ? that Lady Beretta taught me. The nuance for those two is tricky but you can apparently decide whether or not to use them at the end of a sentence by reading the sentence aloud. I will now write another thing that Lady Beretta taught me.

”You need to include a decent s.p.a.ce after using ! or ? unless they are followed by a closing quotation mark. That's apparently meant to make your writing easier to read. A really old teacher taught me that when I was little so it must be a pretty old rule.”

Isn't that a strange rule? Okay. I hope I did that right. Those symbols do signify a pause for a breath just like the period so the s.p.a.ce is probably for the best. And the text is definitely easier to read with a decent gap breaking up the sentences.

Now I will write about myself.

For three days now I have seen strange images whenever I go to sleep. But I know what they are now.

I think they are dreams.

I cannot prove it and I do not know why I am having dreams now.

Yesterday's dream was very strange. I was surrounded by trees much like in Boulogne Forest. I was very tall and I was viewing the trees from the same height as the flying birds.

It was a strange dream. The land from which the trees grew was sloped like a hill and the trees grew as thick as a wall. And the sky was unbelievably blue.

I could see the heavens and the earth at the same time. I could see the blue sky, the green earth below the trees, and the drifting wind.

I woke up immediately after seeing all that.

Was that a memory of Boulogne Forest? Or was it a memory of looking up at the sky from the mansion's garden? I am not sure.

But it was not a bad feeling. I felt an emotion different from happiness. I am not sure what it is called. Even a machine like me has only vague memories of her dream.

I think I will have a dream today as well. That makes me happy.

I will now move on to the next topic. It is something that just now happened. I took the bucket of morning kitchen garbage out the back entrance and placed it on the wheelbarrow. I crouched down to remove the stopper on the wheelbarrow wheel and something tugged at my hair.

I turned around to see what it was and saw a three-tailed fox. That is a variety of Monstrum called a Fantasmé Renard. It lives in the den that Lady Beretta found. There was an entry for it in the Monstrum encyclopedia that Lady Beretta has.

They are docile Monstrums and their only notable feature is the ability to transform into a person just once in their life.

I sometimes see them in the mansion's garden. But the one tugging at my hair was clearly smaller than the ones I had seen before. I have determined it was a child.

I removed my hair from its small paws and told it not to be so mischievous. The strange meeting made me happy as I pushed the wheelbarrow to the garbage area next to the mansion's gate. I looked back while descending the hill to the gate and saw the Fantasmé Renard following me. And there was another one behind it.

I wondered what this was about as I walked through the gate. But neither of them followed me out. They instead hid behind the plants growing from the mansion's hill. Colorful flowers naturally bloom from those plants each year. But the master told me to look after them this year. Those flowers that bloom in summer seemed to be a hiding place for the Fantasmé Renards. The mansion's garden may be their home. I lowered the bucket and returned to find the two had become three.

The three creatures followed me as I pushed the wheelbarrow up the hill. They would sometimes struggle with each other and cry out as if fighting over who got to go first. I intervened and stopped them whenever that happened.

I arrived back at the top of the hill and found the two parent Fantasmé Renards there. They did not run away when I approached and they were focused on the three behind me.

Then the three were reunited with the two. Only then did the two look at me and make a sound like a small door creaking.

The larger two turned around and ran off. The smaller three followed after them.

I realized what had happened while I watched them go. The larger two had three beautiful tails each. Those tails swayed when they walked and the smaller three were reaching out toward them and trying to play with them.

It was just like how the one tried to play with my hair. The three had probably thought my hair was the same as the parents' tails. I watched them until they vanished into their den on the slope.

They were good neighbors.

<the bell=”” is=”” ringing.=”” it=”” seems=”” someone=”” is=”” at=”” the=”” door.=””>

Oh. I have to end this here. I will continue it tonight.

Today, I'm writing this at the Arc de Triomphe.

Now, about a month has pa.s.sed since that incident, but I still haven't been arrested. Looking back at my journal entries from back then, you can tell I felt cornered and it barely sounds like me. But that's probably the real me, so I'm going to use this entry to sum up my thoughts on recent events.

1: Rose Francisca's house

The landlord of my grandma's old appartement has not contacted me and all the change of address paperwork is under the German army's control. I a.s.sume that is because they want to know and keep secret what species and race people are for their race management policies.

2: Phillip will be partic.i.p.ating in the Heavy Barrel battle

There was an announcement on the school message board yesterday. I asked the student affairs office and it seems to be legit.

And yet that idiot still hasn't come to see me since that party a month ago. I thought he was back home riding horses around or something, but what is he thinking? And what am I supposed to do about it? Is he doing this because I chose to partic.i.p.ate after he told me not to?

3: Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Berge will be partic.i.p.ating in the Heavy Barrel battle

This was also announced yesterday. He's said to be the strongest Knight Striker of this age and yet he has not been made one of the 16 Sword Masters. Heinz Berge will be fighting the winner of the Heavy Barrel battle. For a normal Knight Striker, that would be an honor, I suppose.

They must really not want this to end with a French victory.

4: I am being much more cautious

I can no longer carelessly ask people about the Attesor Project, so I'm doing my best to research it on my own using the information I have access to. I haven't gone completely taciturn, but...

”You can be scary sometimes.”

I get that a lot now. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I may be like this for the next 4 months.

5: Rosetta is secretly famous

After she made a lunch for Mallette and Mallette brought it to school, there have been a ton of requests to meet her. I went to meet her today and asked if she would be willing to help out at the school festival beginning on the 10th of next month. She said yes.

Rosetta has grown really sharp about a lot of things. That can be a problem but it also makes me happy. This may be how an older sister feels. She asked me about my family the other day, so I took on my grandma's ident.i.ty and told her about the Sein Frau factory in San Francisco, but it was difficult to talk about Jack McWild like he was my dad.

And it was hard to explain what kind of work is done there. In America, Sein Fraus are targets of discrimination and treated as no more than tools. Rosetta has such a peaceful life here in Europe, so telling her about their tears and suicides would only worry her.

I just know she wants to be human. I still remember what she said on that first night she slept over:

”I feel even happier.”

She must be remaking herself for that purpose. That's a relief, but I'm also a bit jealous because I wish I could do the same with myself. It's only about 4 months until the Format, but I want to stick with her to the end.

6: About Knight Strikers

I'm still thinking about this one. My great-grandfather, Jack McWild, tried to create the strongest Barrel, but what is the connection between seeking power like that and working to protect people? I know I'm getting argumentative here, but it scares me to think he only wanted that power to win the war.

”What kind of power is it I hope to wield?”

I don't know what that power is or if I would be able to wield it.

I hope to find some answers during the school festival's Heavy Barrel battle. Heinz Berge is known as the strongest, so if I see him fight, I might be able to see what a Heavy Barrel's true power is.

But how will that festival turn out? To be honest, there's a lot of pressure on me. I never imagined Phillip would take part. Rumor has it he went to ask Lieutenant Colonel Berge to nominate him just as the Lieutenant Colonel was preparing to do so. What a strange coincidence.

This must be a change to history. And it's not overestimating my own importance to say I caused it. That idiot is almost certainly doing this to send a message to me.

If I started Signing about him, I have a feeling I would gradually start writing worse and worse things. I just hope he loses somewhere along the line. Well, a.s.suming I'm not arrested beforehand.

I think it's about time I got back home. What time is it now anyway? Surely it isn't nine already.

<the plaza=”” clock=”” says=”” it=”” is=”” 8:46=”” pm.=””>

Oh, c.r.a.p!!

Today's Events

1: Paris Liberation Strategy Meeting #7

I call it a meeting, but it was only Old ”Blue-Eyes” and me. Still, he seemed in a really good mood today. He boasted that he could remove the power limiters on all the Lourd de Marionnettes in Paris by the end of July. All of the ones in Paris have a few of their cylinders removed, but his grandson is in the German army and can apparently get his hands on some of the spare parts.

His grandson will apparently be using the family Lourd de Marionnette at the Sorbonne Lourd de Marionnette battle, but they're probably plotting something there as well. According to Rosetta, that girl and Heinz Berge will be partic.i.p.ating too. Who knows how that will turn out.

2: Cleanup after the High Priestess