No warp gate could transport a person this quickly.
Even more unheard of was the fact that it operated without mana stones, without magic circles, using only indecipherable formulas.
Xenon groped the carpet repeatedly with disbelief in his eyes. It was an absurd impossibility, yet having witnessed it unfold right before him, he had no choice but to believe it.
"Nessie! Find Lady Aneli's scent!"
Nessie growled low and bounded out the door. After sending Nessie out, Xenon surveyed his surroundings.
"Hey, ghost! You're here, aren't you? Show yourself right now!"
He shouted into the empty air, but the ghost did not appear. Not a single trace of presence could be felt.
Xenon frantically swept his gaze through the basement in agitation. The dust-covered furniture revealed nothing unusual.
Worried he might be missing something, he rummaged wildly beneath the desk and behind the drawers, until Samuel, who had been standing rigid all this while, finally spoke.
"She will not be in this vicinity."
"What?"
Samuel's complexion was paler than ever before. He gazed at the carpet, lost in thought, as if unaware of Xenon's sharp scrutiny.
"What do you mean by that?"
"She is likely at the Imperial Palace."
"Imperial Palace?"
"Because it connects to that place."
Xenon looked at Samuel in bewilderment, then turned to examine the carpet. The warp gate activated from this carpet was connected to the Imperial Palace?
His astonishment at this unexpected revelation was brief, as Xenon soon realized another question and quickly turned his head.
"How do you know that?"
Samuel, who had been silent with a dark expression, answered in a gruff tone.
"Now is truly the time to withdraw. This has become beyond the level where you can interfere."
Samuel uttered incomprehensible words and turned as if to leave the basement. Xenon hurriedly called out to stop him.
"Wait!"
"You should return to your daily life now."
At Samuel's words drawing a clear line, Xenon let out a hollow laugh.
"That's not for you to decide."
"We part ways here. I suppose there's no need for you to show me the way out?"
"Wait!"
Samuel, having reached the doorway, looked back indifferently. Xenon, glaring at him with clenched teeth, asked in a suspicious voice.
"Are you saying Lady Aneli is at the Imperial Palace? That would mean she's safe for now? She wasn't injured by the magic just now, nothing like that happened, right?"
"Yes."
With that answer, Samuel exited the basement. Left alone, Xenon looked around blankly, then let out a long sigh.
Standing there wiping his face with both hands, Xenon suddenly looked down at his hand. The ring he had been wearing all this time split into two or three pieces, then completely shattered and fell to the floor.
Looking down at the bisected ring fragments, Xenon lightly moved his fingers. The mana that had been immobile all this time stirred and he felt it surge to his fingertips.
"Ugh, damn it. This is exactly why I don't use illegal magical tools. That blasted Dekin."
If the mana seal was going to break, it should have broken ages ago.
With a hollow expression, Xenon kicked the ring fragments with his foot. Everything was already over, so what good would unlocking his mana do now?
Xenon slumped his shoulders and left the basement. Samuel was nowhere to be seen, having apparently left the place immediately.
Until yesterday, his daily life had been extremely lively with Aneli and even her Dullahans added to the mix.
He couldn't believe that all of it had shattered in an instant. Looking at the silent monastery scenery, Xenon bit his lip.
Just then, Nessie returned from scouting the surroundings and approached Xenon. Come to think of it, wandering around with just Nessie like this had been Xenon's original everyday life.
Now, a brief companionship had simply ended, and things had returned to normal. Just returned, and yet...
"Nessie, even you think it's too quiet, right?"
Nessie growled low in agreement. Xenon stroked Nessie's head and pulled out a communication device from his bag.
As soon as the connection was established with a sparkle, his master appeared and immediately thundered in rage.
—You brat! How could you all this time...!
"I'm returning now."
The master, about to launch into immediate rebuke, faltered.
—What?
"You told me to come back."
—I did say that, but.
His master's expression thick with suspicion regarded Xenon doubtfully.
"Then does this mean I've passed all the tests you mentioned?"
—But where are you right now? Why does the scenery look like that?
"If I return now, I officially become your successor, correct?"
—Xenon. What exactly happened to you?
At his master's question with narrowed eyes, Xenon fell silent. Gazing at his master with complicated eyes, he took a deep breath.
"Master, is it true that even the Emperor cannot arbitrarily touch the next Magic Tower Lord?"
—Of course! The Magic Tower has been keeping a low profile, so you simply don't know, but in reality, the status is so exalted and...
"Then that's enough."
Xenon calmly cut off his master's words and gathered mana at his fingertips.
"I'll come right away."
Watching this scene through the communication device, his master cried out in astonishment with wide eyes.
—How did you undo the mana seal!
As he drew up mana fully to inscribe a magic circle, he let out a low exclamation. Xenon looked back at his master calmly and smiled nonchalantly.
"Ah, it just kind of happened."
He intended to listen to the lectures after returning to the Magic Tower.
* * *
"Perhaps even in dreams, you crafted the appearance you wished to see."
The day they had conversed about the matter of dreaming.
When he heard Aneli's answer, Samuel vaguely realized. That this feeling he held for Aneli was strangely twisted.
Also that its origin stemmed from a time much further in the past than he had thought.
He had left the monastery as if being chased by someone, yet unable to go far, Samuel stopped his steps.
His palms grew sweaty from anxiety, yet his mind was clearer and cleaner than ever before.
The voice he had heard the moment Aneli disappeared before his eyes came to mind.
"The stopped time shall flow by the threads of fate, for the purpose of fulfilling unfinished duty."
Aneli had become translucent in an instant. The brilliant light enveloping her grew increasingly stronger, and the voice ringing in his head also became clearer.
Hearing the voice, he could understand all the contents of the inexplicable dream. The realization was like a bolt of lightning.
Aneli's figure standing in the ancient sacred ground, the monastery scenery that had arisen particularly vividly, the woman who had smiled at him.
The selfish feelings toward that woman, whose beginning he knew not.
"This has been recorded with the betrayer's tears, and he has fulfilled the covenant of repentance."
The flowing hair, the surprised face, the eyes that had gazed directly at him.
Samuel had known that face for a very long time. She was a person engraved in Samuel's soul.
Someone he had wandered this world time and again searching for, desperately praying again and again to please let him meet once more.
'...Waited for a very long time.'
Samuel unconsciously brushed his hand down the back of his neck. The skin was smooth without any scars.
Naturally so. There was no reason whatsoever for his neck to bear a scar. Whoever he was in the distant past, he was dead and gone.
Even if desperate memories were engraved in his soul, this fact would never change.
Samuel was an ordinary human. Unlike the other knights who fell into long slumber and waited for one person their entire lives, he became a human soul living through numerous lifetimes. She had become so as well.
Even this memory would not have been recovered had he not accepted the goddess's proposal while regretting his final choice.
'Discussing the past can wait until we meet again. First...'
Samuel, who had squeezed his eyes shut in confusion then opened them, first pulled out a communication mana stone from his bosom. It was a direct contact line he hadn't used since traveling with Aneli.
Despite being contacted after a long time, the other party answered immediately.
—Sir Samuel!
"My report is late, High Priest."
—Just what has happened during this time... No, more importantly, Sir. Is it true you have been accompanying the Resurrected One until now?
"Yes, that is correct."
Unlike Samuel's calm voice, the High Priest's voice was thoroughly agitated.
—How could you not report such an important fact to the Temple...!
"I received a revelation."
—A revelation?
"Yes. I dreamed of guiding the Resurrected One. I could not contact you for a while as I was following that revelation. I apologize."
At the words that he had received a divine revelation, the High Priest could not speak for a while. He was the one who had often asked Samuel, born with pure and high divine power, whether he had received divine revelations.
Since he had always treated him as someone who could receive a revelation at any time, the High Priest did not doubt him. Instead, he raised another topic with a serious voice.
—Are you still with the Resurrected One now?
"No, she is not by my side at the moment. But I know where she is."
—Is that so? Where is she?
Samuel furrowed his brow. An answer hiding his unpleasant feelings unexpectedly slipped out.
"She is at the Imperial Palace."
—The Imperial Palace? How could you leave the Resurrected One in such a secular and chaotic place! I will contact the priests immediately and...
"That is why I intend to go retrieve her."
—You will go retrieve her?
At the words that he would go personally, the High Priest hesitated. Samuel asserted his intention toward him in a strong tone.
"Yes. My task is not yet finished."
The High Priest seemed to have connected Samuel's words with 'divine revelation.' The High Priest answered in a grave voice.
—Very well. I will quickly prepare the Grand Temple to receive Her.
"I apologize. I do not intend to bring Her to the Grand Temple."
Samuel slowly raised his head.
Through the dense trees, the vast sky was visible. The sky he had looked up at in the very distant past had been that blue as well.
The twelve knights had gazed at that sky, vowing to grant all living beings bound by the world's providence free lifetimes. And at their forefront stood her.
Aneli, the agent of death who had freed lives living like puppets bound by the threads of fate.
Her unfinished mission still remained on this land. And Samuel knew that place. The very reason the warp gate had been connected to the Imperial Palace was also related to that.
"She is heading to the Trebi Mountain Range."
Belladia Valley, the Citadel of Sinners.
The key to reach the land where their hope had once sprouted was at the Imperial Palace.
Also the knight who had been guarding that key for a long time.