Epherene opened her eyes. Instinctively, her pupils rolled about. She swept her gaze around her.
“……”
Still, Reccordak, where the blizzard raged.
On the sofa in Sir Julie’s office.
“……Ah.”
In the heart of despair.
Epherene, who had thought it was a dream—who had hoped it was a dream—blankly raised only her upper body.
“……You’re awake?”
Delric, sitting at a nearby table, let out a snickering laugh. But Epherene had no strength to answer.
“Epherene. What were you screaming about like that?”
“……”
She clenched her teeth. Her lower lip trembled as if she were holding back tears.
Delric said,
“You don’t look very convincing pretending to be all ruined with that puffy face.”
“……What part of me is puffy?”
“I heard you ate all the steamed potatoes by yourself.”
“……”
Epherene lay back down on the sofa. Staring up at the ceiling, she thought about what would happen next.
Now, the Altar’s surprise attack would come. We’ll be scattered, and while everyone dies, I’ll do nothing but run away until I regress.
And that will repeat endlessly.
As Epherene saw it, there was no hope. To begin with, there was probably less than half a day left.
Delric asked,
“Right. When you regress, you go back to early March?”
“……It has to be February, not March, if we’re going to stop everything.”
February. Back to when Deculein was explaining the admissions requirements……
Crunch—
Just then, Delric bit into something.
Chew, chew— chew, chew—
The sound kept bothering her. Epherene, who had been sullenly staring at the ceiling, slowly turned her head.
“……What’s that?”
“A sandwich.”
“……Why does it smell like meat?”
“Because I put meat in it.”
“……”
Epherene quietly sat up. She planted her rear on the chair beside Delric.
“Epherene. Professor Deculein left you a letter, didn’t he?”
“……It’s nothing special.”
“You showed Julie, didn’t you?”
“……”
Epherene handed Delric the letter from inside her coat. In exchange, as if bartering, she received a piece of sandwich.
While Epherene took a large bite, Delric read the letter.
“……Epherene. I leave this letter to you.”
Epherene thought as she ate the sandwich.
……She thought, but there was no way.
Her motivation and resolve had already nearly broken.
“You will surely be able to discern the meaning of this letter.”
Delric finished reading Deculein’s letter.
A sentence of merely two lines.
Epherene let out a pointless sigh.
“Haaah.”
“……I, too, will surely keep my promise.”
But then Delric’s words continued in a rather strange way.
Epherene pouted. Looking at Delric bluntly, she asked,
“What promise are you going to keep?”
“……Hm?”
At that, Delric raised his eyebrows. Epherene asked again.
“I asked what promise you’re keeping.”
“What are you talking about?”
Delric frowned. Epherene made a similar expression.
“You just said you’d keep a promise.”
“……I was just reading it?”
“Reading what?”
“The letter.”
“?”
Her face twisting into a grimace, Epherene looked back and forth between Delric and the letter.
Delric likewise looked back and forth between Epherene and the letter.
“……”
“……”
The two fell silent, unable to understand each other.
Outside the window, the blizzard still raged, and the fire in the hearth crackled quietly—at that very moment.
Crackle—
“……!”
A stinging current surged through Epherene’s mind. A realization shot through her, making her sit bolt upright.
“Give it to me for a second!”
She snatched it away with telekinesis. Delric asked awkwardly,
“Why, what is it? It’s only three lines. Is there some hidden meaning?”
Only three lines.
Thanks to those words, Epherene’s heart thudded loudly.
Because originally, Deculein’s letter had only been “two lines.”
“Epherene?”
“……”
Epherene’s hand, clutching the letter, trembled. Her eyes reddened as she read the lines.
[Epherene.
I leave this letter to you.]
The still far-too-short letter she had read thousands upon thousands of times.
And yet, over it, a single tear fell. It soaked into the paper and spread.
[You will surely be able to discern the meaning of this letter.]
I don’t understand it at all—she had agonized over those words thousands of times, yet had never been able to know.
However, now.
Beneath those same sentences as before, added in elegant handwriting.
A single line that had not existed before the regression.
[……I, too, will surely keep my promise.]
At that moment, Deculein’s voice rang softly in Epherene’s ear.
—Do not worry.
The words Deculein had left her with when he saved her before the regression.
—I will not force it upon you. You are still too young to shoulder that yoke.
A smile rose to Epherene’s lips as she recalled it, but strangely, the tip of her nose stung.
—However, I promise you this.
Epherene’s heart, which had trembled and screamed in despair, once again became drenched in a certain hope.
“Epherene. You little—explain it to me too……”
Delric called out, but Epherene could see nothing right now. Nothing else entered her eyes.
Right now, all she could hear was someone’s “voice.”
—It will only be for a moment, Epherene. For that brief moment, you may be lonely.
……It will only be for a moment.
Those words finally reached her and melted her heart.
They erased, strand by strand, the burden and responsibility that had been crushing her entire body.
—Even if I am late, I will surely follow your time.
His final words continued like a whisper.
—I will overcome the regression.
Overcoming regression.
“……Ah.”
Epherene now understood the meaning of those absurd words.
She understood the purpose of the letter clearly.
Just as Deculein had said, she had “surely” discerned it.
“……I see.”
Epherene looked out the window again.
The blizzard scattering through the dark sky. The glide of a certain bird cutting through it.
Looking up at that beautiful and steadfast flight, Epherene became certain of one thing.
She repeated, in her heart, words that were far too obvious.
……Deculein will surely return alive.
* * *
The underground passage of Reccordak.
Epherene and her group were walking along the path beneath the earth. They intended to evacuate before the Altar launched its surprise attack on Reccordak.
“When I regress, not everything changes.”
Epherene said.
“This is what I think. The world’s regression and my regression are different.”
“Hm?”
Their reactions varied. Sylvia seemed to understand to some extent and nodded, but Allen, Delric, and Julie wore ambiguous expressions.
“In other words, the ‘world’s regression’ and ‘my regression’ have different standards. First of all, once April 9 comes, I regress together with the world.”
The moment of regression being April 9 was the same.
However, the “point” was different.
“Only, the world might be regressing to January, or it might be regressing to February. Or maybe it starts over entirely from the beginning, from way before the continent was even made.”
“……And?”
“But my regression, right now, only continues based on ‘Reccordak in March.’”
In other words, the world’s regression was far greater.
If expressed as a diagram, it would be “the world’s regression ⊃ Epherene’s regression.”
Both regress at the same time, but Epherene is late when it comes to the point of regression.
“Then Deculein can’t come back to life.”
Sylvia’s legs came to an abrupt stop. She glared fixedly at Epherene.
“Because the point you regress to is already a time when the Professor is dead.”
“……”
At that, Delric also gulped. The underground air instantly turned cold.
Epherene chuckled and shook her head.
“No. It’s fine.”
“What do you mean, it’s fine, you stupid Epherene?”
“Sylvia. What is Professor Deculein like, in your mind?”
“……”
Sylvia’s brow narrowed sharply.
Well, this friend never liked riddles.
Epherene continued in a low voice.
“The Professor is always, always constant. Unchanging like a pine tree, and he never bends himself. He loses to no one.”
Gulp—
Just then, Delric swallowed once more. With widened eyes, he looked at the inner pocket of Epherene’s robe. As if he had realized something.
“Epherene, don’t tell me.”
“Yes. This letter.”
Epherene took out Deculein’s letter.
[Epherene.
I leave this letter to you.
You will surely be able to discern the meaning of this letter.
……I, too, will surely keep my promise.]
“I’ve already gone through two regressions. But this last line.”
The elegant and refined handwriting that said he would surely keep his promise.
Words that anyone could tell were Deculein’s.
“It’s a sentence that wasn’t there in the previous round.”
“Then……”
“The Professor is overcoming this ‘world’s regression.’”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Overcoming regression.
To begin with, “regression” itself was a premise on the level of great magic, and yet, beyond that, “overcoming regression”?
“……So. Professor Deculein will definitely return.”
Epherene said resolutely.
“As long as we make sure this regression continues.”
* * *
Beneath the North. Yet in the lodging Sylvia’s talent had transformed into a warm cabin, Julie was standing night watch.
Thanks to the chair Sylvia had made, it was not particularly uncomfortable.
“……Do you believe it?”
It was a question from her fellow watchman, Lieutenant Rayleigh. Julie looked back at her and nodded.
“I have to. No matter how difficult it is to believe.”
“No, not the regression. I mean the…… absurd claim that Deculein actually loves you, Sir Knight.”
“……”
Julie drew in a breath for a moment. Looking into the darkness on the far side of the underground passage, she said,
“What use is there in hating someone who is already dead?”
“……”
“Whether those words are true or not, right now, I do not have the leeway to devote myself to hatred. And also.”
She looked at the bracelet on her wrist.
What meaning of Deculein’s was contained in this? Why had Deculein left this bracelet to her?
“I am not saving the Professor. I am trying to save Her Majesty.”
“……”
Rayleigh nodded wordlessly. Then she slowly rose to her feet.
“They’re coming again over there, right on time.”
“You go wake them.”
Far away, the Altar’s pursuit could be faintly felt. She did not know how they had found them, but they were truly like leeches.
“Yes!”
As soon as Rayleigh entered the cabin, clang, clang, clang—! She beat a pot lid. The four squirmers who had been sleeping huddled together blearily opened their eyes.
“It’s time for everyone to run now.”
“Ah, yes!”
Epherene was the first to rise. With a hardened face, she put on armor beneath her robe.
Like this, she had a duty and resolve.
The duty that she absolutely must not die.
And the resolve that she would surely survive and meet Deculein again……
* * *
……And so, the third April 9 arrived.
The fourth April 9 arrived.
The fifth April 9 arrived.
The sixth April 9 arrived.
The seventh April 9 arrived.
Once again, they greeted the eighth March.
“……It’s almost been a year.”
Having grown somewhat used to regression, Epherene was not particularly shaken. She looked at the scenery of the North, gathered her companions to explain the plan, and left Reccordak.
She already knew the safest destination.
The Principality of Yuren.
If they went there with Allen’s “Stride,” there would be no entry or exit records, and from what they had learned so far, Yuren could be called, at least relatively, an “Altar-free zone.”
“I think we can use this place.”
The place Epherene’s group arrived at was an empty vacant lot that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. It was not far from the city streets, but there was no need to book a hotel or lodging. After all, Iliade of the Three Primary Colors was with them right now.
“……Still, this is shocking. To think you are already the eighth Epherene.”
Delric said, stroking his mustache. Epherene narrowed her eyes.
“What do you mean, the eighth Epherene? That makes it sound like I’m not me.”
“……Is it not difficult for you?”
This was Julie’s concern. Epherene shook her head.
“No. I’m fine. More importantly, I really never imagined Leok would have been completely swallowed by the Altar…… That was too shocking.”
The Kingdom of Leok.
The seventh Epherene and her group had stayed there, but Leok had been completely the Altar’s den.
To the point that a new sanctuary of the Altar was being built beneath Leok at that very moment.
“Yes. It is difficult to believe.”
“Still, I’m glad we found out the information. Later, when the Professor comes……”
Then she once again took the letter from inside her coat.
[Epherene.
I leave this letter to you. Recently, déjà vu has come to me from time to time, certain abstract concepts have risen in my mind, and afterimages I have not observed have flickered before me; however, it would likely not be particularly efficient to explain all of that in sentences.
However, you will surely be able to discern the meaning of this letter. Therefore, be certain to remember what I have told you.
I, too, will surely keep my promise, so wait for me.]
The letter was gradually growing longer. She hugged it tightly to her chest.
To Epherene right now, each and every line was precious. It truly felt as though she were conversing with the Professor across time.
“Don’t get cocky.”
Smack— Sylvia struck her on the back.
“Ah!”
A burning pain. Epherene flinched in surprise and turned around.
“You’re not the only one who’s special.”
“You little thing, that stings!”
“……Young.”
“Right. You’re young now. Younger than me.”
Epherene crossed her arms smugly, and Sylvia watched her as if dumbfounded before shaking her head.
“Your mental age is stupid.”
“Be quiet and build us a house.”
At that, Sylvia clicked her tongue—tsk—and stared fixedly at a certain spot.
A drawing appeared in that empty space. A very splendid three-story mansion.
“It’s done. Everyone go in.”
“Yes. Thank you, Lady Sylvia.”
Everyone, including Julie, went in contentedly and unpacked, and Epherene also lay down on the bed in her private room.
It was extremely soft.
“Sylvia’s talent really is a cheat……”
It was something she felt every time she regressed, but Origin, Attribute, whatever—Three Primary Colors was the best.
“……Haaaaaahm.”
Anyway, as she lay there quietly like that.
Softly, softly—as if a wind were blowing, sleep came over her.
Epherene gently closed her half-lidded eyes.
“Should I just sleep for today……”
And so, just as she was about to fall asleep.
No, within that “dream” into which she had actually fallen asleep.
Epherene came face-to-face with a certain person she had forgotten all this time—no, who had not appeared until now.
—……It has been a long time, child of Luna.
Deculein’s father, and a specter of the past.
It was Dikailen.