—······It has been a long time, child of Luna.
Within the darkness of the dream. Appearing at the very center of it, the father of Dekyulrein, and a ghost of the past—Dikailren.
“······.”
Ipeurin was startled and afraid, but only for a moment.
Now, I no longer tremble. I am not afraid. Neither do I retreat.
It was thanks to proper ‘self-objectification.’
Her attributes were ‘Artifact’ and ‘Origin.’ She possessed two talents that an ordinary person would be hard-pressed to have even one of.
To flee in groundless fear would be too great a waste of her potential.
“Bring it.”
Ipeurin taunted, assuming her Mage Combat stance. Crackle—crackle—her mana sparked like electricity. At that, Dikailren formed a low smile.
—You have changed. However, child, I have no desire to fight you.
“Bullshit······.”
—Shall we sit?
Two chairs manifested in the darkness where there had been nothing.
Dikailren trudged over and sat in one, then pointed to the seat opposite him.
—Sit.
“······What.”
Ipeurin was briefly bewildered. But Dikailren simply wore a calm face and nodded, as if to say it was fine.
“······What are you scheming.”
—Nothing so grand as a scheme. I simply wish to converse with you.
“Converse?”
—Yes. Come and sit, and I shall tell you everything you do not know. Of my son, of course, and of things pertaining to your father.
“······.”
Dekyulrein and her father. The relationship between the two.
Ipeurin was suspicious, but the offer piqued her interest.
She asked again with a barbed tone.
“······All of a sudden?”
—It is not sudden. I have wanted to tell you this all along. However, there were interruptions.
Dikailren smiled as he looked at her. He even pulled the chair closer telekinetically, to make it easier for her to sit.
—Will you listen, or will you leave? I shall do as you say.
“······.”
Curiosity and doubt welled up from the very bottom of her heart. Her father and Dekyulrein, coiled like a lump in the corner of her heart—their dark past.
Unable to endure it, Ipeurin slowly sat in the chair. She glared at Dikailren with an extremely fierce expression.
He smiled broadly.
—Child, what do you wish to know?
“Your goal. Why, how, and by what means are you inside my head.”
—Simple. I tried to transplant myself into your body.
“M-my body?”
—Yes. You may not have known, but that byproduct remained within you, which is why I can linger by your side like this.
“······You insane—!”
Ipeurin glared at Dikailren, utterly disgusted.
“Absolutely filthy······.”
However, the words Dikailren scoffingly delivered:
—It was your father’s proposal.
A sentence hard to accept.
Ipeurin furrowed her brow and asked again.
“······What?”
—Child, I told you. Keigeon Luna did not love you.
“······.”
Her expression hardened in an instant. Dikailren held a smile. Tap—he placed his finger on the table.
—In the distant past, your mother gave birth to you and fled.
“······Mother? My mom?”
—Yes.
Ipeurin did not know her mother’s face. She did not remain in any photo or portrait, for only her name existed on the tombstone in her hometown.
“What does that mean.”
—It was Illeideu’s enticement. If she abandoned the ‘Luna’ household, she would be given a vast fortune. Your mother gladly accepted. She abandoned you, and she abandoned Keigeon.
“······.”
Ipeurin blankly opened her mouth.
—As a result, Keigeon came to resent Illeideu. He hated your mother, and he hated you too, for you resembled his wife. All that remained in his life was magic, and he lived like a madman, obsessed with magical theory······ However.
A chess piece appeared on Dikailren’s table with a clack.
The lowly ‘Pawn.’
—Your father Keigeon, who lived like a paranoid.
Behind it, a great King descended.
—Met me.
Ipeurin clenched both fists.
—He proposed you to me, who was troubled over the issue of succession. Saying he would offer you up, and asking me to help fulfill his vengeance. To destroy Illeideu, and to find and kill his wife.
A sneer spread across Dikailren’s face.
—He was not a sane man.
“Bullshit, don’t spew this bullshit—!”
Unable to listen anymore, Ipeurin burst out shouting. That great cry toppled the King and Pawn on the table.
“Proof, you don’t even have proof! My dad—”
—Proof.
“Yeah—!”
Ipeurin shot to her feet. She glared at Dikailren with the intent to overturn the table.
“How could Dad hate me! How could Dad—”
—I told you.
Dikailren’s voice sank coldly. His eyes, resembling Dekyulrein’s, hardened stiffly.
—That ‘byproduct’ is still with you.
“What do you mean······.”
Suddenly, Ipeurin looked into Dikailren’s eyes. She followed where his gaze led.
—Child of Luna.
······Her wrist.
The bracelet on her wrist.
A keepsake from her father.
She had thought it was her attribute······
‘Artifact.’
—That is the byproduct.
“······Ah.”
—That you became a mage, that you came to the academy, that ‘Artifact’ was bestowed upon you—all of it, every emotion and action you felt, was induced by him.
Dikailren said.
—Your life is fake. Not once has it ever been real.
“······.”
The pupils of the silent Ipeurin darkened. Her focus blurred, and her breath trembled.
As her head drooped lower and lower, Dikailren’s smile grew deeper.
—Now do you understand? Your life is infinitely worthless—
“······Then.”
But at some point, Ipeurin clenched her teeth.
She straightened herself just before collapsing. She sniffed back her runny nose—hmph!
“You knew all that, yet you didn’t tell me.”
—Who?
Ipeurin silently looked at her wrist. Her father’s bracelet was coiled around it.
“······The Professor.”
Saying so, she looked again—this time at her palm. On it was Mokgangcheol.
—······Hmm.
Dikailren leaned back in his chair. Then he glared at Ipeurin with eyes of utter contempt.
“The Professor knew everything, yet he let me hate him. He told me he killed my father.”
Dekyulrein’s words—*Do you think I could even take revenge on me, who was so weak I killed Keigeon?*—suddenly flashed through her mind, lingering by her ear.
“······Just as you’re trying to break me now, he was afraid I would break.”
Ipeurin raised her head. Her face was already swollen like a steamed bun soaked in water, but as she glared at Dikailren, she placed Mokgangcheol down on the table.
Thud—!
The massive, solid Mokgangcheol crushed the Pawn and King beneath it.
“This is my Knight.”
—······Tch.
Dikailren shook his head. Ipeurin spoke through clenched teeth, grinding out each word.
“I don’t play chess because it’s too hard, but this is dozens of times stronger than a Pawn or King or whatever.”
Kwooaaaa······.
In that moment, the darkness within the dream began to quake.
Ipeurin’s mana gathered into Mokgangcheol, and cracks were carved into the earth.
“I won’t break.”
She wiped the tears filling her eyes. Her heart felt as though it would tear apart—no, it was already torn—but.
She spat out stubbornly.
“Because that is what the Professor wishes.”
Craaaaaack—!
The world of her unconsciousness split apart entirely.
Amidst the collapsing fragments, Dikailren gazed at Ipeurin, and Ipeurin did not avert her eyes from his.
······Soon.
“Ha!”
When she opened her eyes again, she was in Silbia’s cabin.
“Kugh!”
Ipeurin shot upright and placed a hand on her heart.
Thump-thump-thump—
As she tried to calm her madly racing heart, gasping for breath, she suddenly—
“······Huh.”
—discovered the bracelet placed beside the bed.
The keepsake from her father that she had always worn. Her magical Artifact.
That which had always been more precious than her very life······.
“It’s broken.”
Like a stretched rubber band, like a dead earthworm, it lay limp and scattered.
“······.”
Ipeurin stared at that bracelet for a long while.
For a long time, without a word, she simply stared blankly.
She had no other choice.
* * *
The following afternoon.
The city streets of Yuren were blazing with sunlight. Ipeurin walked along the road with Silbia and Allen.
“······.”
“······.”
“······.”
None of the three spoke. They were all somewhat depressed, moderately tired, and needlessly awkward with one another.
“Bookstore.”
As they walked quietly, Silbia pointed somewhere.
In the center of the commercial district, a sign reading ‘Bookstore’ stood conspicuously. For a bookstore, it was quite a large building.
“Y-yeah. Let’s go there.”
Ipeurin was the first to react, and Allen nodded along as well. Together, they entered the bookstore.
“Hm?”
Ipeurin’s eyes went wide the moment she entered.
“······There’s a lot of people?”
Indeed, the bookstore was very crowded. People here, people there, and she could even see a few mages in robes.
What was going on, when this wasn’t even the Floating Island Library?
“What the.”
Silbia narrowed her brows, seeming displeased.
Allen spoke.
“Yes. Look at this, they’re holding an event today.”
“An event?”
“Yes.”
Ipeurin looked where Allen pointed. There was a poster.
‘Yuren Reading Quiz Competition! Airing live on radio!’
“Live radio broadcast······ What’s a live broadcast?”
“Dunno.”
Silbia went off somewhere to find a book, while Ipeurin squinted her eyes at the poster—a very ordinary flow of events.
“Huh?”
A bewildered voice rang out behind Ipeurin.
Ipeurin and Allen turned that way.
“Ah! It’s you, Ria!”
A member of the Red Garnet Adventurer Party.
Ria was there. She hugged a book to her chest and bowed at the waist.
“Hello!”
“Yeah, hi. Long time no see. What brings you here?”
“I’m here to participate in the reading quiz competition.”
“······The reading quiz competition?”
“Yes. The reward is huge.”
Ria answered with a bashful smile, but her expression soon darkened.
“That’s right. That······ I also heard the news that the Professor passed away······.”
“Ah, that? It’s fine.”
“······Huh?”
“It’s fine, really. I’ll be so fine I won’t even remember it.”
At those meaningful words, Ria tilted her head in confusion, and Ipeurin glanced at the ‘Reading Quiz Competition’ being prepared in the distance.
—Everyone, please make sure you’re prepared! The princess will also be participating in this quiz!
She didn’t know what a live radio broadcast was, but they seemed busy with something anyway.
“What do they give you if you win there?”
“Yes. The winner’s prize is 30,000 Elen, and they get invited to the inner palace. But what do you mean, you’re fine? Ah, right, by the way, um, I heard His Imperial Majesty is in critical condition, but are you alright?”
“Winner’s prize and an invitation to the inner palace······.”
“Uh, Ipeurin unni? Unni?”
Ria was talking a lot, strangely so, but Ipeurin simply stared intently at the podium in the center of the bookstore.
—Is the live radio broadcast ready?
—Yes!
Ipeurin, who had been watching, now wore a face full of curiosity.
“Ria. Can I register to participate right now?”
“Huh? Ah, you can, but is Your Majesty alright?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Oh! Whew, whew, whew······”
Leaving behind Ria, who was patting her chest with an expression of immense relief, Ipeurin approached the quiz competition area.
“Excuse me, I’d like to register for this. I’m a mage too.”
“Ah. Yes. Please write your name and everything down, then submit it.”
“Yes······.”
Just as Ipeurin received the form and nodded—
Boom————!
“Uwaack!”
With a massive vibration, the entire bookstore sank into the ground.
* * *
······This place is the outer layer of the world.
A conceptual space belonging neither to the continent nor to the universe.
In a landscape as vast as a desert, bound by no providence whatsoever, only one lake and one person existed.
He looked into the lake, and the lake spoke to him.
—O God. What are you doing?
A voice connected to that distant continent. The one called God answered in a low voice.
“I am fishing.”
—O God. Does life exist there?
“No.”
He held his fishing rod and shook it. Since there were no aquatic creatures to bite the bait in this lake, it was quite boring.
—I am sorry. However, your Incarnation is finally nigh.
The priest of the altar spoke. That his incarnation was near.
That the time to reclaim his body and advance upon the continent was soon at hand.
“Indeed.”
He nodded. There was no overwhelming emotion, and joy was faint, but ‘punishment for apostasy’ would certainly be necessary.
“I shall wait.”
And he lifted his fishing rod.
With no fish to catch, the hook was similarly empty, devoid of bait. But when he placed his hand upon it, a fresh shrimp was created and threaded upon it.
Ploop!
As he cast the fishing rod into the lake, ‘God’ muttered.
“······Is fishing in a meaningless lake truly meaningless, or is it valuable in and of itself?”
The Incarnation soon to arrive.
Thinking of that descent, he fell into contemplation for a moment.......