I sat Epherene down in the chair in my office.
Steadily, I looked into her eyes. I even shone a light into them, as though checking her pupillary reflex.
“……Hic.”
Suddenly, Epherene hiccuped. I looked down at her.
“Is there a problem?”
At that, she pouted.
“……You’re too close.”
“…….”
The examination was over anyway, so I sat back a little.
“Epherene, demonic energy was detected in your pupils.”
“What?”
Demonic energy. A substance that made me violent with even the smallest particle.
It was the greatest enemy of the “Constitution” I had acquired before, but I was not overly worried. Deculein’s anger—though his words and actions did grow somewhat rough—was ultimately of a nature that froze over coldly.
“Ah, um…….”
Epherene avoided my eyes and hesitated.
“Speak.”
“……Well. My father appeared in my dream.”
I looked at her without a word. With her head bowed low, she added.
“But…… it wasn’t my father. It felt like I’d been tricked, that kind of feeling-ish feeling.”
I combined those words.
Dream. Father. Deception. Demonic energy.
“Did anything happen in the dream?”
“What? Ah, um…….”
Epherene’s eyes widened. She fidgeted with her hands and feet like a webfoot octopus, her face flushing.
It was strangely disgusting.
“Keep your hands and feet still. Before I cut them off.”
“What?! Cut them off?!”
“…….”
“……It’s not that nothing happened.”
When I continued glaring, she slowly began to recite what had happened.
I listened quietly to her words.
She had met Kagan Luna in the dream, but he had not seemed like her father; if she had approached him, something terrible might have happened; she had survived thanks to the previous lesson on mental strength…….
“It was likely a demon.”
“……A demon?”
Epherene asked back.
“Yes. Of the five senses, which does a person forget the fastest?”
“Hearing.”
“Correct. One cannot remember sounds from the distant past, so they are easy to imitate.”
People forget voices the fastest. Here, “forget” meant forgetting in the literal sense. Thus, it was the easiest sense to deceive.
“Do not be fooled by voices you hear in dreams.”
In a world where things like recorders were not common, the voices of the already dead were easily forgotten and vanished.
“Voice” was the demon that crept into that opening.
“The creature is called ‘Voice.’”
“Oh! I’ve been there too! It was a ruin.”
Epherene said loudly. I nodded.
“It is a concept and phenomenon that manifests a world. In those ruins, people’s memories, dreams, wishes, and desires are realized. Were they not selling curious items there?”
“……Ah, yes. They were. I have this too. Rohakan…… ah, that old man gave it to me before.”
Epherene took a coin out of her pocket. It was a ten-won coin.
“But why did I have a dream like that?”
“…….”
I silently looked at Epherene’s head.
The crown, the temples, the space between her brows, the forehead.
Suddenly, Epherene narrowed her eyes.
“Why, why are you looking at my lips like that?”
“……Have you lost your mind?”
“What did you say?”
I leaned back against the chair again.
“In any case, you have received a formal invitation. Most likely, all the memories in your head—Dicaillen, Kagan Luna, and the like—have flowed to it.”
“Then what happens?”
“A door to your memories will open in those ruins. Those who challenge it and clear it are given that coin.”
I pointed to the coin.
“Clear……. Clear? Cleaaar?”
Epherene’s face turned strange as she repeated the word.
“How do they clear it, my memories?”
“Like a dungeon. The villains in your memories appear as the final bosses.”
“Aha~ If it’s the villains in my memories…… Giltheon, Rollu, Lucia, Deculein…….”
Having recited her thoughts exactly as they came, she froze with a start. But then, pretending to mutter unconsciously, she corrected what she had just said.
“……Deculein is neutral now, neutral, so if I take him out—”
“Do not try anything foolish. In any case, the difficulty of your memories will likely be at the highest level.”
“Ahem…… But, why is that demon doing this? For what purpose?”
“To rule the continent.”
I answered simply. Epherene blinked blankly.
“……Can it do that?”
“It is not impossible. The more people grow more fervent toward the ruins of ‘Voice,’ the stronger ‘Voice’s’ power will become. If it comes to them in dreams as it did to you and manipulates their memories, it will come to control that person.”
Its purpose was to rule the world through people.
However, it was not a complete axis of evil. Rather, it offered opportunities to grow stronger, so it could be called both an opportunity and a crisis.
“Then…… if I was invited, what about you, Professor?”
“I have already been invited.”
“……How do you know if you’ve been invited?”
“The shoulder.”
“The shoulder?”
With “Psychokinesis,” I pulled down the hem of Epherene’s robe. Her shoulder and the area around her collarbone were revealed.
Of course, Epherene made a commotion.
“Aaah! Why, why are you doing this! Why are you doing thissss—!”
“There.”
“You’ve gone craaazyyy——!”
“…….”
For a moment, I clenched my teeth.
“Look at your shoulder.”
“……What?!”
“There should be a tattoo of a single stroke.”
With a face that showed she did not trust me at all, Epherene created an opaque membrane. It was a spell called “Whispering Wall.”
“Uh, what is this!”
She must have checked her shoulder, for she shouted loudly. The wall spell disappeared again, and Epherene looked at me with a slightly awkward face.
“Why is this……?”
“With that tattoo, you can decide when to enter. For now, Voice lacks time, so entry is limited to once a week. I will notify you later, so coordinate the time with me.”
“…….”
Epherene needlessly scratched the back of her neck, avoided my eyes, and nodded.
“Yes, yes. Yes, Professor.”
* * *
Winter, dawn on a day when the season had entered its harshest depths.
“……!”
Yulie awoke from sleep.
“Haa, haa, haa…….”
Her breath flowed roughly. Her entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and their voices still echoed by her ears.
—Captain, please avenge me.
—Captain…… I…….
They were Rockfell and Veron, respectively. Rockfell, his limbs torn off, had asked for vengeance, and a woodsteel blade had been lodged in Veron’s heart.
It had been a nightmare.
“…….”
She calmed her pounding heart. She forced herself to begin meditating.
However, the situation was not on her side.
─Knight! It’s terrible!
Yulie immediately rose.
With a light “Cleanse,” she wiped the sweat from her body. She equipped herself, including her tiger-skin armor. She tied up her light hair, and with her sword at her waist, opened the door.
The moment she did, Rayleigh clung to her.
“It’s terrible, terrible!”
“What happened—”
“Hurry! You’ll know when you see it yourself!”
Rayleigh took Yulie to the conference room. There were many knights in the conference room. They were already in the middle of a heated discussion.
“Oh~ Yulie’s here?”
“Sit down.”
Syrio and Gwen welcomed her, but the imperial knights would not even meet her eyes.
“……This is the landscape described by a scout who had gone quite far out into the Myeolji.”
A picture was attached to the blackboard in the conference room. Yulie’s eyes widened as soon as she saw it.
“An immeasurable number of demonic beasts are advancing through the Myeolji. Their population cannot be determined. Their target, naturally, is this wall.”
It was a “monster wave.” However, its density was more packed than ever before.
Even as Yulie saw it with her own eyes, she could not believe it.
The imperial knight Delic said,
“Professor Deculein’s prediction was correct.”
In truth, even though those gathered here had come together, they had been half in doubt regarding “Deculein’s prediction.”
Nineteen years ago. A monster wave far greater than the one that had driven the continent mad nineteen years ago was coming.
“……What will you do? In about a week, this insane horde will arrive, and by then they will be even hungrier and will surge in far more savagely.”
Delic asked the knights for their intentions. Yulie furrowed her brow. She knew what those words meant.
Soon, Delic said,
“I will leave.”
“……Sir Delic.”
Yulie stepped forward as if to stop him, but Delic shook his head.
“The corrupt knight should stay quiet.”
“…….”
She clenched both fists. Heat boiled inside her.
“Holding out at Reccordak is meaningless. Of course, Knight Deia will naturally say we should hold out.”
“No. If the situation is truly that dire, then at the very least I would say you should leave together with the mountain folk—”
“Ah, I understand. Whatever it is, fine. In any case…….”
Creeeak—!
At that moment, the door to the conference room opened again.
Everyone showed courtesy to the person who appeared this time. They sprang to their feet and bowed.
Deculein.
He swept his gaze across the conference room and said,
“Was this a meeting for knights only?”
No one answered. There was only silence and stillness.
Deculein walked naturally through it and sat at the head seat.
“The Reccordak Knight Order will soon be formally recognized, yet there are so many who wish to leave.”
Saying so, he looked around. Delic, whose eyes met his, slowly opened his mouth.
“Professor, do you not intend to leave……?”
“I believe I said so from the beginning.”
“…….”
Delic turned his head imperceptibly and twisted his expression. Soon, he looked at Deculein again with a calm face.
“But look at this report. A few hundred knights and a few thousand prisoners will not be enough for these numbers. This time is truly different from the Great Tiger. The waves will grow larger and larger as time goes on, and if even the first wave is like this, then every single hour of the day will truly be battle.”
Delic spoke calmly, desperately trying to persuade him.
“It is also a matter of quality of life. To defend this wall, we will have to continue fighting for an entire month. Even if we do not die physically, mentally…….”
His long speech continued for quite some time. It was a reasonably rational argument in its own way.
“Mm. That was an argument worth hearing, Delic.”
Deculein nodded. Delic’s face brightened, and so did the faces of the other knights who agreed with him.
Deculein said,
“Are there many who wish to leave?”
At first, no one raised their hand.
“Raise them without feeling burdened.”
But when he said it a second time, beginning with Delic, arms shot up one after another like mushrooms after rain.
Deculein looked at all of them and smiled.
“Good. Leave.”
“…….”
Delic stroked his chest. As expected, Deculein too must have been feeling that it was too much.
“Yes. Then we will later gather opinions and—”
“However.”
Suddenly, Deculein’s face hardened.
No, his mouth still held a smile, but his eyes were rigid. That strange expression was even more chilling.
“I predicted this situation through a concept called collision value.”
Deculein continued in a low, deep voice.
“You all should have known that fact when you came here.”
Among the many, many worlds, one of the characteristics of a villain in a novel.
“However, the cost invested in taking over and developing this prison is astronomical. Had you told me that you would not follow me, I would not have spent it in the first place.”
First, he particularly hated sunk costs. He fanatically disliked losses and drove his subordinates forward no matter how impossible the task.
“Of course, that degree of loss does not matter in the slightest, but my title as chairman is at stake on this wall.”
Second, he was obsessed with honor and power. Wealth and glory were always the final goal of a third-rate villain.
“Of course, it would not matter if I did not become chairman…… but if there is a knight who leaves.”
Third.
“It would be best for him not to think of being with me forever in the future.”
He held grudges.
Very long ones.
Long enough to kill a person over them.
“……What do you think?”
Conversely, this was a villain’s advantage.
Without needing to forcibly persuade them like Yulie, I could mobilize the manpower I wanted toward the objective I wanted.
“Do you still intend to leave?”
The smile hanging on Deculein’s lips deepened. In the eyes of the imperial knights, that smile was wicked like a snake.
“Or will you die fighting here and gain honor, at least?”
Deculein sank back into his chair. He always had the noble dignity of one lofty and composed, but the words that followed were quite brutal.
“Think it over carefully for one day and decide. There is no corner of this empire my hand cannot reach. An accident might occur on the road back to the capital at once, after all.”
Deculein deliberately laughed aloud and rose. Every knight was looking at him, but not a single one dared say anything to him. They merely watched his back.
Creeeak—!
The door closed again, but silence settled over the conference room. The knights, each with complicated looks in their eyes, stared at the scout’s report.
[Too many to count by sight. Roughly speaking, an advance filling the horizon of the Land of Annihilation.]
“Haa……”
Delric’s deep sigh sank like cigarette smoke.
* * *
Meanwhile, Sophien received a book from Deculein. It was a basic text on go.
“This fellow wrote it well.”
Rustle— After skimming through it, she nodded in satisfaction. She set it down on the desk beside Keiron’s snow globe.
“More importantly, Your Majesty. Is it true that the professor hunted a Great Tiger?”
Sophien glared crookedly at the man seated before her. It was Kreto.
Having shown up out of nowhere, he had been asking about the recent rumors from the North.
“Yes. It is true.”
“Ooh! As expected!”
“Why are you asking that?”
“Haha. I’ve been writing a biography related to Professor Deculein these days.”
“You lunatic. Why would a member of the imperial family write something like that? I’ll tear it up.”
“Ah~ Naturally, it’ll be published under a pen name. No one will know it’s me.”
“……Tch. What an idiot.”
Sophien shook her head with a face full of worldly dissatisfaction.
“Oh, right. Rumor has it that the Wave is coming soon. How is Professor Deculein doing?”
“What do you mean, how? He’s surely handling himself well enough. I am busy with the Redborn matter.”
At those words, Kreto gave a bitter smile. Carefully, watching her mood, he asked,
“By the way, Your Majesty, why do you hate the Redborn so much?”
“……”
Sophien closed her mouth for a moment. She quietly stared at Kreto.
“There is a reason for my hatred.”
“……Yes. Well, I suppose there would be. You are truly wise, Your Majesty. In any case, did the professor not predict that this Wave would be quite dangerous?”
“He did. Several hundred times greater than the previous year, he says. Whether that comes to pass, or whether that man alone ends up disgraced, I am curious about that as well.”
Sophien let out a faint laugh. Kreto spoke with a somewhat serious expression.
“I do like the professor, but…… this time, I hope his prediction is wrong.”
“Silence.”
Thwack—!
Sophien handed Kreto several documents.
“Deliver these to the Minister of Internal Affairs on your way out. You read them too.”
“What are they?”
“The policies concerning the Redborn going forward.”
With a rather bitter heart, Kreto read the documents.
“……!”
His eyes flew wide open. Even his heart stopped for a moment.
The sentences were that shocking.
─Resolution on gas chambers. To be newly established starting with the Betan camp.
─Regarding the extermination of Redborn villages.
─Unreported Redborn are to be dealt with uniformly by execution.
“……Also, as Emperor, I have one letter to convey to a certain vassal.”
Just then, Sophien spoke. Kreto abruptly lifted his head.
“Yes, yes? A letter, you say?”
“That is right.”
Sophien had realized that her letter had been somewhat poor. Separate from the quality of the writing itself, the style had been far too old-fashioned.
“Give me some help with it before you go.”
“……Yes.”
Kreto tucked the documents he had been reading into his breast and nodded.
Then, without much thought, he asked,
“By the way, to whom do you intend to send it?”
“That is none of your concern!”
“……Pardon?”
Yet Sophien reacted quite fiercely.
“I said it is the Emperor’s personal affair, so you need not know!”
Kreto found it a little puzzling, but soon answered in a single phrase.
“Yes, yes, yes. Understood……”