In the Sanctuary of Time, Epherene sat lost in thought, staring blankly into space with eyes gone slightly unfocused.
She was like this from time to time.
Even while eating perfectly normally, even while studying magic, even while writing papers, her mind would suddenly grow hazy…
It was probably because of what had happened four days ago.
No matter how hard she tried to pull herself together, it simply would not leave her mind.
“So, Deculein was in your arms?”
Idnik asked as she ate French fries.
Flinch— Epherene snapped out of her daydream of that day.
“…Pardon?”
“Why are you asking again~?”
Idnik’s eyebrows waggled slyly.
Epherene quickly shook her head.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“You said Deculein was held in your arms. By you.”
“…What are you talking about? Th-that, what do you call it. He wasn’t held. He collapsed.”
That great incident when Deculein had fallen into her arms—no, collapsed.
Without realizing it, Epherene began touching various parts of her own body.
They were the parts that had come into contact with Deculein when he fell.
Their bodies had pressed against each other here and there, and Deculein’s weight had felt as though it were bearing down on her…
“…Oh. Your face is turning red.”
“Whaddya mean?! Since wheeen?! It’s not!”
Epherene shouted loudly and clutched her face. Idnik burst into hearty laughter.
“Ha ha. You’re acting like you like that professor or something.”
“Like him?! What are you taaalking abooout—!”
As if in a fit, she sprang to her feet, strode over, and checked Julie’s condition.
There was nothing particularly wrong.
“…I think we just need to wait two weeks.”
“Then it’ll be over?”
“No. In two weeks, when everything is ready, I’ll pour in the time energy all at once. Something big might happen then.”
“Something big?”
“Yes.”
Epherene said, fiddling with her hair.
“Things like the time in this space suddenly getting tangled up… stuff like that. Anyway.”
Then she gathered up the documents strewn across the lab table. They were papers covered in all sorts of calculations and formulas.
Epherene said,
“There’s still some time left, so I’ll stop by the Magic Tower for a bit and come back. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
She was still publishing papers in academia.
Of course, she was being thoroughly ignored and scorned.
“Huh? Why are you asking me that?”
“No. Not you, Miss Idnik. I mean this little knight.”
Epherene pointed to the tiny Keiron on the lab table.
A very dependable knight who would guard this Sanctuary until Knight Julie awakened.
“It’s all right, isn’t it?”
—Yes. It is all right.
“Yes. Ah, but.”
Epherene sidled over to Idnik and asked in a very small voice,
“How is… Jeokgwe?”
“The situation has improved a little, but the suppression will still continue. There are too many people with deep grudges against Jeokgwe. And there are far too many tendrils of the Altar in the Empire.”
But Idnik’s voice was very loud. Epherene had whispered on purpose because of Keiron, who belonged to the Emperor.
—I merely carry out my duty to guard this place.
Keiron seemed to have understood what she meant.
Idnik continued.
“…Do you think Her Majesty Sophien was the only one stirring up the Empire? No. Beneath the Empire’s surface, there are many spies of the Altar manipulating public opinion and inciting people. Because of them, the suppression of Jeokgwe will be maintained for a while.”
No, since the desert did not go as they wished, they might even react rather violently.
At those words, Epherene nodded crookedly.
“Then. When Mr. Allen comes, I’ll go take care of some work at the Magic Tower for a little while.”
“What work? You’ll get caught.”
“…The Magic Tower is huge. I won’t get caught. And lately, the Magic Tower has been suspicious.”
“Suspicious?”
“Yes.”
The Magic Tower was suspicious.
Epherene unfolded a map of the continent.
“I stole this from the Professor too.”
“How admirable.”
“…This map doesn’t just show our location. It also displays magical phenomena like earthquakes and tidal waves, right? Then it tells you their location and scale too.”
Deculein’s map of the continent.
The performance of this object, which was practically an artifact, was astonishing.
“But there was an earthquake in Myeolji this time, you see?”
An earthquake that had occurred in Myeolji.
And, by an extremely strange coincidence.
“At the same time, there was also an earthquake in the Magic Tower, in a completely different location.”
“A rare coincidence.”
“Yes. Up to that point, it could be a coincidence. But the seismic intensity and mana density were exactly the same too. Without even the slightest margin of error.”
“…”
Idnik’s brow narrowed.
“No matter how you look at it, isn’t it strange for even the seismic intensity and mana density to be the same? So I wondered how that could be possible, and thought about it magically, calculated it, tried this and that. But there was only one conclusion.”
Epherene said with a faint smile.
“They’re connected. Myeolji and the Magic Tower. For whatever reason.”
* * *
After returning from the desert to the Empire, I came back to the Magic Tower for the first time in a long while.
—Professor. Can you hear me?
The moment I sat down in my office chair, Sophien’s voice flowed from the crystal orb.
“I am the Chairman now.”
—…Chairman. Can you hear me?
“Yes, Your Majesty. Judging by how short of breath you are, are you in the middle of training?”
—That is so.
Sophien had been freed from the prohibition.
At least, that was how it appeared to my “Vision.” It was because she had clearly realized what “emotion” was, without anyone’s help.
Now that she had become able to look into the deepest part of her own heart herself, she was no longer controlled by something as trivial as Quay’s defense mechanism.
“I am glad to hear you are not being idle.”
—…Yes.
Sophien continued curtly.
—At any rate. My swordsmanship is already approaching perfection. Next is magic.
“I will select magic professors from the Magic Tower and send them to the Imperial Palace.”
—What?
It was an unexpectedly baffled response, unlike her.
—Why would you send them?
And again, an unexpectedly innocent question.
Suppressing a laugh, I said,
“It is not as though I know all magic. Magic is divided into systems and attributes. That is why each professor has a different field of expertise. One magic professor may be completely ignorant of another magic professor’s specialty. Therefore—”
—No need. You come.
“That would be a waste of Your Majesty’s magical talent.”
—…And what is my magical talent like?
Sophien’s voice sank languidly.
“Your Majesty has talent in every attribute and every system. Whatever system Your Majesty desires, you will likely be able to reach its summit. Therefore, you must learn from magic professors of as many different attributes and systems as possible.”
—…
Sophien fell silent.
“I will select the best professors possible and send them to Your Majesty. Once you learn well and master everything perfectly, I will visit you then, and set a test as well.”
—…A test.
“Yes. A test for Your Majesty alone.”
—…
Sophien gave no answer.
Click— She simply cut off the communication.
“…”
I rested my chin on my hand for a moment and thought.
Of course, for the sake of Sophien’s magical progress, this was indeed the best method.
No matter how much knowledge of various magic systems filled my head, I could not be as practical as specialized professors who actually manifested system-based magic.
However, that was not the only reason.
“…A cactus.”
I looked at the cactus by the window.
The thing was basking in the sunlight, carrying out its morning photosynthesis. It seemed to be squirming somehow, and the flower bud resting on it like a headband was needlessly cute, so I kept glancing at it.
Every time I saw it, I felt Sophien’s heart.
“To think I would be shaken this much by a single gift.”
I shook my head.
In any case, it must be because Kim Woojin and Deculein had become mixed together.
Ding-dong—
Just then, the doorbell rang in the office.
—It’s Louina. Chairman, would you come down to the third floor for a moment?
It was Louina.
* * *
The third floor of the Magic Tower was an ordinary lecture space.
It was the lowest level, where new mages usually took classes and occasionally conducted modest experiments.
“Why did you call me to a place like this?”
“Doesn’t it make you think of the old days? When we took classes here.”
“It does not.”
Louina wrinkled the tip of her nose.
“Well, anyway. Here.”
A corner of the third floor. A lecture room of moderate size.
Louina pointed to it and gave a small smile.
I furrowed my brow.
“Stop smiling and explain.”
“…It feels like your personality has gotten particularly worse.”
Louina snorted and said,
“Look inside through this glass wall. They can’t see outside from the inside anyway.”
“…”
I looked into the lecture room beyond the glass.
“She’s an adjunct lecturer, for now.”
As Louina said, there was an adjunct lecturer inside.
She was earnestly writing on the board for a mere seventeen mages, explaining something in a calm, quiet voice, her obsidian-black long hair swaying each time she moved…
“It’s Sylvia. She’s returned. That child.”
At Louina’s words, I lost my words for a moment.
“Oh, and for now, it’s a secret. You can tell from how she looks, but she’s in disguise.”
Jet-black hair and jet-black eyes.
Her entire body was dressed in a fine suit, and round glasses sat on her nose.
“What do you think? She’s very different, right?”
Right now, she gave off a cold yet intellectual air—the kind commonly called “intelligent.”
It was an outstanding disguise indeed. So much so that the old Sylvia did not even come to mind.
“Her name is ‘Sephin’ now, too.”
“Is there a reason she went so far as to change it?”
“She says she wants to start from the bottom and receive a fair evaluation.”
Louina chuckled.
“She asked me to keep it a secret from the Chairman too, but I broke that promise. But judging by your reaction right now, Chairman…”
You probably wouldn’t have recognized her even if you’d passed her on the street, would you?
At that, I nodded.
“That is likely. She disguised herself well.”
I would not have known from appearance alone.
I would not pay attention to some mere adjunct lecturer.
No, to begin with, I was not in a position where I would meet someone like an adjunct lecturer.
“Is teaching all she wants?”
“Yes. She says she only wants to teach.”
“…”
At that moment, something suddenly occurred to me.
The selection of magic professors to teach Her Majesty.
“Louina.”
“Yes.”
“I will send an official notice to every magic professor in the Magic Tower, of every system and every attribute.”
“…Every magic professor?”
Louina asked back, puzzled.
I answered.
“I will select the magic professors who will teach Her Majesty. I will conduct the screening personally as well…”
I paused for a moment and looked at Sylvia, who was diligently lecturing.
“Can an adjunct lecturer be promoted to professor by then?”
“Impossible. At that rate, even becoming a full-time employee would be hard.”
Louina gave a faint laugh.
“Let’s just leave Sylvia as she is. …And, right now, more importantly.”
But her expression soon stiffened.
“There’s a bit of a problem in the Magic Tower. Hmm… you might call it a faction problem.”
* * *
“…Stupid students.”
After class ended.
Sylvia sat down in a chair in the lecture room.
Smack—! She struck her own forehead.
Her head was spinning.
“How can they fail to understand this badly?”
The title of Sylvia’s lecture was “The Seams of the Four Great Elements.”
To explain it simply, it was a theory lecture that taught methods of naturally connecting attributes such as water and wood, fire and wind, and helped one wield “compound attribute magic” more effectively.
“How can they be this stupid?”
There were seventeen students.
Among them, the number of people who had understood her lecture was at most one, and at least zero.
They were mages who had passed into the Imperial Magic Tower, and yet there was no hope for them at all.
“…”
Sylvia looked down at the class curriculum she had personally made.
If they were this stupid, this rock-headed, from the very first class, then the next class onward would be utter ruin.
She would have to revise it after all.
Even though it was a curriculum she had stayed up all week making.
“…Hoo.”
Letting out a small sigh, she glanced at the Wizaboard for faculty and staff.
Ding— ding ding—
An alarm sounded just then.
With a sigh, she opened the Wizaboard, and a message immediately appeared.
[Miss Sephin. If your class is over, return the lecture room key to the tenth floor.]
[I’ll ask how your first lecture went later. Be careful of the course evaluations. I’ll share the list of somewhat difficult noble mages with you.]
Course evaluations.
The mortal enemy of adjunct lecturers, and the greatest obstacle to a regular contract.
Sylvia shoved the Wizaboard into her bag and left the lecture room.
“…”
For reference, adjunct lecturers did not have offices. So she simply wandered the corridors of the Magic Tower, but since it was the middle of the semester, there were too many people.
Most were first- or second-year university mages.
—Ah. What lectures did you sign up for?
—I don’t know. I just put some in for now. My course registration was a total disaster.
—This is so annoying. Seriously, why don’t they increase enrollment for the popular lectures?
Somehow, their worries were cute.
“Where should I rest?”
Sylvia wandered through the Magic Tower, muttering to herself.
There were no more classes today, and she no longer had a home to return to. She had come here without her father knowing, after all.
Of course, as a part-time lecturer, she had been given a room in the dormitory, but she did not want to go back just yet.
And so…….
[Magic Tower Library]
The Magic Tower Library.
Sylvia looked at the plaque and smiled with a soft, “Heh.” The moment she opened the door, the scent of paper washed over her in abundance.
“……Haa.”
She had been away for over a year, so there must be many new books by now.
I’ll read them all. I’ll read every last one, without missing a single volume.
With that resolve, Sylvia went straight to the “Faculty and Staff Reading Room.”
“Visiting Lecturer Sefin. Confirmed.”
“Yes.”
Since students and outsiders were not allowed inside, she submitted her identification to the staff member at the entrance.
The faculty and staff reading room was somewhat dim and quiet.
Perhaps professors did not read much in the first place, because there were not many people.
Thanks to that, Sylvia was able to quietly examine the rows of bookshelves by herself.
“……?”
Then, all of a sudden, something in one corner of the reading room caught her eye: 「Restricted Area: Entry Prohibited Except to Authorized Professors」.
For some reason, it looked like the kind of place that would be full of rare books.
Sylvia blinked and glanced around.
Creeeak—
At that moment, the door to the 「Restricted Area」 suddenly opened.
A male professor emerged from within.
Was his name “Pedel”?
He was a professor of the destruction-type field who had been rapidly rising in prominence lately. She knew him well, since he was a new star who had even been featured in the latest issue of Wizard Journal.
Clack—!
He locked the 「Restricted Area」 with a padlock.
Rattle, rattle—!
After checking two or three times to make sure it was properly locked, Sylvia watched his back as he left the library, then looked back at the 「Restricted Area」.
Just what was inside that he had to lock it so securely…….
“?”
But right then.
Perhaps having thought the same thing as her, someone was pressed against the wall of the reading room, creeping along like a thief. A suspicious figure in a hooded robe.
No, upon closer inspection, even the lower half of that face was familiar. A familiar idiot.
“What is she doing?”
Epherene.
The girl furtively glanced around, and then, as if she had failed to notice Sylvia plainly watching her with both eyes open, cut the padlock on the 「Restricted Area」.
Slice─.
The padlock was cut quietly, but the chunk of metal fell with a loud noise.
Clang—!
Startled, Epherene hopped in place.
“She really is stupid. Impressive.”
While Sylvia was marveling at her, Epherene muttered, “Ah, whatever—” and went right into the 「Restricted Area」.
“……Why is she acting up?”
Sylvia, too, using the excuse that she would discipline the idiotic Epherene, followed her inside.