The most important process in integration (一體化) is “liquefaction.”
No matter what, I could not very well shove Snowflower Stone into my body in metallic form, so it had to be dissolved into liquid so that I could draw the magic crystal core’s formula on my heart.
“What? How are you going to melt it?”
“It’s simple.”
Yeriel frowned from the very first step, but I immediately infused “intent” into the Snowflower Stone. In an instant, it coalesced into a round mass of pure-white liquid.
“!”
Yeriel’s eyes grew as large as the baseball-sized Snowflower Stone she was staring at.
I smiled faintly.
“……It’s the result of effort.”
To have a 99% understanding meant that this thing knew me completely, and I knew it completely.
Right now, the Snowflower Stone was in a state where, among its contradictory dual properties of cold and heat, it was extremely biased toward “heat” (熱).
“Don’t touch it. It’s hot.”
Yeriel, who had unconsciously been reaching out a finger, flinched and stopped.
“……Yeah. It looks that way. But you’re putting that inside your body?”
I nodded. Yeriel’s face twisted into a grimace.
“What, are you trying to kill yourself?”
“It will be fine if I coat it.”
The next step was to also manifest the Snowflower Stone’s “cold” (寒) to the extreme.
“So that cold and heat. Those two states form a perfect balance at their peaks.”
“Ah, I get what you mean. You’re saying you’ll freeze only the outer surface of this liquid?”
“Yes.”
The surface of the liquefied Snowflower Stone froze cold.
However, freezing did not mean it underwent a phase transition into a solid. This was not the relationship between water and ice.
It merely remained liquid while only the nanometer-thin outer layer was cooled to freezing.
It was a harmony of ultra-high and ultra-low temperatures impossible to express numerically, the contradictory nature of a “magic metal” that could never be explained by anything like science.
Now I would inject this into my body and draw the formula.
With my heart as the medium, and the Snowflower Stone as the material, I would create a magic crystal core.
“It’s too dangerous.”
Yeriel said.
Of course, it would be dangerous.
“I kn—”
“Well, war is about to break out soon. The expedition of annihilation, the extermination of the desert. I heard all about it too. I guess this is better than being so weak you die like a dog on the battlefield?”
“…….”
“Yeah. That’s true. Dying in combat would be too embarrassing, wouldn’t it? If that really happened, what would I even say to the family elders?”
Before I could answer, she convinced herself.
“Okay. Then I know my role too.”
Yeriel suddenly puckered her lips with solemn dignity.
“As you know, the most fundamental thing in Decalane’s art magic is the environment.”
As she said that, she emitted mana. That mana approached my surroundings and formed a certain shape.
It was some kind of cylinder that trapped me inside.
A container shaped like a water purifier, with a concave mouth at the top.
“Of course, ordinary ‘mana in the air’ doesn’t affect most work. But what you’re about to do doesn’t fall under most work, does it?”
Then her cylinder began operating.
Vrrrrrr—
A sound like ventilation rang out, and the mana inside the cylinder was sucked up into the mouth at the top. In other words, it was expelling all the “mana in the air.”
—It’s a container that filters out only mana. The inside is in a mana vacuum state. How is it? This is my help.
I could not hear Yeriel’s voice outside the container.
Because it was completely sealed off, I was reading her lips.
—It’s not like I can give you any direct help anyway. So I thought of something like this…… Ah. You can’t hear me anyway. I’m an idiot.
I smiled faintly.
—……Anyway, do your best. It’s not like you’ll just die pointlessly, right, Oppa?
Her way of speaking was a little rough.
When I frowned slightly, she flinched.
—……Can you hear me? If you can, then it’s a failure. If you can hear me, say so. It means it failed.
I shook my head.
“I can’t hear you.”
—What? How are you answering if you can’t hear me?
“Just as you’re reading my words right now.”
—…….
Yeriel gave ahem, a dry cough.
—Right. Good luck. And……
After that, she properly covered her mouth and muttered quietly. So that I could not tell what she was saying.
As expected, that girl reminded me of my younger sister.
Kim Woojin’s younger sister, who was no longer on Earth, and naturally did not exist in this world either.
Of course, Yeriel could not replace the girl I wanted so badly to meet just once. Nor should she.
Because Yeriel was no one else but Yeriel.
Because she was my younger sister.
“Watch me.”
I smiled as I said that. Yeriel nodded back with a smile as well.
“…….”
I slowly closed my eyes. I parted my lips halfway. The Snowflower Stone stretched out like a thin thread and moved inside.
And then……
A substance that was cold yet hot, liquid and at the same time metal, slowly spread through my entire body.
────!
The first instant was pain. The next instant was also pain. The very next instant was pain as well.
Every single moment that followed was pain. Pain that even an iron man could not withstand.
Inside my head, inside my body, inside my mouth, only the word pain filled everything.
A scorching heat as if supernovae were flooding my body. And a chill as if the cold of the universe were bearing down.
Every joint in my body froze, and flames surged up from my dantian.
Indeed, if anything were to destroy my mental strength, it would be this pain……
……Oppa.
In the midst of my consciousness blurring, my flesh burning away, and my reason freezing over, a voice barely seeped in.
……Oppa.
That girl’s voice.
Yeriel’s voice calling me.
It overlapped with my distant past.
—……Ah, Oppa! Hey, Kim Woojin!
My younger sister, calling me with a shrill cry.
A face I missed so terribly.
……Oppa! Hey, Deculein!
Yeriel, overlapping on top of it.
“……Not yet.”
At that moment, I seized hold of my consciousness again.
I controlled the Snowflower Stone inside my body with mental strength.
So that it would not go astray, so that it would not kill me, I seized its path and gripped its route, drawing a magic circle that wound around my heart.
Pushing back against pain that seemed to last for eternity, I reconstructed the heart of an Iron Man into a magic crystal core.
───And thus.
At the threshold of death, sentences surfaced.
In my empty, dark vision, as if my eyes had burned away, as if my brain had melted, the system appeared.
[Assimilation Complete]
◆ Snowflower Stone now dwells in every part of you.
[Magic Attribute Added]
◆ Ice (氷) Attribute Added
At that moment, I opened my eyes. I raised my body, which had collapsed without my realizing it. I exhaled harshly.
I thrust out my fist and shattered Yeriel’s cylinder.
Crash─!
“Mother!”
The cylinder broke apart, and Yeriel shrieked in surprise.
She looked at me with wide eyes and said,
“I thought you were dead, no…… aren’t you dead?!”
Without a word, I looked into the mirror. I immediately understood Yeriel’s strange words.
Parts of my body were frozen over, and parts were scorched and stuck together.
It was frostbite and burns, high heat and low temperature all at once.
Fortunately, my hair remained.
“……Hey. No, Oppa. Are you okay, are you really okay?”
“No. I am not okay.”
I shook my head.
My reflection in the mirror was a mess.
“What’s not okay……”
Looking at the mirror, I reached out.
I straightened my disheveled tie and tidied my hair, which had become a wild mess.
I took hold of my sagging cuffs and straightened them, and with 「Alchemy」, I remade and fastened the melted-away buttons of my two-button suit.
My appearance was now complete once more.
I nodded.
“……Now I’m okay.”
That was the last of it.
After that, I had no memory.
* * *
“……Isn’t he insane?”
Yeriel was dumbfounded by Deculein, who had collapsed like that.
“He’s seriously insane.”
Even if he was her brother, those were the only words that came out.
No, anyone who had seen what had just happened would say the same thing.
“Hey! Even if you survived, you could die from this!”
The Snowflower Stone integration process.
She did not know how Deculein had experienced it, but it had taken a full six hours.
“I’m going crazy.”
After that absurdly brutal magical and physical abuse, which had continued from dawn until morning.
At the moment when his circuits were most sensitive, when even the slightest strain could break his entire body.
“Why would you use magic, damn it!”
What kind of lunatic used 「Alchemy」 to make buttons just because they were missing?
“Hey! Hey, hey! Hey, Deculein!”
No matter how much Yeriel shouted, Deculein was already sprawled face-down on the floor like a corpse.
“Seriously…… this isn’t mysophobia, it’s some shitty madness.”
Having no choice, she lifted Deculein with both arms.
He was tall and muscular, making him extremely heavy, but Yeriel, who had never neglected physical training, easily lifted him in a princess carry.
When she placed her ear against his chest, thankfully, he was breathing.
“……Just you try dying from this.”
Grumbling like that, she was about to walk away when she suddenly noticed the buttons made on Deculein’s suit.
“What’s this? The buttons……”
They were a strange color, white and blue like Snowflower Stone.
Yeriel blinked as she stared at the buttons.
She fiddled with them, clear like sparkling ice.
“……Don’t tell me.”
Then she murmured the thought that suddenly came to mind, horrified.
“He alchemized Snowflower Stone?”
* * *
At the same time, in Epherene’s office on the 10th floor of the Imperial Magic Tower.
“……The theory of relativity.”
Epherene had no interest. No interest in the events of the world, no interest in the flow of time. No interest in what happened outside.
“The theory of relativity.”
She was absorbed only in this theory.
The theory of relativity.
A theory related to time that expanded her horizons almost infinitely—no, a theory that seized her common sense and brain by the collar and shook them violently.
And.
“Quantum mechanics.”
A physics she had never heard of even once, which inferred particles smaller than atoms.
“This is…… a revolution.”
Having not slept for even a single second since receiving this new book, and having not taken her eyes off it for even ten seconds, Epherene muttered with hollow eyes and gripped her pen.
“With this—”
Epherene was certain.
If I understand this theory, I can assemble my time far more freely.
And I can control it.
Bangbangbangbang──!
A knock rang out, of all times, then.
Bangbangbangbang──!
No, rather than a knock, it was more like pounding.
Epherene narrowed her brow sharply, approached, opened the door, and shouted,
“Ah, who is it!”
“It’s Relin.”
“Eh?”
There were a lot of people outside. Looking over their faces, there was Professor Relin, Professor Siare, Mage Ihelm and Professor Louina, even Chairwoman Adrienne, who was still chairwoman for now.
All the important figures of the Magic Tower had gathered and were staring at her.
“What…… is this about?”
Epherene blinked as she asked. At that instant, Relin’s nose grew enormously. He glared and shouted,
“You’re asking because you don’t know!”
“Ugh, why are you suddenly shouting……”
“You pathetic fool. Do you know what our Magic Tower is being called because of you right now?! If you were going to think such nonsense, you should have kept it to yourself. Why submit it to the academic world and bring this kind of disgrace upon us!”
Relin shoved Epherene aside and looked into the office.
He strode in and picked up the book she had just been reading.
“The theory of relativity? What kind of ragged crap is this now……”
“No. That isn’t ragged crap—”
“Assistant Professor Epherene! Take this!”
Adrienne suddenly held out a note.
Epherene accepted it for the moment and asked,
“What is this?”
“A Personnel Committee meeting!”
Adrienne said brightly. So brightly that it was impossible to tell whether this was a joke or the truth.
“A Personnel Committee…… meeting?”
“Yes! The subject is Assistant Professor Epherene! The proposer is Chief Professor Deculein! The issue at hand is the terribly irreverent paper you submitted this time!”
“……What did you say?!”
Epherene’s face, as she shouted that, was truly aghast.
Adrienne looked at her and trembled her lips.
“Ahem! We’ll talk about the details then! Hehe! Oh! And this Personnel Committee meeting, if things go wrong, might even go up to the Floating Island!”
Looks like I got one last spectacle before I leave~
Adrienne chattered as she left the office, and the other professors looked at Epherene with gazes containing different emotions.
Most of them, excluding Louina, were filled with contempt and disdain.
* * *
……One day the following week. Noon, with the sun hanging in the exact center of the sky.
In other words, lunchtime.
In the warm Yukline mansion, Yeriel was receiving the guest Deculein had mentioned.
“……Lia. It’s been a while?”
Lia.
Since she had already seen her at the Hadekain mansion, the face was familiar, but she was an adventurer child who felt unsettling every time Yeriel saw her.
“Yes. I came to learn.”
The girl, who had come lugging a heap of baggage, looked at her and smiled brightly.
Yeriel shrugged.
“Right…… well. Deculein is asleep right now.”
“He’s asleep? Still?”
“Mm. A rare case of sleeping in. He achieved a ve~~~~ry great magical accomplishment, you see.”
At those words, which sounded almost sarcastic, Lia’s eyes went wide.
Yeriel chuckled and gestured inside.
“Come in. Everything’s already prepared.”
“Okaaay.”
She strode in and walked down the corridor with Yeriel.
“Your guest room is a private suite with a living room, a bathroom, and three bedrooms, so it should be comfortable. It’s better than most mansions.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“By the way, do you have a lover?”
It was a completely out-of-the-blue question.
Lia shook her head.
“……No?”
“Really?”
Then, looking somewhat uneasy, she sighed while muttering something like, No, even so, Deculein wouldn’t do that to a child.
“But how did you end up seeking his guidance? Deculein isn’t the type.”
“Ah, he said I had talent……”
“Hm. But honestly, your talent has nothing to do with me. Do you know this? This is the most important thing.”
Click, clack—
Yeriel’s high heels sounded through the corridor, and her voice layered over them.
“You resemble Deculein’s former fiancée.”
“……”
“I’ll show you a photo first. There’s one left. Usually, Deculein doesn’t let anyone go in, but right now he’s completely asleep.”
Biting her lower lip, Lia asked back.
“……Yes, but why that?”
“Just so you know. Because you don’t just resemble her—you resemble her too much.”
If she had only looked somewhat like her, it would have been nothing more than mildly fascinating, but truly.
She resembled her far too much.
“Ah, of course, Deculein won’t try to do anything to you. I swear. He’s the kind of person who values dignity more than his own life. You haven’t even had your coming-of-age ceremony yet, have you?”
That was why Yeriel felt pained every time she saw this child.
Because of that woman, Deculein had come to the brink of death, and because of that woman, he had ultimately survived.
“Still, if Deculein happens to treat you too well or too cruelly, that’s the reason.”
Yeriel stopped walking. They were in front of Deculein’s study.
Looking up at the great door before her, Lia swallowed hard.
Perhaps there might be a clue here to the story’s sudden progression—such as the reason Deculein had come to know the divine language.
“You can run away whenever you want.”
Click—
Unlocking the door with a key, Yeriel looked back at Lia.
In a slightly cold voice, she spoke as if with a snort.
“Because she was someone Deculein…… loved that much.”
Lia felt a little frightened, and somehow felt as though she had walked into a dungeon of her own free will, but still, she mustered her courage and nodded.
“It’s fine. There are so many people on this continent. One or two people who look alike……”