Epherene opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a wooden ceiling. A magestone lamp dangled from it.
“……Hwaaaaaaaam.”
She blinked vacantly, then opened her mouth wide like a cobra. Shaking her head, she let out a refreshing yawn.
“Kraaaaaaa……”
“You’re taking your time. What are you, a dinosaur?”
“!”
In that instant, Epherene’s body went rigid. Creeeeak—she turned her stiff neck in that direction.
As expected, it was Deculein.
“Ah…… it was a dream—”
“It was not.”
Deculein set down the book he had been reading. Then he looked at her with eyes that were strangely kind.
Epherene was frightened by his inexplicable gentleness.
“Why…… no, are you really the Professor?”
“I am.”
Deculein answered calmly. Epherene quickly asked again.
“Not a monster?”
“What did you say?”
“N-no, nothing. Where is this? Why did that kid suddenly grow up, and the village……”
“You were caught up in a magical phenomenon.”
A magical phenomenon.
Could it be because of that pond sunk into the middle of the thicket? No, all she had done was touch a little water. How could that be enough to twist the axis of time?
Deculein explained the reason.
“Because you are a special existence.”
“……Huh?”
“You will come to know the rest in due time. For now, come out.”
Deculein stood. Epherene got out of bed and followed him.
The two of them first stepped outside the village hall.
“Huh.”
The northern landscape, swept by a cutting wind. Yet countless people came and went, their faces and gestures brimming with vitality. There were even inns, shops, markets, restaurants, taverns, and more……
Just a moment ago, it had been nothing but a cold countryside. Now the village had become sturdy and thriving, and Epherene was dumbfounded.
“……Just how many years have passed?”
“Who knows.”
“Huh? Ah. You don’t know how many years have passed either, Professor.”
At that, Deculein walked on without a word. Epherene matched her steps to his stride.
“No, Professor, more importantly. How is a magical phenomenon like this even possible? Isn’t time travel supposed to be impossible even with magic?”
“For an ordinary mage, yes. But you are not ordinary.”
Was that praise or an insult? Epherene looked up at Deculein, then let her gaze drift to the street stall behind him.
Chicken skewers steeped in rich seasoning. A delicious smell wafted over.
……Gulp.
Deculein laughed softly.
“Are you hungry?”
“Sluurp. Ah, no…… But. What do you mean I’m not ordinary?”
“Because of your ‘Origin.’”
Deculein said. Epherene tilted her head, her face showing that she had no idea what he meant.
“Origin?”
“You will know later.”
“……What the heck.”
She glared at Deculein with narrowed eyes without thinking, then quickly lowered her gaze in fear of being scolded. Yet the Professor did not seem particularly offended.
Seriously, what is going on?
Epherene, filled with a great question, asked again.
“Then. Anyway, you’re saying this is the future.”
“That’s right.”
“How do I go back? Back to the present?”
“Who knows.”
“Tha…… huh?”
Startled, Epherene opened her eyes wide and asked again.
She had thought Deculein would obviously know. That he would tell her, as naturally as breathing, “Do this,” or “Do it this way,” and provide the answer.
He smiled faintly and said,
“This is the future. Connecting the present, the past, and the future is not so simple.”
“Then how……”
“We wait. Until the passage opens again.”
“……The passage?”
“Yes.”
Deculein nodded. Then, with 「Psychokinesis」, he handed Epherene a chicken skewer. Epherene did not refuse.
Clutching the skewer tightly in one hand, she asked,
“How does the passage open?”
“Most likely, on the day the second comet falls.”
“Aha……”
Only belatedly did Epherene recall what one of the villagers had said. Two days ago, or so, a shooting star had fallen in the thicket, so she should be careful.
“When will that be?”
Nom—she ate one piece of chicken.
Nom nom nom—the first bite was so good that her chewing sped up.
“That, too, I do not know. It may be three days, one week, three months, or one year.”
“!”
In that instant, Epherene’s jaw movement stopped cold. She simply looked up at Deculein with shocked eyes.
He said with a low laugh,
“Do not worry.”
“…….”
And yet, it was truly strange and wondrous. When she heard his words, though they were nothing more than words, her worries and anxieties quickly disappeared.
When she was beside Deculein, that was what happened for no reason. Because he was someone who never changed in any moment, someone always constant.
If there was always a calm person by my side, then no matter how absurd the situation, I would come to trust and rely on him.
……However.
“I will stay by your side until then.”
“Yes…… eh?”
Those words, at least, made her heart tremble a little. It felt as though her head had suddenly gone blank.
Epherene was speechless for a moment. She blinked for no reason, then abruptly shifted her gaze elsewhere. She looked anywhere. She followed anyone with her eyes.
“Wow. Wow! Look at that person! Do you think that tiger skin is real?”
She hastily pointed somewhere. It was a person wearing tiger skin over their entire body like armor……
* * *
……Epherene had gone missing. The last testimony from the villagers was that she had “entered the forest where the shooting star fell two days ago.”
“What, what should we do, Professor? If a bear or a tiger carried Miss Epherene off……”
Allen and Drent were beside themselves, but I was not particularly worried. Because I knew that, in Epherene’s future, at least, there was no “death.”
“There is no need to worry. Let us begin the mission. I will assign each of you your tasks.”
I wrote an official request for mobilization cooperation with my pen. It was a document requesting the soldiers of a nearby fortress to assist with the mission.
“Allen. Take this and collect soil near the undeveloped land with the soldiers.”
“……Yes.”
Allen pouted and nodded.
“Drent. You……”
Bang—!
Just then, the door on the first floor opened. At the same time, three knights entered first. Their entry resembled some sort of operation.
Without a word, they stepped forward with their armor clanking.
They glared about as though piercing through every direction, emitted mana to search every nook between walls and ceiling with peculiar thoroughness…… and at last, seeming to confirm there was no problem, one knight said,
“It appears safe for you to enter, Your Majesty.”
“……Your Majesty?”
“Your Majesty?”
Allen and Drent repeated blankly. I looked beyond the wide-open door.
Step— step—
A woman appeared.
A large fur coat wrapped from shoulder to knee, long red hair that seemed to blaze, and a pair of sunglasses perched over her eyes.
It was Sophien, the emperor of unique individuality as ever.
“Receive His Majesty.”
“!”
At the knight’s words, the assistants prostrated themselves, and I bent one knee. Sophien trudged over and looked down at me.
“It has been a while, Deculein.”
She asked in a tone mixed with laughter. With my gaze set on her heel, I said,
“I greet Your Majesty.”
“Enough. Rise.”
At those words, I stood and faced Sophien.
Sophien took off her sunglasses with a snap. Looking into me with her distinctive crimson eyes, she said,
“I have sought you out on an inspection of the North.”
“An inspection of the North, Your Majesty?”
Was the sun planning to rise in the west tomorrow? Sophien and inspections were far too ill-matched a combination.
However, I understood with the words that followed immediately after.
“That is so. It is also to settle the second game of the five-game match I promised you……”
──Three minutes later.
Sophien lay on the sofa on the fifth floor.
“Hmmm……”
Only a few minutes had passed since she had appeared more triumphant than ever, in stylish clothing full of confidence and individuality, as the most noble emperor in the world.
“This sofa is not very comfortable……”
And yet she had already become a sloth.
It was likely because of the sudden change in temperature. The interior of this mini Magic Tower was quite warm compared to the subzero outdoors.
“Yes.”
I applied 「Midas’s Hand」 to the sofa Sophien was lying on. About the third stage should be enough.
Mana radiating from my palm seeped into the leather.
“How is it now?”
“Hmm…… Curious. It is somewhat better.”
Sophien yawned broadly and changed her lying position to something more comfortable.
One leg draped over the arm of the sofa, the other lowered below it. It was the very image of “sprawling out to sleep.”
“Your Majesty. Did you come all this way because of baduk?”
“……Among other things. There was also…… a need to patrol the North. Hwaaaaaaam……”
Sophien’s face was already half-submerged in sleep.
“This place is far too small to serve as a base for your northern patrol, however.”
“Be silent. You talk too much. Leave at once!”
She shouted sharply while kicking the sofa with thumps. And the sight of her immediately falling asleep seemed to announce that her boredom and indolence were, indeed, close to incurable diseases.
……Softly. Softly.
Fortunately, her sleeping habits were not terrible. Sophien slept very quietly, snoring.
As I watched her, I suddenly thought of someone.
“Epherene.”
Where could that girl have gone?
She would manage on her own, so I was not worried, but I was curious.
The northern shooting star was surely related to a magical phenomenon. Where, and how, she might be floundering about……
* * *
“Got it!”
Meanwhile, Epherene was spending time in the future together with Deculein.
There was nothing particularly special about it. Fishing like this, reading books, learning what she did not know from Professor Deculein……
The only difference from the past was that Deculein was a little warmer.
What had happened in the future to make the Professor act like this? She was curious about that, but even when she asked, he would not tell her, so there was no way to know.
“Look, Professor! Isn’t this a super expensive fish?”
“It is a fish called a Living Icefish. At that size, it would be about 300 elne.”
“300 elne!”
Epherene’s eyes widened as she gripped the fishing rod. Deculein watched her, then lit a campfire. It seemed he intended to make grilled fish.
Whoooooosh——
After putting the fishing line back into the shore water, Epherene looked at Deculein. She watched the fish skewers he was making.
Sluurp—just as she swallowed the saliva that had gathered in her mouth almost instinctively.
Deculein’s hand stopped.
In that instant, his atmosphere went rigid. The space froze over, and Deculein’s expression sank coldly.
Killing intent and hostility emanated in a flash.
Epherene asked in a frightened tone,
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“…….”
Deculein quietly looked at Epherene. Then he murmured in a low voice,
“The reason I do not tell you many things is because interference from the future has far too great an effect on the past.”
“Huh?”
“However, you are not the only one who knows this fact.”
At that moment, Epherene also belatedly sensed something.
The scent of blood not far away. Epherene’s shoulders stiffened.
“Thus, there is a pack of wolves making rather useless efforts.”
Deculein stuck the finished fish skewers into the campfire.
Crackle, crackle—
The fish slowly began to cook, and Deculein drew up his mana. Sensing that something was unusual, Epherene also prepared attack magic.
“So, Professor. What that means is……”
“They are fools who think that if they kill the you of now, the you of the past will die. The you of the future is quite an important one, you see.”
At Deculein’s words, Epherene nodded gravely.
It was at that very moment.
───.
There was no sound. The assassins rushed in silently.
There was no sound of their feet touching the ground; only the wind moved softly. Epherene found it difficult to follow their movements.
Clang—the sound of metal rang out. Then a sharp current cut through the wind.
Epherene radiated a barrier in time, but whether this barrier would efficiently defend against their attacks, she could not know……
……And yet.
Beside Deculein, pure-white crystals bloomed. They flashed vividly in an instant.
They sliced through space like lightning. The tens and hundreds of assassins rushing in had their waists destroyed. They shattered like firewood.
Yet no blood flowed; it froze in midair.
Deculein’s 「Snowflower Stone」 burned as it froze the enemies, and killed them with certainty.
“…….”
The battle was settled in a blink. The field was covered in cold blood and fragments of flesh, and they began to disappear cleanly. Fire had blazed from the 「Snowflower Stone」.
The Snowflower Stone froze everything in every direction and burned it brilliantly.
Like thunderbolts, like flashes of light, the surroundings filled dazzlingly, and the dozens, hundreds of enemies that had certainly arrived a moment ago melted away in a single instant without even a trace of form.
Epherene could not comprehend this development.
Deculein explained it in a single sentence.
“It is called Snowflower Stone.”
The field was silent. Whoooooosh—the blowing wind shook the mountain ridges.
“They will target you again from now on, but there is nothing to worry about. I came for that very reason.”
At those words, Epherene opened her mouth blankly.
“…….”
However, within that silence, Epherene discovered something rather strange.
Her “five senses,” which she had enhanced in preparation for battle, had grasped something.
Epherene looked at Deculein. Her intuition was ringing an alarm.
Right now, from Deculein, there was no “sound” that must surely resound if one were human.
Right now, Deculein—his body—was far too eerily quiet.
In other words──
His heart was not beating.
“……Professor.”
Epherene spoke while looking at his chest. Her rather serious voice trembled faintly.
Deculein, understanding her gaze, laughed softly.
“There is nothing to be surprised about. It is a heart that has already died.”
At his words that there was nothing to be surprised about, Epherene could not help but be surprised.