Meow—!
A cat poked its head out from the wide front of Kreto’s robe. Kreto gave a faint laugh and tucked it back in.
“It is a cat His Majesty entrusted to me. It does vanish on its own from time to time, but if you wait, it finds its way back—a clever and adorable little fellow.”
“……I see.”
I quietly leaned back against the seat. The scenery beyond the window was Hailech. Fortunately, we had already left the Imperial Palace.
Kreto glanced at me and said,
“At any rate, please keep what just happened a secret from His Majesty. It seems he may have mistaken your loyalty for romantic affection. Ahem.”
“Yes. That’s fine.”
It was quite a bizarre matter, but it was actually a positive change. It was proof that Sophien, too, felt something like “human emotion” in his own way.
“By the way, Professor Deculein. I’m reading your theoretical text well. I hear you’ve even been invited to the ‘Round Table’ recently?”
“Yes. It is a somewhat troublesome matter.”
The Round Table.
It was one of the five pillars of the magical world. Bercht, the Magic Tower, the Volcano, the Round Table, and the Floating Island were counted among them—though officially, with the “Volcano (Ashes)” excluded, they were called the four pillars.
That Round Table had invited me.
“Haha…… Then, if you happen to have time, may I ask you a question?”
Kreto asked cautiously. I nodded.
“Yes. That’s fine.”
“Oh~ In that case.”
A theoretical text appeared from the ample folds of Kreto’s robe. As if he had been waiting, he pointed to a certain paragraph with his finger.
“This part. I don’t quite understand it. The output of the magic is far too unsatisfactory. I think I may have set the circuit of this amplification mechanism incorrectly.”
“Would you draw the formula?”
“Ah. I shall.”
I explained the magic to Kreto, and from within his robe, a red-furred munchkin’s eyes sparkled.
…….
“That lunatic.”
Bang—! Sophien slammed his fist down on the Go board.
It had been a long time since he had felt himself lose composure. No, a heat rose within him from an emotion he had never experienced once in his entire life.
“That idiot, saying it so straight.”
He pressed his temple. Hoo…… Exhaling a hot breath, he rewound the voice he had heard through the possessed body.
—……Mm. His Majesty told me to ask you directly. If you admire His Majesty…… well, that would be somewhat problematic in its own way.
—It seems His Majesty has made a grave misunderstanding. I have no such feelings whatsoever, not even the smallest trace.
“……Hmph.”
A grave misunderstanding, was it. No such feelings whatsoever, not even the smallest trace.
“How fortunate indeed.”
Sophien grabbed three or four black stones. Black powder trickled down from his tightly clenched fist.
“……Hey!”
He called to the attendant waiting outside.
—Yes, Your Majesty. I am here.
“We shall begin work.”
At this moment, some shame was setting fire to his indolence. He did not know when it would cool again, but during such a rare moment, what he needed to do had already been decided.
“Call the vassals.”
To crush those damned vassal bastards.
Thud—!
Sophien roughly flung the door open. As he strode out of the bedchamber, attendants and knights followed behind him.
—I have no such feelings whatsoever, not even the smallest trace.
The voice surfaced again.
It was actually fortunate that the bastard dared not harbor feelings of admiration…… but it was strange. Things difficult to express in words were tickling his body.
This fucking damned—
“Your Majesty. Your grace is immeasurable.”
In the meantime, he arrived at the great hall, and the vassals who had been handling their duties throughout the Imperial Palace gathered. Sophien looked down at them and said,
“We shall begin the royal lecture. You are all prepared, I trust.”
A sudden royal lecture. The vassals, who could not possibly have been prepared, were flustered, but Sophien paid them no heed.
“The topic is ‘all nations’! Lecture on the direction the Empire should take henceforth, citing examples of sages and heroes of the past!”
* * *
Whooooosh…….
A blizzard wrapped around the concave prison basin like a veil. Because of it, even at midday the place was dark, heavy, and grim; within it, Julie was looking at the black and white stones on the wooden board.
Even in the northern winter, the Empire’s trends reached this place.
“They say this Go is popular these days. Among the nobles.”
Reylie pouted and placed a black stone on the Go board. Julie smiled gently.
“……I heard it is a game that resembles war. In truth, it does seem quite like war. It is a very good game for a knight to train strategy.”
The goal of Go was ultimately to seize territory. You did not win merely by blindly killing the opponent’s stones, nor did you win merely by overextending yourself to save your own.
Thus, in Go, battle and war coexisted.
Julie liked that aspect.
In fact, she had a little talent for it as well.
“Hmph. It isn’t even fun, so how is this a game?”
“It becomes enjoyable as you play. The more you understand it.”
“Sure~ Hwaaaam~”
Just as Reylie yawned, knock, knock—a knock sounded at Julie’s office.
—Knight. The newspaper.
“Ah. The newspaper.”
Reylie rose from her seat and opened the door. A guard dressed in furs handed her the newspaper. Because of the north’s insane cold, both Julie and Reylie had made at least one set of fur clothing themselves.
“Thanks~”
“Yes.”
Reylie returned to her seat while reading the newspaper, but at some point, her expression stiffened. With a rather serious face, she looked at Julie.
“Knight.”
“Mm?”
“I think you should see this.”
Reylie handed the newspaper to Julie. Julie put down the Go stone and looked at the paragraph Reylie pointed to.
[Rockfell, knight of Iliade, found as a cold corpse during a mission.]
“This…….”
Reylie clenched her teeth. However, she could not offer any words.
Julie’s expression had sunk far more coldly than hers—no, more coldly than ever before…….
* * *
……I had a dream after a long time.
It was not my dream. It was Deculein’s dream.
—What is it?
It was the past, over ten years ago. Back then, Cielia had still been alive. The woman Deculein killed was still alive.
—The child is very ill.
At the time, Cielia said that to Deculein. That Sylvia had contracted a severe illness. That it was Cielia’s own hereditary disease.
—I don’t mind if only I am sick. Even if the child is sick, there must be a way. I believe that. But—
Cielia held back her tears. Deculein looked at her with indifferent eyes.
—Gilleon sent this letter…….
The devil’s letter. It was clearly a curse that killed people, but if all it did was kill, it would not be a devil. This letter contained a cunning and insidious clause.
[Also, if you spread this letter to five or more people, your next day will be filled with fortune.]
Deculein lowered his gaze. Calmly, he asked in return.
—The starting point of this letter was Gilleon?
Cielia bit her lip.
A rainy night, the rain falling steadily. She had come to Yukline behind Gilleon’s back. Because the source of the letter that had killed hundreds, and would kill hundreds more, was her own spouse.
—Perhaps he didn’t know it would turn out like this…… or perhaps he knew and still…….
Cielia confessed. That Gilleon had spread the letter for Sylvia, who suffered from the hereditary disease. At the same time, she blamed herself for passing the illness on to Sylvia.
—He knew. Because he is Gilleon.
Cielia lowered her face. Her bent body shook with tears.
Deculein did not go out of his way to blame Cielia. She was a woman who had walked a thorny path. The fact that she had married the madman Gilleon was more than enough reason to pity her.
Above all, her life was not long.
—Go.
Deculein said.
—Yukline will handle the devil. There is no place here for an invalid like you to interfere…….
……The dream was short, and I opened my eyes.
I gave a small smile at that scene from the past.
Deculein from the time when his fiancée had not yet died still possessed a degree of mercy.
“Ah. Professor! You’re awake?!”
Allen spoke from somewhere. He was sitting in the office chair, reading a book.
「An Introduction to Go」
“A Go book?”
“Ah, yes. They say you need to know how to play this these days…… Professor, you should try it too!”
Without answering, I rose from my seat.
A nap, and in a chair at that. Was it because I had been rather tired lately from training 「Duct Tape」?
Well, my mana had hardly been holding out.
“Goodbye, Professor! Ah, right! You remembered you have a business trip today, didn’t you?!”
“I know.”
“Yes!”
I left after receiving Allen’s farewell. Then I got on the elevator and arrived at the Magic Tower’s special floor, the “Hall.”
There were still many people in the Hall. It was fairly crowded.
—So. That means a cipher is embedded inside this pebble here.
—A cipher? Does that mean we have to dismantle that cipher?
—Dismantling it is possible, and destroying it is possible too.
They were gathered together and discussing. It seemed they had at least grasped 「Encryption」.
—Wow. This is seriously hard. Deculein, who made this, is amazing too. Really amazing.
—There’s that saying, right? Is it harder to create the most difficult problem in the world, or harder to solve that problem?
“Epherene.”
At that moment, the voices in the “Hall” abruptly cut off. Epherene, Drent, Relin, Kreto, Louina, and the rest…… the students turned to look at me.
“……Yes?”
Epherene tilted her head and asked back. I said briefly,
“Come out. It’s a business trip.”
* * *
Boooooom—
The vibration of the airship taking off. Epherene and Allen sat on the sofa in the VVIP seats, blankly staring out the window.
“Wow! We’re rising, we’re rising!”
“We are!”
It was not the first airship ride for either of them, but it seemed to be the first time they had looked at the sky so leisurely.
“Clouds! Clouds! Those are clouds!”
“They are!”
I looked at the two of them. Kneeling on the sofa, sticking up and clinging to the window, they looked like siblings.
“But Miss Epherene. Are you all right? Aren’t you in the middle of an exam right now?”
“Ah…… that?”
Listening to that conversation, I took out a Go board. I could not neglect my training in Go either.
Even if 「Comprehension」 allowed for exponential achievement, Sophien would be a formidable opponent. Rather, I could not rule out the possibility that Sophien would grow even further using my game records as fuel.
“By the way, Professor.”
At that moment, Epherene turned to look this way.
“What is today’s business trip?”
“The Round Table.”
“……!”
Epherene’s eyes widened.
The Round Table. A magical space different from both Bercht and the Floating Island.
“The Round Table!”
Most mages harbored rather grand fantasies about the Round Table like Epherene, but it was not an entirely pleasant place. Rather, it was a place stained with madness and obsession.
If the Floating Island was the pursuit of pure scholarship, and Bercht was the gathering place of truth removed from the secular world, then the Round Table was, in a word, “the mage’s desire twisted within the mundane world.”
It was necessary to be on guard for what might happen there.
“The Round Table! Assistant Professor! We’re going to the Round Table!”
Epherene said to Allen with a bright, innocent face. Allen also smiled brightly and nodded.
“We are! It’ll be my first time going!”
The two of them clapped their hands together—clap, clap, clap—and made a fuss. Without a word, I looked at the clock.
3 p.m.
We would arrive around 5, so should I practice Go until then?
I began to replay the AlphaGo matches remaining in my memory.
“Oh, right, Professor!”
But suddenly, Epherene spoke. She laughed heh-heh like an idiot and took out a pebble. It was that 「Magic Resistance Pebble」.
“Watch.”
At the same time she spoke, she closed her eyes. Epherene took a deep breath and focused her mana, and booooooom——!
The pebble rose into the air.
“I succeeded!”
Epherene said proudly. Looking at her, I gave a small nod. A faint smile of unknown reason settled on my lips.
“Yes. Well done.”
“…….”
At that, Epherene’s expression became a little dazed.
* * *
The Imperial Palace, radiant through all four seasons. Yet in that place, where the conflict between imperial authority and divine authority had grown fierce of late, Sophien was playing Go.
His opponent was an old man personally recruited from the Eastern Archipelago. With his white hair and Taoist robes, he looked to anyone’s eyes like a master.
“……I have lost, Your Majesty.”
However, Sophien won without much difficulty. A victory by resignation before even a hundred moves had passed.
As if annoyed, he waved his hand. Several knights appeared and forcibly escorted the old man out.
“Honestly…… that bastard Deculein’s talent.”
He thought of Deculein again. He placed the game he had played with him back onto the Go board. Move by move, he replayed every single one.
Each time, a voice would suddenly flicker before him.
—It seems His Majesty has made a grave misunderstanding. I have no such feelings whatsoever, not even the smallest trace.
“……Ha.”
Sophien clenched his fist.
It was a sensation as though his whole body were suddenly shriveling up. He had lived for well over a century, yet nothing like this had ever happened.
“Should I kill myself?”
He seriously contemplated it.
—It seems His Majesty has made a grave misunderstanding.
A grave misunderstanding, was it.
Deculein, as he said that, had worn a face of extreme incredulity. It was the expression of someone who had seen a beaked raccoon or an elephant without a nose.
—I have no such feelings whatsoever, not even the smallest trace.
It had been a tone with truly not a single trace of falsehood. A tone that very firmly severed even the slightest possibility.
“……That bastard Kreto.”
He could have simply said he asked because he was curious about you.
Why, because he was embarrassed, did he use my name? To think he dared inflict such humiliation upon the Emperor, the pinnacle of all people…….
“Life is truly arduous!”
Sophien flipped the bowl of Go stones over with a smack and sprawled flat on the floor.
Tick— tock—
Tick— tock—
The sound of the second hand moving. In that stillness and silence, he stared up at the ceiling.
“……He does not admire me.”
He was so inexperienced in human relationships that he had been too foolish. He had made a bizarre misunderstanding.
No—perhaps he had expected it.
From the bastard who had spent countless years with him, had he, without even knowing it himself, wanted something?
“…….”
Sophien did not know his own emotions.
Because he did not know his own emotions, he did not know the emotions of others either, and because of that, he had ended up making this goddamn idiotic mistake. His one and only weakness was precisely “emotion”…….
“A grave misunderstanding.”
Sophien sprang to his feet. Then, slowly, languidly, he changed his clothes.
It was bear-fur clothing presented as tribute by Drozen of the north.
Outwardly, it looked like some kind of mascot costume, but it had a special artifact effect added to it.
Namely— 「Meditation and Calm」.
“Hmph…….”
Sophien became a bear, calmed his mind, explored his own emotions, and began to train in Go.