Clear clouds and a bright sky. A sunset slowly flushing red, and maple leaves rustling as they swayed.
A scene more autumnal than any other.
Yosephine came out to the alley they had agreed upon. For some reason, her steps were light, as though she were dancing a waltz. No, she knew the reason perfectly well.
“……Brother-in-law.”
When she reached the place, her expression naturally hardened. Deculein, who had been standing with his back to her on the far side, turned to look at her.
The two faced each other in silence.
“……”
“……”
The only way to save Yulie, who was suffering from a terminal fate.
Even if it was not certain, Yosephine believed in Deculein, and Deculein intended to act for Yulie’s sake.
Yosephine opened her mouth first. There was no separate signal.
“I’ll ask you directly. That friend named Veron—did you kill him?”
As she said so, she pointed near her neck. It was a necklace artifact recording the scene.
Deculein merely glared at Yosephine. Yosephine added one more sentence.
“There is no need for you to deny it. The last eyewitness account said that you and Veron were together, Professor, and the wound on Veron’s chest was too unnatural to be considered a simple death by falling—or the work of an assassin.”
Even then, Deculein said nothing. He only glared at her as though she were contemptible.
Yosephine said,
“If you intend to say you did not, then lend me your weapon. That wood steel of yours.”
“……My wood steel.”
“We have already recovered Veron’s remains. To compare and contrast the wound—”
“Is there any need to go that far?”
Deculein let out a hollow laugh.
“He was an insolent bastard who deserved to die from the beginning. How dare he, ignorant of his place, covet what belonged to another? He was a man not worth keeping alive.”
He recited the lines written in the script. If it had been the original Deculein, he would surely have said exactly this.
“And even if I reveal that fact now, what of it? Do you think you can punish me? Me, who is favored by His Majesty?”
“……”
Grind—
Yosephine clenched her teeth. At that, a faintly empty smile appeared at Deculein’s lips.
“In any case. Even she has now become useless.”
“……What do you mean?”
“She is going to break down soon anyway, is she not?”
In that instant, veins stood out on Yosephine’s face. Those words truly enraged her.
“A knight who trembles and languishes over a mere curse.”
Still wearing that cold expression, Deculein uttered endlessly cruel words.
“I am not benevolent enough to love a woman who is nearly dead, and two bereavements do not suit the dignity of Yukline.”
Whether it was acting or sincerity, his voice, sharp as a knife wind, continued cuttingly.
“Is that all you have to say, Yosephine? Did you call me here merely to say such trivial things?”
“……”
Yosephine desperately suppressed her killing intent.
Of course she knew it was acting, but he was good. Good enough to receive an acting award. Somehow, it seemed he was better at it than she was.
“I have nothing more to say to those of you who delivered defective goods. I shall consider the engagement with Freyden to have never existed. Convey that to Zeit as well.”
That was the end of the process.
Deculein left without hesitation. He left behind for Yosephine a video of a little over five minutes—evidence that would allow Yulie to hate him.
“……Really. Defective goods, is it?”
What a grateful person.
Yosephine’s killing intent quickly changed into rational thought.
Deculein loved Yulie as much as she did, perhaps even more than she did.
And yet, if he could say such things……
Deculein truly.
Truly wanted to save Yulie.
More than anyone else in this world.
“Hah.”
Then I shall hope this method is correct. Yosephine murmured inwardly and let out a small breath.
“……”
She trudged toward the funeral hall.
However, at some point, her steps stopped. It was because of “someone” hiding herself quite a distance away.
“……Yulie?”
It was Yulie.
Her hair hid her face as she lowered her head deeply, and her body, trembling like an active volcano, violently spoke for what her emotions and thoughts must be at this moment.
“Did you…… hear everything?”
“……”
This had not been the plan—to let her hear it in person like this.
Yosephine was honestly flustered, but soon she felt a dark happiness welling up from the bottom of her heart.
“……It’s all right.”
At her side, she would comfort her as though whispering; on the outside, she would bring down the Freyhem Knights.
Once the knight order disappeared, Yulie would have no place to stand in the capital, and in the end, she would return to Freyden.
Assuming Deculein’s words were correct, this curse would also be cured, and Yulie would remain by her side forever……
“You have me by your side.”
Hiding all those wicked thoughts,
Yosephine carefully wrapped an arm around Yulie’s shoulders.
* * *
—How foolish and pitiful.
The voice of a wraith flowed into her consciousness. A base resonance that dragged the living of this world down into the next. Epherene, as though bewitched, looked into his face.
—What your father truly wanted was……
“……!”
At that moment, she woke from the dream. Epherene jumped and looked around. It was the assistant research office, and her entire body was soaked in sweat.
It had been a dream.
No, had it been a dream?
Epherene sprang up and ran to Deculein’s office.
The proof that this world was not a dream. The person who told her that this world was reality was……
“……”
She was about to knock on the door with her finger, then stopped. Epherene looked up at the nameplate.
[ Head Professor Deculein’s Office ]
An existence always near, yet one that always felt distant.
A person she hated, yet was grateful to; a person she could not forgive, yet could understand.
A professor who, even knowing her wrongdoing and betrayal, said it was fine because she was his “disciple.”
“……Haa.”
Epherene withdrew her hand and eventually turned around. Just then, Allen and Drent were walking down the corridor while talking.
Drent spoke to Epherene.
“Epherene. Did you know? A Geroscream chain store opened this time.”
“What, no way! Really?!”
Geroscream. It was short for “Gero Ice Cream,” and that ice cream, incredibly famous in the south, had finally entered the Empire?!
Epherene clutched both cheeks and chattered.
“Is this a dream? Is this really a dream?!”
“What dream? I went there, but the line was insanely long, so I just came back.”
Drent shook his head. Allen looked rather disappointed as well.
“That’s right. They said we’d have to wait three hours……”
“No! I’ll go! Just give me the money!”
She could study papers while standing anyway. No, rather, studying while standing made her concentrate better.
Three hours standing would be more than enough.
“Hurry! Hurry! Send me on the errand!”
Epherene’s eyes sparkled like a deer’s as she held out both hands to Drent and Allen, and……
Fifteen minutes later.
“……Tsk. There really are a lot.”
The long line for Geroscream. Waving a 100-elne bill, she peered toward the front.
At a rough estimate, there were about two hundred people.
“So what?”
Compared to Geroscream, this much sacrifice was cheap.
Epherene waited while studying a paper.
Twenty minutes and twenty people per page.
After about three hours, the sun had set, and there were exactly twenty people left.
“Nngh~”
This should be enough. Epherene loosened her stiff neck and put the paper into her bag.
—Next customer, please~
A little more time passed like that, one person after another, and finally, when it was Epherene’s turn.
“Next customer, please~”
“Yes, me……?”
Screeeech—
A luxury car stopped on the roadside right beside her.
A secretary stepped out from the driver’s seat, strode over, and whispered something into the ear of the owner, who resembled a frog.
“……Ah, yes.”
The frog-like owner suddenly wore a serious expression. He nodded and handed almost all the remaining Geroscream to the secretary.
Then he shouted to the people who had been waiting until now.
“Unfortunately, we are out of ingredients! See you tomorrow!”
“No!”
“If you have a waiting ticket for today, we’ll serve you early tomorrow!”
“Aaagh!”
Before Epherene, clutching her waiting ticket, could say anything, the shutter closed, and her resentful gaze shifted to the luxury sedan parked on the roadside.
“Oh, come on!”
She had waited for hours! No matter what, this wasn’t right! They could have just taken one serving! There had been quite a bit left, so why did they snatch all of it away?!
Epherene hurried over to the sedan and tap-tap—knocked on the window.
“Excuse me! Ah, excuse me—!”
Epherene’s reason, robbed blind in broad daylight, had snapped. She glared beyond the window with a face that looked as if the world had ended.
“Heyyy—! Excuse meee—! Opeeenn uuup──!”
Then, smoothly, the window lowered.
Epherene immediately stuck her hand in first, but the moment she saw the face inside, she flinched and trembled.
“Uh…… Professor?”
“……”
Deculein. He looked at Epherene with a pitiful expression. Epherene fumbled on.
“Ah, Professor, do you also, um, like ice cream……?”
“No.”
“Then why? Why did you buy so much……? I was next.”
“……”
Seeing the ice cream placed in the passenger seat, her courage returned. No, her desire returned. Epherene asked again, fiercely.
“Huh? Why?”
“……”
Deculein silently reached into his inner pocket. From within, along with his wallet, some object was slightly pulled out. Epherene’s eyes caught its gleam.
A silver metal chain.
And beneath it, barely visible, a “pendant.”
“Take this. I’ll compensate you with it.”
Deculein handed her three bills, 300 elne.
“No. It’s not that I need money……”
“……Ren?”
“Yes.”
The person who appeared to be his secretary gave Epherene just one tub of ice cream.
“Huh? Ah, yes…… I’ll pay you too. It’s 30 elne per serving, so—”
“Go.”
Vroom—the engine started again, and Epherene flinched and stepped back.
The car soon departed far into the distance.
“Is he in a bad mood?”
Epherene felt needlessly awkward.
“……Anyway, I bought it.”
At any rate, as she walked with one tub of ice cream, a silly laugh kept slipping out.
So the Professor likes ice cream too…… At least we have one thing in common…… But what I saw just now…… Was that the pendant Mage Gindalf told me about back then…… Nah, no way. It must be something else……
At that moment, Epherene spotted someone else. It was at the Magic Tower’s “Hiring and Job Search” board.
On the large bulletin board at the entrance of the Magic Tower, authorized adventuring parties or companies could put up posters to employ Magic Tower mages for short-term work.
“Miss Ganesha?”
“……Oh my?”
It was Ganesha. She fluttered her hair as she looked at Epherene, then pointed at the ice cream and smiled.
“That’s Geroscream, isn’t it? It looks delicious~”
“Ah, yes……”
Epherene slowly hid the ice cream behind her back. She didn’t have enough to share.
“What brings you here?”
“Hmm~ A short-term hiring notice~ We thought we might need a proper mage as well.”
“……”
Epherene stared at Ganesha blankly. Her mouth and eyes opened and closed like a goldfish’s—blink, blink.
Ganesha smiled brightly and tilted her head.
“What’s the matter~?”
Epherene answered.
“I’ll do it.”
“……Pardon?”
“But in exchange, I want, instead of money. Ahem.”
Gulp—Epherene swallowed and continued.
“The relationship between the Luna family and the Deculein family. I want that information.”
“……”
Ganesha said nothing. The smile at the corners of her lips stiffened ever so slightly.
“Don’t adventuring parties sell anything?”
“Well. I think I would have to get the Professor’s permission~”
At Ganesha’s answer, Epherene was certain.
She knows. About what happened between our families.
If she didn’t know, there was no way she would react like this.
“I’ll do anything. And I am, you know, one of the parties involved……”
“It will be difficult~”
“There are even children in that adventuring party. You think I can’t do as much as them? And……”
“Why?”
To Epherene, who hesitated for a moment, Ganesha said,
“Are you planning to stab the Professor in the back again this time?”
“No! No, absolutely not.”
“Then why?”
“In my dreams, that…… former head of Yukline. Dikaillen keeps appearing.”
“……”
At that moment, Ganesha’s face hardened. She tore off the poster she had put up on the board.
Tap, tap—she dusted off her hands and offered Epherene a handshake.
“When can you start? This mission is rather difficult, you see.”
“Do you have a separate schedule?”
“It’s a dungeon raid. We won the lottery this time. We were lucky. Two days should be more than enough~”
When the imperial family, or a lord, commissions the Adventurers’ Guild to raid a dungeon, the Adventurers’ Guild receives applications from adventuring parties according to the dungeon’s rank, then selects one guild from among them as if drawing a lottery.
This system is called the “Dungeon Raid Lottery.”
“Yes. Two days is fine.”
“Then here, this is a temporary adventurer’s license.”
Ganesha took out a checkbook and tore off one sheet for Epherene.
“I’m an S-rank adventuring party leader, you see. Be sure to bring it when we raid the dungeon.”
“Yes. Ah…… But before that, the information is certain, right?”
Epherene belatedly grew suspicious. Ganesha gave a faint laugh.
“Of course. I was done in by a demon before, you see? I received treatment for it from the Yukline family. So I know a certain amount about that family’s affairs.”
Ganesha recalled the memory of that time. She had paid the entire fortune she had scraped together over ten years, with her life as the price. Of course, she was grateful she hadn’t died thanks to it, but at the very least, she could never bring herself to like “Dikaillen.”
“Also, I’m the leader of the Red Garnet Adventuring Party, aren’t I? There’s no information in this world that I don’t know~”
“……Yes. Good. I’m Epherene, and you don’t need to doubt my abilities either.”
Epherene nodded, brimming with confidence.
“I believe you too. You’re the one and only disciple Professor Deculein acknowledged, after all.”
At those words, she grew inexplicably embarrassed, pouted her lips, and gave a small nod.
“……Yesh.”
* * *
“His Majesty is waiting.”
I arrived at the imperial palace. I was not in a particularly good mood. It wasn’t only because of the ice cream in one hand.
“This way.”
The place was Sophien’s bedchamber. The guide was Jolang. I glanced at him and laughed softly.
“So you’re still alive, Jolang.”
“……It is thanks to His Majesty’s grace.”
Jolang backed away, and I opened the door with due courtesy.
“Deculein, head of Yukline, answers His Majesty’s summons……”
There was no one inside.
There was only a snow globe.
You know, an ornament in a spherical glass bottle filled with clear liquid and powdered snow, where the snow flows down as though falling when you turn it upside down.
“……”
The moment I checked the item information, I was astonished.
──「 Ancient Snow Globe 」──
◆ Information
: A snow globe painstakingly crafted by a high believer of the ancient Sacred Age.
: It could be called a small world possessing its own ecosystem.
◆ Category
: Miracle ⊃ World
────────
“Hah……”
It was suitable as a tribute to the emperor, and more than enough to arouse Sophien’s curiosity—a treasure of the century, in other words, a miracle itself.
Though I did not know who had presented it.
I took the snow globe in my hand and peered into it.
There was someone inside. I could only vaguely make out the figure, but their hair was red.
—Do not shake it.
Myaaaow!
A cat lunged at me from behind. A red-furred munchkin. I looked at her and let out a sigh.
“Are you trapped inside?”
—So I am. If you shake it, I grow dizzy. Keep it still.
“Is your possession magic all right from in there?”
—It consumes quite a bit of mana. In any case, why are you so late? I waited an entire day. Come in at once. If you infuse it with mana, you can enter.
“……Yes.”
I placed my right hand on the snow globe. With my left hand, I gripped the bag of ice cream. Then, I infused it with mana.
Wooooong……
A sensation as though my mana and soul were being transferred somewhere.
Immediately afterward, when I opened my eyes, I was in a pure white space.
It was, of course, the interior of the snow globe.
“You have come.”
Far away, the emperor and Keiron were there. Sophien, wearing a fur hat and cape coat, trudged toward me. In this pure-white world, her red hair looked even deeper in color.
“Give it to me.”
“Yes.”
I handed her the ice cream.
“……”
The emperor simply stared intently at the ice cream. Staaaaare—
Her brow furrowed slightly, as though she were pondering something, and then she looked up at me again.
“……”
A face gauging my reaction.
The emperor, who had been standing there blankly, spoke honestly.
“At times like this, there are certain difficulties. No retainer dares stuff food into their mouth before me, and as I have avoided elaborate dishes until now, I have never eaten such things, nor seen them. Since I have never seen nor eaten them, I can only infer the method of eating…… Do I eat it with my hands?”
She was asking me to tell her how to eat it.
“The ice cream I know is ice cream stuck to a wooden stick, you see.”
Well, this wasn’t ordinary ice cream, but shaved ice topped with ice cream—an obviously elaborate food at a glance.
“Open the lid, mix the contents with the spoon, and then scoop it up to eat.”
“The spoon?”
“The spoon is attached to the lid.”
“……”
The emperor did as I instructed. The way she mixed it with the spoon was remarkably elegant.
Her words and actions might be rough, but as expected, when it came to etiquette, she was no less than I.
“By the way, Deculein. Where is this place?”
She asked while mixing the ice cream. I looked around. It was a snowfield where nothing existed.
At least for now.
“I believe it to be an ancient bunker, or perhaps a prison.”
“I see.”
“……You are not asking why.”
“There is no way you would say something incorrect, is there? I had also guessed as much.”
The emperor laughed softly. Then she ate a spoonful of ice cream. Her languid eyes opened slightly.
“Mm! It is delicious!”
“Is that so?”
In truth, there was no way it would not be delicious.
After all, I had bestowed no less than stage four of 「Midas’ Hand」—that is, four thousand mana—on mere ice cream.
“I shall commend you for stimulating my appetite, so for now, think of a way to escape this white place.”
Having said that, Sophien focused on the ice cream.
I first placed my hand on the ground and began with 「Understanding」. In an instant, 1,000 mana was consumed.
“……Ahem.”
I spat out black blood. The emperor, who had been watching closely, asked,
“Is your body ill?”
“No. It is because I am too healthy.”
The relationship between blood and mana. If too much mana is used in an instant, the blood combusts. This is called dead blood.
Mages use magic carefully so that this dead blood does not occur, but I have no need to do so.
Because the blood regeneration of 「Iron Man」 is exceedingly outstanding.
All I need do is spit the dead blood out through my mouth and wait for new blood to fill its place.
“Does it seem as though you know something?”
“No. Has Your Majesty perhaps discovered anything?”
“I stayed here for about four days, but I have discovered little. This world is so much like the real one that I only find it strange.”
“Four days……”
I looked at the emperor.
Just now, I felt as though I had heard something rather odd.
“Your Majesty. You possessed the cat and informed me of the situation, did you not? When was that, exactly?”
“When? A day ago. You came far too late.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I came running today after hearing Your Majesty’s words. There was a slight delay, but it did not exceed a day.”
“……”
Sophien paused the spoon with which she had been scooping the ice cream. In that state, she looked at me.
“Hm. Was there a time lag in my possession magic?”
“No. Most likely……”
I looked up at the sky. There were only clouds, and no sun.
“It is a problem within this snow globe. Let us investigate it step by step.”
At that, Sophien laughed softly.
“To spend a ‘strange time’ together with you…… For some reason, it reminds me of the old days.”
It was something I could not understand.
When I looked back at her, Sophien pretended not to notice and ate only her ice cream.