Lia and Carlos ran like mad and hid behind a wall.
“……No sign of anyone.”
Fortunately, Deculein had not followed them. No, he did not even seem to have any intention of chasing them. It was quite strange.
Of course, the moment he saw Carlos, his pupils had flared wide open—like a ghost’s. Watching the Yukline bloodline bloom in real time was truly horrifying.
“It’s all right, Ross.”
Lia stroked Carlos’s hair. Just meeting him had been enough to make the child’s face go pale. He trembled with a cold fear.
“Let’s see…….”
Lia poked her head out from behind the wall. Everything was normal. No one was chasing them.
“……Ross? Let’s go now. It’s okay.”
“…….”
Carlos nodded without a word. The two of them slipped out like mice and scurried away.
Their destination was the entrance to the “passage,” where the rest of their group was waiting.
They ran quickly while keeping a frantic watch on their surroundings, and as soon as they reached the vicinity, a voice rang out.
“Oh, there they are.”
Leo. And Yulie and Sylvia. Lia, having rejoined her party, finally let out a sigh of relief.
“What’s wrong, Lia? Carlos doesn’t look too good either.”
“Did something happen?”
Leo and Yulie asked. The two of them merely shook their heads, then looked back toward the “passage.”
A massive entrance, like an earthen cave.
Its gate was still tightly shut, but countless people were milling about everywhere.
“When’s it supposed to open?”
“That idiot’s been doing nothing but posing since earlier.”
Sylvia muttered, glaring somewhere in displeasure. In front of the earthen cave stood a man who appeared to be the person in charge.
“……Should I kill him?”
The man, whose hair was neatly parted fifty-fifty and whose mustache jutted out sharply, was puffing on a pipe while reading some book.
The manager of the earthen cave, “Gef.”
The most essential clear condition of the “World of Voices” was to enter the deepest part of the concentric circles, and that earthen cave was the passage leading in.
“Nah. Guess it’s just not time yet.”
Lia knew that NPC as well. A named beastman-type character that had gone extinct long ago.
In other words, in reality, he was “someone already dead.”
“Hmm.”
At that moment, the man finally rose to his feet. He flung aside the book he had been reading and looked over the people gathered around him.
“Quite a lot of people have come. A good nine thousand? That’s a whole lot.”
—Just open the damn gate!
A rough shout came from a group of vicious-looking men.
Gef looked at them and grinned.
“Wait a bit, will ya. Let me explain a few things.”
At that moment, Lia quietly scanned the crowd. Though nine thousand people had gathered in this limited space, one person’s presence was unmistakable.
Deculein. He was somewhere nearby.
“As you know, this passage is the road to a deeper part of this world.”
At the same time as those words, a quest appeared.
[Independent Quest: Enter the Passage]
◆ Shop Currency +2
“Of course, you can just go in without thinking. But be a little careful, eh?”
Gef chuckled and tapped his own temple.
“This head here. In other words, if you’re a human without grit, endurance, that sort of resolve, you might die, y’know?”
—Open the gate already, you bastard!
“…….”
Gef’s lips twitched, and he opened the barrier blocking entry to the earthen cave. Then an immense sea of people poured inside in a rushing flood.
“We should hurry too!”
Lia also shoved her group into the crowd.
“There does not appear to be any need to rush.”
“Maintain your dignity.”
Yulie and Sylvia seemed to dislike being jostled, but Lia forced herself to drag them along.
So that, by any chance, they would not run into Deculein…….
* * *
A long passage inside the earthen cave. I was walking through its darkness.
“Do we just have to walk?”
Epherene asked.
“If we keep walking, a checkpoint will appear.”
“A checkpoint?”
“A place like a lodging.”
This earthen cave was a spiral structure boring through the concentric circles. Therefore, one could reach the very center simply by walking, but if it were as easy as that sounded, it would not be the Demon’s Independent Quest.
“But, Professor. Why did those kids run away? They left before we even had time to say hello.”
“…….”
Lia and Carlos.
The half-human, half-demon had set my heart surging for an instant, but perhaps this instinct had been satisfied in its own way by the massacre at Reccordak. Or perhaps it had sunk into a lull, soaked in fatigue. I felt no particular urge to pursue and kill them.
Besides, my injuries had yet to fully heal. If Carlos and Lia had joined forces, I would likely have lost them.
“It’s just creepy and there’s nothing much here…… Don’t we have to run?”
“They’ll fall behind anyway.”
There was no benefit to running or going ahead first. What this earthen cave tested was, literally, “mental strength.” Perhaps the greatest talent Deculein possessed.
“You keep your mouth shut and follow me.”
“……Yees.”
Step, step— step, step—
We walked side by side through the darkness.
…….
Epherene moved her legs. The earthen cave was dark, and some rainwater splashed with soft patters. Like that, she simply kept walking.
“Professor. Do you want a snack?”
Epherene, her mouth feeling bored, took out a snack from the bundle in her arms. Deculein gave no answer.
She tossed it into her own mouth and asked again.
“Professor. This is good, you know……?”
Stop—
Epherene’s legs came to a halt.
For some reason—no, since when?
Deculein was gone.
The man who had been walking ahead of her was nowhere to be seen.
Had he gone on first?
“……Professor?”
Epherene ran for now. Deculein’s long-legged strides were surely two or three times hers.
“Professor!”
Even as she ran and shouted, no answer came back.
The darkness of the earthen cave grew thicker, and beads of sweat trickled down Epherene’s forehead.
“……Professor.”
The instant she muttered that, panting for breath,
A strange voice seeped into her ears.
──■■■■■.
A distorted, crushed voice. A crackling noise like a broken frequency. Epherene covered her ears, but it soon transformed into a familiar voice.
—Epherene.
A voice rang out.
Epherene opened her eyes wide and looked there.
“……Ah.”
Her father, Kagan Luna.
He was standing there. At a distance she could reach in three steps.
—Epherene. Deculein killed me.
But blood flowed from his eyes. It flowed like tears. His neck was strangled by a noose, and his face was as pale as a corpse.
A person already dead.
Epherene tried to step back, but her legs would not move. Her feet would not lift.
—And yet you!
The cry of the dead. His breath approached and disheveled Epherene’s hair, and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
—What are you doing there?
Words that hacked at her heart.
—Do you not intend to avenge me?
Epherene recalled the oath she had once held in her heart. She thought of her resolve.
—There was only one thing I expected of you.
To take revenge on Deculein, who had tormented her father, tormented him, and in the end driven him to death.
—I wanted you to kill Deculein and avenge me.
“…….”
But, actually hearing those words from her father,
A corner of her heart ached.
“Most dads……”
Epherene held back the tears that surged up inside her.
To her, her father had been her only hill to lean on. His love, the voice conveyed through his letters, that heart—she had believed they were the reason she lived, and the reason she had been born.
“……don’t make their daughters do things like revenge, do they?”
Her father’s expression hardened. That face twisted with rage.
—You……
Something Dikaillen had once said to her.
That nonsense about her father not loving her.
Had that been the truth, or had it been a scheme to break her?
If it was the truth, then she, who had lived believing only in her father, who had become a mage for her father……
“Epherene.”
In that instant, a single word awakened the darkness.
The moment she heard it, the tension inside her snapped loose.
“Haaah……!”
Epherene exhaled the breath she had been holding. Trembling as if about to cry, she felt certain emotions that had come close to her body.
Resentment. Grudge. Anger. Hatred.
All of them were emotions her father had just spewed at her.
No, that thing was not her father. It could not be her father. The father who had always said he loved her, who had always said he believed only in her…….
“Epherene.”
Again, the voice calling her name.
Epherene looked up at him. There were blue eyes looking down at her.
“……Pathetic.”
The emotions reflected in those pupils were contempt, scorn, disappointment, disdain.
Not a single one was positive.
“I thought I would see whether you could endure it.”
“…….”
Epherene wiped the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She placed a hand on her heart, which was still pounding madly.
“You are still insignificant.”
Those words made anger surge up. Epherene sharply raised her eyes.
“What did you say?”
“Did you meet your father?”
“…….”
She was struck speechless. Her mouth remained open, frozen.
“Did you meet the man I killed?”
“…….”
Grit— Epherene clenched her teeth. The flesh of her cheeks trembled.
Then Deculein continued in a tone that said she was pathetic beyond words.
“No matter what he says. And no matter what I say. There is no need for you to lose your composure.”
Hmph! Epherene swallowed her tears while looking up at him.
“A mage is, by and large, such a being. And moreover.”
Deculein raised his cane and poked her shoulder.
“If you intend to avenge the enemy who killed your father, you should at least have the mental fortitude to endure that much. What use is there in collapsing so easily again and again?”
Poke— poke— poke— the cane kept pushing her shoulder.
Epherene was pushed back, yet she did not yield. Glaring at him, she stubbornly held her ground.
“……Do not disappoint me any further.”
At Deculein’s words, Epherene bit her lower lip and nodded. At the same time, she felt a slightly strange emotion.
Deculein was the person she hated most in the world, and the person she trusted most in the world.
A teacher she hated so very much.
“Hold on.”
Deculein spoke. There was no need to ask, To what? His cane had pushed against her shoulder again.
“You should be able to avoid being swept up in the illusions of this earthen cave.”
If she held this cane and walked, if she leaned on and relied upon Deculein, then for a moment she would be able to take the easier road.
However, Epherene shook her head. Sniff—! She sniffled.
“……No.”
With a confident tone, tightly clutching her bundle of snacks to her chest, and looking up at Deculein.
“I can do more. Whether it’s Dad, Grandmother, Grandfather, Mom—well, I’ve never even seen Mom, but…….”
She swatted his cane away.
“Let anyone come.”
“…….”
A very brief silence. Deculein turned away without any reaction and again went on ahead alone, but Epherene saw it.
She saw it clearly.
The slight nod of his head, and the faint quiver at the corner of his mouth.
That professor, that damned teacher, might perhaps have thought her admirable…….
Epherene advanced steadfastly. Like a soldier, left-right— left-right— she matched her stride and marched powerfully through the earthen cave.
* * *
“……It is done. The theoretical proof is complete.”
The Floating Island. Beneath Meziseion, the “Addicts’ Secret Chamber.”
The thesis of a certain professor, to which hundreds of addicts had all clung, had today completed its theoretical proof.
“…….”
All of the addicts closed their mouths and looked up at the formula.
The most beautiful theory in the past several decades, the most perfect thesis, filled the blackboard of the secret chamber.
“Ah…….”
One addict let out a cry of wonder. Another shed tears. Another prostrated himself in admiration.
“……It is marvelous.”
The exclamation of the addict Astar. Another addict answered it.
“Yes. However, the greatest problem is, as expected, practical verification. Whether there exists a mage who would dare to actually implement this theory, interlocking like hundreds of gears……. It seems difficult even for Deculein, who devised it.”
“…….”
Astar nodded as well.
Deculein, the head professor of the Imperial Magic Tower and the intellect of this era. The thesis he had presented, “The Creation of Pure Elements.”
“It is an entirely new magic. There will not be many who can imitate it. Mages who perfectly understand and verify this theory will be extremely rare. However, consider the possibilities that may derive from this theory.”
It did not matter if one could not understand all of this theory. A great thesis was great by virtue of its idea alone.
“This theory of Deculein’s will be divided into smaller pieces and spread. It may be through the Academy’s textbooks, or it may be taught directly by Deculein himself.”
Magic derived from Deculein’s theory. That new school would be called the “Deculein School,” taking the name of its creator.
“Our Floating Island will first store this knowledge. Also……”
“Granting viewing rights to the individuals designated by Deculein.”
“Yes.”
Deculein had designated several people to be granted viewing rights free of charge if the thesis were perfectly proven.
Astar examined the list.
“First…… Sophien of the Imperial Family?”
“Yes. For her, it is more than the granting of viewing rights. The refined thesis itself is to be presented to her.”
At the name Sophien, Astar’s eyes widened. Aside from her, Archduke Kreto, Epherene, and Sylvia were understandable, but Sophien……
“She is not a mage, is she?”
“Is Professor Deculein not her instructional mage?”
Astar felt somewhat displeased. To begin with, the relationship between the Floating Island and the Imperial Family was not very good.
“Yes. It cannot be helped. If it is Professor Deculein’s own request.”
Granting viewing rights. An enormous amount of the Floating Island’s manpower and resources had been consumed in proving this absurdly difficult thesis, so the Floating Island did have a certain share in it.
However, the party with the clear upper hand was, of course, Deculein, so it could not be helped.
“Then we shall announce it. Deculein’s thesis, whose proof has been completed, will be assigned first to the rank of the ‘Tree of Knowledge,’ and shall be presented foremost to Sophien of the Imperial Family.”
It would likely become a major incident that shook the continent.
“There will be an uproar.”
It was already highly unusual for a magic thesis that had undergone its first verification to be assigned to the “Tree of Knowledge,” the highest tier of classification, but to present that thesis free of charge not to another mage, but to the Imperial Family—and specifically to Sophien……
“Yes. As some say of Deculein, it will be an incident that clearly proves the words, ‘a mage possesses a knight-like loyalty.’”
Having answered so, Astar placed Deculein’s thesis with the utmost care into a treasure chest sealed in five and six layers of magic.