The second game of the five-match series. After counting, White—Sophien—won by 2.5 points.
White’s komi had been 7.5 points, so it was a rather regrettable loss.
“Mm-hahaha.”
Sophien celebrated her victory with an expressionless smile. Her face remained unchanged, yet the way she laughed only with her mouth was quite lively.
“Mm-hahaha.”
Though Sophien had not been able to fully enjoy her victory in the first game, it seemed she had now resolved to enjoy Go itself.
“Mm-hahaha.”
I slowly reviewed the game.
Sophien’s White and my Black. I placed every opening move and sequence into my mind. I began learning through 「Comprehension」.
Then—
“Your Majesty. We have captured them.”
The Imperial Palace knights approached respectfully and reported. In truth, the situation had already been resolved long ago, but everyone had waited until the match was over.
“Shall we return to the capital and interrogate them? Or—”
“There is no need. Kill them.”
“However, Your Majesty. The mastermind—”
“Kill them. There is no need to waste time on vermin like them. Burn every corpse.”
“……Yes.”
The knights retreated backward. Sophien glanced at them, then spoke to me again.
“Deculein. That was enjoyable. The third match will be next week.”
“So it would seem.”
“Are you confident?”
“Yes. It is time for me to win.”
I nodded. Sophien smiled as well.
“Good. I shall look forward to it.”
—Professoooor!
At that moment, a loud voice rang out from my inner pocket. It was the crystal orb connected to Allen.
—We found Miss Epherene!
“……Hmph.”
Sophien, hearing the report, gave a small laugh. In a tone uncharacteristically benevolent, she said,
“The falling child has come. Go at once. I shall review this game. If I am not to lose to you, I too must put in effort.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I rose from my seat.
…….
“Are you feeling all right?”
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
Epherene was returning to the lodging with Drent and Allen.
“……I’m fine. It wasn’t anything serious. I just got lost for a little while.”
Fortunately, she had not been away for too long.
No, they said it had only been three days. The time she had spent with the future Deculein had been about a week.
“Well, in the northern winter, there are a ridiculous number of magical phenomena…… Oh. There’s the Professor.”
Drent pointed ahead. Deculein was there.
She had been with him for a week, but precisely because of that, he had become awkward to face.
Dressed in a suit, he looked at them with cold eyes.
“……Epherene.”
He spoke. It was a voice that had grown unfamiliar before she knew it. Cool as ice, and sharp as well.
Epherene quietly looked up at him.
“Yes?”
“Where have you been?”
“That’s…… a secret.”
She touched the back of her head and made an excuse. Deculein looked her up and down.
“You will receive penalty points for failure to participate in the mission and leaving the area. Since it is a secret, I assume you have no particular complaints.”
“……Yes.”
“Go inside.”
Epherene trudged over and opened the door to the lodging.
A strange feeling came over her—needlessly sad, needlessly hurt, as if one corner of her heart had been hollowed out.
So this was how strange it felt for ‘time not to match.’
Letting out deep sighs, she was about to climb the stairs when—
“Are you Epherene?”
She raised her eyes at the voice calling her. Then her whole body stiffened.
“They say you are Deculein’s disciple.”
Long hair blazing like flame, and irises as beautiful as rubies carved into shape. The legitimate heir of the noblest house in the Empire, and the greatest being on the continent.
Emperor Sophien.
Sophienne, Ekater Augus von Jaegers Ziphrain.
Thud—!
At the sight of her, Epherene naturally dropped to her knees.
“I, I greet Your Majestyyyyyaaaagh—!”
Her voice burst out like a scream. Because her vocal cords suddenly constricted, her pitch broke. Sophien let out a chuckle and helped her up.
“Enough. More importantly, I am curious as to where you came from.”
“……Pardon?”
Sophien could observe the mysterious energy wavering around Epherene.
It was what one would call a trace, or a remnant. Deculein had likely seen it as well.
“Did Deculein say nothing?”
“N-No. He just told me to go back…….”
“Mm. Well, he is not the sort to pry into such things.”
Sophien looked into Epherene’s bright, round eyes.
“However, I would like to ask, just a little. I am curious whether you will lie or tell the truth…….”
As the Emperor said so, a deep smile hung at the corners of her mouth, and Epherene gulped.
* * *
……At the far northern extreme. On a mountainside near Reccordak, Julie was wiping the blood from her sword and body.
“He is in the North.”
The road was stained with blood. Chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere, and on Julie’s back, a fatal wound ran diagonally across her.
It was a severe injury that would have killed an ordinary person instantly. If the bleeding continued, even a knight could not be certain of surviving.
“……Yes.”
Yet Reylie was calm. Julie was the same. For now, it was fortunate enough that she had survived.
“With one that size, you could buy a house in the capital.”
Reylie pointed at the beast that had just died, slain after a fierce bloody battle.
Black markings were etched between yellow and white fur. It was a cunning tiger that had been devouring herb gatherers and scouts near the mountain’s edge.
“It looks like it was just before adulthood…… Make armor out of the hide, Sir Knight.”
As Reylie said that, she approached Julie.
“This is going to hurt a bit.”
“I’m fine.”
She removed the shattered armor and applied herbs to the muscle torn deeply enough to reveal bone.
At that instant, Julie’s slender shoulders trembled greatly. An injury like this, if anything, brought more than twice the agony during recovery.
“Kh…….”
“Does it hurt?”
“……It’s bearable.”
“Tears are streaming down your face, though.”
“They are not…….”
“Pfft. Still, Sir Julie, you’ve achieved something now too, haven’t you? Like Lord Zeit?”
“…….”
No matter how long she waited, no answer came back.
“Huh?”
Julie had closed her eyes before she knew it. She had briefly fainted.
“Hmm.”
In the meantime, Reylie busily moved about, separating the tiger’s hide from its flesh.
She would tan the hide and make armor, and quickly boil or roast the meat and feed it to Julie.
“……Ah, that son of a bitch Deculein.”
Clang—!
Then, suddenly enraged, she threw the utensils aside.
That damned bastard, not satisfied with destroying the entire Freyhem Knights to bury the truth about Veron, had even killed Rockfell. The most vicious bastard in the world. A bastard who resembled Dikailen, and was even more cruel and perverted than Dikailen.
“He seriously pisses me off!”
They should never have trusted him from the start. Even if no one else did, she should have kept suspecting him.
“……Still.”
Reylie looked back at the unconscious Julie.
Right now, Julie was growing stronger.
Because that bastard had betrayed her, because he had destroyed everything Julie had. Having lost everything she could rely on and lean upon, Julie had nowhere left to depend on but ‘herself.’
“One day, you’ll regret it.”
Killing a tiger was a clear achievement. Especially in the case of slaying an adult one one-on-one, no one in the North had done so besides the head of Freyden, ‘Zeit.’
“Seriously.”
Reylie roasted the tiger meat while tanning the hide with magic. For her, who belonged to the dual lines of support and manipulation, this much was easy.
“One day, without fail…….”
Thinking of Deculein, Reylie clenched her teeth.
If even the anger she felt was this much, then how must Julie feel right now? What must her heart be like, frozen in the bitter cold?
“I’ll make you regret it.”
“Reylie. Quiet.”
“……Ah. You’re awake?”
Julie, having regained consciousness, smiled with a pale face. Reylie quickly handed her the tiger meat, and Julie took a bite.
Her cherry-like lips on her tiny face tore into the tiger meat.
“How is it?”
At Reylie’s question, Julie nodded.
“It’s good. It seems sufficient to call it a trophy gained after briefly experiencing pain akin to death.”
“Hahaha. Eat up, hurry.”
The tiger’s hind leg covered Julie’s entire face. Julie chewed the meat again, and Reylie watched her with a soft smile.
“Eat a lot. Get better soon.”
“……Yes. Reylie. I truly only ever owe you. Thank you, always…….”
Her words of thanks did not continue for long. She merely gripped the tiger’s hind leg and closed her eyes for a moment. She fell into a slightly deeper sleep.
“…….”
No, perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a collapse.
She had lost this much blood fighting the tiger, after all.
“……There’s nothing to thank me for.”
A cold winter. A desolate wind blowing fiercely.
In this harsh North, Reylie held only one wish.
That Julie would recover quickly, and take revenge on Deculein…….
It was then.
“……!”
Reylie sensed killing intent seeping in from somewhere. Her eyes widened, and she gripped a wand in one hand and a dagger in the other.
* * *
“…….”
Meanwhile, Epherene was restless.
Her fingers and toes wriggled automatically. Though it was not hot, sweat ran down her temples, and the area around her forehead was already soaked, strands of hair clinging to it.
It was because of Sophien, lying on the sofa in the same room.
“……Hmm.”
Sophien had boldly kidnapped Epherene, but as soon as they returned, she had stuck herself to the sofa.
She had expended too much mental energy on Go, and once the match ended, the fatigue had belatedly come crashing over her.
“At any rate…… where you…….”
Sophien could not finish what she meant to say to Epherene. She yawned widely.
To Epherene, she honestly looked a little like a large cat, but the majesty of that cat was pressing down on her entire body.
“……Ah.”
Sophien stared blankly at the ceiling. Epherene asked cautiously,
“May I…… Your Majesty. May I leave now?”
Sophien’s eyes rolled toward Epherene. Then she shook her head.
“I still have questions.”
“……I-Is that so?”
“Where were you?”
“What do you mean by that……?”
Sophien snorted in amusement.
“The mana clinging to your body is different. To be precise, celestial mana is plastered all over you.”
“……Ah.”
It was probably because of the meteor. She had been thoroughly drenched in the mana that had exploded in that instant.
“Deculein likely let you go despite knowing, but I will not.”
“…….”
“Do not worry. I am tight-lipped.”
Because Sophien was the Emperor, she was someone one could trust in that regard. No one would dare demand that the Emperor reveal a secret.
Even so, Epherene shook her head.
“……I’m sorry.”
“Hmm.”
At that, Sophien looked up at the ceiling. She was merely deducing.
“Why would celestial mana be clinging to your body……?”
Epherene wriggled her hands and feet again.
She was inexplicably anxious. Her whole body was damp with sweat.
“……And.”
With 「Telekinesis」, Sophien removed Epherene’s robe.
Epherene quickly grabbed at the hem of her clothes, but Sophien’s precise telekinesis easily extracted the contents within the robe.
“Aah!”
“And what might this be?”
A celestial report recording the ‘fall-origin date’ of a meteor that, from the future Deculein’s standpoint, belonged to the past, and to the current Epherene, belonged to the future.
At that moment, Epherene went deathly pale, and Sophien fluttered the paper as she asked,
“May I look? If you tell me not to, I shall not…….”
The Emperor’s face, as she muttered so, was filled with drowsiness.
“…….”
No, Sophien fell asleep without even hearing Epherene’s answer.
The ‘day’ granted to her had been completely used up.
“……Ahem.”
Epherene stealthily reached toward the document Sophien had snatched. However, Sophien yawned once, then hugged the document to her chest and turned over.
“Aah……! No……!”
Epherene despaired.
* * *
“This is really fascinating, Professooor! It’s fun!”
Vroooooom—!
A snow-covered field. A sleek snowmobile cut across the area as it sped onward. Its steel body was as sturdy as a rhinoceros.
“Wow~!”
I drove skillfully, and Allen squealed in admiration. Its speed was not particularly different from the escort cavalry chasing behind us, but the advantage was that Allen did not complain of motion sickness.
“This is the place.”
As we rushed along, I stopped the mobile at a specific point.
Today’s mission was the collection and analysis of soil. This area, which bordered the undeveloped land, could sufficiently be called an ‘extreme,’ and thus threats were scattered everywhere.
“Everyone, collect soil in these envelopes.”
“Yes!”
The soldiers received the envelopes and dispersed. I stood still and spread Wood Steel, while Allen looked at the map with wide eyes.
“Professor! It says Reccordak is around here too?!”
“…….”
Reccordak. The worst prison on earth, and likely the place where Julie worked.
That prison lay along the route cutting across the area, but the reason I had deliberately passed it by was because of her.
“If it’s Reccordak, then it must be totally terrifying—”
“Allen.”
“Yes?”
“Be quiet and set things up.”
“……Yes.”
Allen zipped his mouth shut and began setting up the research materials he had brought.
A mini lab table, reagent bottles, magic tools for component analysis, and so on…….
Since the demonic energy permeating the soil decreased as time passed, I had judged it best to analyze it on-site if possible, and so we had brought all the equipment directly here.
“Is it done?”
“Yes!”
Just as Allen shouted energetically—
“…….”
My brow twitched. Wood Steel had detected a strange ‘killing intent.’ At the same time, I also perceived the operation of destructive magic.
The northern extreme. In this vicinity, where magical beasts and tigers could appear at any moment, was there a mage bold enough to use such conspicuous magic?
“……Professor?”
I demanded a report from Wood Steel.
The seventh piece of Wood Steel that had advanced to the northeast. The one that had first detected the killing intent transmitted its unique resonance.
At the same time, it conveyed the scene it had witnessed.
“…….”
In the very next instant, my expression hardened. I bit my lip hard.
It was a rather troublesome situation.
With a sigh, I climbed onto the snowmobile.
“Professor? Where are you going? I just finished setting everything up!”
“……There is something I must do.”
Wood Steel had just spoken. It had also shown me.
Far away, in a forest. Julie, unable to fight, and Reylie had been surrounded by enemies.
“I’ll go too, I’ll go too!”
Allen hurriedly climbed onto the snowmobile as well. He was a nuisance, like extra baggage, but right now, I had no room to care about such things.
It was a hair-trigger situation.
Wheeeeeeeeeeng—!
I bestowed 「Midas’ Hand」 upon the snowmobile, and the rapidly amplified vehicle surged forward with a mad roar.