……After some time had passed.
The woodsteel that had been watching signaled that the situation was over, so I descended once more to the bottom of the rift.
Tap—
My heel touched the road surface.
I saw Sylvia, collapsed from exhaustion near the Crystal Tree. She was asleep, sprawled over the table I had made. The ghost from before was the same.
“…….”
I took off my gloves and gauged the temperature of the area.
The body of 「Iron Man」 is different from that of an ordinary human. Having even obtained the auxiliary trait 「Cold Resistance」 in the snow globe, I had a body that hardly felt the cold at all.
Even if this body was fine, that girl might not be.
“……She must be cold.”
I walked over to Sylvia. Exhausted, she slept without even noticing my approach.
Bzzzzzt──!
With 「Synthesis」, I made a blanket and placed it over her back. Just in case, I also bestowed 「Midas’s Hand」 up to Stage 2.
“You did well.”
A strangely endearing girl.
No—perhaps the only girl who allows me the foolish emotion called guilt.
I placed my hand lightly on her small head and checked her condition.
Fractures, bruises, bleeding, and so on.
I applied 「Duct Tape」 to her many injuries.
Her recovery would be complete while she slept, and she would simply think she had healed on her own.
“……Rest well.”
I turned back toward the Crystal Tree.
[Main Quest: Years]
Years. Demakan’s Sanctuary.
On the surface of this mysterious tree, Epherene’s name, which had been so clear until just now, was already gone.
The lifespan of the magic must have ended, and the Crystal Tree’s time must have returned to normal.
Whirr───
I moved the woodsteel. On the rough surface of the tree, I engraved a certain name.
[Deculein]
At that moment, the quest called 「Years」 was completed.
“Hey. Do you even know what that means? It means you’re joining Years. Do you even know what Years is?”
A voice drifted in, echoing. There stood the Named Idnik.
To her, dressed in a robe, I said,
“Is it not a band of sworn allies trying to crush the ‘Altar’?”
“Oh? Close enough, but…… in any case, aren’t they exactly the sort you despise?”
Idnik approached with clicking steps and sat across from Sylvia. Then, from within her robes, she took out a tea set, including black tea and teacups.
“It has been quite a while since I last came here.”
“…….”
“Hmph.”
Idnik chuckled and jerked her chin toward Sylvia’s blanket.
“But how curious. You seem to cherish Sylvi quite a bit.”
I did not answer. I simply looked at Sylvia. Suddenly, from the sleeping girl, the person named Cielia came to mind.
Someone I, at least, had never once met.
“She has the talent to become an archmage. I merely respect her potential.”
In the process of clearing the main quests, not only the “player” but also the “Named” are important. The scenario was designed from the beginning so that the player could not clear it alone.
“I’m leaving.”
I straightened my clothes. I fixed my loosened tie. I brushed the dust from my sleeves.
“I leave the rest to you.”
As I turned away, Idnik asked me. She tossed out a single sentence.
“Are you sorry for killing that child’s mother?”
“…….”
My steps came to an abrupt halt.
Fragmented memories surged through my mind.
Deculein strangling Cielia. Rage cried out as if coughing blood. Cielia merely saying she was sorry.
All those scenes seeped in sharply.
“……Even if I hadn’t killed her, Cielia would have died.”
Idnik’s fingers, which had been lifting her teacup, stiffened.
Cielia had been terminally ill. No more life than that had been given to her.
“So? Are you saying that because she was going to die anyway, you merely killed her early?”
Idnik asked back as if grinding the words between her teeth. I shook my head.
Deculein had probably killed her because he could not overcome his own anger. There likely had been no other grand reason.
Deculein that day had clearly lacked dignity.
“Then and now are different. As of now, and in the future as well, I will keep Cielia’s pathology a secret from Sylvia.”
“……What?”
Idnik furrowed her brow. I looked at Sylvia for a moment.
Her peacefully sleeping face. Her soft breathing. Her slow heartbeat.
There was no possibility that all those vital signs were an act.
“All that remains in this child now is hatred.”
The Sylvia of now is empty. She is lacking the most important elements as a human being.
That is why, like a wind-up doll, she cannot move on her own.
“If hating me can allow that talent to bloom. If it can allow her to live.”
Just then, her hair slipped into her mouth. I pulled it out with 「Psychokinesis」.
Idnik watched me intently.
“Then that is not so bad either. I am used to being hated, and I can accept it easily. I will watch as she grows brilliantly within it.”
Hmph—Idnik sneered.
“……You’re exactly like Giltéon.”
I shook my head.
“At the very least, I have a heart that cares for this child.”
“Hah. You?”
This was not a lie.
She was one of the few proofs in this world that I was Kim Woojin. One of those who made me feel an emotion that Deculein could never have harbored.
Sylvia was one of them.
“So, as things are now.”
I looked at Idnik.
“I will let this girl hate me.”
“…….”
Idnik quietly met my eyes.
Within that brief silence, a small laugh slipped out.
“What a shame. The feelings Sylvi has toward you right now are not only hatred. You’re still misunderstanding things.”
I waited a moment for her next words. For what that misunderstanding was.
But Idnik only shook her head.
“Go back now. I understand what you mean well enough.”
“…….”
I nodded.
I dismantled the Duct Tape that had healed Sylvia’s body, removed every trace of mana that might remain, and climbed back onto the woodsteel platform.
Watching me, Idnik said,
“Farewell. I don’t know what caused it, but I can’t say I dislike how much you’ve changed…….”
* * *
Clop, clop—
A single horse walked across the northern field. On the broad back of the red horse sat Sophien and Epherene, and a cool wind stirred their hair.
“…….”
However, the scenery of the future was hardly any different from the present.
It was not interesting. It merely made the heart gloomy.
“Your Majesty.”
Epherene carefully called out to the noblest person on the continent. Sophien answered while holding the reins.
“Speak.”
“……It has not even been four years.”
“This future, you mean.”
“Yes.”
It meant that Deculein’s life, at most, had only three or four years left.
Far too short a time. Strangely, Epherene’s heart ached.
Certainly, Deculein was her father’s enemy…… and Deculein’s enemy was also her father…… and because of her father, Deculein’s fiancée had…….
Her mind was in too much confusion.
“I see.”
Then Sophien nodded. Glancing back at Epherene behind her, she said,
“Luna.”
“Yes. Your Majesty.”
“……No.”
Sophien swallowed her words. She had read all of Deculein’s letter.
A letter that began with the sentence, From now on, I intend to entrust my life to Your Majesty—
The first two pages had been fascinating and amusing, the next two had made her serious, and the last three had given her an emotion difficult to describe.
“Yes? Ah, yes. I understand. I shall not ask.”
“You know well.”
After reading all of his letter, Sophien had realized something.
“I intend to entrust my life to Your Majesty.”
The meaning of that sentence had not been to ask her to save him.
Rather…….
“Let us go. The comet will return soon.”
“Yes~ Your Majesty~”
Clop, clop—
The horse moved slowly.
Sophien’s entire body felt languid. She closed her eyes for a moment while riding, and—Ah!—Epherene pointed up at the sky.
In the distant firmament, a streak of shooting star was falling.
* * *
I returned to the fortress. Epherene and Sophien had disappeared somewhere, but with Allen Drent, I began full-scale research and investigation.
Since we had collected the samples properly, the margin of error would be faint.
“I’m calculating, Professor!”
The process itself was complex, but its steps were simple.
We calculated the “concentration of demonic energy in the soil” and the “concentration of mana in the atmosphere,” and based on those, derived the “demonic energy–mana collision value.”
With this collision value, we could predict the danger of the northern monster wave to come.
“The calculation is finished, Professor!”
To explain in detail, first, the denser the demonic energy in the soil, the larger the demonic beasts in the unexplored lands grow, and the more actively they reproduce.
Since this is an almost definitive causality, I also invented a direct formula for it. The so-called “Deculein Demonic Beast Theorem.”
Next, the concentration of mana in the atmosphere.
Demonic beasts exhale demonic energy when they breathe. However, when demonic energy mixes with convection, it is diluted into mana, and thus a demonic beast’s breathing ultimately leaves only mana behind.
Here, by finding the difference between the “average atmospheric mana concentration” and the “mana concentration of the North,” then comparing it to the soil’s demonic energy concentration, one can derive my independent concept known as the “collision value.”
The greater this collision value, the greater both the quantity and quality of the monster wave.
In other words, it means a more dangerous wave.
“……Professor.”
However, as a result of that analysis—
With a grave face, Allen handed me a sheet of paper. I accepted it without much thought, then my eyes widened.
“Isn’t the result a little…… strange?”
「Death Variable」 was wavering on the paper.
This had never happened before, but looking at the collision value, I could understand it to some extent.
“The highest collision value in the last twenty years was 0.137.”
“Yes? Ah, yes! That’s right! According to the calculation based on your flawless theory, Professor!”
Nineteen years ago, the collision value of the monster wave had been 0.137.
At that time, hundreds of knights died, Reccordak collapsed, and thirty-three villages along with tens of thousands of civilians were sacrificed.
“……0.437.”
Simply by numbers alone, it was more than three times higher. However, since the danger of the collision value rises geometrically, its destructive power would surpass fifteen times that of nineteen years ago.
Even considering the main quest soon to follow, this was far too abnormal a drop.
“W-w-what should we do? Did we calculate it wrong?”
“No. The calculation is correct. My theory cannot be wrong, so this is right.”
Just then, the door burst open. It was Sophien and Epherene.
“We’re back~”
“““……Your Majesty!”””
The imperial knights hurriedly ran over and knelt. Each of them cried out tearfully, asking where in the world she had been, but Sophien did not spare them a glance.
“Your Majesty. You have arrived.”
I approached her and knelt on one knee. Then I handed her a sheet of paper.
“What is this?”
“It is the result sheet predicting the southward movement of the demonic beasts.”
“Explain it with your own mouth.”
“This wave will be the worst in the last twenty years. Perhaps, it may be the worst in the history of the Empire.”
At that, the knights’ eyes widened. Epherene was the same.
Sophien asked calmly,
“Deculein. Are you confident in your prediction?”
“Yes.”
“And confident enough to take responsibility?”
“Gladly. I shall share life and death with my theory.”
I answered without hesitation. Sophien nodded. Her face looked rather sleepy, rather annoyed, and rather tired.
However, her next action was quite strange.
“I believe you.”
Sophien placed her hand on my shoulder. At that moment, the knights’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Even for me, an emotion close to shock surged up. After all, Sophien was someone who pathologically hated touching anyone.
“Then, the North will need reinforcements.”
“……Yes.”
As I hid my bewilderment and answered, Sophien withdrew her hand and gave a faint laugh.
“Good. We will now return to the imperial capital, and we shall discuss it properly there.”
* * *
……Yulie was handling Reccordak’s duties alongside her own.
Of course, she was a knight, but since Reccordak Prison itself, like Yukline’s “Rohalak,” fell under Freyden’s jurisdiction, Yulie had volunteered to take charge of it.
“We must not neglect training and repairs…….”
Reccordak was, of course, a prison, but it was also an important wall. If Reccordak were breached this winter, countless subjects who relied on this place for their livelihoods would die.
She could not allow the simple common folk of the countryside to be trampled.
“First, expand the wall, and gather the relatively diligent prisoners to form a separate unit. However, as expected, funding is the problem. Hoping for financial support from Freyden is—”
Bang!
Just then, the door opened and Reylie burst in.
“Dame! Look at this! It’s a disaster, a disaster!”
Shouting that, she placed a sheet of paper on Yulie’s desk.
It was a report sent down from above, a Level 3 confidential document that only officers and above could read.
“What is this?”
“Look! Look!”
“……What is it that has you acting like this?”
“I said look.”
Yulie looked at the page without much thought. Her eyes, which had been slowly scanning the sentences, twisted in shock.
“What is this…….”
Its contents were serious. She was unfamiliar with the concept of collision value or whatever it was, but the passage summarized in the report’s “Conclusion” section—
[Expected damage is more than fifteen times that of the great wave from nineteen years ago.]
—was difficult to believe.
“Does this make any sense?”
Reylie shouted with a rather frightened expression.
That was how vivid the memory from nineteen years ago remained for Yulie as well. At the time, there had even been talk of whether the North would be destroyed.
“Fifteen times, it says fifteen times! Then aren’t we all going to die?”
“Shh. Quiet. It will be fine. Mages always assume the worst-case scenario…….”
For the time being, Yulie checked the reliability of this report.
Of course, she did not know much about magic or formulas. What she had learned briefly at the Academy was the end of it.
However, if she looked at the name of the person who had derived and reported this result…….
[Deculein von Grahan Yukline]
“Ah.”
A name Yulie hated far too much. Yet he was a mage who received infinite trust from the Floating Island.
In this field, Deculein was a scholar who could be called the very pinnacle of reliability.
“……Deculein.”
“A-ahaha……. Yes, well. But what do we do about this?! Even so, his theories are acknowledged!”
“…….”
Yulie gritted her teeth, but soon let out a sigh.
She thoroughly separated public and private matters.
Right now, she was not the person Yulie, but Deia, knight of Freyden. If it was a prediction Deculein had put his own name on, then even if she did not want to believe it, she had no choice but to do so.
“What else? Hurry and send a request for reinforcements to the northern inner strongholds, Reylie.”