……Epherene thought.
The assault on His Imperial Majesty. The culprit was among the thirty knights invited by His Majesty. At the very least, that was highly likely.
“And they announced what they’d done to the entire world.”
There was no way the Imperial Family would rashly make His Majesty’s critical condition public. His Majesty was the most important person on this continent, so the most basic rule would be to prepare at least dozens of “countermeasures for what came after” before revealing it.
“They were extremely meticulous.”
However, while the Imperial Family was thrown into chaos, the Altar made the first move. They revealed the Emperor’s grave condition to the press, and the news spread like fire catching a fuse.
The scheme set in motion by the Altar had collapsed the “system” all at once.
“That’s how they drew the Professor into the Imperial Palace too.”
Because if he heard the urgent report that the Emperor was in danger, the Professor would certainly come to the palace as well.
“……So from the very beginning, those bastards intended to target the Professor too.”
Delric spoke through clenched teeth, seething with rage. Epherene nodded as well.
“The Professor probably realized it vaguely from the moment he arrived at the Imperial Palace.”
Immediately after the incident, there were many outsiders in the palace. “Eyes” were spread everywhere, and among them, the Altar was undoubtedly present.
“And also…….”
Epherene paused for a moment and quietly looked back at Sylvia.
Drip— drip— Water fell from beneath her soaked robe, and her eyes were empty. Already limp like a doll, she didn’t even seem to be listening.
“……Sylvia.”
Epherene called Sylvia’s name.
“There’s definitely a way to turn this back.”
Sylvia tilted her face up. Her brittle blond hair slipped out from between her robe.
“So help me. Don’t just sit there like an idiot.”
“……Will that bring the dead back to life?”
A limp voice. Lips swollen purple.
Epherene’s heart ached, but she nodded firmly.
“Yeah. It will.”
“…….”
“These memories will disappear like a nightmare too. And then we’ll land a counterpunch on our enemies.”
At that, Sylvia’s eyes narrowed as if she found it absurd. Shaking her head, she murmured in a low voice.
“Stupid Epherene.”
“……You’ll help me, right?”
“…….”
Sylvia pressed her lips shut, but with her, silence was the same as agreement.
“Sir Delric. Then shall we depart now?”
“Yes. I’ve already sent out scouts, only five men I can trust.”
At Delric’s words, Epherene frowned. Delric gave a faint smile.
“Don’t worry. I’m not an idiot either. I gave all five of them the wrong destination.”
“……Pardon?”
“I don’t know exactly what the Altar is, but if they are a group capable of launching a surprise attack on His Majesty, that must mean at least some of their spies have already infiltrated this Imperial Palace.”
Delric spoke as he put on his coat.
“If there’s a spy among the five, he’ll call the Altar to the wrong destination, and even if there isn’t, it will surely draw the Altar’s attention. Either way, it’s a good method to scatter the Altar’s gaze.”
“Ah…….”
Epherene was newly impressed. Delric chuckled and pointed at Sylvia.
“Then let’s go now. You too, your friend over there.”
At that, Sylvia snapped her head up.
“She’s not my friend.”
“……Hm? She’s not your friend?”
Epherene answered in her stead.
“We’re classmates. University classmates.”
“If you’re classmates, then you’re friends…… Wait. Did you just say Sylvia?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Delric suddenly stared at Sylvia with wide eyes. Sylvia snorted, “Hmph.”
“Sylvia of Iliade. The owner of the ‘Three Primary Colors.’”
* * *
Sylvia created an airship with the Three Primary Colors, and together with Epherene and Delric, she flew through the sky.
Thus, the three arrived at the Yukline mansion.
“……Wait a moment. Stay here. I’ll go in alone.”
“If it’s dangerous, shout loudly.”
“Yes.”
A night beneath a full moon. The mansion garden, familiar from long stays, yet somehow desolate and cold.
After getting off the airship, Epherene trotted over to the back door.
Creeeeak—
She slowly opened the door and crept up the stairs until she reached Professor Deculein’s office. There was originally security magic, but Epherene had submitted a drop of blood and received an exemption(?).
“…….”
The interior was as it always was. Clean and tidy, as ever. Even without the Professor, someone must be cleaning in his stead.
Was it Lady Yeriel?
“The drawer…….”
Just as Epherene approached the desk, a chilling wind suddenly scattered across the back of her neck.
Rustle—
A cold metallic temperature mingled with killing intent.
“!”
Epherene hurriedly turned around, and in her eyes appeared a robed assailant. She saw him thrusting a sword toward her heart.
The sharp blade was about to pierce her chest……
“Ugh!”
……at that very instant.
The spot where Epherene stood suddenly distorted, moving three steps away.
“Careful.”
And then, another voice came from behind her.
Epherene turned to look and was so shocked her eyes nearly popped out.
“……A-Al, A-Al—”
“Shh.”
Assistant Professor Allen.
He stood behind her, his face more serious than anything in the world.
“…….”
Epherene swallowed hard.
The living Professor had died, and the dead Allen had come back to life?
What on earth was going on?
“……What in the world?”
“Yees. I know, right?”
Allen answered brightly and stretched his hand toward the robed assailant across the room. The assailant moved toward the window as if trying to escape, but in that instant, his torso was split in two.
Slaaaaaash──
Upper body and lower body. Severed precisely at the pelvis.
“…….”
Epherene’s mouth fell open. Such a clean killing was just as astonishing as Allen’s return.
Allen himself asked calmly.
“What brings you here?”
“……Huh?”
Epherene looked at Allen. She examined his features to make sure he was truly Allen.
It was Allen.
“Hah.”
Epherene felt a shock similar to the one she’d felt when she had first regressed, but Allen explained as if it were no big deal.
“That guy was the last watchman left here. He was watching in case you came here, Miss Epherene. I was watching him.”
“…….”
“So, what brings you here, Miss Epherene?”
“That…… I…….”
For now, Epherene hesitantly pointed at Deculein’s drawer. The place where the bisected corpse lay like a log.
“Ah.”
With just one gesture, Allen cleared away the corpse and the fountain of blood.
She had no idea where they disappeared to. They simply vanished.
“Yees. What are you looking for?”
First, Epherene went over and opened Deculein’s drawer.
Rattle—
“……This.”
Just as he had said, a black bracelet lay on a soft veil.
Allen asked,
“Is that all?”
“……Yes. No. More importantly, Assistant Professor Allen! What happened to you? Are you a ghoooost?!”
“No…… I’m just…… But why does that matter right now?”
Allen shook his head expressionlessly. Then he leaned against the wall of the office.
“……The Professor is dead.”
For some reason, it sounded almost like resignation.
“And the Emperor is dead too.”
Epherene stared at him blankly. Allen gave a small, bitter smile and lowered his eyes.
“Yees…… There’s no answer anymore. This world is ruined.”
“No!”
Epherene quickly refuted him.
“It isn’t over yet.”
At that, Allen blinked and looked at her.
“We can still turn it back.”
A strangely firm resolve. A confidence whose source was unknown.
Looking at Epherene’s hardened face, Allen sank into thought for a moment.
“……Aha.”
At last, he took a small letter from within his coat.
“Here. Take this, Miss Epherene.”
“What is…… this?”
“I was the first to find the Professor’s body.”
“Whaaat?!”
“The Professor was strong, as expected. The Altar barely managed to escape too. If he had just held out a little longer until I arrived…….”
Allen’s expression darkened briefly, but soon he smiled brightly again.
“The Professor left letters before he passed away. The one to me said, ‘Deliver the letters to the others, and remain in this office.’”
“…….”
“He knew in advance that you would come here, Miss Epherene, and that the Altar would keep watch on this place.”
Epherene accepted the letter. On the corner of the envelope, the name [Epherene] was written.
“How many moves ahead was the Professor? One move? Two moves? Three moves? ……But the most important person, he himself, died.”
“No.”
Epherene put the letter into her robe as she spoke.
“He isn’t dead. We can bring him back. So come with me.”
“…….”
Allen looked at Epherene without a word. To be honest, it was the look one gave a madwoman.
Epherene clenched her teeth and said,
“I cried so much when you died, Assistant Professor. I really cried until I was on the verge of dying, you know?”
“Yees.”
“Don’t just say ‘yeees’!”
She shouted at the top of her lungs.
Allen made an appropriate expression in response. It was an imitation of emotion.
“Ah, I’m sorry…… I had my circumstances too…….”
“……If you’re sorry.”
Epherene placed a hand on Allen’s shoulder.
“Come with me.”
Rattle— At that moment, there came the sound of someone gripping the office doorknob.
Epherene flinched in surprise, and Allen hid with her between the bookshelves.
—……Is someone there?
The voice echoing inside was familiar.
Yeriel.
—……Well. Of course there isn’t.
Epherene’s expression sank heavily, and through the shelves, she saw Yeriel.
—I’m here. But my brother isn’t.
Laughing hollowly, she sat in the Professor’s office chair. Leaning over the desk, she stroked this and that, letting out small breaths.
She wept.
For quite a long while.
* * *
Late one night in March, in the northern part of the continent.
Knight Deia’s office in Reccordak.
“…….”
Yulie was looking out the window at Reccordak. The countless stars and the moon in the sky shone over the snow-white earth, but the scenery was not in her sight.
The assassination attempt on the Emperor. The political situation that had changed drastically because of it, as if war might break out at any moment.
The state of His Imperial Majesty, for which everyone was waiting, was still shrouded in uncertainty, while the news of “Deculein’s death” had become an all too clear fact, filling the continent.
It disturbed Yulie’s heart.
Knock, knock— knock, knock—
Then came a knock at the office door. Yulie turned toward it.
“Who is it?”
—It’s me, Epherene.
“Hmm?”
A name that could not be here, that should be staying in the capital.
Deculein’s disciple, Epherene.
Yulie approached with a surprised expression and opened the door.
“Miss Epherene……?”
But the guest was not Epherene alone. No, at first she hadn’t even known it was Epherene.
Because all of them were dressed in thick robes.
“Yes. It’s Epherene.”
Epherene said so and pulled back her hood, and the two behind her also revealed their faces in turn.
Sylvia and Delric.
Yulie’s face grew even more puzzled.
“Sir Delric?”
“Shh. It’s a secret that I’m here. For now, we’ll stand guard outside, so talk with Epherene.”
Though the sudden visit was strange, Yulie nodded.
“Yes.”
……Five minutes later.
“It is still difficult to believe entirely.”
Sitting across from each other, Yulie spoke. Epherene looked as if she acknowledged that.
“So, to summarize, Miss Epherene, you are saying that you have currently regressed.”
“Yes.”
“……That is difficult to believe.”
Returning from the future to the past. It was not something easily believed. No, it would be strange to believe it.
Even for a mage, it had to be reasonably magical.
“However, I can agree with the fact that one of the thirty is a suspect. I had been thinking the same. That behind one of them, there must be a vast darkness.”
The thirty candidates for Guardian Knight summoned personally by His Majesty.
All thirty were knights counted among the best on the continent, and therefore sufficient in caliber to assault the Emperor and kill Deculein.
“……Yes. That’s why the Professor told me before he died. To seek your help, Sir Yulie.”
“My…… help?”
Yulie frowned and asked back. That, too, was hard to believe.
Perhaps even more so than regression.
Epherene smiled brightly and said,
“Yes. The Professor said that you, Sir Yulie, are the most truthful person on this continent.”
“…….”
The most truthful person.
……The most truthful person.
Of course, she had not lived this life as a lie, but Deculein, of all people, would never have said such a thing……
“And.”
While Yulie was pondering with a rather blank face, Epherene added one more thing.
“The Professor doesn’t hate you.”
Those words made Yulie even more confused. For a moment, her temples throbbed.
However, she understood soon enough.
It was a lie.
“It’s all right. I will not refuse to help you, Miss Epherene, merely because of ill feelings toward the Professor, so—”
“No. That’s not it.”
Epherene cut her off and rummaged inside her coat.
“Truly, the Professor doesn’t hate you.”
“……!”
At that moment, Yulie’s eyes widened. It was because of something that fell out from the inner pocket of Epherene’s robe with a thud.
“T-This is…….”
A bracelet.
The gift her father had given her, the first and last.
Yulie’s eyes filled with astonishment, and Epherene smiled bitterly as she murmured,
“The Professor kept this with him all along. Maybe he was waiting for the right time to give it to you. Maybe he planned to give it to you on your wedding day.”
“…….”
“If he truly hated you, there’s no way he would’ve kept something like this, right?”
Epherene placed the bracelet on the desk. Yulie gathered it up almost instinctively.
She placed it on her palm, dazed.
“Rather, the Professor still……”
Yulie looked at Epherene again.
The bracelet, black as coal and broken as if it might crumble, made her heart soften just a little.
Epherene said with a smile,
“He might still be in love with you.”