The Magic Expo.
The event Yuren had ambitiously prepared was proceeding peacefully.
Many citizens were enjoying the expo itself, the people of the Floating Island had come down to the continent to demonstrate their new magical technologies, and even the elders of the Round Table were willingly lifting their heavy backsides.
Astal the addict. Elder Jektain, Ihelm, and so on.
“…….”
Of course, I too was looking around at the various inventions of the Magic Expo. My sensitive senses occasionally picked up the aftershocks of the volcano, but they were not severe enough to warrant concern.
“There are no exhibits worth noting.”
“Good work.”
A voice flowed in beside me as I muttered to myself.
It belonged to Quay, the final boss, who had approached at some point.
“You stopped the damage from the volcano.”
“It wasn’t me. Epherene stopped it.”
“It was with your help. But… will that child be all right?”
As Quay muttered that, he was fiddling with something in one hand. It was some kind of cogwheel doll he seemed to have brought from somewhere in the expo hall.
“Epherene seems to have been born with a talent too great for a human to bear.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes. More precisely, she lacks the mental strength to bear herself.”
“…….”
He was right. Epherene’s weakness was her mental strength.
Of course, thanks to her peculiar grit, she was above average even among mages, but the problem was that merely being above average was not enough for her to handle her own talent.
“She may become unable to distinguish her own time, or perhaps even slip out of the timeline.”
Tap—
I stopped walking. I turned back to him and asked,
“Is your tour of the continent still ongoing?”
“Yes.”
His answer somehow sounded cheerful. Perhaps because he had spent time on the continent, even his tone seemed to have changed a little.
Was it because he had been with Epherene all this time?
I frowned slightly.
“Your impressions.”
“……Not good.”
He laughed softly and shook his head.
“The human caste system makes me nauseous. Their greed is no different. Of course, it was because I knew that that I arranged for my flesh to be placed in the emperor, but seeing it with my own two eyes was different.”
Small wrinkles spread around his eyes.
“A parvenu who beat a child for splashing mud on his shoes. A coachman treated worse than a horse. Countless humans who kill, rob, and violate other humans. And nobles who believe they have been chosen, taking superiority and privilege for granted.”
His words paused for a moment, and his finger pointed at me.
“Deculein.”
“…….”
Without saying a word, I began walking again.
He too walked alongside me, maintaining a fixed distance.
“The continent will be remade. I will become a god and cleanse it anew. This continent, filled with excessive evil and arrogance… this unforgivable continent, I will save it.”
The final chapter of this world view, Quay’s resolute declaration.
However, the story flowing this way might in fact be a natural consequence.
If one looks deeply, the collective known as humanity is always rotting within. Perfect equality and ideals like those of the Divine Era are impossible from the beginning.
As I once told Sylvia, there is no paradise where everyone is only happy.
“Quay.”
“Yes.”
Step— step—
As we walked down the corridor, I said,
“We are enemies now.”
“Were we not enemies before?”
“We might not have been. If you had abandoned your will.”
Quay smiled.
“That is unfortunate. But it’s all right. Deculein, the opportunity will always be open to you. In fact, even in our society, there was status. They were called priests. If you change your mind, I’ll give you that priesthood. No, even if you don’t change your mind, I will preserve your soul.”
As he said that, he approached the wall of the expo and attached something to it.
It was a large poster titled [Revelation].
I asked, dumbfounded,
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to spread my prophecy across the continent now. Starting with the volcanic eruption, I will reveal every disaster that will follow this year.”
“…….”
It was the flow of the main quest that I also knew. Once the game entered its latter half, posters like this [Revelation] would suddenly circulate all over the cities.
It was that kind of event, where people deceived by the Revelation and frightened by disasters exponentially increased in number as they took refuge at the altar.
But…….
“I should put one over there too. It will be more visible there.”
I had not expected a self-proclaimed god to move around on his own two feet, sticking them up here and there.
“You should change that way of speaking a little.”
“Hm? What’s wrong with my way of speaking?”
He tilted his head while attaching the poster.
“Your actions and your speech both seem to have rubbed off from Epherene.”
“Ah~ I am still watching that child even now. But it’s all right. My true soul exists independently. The me here is only a memory. More importantly, I heard you were also submitting something to the expo.”
“It will be unveiled soon.”
“Yes. I’ll watch that from afar too—”
Peeeeeeep——!
Just then, a whistle rang out, aimed in our direction. Quay looked that way, and an internal guard who had rushed over pointed at the poster and shouted.
“What are you doing right now! You can’t put things like this up here! Are you some kind of peddler?!”
“You should take a look as well. If you read it, it will benefit you. Especially if you’re from Yuren.”
“What are you talking about? Please show me your identification!”
The commotion drew the attention of the expo hall.
At first, the surrounding gazes alternated between Quay and the guard, but soon they naturally shifted to the poster.
That had been his aim from the start.
“……Tsk.”
Pretending not to be part of his group, I clicked my tongue and calmly passed through the corridor, then looked at a certain spot in the exhibition hall.
[Deculein von Grahan Yukline]
A vacant space with only my name for now, yet the widest and most splendid space, assigned to what anyone would recognize as the center of the expo hall—the so-called “Yukline Pavilion.”
A stage for the 「Magic Crystal Core」.
“…….”
Without a word, I briefly imagined Dikaillen’s Magic Crystal Core placed there.
I quietly thought of the moment when I would reveal to the world, in his stead, something that had originally been Dikaillen’s achievement.
—Ah. Stop putting them up! I just took that one down, so why are you putting another one there!
—You take them down. I’ll put them up.
—Ugh! Someone drag this person out!
……Ignoring the scuffle behind my back.
At any rate, what would Dikaillen do?
Would he proudly present his invention with a grand speech?
Or would he call everyone from the family and celebrate it like a national holiday?
Or would he announce it openly and try to crush his rivals?
No.
Neither.
If it were the Dikaillen who remained in the memories of me, who was both Deculein and Kim Woojin, then…….
* * *
The next day.
Inside the airship returning from Yuren to the Empire.
“Can we really just leave like this? Without catching the culprit who stole the conversion formula, no, without even bragging about it? I contributed to the Magic Crystal Core too, you know. More importantly, what is Verbaldi?”
Epherene asked, glaring at me with a somewhat frustrated and aggrieved expression. I shamelessly shrugged.
“What do you mean.”
“What do you mean Verbaldi? Whose name is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Verbaldi.”
It was the name of the unknown mage under which I had submitted the 「Magic Crystal Core」.
To put it metaphorically, it was a second account.
I had borrowed the identity from Al Los, and I had also had Al Los’s doll submit it.
Therefore, right now, the Magic Crystal Core was probably drawing guests in from some corner of the lower-grade hall, not the upper-grade or middle-grade halls.
And this was Dikaillen’s method.
If this Magic Crystal Core was exhibited under another mage’s name, reporters and rival families would race to place the name “Dikaillen” in their headlines.
[Surpassing Dikaillen], [Instantly Leaping Beyond the Magical Achievement of Dikaillen, Former Head of Yukline], and so on…….
Watching that and enjoying it was Dikaillen’s hobby and amusement.
And it seemed my own personality enjoyed that sort of thing to some extent as well.
“And why am I going? Let’s say you’re satisfied like this, Professor. But I need to receive the praise pouring in for my engine, you know?”
“Then you go back.”
“So…… what?”
Epherene blinked as she was about to say something.
I said it again.
“Go back. To enjoy the praise pouring in for your engine.”
“…….”
Then she seemed to ponder for a moment.
She glanced out the window of the airship, which had not yet taken off, then coughed. Ahem.
“No, me too. I have some things to do once we get to the continent. I’ll just go to the continent quickly.”
Had she seen the future where abuse, not praise, would pour in for her engine?
She sank back into her chair, and as I looked at her, I thought,
───She may become unable to distinguish her own time, or perhaps even slip out of the timeline.
Quay’s words were correct.
Time was not a power that a mere human could handle.
The greater Epherene’s talent became, the more time would not be something she controlled, but something that tried to control her.
Therefore, she needed mental strength.
Mental strength more poisonous and more certain than when she overcame Dikaillen.
But what method was there to develop that mental strength?
Was it something that could be developed for her?
……As I was thinking that, a word suddenly came to mind.
Harassment.
How harsh would it be for a graduate student to be harassed by a vicious professor? And what degree of harassment would they suffer? How much endurance would that produce?
Of course, mental strength might not be cultivated through something like harassment.
But even harassment varied in kind, and the current Epherene was the type to stand and fight rather than run away. As could be seen in this volcanic incident, Epherene was actually the type to grow lax when left alone.
That girl had spent quite a long time “only making effort” on her thesis, and even after going through numerous regressions, had not understood even half of it—though I knew she had spent most of that time simply running away—yet she had awakened all at once when trying to prevent the mistake she had made at the volcano.
“Ah, I’m hungry. As soon as we get to the Empire, I’m eating Roahawk.”
“……Hmm.”
Epherene.
I watched her discreetly for a moment, then said one thing.
“……Close your mouth.”
“What?”
Because she was reading a book with her mouth open.
“I told you to close your mouth. How filthy, sitting there with your mouth open. A fly might go in.”
“……What? What is this all of a sudden?”
“…….”
Epherene reacted as if she were dumbfounded, and even I felt somewhat ashamed of that one.
“Ahem. Never mind.”
In any case, an excuse would certainly come later.
Even the magazine she was reading right now was about science and chemistry.
“Oh. I should use this as a reference for my thesis.”
As I could see now, even if I did not go out of my way to harass her, she would surely one day encounter a moment of suffering.
A time she would have to overcome on her own would come.
“Let’s see.”
The connection between science and magic. The moment she announced even a clue to that subject, every mage from every magic tower on the continent would attack her with all their might…….
…….
At the same time.
The Magic Expo Hall in Yuren.
“Why is there so little to see…… Why is it so dull?”
Professor Louina was finally looking around the “upper-grade hall,” where the exhibitions had begun, but her reaction was entirely lukewarm.
Was it the Floating Island side, the other university magic towers, or what? Had they really not presented any particularly impressive technologies?
“Indeed. I see a few new spells here and there, but nothing you could call innovative.”
Ihelm, beside her, also twisted his lips mockingly.
Thanks to that, Maho, Rose, and Charlotte, who were hiding in the same place pretending to be visitors while secretly observing their reactions, were rotting inside.
Unaware of that fact, Louina spoke coldly.
“Because the venue is Yuren, it seems they deliberately hid anything like a notable innovation, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. If the expo venue had been the Empire, they wouldn’t have done such a sloppy job.”
“……That is a bit true.”
“Hmph. And what about you?”
Ihelm glanced at Louina and asked. Louina, seeming slightly stung, coughed.
“Our team wasn’t fully prepared yet.”
“Not fully prepared, my foot. If the expo had been held in the Imperial Capital, you would have worked yourselves to death to meet the deadline.”
“……Sigh. Fine. I admit it. Happy? I did it because it was Yuren too. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
At that moment, Maho, held in Charlotte’s arms, wept silently.
Huuuuh…… At the small sobs coming from somewhere, Ihelm and Louina also tilted their heads.
“By the way, hey. Where is Deculein?”
Louina asked. Ihelm shook his head.
“They say he withdrew his exhibit.”
“……Withdrew his exhibit?”
Louina’s mouth fell open.
“Why? No, how? He took the best spot all for himself.”
At the news that Deculein would be unveiling an invention, Yuren had personally assigned him “the best spot.”
But he withdrew his exhibit in the middle of the expo?
Wasn’t that too much?
“Then is that huge space just empty? Where is it? I want to go see.”
“I already went to see it. It was empty. Looks like that bastard really made up his mind to screw Yuren over on purpose. Did Yuren get on his bad side somehow?”
Ruina ran toward the Yukline pavilion, and Ihelm chased after her.
“……It’s true.”
Before long, Ruina’s mouth fell slightly open when she reached the center of the exhibition hall.
It was true.
It wasn’t a lie. In the very heart of the fair, the place anyone walking through the exhibition would inevitably arrive at at least once.
[Deculein von Grahan Yukline]
[Entry Withdrawn]
There it was, plain as day—a plaque saying his entry had been withdrawn.
“Wow…… How could he do this?”
“Hmph! How, you ask?”
Just then, the heavy voice of an old fogey cut between the two of them.
It was Zektain, one of the elders of the Round Table who loathed Deculein with a passion.
“His invention didn’t turn out as well as he’d thought, so he withdrew it while pretending to embarrass Yuren. It’s obvious with that bastard’s personality.”
“……Ah. Is that so?”
When Ruina played along out of courtesy, he nodded with tremendous agreement.
“Of course! Naturally. What was it again, that he was following his father’s will? How absurd. This is unforgivable even in the magical world. Withdrawing an entry on the day itself? He isn’t some stray mutt that rolled in from a marketplace. Is this his father’s will?”
As expected, as though he had been waiting for this all along, the moment he found an opening, he unleashed a tremendous torrent of abuse.
“Haha…….”
“Well, yes.”
While Ruina merely laughed and Ihelm agreed in a perfunctory manner.
They sensed a murmur coming from somewhere.
────.
A strange mixture, at once like a sigh, like admiration, and even like weeping.
It was from the “lower hall” on the opposite side of the upper hall.
Ruina turned to look that way, her eyes going round.
“……Hm? Why are there so many people in the lower hall?”
At that, Ihelm and Zektain also glanced over.
“I don’t know either. I’ve never been to the lower hall.”
“Commoners are amazed by anything.”
───.
……And yet, even as he said that, the sounds coming from within were far too intriguing, and their legs began moving on their own.
Ruina, Ihelm, and even Zektain.
─This is…… my first time seeing something like this.
─No, this thing. The name. Vervaldi? Who is this magician?
After they had walked only a short distance, the murmuring became clearer words, and their curiosity became more definite.
Thus, the three of them approached that place with even quicker steps…….
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
And were left speechless.
Not only Ruina.
Ihelm, too, and even the haughty Zektain.
In the very corner of the lower hall.
─Curator! What magician made this? Vervaldi?
─I do not know much about his identity either. Some magician suddenly brought it in and just set it down…….
Again, in the very corner of the lower hall.
In the most insignificant, cramped corner, a core of some magical power was floating.
Shaaaaaaaaa……..
Like a planet, no, like a star, it shone, a beautiful core emitting blue particles of purest essence.
As though made solely of mana, it was such a perfect invention that anyone looking at it could only marvel innocently, sigh in wonder, and be unable to close their mouth.
The person who came to mind at first glance was, of course, the “Art Magician Decailen,” but this invention had surpassed even that Decailen.
“Th-this is…….”
There, Elder Zektain pushed through the entire crowd. Shoving them all aside, he reached the very front.
Right before his nose, before his eyes, he gazed at the invention an unknown magician had named the 「Star of Mana」, and without realizing it, he reached out his hand……
“Y-you must not touch it.”
At the curator’s restraint, he abruptly came back to his senses.
No matter how much of an elder he was, one did not touch another’s invention recklessly.
Zektain merely asked the curator.
“……Who made this?”
“A magician named Vervaldi.”
“And who is that…….”
[Exhibitor: Vervaldi (Unaffiliated)]
Not gilded, not pure silver, but a nameplate made of wood.
The nameplate was no better than this.
The nameplate of one who had made such an invention was no better than this.
A possessor of talent capable of trampling Decailen was being treated no better than this.
“He is unknown. It seems to be an individual entry, not affiliated with any Magic Tower. In the first place, he submitted it by begging us so obstinately to just display it somewhere without a place—”
“Find out.”
Zektain muttered blankly. The curator of the lower hall tilted his head and asked back.
“Pardon?”
“I said find out! I am Zektain, elder of the Round Table!”
The shout rang through the exhibition hall.
“This is not a talent to be buried in Yuren of all places! This, this invention is beyond Decailen! No, it is a talent that will shatter Decailen! So find out, find out at once———!”
Elder Zektain’s voice, almost like a cry, drew the footsteps of nearly every famous magician gathered at this Magic Fair to the mere “lower hall.”