The capital’s public cemetery. Among its grounds, in the place closest to nature—what people commonly called “a sunny spot”—stood a lone grave and headstone.
—You know, Ujin.
A conversation from some time ago whispered at my ear as I looked at it.
—Ujin.
—……
—Hey, Kim Ujin. Why aren’t you saying anything?
A cramped room. The one who had come to the darkness where I had been alone and lit it with light.
—What.
Only after I answered did she smile, as though embarrassed.
—……You know.
Looking into my eyes, she repeated the words clearly.
Trembling lips. Shaking breath.
—Should we get married?
……Back then, I could not give her an answer.
Was it because I wasn’t ready?
Or was it because I had misunderstood her feelings?
After the day my far-too-young younger sibling left this world far too cruelly, I somehow lived like a doll with broken clockwork. I moved as though something had broken inside me, and at times I floundered in fleeting emotions.
So, I thought you pitied me.
That you feared I would be unable to move if you were not by my side. That I would go on breaking endlessly like this, shattering again and again.
I mistook it for you wanting to be with me because I was pitiful and miserable.
—……Kidding, kidding. Why are you taking it so seriously?
You puckered your lips and said it was a joke, and I said nothing at all.
I hoped you would not waste yourself on someone like me, someone who was obviously broken.
I wanted to show you that I could stand on my own.
—What are you doing!
On another day, she slapped my shoulder lightly and set something down.
—Here. Look.
It was a new model tablet. Looking at it, I furrowed my brow.
—What’s this?
—Yours.
—……Wasn’t it expensive?
—Yeah. Pretty expensive.
—What the…… Are your finances okay? You said there was something you wanted to buy.
At that, she laughed like a total goof.
—Hehe. This was it. I wanted to buy this. I wanted to give it to you.
—……
Without a word, I flipped the tablet over and back. It was certainly an expensive item.
Watching my reaction, she rested her face on my shoulder.
—You know. They say there are two kinds of happiness. The happiness of giving, and the happiness of receiving.
—……Is that so?
—Yeah. The world won’t run if there’s only the happiness of receiving. The algorithm was designed properly, just like our game.
Saying that, she hugged me.
—……So. I like giving things to Ujin.
Her unbearably embarrassing words tickled me so much that I ended up laughing.
—That’s a relief. I like receiving things.
I opened my eyes again. The memory had been special, but reality remained unchanged.
The reason I had suddenly thought of something like the tablet was probably because I had drawn this game with it.
“……”
I looked at her headstone and knelt on one knee. I placed a single flower on the grave.
[Yu Ara von Fairgis Meinnicht]
And yet no tears flowed.
It was time to forget now. One year was enough time to bury her as a memory.
At least, for Deculein, it was.
……Only.
“I still do want to see you, at least once.”
I took off my glove. With my bare hand, I traced her name.
It was nothing more than the cold, hard touch of stone.
* * *
“……Huk.”
Epherene was watching Deculein from not too far away. Though nothing much was happening, she alone was gripping her hands tight enough to sweat.
“Did, did you just hear that?”
Of course, she was not alone. The “red-furred munchkin” nestled in her arms was with her.
—I heard.
The cat huffed and raised its tail upright. The swaying pointed fur tickled Epherene’s nostrils.
“Achoo.”
—Hmph. To think he still wants to see her.
The cat shook its head. Epherene knew such thoughts were irreverent, but to her, that sight was murderously cute.
—So that professor fellow was unexpectedly the sort to live on lingering attachment.
“……Are you disappointed?”
Pretending not to care, she carefully placed a hand on the cat’s back.
It was soft.
—Who knows.
The cat said.
—I do not know. We have no experience of such things.
“Mm…… Is that so. Mmm……”
Epherene became dazed as she stroked the soft fur.
—However, that kind of life does not seem so bad either.
“……That kind of life, Your Majesty?”
—Yes. If it is a life of an aristocratic lady who will live ordinarily and die ordinarily anyway.
The cat propped its chin on its short paw. Then it put on a sentimental expression.
It was so cute she could die.
—To become someone who remains forever in the memories of a man like Deculein……
At those words, Epherene found herself agreeing without realizing it.
Of all the “living beings” Epherene knew, the person who seemed least connected to love was, as expected, Deculein.
To remain so deeply in his heart might be quite a special thing.
—Then We shall be off. It is time for class to begin. That Yeriel or whatever beside Us keeps chattering away as well.
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
The reason Sophien had come not in her main body but as a cat was Yeriel.
On the way out of the university, she had happened to meet Yeriel, and while she was wondering what to do, she had been dragged off by the words, “It’s almost time for class.”
Epherene had been left speechless at the sight of Yeriel treating the disguised emperor so casually, but revealing the truth seemed likely to cause an even bigger incident, so Epherene had simply stood there blankly.
“Have a safe trip.”
—Indeed.
The cat’s eyes, which had been sneering with a faint scoff, went blank. The possession had been released.
“Phew. Finally—”
Meow—!
The cat cried out.
“Argh! W-wait. Stay still……”
Meow—! Meoooow——!
It struggled desperately to escape from her arms, clawing this way and that, throwing an absolute shit fit—
“Hey! Stop……?”
At that moment, a long shadow fell over her.
A somehow ominous shadow.
Gulp— Epherene swallowed.
Creak, creak— She looked up in that direction like a rusty hinge, and her whole body froze.
“……Ah.”
Deculein. The professor had approached before she knew it and was looking down at her.
Perhaps intimidated by his presence, even the cat quietly stopped struggling.
“Ah, um, Professor—”
“What are you doing here?”
Deculein said. Hostility was clear in his face and voice.
Epherene calmed her pounding heart and hugged the cat tightly like a shield.
“Th-that’s not it. I, I definitely wasn’t peeping—”
“Gilleon.”
“……Eh?”
Epherene’s eyes went round. Then she quickly turned around.
“……Ah.”
There, just as Deculein had said, stood Gilleon.
Sylvia’s father, and one of the enemies of the Luna family. The moment she saw him, Epherene’s expression naturally turned fierce, but soon she tilted her head in puzzlement.
“……What’s wrong with him?”
Gilleon’s complexion was strange. No, even his build had withered far too much.
When had he lost so much weight? He had become nothing but bones.
“Deculein.”
Gilleon spoke. Deculein furrowed his brow. Epherene quickly pressed herself to his side and made the same expression.
However, Gilleon’s next words were entirely unexpected.
“Help me.”
……
—Supply and demand is an extremely basic law, but if we look at it from a managerial perspective, it is difficult to call it practical in and of itself. It must possess practicality at all times. Let me introduce several examples that deviate from this law……
Emperor Sophien was listening to the lecture. No, she was doing quite a number of things.
With her hand, she took notes on a management economics lecture whose contents she already knew completely. In her head, she considered moves in Go, pondered imperial policy, and devised a plan to eliminate the Red Scales hidden in the desert……
—I still do want to see you, at least once.
Deculein.
That man’s voice rose in her mind of its own accord. It kept lingering by her ear.
A man who had killed hundreds, thousands of people, who had directed every cruel sin onto himself, and yet had buried an eternal longing in a corner of his heart.
Perhaps Sophien was feeling envy now.
Envy toward that nameless woman who had become the object of his longing.
“……”
At present, a wind of slaughter led by Deculein was rising in the Imperial Palace. Sophien knew that fact as well.
However, because it was Deculein who had experienced regression, and because Sophien also trusted him, she had gladly left it in his hands……
“Hey. Aren’t you taking notes?”
Someone’s elbow jabbed her from the side. It was Deculein’s younger sister, Yeriel.
“Take notes. Notes.”
Unlike her elder brother, was this girl nosy?
Sophien did not know what business it was of hers, but she moved her pen again. Then, pretending it was nothing, she muttered.
“Miss Yeriel. I hear there are many rumors that the central political world is in turmoil lately.”
Yeriel’s expression stiffened slightly. Only for a moment, however, and she soon returned to concentrating on her notes.
Sophien glanced at her and added another sentence.
“That is your elder brother’s—”
“You were sent by the Imperial Family, weren’t you?”
Yeriel’s words hit about half the mark. Sophien smiled inwardly.
“I knew from the beginning. But you’re asking way too openly.”
“……”
“How did I know? You smell like the Imperial Palace. Your manners and etiquette are exactly those of the Imperial Family too.”
However, this girl had failed to grasp the most important thing.
No, she had not even thought of it, most likely.
Her disguise magic was that excellent to begin with, and if anyone said that the emperor was currently wandering around the university, they would be treated like a madman.
Yeriel snickered and asked.
“You’re a maternal relative, right? I heard Her Majesty had relatives.”
As expected, this girl had only hit half the mark.
Sophien nodded calmly.
“That is so. Thus, what I wish to ask—”
“What are you going to do by asking me? It’s famous that we dislike each other and are always bickering.”
“……”
Sophien stared quietly at Yeriel. Yeriel met that gaze with a calm face.
Then she smiled with a soft puff of laughter.
—Let us take a short break.
Just in time, the break began, and Yeriel leaned back in her chair. It was the same habit as her elder brother.
“Still, well, if you need something to report…… That man isn’t doing this for his own selfish desires.”
Sophien listened in silence.
“It’s all that man’s way of serving Her Majesty. If Her Majesty tells him to stop, he’ll stop. If I tell him to stop, he won’t even pretend to hear me. I hate this kind of risk too, you know. I’m receiving reports in real time on the names and numbers of everyone currently being imprisoned.”
Yeriel turned her head and tapped her left ear. There was something like a crystal sphere there.
Sophien probed once more.
“How is the Imperial Family to believe that?”
“Mm……”
Yeriel crossed her arms. She pretended to ponder, but for Yeriel, this was all part of a scenario she had anticipated. It had been only natural that someone from the Imperial Family would come one day.
“That man sent me a lot of letters. Every single one of them is full of talk about Her Majesty. About how he could be of help to Her Majesty…… Things like that.”
“……”
Letters. Deculein had sent letters to his younger sister?
As Sophien thought in silence, Yeriel spoke.
“Want me to show you? It’s mostly just him treating me like an errand girl, saying do this, do that, but if you read them, you’ll get the gist. Deculein admires Her Majesty.”
“……”
Admires?
With a slightly furrowed face, Sophien nodded. Yeriel gave a small laugh.
“You want them, right? Fine. I’ll give them to you after the lecture. First, I need the bathroom.”
“Also.”
Sophien stopped Yeriel as she was about to rise from her seat. She spoke to Yeriel, who blinked as if puzzled.
“I want everything regarding Deculein’s hobbies, of course, and his past as well.”
“……”
Yeriel’s expression, always so composed, stiffened.
Sophien continued in a hard tone.
“It would be to your advantage to inform me. In any case, the relationship between you siblings is hostile, is it not? ‘Outwardly,’ at least.”
“……Hmm.”
Yeriel narrowed her eyes. Sophien silently waited for her answer.
“You’re telling me to act as a double spy right now?”
“……”
It was a slightly mistaken interpretation, but close enough.
Sophien nodded.
“Fine. I needed a connection to the Imperial Palace anyway.”
Yeriel, too, agreed unexpectedly readily.
* * *
Pour— Tea filled the cups. Steam rose in wisps from the three teacups, and each was placed before its respective seat.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Silence lay heavy over Sylvia’s mansion.
Epherene could not quite understand the current situation. Before she knew it, she had somehow ended up here as if swept along by a wave.
“The mansion is empty.”
Deculein said. He did not even touch his teacup.
Gilleon let out a faint laugh.
“Of course it is, with its owner gone.”
“Were you not satisfied with news of the child who left the mansion?”
Sylvia was, without question, the talk of the magical world.
Her talent in the Three Primary Colors was developing by the day. So much so that papers from the Floating Island were pouring out, claiming it might even reach “divinity.”
“……I never thought the child would stray onto another path.”
“Another path.”
“Yes.”
Gilteon grasped his teacup with trembling hands. Then, clenching his teeth, he said,
“Sylvia is being swallowed by a demon.”
“……The ‘Voice’?”
Epherene asked back. Gilteon glanced at her and said,
“Yes. The ‘Voice.’ Inside it, Sylvia is together with her mother.”
“What? Her mother?!”
“Be quiet.”
Deculein covered Epherene’s mouth. Gilteon smiled weakly.
“Yes. Her mother. The Voice revived Cielia, and Sylvia willingly shut herself inside that place. At this rate, far from becoming an archmage, she will become a fragment of a demon.”
To Gilteon and his house, Sylvia was “everything” now.
The last light and hope of Iliade.
The possibility that such talent might fall into becoming a demon’s minion meant nothing less than boundless despair.
“That is why I am formally asking for help. Demons are Yukline’s duty, are they not?”
“…….”
Deculein looked straight into Gilteon’s eyes. He stared at those deeply sunken sockets.
“……How pitiable, Gilteon.”
“…….”
“You are no longer ‘yourself.’”
There was no self left in Gilteon now. Neither in the House of Iliade nor in his heart did the pride called “Gilteon” exist anymore.
Because he had staked everything on his daughter.
“If you save only Sylvia, I will gladly offer my life to you. That child is Iliade itself. So—”
“Gilteon.”
Deculein sank back into his chair. Glaring at him with distinctly arrogant eyes, he crossed his legs.
“Your life already has no value. Who would want the head of someone as pathetic as you?”
“……Deculein.”
At that, Gilteon glared at Deculein once more. A faint flame flickered in his eyes.
“Within the ‘Voice’ is also the old love you lost. Do you think you, too, will not be swayed by that demon—”
“I will not be swayed. I am not as weak as your daughter.”
Deculein cut him off firmly and rose. Epherene looked up at him with a blank face, then shook her head sharply.
“No, wait a second. Then, Gilteon, do you know? A way to save Sylvia.”
At that, Gilteon gripped his teacup. Bubble, bubble—the tea inside the cup boiled with intense heat.
“I do know, Epherene. You must have heard it back then as well.”
But this answer came from Deculein.
Epherene tilted her head blankly.
“……What? What is it?”
“To kill the demon wearing the form of that girl’s mother once more.”
“…….”
Bang—! Gilteon’s teacup exploded. Epherene’s mouth fell open in a daze.
Deculein said calmly,
“I will gladly do so.”
“…….”
“…….”
For a moment, color returned to Gilteon’s face, and Epherene’s expression crumpled fiercely.
Bzzzzzt──!
Just then, a certain frequency rang through Deculein’s radio.
[Professor! This is Betan! I have received urgent news and am currently heading to the capital!]
It was an abrupt transmission from Betan.
Deculein put the radio to his ear.
[We’ve received a report that Deputy Chief of Public Security Primienne is a Jeokgwe!]