I relied on the Crystal Tree’s mana recovery and repeated 「Midas’s Hand」.
I bestowed different effects not only on the Wood Steel, but also on the Georg suit jacket, coat, and shoes.
──「 Georg Suit Shoes 」──
……
◆ Special Effects
：The feet are the organs that support the entire body. Therefore, wearing these shoes seems likely to make the whole body comfortable.
：The efficiency of walking increases, and bodily balance improves.
：Easily resists any kind of binding magic.
[Midas’s Hand: Level 5]
────────
In addition, the jacket and coat received anti-magic and protection functions.
The defense-specialized Wood Steel received a special magic effect called 「Multiplication」—its numbers increase for a brief instant.
The support-specialized Wood Steel received even a trait fusion called 「Taping」—an autonomous healing mechanism synthesized with duct tape.
—I still find you mysterious, Professor.
That was when Epherene spoke. I answered while controlling the newly improved Wood Steel.
“What do you mean?”
—You aren’t curious or afraid about what happens in the future, or why you aren’t there in the future, Professor.
“Is that so?”
—Shall I tell you?
Epherene asked. I lifted my eyes and looked across from me. The chair was still empty.
—If I tell you……
“No need.”
I shook my head.
Naturally, I do not know how this world will progress, nor how it will continue. How the scenario might twist due to Kim Woojin’s intervention is an unknown territory.
However, there seems to be no need to forcibly twist it. No matter how I think about it, his future does not seem to be the worst, so it would not be bad to let things proceed as they are.
To begin with, the worst outcome of the main quest is the ‘destruction of the continent.’
—……Actually, I can’t tell you~ The future Professor asked me not to. He said I absolutely mustn’t say anything~
Epherene deliberately brightened her voice.
Just then, 5,000 mana filled up, and I bestowed 「Midas’s Hand」 upon the final piece of Wood Steel.
Bzzzzzt——!
The sound of mana crackling like sparks.
With this, it was finished.
I had expected about a week, yet it had been completed in only two days.
─Is it done now, Professor?
Epherene spoke just in time.
“Yes.”
I manipulated the Wood Steel, each bearing different traits.
No, there was no need to control them at all. The nineteen pieces of Wood Steel moved naturally, as though they were living creatures.
“At this level.”
I looked into the darkness beyond. Countless monsters were swarming there. There were more than twice as many as two days ago.
“Those scraps of waste should be easy enough to dispose of.”
—Yes. Professor, do your best.
“……Is that all you have to say?”
I immediately rose to my feet. There was no need to wait for my mana to recover.
After all, the mana consumed by the Wood Steel’s 「Telekinesis」 converged to zero.
—I want to say I love you? Even if it’s unrequited, forever…… But our bond isn’t at that level right now.
The words she had suddenly thrown out like a surprise attack were absurd. I narrowed my brows and glared in that direction.
“……As long as you know.”
—Yes.
There was no reason to continue the conversation beyond that.
I advanced into the darkness where the Crystal Tree’s light did not reach. Then, as if they had been waiting, hundreds and thousands of monsters lunged in a frenzy.
────!
Their roars shook the road. The reverberation, mixed with their footsteps, was little different from an earthquake.
“Trash.”
I frowned and preheated the Wood Steel.
Whooooo……
Mana filled the nineteen blades of steel, and soon they operated as a single ‘system.’
Swaaaaaaaaa───!
The sound of air being cut. Lines of steel raced through the void.
Beyond them, thousands of monsters surged in like a tidal wave, but in this battle, each steel carried out its own role.
Some steel dismantled the bodies of the charging monsters, some steel whirled on its own and shook the ground, and some steel floated like a barrier to protect me.
Division of labor and specialization.
Thanks to this efficient combat structure, I did not move a single finger. Only one step, then another. I simply advanced into the gaps between the enemies.
Crack-crunch-crunch-crunch───!
The sound of bones grinding seeped into my ears. Cries that could not be told apart as roars or screams.
Geysers of blood, and the scattering remnants of flesh and filth.
I blocked all such disgusting things with 「Telekinesis」 and began the cleanup of the trash……
* * *
……Meanwhile, Epherene arrived with Sophien at a village in the North. It was the village where she had first met the future Deculein.
“I think we can find him here!”
Epherene spoke energetically, while Sophien merely stood still and smelled this time.
The time of the future and the present differed from the very air. Sophien could feel that.
“Hmm…… let’s see……”
Epherene quietly looked around the marketplace. She was looking for one person, and fortunately, she found him quickly.
“There he is!”
When Epherene pointed somewhere, Sophien also turned in that direction.
“Hey, you!”
She quickly ran over and seized a man’s wrist.
“Herb guy!”
It was the herbalist she had met last time. He seemed startled by the sudden charge, but after seeing Epherene’s face, he nodded.
“……Ah, yes. Are you Mage Epherene?”
“Good to see you. We meet again.”
“Yes. That we do.”
Then Sophien also approached with her hands clasped behind her back. The herbalist glanced at her robed figure, then spoke to Epherene.
“But, have you come again?”
“Yeah. I have something to ask.”
“Yes. Please ask.”
This herbalist, Juban, was cooperative as expected. His face was blunt, but he was kind.
Epherene quickly spoke.
“Professor Deculein? Do you know where the Professor went?”
“……Pardon?”
At that, the herbalist looked startled. His eyes, which had been as small as threads, widened and fixed on Epherene.
Epherene tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“That…… could it be that you don’t know?”
“Know what? What don’t I know?”
Epherene asked back. He had an indescribable expression.
Mm, hmmm, mm. After pondering more than necessary, he scratched his cheek and opened his mouth.
“That is…… the Professor……”
He looked back and forth between Epherene and Sophien beside her. As if gauging their reactions. As if reluctant to say it.
However, whew…… after letting out a deep sigh, he finally spoke.
“He passed away. As far as I know.”
“……Huh?”
Epherene tilted her head in pure confusion, and Sophien looked at him seriously.
A brief silence settled between them. The bustling sounds of the marketplace rang somewhat hazily.
Gulp— Epherene swallowed and asked back.
“Passed away…… you mean he went back to his hometown? Ah~ to his hometown?”
“No. That’s not it…… hmm…… He went on a trip to the Reok Kingdom…… then he did return here again……”
He scratched the back of his head. Then, as if he had thought of something, he snapped his fingers.
“Ah, that’s right. When I asked him why he had returned, he did say he was waiting for someone here.”
“Waiting?”
“Yes. Perhaps……”
The herbalist looked at Epherene. His words did not continue to the end, but it was enough to understand the situation.
“…….”
Epherene’s mouth hung open vacantly, stupidly.
Through it, one word slipped out foolishly.
“A lie?”
“……I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”
“Ah…… come on.”
Epherene recalled the Deculein she had met last time.
The man who had said that his heart was already dead. Yet who had said he would live for another hundred-some years, and told her not to worry……
“No way. He said he would live another hundred-some years. He isn’t someone who lies, is he?”
“A hundred-some years? I don’t know what that means, but…… Count Yukline came personally.”
“…….”
Epherene staggered from a sudden spell of dizziness, and Sophien still said nothing. She merely smelled this time.
And a little belatedly, she realized the difference between the present and the future.
“……I see.”
Sophien possessed five senses close to a miracle.
Therefore, she could distinguish the presence or absence of a certain human by scent in the air alone. The greater that human’s presence, the clearer it was.
Thus, there was no sensation of Deculein in this world.
Probably, from the very moment she had arrived in this future.
“Luna.”
Sophien called Epherene. She opened and closed her lips, then turned to Sophien.
“Thanks to you, I have learned an important fact.”
At that moment, even Epherene could not help but be surprised.
Because the expression on Emperor Sophien’s face now was frighteningly rigid……
* * *
“Mm-mm……”
Epherene of the far future was fiddling with a cube. She rolled it this way and that with one hand, matching the colors.
In the past, it had been a toy that did not suit her temperament, but now she wore a small smile. She soon completed the cube and gazed at it.
“……Done.”
Nodding in satisfaction, she propped her chin on both hands and looked around this empty space.
The Sanctuary of ‘Time.’
Once, in this place, she had met Idnik, met Murekan, met Demakan, reunited with Sylvia, confessed to Deculein……
So many memories passed by.
But now this place was no different from ruins.
The life of the Crystal Tree would soon run out, and the time remaining in the space itself was little.
Here, there was only me, Epherene Luna.
Alone.
“…….”
Epherene recalled the memories of Rokralen someday.
The days she had spent with Deculein.
Those times had been so faint, so happy and yet so cruel, and above all, even for an archmage, it was terribly difficult to remember that expanded time in its entirety……
The moment she came out of Rokralen─ she forgot more than half of it.
It left her so empty, so sad, that she had cried and cried.
She had truly been sad enough to die. It had hurt as though her entire heart had been torn out.
“……Professor.”
Epherene put her mouth to the Crystal Tree and called him. However, his voice no longer returned, and naturally, his face could not be seen either.
Thus, the last time Epherene had faced Deculein directly was in Rokralen.
……What happened there would remain a secret forever.
─I’m here.
Then came a sudden answer. Epherene flinched in surprise, but soon smiled brightly.
“Is all the work done?”
─I killed them all.
“……As expected of you, Professor.”
Saying so, she placed her hand on the surface of the Crystal Tree.
Rustle— rustle—
Blue leaves settled on the crown of her head. It meant the time connected to this past was almost gone.
“Professor.”
─Yes. Speak.
A voice that she did not know when would be the last. Listening to the most beautiful tone in the world, vowing not to forget it until she died, Epherene smiled.
“Now, goodbye. I was so happy to meet you after so long.”
─…….
“And, listen carefully.”
Epherene still had something left to say to him.
It was an extremely, terribly important thing.
If the future were to change.
No, if there were even the slightest possibility that it might change.
It would be thanks to these words.
“Because this really will be the last.”
Epherene slowly opened her mouth.
“Please, listen carefully. ‘לפנ ■■שאור ■■אל עוזב…….’”
* * *
‘לפנ ■■שאור ■■אל עוזב…….’
The future Epherene left behind those strange words and departed. To call it runic was impossible even for me to interpret, and to call it a foreign language was impossible because there was no foreign language I did not know, so it would be reasonable to consider it the interference of the world.
“I will remember it.”
I stored only that voice and pronunciation in my mind and sat down in the chair again.
“Epherene.”
I called her name. But no matter how long I waited, no answer returned. The connection through time and space had been severed.
She said it had consumed ten years of her lifespan, yet it lasted only two days.
“Hmm.”
I looked at the surface of the tree sparkling like crystal. Suddenly, I repeated the words Epherene had said.
“There is no me in your future, you say.”
What becomes of me in her future?
It would be a lie to say I was not curious at all.
“Death, is it. Or else……”
I stopped speaking for a moment and thought deeply.
However, no matter how much I considered it, the conclusion was still only one.
“……I must have died.”
Death.
That lifespan was far shorter than expected. Considering the volume of the main quest, even if I thought positively, I would likely not last more than three years.
Within those three years, I die, and this girl chases after the me who is already dead.
“What an ill-fated girl.”
Though I am not sure whether she is the ill-fated one, or I am.
In any case, the moment I reached that conclusion.
──.
From somewhere.
Not far away, a presence as small as a bird arose.
Rustle─ fragments of stone scattered, and a startled breath flowed out.
I instinctively turned toward that place. The nineteen pieces of Wood Steel reacted noisily.
Wheeeeeing──
The nineteen pieces of steel resonated and glared in that direction.
After confirming the uninvited guest’s appearance, I raised my hand to restrain them. She was someone there was no need to be wary of.
“……How unexpected.”
I spoke to her. It did not seem she had planned on being discovered, but once she had been exposed, she looked at me with a confident posture.
However, her fingertips were trembling.
Perhaps she had overheard my conversation with Epherene.
“And good to see you.”
I greeted her with a faint smile.
“Sylvia.”
The underground of the Crevasse.
Beyond that mist shrouded in darkness, a certain blond child was staring at me.