……People had gathered in the hall of the old mansion. Excluding those at the altar, the remaining number did not even reach ten. The rest were probably all dead or had escaped.
"……They’ve fallen asleep."
It was Ruina who approached cautiously. She tossed back her long green hair and pointed behind her.
Near the sofa, Ifrin, the Chairman, and Primien were asleep together. Adrinne was using Ifrin’s knees as a pillow, Ifrin was leaning against the back of the sofa, and Primien was lying on the floor.
"When did they get so close? She was hugging him without knowing how scary a Yukraine can be."
Ruina asked in a tone mixed with laughter. I shook my head wordlessly.
"Thanks to the Chairman, the rumors will definitely spread now."
This was beyond humiliating. It was still terrible.
The spectacle of suddenly being embraced in front of so many eyes, even in front of Adrinne, and confessing that she had overheard my conversation with Yully—
I was considering punishment like assigning her to grade for the Magic Tower’s merit review committee and bathroom cleaning duty.
"Right. The Chairman doesn't seem like she’d be of help right now, so let’s let her keep sleeping. I wish I had some sleeping pills to feed her."
This was a space antithetical to spirits. Here, Adrinne could not display the insight of a Grand Mage. She was also an unusual case who had reached the pinnacle solely through destruction magic to begin with.
"But do you really think Dikailren will come looking for us?"
"He will."
Ifrin spoke.
When the sun set, Dikailren would come. He had something to say to me.
"That child has quite the nerve, talking with Dikailren."
Ruina smiled softly. I replied nonchalantly.
"It’s the talent of a Grand Mage. Though she’s still a bit—no, quite foolish."
After pausing briefly, I looked at my wristwatch. 5 P.M.
Though it was still early to call it evening, the sun in the sky was being swallowed by darkness.
It was a solar eclipse.
"This eclipse will last about two hours~ We have to resolve things by then."
Sirio said. At the same time, half of the old mansion was dyed in darkness.
Ruina furrowed her brow.
"Why are you acting so smug when you’re not even helping? No, how did you end up joining that cult?"
"Haha. A cult? Well. I don’t know either. More importantly, over there."
Sirio pointed beyond the darkness. From there, an eerie chill surged. It was the energy of a ghost.
I looked back toward it, and Adrinne was snoring.
Kwoo—kwoo— Kwoo—kwoo—
Amid that peaceful rumbling, I gazed at the form rising with the darkness through 「Naked Eye」.
─……Greetings.
The soul of the dead, calling out to me.
─My son.
Dikailren.
* * *
The basement of the cursed old mansion. The place Dikailren guided me to was its very bottom.
Though he was a ghost, he seemed to have lived like a human; magic research materials and traces were neatly organized here and there.
─Sit.
A chair and a table placed in the center of the basement. Dikailren sat there first and looked at me.
"……"
I sat facing him wordlessly. Dikailren was expressionless, and I didn’t show much reaction either.
However, I felt somewhat strange.
Was this person Deculain’s father? Or was he my father?
I suddenly found myself confused.
─It has been a while.
"Was it you who closed the door?"
─No. The old mansion closed itself. The mansion thinks and acts on its own. It is a cradle that maintains ‘us,’ a life form not so different from humans.
I furrowed my brow. Dikailren crossed one leg.
"Is it your magic?"
─No. I merely gave it a little help. The mansion awakened to itself alone, and now it is angry.
"Why is it angry?"
─The mansion wanted to devour the Emperor.
"……"
─The Emperor should not have left this place. However, some soul guided the Emperor toward a ‘back way.’
Some soul.
I already knew who he was.
"Yes. Then, what does this mansion want?"
─You should know as well. There is a calamity within the Emperor’s body. A calamity that thinks itself a ‘god.’
The god of the altar.
That soul waits to descend from the outer reaches of the world, but it seems its physical body has already manifested in this world.
─He carved his body into its most perfect form and sent it down to this world. That is Sofien, and his traces are in Sofien’s body. When the time comes, he will ‘assimilate’ with Sofien’s soul.
This was a development different from the main story.
Had something gone awry somewhere? Or had I been wrong in thinking it was a ‘predetermined story’ all this time?
─Igris was the first to realize this and tried to kill the ‘body’ itself. However, Sofien had an authority. That authority saved Sofien.
Regression upon death. The authority that prevented her from dying forever.
─Now it is only a matter of time. The altar’s maggots could not even wait that long and acted rashly, but soon Sofien will be assimilated by the god.
But that authority now resided not with Sofien, but with Ifrin.
The altar had induced this.
The authority had helped raise Sofien, but it was an enormous hindrance to the ‘descent’ itself.
─Therefore, kill Sofien, Deculain. If you so vow and pledge, this mansion will release you.
Dikailren continued.
─This mansion is a space that has shared the Empire’s history. It does not wish for the destruction of the family and the Empire, of this continent, any more than you do.
"I refuse."
I answered firmly.
Then, boom—!
The space shook violently.
Dikailren asked with the same expressionless face.
─The reason.
"I know my future. It is a death not far off."
─……
Dikailren fell silent. He simply watched me.
"However, rather than resigning myself because I know, changing things because I know suits me better."
His brow twitched. Shadows spread across his face.
"I have no intention of meekly accepting such a future."
Strangely, I found it laughable.
That so-called god. These massive, wave-like circumstances pressing down on me now.
"……I am one who even abandoned Yully."
I smiled faintly. Yet a dark fire roiled within my heart.
Heat surged to the tip of my jaw. I spat it out as if chewing on a demonic flame that burned my body.
"Now, they shall pay the price."
「Psychokinesis」 wove itself into my grasp. An aura of mana flared up. The entire space trembled as if resonating.
"I am Yukraine."
Dikailren, who had been gazing steadily at me like that, soon nodded.
Easing his expression, he spoke in a low voice.
─I am proud.
"……"
My expression stiffened.
For a moment, my thoughts went blank.
Suddenly, the emotions I held as Deculain tickled my heart. At Dikailren’s single word, a certain joy welled up.
That time when I had wanted to receive acknowledgment from a father more perfect and more ruthless than anyone else…….
─Deculain. I wanted Yukraine to become great.
Dikailren rose from his seat.
─The reason I drove you so harshly, the reason I sought immortality without trusting you—it was all because of that.
Saying so, he scanned the research materials filling the mansion.
─Leave behind a futile legacy only to be mocked by the world, or become a monster if it meant making the family great. I chose the latter. Even if I were branded with the stigma of corruption, even if I had to live in another human’s body that was not my own, as long as I could build a great family.
I looked at him. He picked up a certain book placed solemnly in one corner.
─Until today, I could not trust you.
As ghosts cannot handle physical objects, it was a demonic study woven solely with mana.
Dikailren’s arcane tome——「Artistic Magic」.
By coincidence, I currently had a quest reward called the 「Branch Addition Option」.
─You are now worthy of entrusting the family to.
He held it out to me.
And again, he looked straight at me.
─Yes. As you say, you are Yukraine. Who you are, what kind of soul you have—I do not care in the slightest.
At Dikailren’s sudden continuation, I felt something meaningful.
‘Regardless of what your soul is like now.’
……Kim Woojin and Deculain.
The soul mixed from those two people.
─Utilize demonic energy, Deculain. Do not discriminate between means and methods. Tear apart those who speak of morality or benevolence at every moment. Thoroughly trample those who judge character and try to teach ethics. The only principle of this world is the law of the jungle. There is no need for idiots who do not even know the root to learn anything, nor any value in them.
Dikailren spoke. There was passion in his tone when he spoke of the ‘family.’
─……Become a demon.
He murmured softly and placed his hand on my shoulder.
─Show the might of Yukraine. Show it to the entire world. Speak with the dignity and caliber you display. Whether that target is a god, an emperor, or a giant.
His red eyes stared at me.
─Make them fear Yukraine.
……Truly a human more ‘Yukraine’ than anyone else.
At this moment, I seemed to understand Dikailren’s principles.
It was something I suddenly realized.
"……"
I silently placed 「Artistic Magic」 into my coat’s pocket. I rose from my seat and looked at Dikailren.
"But don’t you know. I killed you."
─Beasts do not honor their parents. Parents merely raise, and children merely grow. To grow great and become the king of beasts, no—to become a king.
Dikailren straightened my clothes with mana.
……Could this too be called a father’s touch?
─You must be able to trample upon parents easily. Above all, did I not spur Kegan into killing your fiancée?
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Kim Woojin, who had grown up an orphan at too young an age, did not know well whether this too was a kind of love or not.
But Deculain…….
"You are no different from a wraith."
Naturally, I had no desire to emulate him; he was repulsive to the point of disgust.
But the ‘acknowledgment’ received from him didn’t seem so bad.
"However, whatever the case. There is a memory of mine here. I must meet him."
─You may die.
"I find it humorous."
Then, Dikailren showed a change in expression for the first time.
It was a smile.
"He will know Sofien better than Sofien himself. Therefore, I must meet him."
─Then go. That memory is also waiting for you. I shall open the door of the mansion.
The moment I nodded and turned around.
"……"
He was there.
Looking at him who was the same as me, I asked.
"Has Your Majesty decided?"
He answered.
"This is the decision. As you said, I know Sofien better than Sofien herself. On the surface, Sofien refuses, but deep inside, she wishes for ‘us’ to be with her."
"……Is that so."
At those words, I smiled.
"What a coincidence. I am the same."
* * *
……The Imperial Palace raid was settled overnight.
The 「Cognitive Barrier」 they had activated right before the ambush had instead been poison. They were trapped within their own barrier and could not escape.
Clip-clop—— Clip-clop——
Sofien walked through the garden of the Imperial Palace, now soaked in silence.
Within the corpses of the cultists, an asura field mixed with the bodies of court ladies and eunuchs killed by the cult. She stopped in the middle of it and muttered quietly.
"……Your blood and corpses shall become fertilizer. Your deaths shall kindle the rage of the common people and create the just cause for a punitive expedition."
The Emperor always had a plan.
The seemingly reckless bombing of the cult’s temple, the Emperor’s event—it had all been a belief in the existence called Keron, and today’s sacrifices too would all be ‘utilized’ for political purposes.
"The eunuchs who clung here and there to annoy me have more than half disappeared……"
However, her words cut off at some point.
Because she discovered the figure of a certain ‘woman’ buried among the corpses.
"……Hmm."
She stiffened her expression. She slowly approached the spot.
The court lady ‘Ahan,’ lying in the middle of a hellish scene.
"……"
Sofien personally knelt down to look at her. That peaceful face sprawled as if dead.
Suddenly, Rohakan’s words came to mind.
That those who accompanied him would all become unhappy.
"You……"
Keuhlok—! Keuhlok—!
Suddenly, Ahan coughed.
Sofien, who had been reaching out to her, quickly withdrew her hand and let out a dry cough.
"……Your Majesty?"
Ahan, who had opened her eyes at some point, looked up at her.
Sofien folded her arms for no particular reason.
“Wh-what is this one? Was he playing dead?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. He was hiding among the corpses…… More importantly, Your person—”
“Hmph. I am unharmed. The ambush has been suppressed as well.”
“Aha~ That is a relief indeed.”
“You rascal. You have good fortune. Go back and rest.”
“Yes. Truly a relief…….”
With those as his last words, Ahan fainted again, and Sopien smiled a smile even she herself did not understand.
“It is a relief.”
From behind, the voice of Keiron, who had been following her.
Then, the slowly fading light of the sun. The darkness of an eclipse covering the earth.
“……What is a relief?”
Sopien looked up at the sky. The moon was devouring the sun.
“It seems Your Majesty has found a man who can handle Your Majesty, that is all.”
“……What?”
Dumbfounded, she turned to look at the man. Keiron wore a face barely holding back laughter.
“If not that, then surely Your Majesty's one-sided—”
“Shut your mouth, you madman. The moment you arrive, you speak such nonsense. Have you no regard for a knight's virtue?”
“Did you not say before that I was too tight-lipped? But that aside.”
Keiron pointed behind himself.
There, ‘he’ was.
“It is the Professor.”
Dekyulrein. Meeting his eyes as he gazed at her, Sopien suddenly felt something and rejoiced.
At the same time, she sorrowed.
“……Professor.”
Calling out to him in a small voice, she blamed herself.
She had no intention of deceiving him. No thought of tricking him with falsehood.
That ‘decision’ she had desired without even knowing it herself—he had…….
*Thud— Thud—*
Dekyulrein approached. Even so, Sopien did not lose her dignity or composure as Emperor.
But it was still awkward. Feeling sorrow at such a moment was unfamiliar to her, and because she had never experienced this in her life, she was confused.
This man called Dekyulrein always made her lose a part of herself.
Therefore…….
“Professor—?”
Dekyulrein seemed about to approach her but stopped dead in his tracks, then looked straight at Keiron. Keiron did the same.
And then…….
“It is good to see you. It has been a long time, Keiron.”
“Likewise. It has been a long time, Professor.”
The two smiled at each other as if sensing something from one another. They extended their hands and shook.
“…….”
Sopien blinked, bewildered. But soon she furrowed her brow.
How dare they push the Emperor to the back.
“Professor. His Majesty is angered. Go to him.”
Only then did Dekyulrein turn to the Emperor.
Sopien spoke sullenly.
“Go away.”
*Pfft—* Keiron laughed. Sopien's eyes flashed, and Dekyulrein shook his head.
“It is all right, Your Majesty. My body is unharmed.”
“……Unharmed?”
“Yes.”
Answering thus, he approached and knelt before Sopien. Looking at her with eyes that already knew everything, he spoke.
“……Now I see, Your Majesty has grown considerably.”
The Professor who had spent over a hundred years with young Sopien. The underlying meaning: her younger form was more familiar to him.
But to the Emperor, those words were far too impudent, and Sopien's face flushed red.
“Y-you, have you lost your mind!”
……It was an emotion she had felt for the very first time in her life.
* * *
*Whiiiiiiing…….*
Yulri regained consciousness. She knew from the blizzard roaring in her ears.
That she was in Peuhaireuden.
*Ugh—!*
Her eyes flew open at a pain as if her heart were tearing apart. She thrashed like one possessed.
Someone gently embraced her as she screamed and coughed up blood.
“……Yulri.”
The voice of Yusepin calling her name.
Yulri slowly calmed. Hugging her arm tightly, she mumbled.
“……Sister.”
“Yes. It's me. Calm down.”
Yusepin's tone was tender.
Yet that kindness only magnified Yulri's self-loathing.
“I……”
She gritted her teeth. Unable to control her trembling body, she forced her mouth open.
“I…… I have committed a grave wrong, I……”
“Yes. I'm sorry. I knew everything.”
“……What.”
Yulri's breath hitched like a hiccup. Yusepin handed her Rokpel's file.
“The corruption committed by certain members of Peurenhaim. And the truth of Rokpel and Beron. It is all in there.”
“…….”
“Rokpel deserved to die. He was a man who haggled with human lives. Do not grieve.”
Staring blankly at the file, Yulri hastily raised her hand to turn the pages. One page, two pages, three pages, four pages……
Human trafficking. Embezzlement and solicitation?
She looked up at Yusepin again.
“What in the world is this……”
“That his crimes remained hidden was Dekyulrein's wish. So do not blame anyone. It is not your fault, nor his, but merely Rokpel's wrongdoing.”
“…….”
Yulri leaned her body against the bed. She gazed out the window with vacant eyes.
*Ha*—a hollow laugh, like a dying breath, escaped her.
“Back then…… why…… did Father do such a thing?”
“……I suppose he believed it was right at the time.”
Yusepin spoke thus and picked up a comb.
“Had Dikailren obtained Marik's core, human experimentation would have proceeded. Targeting the weakest and most lacking. Perhaps Father wished to prevent that?”
She combed Yulri's hair.
*Rustle—rustle—*
Snow-white long locks rippling softly, as if snow were falling.
“Father was such a fool. He was too obsessed with ‘virtue.’ More than the household, more than his children.”
Though her hair was so beautiful, its owner's eyes held no life.
Like a dying person, utterly hollow.
So pitifully…….
“……Yulri. If you are truly sorry.”
Yusepin held out a bracelet to her. Yulri looked at it too.
Once, it had been the only gift left behind by Igiriseu.
“Live. Keep living. Even if you must hate Father.”
“…….”
“Brother-in-law…… No, he is not that anymore. Sorting out titles is going to be a problem, isn't it?”
Yusepin smiled and showed her a newspaper.
“Look. Yulri, you are now officially a free woman.”
The headline of the press. Yulri's blurred eyes read the line.
[Official Announcement of the Broken Engagement between Peuhaireuden and Yukeurain.]
“Oh. The palace raid was two weeks ago already? Quite some time has passed.”
Two weeks.
During that time, Yulri had slept, and the world had changed.
“Dekyulrein came to you as well.”
“Ah!”
Yulri's eyes darted about in alarm.
“Your seal was needed for the annulment. You were stamped while asleep.”
“……Ah.”
She nodded blankly with a face of understanding.
Watching her with a look both pitying and perhaps a little endearing, Yusepin soon asked sternly.
“Then, what will you do now?”
“……Pardon?”
“I asked how you will live. Will you die like this? Will you throw away the life the Professor fought so hard to save?”
“…….”
Even as they spoke, Dekyulrein came to mind again and again. The words he had spoken to her, the deeds he had done for her. Her father's secrets and Peuhaireuden's sins.
All of it welled up in her mind.
Therefore, Yulri shook her head.
“No.”
“Thank goodness. Then, what will you do?”
“……It remains the same.”
Answering thus, she raised herself. *Thud—!* She forcibly endured the dull shock in her heart.
Yusepin asked again.
“The same?”
“I must become a knight.”
Removing her hospital gown, Yulri donned her armor.
“……Whose?”
She answered, buckling her sword at her waist.
“The one I must repay.”
At those words, Yusepin felt jealous for no reason, yet it was not unpleasant. She merely smiled and thought.
“Of course, I know the past cannot be changed. I know this body is fated to die.”
The winter of Peuhaireuden.
Yulri was, indeed, the woman most like it.
“My life is merely a thread forcibly extended.”
It withers in warm seasons and survives the colder it gets, yet even in the depths of winter, there is warmth. The winter of Peuhaireuden is bleak, but hope undeniably exists.
The hardy northerners call it ‘will.’
“But a life extended by force must not be abandoned by one's own hand. Never. Because.”
Once more in full knight's regalia, Yulri looked at Yusepin.
“That thread is not mine.”
She took up ‘Igiriseu's bracelet.’ Willingly, she fastened it around her wrist.
It was a symbol of hatred that even Yulri herself could not fathom.
“Therefore, I must survive and become a better knight.”
Yusepin watched, chin in hand. She smiled in satisfaction.
“I wish to give myself to him. I wish to become his sword.”
*Whiiiiing…….*
Outside the window, the blizzard still raged.
But the sickbed was suitably warm, and possessed the will of a certain patient, so from Yusepin's perspective, it was not unpleasant.
Though the flame of that life was precarious and faint, as though it might gutter out at any moment…….
“I'm jealous, to be honest. But I'm glad. That you'll keep living.”
Truly, it was not a bad thing.
Yusepin muttered without realizing.
“……But I wish he would return you.”
“…….”
“Just a joke, just a joke~ Hoo-hoo.”