“······.”
I looked at Ihelm. His appearance had changed quite a bit since I had met him in Bercht. He was thinner, gaunter.
“Did you go on a diet?”
“They say your stomach hurts even when your in-laws buy land. Seeing you do so well made me damn near not want to live. The world feels stale. Every time I breathe, it feels like I’m swallowing moths.”
Ihelm sneered with a rotten smile. With 「Vision」, I saw the mana shimmering at his side.
“For all that, you’ve grown quite a bit.”
“······Don’t act like you know. What the hell would you know?”
The Ihelm I knew was not a particularly outstanding named character.
Of course, his pure magical talent surpassed Deculein’s, but compared to the many powerful named characters, he should still have been sorely lacking.
Yet the purity of his mana now was beyond my expectations.
“Hmph. It is strange. Whiskey, brandy, vodka, tequila, and every odd liquor imported from the Archipelago—I’ve lived with them all glued to my mouth, but my magical insight is clearer than ever.”
Ihelm tilted his head. He glared at me with those red eyes.
“Is this thanks to you too? Deculein, Head Professor.”
“I suppose so. It seems I have a talent for making others’ magical talents blossom.”
“······Ha.”
Ihelm let out a hollow laugh. But soon, his face twisted savagely.
“Deculein. I still don’t understand that snake-like mind of yours. What exactly are you planning to do with Luna’s daughter?”
“······.”
“You didn’t drive her out of the Magic Tower, but accepted her as your assistant? When you even had a chance to expel her?”
Without a word, I leaned back into my chair. Ihelm, on the other hand, thrust his upper body toward me.
“I’ve thought about it a lot. If you resembled Dicaillen, I might have been able to guess what you took Luna’s daughter in for. But you don’t resemble Dicaillen.”
──At that moment.
As if my consciousness were ringing an alarm.
A certain tone surged into my mind.
It was Idnik’s voice.
······I thought you would kill that child. Because the one who first discovered her was Dicaillen.
Ha—! Ihelm’s mocking laugh.
“What. Did you start pitying her after watching her?”
I let it pass through one ear and continued my thoughts.
I recalled the personality of Dicaillen I had encountered in the diary.
I rewound the words he had muttered.
······I am Master Dicaillen’s learning intelligence. Master entrusted me with the foremost objective of [Eligibility Assessment for Family Succession].
Dicaillen, the former head of Yukline, had been satisfied with neither Yeriel nor Deculein.
······The result is ‘both disqualified.’
If so.
Was Dicaillen perhaps searching for a new head?
Not Deculein, nor Yeriel, but another talent who could carry on the Yukline family in splendor.
Was that candidate Epherene?
“Did you feel sorry for that daughter of Luna’s, who only pretended to be loved by her father? After watching that idiot girl for long enough, did you suddenly feel pity and compassion, and decide you wanted to play the damn father in his place? Or did that fresh body of hers tempt you?”
I looked at Ihelm. For a moment, I thought of crushing that face of his.
“······Hmph. Fine. Whether it turns out good or bad, the announcement for the chairwoman’s successor will probably come within this week.”
Ihelm twisted his mouth and spoke as if threatening me.
“You and me, our past. That daughter of Luna’s, and the deal between Luna and Yukline. I’ll reveal it all at the public hearing’s cross-examination.”
What sort of deal there had been. What that past had been like. Ihelm laughed as he spouted words I didn’t even know.
“Let’s die together.”
He tried to rise from his seat. I manifested 「Telekinesis」. His hand, which had touched the iron armrest, was clamped down with a crunch.
“Let go.”
Ihelm moved his hand this way and that, but there was no way my 「Telekinesis」 would be broken by the likes of him.
Clatter— crash—
After shaking only the innocent chair, he sat back down.
“Ihelm. Keep that up and you’ll die before the hearing.”
“Pfft. Yeah?”
He continued with a snicker, as if mocking me.
“You don’t seem to know, but I’m already dead. Since the day you took everything from me.”
“Then die once more.”
“Try killing me.”
Ihelm was the first to lift his legs. The sight of him trying to leave while stuck to the chair was rather ridiculous, so I released 「Telekinesis」.
After throwing the chair aside, he left while rubbing his wrist.
Bang─!
The door slammed shut violently.
The office fell silent.
“······.”
Left alone, I organized the many fragments rising in my mind.
Epherene. Luna. Yukline. Dicaillen. Ihelm.
Pasts entangled as intricately as a spiderweb.
As I weighed those relationships, I happened to look at the window, and the reflection of myself beyond the dark glass felt unfamiliar.
My face looked, somewhat, angry.
“The reason I took Epherene in.”
Ihelm’s question, I asked myself again.
The reason was certain, with no need to think twice.
······Whether in the present, or in the distant future.
Because that girl is my disciple.
* * *
Thud─!
Returning to the assistant’s research room, Epherene set a bundle of documents on the desk.
It’s only a hundred pages. There’s no reason I can’t do it!
Cheering herself on inwardly, she rolled up her sleeves.
Ding—!
An alarm rang from the Wizboard. Startled, Epherene looked at the screen first.
“Ah!”
[ The post ‘Does anyone know the history of the Magic Tower from 10–15 years ago?’ has been deleted ]
[ Reason: Period expired ]
The history of the time 10–15 years ago when Deculein and her father had attended the Magic Tower together.
She had even put up a reward······.
In her own way, Epherene was making an effort to dig into Deculein and her father’s past.
“Is 100 elne too little?”
Well, even decent lecture notes usually cost over 500 elne.
With trembling hands, Epherene adjusted the price and wrote the post again.
——[ Does anyone know the history of the Magic Tower from 10–15 years ago? Reward Offered ]——
：Anyone who knows the history of the Magic Tower from 10–15 years ago. Or anyone who knows someone who knows that history. If you give me information, I’ll pay 600 elne.
—————
“600 elne should do it.”
And then, time to start studying in earnest!
“Now······ let’s see.”
The first sheet. The first page was the introduction. The value of creating a new pure element, the overview of the four-series magic that could be established based on it······.
She skimmed it roughly and turned to the next page.
“Huh?”
The content didn’t connect. The first page and the second page were different.
From the second page onward, there were suddenly a bunch of formulas. As if something had been omitted in between.
“Did that professor give me the wrong thing?”
Without thinking, Epherene placed her finger on the first sheet and slid it.
Then, the page flipped with a whoosh.
“······Ah.”
Only then did she realize it.
Each and every one of these sheets was not ordinary paper.
It was ‘cutting-edge magic paper.’
Therefore, the amount contained in a single sheet was······ 300 pages.
In other words, 100 sheets of magic paper with 300 pages each meant······.
“······30,000 pages.”
The time remaining was a little over a month.
But the material to study was 30,000 pages.
“Ah······.”
At that instant, the back of Epherene’s head went stiff.
Thwack—! It was the pain of being hammered in the frontal lobe. It felt as though the whole world was receding into the distance.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the basement of the Intelligence Bureau.
“······Hmm.”
Hundreds of millions of sheets of paper and documents, taxidermied and sealed bizarre lifeforms, illegal magic books written from ash piles, and so on······.
In the [Intelligence Bureau Records and Evidence Storage Room], which was filled with all manner of things, Primienne was rummaging through information related to Cielia. Because the wallpaper was purple, the place was commonly called the ‘Purple Room.’
“Fuck.”
Investigating a human being’s entire life was an immensely annoying task.
Because the ‘accurate trajectory of a person’s life’ could not be obtained from the person themselves.
“Ah, fuck, this isn’t it either.”
A human life comes not from oneself, but from one’s surroundings.
Why is a human a human?
Isn’t a human [人間] human because they live with humans, because they live between [間] humans [人]?
If there were only one human in this world, that person would not be human.
“Goddamn it.”
Therefore, Primienne was searching through every person around Cielia.
Constructing a single person’s timeline like this was menial labor, the kind Primienne had done since she was a low-ranking agent—no, the kind only low-ranking agents did······.
“This is all because of that bastard.”
Muttering dryly, Primienne found a single ‘burned letter’ among the evidence list.
“What sort of letter is this now?”
A question tossed out as if to herself, but someone answered.
An agent wearing the Intelligence Bureau uniform replied.
“Ah, that? Its official name is ‘Chain Letter of Fortune.’”
Primienne lowered her eyes and read its contents.
[ The person who reads this letter will be cursed within three days. There is only one way to cure it: accurately transcribe and deliver the contents of this letter to three or more people. Furthermore, if you spread this letter to five or more people, your next day will be filled with fortune······. ]
“How idiotic.”
“The people who received that letter really were cursed and died. It’s a letter that killed hundreds.”
“Ah.”
Whoosh! Primienne quickly threw the letter away. She even shook off her hands to ward off bad luck.
“They say it was an incident the magic world quietly buried too. It happened more than ten years ago, so it’s understandable that you wouldn’t know about it, Deputy Director.”
“······Magic is mysterious. And fucking awful.”
“That letter isn’t magic. It’s a demon.”
“A demon? That little thing?”
“Yes~ Demons are classified as ‘existences,’ ‘phenomena,’ and ‘concepts.’ This letter was a ‘phenomenon.’”
At the agent’s words, Primienne nodded.
“Mm. You learned well under that bastard—no, under the professor.”
“Yes. I came to know it naturally. All the books in the professor’s study were like that.”
Primienne looked back at the agent rummaging through the ‘Purple Room’ with her.
“There are hospital records for Cielia and Sylvia here too? Looks like they went in and out of hospitals pretty often when they were young.”
This ‘Purple Room’ was a place where wiretapping and surveillance were impossible. Of course, there was a crystal orb on the ceiling, but it was for video recording only and could not capture voices.
Therefore, it was the perfect place for arranging a secret meeting.
“A letter that took the lives of 358 people over ten years ago······ The one who dispelled it was Dicaillen, head of Yukline.”
Primienne looked at the records related to the ‘Chain Letter of Fortune.’
“A lot of people died.”
“Yes.”
“If Cielia is related to this case, then I’ll have to dig through every one of those 358 people.”
“That’s right.”
“Fuck, and I’m not even some grunt anymore.”
As she muttered curses with an expressionless face, the agent secretly swallowed a laugh.
“The stock market’s in a downtrend too, and here I am doing the crap I did as a grunt all over again. Maybe it was a mistake to recruit that fucking professor. Should I just hope this damn world ends tomorrow?”
“Come on, even so~ Professor Deculein should be able to soothe Sylvia pretty well.”
At that, Primienne silently looked at the one disguised as an agent. With eyes sunk coldly.
“······You really are fond of a guy who massacres your kin.”
“It’s not a massacre yet. And I’m staying by his side to prevent that from happening, just in case.”
It was Allen—no, Ellie’s answer.
Tsk— clicking her tongue, Primienne suddenly recalled a memory. It was relatively recent.
“Ellie.”
“Yes?”
At some point, in a restaurant in Hadekain, when Betan had recommended a soup called ‘Rotaillie.’
To her, who had not eaten the Rotaillie simply because she ‘did not like mushrooms,’ Deculein had said something.
—Primienne. Do you perhaps know?
─Know what?
─We met in Bercht once. We ate together at a restaurant in Bercht.
“We met in Bercht before, didn’t we?”
Ellie nodded.
“Yes. Deputy Director, you came to Bercht on your day off. At that time, you ate at a restaurant together with Professor Deculein.”
Ellie’s memory, if no one else’s, was trustworthy. He forgot not a single event related to space; he was as good as space itself.
“What was on the menu that day?”
Primienne asked Ellie. As if it were nothing, cold and composed as usual.
Ellie answered.
“It was pine mushroom steak.”
—The menu then was steak with mushrooms.
For an instant, Ellie’s and Deculein’s voices rang out as if overlapping.
Primienne’s hand, which had been rummaging through the documents, came to a sudden stop.
“······Was it.”
That day, the words Dekyullein had spoken while bidding her farewell echoed belatedly.
—Haha. It was a joke. How could I possibly remember what I ate so long ago……
“…….”
Peurimien placed all records related to Sielia into boxes.
Thud! Thud! Thud! She stuffed anything that might be useful inside and said,
“Ellie. You can’t remain by that professor’s side forever. If you hold out much longer, the chances of being discovered by ‘the Altar’ will only grow.”
“Yeah, yeah. As if I wouldn’t know that. I’m a double agent, after all.”
“If you know, then leave already.”
“Yeah, yeah! I’m going! Bye, Lilia Peurimien~”
Allen grinned and pulled her hat down low. Then she proudly opened the front door of the ‘Purple Room’ and walked out.
“……There’s no need to hold any more feelings for the target than necessary.”
Muttering softly, Peurimien set the boxes down and slumped into a chair.
“Damn stocks…….”
Her temples throbbed as if they would burst. The image of a wretched stock market crash came to mind, and his voice lingered at her ears.
—I hadn’t known you disliked mushrooms.
“…….”
—……The menu at the time was a steak with a side of mushrooms.
“…….”
—Haha. It was a joke. How could I possibly remember what I ate so long ago……
Expressionless, she nudged the box on the floor with her foot and muttered,
“Fucking mushrooms.”
* * *
Today, I visited Sophien as her magic instructor. However, the location was different from usual. It was not the ‘Hall of Learning,’ but the garden of the Imperial Palace.
“Dekyullein. Over here.”
The northeastern garden. Its scenery was an eternal winter.
Bare trees stood dense as thorns, and endless perpetual snow painted the ground white—a snowfield.
Beyond it, Sophien stood beside a lone log cabin.
“Here, here.”
The Emperor, dressed in a fur coat and fur hat. She waved her hand with dignity.
Today, Sophien looked much improved.
I approached her.
Crunch— crunch—
As I stepped through the snow, I thought about the gap between the “2nd cycle” and the “7th cycle.” I recalled the promise I had failed to keep with her.
“Welcome.”
“It is good to see you, Your Majesty. You seem well today.”
“Indeed.”
Sophien chuckled.
“But today, I am with someone you know.”
She snapped her fingers.
Then Yulie walked out from inside the cabin.
She, who had escorted me to the Imperial Palace today, had for some reason arrived at this garden even before me.
“Lately, I have been sleepy often, growing lazy, and lacking time for instruction. Thus, I have decided to receive swordsmanship and magic instruction simultaneously.”
“I apologize for not informing you in advance. I too was caught on my way back.”
“…….”
Yulie, now an instructor knight rather than an escort knight, wore a rather stiff expression. Though quite bewildered, she nodded for now.
Yulie spoke first.
“Your Majesty. Shall we begin with the sword first?”
“No. Sit down for now.”
Sophien guided us to a tea table near the cabin. There were wooden chairs and a table. She placed a teacup on top.
“Lately, my lethargy and sloth have crossed all limits……. I suspect the cause lies not within, but without.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Keiron, who stood beside the cabin.
“That knight Keiron says nothing……. Professor Dekyullein. What say you? Do you know?”
Sophien took out a mirror from within her clothes and placed it on the table.
I said nothing. To answer that I did not know would be a lie.
“Dekyullein, speak. What is it that you know?”
Sophien narrowed her brow somewhat fiercely. As I met her thorny gaze, and Yulie was gauging the mood between us—
“……!”
Suddenly, Yulie’s eyes flew wide open. Her body jolted violently.
Thud—!
The teacup on the table spilled onto the ground.
“……Professor? Your Majesty?”
Immediately after, Yulie looked back and forth between Sophien and me with a blank face.
It was an abrupt outburst, but for some reason, I felt I knew the reason.
“Yulie.”
“……Yes?”
“What did you see?”
Yulie blinked, looking around. Looking greatly confused, her hair stood on end. Crackle— static electricity actually sparked.
“Ah, that is…… I believe I had a dream. Thank goodness it was a dream—”
Worry filled Yulie’s eyes as she looked at me. I cut her off decisively.
“No. Yulie. You cannot dream in this place. You have not slept for even a moment.”
Sophien watched Yulie and me with intrigued eyes. Then, perhaps bored, she picked up the teacup that had fallen to the ground and took a sip.
“Speak, Yulie. What did you see, what did you do before returning here. No, what dream did you have.”
“That…… the professor…….”
At those grave words, Yulie swallowed hard. Then, gripping her thigh armor tightly, she spoke.
“It was a dream of death.”
At that, the smile on Sophien’s lips deepened. Yulie placed a hand on her chest and checked her heartbeat, as if trying to distinguish whether this was reality or not.
“Truly, what a relief…….”
I was grateful for Yulie’s sigh of relief.
But I shook my head and said,
“No. It is not a relief. Because that was not a dream.”
“Pardon?”
Right now, Yulie had regressed.
From some future—specifically, a future where I had died—she had slain ‘Nesius.’
“If you do not explain, I will die like that again.”