Sunlight seeped in through the window. Warmth flowed softly inward like fine particles.
The light of dawn slowly kindled beneath the horizon, as though awakening the world.
─……Deculein.
Within that dawn, Igris’s voice faded faintly, and Deculein bowed his head to him.
As if saying that what remained was now his responsibility.
“…….”
Without a word, Deculein carried Yuli outside and stood by the window in the corridor. He gazed at the radiance of daybreak.
“Professor.”
Yuli spoke.
“……Professor.”
She could not bring herself to say anything more. Her heart hurt as though it were breaking, and the ground beneath her feet swayed precariously.
Even so, she could not collapse. It was the courtesy owed by a knight.
“I…….”
Yuli looked up at Deculein.
The man who held her in his arms was lost in thought. Her heart, having only come to know him so late, suffered as though she were drowning.
Her thoughts tangled into an endless knot of worries, while the sheer excess of confusion made her chest feel tight.
“I…….”
Too many words and questions lingered in her mouth. Yet the long sentences stopped beneath her chin. They broke apart and crumbled, leaving behind the one final word.
“……I’m sorry.”
He gave no response.
Perhaps because it was an apology that had come too late. He merely gazed at the dawn and murmured quietly.
“Yuli. I am not a good enough person to deserve an apology from you.”
He was speaking of himself.
His voice continued, colored by the cynicism that was so like him.
“I have killed too many people, and I do not even feel remorse.”
Yuli lowered her head. She rested her forehead against his chest.
“I trample over the process if the objective is righteous.”
Deculein tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but stopped himself. Gritting his teeth, he suppressed the impulse.
Instead, with 「Telekinesis」, he drew something from the inner pocket of her clothes.
“If someone gets in my way, I am the sort of person who chooses decapitation over persuasion.”
The object was caught in Deculein’s grasp. Yuli’s eyes widened as she looked at it.
“I am, just as you think, a villain.”
“Professor. That is—”
The magic stone her guardian angel had given her.
The only piece of evidence containing a recording of a certain day.
“None of this is your fault, Yuli. If there was a fault, then it belonged to the god who created us.”
Yuli reached for the magic stone. But before she could—
Crackle—!
It shattered in his grasp.
Ssshhhhhh…….
Fragments of the magic stone streamed downward. Within the pieces that struck the corridor floor, an image leaked out. Like shards of a mirror, the record of ‘that day’ was projected at random.
Yuli’s pupils trembled.
“Yuli. You are dying.”
Plop— plop—
Tears struck the remains of the magic stone. As water, earth, and mana mingled, blue smoke rose into the air.
“I admit it. Wanting to watch you while you were still alive was my own selfish desire.”
Deculein released Yuli from his arms. He held both her shoulders so that she could stand upright.
“……I will give up.”
He placed his fingers against her eyes and wiped away her falling tears.
Then he said,
“We are breaking off our engagement, Yuli.”
The morning sun had fully risen. The light of the world illuminated him.
“…….”
Deculein looked at Yuli.
A woman whom he loved so dearly that merely holding her in his gaze was overwhelming, and that he wanted to embrace her at once.
He placed a hand against her cheek. Yuli’s breath trembled, but she did not resist.
“Live your own life.”
As he said this, he pressed lightly against the blood vessel in her neck, as though caressing it. Yuli’s eyes flew wide for an instant, but there was no way her already brutally worn-down mind could endure it.
“Don’t…….”
A drawn-out death cry. Immediately afterward, she collapsed against Deculein’s shoulder as if fainting, and he gently stroked her small head.
“…….”
Then, without a word, he looked at the man standing beyond Yuli.
No—not just one man.
Gawain, Isaac, Ihelm, and Adrienne. The party of four stood there with their eyes wide.
“Take her.”
At those words, Ihelm rushed forward first and carried Yuli on his back. He was about to flee when he glanced back.
“Deculein. Aren’t you coming?”
“I still have something to do.”
“……Yeah. Whatever.”
Ihelm did not indulge his curiosity. Adrienne, on the other hand, approached with a question mark and an exclamation mark rising simultaneously above her head.
“Huh?! What was that just now?! Professor Deculein—ah, what the—!”
Ihelm grabbed her by the hair.
“What are you doing?! Let go!”
“Just come along.”
“It looks interesting—no, no!”
In any case, Adrienne disappeared, dragged away by Ihelm, while Gawain and Isaac bowed with rigid expressions before following after them.
The corridor fell silent.
Within the cold air, Deculein stared into the darkness in the corner by the window.
“There is something I wish to ask.”
—……What is it?
A distant voice came from within.
Deculein asked quietly.
“Did you truly not love Yuli?”
—……She is the child whom the woman I loved more than my own life chose in place of her own life.
Igris spoke. His voice was tinged with regret and sorrow.
—It would be a lie to say I do not resent her, but a knight’s heart is weak as well. Whenever I looked at that child, I was reminded of my dead wife.
Deculein turned his head.
—The cause of death was hypothermia.
A child born with excessively powerful magical talent and bloodline would sometimes inflict illness upon the mother, or even bring about her death.
Yuli had been born into a different kind of yoke from Zait and Yusephine.
—……Because I am too foolish and pathetic.
As Igris had said, she possessed the most perfect Phairden bloodline of all.
A child of winter, born by freezing her mother to death.
—Professor, I could not love that child as much as you do.
“…….”
For an instant, his expression twisted. He clenched his teeth in unbearable anger and contempt.
“How pathetic.”
Boom—! He struck the ground with his cane. The sharp resonance spread through the corridor.
—Are you going?
“I still have something to do.”
Before the sun completely rose, before the gate to this underworld closed.
There was still something he had to do.
* * *
He forged a sword by weaving mana together.
A formless sword born of the Emperor’s mana. Wielding its dazzling radiance, Sophien moved like a gale. She displayed her own innate talent to the fullest.
Crackkkk──!
The sword of mana sliced through flesh, and a crimson eye flashed between the split halves of a body. Blood clung to her white skin and blazing red hair.
Even so, the Emperor did not hesitate. She did not recoil from the filth of flesh and blood.
Sshhkkk──!
The Emperor’s sword cleaved through human beings like tofu, and her swordsmanship was noble and perfect.
The orthodox style of the Imperial Palace, assembled from nothing but the ‘essence’ of swordsmanship.
Having perfectly embodied and absorbed every bit of it, her movements were sturdier than those of any swordsman. They were beautiful, as though she were dancing ballet.
“……This is why it is so tedious.”
However, the Emperor’s demonstration did not last even five minutes. The members of the Altar who had boldly launched their assault had all been slaughtered and lay scattered across the floor without ever managing to approach Sophien.
“Hmph.”
She snorted, swept several severed limbs aside with mana, and shifted her gaze.
“Are you unharmed?”
“…….”
Sophien asked the professor. He had been preparing for battle with a semblance of seriousness, but now cleared his throat and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Then explain. What did you mean when you said you would die?”
Deculein put away Mokgangcheol.
“I am both a memory and mana. Therefore, if I merge completely with Deculein, he will gain all the memories of that day, but he will not be able to withstand the ‘surge.’”
The surge of memories and mana containing more than a century. Even for Deculein—or rather, for any human being—it would be a resonance difficult to endure.
“Of course, he will not die immediately. However, he will become a body that merely awaits death.”
“…….”
Sophien understood his meaning at once and furrowed her brow.
“……If this one does not do so.”
If she wished for the Deculein of the present not to die, she only had to leave the Deculein of the underworld here.
All she had to do was prevent the two from meeting.
However, that too presented a problem.
“What will become of you, Professor?”
The professor who had shared his memories with her.
He had introduced himself as both a memory and mana, but his soul was not so different from that of the original Deculein.
He thought, perceived, recognized, spoke, and also…… loved Yuli.
Damn it.
“As a memory, I will remain here forever.”
If there was anything that distinguished him from the original Deculein, it was that he did not sleep, did not eat, and also ‘could not die.’
“……So it truly is a choice.”
Sophien let out a hollow laugh. It was a dilemma.
“The sun has risen. The gate is open now.”
As he said this, the professor opened the door. The passage from this cramped room led to the Imperial Palace.
“Let us go.”
“……This one has not yet made a decision.”
“For Your Majesty, hesitation is itself a decision, is it not? I have been with you for more than a century.”
“…….”
The words struck the mark. Sophien scratched the back of her neck for no reason, and the professor nodded.
It meant that it was all right.
“It is worth remaining here forever. Even if I am nothing but a memory, it is worth living on. Even if I am trapped in the gap of a game over, it is enough to continue. Here, I can watch over things.”
Sophien exhaled a low breath.
Boom, boom, boom, boom───!
At that moment, mana of an entirely different caliber reverberated like an earthquake. This would not be an opponent as easy as the minnows from before.
“……Let us go quickly. The Altar is coming.”
The professor opened the door. Sophien took a step forward and looked at him.
“I will hold on to the memories of my time with Your Majesty.”
Once again, he spoke calmly, as though teaching her.
“Remember this. Your Majesty is not alone.”
“……This is not the end. Even after six years and six months—”
“Go. You are being tedious.”
“……You little—”
The professor pushed Sophien forward, and she stepped beyond the door.
Outside the old house stood the Imperial Palace.
“…….”
Standing there, Sophien looked once more toward the other side of the door. She narrowed her brow with a faint smile.
“Professor. Is there really much difference between inside and outside?”
Indeed, the Imperial Palace was also filled with the Altar. It was saturated with killing intent.
Good grief. Had they actually occupied the Imperial Palace? And when had creatures like cockroaches and ants grown so large?
—It is all right. It will be easier there.
The professor’s voice beyond the door wavered like a radio frequency.
It will be easier there.
At those words, Sophien gripped the sword of mana and looked alternately down both sides of the Imperial Palace corridor.
“How many?”
There were countless figures with their robes pulled over their heads.
Yet Sophien smiled instead.
“There was once a discussion this one had with the professor.”
She continued in a leisurely voice, bearing the dignity of an Emperor.
“To pretend to wage an all-out war against the Altar, summon all of their forces, and wipe them out in one fell swoop.”
—We will not kill you. We need you as well.
The speaker seemed to hold a fairly high rank among the Altar’s forces. Sophien’s expression instantly darkened menacingly.
“How dare you interrupt me.”
—Follow us obediently. Bluffing will not work.
The Altar knew the situation in the Imperial Palace.
Isaac and Gawain were still trapped inside the old house, while the Imperial Palace’s core forces, save for those two, were engaged in battles at temples throughout the continent.
Therefore, there was only one person here now: the Emperor.
—Even if you are the sovereign, you can do nothing alone.
“Hmph.”
Sophien snorted. Then she made the sword of mana in her hand disappear.
“Do I truly appear to be alone?”
There was certainty in her voice. It was neither a bluff nor madness.
“Look.”
She pointed to both sides of the corridor.
Along the corridor walls where the Altar’s forces stood were countless statues of knights standing at attention.
“There are quite a lot of knights, are there not?”
The members of the Altar did not seem to understand at all. Sophien, however, wore a relaxed smile.
That was thanks to the ‘vibration’ rising within her arms at that very moment.
“Take this.”
Tap—.
Sophien took out an object and threw it into the corridor. A round snow globe rolled along with a rattle—until it came to rest at the feet of the Altar’s leader.
“…….”
Yet it seemed there was a reason the leader was the leader.
The member of the Altar who had rudely interrupted the Emperor suddenly shouted in alarm.
“Retreat!”
Retreat. The others wore bewildered expressions, but the leader immediately ran toward the opposite end of the corridor.
What a coward.
“……You will not even have time to retreat.”
That man’s talent was 「Statue」. As a knight of the Emperor, he himself was a ‘statue.’
He could imbue the countless statues spread throughout the Imperial Palace with his consciousness, and move all of them as though they were himself.
Thus, although there was currently one Emperor and the Altar appeared to number in the thousands—
“Do you know how many statues there are in this Imperial Palace?”
There were tens of thousands of statues in the Imperial Palace.
‘That man’ was every one of those statues, and every one of those statues was ‘that man.’
“At last, you are coming.”
The snow globe lay sprawled across the corridor. Tat-tat-tat— The glass sphere trembled as cracks etched themselves across it. The mana that man released.
Feeling it, Sophien let out a hearty laugh.
“You are late, but your timing is apt, so this one shall forgive you.”
……The Emperor’s knight.
Chiron.