"The Elf Trial?" Carnot, the asymmetrical-faced bell ringer, listened in silence. Then his mouth twitched. "This is the first I've heard of it..."
"So do you know anyone who's studied it?" Abner hadn't expected Carnot himself to know. From the start, his real target had been the Church of Storms or the Life School of Thought behind him, so he used a frenzied Suggestion.
Carnot hesitated for a while before speaking again. "Councilor Ricciardo may have studied it. I can take you to see him."
With that, he pulled on a black robe and walked out of the bell tower, his tall frame hunched over.
Following behind him, Abner couldn't help thinking:
He really is taking me to a member of the Fate Council... As an "Investigator" hired by the Church of Storms, shouldn't I be sent straight to the bishop at Saint Draco Cathedral? Even if the Fate Council works with the Church of Storms, it shouldn't be getting involved in this...
Why does it seem like the only people doing any work for the Church of Storms are one hired "cannon fodder"—me—and two "collaborators"? Does that make any sense?
Hmm. Unless there's some deeper reason, the most likely explanation is that the Church of Storms in this scene is like the one in the sixth-floor Backlund scene: nothing more than a backdrop...
The church exists as part of the setting, but no clergy or other insiders have had their subconscious minds drawn in... Is that to stop them from praying inside the scene and attracting the attention of a True God?
Heh. It looks like Roselle placed certain restrictions on anything related to Gods when he first built the Dream Labyrinth Tower...
*But if he could choose or restrict the inhabitants, what about the challengers? I don't believe