A field frozen cold by the manifestation of the “Snowflower Stone.” In that place, polished clean and neat, gleaming blue like a jewel, Epherene asked back blankly.
“Your heart…… dies?”
A heart already dead. To Epherene’s mind—no, by ordinary common sense—it was difficult to understand. Yet Deculein answered far too calmly.
“That is so.”
“…….”
A chilly wind swept in and brushed her collar. A shiver ran over her skin.
Of course, thanks to what the Epherene of the future had told her, she had expected it to some degree, but the shock of hearing it directly from him was something else entirely.
Epherene merely moved her lips like a goldfish. She had nothing to say.
“Do not worry. I will live for several hundred years more.”
Deculein gave a faint chuckle and laid his hand on Epherene’s shoulder.
“Let us go. Nothing good comes of lingering in one place.”
Then he turned lightly and walked off somewhere. Epherene stood there watching him, then followed a little belatedly.
“Where, where are we going, Professor?”
“There is much I must teach you.”
“……Pardon?”
Every word Deculein spoke flustered her. Not only this kindness, but even the warm heat seeped into his voice felt foreign.
Deculein said,
“You will know if you follow.”
“……Yes.”
Epherene walked side by side with him. No—he was matching his stride to hers.
“…….”
These small gestures were truly strange.
And yet, as she followed hesitantly behind him without a word, as she looked uncertainly at his shoulder, she began to imagine the things that would one day happen in the far future…….
* * *
Sophien opened her eyes.
Flutter—her eyelids were trembling strangely. It meant she needed more sleep, so she closed her eyes again.
……No.
She opened them again.
Then she turned her head. Beside the sofa, on a chair, sat a man.
It was Deculein.
“You…… what are you doing there?”
Her consciousness was still full of sleep, but Sophien asked. His answer was concise.
“I am guarding Your Majesty.”
“…….”
Deculein was looking at her. Sitting upright, as though making some silent protest. Other than that, he was doing nothing in particular.
Sophien found his steady gaze needlessly burdensome.
“……Hm.”
Tick— tick—
The second hand of the clock moved sluggishly.
Thudududu…….
The sound of the blizzard outside striking the window.
Should she sleep more, or not? After hesitating, Sophien eventually raised herself.
“……?”
At that, Deculein’s eyes widened slightly. It was because a quest completion notification had suddenly appeared.
He had obtained shop currency merely by waking her from sleep.
Indeed, the Emperor was a person plastered with quests.
Just as Deculein was concealing his satisfaction, Sophien spoke.
“Deculein.”
“Yes.”
Sophien looked out the window.
An ordinary snowy scene. Yet it did not feel familiar. For some reason, her entire body was filled with a sense of strangeness, as though the world had been overturned.
Tormented by that peculiar itch, she belatedly realized it.
This was the first time she had fallen asleep somewhere that was not the Imperial Palace.
“…….”
Sophien looked at Deculein again. He remained composed.
“Deculein.”
“Yes.”
“Let us play Go.”
“Yes.”
Bowing his head, Deculein prepared a Go board and stones with 「Psychokinesis」.
Sophien sat up. She had come to the North under the pretext of inspecting the region, but in truth, this had been her true purpose.
A match worthy of testing her intellect. The joy of meeting a strong opponent in a world filled only with weaklings.
This Deculein shall be my Go opponent forever…….
“Last time, I held the white stones, so this time I will take black.”
“Do as you please.”
Sophien placed the white stones before herself. Deculein drew the black stones toward him and said,
“Will we not need a judge?”
“Hey!”
At Sophien’s call, a knight hurried over.
“Yes! Your servant, Kindegel—”
“Stand here and act as judge.”
“By judge, you mean……”
“Just stand there. I shall count the seconds myself.”
“Yes!”
Immediately after, Sophien raised her brows and looked at Deculein. Her gaze was drawn sharp.
“Begin.”
“Yes.”
Tak—.
Deculein placed the first move at once. The lower-right star point.
Sophien immediately placed her stone on the upper-right star point, and Deculein chose the komoku in the lower left.
It was an utterly predictable opening formation.
“Professor.”
Sophien spoke as she placed the eighth move.
“Yes.”
Deculein likewise answered as he made his move.
Until then, the state of the board was north and south. Deculein’s black stones had made the southern side their territory, while Sophien’s white stones occupied the north.
“I hear you have been going in and out of the Imperial Palace library.”
But with the very next tenth move.
Sophien boldly rushed into Deculein’s camp. In an instant, the white stone reached the lower right—in other words, black’s territory.
“Yes. That is correct.”
At that, Deculein’s black also advanced into Sophien’s upper right. He was not avoiding the battle she had initiated from the very beginning.
A bold spirit. A pride truly befitting Deculein.
“Why?”
“Because the Imperial Palace contains all the history of the continent.”
Before long, the twenty-fourth move. Sophien wedged a white stone into the very middle of the black stones. It was a reckless surprise attack, like sending a detached cavalry unit to the front, but Deculein did not flinch and calmly struck back.
He blocked with black stones the paths Sophien was likely to strike.
“What did you seek, that you wished to know that history?”
Even through that exchange of questions and answers, the match did not cease. The stones continuously made their places upon the wooden board.
The fierce battlefield now shifted from the right side to the lower left.
From Sophien’s detached unit at the twenty-fourth move, the attack continued into the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth…… with ferocious intensity.
“Did you want to know about the giants? Or.”
But there was no panic in the professor. He merely responded calmly, never disturbing his own formation. He was not swept away. He did not fall for tricks.
If one were to describe his style of play in a single word…… it was elegant.
“Did you want to know about me?”
‘I hope Sophien will be happy.’
That sentence remained in Sophien’s mind as though carved there.
“……Your Majesty. To me, dreams are no different from memories.”
Suddenly, Deculein said something strange. Sophien lifted her eyes and looked at him.
“When I dream, I recover memories of my past.”
Because he possessed the body of 「Iron Man」, three hours of sleep a week was sufficient. However, all the memories that surfaced during those three hours belonged to Deculein’s past.
And yet.
At some point, he had dreamed of a time that had already vanished.
“However, at times, there are memories I have not experienced.”
Sophien placed her twenty-sixth white stone. That fifty-second move landed with a great resonance.
Deculein’s brow twitched. Sophien smiled deeply.
“Mm-haha.”
It was an exceedingly powerful brilliant move. So much so that she felt proud of herself for having conceived it.
Without realizing it, Sophien shook her body. It almost looked as though her shoulders were dancing, though her expression remained cold as ever.
……At that moment.
“In those memories, I was with Your Majesty.”
Tuk— Deculein placed the fifty-third move as he spoke those words.
Sophien’s body stiffened.
The state of the match had not changed. The fifty-second move had raised white’s chances of victory exponentially, and if things continued as they were, Sophien’s victory would be clear.
“It was quite a long time.”
“…….”
“There were not many memories, but Your Majesty was young, and I was alone.”
Sophien did not let her expression show. This was one of her defense mechanisms.
If she dragged the previous world into the present one, if she clung to lingering attachment for a world that had already disappeared through regression, she would be left with nothing but the desire to kill herself. The previous world was already gone.
And yet, if that was truly so.
How could this professor……
“……It must have been a nonsense dream.”
“Is that so?”
“Just play Go. You are on the verge of losing.”
Sophien quickly pointed at the Go board. Deculein answered calmly.
“My chances of victory already seem low. Unless Your Majesty makes a mistake.”
“Then, was what you just said an intentional attempt to induce a mistake from me?”
“I will leave that to Your Majesty.”
“……Insolent fellow.”
Though she said that, her heart trembled strangely.
Once, Deculein of the vanished world had said something to her. That Deculein was not the Deculein of now, but he had sworn that he would surely remember her.
And also, that his oath would never be forgotten…….
Boom——!
A tremendous explosion erupted outside. The ground shook for a moment. A loud sound also echoed inside.
The escort knight shouted loudly.
“Your Majesty──! Please, eva—”
“Be silent.”
“…….”
“It is nothing. You go out and look.”
“But, Your Majesty—”
“Deculein.”
Sophien said.
“Can you ensure that this match continues smoothly?”
“If Your Majesty wishes it.”
“…….”
Nineteen blades of woodsteel rose around Deculein’s back.
Gooooo— vibrating as they surged upward, the woodsteel pursued the source of the assault.
The knight looked at Deculein. He nodded.
“……Yes. Understood.”
The seventh strongest in the Empire. The Emperor’s Imperial Guard. The head professor of the Magic Tower. If it was Deculein, he could be trusted.
“Follow my steel.”
“Yes.”
The knight raced after Deculein’s woodsteel.
“……But, are you all right? It seems to be a surprise attack aimed at Your Majesty.”
Deculein asked while continuing the match. Sophien twisted her lips into a smirk.
“It is fake. Even if it is real, they will be nothing but spent weaklings. Their intent is merely to plant a pretext.”
“A pretext, you say.”
“It is obvious. I expected it from the moment I came to the North. Once a few of those who attacked me are captured, before they die, they will produce evidence of who is behind them. They are low-grade fools hoping I will play along with such a trifling scheme to sow discord.”
Tak—!
Sophien’s seventy-eighth move, strength entering her fingers. The board was still a close battle, but after the fifty-second move, it had been steadily tilting toward her.
“I see.”
“Ah. You said before that you also had a disciple. I do not see that one. What is the name?”
“Epherene. Epherene Luna.”
At that, Sophien furrowed her brow slightly.
“Epherene, is it……. Her father named her poorly. ‘Fall,’ of all things. How can one give a person a name meaning fall?”
The word Epherene meant “fall” in runic.
“…….”
Deculein made his move without a word.
Tak—!
There was an unusual resonance in that seventy-ninth move as it settled.
“……!”
Sophien’s eyes widened as she gazed at it. At first, she had not recognized it, but the more she pondered it, the more immense its meaning became.
“Ha.”
A black stone near the very center, cutting the battle line in two. It would surrender the already-dead left side, but it was a fatal strategic point that would encircle the white stones on the right.
This was certainly comparable to Sophien’s fifty-second move, an artistic gamble that hundreds of blockheaded retainers could ponder together for their entire lives and still never find. A scene lacking nothing to be called a “work.”
A truly beautiful picture.
Sophien, who had been admiring it blankly, soon smiled.
“How marvelous. Professor Deculein.”
At that, Deculein looked at her.
It was the gaze she had been waiting for. Sophien met his eyes and said,
“I never thought I would say such a thing in my life.”
The only game in this dull world from which she felt amusement. The best opponent to push her to her limits through that fantastical game.
She did not know whether she truly liked the game, or whether she liked the opponent.
“This is the first happiness I have ever known.”
At least in this moment. At least in this moment of feeling a new art together upon this shabby wooden board, it was enough to call happiness…….
* * *
One day, two days, three days, four days…… Epherene spent time with Deculein. To be precise, with the Deculein of the future.
During that time, she learned various things from him. Magic theses, of course, but also mana breathing, efficient exercise methods, physical training methods, and more.
Just as she was slowly growing accustomed to this changed Deculein, and just as she could clearly feel her own growth and development—
“Follow me. There is something I will show you.”
Deculein called Epherene.
“Today?”
A modest but tidy cabin. Epherene, who had been cleaning and polishing a fishing rod, tilted her head and asked back.
Now she had even begun talking back in her own way.
“Isn’t it too cold today? It’s even night. I thought we were going fishing tomorrow.”
“Come out.”
“……Okaaay.”
Epherene came outside with Deculein.
He led her into the snow-covered wilderness. The road, however, was practically a sheet of ice, and the howling, knife-like wind lashed at her cheeks.
Clutching at her hair, Epherene said,
“It’s freezing! And the wind is blowing so hard!”
“It isn’t far. We’re almost there.”
Crunch, crunch. Epherene walked with difficulty. The farther she went, the deeper her feet sank into the snowfield, and she could only barely move by jerking her knees up.
On top of that, it was night, so she could hardly see an inch ahead.
“There.”
Just then.
Deculein pointed somewhere. There was a small fire, a screen, and two rocking chairs.
“Sit.”
Saying so, Deculein sat first. Epherene waddled over and settled her backside down as well. She asked a little brusquely,
“Why here…… I’m freezing to death.”
“Look up.”
Pouting, Epherene tilted her gaze upward. And for a moment, she lost her words.
Awe slipped through her parted teeth.
“……Wow.”
The entire sky was visible.
A sky of nothing but stars, moon, and clouds. This place was positioned like some kind of viewing platform, looking up at that distant ceiling in its entirety.
“The view is…… Ah?”
As she looked at those stars, a thought suddenly occurred to her. The current that flashed through her mind—crackle!—even touched her fingertips.
“Professor!”
Epherene quickly turned to Deculein.
“You know, maybe I can go back and forth?”
“……Back and forth?”
Deculein frowned. Mm-hmm! Epherene nodded repeatedly.
“Yes, yes! You said the shooting star was the problem. Then there should be records in the past of when and where shooting stars fell! This is the future, right? Then couldn’t I come here every time that shooting star cycle happens?”
Objectively speaking, it was an overly hasty generalization, lacking in magical logic. But Deculein did not bother to point it out.
Perhaps because it was close to the “truth.”
“So you mean I should look after you every time you come?”
“What? No! No, no, no. Of course, the next time I come, I’ll have grown more too.”
“…….”
At that, Deculein silently held out a document. Epherene took the paper without thinking, then widened her eyes.
“……Huh?”
[Investigation Report on Northern Celestial Activity Over the Past Ten Years]
“What! So you already knew too, Professor!”
“Hm.”
Deculein gave a small laugh and sank into his chair. Epherene’s lips twitched as well, grinning and smirking.
Then she calculated the date of the next falling star.
“Ah! There’s one just ten days from now! And another in a couple months! I think I’ll be able to go back and forth about twice?”
“Don’t be so certain.”
“Still. If, by any chance, it works, I’ll come back twice!”
“……You don’t have to come back.”
Deculein shook his head kindly.
“I happen to have somewhere to go as well.”
“Where?”
He merely smiled without a word. He only placed a hand on the crown of Epherene’s head.
“A foolish disciple doesn’t need to know.”
“…….”
Epherene simply looked at Deculein. A little belatedly, she noticed how different he was from the past.
The Deculein of the future was wearing a robe instead of a suit as he had before. Even that smile of his now seemed, somehow, like a sorrowful face.
“Ahem…….”
Epherene had many things she wanted to ask.
Why his heart had died, what had happened in the future.
What had happened to Sylvia, and where Drent and Allen had gone.
“……Yes. I’m still foolish, after all.”
But she did not ask.
She felt as though she should not.
“Epherene. Look at that sky.”
Then Deculein pointed into the air.
In that distant firmament, a comet was flowing. Its tail shimmering, it released an immense amount of mana.
“Ah?!”
“I saw signs of celestial activity last night. I thought it would be tomorrow, but it’s good you came early.”
“…….”
Epherene looked at Deculein again. She felt a little disappointed, and her eyes were a little wet.
But soon she shook her head. She spoke with strength.
“It’s okay. I can come back soon.”
“Is that so.”
The Deculein of the future. He, too, gave her a clear smile. As if proud, he patted her shoulder.
It was at that moment that the shooting star fell.
Swoooooosh──!
A flash of mana glittered like lightning. The exploding cluster of light dyed the whole world brilliantly.
“……Ugh!”
Immediately after, an impact as if her head were splitting apart struck her. Epherene clutched her temples. Staggering from the pain, she thud—came into contact with something.
She looked up. It was Deculein’s shoulder.
“It’s all right.”
He said, looking down at her.
The cold wind and the curtain of night had vanished before she knew it, and a warm heat wrapped around her body. His presence seemed to envelop the area.
“Rest easy. If you rest for a while and wake, it will be as it was before.”
“Mmh…… Yes…….”
Epherene slowly closed her eyes. The pain seemed already gone; only a small smile floated at the corners of her mouth. Her whole body felt cozy, as if she were lying beneath a cotton blanket.
……And soon.
When she opened her eyes again, just as he had said.
—Oh! There’s Miss Epherene!
She was lying near the lakeside.
“Miss Epherene! Miss Epherene!”
A cold day. A dawn where the stars shimmered.
“Ipal! Ipal!”
“Miss Epherene~!”
Epherene stared blankly at Allen and Drent as they shouted and ran toward her from afar.
[Achievement Quest: The Emperor’s Cough]
◆ Achievement Complete: Wake Emperor Sophien.
◆ Shop Currency +1