……The desert.
I looked at Delric’s map, comparing the coordinates where we stood with our destination.
It seemed we had already arrived.
Though it was not the destination I had imagined.
“It seems to be here.”
I spoke to someone beside me.
That someone answered.
“Here?”
Sophien. Having followed after me as if tailing me, she looked around with lofty composure.
Not that there was much to look at.
There was only a single wooden shack.
A lone wooden house built in the vast sandy desert. Suspicious no matter who saw it, and like a trap no matter who saw it.
“A shack.”
Sophien narrowed her eyes. The knights beside her stood with their backs ramrod straight, watching her mood.
“Who is the source of this information?”
Sophien asked, as if suddenly angered.
I answered.
“I am.”
“…….”
Sophien’s mouth, which had been about to say something, closed for a moment. I had grown somewhat accustomed now to lying to her.
Grind—
Sophien ground her teeth.
“I already know that you received a report.”
“Yes. However, the one who regarded it as the source was me.”
“…….”
“A person in charge is called so because he bears responsibility. I do not hold a lieutenant responsible.”
At my words, the air around us grew visibly tense. Sophien glared at me with furious eyes, but the nearby knights looked moved to their very hearts.
“Also, who can say what may be inside?”
“In that case. All of you, get lost.”
Sophien spoke. She raised her mana and pushed the knights away.
“Only I and Deculein will go inside.”
“Y-Your Majesty—”
Delric, flustered, tried to dissuade her, but I said,
“Yes. Let us do that.”
And I opened the shack’s door.
The ordinary interior gave off the smell of wood. Sophien looked as though she had no idea what to make of it.
I gestured inside and said,
“Let us go.”
“……Professor! There was even an assassin’s attack just now. What could be inside—”
Delric, even calling me by my old title, was the only one in a panic.
“Enough.”
Sophien pushed Delric away. Then she immediately stepped into the shack.
“Come in.”
She spoke while looking at me from beyond the threshold. She extended her gloved hand toward me.
“Yes.”
Willingly, and calmly.
I took that hand and stepped inside.
Bang──!
The moment I entered, the door closed.
There was nothing but darkness everywhere.
“It is all right.”
I said.
Sophien answered.
“I know. Is it an entry password?”
“Yes.”
When I looked into the darkness with 「Six Eyes」, a magic circle emerged within it.
“It is a passage.”
I understood in an instant.
A passage leading underground. If I dismantled and analyzed this magic, I could discover the proper password.
Sophien asked,
“The password is?”
“……‘Desert Night.’”
Whoooooosh──!
In that instant, the shack sank. More precisely, it plummeted down to the bottom underground.
* * *
Thud—!
“…….”
The moment they arrived, Sophien opened her eyes again.
They were still inside the shack, but the scenery and commotion outside were different.
Voices could be heard.
Not the Imperial language, but the words of some tribal tongue.
“……So it was correct information?”
Sophien turned to Deculein and cleared her throat, seeming a little embarrassed.
“Yes. Let us go in.”
Deculein opened the shack’s door. Then the scenery of a village unfolded.
“…….”
For a place underground, there were far too many people coming and going, and there were things like shops and schools built throughout the space.
It was truly a refuge where the desert tribes lived while avoiding the Empire, and even Sophien found the clear division between residential and commercial districts astonishing.
“……You have come.”
At that moment, someone approached, wearing a turban.
Sophien and Deculein turned to look at him.
“I am Idnik.”
Idnik. Born in the desert, a native of the desert who had grown up with Rohakan.
Sophien furrowed her brow, and Deculein asked,
“So the information was not leaked; you called us here?”
“That is correct. We requested a conversation…… though I did not expect His Majesty to come.”
Idnik pointed to the shack again.
“First, let us talk inside that shack.”
Sophien preheated her mana. It was a rather threatening killing intent, but Deculein seized her wrist.
“……Please stop.”
“What did you say?”
“There is no justification for battle. We cannot yet determine whether they are Jeokgwe. Also, our odds of victory are slim.”
At those words, Idnik also nodded.
“He is right. In truth, our odds of victory are slim as well. Because we have a common enemy.”
A common enemy. Deculein asked back,
“The devil of the desert?”
“That is correct.”
Idnik spoke while glancing sidelong at Sophien.
“Your Majesty. Have you perhaps heard the legend of the desert devil?”
“…….”
Sophien said nothing. Her expression made it clear she did not even want to exchange words with him.
“Yes. Well, in any case, there is such a devil. It is a devil that was sealed away long ago, but because the Imperial Army has been stirring up the desert lately, part of the seal has come undone. In this refuge are the old bones that were used for that seal.”
As Idnik said this, he walked into the shack.
“Please come in. If we remain outside, a commotion will break out.”
Deculein and Sophien followed after her a little later.
“…….”
Sophien seemed to inspect the shack’s interior, then, almost instinctively, sat down on a chair near the dining table. As expected of an emperor who sat whenever there was something to sit on, who hated even standing.
Sophien spoke.
“Deculein.”
Her crimson pupils rose sharply like those of a bird of prey.
“Yes.”
“Why did you come here?”
Deculein sat across from her without saying a word.
“There is no way you would have gone out on an expedition with no suspicion whatsoever.”
She was right. Deculein had trusted a map that was nothing more than a sheet of paper. There had been no review, and no reconnaissance.
“……Deculein. You knew. That this was the desert’s summons.”
He quietly looked at Sophien.
Tick— tick—
From somewhere came the sound of a clock’s second hand. The wooden planks of the creaking shack. Grains of sand crumbling down from the ceiling.
“……If that is so.”
Sophien’s face hardened. Her jaw, clenched tight, twitched.
“Then did you defy my command and collude with the enemy? Just how far do you intend to disappoint me?”
A low, dry voice. Those words approached as if slicing into the skin.
He answered,
“It was for Your Majesty’s sake.”
“For my sake?”
“Will you first hear what I have to say?”
Thud.
Idnik said this as he set down a teacup. At the same time, he knelt on one knee. Sophien did not even shift her gaze toward him.
“I am Idnik, disciple of Demakan and representative of the desert.”
“…….”
Even so, Sophien looked at Deculein.
Idnik did not mind and placed a document on the table.
“It is a request for surrender signed by the minority tribes of the desert. The desert will inflict no harm upon the Empire. We swear it through blood.”
Sophien still gave no answer.
Idnik continued steadfastly.
“The desert has nothing to do with Myeolji. The altar of Myeolji. We are being toyed with by their schemes to sow discord. Therefore—”
“It is the land of Rohakan, who killed my mother.”
Sophien said to Deculein.
Idnik clicked his tongue inwardly.
“Deculein, you are now telling me to negotiate with such a man. Is this what you call loyalty?”
Sophien glared only at him. It was a rage so intense it could be seen even through 「Six Eyes」.
At that moment, Idnik spoke.
“A magic of self-destruction has been engraved into this desert.”
“…….”
This time, Sophien showed a reaction. Her brows furrowed slightly.
“If it is activated, the entire desert will be destroyed. Everyone standing upon the desert will die.”
A magic of self-destruction.
A massive magic circle that Deculein had passed on to Idnik, and that Idnik had successfully installed.
“The desert has staked its life. Supreme sovereign of the Empire, noble Your Majesty. Please do not set off a land mine merely to catch a single worm.”
“…….”
“Please allow us to remain worms.”
Only then did Sophien turn to look at Idnik. Idnik bowed his head low.
Sophien said,
“No.”
An utterly simple refusal. A hatred just as firm.
As if he had expected it, Idnik rose.
“At a later date, we shall send another envoy.”
As Idnik left, Sophien paid him no attention. She only glared at Deculein as if she would kill him, waiting for him to speak.
He said,
“Your Majesty. I do not wish for Your Majesty to stake yourself upon the desert. This is my loyalty.”
“Loyalty? Your loyalty—”
“Your Majesty is now going astray.”
“…….”
Sophien’s complexion sank coldly.
“The tribes of the desert are being exterminated without having committed any crime. However, they are not Jeokgwe. Therefore, there is neither justification nor principle in this massacre. A war without justification will only endanger Your Majesty.”
Sophien closed her eyes for a moment. Deculein continued in a low voice.
“My loyalty is to protect Your Majesty. This is the path that protects Your Majesty. I cannot stand by and watch Your Majesty waste yourself in the desert.”
“……Ha.”
She gave a faint snort.
Then, as if sneering, she declared,
“Deculein. I shall have you jailed.”
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Sanctuary of Time not far from the desert.
“It’s doooooone——!”
A shout so loud that Julie, who had been sleeping, flinched in surprise.
Epherene had finally completed the cylinder.
“……Miss Epherene.”
“Knight! Come look!”
She quickly grabbed Julie’s arm and brought her over. It was a long cylinder in which three or four people could easily lie down and rest for one or two weeks. Around it, theoretical documents and scientific books lay scattered.
“You see the line connected to the top of this cylinder? I’m going to inject temporal energy through here.”
Epherene explained excitedly.
“All of Knight Julie’s mana will be stored in here too.”
A large magic stone like a meteorite, weighing nearly 227 kg.
Before the time transfer, all of Julie’s mana had to be stored inside it first in order to prevent something akin to an immune response.
“And this is a liquid made by condensing Mangwolcho.”
A liquid connected to a syringe.
While the time transfer proceeded, it would be continuously injected into Julie’s body.
“Also, most importantly.”
With a serious expression, Epherene took out a diary.
“The diary that Lady Julie must remember.”
Julie looked at it and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good. We’ll begin soon, and then…….”
Step—
At that moment, Allen appeared. He was with Idnik.
Idnik strode over and sat in a chair.
Julie asked,
“Miss Idnik. What happened?”
“It didn’t work. But I expected that. I knew, of course, that the first negotiation wouldn’t succeed.”
Peace negotiations through mutually assured destruction.
“What about the Professor?”
This time, Epherene asked. Julie’s ears perked up.
Idnik shrugged.
“That man seems reluctant to kill anyone besides Jeokgwe. There are also many innocent tribes in the desert, and it would consume too much of the nation’s strength.”
“……Really?”
“Yes. He expressed his opinion to the Emperor.”
Epherene’s eyes grew round.
As expected of the Professor. A man of principles, being such a man of principles, he was fairer and more impartial than anyone when it came to indiscriminate ethnic extermination.
“Then what is the Professor doing now?”
To that question, Idnik answered,
“He was imprisoned.”
“……What?”
* * *
On the grounds of mission failure, Deculein was confined to his office, and General Bell, who had seized full authority, advanced tyrannically.
In only a week, he annihilated eleven tribes. He beheaded thousands of Jeokgwe.
“……See, why did you go so hastily?”
Lia asked Deculein.
“Where did the Count who analyzed even the smallest things so meticulously go?”
“That is none of your concern.”
At present, there was a small barrier between him and her.
If Deculein stepped outside it, an alarm would sound immediately, and summary judgment— in other words, execution— would follow at once.
“Still.”
“Are those handcuffs?”
Deculein pointed to the object in Lia’s hand.
“Yes. His Majesty told me to put them on you.”
“Very well. Hand them over.”
Lia placed the handcuffs inside the mana barrier.
Clack—!
Deculein personally put on the handcuffs. His face was strangely composed.
“……Are you really all right?”
Lia asked again. At that, he nodded.
“It is merely a process, after all.”
“The process?”
Does that mean being trapped like this is all part of the plan?
Deculein spoke.
“Is Her Majesty well?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. I think she’s fine, y’know.”
“That is a relief.”
“Mm… then I’ll be going now.”
Ria bowed at the waist and left his office, running toward another person waiting for her.
…….
“…Is that so.”
Before Sophien. Ria conveyed Deculein’s actions exactly as they were.
She let out a low sigh and looked up at the ceiling.
“And he asked if Your Majesty was well.”
At Ria’s words, Sophien lowered her face again.
Had Deculein’s concern melted her?
Ria quickly continued.
“I think he was worried that Your Majesty’s heart must also be uneasy…….”
“You need not say it. I know.”
“……Yes.”
Carefully, Ria gauged Sophien’s mood.
Right now, the space between the two was literally a sheet of thin ice.
Whatever had happened during the expedition that day—
“But why…… the Count.”
Ria stopped speaking for a moment.
“…….”
Sophien also looked down at Ria without a word.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence fell, and Sophien spoke.
“You ask why We imprisoned the Count.”
“Yes.”
“We do not know.”
Sophien shook her head and rested her chin upon her hand.
“The professor gave up on the desert. He said the advance yielded no profit.”
“……Ah.”
“We also know.”
A sneer touched Sophien’s lips. As though mocking not Deculein, but herself.
“Slaughtering the desert, annihilating the Red Swarm—nothing changes. It is not beneficial to the Empire. It does not aid Us, either.”
As if she could not help but admit it, she hated the Red Swarm.
She did not know where that emotion had come from; she could not even know. Yet it was an unbearable wave. A torrent that battered her heart and set it ablaze.
Even knowing the desert expedition was not the slightest bit beneficial to herself, nor to the Empire. Even knowing it was a dog’s act without a shred of justification…….
“Hearing it made Us furious.”
“Furious…… you say?”
“Yes. We could not endure it.”
This massacre had neither justification nor principle. Sophien knew those words were true.
“We truly wanted to kill Deculein.”
“…….”
She roughly ruffled her hair.
“Perhaps We mistook Deculein for someone like Us.”
Someone who loathed the Red Swarm as she did, who hated the desert.
A Deculein who resembled her.
“Perhaps because of that, We arbitrarily felt something like a sense of betrayal.”
“……Then even now—”
“No.”
Sophien shook her head.
“We shall keep Deculein imprisoned as he is. Until the desert expedition ends.”
Her tone, cutting without the slightest room for negotiation, was resolute.
“The reason…….”
Ria asked cautiously. Sophien laughed lowly.
“It is a secret.”
…….
“……She says the reason for keeping you imprisoned is a secret. Still, it seems you aren’t completely hated. What a relief.”
Ria, having returned to Deculein again, leaned against the office wall and reported.
“How many times have you gone back and forth now?”
Deculein asked gruffly.
This man was like this even when someone was helping him.
Ria narrowed her eyes.
“I’m helping you ’cause I got something in return, y’know.”
“It is unnecessary.”
Rustle— rustle—
The sound of turning pages.
At his unnecessarily peaceful appearance, Ria looked out the window.
A dark night. A full moon floating roundly.
“Count.”
Deculein did not answer.
She threw a stone at him, who was reading so peacefully.
“You must have loved your former fiancée very much.”
“…….”
The sound of turning pages stopped instantly.
Did he tear the paper in surprise?
Ria scratched the back of her neck and spoke.
“Everyone says that when they look at me. That the Count teaches me because I resemble your dead former fiancée. Because I look like your old fiancée—”
“That is wrong.”
“Is it? I don’t think so. It doesn’t seem wrong to me.”
Then, Deculein hurled a massive boulder at her heart.
“……Yuara.”
In that instant, a booming crash—! A reverberation as if her heart had exploded.
As if she had given an inch and received infinity in return…….
“She did not die.”
“……Huh?”
Ria, who had stopped breathing for a moment, asked belatedly.
Deculein spoke.
“She is alive.”
“……?”
What is this nonsense. Yuara is alive?
Don’t tell me, that I am Yuara—
“She left me because she feared me.”
Someday, the words Sylvia had conveyed to Deculein.
That Yuara’s soul was alive and breathing somewhere, and therefore she had faked her death and left him.
Those words.
“She must have hated me to the point where she had no choice but to fake her death.”
“…….”
“So you need not worry. I do not seek Yuara from the likes of you.”
Ria understood inwardly.
So that was what Deculein thought.
That Yuara had not died, but had left him.
It was understandable.
Ria closed her eyes briefly.
“Come on. No way. That’s not it.”
She slowly shook her head.
Deculein twisted his lips.
“What would someone like you know.”
“They say my personality resembles hers too, y’know.”
“…Did Derek say that?”
A vein bulged at Deculein’s temple.
“I don’t remember who…… Anyway. If it were me.”
She sank into a very small thought.
The reason she had parted with Gim Ujin.
No, the reason she had not held on when he said they should break up.
“If I were her……”
Woojin had no parents. To him, abandoned at an orphanage from birth, family had consisted of only one younger sibling.
A sibling connected by a bond deeper than blood.
A child who had left the world far too young, far too pitiful.
“Perhaps because I thought I wouldn’t be of help.”
So, I had wanted to become his family.
I had wanted to make him happy.
To have children together, to watch those children marry and then see grandchildren, to warmly fill the hole in Woojin’s chest…….
The kind of harmonious family seen only in fairy tales.
A happiness ending with a sentence like, *And they lived happily ever after.*
“Because I was afraid he wouldn’t be happy with me.”
But I had realized far too late that it could not be.
Because I could not have children, because if he was with me, Woojin could not have a family.
“So…… I think she might have left, y’know?”
That was why I could not hold on.
I did not hold on.
“If she had my personality, I mean. Or not. Ahem.”
She raised the end of her sentence cheerfully. She coughed to shake off the needless melancholy.
“…….”
Deculein said nothing.
He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then rustle— turned the page again.
“That may have been possible. If that was her personality.”
“…….”
His words pained Ria slightly.
Even though Deculein was not Gim Ujin…….
“But she would not have done so.”
Deculein changed his words. Ria instinctively asked back.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“What you said.”
Slap—.
Closing the book he was reading, his voice carried a slight warmth.
“That she would ‘not have been unhappy.’”
At that moment, Ria clenched her fist. It felt as if her throat was squeezed shut.
“She would have been happier than anyone.”
“……Yes.”
It was fortunate he could not see her face.
With that thought, she managed to get out a single word, and Ria turned to leave.
“Then I’m gonna get going!”
“…….”
Leaving the silent Deculein behind, Ria climbed the stairs again.
To report those words to Sophien.
Taptaptaptap──
“……Gim Ujin.”
A name mumbled very quietly while hurrying up.
Gim Ujin.
Not Deculein, but Gim Ujin.
The person she missed so much right now.
Saying so, Ria looked at the palace door.
“Gim Ujin.”
Knock, knock— She spoke as if taking a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.”
Creeeak—
And the door to the inner chamber slowly opened.
Beyond it, the too-perfect Sophien.
She was sitting in a chair, looking at her.
With the rough, brazen attitude of a schoolyard delinquent, she asked like this:
“Who is Gim Ujin.”
“……Huh?”
* * *
……This is a memory from quite long ago.
No, a story closest to the very ‘beginning.’
“Hehe. Didn’t you feel it while modeling? Your looks are similar.”
When she approached Woojin, who was working overtime, making small talk that Deculein had been modeled after him.
“What?”
The day Woojin grabbed his own hair as if aggrieved.
“I only met the author-nim twice though?”
“Maybe they saw you passing by the company. Anyway, look. Personality is similar too.”
“……Similar? That damned woman?”
“They are similar.”
“Tch…… that’s why you got dumped by me.”
My expression stiffened slightly.
It hurt a little, but it was true that I had been dumped anyway.
“But.”
Gim Ujin chuckled and pointed outside the window.
A shiny foreign car parked near the company entrance.
“Is that person less pathetic than me?”
“…….”
His attitude, actions, and face were so relaxed.
Could it be that this guy was really fine now?
Then, should I also pretend to be fine?
I also let out a small smile.
“……Yeah. He’s a good person in a different sense than you.”
A good person in a different sense than you.
Because there is no one in this world better than you.
“Really? That’s a relief.”
Woojin said it was a relief, but for some reason my heart ached.
Strangely, as if scratching my chest with fingernails.
“Yeah…… but, also…… you know. That…….”
So, like a puppy needing to do its business, I stood still and fidgeted.
What should I say, should I not.
Should I try to hold onto him now, even a little.
Hesitating like an idiot, only worrying.
“Ara-ssi. We first met three years ago, didn’t we? What are you trying to say?”
……I ended up hearing those words from Woojin.
The office romance was a secret.
We had been dating since before joining the company, but it was still an office romance, hence a secret.
Hoping that my name wouldn’t be tagged after yours.
Hoping not to hear words like nepotism or parachute hire.
“……Right. What was I trying to say again…….”
Tick, tock, tick.
A short silence flowed as we faced each other, the sound of the second hand annoyingly loud.
……In such awkward moments, the one who always opened her mouth first was me.
Because Woojin couldn’t say let’s stop.
“Then, Woojin-ssi. I’m off work.”
Then Gim Ujin answered with a smile.
“Yeah. Get some rest.”
“Yes. You worked hard too, Woojin-ssi.”
Leaving Woojin behind, I trudged out of the office.
Outside the building door, someone was waiting in advance.
“Did you talk?”
The man who asked like that was a partner company team leader.
We had met somehow through work, and at the company people said we were in a fling or something…….
“Yes.”
I nodded and took off the necklace.
“And this. It’s too burdensome to accept after all. It’s expensive.”
“…….”
The man took the accessory I offered as if refusing without a word.
“I see.”
And somehow he understood.
“……Gim Ujin. He is a good person. Good reputation, good skills.”
“…….”
Gim Ujin thinks I’m in a fling with this man.
This man thinks I’m trying to date Woojin again.
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Since he praised Woojin, it felt like he was praising me.
The man smirked and shook his head.
“My rival was too good a person. What a shame.”
“……Woojin? But he doesn’t even have a Benz.”
“So what.”
The man glanced at Gim Ujin inside the office and said.
“His face and heart are a Benz.”
“……Really?”
“Especially his face.”
A face so handsome that Deculein had been modeled after it.
Well, it was fortunate he worked at a game company with more men. If it had been a normal company, there would have been quite a lot of anger by now.
“I think his heart is more of a Benz.”
“Either way. Then I’m going. You said you had something left to do, right?”
The man put the necklace in his pocket and spoke.
“Yes. I’m going to check something upstairs for a bit before leaving.”
“Yeah. Take care. Don’t be awkward even if we meet again later.”
“Of course.”
Haha—
Laughing like that, the man left, and Yuara quietly peeked back inside the office.
—At least don’t be pathetic.
While watching Kim Ujin mutter to himself and do something strange, just as I was about to return to my office……
Kwarrrrrrrrung─!
A lightning strike that seemed to shake the entire world.
The mass of light that engulfed the office dyed my vision black, and the delayed thunder battered my ears.
……I have no memory of anything after that.
When I opened my eyes, I had become “Ria.”