Efrin was eating at the Magic Tower’s cafeteria.
“…It’s edible.”
The Magic Tower cafeteria was decent enough in its own way. Of course, it couldn’t compare to Roahawk, but the food was tasty, and with so many mages gathered during lunchtime, it naturally served as camouflage or a disguise.
“I want to eat at Roahawk.”
But her account was frozen anyway, so it was nothing more than a pie in the sky.
Maybe she should borrow some money from Silvia.
Tak—
Just as she was thinking that, a tray clattered down onto the table in front of her.
It was Silvia.
“Ah, perfect timing. Sephin. You—”
“Why did you come outside on your own?”
She asked with a slightly angry expression.
“Huh? What do you mean, it’s morning. I came to eat—”
“Dekulein is after you.”
Silvia said.
But since Efrin already knew that, she simply tilted her head.
“The Purge Officers are after you too.”
“…Purge Officers?”
“Yeah. The order issued against you is execution. Dekulein is participating in it too.”
“….”
The spoon in Efrin’s hand fell. Her mouth hung agape, her eyes widening as she stared at Silvia.
“The Purge Officers are already on the move. That’s why.”
Silvia pulled a thick envelope from inside her robe.
“You just keep doing what you were doing.”
“What…?”
“What we were studying for. The Imperial Tutor Mage selection exam.”
Efrin took it for now, but it was strange.
How could she go to the Imperial Palace when Purge Officers were chasing her?
“Purge Officers are agents unique to the Floating Isle. Meaning they don’t take orders from the Imperial Palace. And this clause explicitly states that ‘any mage capable of solving the problem’ qualifies to become a selected mage.”
Dekulein and the Imperial Palace valued principles above all.
Therefore, they wouldn’t change the clause just because Efrin passed, nor would they say she couldn’t because she was a fugitive.
“So if you pass the exam and enter the Imperial Palace, the Purge Officers won’t be able to chase you. Dekulein won’t be able to cast you out either.”
“…No, but why is Dekulein….”
Efrin really didn’t understand.
The person who had even affirmed her for trying to save Yulie—why suddenly?
“Why me?”
“….”
Silvia let out a small sigh. Then, cutting her steak, she spoke.
“Because you’re dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“Yeah. They say there are two of you.”
“…?”
—There are two of you.
A sentence difficult to understand just by hearing it.
Silvia added to Efrin, who was blinking blankly.
“They say there are two of you in this time period right now. It’s a time-travel paradox.”
Putting a piece of steak in her mouth, Silvia shook her head.
“If you can’t fully control your power, these temporal paradoxes will occur in large numbers. You’ll cause serious harm to the continent. And Dekulein is the mage most capable of remaining calm when making such choices. A single disciple versus the entire continent. Dekulein would obviously choose the latter.”
It was then.
A deliberately blown wind swept Efrin and Silvia’s hair coldly.
In that instant, it was as if the entire space had frozen. Every gaze of every mage in the cafeteria focused on that spot.
Silvia said.
“…It’s the Purge Officers.”
———Clomp.
Three mages in frayed robes walking through the cafeteria. From them emanated a bizarre mana that neither Efrin nor Silvia had ever experienced before.
The unique aura of the Purge Officers—who specialized in killing, imprisoning, and kidnapping mages.
Gulp—
Efrin swallowed.
——Clomp.
The Purge Officers’ footsteps slowly approached.
Did they know she was here, or were they just roughly sweeping the area?
They passed by table after table like that.
—Clomp.
Suddenly, footsteps stopped.
A fine cold sweat formed on Efrin and Silvia’s temples.
Not far.
No, very close.
A ten-meter radius.
The three Purge Officers stood tall and began to survey their surroundings. Unleashing their mana as if interrogating the mages.
Fwhoo…
The stream of blue mana approached Efrin too, and just as Silvia prepared for combat—
“That is enough.”
A voice restraining the Purge Officers.
“By whose permission do you interrogate the mages of the Magic Tower as you please?”
It was Dekulein, appearing at just the right moment.
Efrin clutched her pounding heart. Her body instinctively leaned forward from extreme tension.
“There is a trace here.”
A Purge Officer spoke. The mana in that voice was as eerie as some ghost.
“I do not recall giving you permission to be so heavy-handed. Treating all mages of the Magic Tower as criminals is unacceptable.”
“….”
“Come out. You need to get your investigation procedures straight first. Are you ruffians? With that kind of behavior, even if your target were here, they would have escaped.”
Dekulein glared at the three Purge Officers in turn. They resisted for a moment, but soon left the cafeteria at his command.
And Dekulein said,
“…Please continue your meals.”
A tone that seemed to consider the cafeteria frozen by the sudden commotion.
Watching him leave as well, Efrin and Silvia breathed a sigh of relief.
“…Then. Sephin. I’ll need to hide out for a while, won’t I?”
“You’re asking the obvious.”
At Efrin’s words, Silvia nodded too.
“I have some things to do too. Once I’m done with them, I’ll come back, but until then….”
Things to do.
Efrin pulled out a wooden pocket watch.
Not much time remained until ‘that moment.’
“What happens with fatty Rellin and those professors at the Magic Tower—”
“I know even if you don’t say it, you stupid Efrin.”
Silvia handed Efrin a crystal ball.
“I’m still scouting with 「Wind」 right now. If anything happens, I’ll share it with you immediately.”
“…Yeah.”
Efrin stood up with a bitter expression.
“Still.”
To her, Silvia added as if brushing past,
“Dekulein’s punishment and the Purge Officers’ punishment will be different. You know what I mean.”
“…Huh?”
“If you’re going to get caught, try to get caught by Dekulein if you can.”
Silvia’s words offered a small comfort.
Efrin smiled.
“Yeah. I know. I won’t get caught, but if I am, I’ll do that.”
* * *
…Phahyrden was freezing.
In the Winter Fortress at the northern border of the Empire, Zaite gazed at the outside scenery with dark eyes.
The ground, devoured white, was so cold that no life could survive upon it.
In the lofty sky, a frigid blade-like wind howled tautly as if it would tear the atmosphere apart.
Ice that did not melt, an endless winter.
Nights longer than days, and a cold more bitter than night.
“…An ice age.”
The ice age had arrived.
Zaite clenched his teeth.
“Another ice age, is it.”
A time of glaciers beyond mere cold.
Just as the temple had prophesied, Phahyrden was cooling transparently like a mere craftwork, slowly dying.
“And yet there is no support from the center despite this.”
Zaite let out a hollow laugh. He shook his head and turned around.
“Well. It’s not like I expected any. However… do you have a solution?”
A room as harsh and cold as a freezing pit.
At Zaite’s question, his subordinate, ‘Bellan,’ straightened his back.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“A mage called Berbaldi.”
“…Berbaldi.”
He knew that name.
The anonymous mage who had participated in Yuren’s Magic Expo and unveiled a new horizon of artifacts.
“Yes. The way to overcome this ice age lies within that person’s mind.”
“….”
“We need only create an artificial sun.”
In truth, Phahyrden had attempted it several times before. Spending money to gather mages, trying to share even the slightest warmth with the people of Phahyrden.
But Phahyrden’s territory was too vast, and even when limited to the outer fortress and its surroundings, they could not overcome this ‘magical winter.’
“Berbaldi, they say nothing is known about that mage.”
“We have found someone who knows their whereabouts.”
“….”
Zaite turned to look at him.
“Is that true?”
“Yes. They are in Ash Heap.”
Ash Heap.
A place that would make any noble of the Empire frown the moment they heard its name, but to the current Zaite, it mattered not.
It was a matter upon which the fate of his house depended.
Whether running on two legs or crawling on four.
“We depart at once.”
Doing what could be done while it was still possible—that was the duty of the head of Phahyrden.
“However….”
Subordinate Bellan hesitated for a moment. Zaite looked at him, questioning with his eyes.
“News of Knight Yulie….”
“….”
Yulie. His sore finger.
His precious younger sibling was losing her life somewhere, but nothing was more important than Phahyrden right now.
“I’ll hear it later. Right now, dealing with the ice age is the priority.”
* * *
Sanctuary of Time.
Thanks to Allen’s 「Bopok」, Efrin had returned quickly and was now checking on Yulie one last time.
“Magic stone, check. Mangwolcho, check. Physical condition… check. Very good.”
It wasn’t an inspection done by sight alone; since she was meticulously checking with Dekulein’s artifact, the accuracy was 100%.
Yulie’s condition was very good.
Actually, it was very good by Yulie’s standards… Yulie was now so emaciated, like a patient on the verge of death, that simply looking at her was pitiful.
“At this level, could we say that she herself has a very strong will to live~?”
Efrin murmured like a doctor as she peered into the pod. She gave Yulie, lying there peacefully, a pleased smile.
“Everything ready?”
Idnik asked from the side, watching with interest. Allen and Idnik were sitting at a tea table eating french fries.
She had bought them to eat after finishing her work.
Efrin nodded.
“Yes. I’m ready.”
She took a deep breath. She neatly organized the circuits inside her body.
“If only I run my magic properly.”
“How’s your condition?”
“Top notch. I heard something pretty shocking today, but I’m still fine.”
“Shocking?”
“Yes. They say Purge Officers are chasing me.”
“Oh….”
Idnik twitched his eyebrows.
“You’ve become a big shot, huh. Being chased by Purge Officers and all.”
“….”
Efrin checked her body without a word.
Mana was sufficient. The magic circle at her feet was solid too.
Yulie’s condition was also perfect.
Then there was no need to hesitate or waver.
“…Let’s go right away.”
The magic Efrin was about to manifest now was little different from a miracle.
An attempt to scientifically observe and magically control ‘time.’
The first step toward something comparable to the authority of a ‘god,’ let alone something that went against nature, was being taken right here, right now….
“Hup!”
Efrin heated up the circuits throughout her body. As if resonating, the Necksteel at her shoulder trembled.
Kwaaaaah———!
In an instant, ash-colored mana blossomed throughout the Sanctuary. The entire space was dyed in Efrin’s color.
——Sssshaaaaaa.
The flow of mana that initially flickered like the wind soon surged like a torrent and was sucked into Yulie’s pod. At that moment, the magic circle at Efrin’s feet flashed ashen.
Preparations complete.
Kung———!
Immediately after, the first explosion. The trigger that drove the time regression.
But the turbulence of this moment was as violent as a great earthquake.
Efrin raised both hands to control the trembling mana. Moving her arms like an orchestra conductor, she guided the path of ‘time.’
Kung———!
The second explosion. The echo that anchored time.
She fixed the loosely controlled magic firmly in place.
Enduring a splitting headache, Efrin solidified the framework of the magic. She focused all the mana resonating throughout her body into ‘Yulie’s time.’
Kung———!
The third explosion. The final process of the time regression.
Now, she infused her magic into Yulie.
Fwhiiiiiiii….
Inside the pod, the magic of time billowed thickly. It was Efrin’s ashen light, regressing Yulie.
The curse that had tormented her for nearly ten years was caught up in that ‘time,’ shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it vanished.
“Now….”
At the same time, all the memories, emotions, and recollections that had filled Yulie’s nearly ten years were rewound, rewound, rewound….
Fading away forever.
Disappearing too far to be grasped.
—This was the peace for Yulie that Dekulein had wished for.
“Be at peace.”
Efrin opened her eyes again.
The hollowed mana inside her body and the magic filling the outside were distinctly felt.
Had it succeeded?
…Just as she thought that.
Kung———!
…A fourth explosion?
“What.”
Efrin flinched in surprise.
“Why did it explode again?”
As she muttered that, Kung———!
A fifth explosion?
“…Wait. Two more explosions?”
There was nothing wrong with the magic circle, and she’d manifested it well too.
Efrin looked around.
“Huh?”
The two unexpected explosions.
But there didn’t seem to be any major problems.
No collapsed ground, no destroyed equipment—everything was intact.
“…Is it nothing serious?”
Efrin muttered quietly and looked at Yulie’s pod.
For now, the knight’s complexion was fine.
The skeleton-like figure that had been dying day after day inside the pod was now gone.
That alone made success certain, so her lips curved up into a silly grin for no reason.
“Knight Yulie~?”
Knock knock—
Calling out to her as she knocked on the glass wall of the pod.
“Knight~ Are you okay~? Are you so okay that you can’t answer~?”
No matter how she called, there was no answer.
She didn’t wake.
“…Huh?”
No, it was more than not waking.
“Wait.”
Efrin belatedly realized.
Something was very wrong with Yulie right now.
Her face, and her heart, and her eyes, and above all, her ‘pulse.’
“She’s not breathing.”
Nothing.
No pulse, let alone breath.
Like a wax doll… as if time had stopped, she didn’t move.
“Oh shit. This is bad! Mr. Idnik! Please come help!”
Efrin shouted loudly and turned toward Idnik.
“Mr. Idnik! Mr. Allen!”
No answer from Idnik despite her screams.
“Hey! Mr. Idnik?!”
She yelled desperately, but it was still quiet.
Not just Idnik and Allen, but the entire space called ‘Time.’
“Mr. Id…nik?”
Only then did Efrin turn to look at Idnik and Allen.
“…Uh.”
The two people sitting at the table, watching her.
The same was true for them.
They stared this way with wide eyes, frozen like stone statues.
“….”
As if time had really stopped.
…No.
Perhaps.
Truly.
Time might have stopped.
Gulp—
Efrin swallowed. She raised her trembling wrist.
The watch on her wrist.
“Huh….”
But the moment she saw that not even the second hand, let alone the minute hand, was moving—
Efrin realized.
“…I’m screwed.”