“Is everyone gathered?”
After their audience with the Emperor, Julie and the knights assembled once more in the Imperial Palace’s secret chamber.
A hidden room Sophien had created herself to evade the eyes of eunuchs and retainers. There, Ahan distributed the Emperor’s authorization certificates.
“These are certificates that will allow you to receive cooperation from the Intelligence Bureau. With them, you may access information of Grade Three and below, and receive assistance from informants spread widely across the continent.”
Julie nodded and tucked hers into her breast pocket.
“Your assignments will all differ, so please do not share them with one another. In addition, you will be given the Imperial Guard’s formal uniform and identification.”
The Emperor’s Imperial Guard.
At present, it was a position every knight desired, but Julie was not entirely pleased.
“Of course, you will not be mobilized for ordinary missions. However, now that you have entered the Imperial Palace, and now that you have accepted your assignments, we have obtained your consent to join the Imperial Guard because the proper qualifications, dignity, and loyalty are required.”
Of course, it certainly did not mean that she disliked serving His Majesty the Emperor.
It was only that she knew who stood at the apex of this pyramid called the Imperial Guard…
“Your rank is ‘Vesileta.’ It is a rune word meaning an agent who acts independently, and your privilege is ‘independent action.’ Even should you join with other Imperial Guards in a large-scale operation, you may move without being swayed by rank or chain of command.”
Julie looked at her identification card.
[Julie : Vesileta]
[Imperial Guard Identification]
Golden intaglio and antique patterns. As beautiful as it was, it also held quite a strong aura of mana.
“It is a magical artifact personally crafted by His Majesty, so you must never lose it. Reissuance means immediate expulsion from the Imperial Guard.”
“…Ah. No wonder. Mana is rippling through the identification card.”
The thirty knights, including Julie, all marveled. They were moved as well.
Depending on how one looked at it, it was no different from being bestowed an item personally made by the Emperor.
“By the way, since you say privilege, I am curious. Does each of these ‘ranks’ have its own privilege?”
Mountain Jeileon asked. The strongest knight in the south, he was even larger than Zeit in physique.
“Yes. The privileges differ by rank, and also by individual.”
“Hooh, then I grow curious about one more thing. What is Professor Deculein’s privilege?”
At his question, Ahan answered.
“‘The right over life and death.’”
…Everyone was shocked.
* * *
—Everyone, please sit down! Please sit!
Epherene, who had climbed onto the platform, seated the examinees. She calmed them while distributing pamphlets with 「Psychokinesis」.
“Auuugh…”
Lia still wore a grave expression, and Maho kept glancing at me, smiling brightly.
“…”
I looked around the hall.
Among the hundreds gathered in the venue, there were surely Archmages, or those approaching that level, but I could not distinguish them.
“Then…”
Lia put a fingernail in her mouth. I watched her quietly.
“Ah, then what do I do…”
The way she worried to herself, her eyes darting fiercely, and that habit of chewing her nails were exactly like that girl’s from long ago.
Tuk—!
Her thumbnail, cut by her front teeth.
I seized the small hand of the girl, who was now about to gnaw on her index finger.
“…?”
Lia looked at me with round eyes.
“What a filthy habit.”
“…Ah, yes.”
She hurriedly tucked her hand away.
“Stay still. This is not something that will be solved by the likes of you worrying over it.”
At the very least, there was no “death variable” here.
Of course, there was a possibility that murderous intent had been concealed, as with Yusephin, but that would not be the case. If they had intended to kill us in the first place, there would have been no reason to leave us alive until now.
“…Still—”
“I am the one responsible for this place. I will bear the responsibility, and I will resolve it.”
I climbed back up to the platform of the briefing hall. I took Epherene’s microphone.
And said,
“From this moment, the admissions guideline briefing will resume.”
The examinees stared blankly for a moment.
……
“Wow, he’s really doing it.”
Behind the curtain on the platform. Epherene watched Deculein with a hollow laugh.
—The theory examination will be divided into common questions and series-specific questions, and the practical examination will be the same.
He was truly explaining the admissions guidelines. Even within this barrier, completely composed.
It was somehow absurd, but perhaps it was just like Deculein.
—If you have any questions regarding your series selection, ask them.
At those words, naturally no one asked a question… or rather, there was one.
—Me, me, me~
Princess Maho of Yuren. She waved her hand with a beaming smile, and Deculein pointed to her.
—Ask.
—Yes, yes, yes, yes~
At that very instant.
“…!”
Epherene’s entire body stiffened. Her breath caught as though a kitchen knife had been thrust into her throat.
—If I enter the Tower, can I take Chief Professor Deculein’s class right away~?
—No.
—Gasp! Why, why? I want to take the Chief Professor’s class~!
The two continued their exchange, but Epherene’s attention was fixed solely on the space behind her.
Sweat poured down like rain, and she swallowed without meaning to.
Gulp—
There was someone there.
A person who had approached her without making a single sound.
“Pleased to meet you.”
His voice was cold.
Who he was was obvious.
The wizard who had cast this “Complete Isolation Spell Barrier.”
“…Who.”
“I am called Murkan.”
Murkan.
The instant she heard those words, Epherene’s legs gave way. Murkan caught her as she began to collapse.
“I am kin to Rohakan, whom your professor killed.”
“…”
Rohakan’s death.
Epherene certainly knew of it, and it had hurt. They had not been close enough for her heart to be torn apart, but it was bitter enough. All the more so because she knew the “reason he had to die.”
“Are you afraid?”
“…If I weren’t afraid, would that even make me—”
Human? This was Murkan, who had supposedly failed to become an Archmage because of his disposition.
Epherene could not bring herself to finish the sentence.
“Have you come… for revenge?”
Her words kept cutting off midway.
“That could have been the case.”
“…Pardon?”
“However, seeing you, and seeing that man, I do not think I need to.”
“What does that mean…”
“That man was born under a fate of death.”
Epherene’s eyes widened. Murkan looked at Deculein atop the platform and continued.
“That fate is more pitiable than my nephew’s.”
“…Why?”
“Hatred is his daily life, and his ending is tragedy.”
Murkan lowered his gaze to Epherene.
There were no whites in his eyes. His pupils, dyed entirely black as though ink had burst within them, were chilling.
“Would you like to experience his fate once?”
“No.”
Epherene declined at once. Murkan nodded.
“Well, to be sure, your fate is not so smooth either.”
“Pardon? Ah… yes. That’s true.”
“You are entwined with ‘time.’ Such is your fate.”
“…Eh?”
“Now the sun and moon will repeat.”
“Uh… repeat?”
It was ambiguous, like some sort of prophecy.
Murkan closed his eyes for a moment. Then he proclaimed as though chanting.
“A bomb will explode.”
“A bomb?!”
“‘Nesius,’ a bomb made using a demon as its material.”
Nesius. Demon. Bomb. Faced with this string of incomprehensible words, Epherene grimaced with her whole face.
Murkan said calmly,
“You will come to understand the meaning in time. Whenever you realize it, there will be no difference.”
“No, no. What does that mean? If it’s a bomb, where and when will it explode…?”
That was the end.
Murkan vanished before Epherene’s eyes, and the barrier was also dispelled.
—Huh? The barrier’s gone!
A voice rang out through the briefing hall.
Sighs of relief rose simultaneously from every direction.
“…”
Epherene, who had been blinking blankly, soon came to her senses at the sight of Deculein descending from the platform.
“Ah, Professor!”
Deculein, too, looked puzzled by the sudden dispelling of the barrier. Epherene hurriedly ran to him.
“What happened?”
“Professor! I met Murkan!”
“…Murkan.”
“Yes! Here—no, I don’t know where, but he says there’s a bomb! Some kind of four-wheeled bicycle? Anyway, a bomb containing the power of a demon!”
“…”
Demon. At that single short word, Deculein’s expression froze. A grave current pressed down on the area.
“We go.”
“Yes!”
Epherene shouted energetically, and with an equally solemn expression, followed Deculein…
* * *
…That day.
Ever since that day when she met Murkan.
Before she knew it, nearly “two months” had passed.
Quite a lot had happened during that time.
Of course, the university semester had begun, the suppression of the Red Contour had intensified brutally, the “erosion of the Voice” had worsened further, and she had visited the “world of the Voice” together with Deculein. She had cleared that damned mental strength trial burrow.
“But… but, Professor.”
And today.
An evening painted by the setting sun. Inside the car returning from the Magic Tower to the Yukline estate.
“You know.”
Epherene fidgeted with her fingers and glanced at Deculein in the seat beside her.
For once, his hands were empty today.
He was not reading a book, a newspaper, or anything else.
“It’s just.”
“…Speak. Do not dawdle.”
Deculein turned to look at her. Under his glare, as though he found this frustrating, Epherene asked haltingly,
“That… what do you think that ‘bomb’ really was?”
About two months ago, on the day of the admissions guideline briefing.
Epherene had relayed Murkan’s words exactly as they were, and Deculein had mobilized all personnel from the university and the Imperial Guard to conduct a large-scale search.
“Who knows. I do not know.”
Because of that, even the entrance examination had been postponed by a full week, and yet…
“…I’m sorry.”
It became Deculein’s only blemish. There was no such thing as a bomb anywhere in the university, and every time Adrienne saw Deculein, she mocked him for that incident.
It had even made the headlines.
The title had been grand, too: 「Deculein, At Last, Fails」.
“It is not your fault. It was because we misunderstood Murkan’s words.”
“…Yes. Murkan definitely said there was a bomb. A bomb that borrowed a demon’s power. Was it a four-wheeled bicycle?”
“There is no such demon.”
“Ah… yes.”
Deculein nodded slightly.
After that, there was silence. He merely looked up at the sky outside the window.
“Ah, right. He also said, ‘Now the sun and moon will repeat.’”
Then, suddenly, the car stopped. It was such a smooth stop that she had not even noticed the brake being pressed.
Without thinking, Epherene shifted her gaze to the scenery outside.
“…”
She pressed her lips shut. For no reason, her chest felt heavy.
It was a cemetery.
“Epherene.”
“…Yes.”
Today was April 9.
The anniversary of the death of the woman Deculein had loved.
“Go on ahead.”
“Yes. Take your time.”
He got out of the car first. He walked with steady steps and stood at the entrance of the cemetery.
Epherene leaned against the window frame and watched him.
“Then, we will depart.”
Ren in the driver’s seat said.
“…Yes.”
Vroooom— The car moved back onto the road.
Deculein walked into the cemetery.
Letting that scene of him pass by, Epherene now looked up at the sky. She looked at the sunset dyed pink.
“…Huh?”
Then, suddenly—truly all at once—she discovered it.
Some enormous current filling the firmament without a single gap.
“What is that now…”
First, a huge pillar of mana rose buung— into the sky, and its head spread out in billows. As though it would touch the sun. Like a thick mushroom.
“A festival?”
While she stared blankly at that bizarre shape,
Fwaaaaaaaa—!
A full-fledged “explosion” occurred.
“Oh my?”
Mana and heat were swept up in a gale and rose like a dome, and an immense cluster of light filled her retinas. It heated the metal of the car body with a roar.
…A brilliant flash that seemed to blind the eyes.
Amid that strange wave that burned the world, Epherene belatedly recalled it.
“A bomb will explode.”
The strange warning from Murkan, whom she had met two months ago.
* * *
“…Hurk!”
Epherene opened her eyes. She shot upright from the waist.
Hah, hah— hah, hah—
Panting, she looked around.
“A dream… was it a dream?”
The seventy-seventh floor of the Magic Tower, Deculein’s office.
She was sitting in the assistant’s chair.
“A dream. Ugh, what a stupid dream.”
She stroked her chest.
Phew…
No, but what was with me dreaming about a bomb exploding?
Was I that curious about it?
“Did you dream?”
Then came Deculein’s voice. A gaze as sharp as an arrow.
Epherene scratched the back of her neck and answered.
“It was nothing. And Professor, you have no plans this evening. Go comfortably, on your own. I have something to do tonight.”
“…”
At that, Deculein looked at her in silence.
It was a strange gaze.
Epherene went, “Huh? Huh?” and asked back.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“The Roteo Hall entrance exam guide.”
“……Pardon?”
“This evening’s schedule.”
“……Pardon?”
“……Are you still half asleep?”
Deculein’s eyes narrowed into slits. Epherene tilted her head.
“No, no? I’m perfectly fine. What’s wrong?”
“…….”
But Deculein’s expression was strange no matter how she looked at it. It was like he was looking at an actual madwoman.
“What is it…….”
Just as she was about to ask, What’s the problem?
Epherene noticed the thesis lying on her desk.
“……Huh?”
「Utilization of Allotropic Properties through Displacement Manipulation: Epherene」
Why is this here?
Why had the thesis she had completed three days ago, practically shitting blood over it, then submitted to Deculein for corrections and review, returned here?
“…….”
Thinking, Did he already finish correcting it? she opened it, only to find it unfinished.
The thesis was unfinished.
That was odd.
No, bizarre.
The equations, formulas, and magic circles into which she had definitely ground down her time and soul should have been inside it, so why had they all vanished?
“Uh…….”
Blankly reading through her thesis, her own handwriting, Epherene suddenly
raised her head and looked up at Deculein.
To him, still looking down at her suspiciously, she asked,
“Professor. By any chance, what day is it to—”
“It’s Wednesday.”
Only then did Epherene feel that something was wrong…… that something was very, very wrong.
April 9 shouldn’t be a Wednesday.
Not shouldn’t be—it definitely wasn’t Wednesday.
It was Thursday.
“You really are doing all sorts of things.”
Deculein shook his head and prepared to leave, but in Epherene’s mind, someone’s voice shimmered.
It played over and over.
—The sun and moon shall repeat.
—The sun and moon shall repeat.
—The sun and moon shall repeat.
Murkan’s words, which had sounded like an inscrutable riddle.
“Ah, ah, ah!”
Her hair standing on end, Epherene went dashing—dadadada—and plastered herself against the floor-to-ceiling glass behind Deculein’s office chair.
“…….”
Deculein’s figure, glaring at her as if she were pathetic, was reflected in the window, but right now she had no time to care about that crap.
It was too strange.
A phenomenon far too absurd was unfolding before her eyes.
“Why…… are there no cherry blossoms?”
From late March to early April. The season when cherry blossoms bloomed across the university campus. Clusters of flowers that blessed the meeting of freshmen and old-timers, juniors and seniors.
Those pink flowers were gone.
No matter how hard she looked, no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t see them.
Just yesterday, they had been in full bloom together with those damned couples, enough to make her eyes sting.
“……Professor.”
Epherene murmured blankly. Her eyes remained fixed on the scenery outside the Mage Tower.
“What month and day is it—”
“February 17.”
“……Ah.”
I see.
No, not I see.
This is a dream.
What happened just now wasn’t a dream, and this right now is the dream.
Yeah, that’s right.
I fell asleep in Deculein’s car.
If I close my eyes, I’ll wake up again.
“……That’s right.”
If this isn’t a dream, then I…
Have to do the thesis again.
Those calculations that nearly made my head explode again.
Class preparations again.
All the work I’ve done so far, the “Voice’s” cave, taking the exam—all over again.
“Let’s hurry and wake up from this dream. Yeah.”
Epherene nodded vacantly, and bang—! She slammed her forehead into the glass window.
“Has she lost her mind? Epherene, get a hold of yourself.”
Just as Deculein approached in contempt.
“……Why won’t I wake up?”
Bang—!
She slammed into the window once more and passed out.