······The inner keep of “Ghost Castle” was hazy white, as though wrapped in fog. Her senses kept growing dim, and a languid feeling, as if she were no longer herself, coiled around her entire body.
Within that hazy consciousness, Epherene wandered.
“Carlos! There you are!”
A voice rang out then. Epherene staggered and looked over.
“Come to your senses!”
“You can’t lose!”
Ganesha, Lia, and Leo were holding on to some child named Carlos and shouting. They told him not to lose, to get up already.
“Sister! Where are you! Sister!”
Jackal was still searching for his sister, and Epherene moved her legs as well.
—······So it is you.
But then, from somewhere, a voice called to her. Epherene blankly turned toward it.
—How good to see you.
Someone who resembled Deculein. Yet a man older than him was looking at her and smiling.
—Daughter of Kagan, whom I cherished.
“······What?”
—Come here.
He reached out his hand. As if possessed by something, Epherene tottered toward him.
“Leafy!”
Just then, someone seized her wrist. It was Ihelm.
“Don’t go.”
With Epherene behind his back, he glared at Dikailen. Dikailen laughed dryly.
—Ihelm, is it.
“······.”
—I was grateful to you. For becoming friends with my son—
“Friends? We were never in such a romantic relationship.”
—Haha.
“What the hell is going on? A dead bastard comes back to life. Where the hell is this place?”
For an instant, Dikailen’s expression hardened. But soon, he smiled again.
Dikailen said,
—Ihelm. I am alive like this. I am not dead.
As Dikailen muttered those words, an obsession close to madness flickered in his eyes.
He looked at Epherene.
—Daughter of Luna. Do you know what your father truly wanted?
“Don’t listen, Leafy.”
Ihelm gathered mana in his grasp. He constructed a destructive spell that would crush Dikailen’s spirit.
—If you know that······.
The moment he was about to fire the completed spell.
Ruuuuuuumble───!
A vibration broke out. Epherene and Ihelm looked around.
—······Oh dear.
Dikailen spoke with a grave, sunken face. He looked up at the sky and furrowed his brow.
—My son is doing something strange.
Ihelm deployed a barrier around Epherene and everyone nearby. Almost at the same time, a roar as if the entire crust of the earth were collapsing shook the whole world.
──────!
And then······.
* * *
Carla had memories of Deculein from when he was young.
A child called a prodigy. Yet a mediocre talent who had been only that much. A pitiful friend.
—Decu. Maybe if you do it like this?
—······No. I don’t need it. Don’t call me Decu.
—If you try doing it like me, it should work?
—I said no. And you, stop putting question marks at the end. Don’t keep talking as if you’re asking. It’s needlessly confusing.
He could not understand the teachings of a genius like her, and because of his pride, he could not even admit the fact that he did not understand. He would stubbornly insist and, in the end, claim it was her fault for teaching him strangely.
A curious fellow.
Yet Carla was watching now. The island being vainly broken to pieces, collapsing, sinking. The mage who was wielding such a powerful spell.
Deculein.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa——!
The entire castle shook violently. A colossal earthquake battered it from all sides.
Souls that had already died wailed, and Carla could hear their cries.
Curses saying they did not want to die.
Or pleas begging to be killed.
Incidentally, in this world, there existed a “society of ghosts.” Carla had visited it before as well.
They recognized “humans who killed souls,” and thus, because of this incident, Deculein might earn the hatred of spirits forever.
There was no way Deculein did not know that.
Even so, that friend did not hesitate.
Was he not afraid of curses? Or was he simply not thinking about what came after?
Carla found Deculein’s growth perplexing.
Kuuuuuuuuuuuung———!
The castle began to collapse. Like tearing paper, the walls split open and shattered into dozens of pieces.
The psychokinesis generated from the ground shook the entire space and produced powerful waves.
“······.”
Deculein coughed blood in the middle of the spell. A handful of dead blood flowed from his mouth. Blood from torn muscles soaked his clothes.
The mana Carla had given him was only about thirty percent of hers, but the price of borrowing another’s was great.
“Are you all right?”
Carla asked. Deculein gave no response. He merely sat in his chair and looked at his disciple and assistant professor.
“······Urgh.”
Epherene was the first to react. Her eyelids trembled, then she slowly opened her eyes.
“······.”
Those dazed eyes stared at Deculein. Her face still wondered whether this was reality or a dream.
“Profes······ sor?”
Epherene looked at Deculein. His figure, drenched in blood and exhaustion, was so utterly different from usual that she had no choice but to think it was a dream.
“Ah! Professor?!”
Allen woke from sleep next. Meanwhile, Deculein closed his eyes for a moment.
The two of them flinched in shock.
“Oh, he’s dead!”
“Ms. Epherene, don’t say things like that! Professooor!”
“······I don’t think he’s dead.”
At Carla’s words, both their heads whipped around. The two looked at Carla and asked with their eyes.
Who are you?
Then Ihelm’s disciples opened their eyes, and from far away came the click—clack—of heels.
Ganesha.
“Oh~ Our professor sure is fiery. This castle was······ how many square meters was it again? Anyway.”
Smiling, she picked up a piece of the castle’s wreckage. The castle had been completely smashed apart, but only the radius around this area was being maintained by Deculein’s 「Psychokinesis」.
“Even just this much mana stone would make the imperial people happy. Of course, we didn’t drive off the robber~”
Ganesha looked at Carla. She smiled with her eyes, but her gaze was deep.
“Carla.”
“Carla?! You’re Carla?!”
Epherene and Allen both looked utterly astonished.
Like Rohakan, Carla was a Black Beast–rank criminal.
The so-called “Authority of Death,” who had erased a city from the map and caused tens of thousands of casualties.
Ganesha said,
“Won’t you make a deal with us? Just take five percent.”
“This mana stone is made of people.”
Carla answered.
There were different kinds of mana stones.
The most natural and common mana stones were formed when the mana of the earth mixed with soil and solidified.
Beyond those, the highest grades included “Deep Sea Stones” that grew inside the bellies of black copper great whales, “Mountain Mana Stones” found only in mountains, and so on.
“We can sell them to the Floating Island, can’t we?”
Among them, mana stones that bloomed from human corpses were called “human mana stones,” and everyone found them uncomfortable, but the Floating Island actually liked them, saying they were good for magical experiments.
However, Carla shook her head.
“They don’t seem to suit my taste. I dislike human mana stones.”
Ganesha stared intently at Carla. Beside her, a child around 160 centimeters tall approached hesitantly.
It was Lia. She was thinking she should at least make the acquaintance of a Named.
“Carla. May I ask why?”
Carla silently looked back and forth between Ganesha and Lia.
“Why you······ cooperate with the Altar.”
As Ganesha asked that, she picked up a branch lying on the floor.
Carla answered.
“······Who knows. Perhaps because I don’t want to die?”
At that moment, an invisible blade hurtled through the air.
Kuuuuuuung───!
A strike unleashed by Jackal’s demonic blade, Muramasa. Ganesha blocked it with nothing but the dry branch.
“Whew! As expected of Sister Ganesha, ain’t it?!”
Jackal, on the other side, laughed heartily. Ganesha glanced at him and shook her head.
“Sister! So you were here.”
Jackal came hopping over. Then he pointed at Deculein, who was seated in the chair.
“Is the professor sleeping?”
At that instant, Deculein opened his eyes again.
“Ah, guess not. Heh heh.”
Without a word, he looked around. At the people who had gathered before he knew it, and among them, at Ganesha.
“Ganesha. I did not know you went around carrying a demon with you.”
“He’s not a demon, he’s half-human, half—”
“It is all the same.”
His body creaked and his muscles screamed, but he cleaned all the blood and dust on his body away with 「Cleanse」. Nor did he forget to straighten his clothes.
“Ganesha.”
“······Um!”
Just as he was about to say something to Ganesha, someone called to him. It was the child named Lia from earlier.
“I swear. A covenant is fine too. If Carlos ever turns into a demon, I’ll kill him with my own hands. So—”
“Shut that mouth.”
Lia bit her lip. Deculein slowly rose to his feet. Epherene and Allen also stood beside him.
“He is one who will become a demon.”
“No. If we do well—”
“If you can hide him, then hide him. But I have no need for things like oaths. You do not have to beg me. If that thing ever comes into my sight, I will certainly kill it.”
“Ah······.”
Lia looked up at him, then lowered her head deeply. Deculein glared at Ganesha in this child’s stead.
Ganesha merely gave a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry. For not telling you in advance. He ended up becoming family.”
“Do you think a demon can become family?”
“······I’ll make him not be a demon.”
“······.”
Deculein’s expression turned vicious. He cursed in every way imaginable with his face, then jerked his chin.
“······Epherene. Allen.”
“Yes.”
“Yees!”
“We are leaving.”
He did not want to remain in the same space for long.
Deculein, who had been about to leave just like that, suddenly saw Ihelm standing blankly somewhere.
“······Ihelm.”
Ihelm looked somewhat dazed, and his two disciples were at his side.
“······.”
“Ihelm.”
“······Ah.”
Only then did he look back at Deculein and nod.
“Right, right. What, we’re going? This is all over······ Huh, what the hell. What happened here?”
Only belatedly seeing the castle that had been smashed to bits, he wore a foolish expression.
“Follow me.”
As he dug through the castle’s wreckage with 「Psychokinesis」, a line of notification appeared before him.
[Main Quest Complete: The Altar and Ghosts]
◆ Mental Strength +1
[The body of the “Iron Man” “understands” the mana of an “Authority.”]
◆ New traits of circuits and skeleton blossoming
* * *
On the way back aboard the cruise.
[The body of the “Iron Man” “understands” the mana of an “Authority.”]
I read the system and looked back at Carla. She was drinking wine together with Jackal and Ihelm.
She had a composure unbecoming of a Black Beast–rank criminal.
“······P-Professor. Is it all right to leave her like that?”
Allen asked, shivering.
“It is fine. She is not the sort to kill people as she pleases.”
Carla the Authority.
Her mana ranged from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. This absurdly massive range was because of her trait.
「Returning Light, Reflected Glow」
A trait unique to Carla. The more her lifespan ran out—that is, the closer her day of death came—the greater her mana became.
The more powerful she became.
In exchange for a talent an ordinary human would not dare to contain, Carla’s remaining life was not even two years. She was a patient suffering from an incurable disease that “made her stronger.”
“······.”
Without thinking, I looked back at Epherene. She had been biting her nails for a while, as if lost in some worry.
It grated on me.
“Filthy.”
“······Eh?”
Snap—! At that moment, a nail separated. She had cut it with her teeth.
I let out a heated breath.
“······Epherene.”
“Yes?”
“Five penalty points.”
“Eh? Why?! All of a sudden?!”
“Poor conduct.”
Epherene looked at me with the most wronged expression in the world. Her already large eyes were now as huge as nearly half her face.
“Nooo~ You can’t~ You can’t do thaaat~”
“Why not.”
She shook her head as if trying to persuade me and explained the reason.
“If I get more this time, I’ll have fifteen points. Then I’ll be fined.”
“Very well. If you guess what you did wrong, I will retract the penalty points.”
“Umm······.”
Epherene frowned left and right in thought, then glanced at me, and muttered in a voice that shrank away.
“Did you perhaps develop mind-reading······?”
“Five penalty points.”
“Aaagh!”
* * *
The continent we returned to was in autumn. The campus grounds were full of red leaves, and the crisp wind dug into the skin.
A season inexplicably silent and desolate.
A landscape not very different from Earth.
—Hehe, today is Veron’s funeral. It’s such a relief that you came at just the right time.
While I was organizing class materials at the Magic Tower.
I received a message from Josephine.
—Come to the funeral hall~ The location is the Freyhem Knights’ Order. Please be ready to act as well, my husband~
If the serpent that tempted Eve could speak, would it have a voice like this?
I put the crystal orb into my coat and went out to the parking lot outside the Magic Tower. I got into the car with Ren, who had been waiting.
“To the Freyhem Knights’ Order.”
I looked out the car window as we drove. I took in each passing scene.
I felt a little strange.
“......”
But it was clear that this was the right way.
Even if the process was not right, even if I came to be hated, it was the one and only “path by which Julie could live,” so in the end, it would be right.
“......Then that is enough.”
I could endure the emotions welling up inside me. No, because I loved Julie, I could endure them all the more.
I did not know this kind of love. It was merely an affection that had become a part of my nature. Deculein possessed a nature that “loved Julie.”
Therefore, even if Julie became unhappy because of me, even if she came to hate me enough to kill me.
So long as she could live in the same world as I did......
Tap, tap— tap, tap—
“?”
Some living creature touched me. I turned to look.
Tap, tap— tap, tap—
A red-furred munchkin was scratching at my sleeve with its claws. I stared down at it for a moment, then signaled Ren with my eyes.
“Yes. Understood.”
Ren immediately stopped the car and got out. The cat looked at Ren and gave a faint laugh.
—That fellow is quick on the uptake.
“......Your Majesty. What brings you here?”
—I heard you handled the Ghost Castle matter splendidly.
“Is that so?”
—There were quite a few petitions from spirit mages calling you a mass murderer and demanding punishment.
“Is that so?”
—Hm. You seem to be in quite a foul mood today.
I nodded slightly.
“A demon is approaching.”
—Again?
“Yes.”
—Your body will not last at this rate.
“......”
Empress Sophien. Borrowing the body of a cat, she yawned wide.
I said,
“If Your Majesty were to diligently learn the runic language, I believe my burden would be somewhat lightened.”
—Ah. About that. I would like to learn it, but I am trapped.
“Pardon?”
Trapped? How could an emperor be trapped?
At her rather puzzling words, I asked again.
“......What do you mean?”
—Ah~ Last night, I believe, a treasure was offered to me. But while playing with it out of curiosity, I ended up trapped inside that treasure. It is quite a fascinating artifact.
“......”
I was dumbfounded. However, the fact that the Emperor had developed “curiosity” was an extremely good sign.
—So you are to come and save me. Keiron is a blockhead, so he seems unable to do anything.
“Yes. However, I have a prior engagement.”
—A prior engagement that takes precedence over the Emperor...... Hmph. Five years in prison.
The cat muttered discontentedly and licked its forepaw.
“I will be there before it is too late.”
—Bring me an ice cream when you come.
“......”
For me, it was a turn of events that was difficult to adapt to. The red-furred munchkin spoke again.
—It is an important process in becoming attached to life. I do not know what will suit my palate.
“......Yes. Understood.”
—Good. And you will keep this cat with you for now.
Miyaaaaooo—
As if the possession had ended, the cat cried. I signaled Ren outside with my eyes.
“After the Freyhem Knights’ Order...... we will stop by an ice cream shop for a moment.”
“......Pardon? Ah, yes.”
Ren asked back, unlike himself. Perhaps it was because I had never once gone to such a place before.
My back felt hot as well.
* * *
The Freyhem Knights’ Order, a funeral ceremony with a warm and secluded atmosphere. There were not many guests, but as a Missa song seeped through the hall, it marked the final moments of a knight.
Julie was lost in emotion as she looked at Veron’s remains in the coffin.
“Julie.”
Josephine called her. Julie let out a small sigh and turned to her.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Yes. How are you? You’re all right, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Rather, I feel relieved. Thanks to you, we were able to recover his remains.”
Julie offered Josephine a knight’s salute. Josephine tapped the crown of her head and smiled brightly.
At that instant, the crystal orb in Josephine’s arms vibrated faintly. Without showing any particular sign, she said,
“Then, Julie. I’ll step outside for a moment.”
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
“Mhm~”
Josephine waved her hand and went outside. Julie watched her for a moment, then turned her gaze back into the hall.
“......”
There were many knights soaked in tears. Strangely, Julie felt proud of their weeping. It seemed as though the sense of comradeship and bond she had wanted among knights was being expressed in this way.
“Commander.”
Vice Commander Rockfell, who had gone outside for a short while, approached with his cloak fluttering.
Julie cleared her throat with a cough and said,
“Ahem. Yes, Rockfell. What is it?”
“There is a luxury car outside.”
“A luxury car?”
“Yes. It’s parked a little far away, but it seems to be Professor Deculein’s vehicle.”
“......Ah!”
Julie let out an exclamation without realizing it. Rockfell also wore a slightly gentle smile.
The two of them were of the same opinion.
Julie spoke first.
“The Professor, too, came to offer his condolences......”
“That must be it. After all, he was a knight who died while trying to save him.”
“......He must be tired, when it hasn’t been long since the mission ended.”
Julie murmured softly and smiled with satisfaction.
“Then I will go first. Knowing the Professor’s personality, it must be difficult for him to come in alone.”
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
She would go as if by coincidence, then take a place beside him as if by coincidence. The Professor would want that as well......
“Whew.”
Julie took a deep breath and opened the door of the funeral hall.