Even Angels Are Affected by the Souls They Came From

"What would you have me do?"

The one who had come forward was the High Angel who was meant to be off today and tomorrow—the very same one who had opened the door earlier and listened to Vihal.

"Please write the numbers one through nine here. As quickly as you can."

"…Very well."

While that High Angel wrote, Vihal moved to the other side of the board and called for the angel who had supposedly caused the mistake.

"You come to this side, and write the numbers the same way."

The angel, so dark-faced he looked as though he were carrying a storm cloud on his back, came over in silence and wrote with the pen handed to him.

When both were done and had stepped back, Vihal thanked them and stood again in front of the whiteboard.

"Now I am going to let everyone see the numbers these two have written. If you cannot see properly where you are, move so that you can see both clearly."

First he showed them the numbers written by the High Angel.

After a few moments, Vihal asked,

"Has everyone seen them?"

There was a ripple of murmuring, and then silence again.

"Then please look at the other side."

With that he turned the board around.

And then…

The murmur, which had begun small, swelled and swelled until it became impossible to tell whose voice was saying what.

Vihal shouted for quiet, but his voice did not reach them.

Then the High Angel who had written the numbers stood, clapped his hands, and said,

"All of you, be silent. Let us hear the rest of what he has to say."

That clap and that voice carried over the entire uproar and reached every ear in the room. Silence returned.

That, surely, was the High Angel's power.

"Forgive us for borrowing your strength. Thank you very much."

Edwin bowed his thanks.

"Then—if you'll allow me.

I believe you've all noticed already, but I want you to look carefully at the way each of them writes the numbers one and seven!"

By whose arrangement no one knew, the two sets of numerals—the ones and the sevens written by each of them—were enlarged and displayed on the great bulletin board of the Bulletin Office. Systems like this were usually achieved through the power of High Angels.

"Ah… th-thank you…!"

Vihal bowed toward the gathered superiors.

"Don't mention it!"

One of the Planning Division's superiors said it with a smile and a wave.

"As you can see, in this state I think it can't be helped if someone mistakes a one for a seven!"

The seven written by the superior angel and the one written by the angel who was blamed for the mistake were almost the same shape. If they had appeared separately, it would have been impossible to tell which was which.

"It seems that even among us angels, ways of writing numbers are influenced by the souls we came from. As far as I know, the one and the seven are the only ones we must be careful with."

There might be other things like this too. But they were not the kind of thing either division could easily discover alone.

"That is why I believe no one bears any great fault in this matter.

The information carried over from the soul—the difference in what is simply recognized as normal. Aren't these things we would never notice unless we talked properly and acknowledged one another beforehand…?

If anything is at fault, then it is the relationship between our two divisions. If ordinary conversation had been happening between us as a matter of course, then even today's mistake might have been resolved much earlier…

The Planning Division and the Cloud Painters both bear part of the cause, so shouldn't we simply correct that from now on…?"

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