“Where are we? I only came to watch you locked up, Professor.”
Epherene.
Muttering, the girl peered into my room.
“……I’m not here to help you. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
The one who claimed she had no intention of helping was staring at the handcuffs around my wrist with deadly serious eyes.
“How did they even make something like this?”
She murmured as though in admiration.
“It’s an artifact the likes of you could never dismantle. Get lost.”
“……Seriously. It’s been so long, but you’re still the same.”
She glared at my face and pouted.
“More importantly, what’s this about a demon?”
“A Man-Eater. A ghost that eats people.”
“?”
Epherene’s eyes widened.
Legends related to demons were stored naturally in my mind without my having to study them. It seemed to be something like a Yukline instinct, and among that knowledge, the ‘Man-Eater’ stood out as quite a prominent demon.
I said,
“I told you. This isn’t the sort of place you should be.”
“What are you talking about? I’m pretty strong now, you know? Look. Here.”
Epherene wove mana into nanotubes and wrapped it around herself like armor.
How is it?
At the question in her eyes, I shook my head.
“That thing is special.”
“Special?”
I pointed out the window. Epherene turned to look as well.
“Look at the sky.”
The sky was still dark. The time for the sun to rise had certainly passed long ago.
“……Oh. I learned this. It’s the ‘Long Night’ phenomenon, right?”
“Yes.”
It was a magical phenomenon known as the ‘Long Night.’ When the concentration of mana in the desert rose beyond a certain level, the sand would become like a veil and rise up to block the sun.
“The sand becomes lighter than air and just floats up. But so what?”
“That phenomenon was caused by it.”
The desert’s Long Night. Because it swam through that darkness like a ghost and devoured people, it was called the Man-Eater.
It could not be observed by human eyes.
“It has already chosen this space as its dining room.”
“Dining room?”
“Yes. It may have been your choice to come in here, but only a few minutes remain for you to leave. If you intend to go, go now.”
Its trait, in game terms, was 「Killing Field」.
This 「Killing Field」 would be completed before long, and once that happened, no one inside it would be able to escape.
“No mage or knight can annihilate it.”
“……No mage? Even Adrin—”
“Even Adrienne and Zeit would be the same.”
There was a reason it had been ‘sealed’ rather than annihilated.
Epherene narrowed her eyes and asked back,
“And you can kill it, Professor?”
I nodded.
“Because I am a Yukline.”
“……Hah.”
Epherene let out a hollow laugh.
She frowned and crossed her arms, yet spoke with a smile on her lips.
“In the end, it’s just bragging. You’re exactly the same, aren’t you? Sigh.”
She seemed to let out a sigh, then nodded with a slightly calmer expression.
“But I believe you. You don’t lie, Professor.”
Then she took one step closer and looked at me.
With eyes oddly damp, she scanned my features and murmured in a low voice,
“But, Professor. While I was in the desert, I realized one thing. The Jeokgwe aren’t our enemy.”
“…….”
“Of course, you’ll probably find me disgusting for saying this, and honestly, it doesn’t matter if you hate me even more than you already do, but I still thought I had to say it.”
Leaving aside the fact that I despised Epherene, it was far too dangerous a statement.
“Our enemy is someone else. It isn’t the Jeokgwe. We’re being played by Quay’s tricks right now.”
I glared at Epherene as she spoke.
She met my gaze calmly.
“……I’m telling you, our enemy is someone else. Should I write it down for you like a thesis?”
“Epherene.”
I cut her off. I made her close her mouth.
“You have crossed a river from which there is no return.”
“…….”
——I think the same as you.
I could not say that one sentence.
Because Sophien would be watching me from the innermost part of the main building.
Instead, I asked,
“Did Idnik entice you?”
“……And if she did?”
Epherene bit her lip slightly.
With this, the greatest sin would shift to Idnik. That much, at least, could be called fortunate.
“To begin with…… wait.”
Epherene’s eyes, about to say something, widened.
She hurriedly released mana and turned to look behind her.
“……Who is it?”
…….
In that moment, a sweeping silence. Sparks scattering through the stillness.
Beyond Epherene’s glare, the shape of a human being coagulated.
“……Careful. It might be an enemy.”
At her words, I snorted.
“Add one more syllable to that. Isn’t it Jeokgwe?”
“…….”
Epherene swallowed and closed her mouth.
……Deculein.
And from within that darkness, a voice called my name.
A woman removed her hood and revealed her face.
Jeokgwe.
“Deculein. You will remember me.”
The woman who said so had quite an unusual appearance. Not only was she wearing a thick coat, but she also had a blindfold covering both eyes like some blind monk.
I gave a small smile.
“Is it ‘Lucy’?”
“Lucy?”
Epherene asked.
I said,
“She is the granddaughter of the Jeokgwe Grand Elder. A Jeokgwe who lived in Padanhal.”
“……But how do you know that?”
“I extracted those eyes and threw her into Rohalak.”
“What?! Why?!”
Epherene’s eyes bulged. Lucy, on the other side, bit her lip as well.
I explained briefly.
“They were good eyes, so I extracted them instead of her dantian.”
“……No, what kind of—”
“Lucy. Did you escape from Rohalak?”
“…….”
Lucy said nothing. As if there was no need to know, she emitted a vicious ‘death variable.’
A definite death variable capable of killing me.
Where and what was Kariksel doing, when he should be stopping that girl?
I asked,
“Do you intend to kill me?”
“You ask that? Greater than my rage for the eyes you stole is the grudge of the clan you murdered.”
“Hmm. You’re about to make the worst choice. For the Grand Elder’s granddaughter, you’re too hasty.”
“……Worthless professor. Now receive the judgment of my clan.”
When I answered calmly, Lucy released killing intent.
Thud——!
Dark red mana shook the entire floor.
Kwaaaaaa——!
It surged in like a tidal wave, threatening to tear my heart apart. But at a certain moment.
Tap—
It stopped moving.
Then it returned to Lucy.
Sluggishly, sluggishly.
Like salmon swimming upstream, as though time itself were reversing.
“Stop.”
This miraculous phenomenon, which even our enemies watched with astonished eyes, was entirely Epherene’s doing.
Lucy turned to look at her.
“……Mage Epherene. I heard of you from Idnik. Is Deculein not a villain to you as well? Let me kill him.”
“Still, stop.”
“……Haa.”
A sigh slipped through Lucy’s teeth.
Epherene quickly added,
“It’s for our sake.”
“……Our?”
“Yes. Look out the window.”
Epherene copied exactly what I had done to her moments ago.
Lucy also looked up at the darkness outside the window.
“There’s a demon here.”
“Do you think we don’t know? We will kill Deculein and disguise it as the demon’s doing.”
“No! You people know one thing and not the next. Before you can kill Deculein, the demon Man-Eater will trap us here, okay? We won’t be able to escape. Right?”
Epherene turned to ask me.
I nodded.
“Yes. That’s why I called it an ancient demon. Incredibly powerful. Monstrously powerful. For example, the Roahawk of the demon realm.”
“……Roahawk?”
Kraaaaaaak────!
Just then, a bizarre cry rang out.
Epherene said,
“Yes. And only a Yukline can face that demon. So if you kill Deculein, that means all of us will die here too…….”
* * *
Meanwhile, outside the main building.
Lia was running through the desert with Delric, shouting.
“Get inside—! It’s dangerous outside——!”
“All Imperial Guards, listen! Retreat inside! The outside is dangerous!”
They were cries meant to reduce the loss of life.
“Inside—! Inside—!”
Deculein had said he was worried about an attack from the Altar, but there was no attack from the Altar.
No, there had been one, and then there wasn’t.
They had all died.
They had been devoured the moment they arrived.
“……Lia. You said it was a Man-Eater.”
Delric asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you know how to deal with it?”
“Nope. There isn’t a way.”
Lia shook her head as she ran across the parade ground. Delric’s brow furrowed.
“There isn’t?”
“No. You can’t even see it in the first place. It’s no different from gas…… so you can’t kill it either. Ah! Over there!”
Lia pointed to an Imperial Guard sprawled on the ground.
His leg had been severed, but he still seemed to be breathing.
“Over there! Over there!”
The two ran to him.
“Are you all right?!”
When she checked his face, it was Bell’s adjutant.
He looked at Lia and Delric, his body trembling from pain.
Lia asked first,
“Hey. Where are the others?”
“……They’re all dead. So you too…… Sir Knight, hurry and run. Something, something is strange.”
He stretched his finger toward somewhere.
Not far to the east.
There was only darkness and fog.
“We ran to escape, but we kept circling the same place. The same scenery we’d seen over and over kept repeating…… and we couldn’t get out—”
“It’s okay now. We’re here, aren’t we? More importantly, where is General Bell?”
“Probably…… in the main building.”
“That’s a relief.”
Lia nodded in satisfaction and gave him emergency treatment.
“Sir Delric?”
Then she spoke to Delric.
“There’s no helping it. We’ll take care of the outside. We can’t just leave everyone to die.”
“Only the outside? What about the inside? His Majesty is in the main building.”
Delric asked back. Lia answered simply.
“We can leave that to the Professor.”
“……Count Deculein is currently—”
“You said General Bell is inside the main building.”
“Bell? I acknowledge that man’s martial prowess, but he can’t kill a demon.”
Since Delric looked completely unconvinced, Lia smirked and explained.
“I know. Since he can’t kill the demon, he’ll release the Professor. He’s about to die himself. You think he’ll hold out without letting him go?”
“……Ah.”
At that, a deep smile appeared on Delric’s lips as well.
“Indeed. How rational.”
…….
At the same time.
Sophien was smiling with her chin resting on her hand.
—You already knew. That the demon would come, and that Bell would have no choice but to release Deculein.
Keiron asked.
The Emperor nodded.
“Hmph. As if I would abandon Deculein because of a cretinous imbecile like Bell.”
──Deculein had angered her, so she had handed full authority to Bell.
At a glance, it might have seemed like an emotional decision. Of course, emotion had not been entirely absent, but within it, there had clearly been a great measure of ‘calculation’ as well.
“Even if you gathered hundreds of millions of men made only of the advantages of someone like Bell…… one Deculein would still be a hundred times better.”
As Sophien said that, she changed her clothes.
She belted a sword at her waist and tied her long hair tightly.
“In this pandemonium, Bell will have no choice but to release Deculein with his own hands. With that, their positions will be reversed in a single stroke.”
—……Hmm. It seems Your Majesty has already forgiven the professor.
Keiron asked in a tone that sounded almost mocking, but Sophien nodded without getting particularly angry.
“That is right. I have no choice but to forgive Deculein.”
She tilted her gaze and looked at the cactus.
It stood upright, growing cutely.
“Because I love Deculein.”
Love.
Because she loved him, she forgave him.
No, because of love, Deculein’s sin ceased to be a sin.
—However, is there no need to save the professor?
“Not yet. Simply watch for now, Keiron.”
However, it was also true that Deculein was insolent.
Thus, Sophien’s calculation went beyond merely bringing Bell down.
“Let us go. To Julie.”
What she truly wanted was Julie’s isolation.
“The conditions have already been met. Idnik, Epherene, and that Allen or whatever his name is have all gathered here.”
—Yes, Your Majesty.
Now that everyone’s attention was occupied by the demon called the Man-Eater.
This moment was the right time to go find Julie.
—However, Your Majesty. May I ask just one more thing?
“You would ask even if I said you may not.”
—What will you do first when you meet Yulie?
Keiron asked bluntly.
It was, indeed, a question of utterly no value, yet Sophien pondered it nonetheless.
“Do you ask the obvious? We shall…….”
Kill her at once.
Drive a blade into that white throat of hers…….
“…….”
The mouth that had been about to say so stopped.
She certainly wanted to.
She had intended to.
“Of course…….”
Strangely, however, she kept imagining it.
Deculein’s face, grieving Yulie’s death.
Deculein’s heart, mourning Yulie’s death.
“……that woman, Yulie.”
His sorrow spread into her own sorrow.
His tears spread into her own tears.
“We shall, that woman Yulie…….”
And yet, she shoved all those weak feelings away.
Cut them off sharply.
And Sophien said,
“……kill her.”
* * *
“General Bell! You must release the Count now! Hurry, that key!”
General Bell’s office, where candlelight burned eerily.
At the shout of one adjutant, Bell clenched his teeth.
“Shut that mouth of yours.”
“Are you intending for us all to die like this?!”
“Shh.”
“This isn’t the time for shh—”
Right now, in Bell’s grasp was a single key. The only key that could unlock Deculein’s handcuffs.
However, Bell did not want to free Deculein with it. He would rather die than do so.
No, freeing him would be the same as death.
Once released, Deculein would try to kill him.
“……Well.”
However, a rather good little scheme had just come to Bell’s mind.
An idea that could at least guarantee his own safety.
“It’s not as if I can let a demon kill me, either.”
At Bell’s mutter, color returned to the adjutants’ faces.
“Very well. For now, I will lift Deculein’s confinement.”
Bell declared Deculein’s release as if it were nothing, pretending to be magnanimous.
At once, the adjutants sprang to their feet.
“Yes! Understood! We will go right now and—”
“However.”
But Bell’s scheme began from here.
He took a certain key from his inner pocket.
“I will unlock the handcuffs later.”
“……Pardon? What does that—”
“Lifting confinement and removing handcuffs are separate matters. I said I would lift Deculein’s confinement, but I did not say I would remove these handcuffs.”
A promise to guarantee his safety.
He would at least need that much from Deculein for the exchange to be worth it.
“Also, with this key, we should be able to control Deculein. You all know how violent a Yukline imbued with demonic energy becomes, even if you haven’t read the history books, don’t you?”
“Uh…….”
As the adjutants stared blankly, Bell gave a faint laugh and rose.
“What are you doing? Let us hurry. To that Deculein you all are so eager to reach? Or shall we not go?”
“……Ah, yes! Let’s go!”
Belatedly, one adjutant opened the office door.
At that very instant.
Crunchhhhhhh—!
His body was broken down into blood and flesh, bone and juices, melting down like some kind of smoothie. Drip, drip—the flowing blood and brain matter soaked the soles of their shoes.
He had been devoured in an instant.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The situation was far more serious than expected.
Bell swallowed hard and said,
“……W-what are you doing? Everyone, why are you not taking the lead…….”