……Tick.
……Tick.
At the ticking sound, Epherene opened her eyes.
“…….”
She looked around. It was some strange place.
A hut, or perhaps a log cabin—ceiling and floor alike, everything was made of wood. Epherene first pushed herself upright—
“You’re awake?”
It was Quay’s voice.
Startled, she turned that way.
“This is fascinating.”
Quay was muttering as he read Casey’s science.
“The photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, the theory of relativity, gravitational waves, quantum mechanics, black holes…… You expressed the providence of nature and the universe through human scholarship?”
Whoosh—
Epherene snatched the manuscripts away with psychokinesis. She shoved them all into the robe at her breast.
“……Where is this?”
Quay answered her question.
“A temple.”
“A temple?”
“Yes. The temple where I served God for ten thousand years.”
He smiled. Epherene asked curtly,
“Then, are you the one who brought me here?”
“You could say that. Why, don’t you like it? Deculein wanted to come here.”
“……The Professor did?”
“Yes.”
It was far too plain and tranquil for a place Deculein supposedly wanted to visit.
“…….”
At any rate, Epherene glared at Quay in silence.
Quay raised his eyebrows and said,
“You asked where this is?”
“……Yeah.”
“The outside of the world.”
The outside of the world.
Literally, beyond the world where humans lived.
“It isn’t the underworld. The place where souls live is strictly within the world, after all. This place is neither the underworld nor the living world. It truly is a space that is not of the world. I always exist here.”
“……Why only you?”
Epherene was suspicious of Quay.
After all, though his face was kind and gentle now, he was a being who harbored the mad ambition of resetting the continent.
“I stayed here for ten thousand years. Perhaps it wasn’t ten thousand years. It may have been longer. I repeated my prayers in a place where time had no meaning, and when I came to my senses, I was here.”
Ten thousand years.
Even to Epherene, it was an unfathomable span of time. At the very least, it was a length of time no human could endure.
“So you’re saying the cause of this space called the outside is you.”
“Yes. My prayers reached God. He gave me purpose in place of death.”
Quay smiled brightly.
“So this place is a space arranged solely for me and my God. I am here, and the bodies and dolls I made are in your phenomenal world.”
For reference, “phenomenal world” was a term that referred to both the living world and the underworld together.
“And Epherene. You are no different from me. From now on, you will wander your own time infinitely. Time can no longer hold you.”
Epherene clenched her fist without realizing it.
“Let’s see…… If this is your life.”
Quay drew a straight line with mana.
A horizontal line. In the middle of it, a vertical line was drawn straight down, like a marker.
“From the point when you received Sophien’s regression, to the days you will live.”
“…….”
For some reason, there was something suspicious about Quay’s words.
Why specifically from after Sophien’s regression?
As if he had perceived her question, Quay gave a faint smile.
“You once went to the past with Sophien, didn’t you?”
“……!”
Epherene’s eyes widened.
“Epherene. It isn’t as if anyone can travel through time with you.”
In her mind, that journey to the past resurfaced.
Deculein’s death. The words and wand he had left her. His gentle, warm appearance. And then…….
The falling meteor.
“The comet fell. With that, the time travel ended.”
“Were you in that future?”
Quay asked. Epherene shook her head.
“I, and everyone who knows me, must not meet the me who has broken away from time.”
……Because from now on, she was not a person of that “time period.”
If they met her, a “time paradox” would occur.
“Yes. That’s right. You’re alone.”
A time paradox would generate tremendous energy, and it would cause mana exhaustion as well as endanger life itself. Both hers and the person who faced her. Unless it was a special space like “Locralen”—in other words, a magical space that perfectly permitted the coexistence of contradiction.
“……So. You’re telling me to join forces with you?”
Even as Epherene asked with a sneer, Quay’s face did not change.
“You won’t join forces with me now, will you? But in the end, you’ll return here. To me.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Do you think you can endure it? A year to humans may repeat and repeat for you until it becomes ten years.”
The blind spot of breaking away from time.
The illusion that a day experienced once would not repeat again.
But Epherene’s time would spread without any standard, and therefore she might experience the same time dozens, hundreds of times.
“I know.”
“And you’re still fine with it?”
“……Whether I’m fine or not is something humans only know after trying. Not that you’d understand.”
Epherene answered.
“Yes. Foolish, in other words.”
Quay nodded as well.
Epherene shook her head.
“No. It’s a challenge.”
──At that moment.
The scenery changed.
“…….”
First, a clear blue sky filled her vision.
Tick—
Tick—
A ticking pocket watch.
Epherene looked back at it.
“……Excuse me.”
She spoke to the wooden watch.
“You can hear me, right?”
Tick—
The pocket watch only kept ticking.
Anyone watching would probably treat her like a madwoman, but Epherene resolutely spoke to the watch—no, to the old man—as she got to her feet.
“I know everything. You’re Old Man Rohakan, aren’t you?”
Tick.
At that moment, the ticking of the pocket watch stopped.
“To begin with, Old Man Rohakan, you’re the one who gave this to me. Through Murkan.”
A pocket watch without intelligence could be so uncannily aware of her heart and show her Deculein’s past?
Thinking about it, it made no sense.
Wood Steel was a different matter, since Deculein had made that thing that way from the start.
“……Thinking about it, maybe I always wanted to lean on something, to depend on something.”
A voice like wind slipped between her lips.
“I guess I hated being alone.”
Perhaps the attribute of an artifact had come from that habit as well. I am lacking and insufficient, so I need an artifact; I need Father’s help—the bracelet…….
“I don’t need it anymore.”
Epherene quietly looked into the pocket watch.
“So now you don’t have to go to all this troubllbl—ah, my tongue’s twisting. Why is it so cold?”
It seemed to be winter, and it was terribly cold.
Whooooosh—the wind blew because she was on some mountain peak, and mountain beasts rustled nearby.
A, e, i, o, u.
She loosened her mouth and said,
“You don’t have to trouble yourself, but may I ask just one favor?”
Tick—
The watch ticked.
Was that an answer that it was possible?
Epherene laughed softly and said,
“Then…….”
* * *
Rustle— Rustle—
On the Imperial University campus, where flower petals were falling as winter drew near.
I was walking along that path.
“…….”
I had just heard from Allen that Yuli had awakened.
And at the same time, that Epherene had disappeared—
“Professor.”
A familiar voice suddenly called me from behind.
When I turned that way, a figure with a hood pulled low was grinning.
I was dumbfounded.
“……Epherene.”
“Would you like to have Roahawk with me?”
“…….”
It was a sudden proposal that did not fit the context. Yet she strode toward me with a face full of confidence and held out a thick envelope.
“Here. The answers for the selection exam.”
“…….”
I glared at her as I broke the seal. Inside were one hundred sheets of magic paper.
“What do you think?”
I quietly skimmed through them.
However, the moment I saw the first sentence, I knew.
The process, of course, and the answers as well, would be perfect.
The more I read, the more unnaturally free of superfluous elements it was, and every piece of logic fit together.
“Epherene.”
Had she become this clever in an instant, or was it because of the “phenomenon” I had sensed recently?
I put the answer sheets into the envelope and asked,
“Time stopped for a moment.”
Yet Epherene showed no reaction. She only smiled calmly, as if facing me.
“Did it? How do you know?”
“……There is something called flow. I perceived that the flow of time was cut off for an instant.”
“Mm~ I see. But that’s not what’s important right now.”
“What?”
To me, frowning, Epherene said,
“Roahawk. Ro. A. Hawk.”
* * *
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle———
Sizzle, sizzle———
Sizzle——
“You may eat now. E-enjoy your meal.”
The Flower of the Pig.
As soon as we entered, the owner guided us to the top floor reserved for nobles.
“What’s this? The meat looks different.”
Epherene’s eyes bulged as she looked at the meat cooking on the iron plate.
“……Ah, no way. Have you been giving me, like, mid-grade stuff until now? Wow, do you know how much money I spent here?”
I looked at her without saying anything.
“I really want to argue with Julie.”
Epherene shuddered, but in truth, this was my doing.
I had bestowed 「Midas’s Hand」 upon the Roahawk meat.
It was my first time using it on food as well, but there was no obvious difference.
Perhaps something would change when we ate it.
“I feel so betrayed, seriously…….”
Speaking of betrayal, Epherene cut off a piece with her knife.
She was making an unnecessarily modest attempt at cutting, but it was all wrong. Not a single movement matched etiquette.
Stab—
Epherene skewered the chunk of meat with her fork. Then she blinked and looked at me.
“……Professor, you should try some too.”
“You eat first.”
“Yes.”
Perhaps she had only asked out of politeness, because she placed it in her mouth first without any hesitation.
And then…….
“…….”
She lost her words.
For starters, as soon as it entered her mouth, the meat melted and vanished, and Epherene’s expression went blank.
As if ecstasy were welling up from within her.
“Wow……. Julie.”
Trembling, she called Julie’s name, then offered the meat to me again.
“Hurry and eat. The taste is insane.”
I nodded and moved my knife.
Slice— slice—a movement as if cutting through air, and perfect etiquette.
Epherene watched my knife work in a daze.
“It really is different.”
Leaving her admiring mutter behind, I took a bite.
“……Not bad.”
“Right? Though it’s more than just not bad.”
Epherene smiled brightly. At that moment, I looked at my wristwatch.
There was not much time left.
I was about to tell her to hurry and eat…… but there was no need.
Munch, munch— munch, munch—
Epherene had already given up on using the knife and was clutching the meat in both hands, tearing into it with all her might.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, ten minutes.
As I merely watched her devour half of it in that short span of time—
Saaaaa……
At that moment, the aura of mana settled low. Mana approached, clean and faint like detergent.
It was the Purification Officers.
I said,
“The Purification Officers will come.”
“I know. I can feel them.”
“If you know, did you come to turn yourself in to me?”
Gulp— Epherene swallowed the meat she had been eating and answered,
“That won’t work anymore.”
“……What?”
“More importantly.”
She placed a pocket watch on the table. It was a pocket watch made of wood.
“What is this?”
“It belongs to Old Man Rohakan. Please pass it back to him. I don’t need it anymore.”
I looked at it. It did not move, as though it were broken.
“I only stopped it artificially for a moment, so time will flow again soon.”
“…….”
Click—
Almost at the same time, the second hand caught.
As if it were about to move at any moment, the tip of the wooden hand trembled.
Seeing that, Epherene’s face grew sad for a moment.
“……It was really delicious today. Maybe because I ate it with you, Professor. Can I take the rest with me?”
“If you can.”
At once, Epherene embraced the Roahawk against her chest. She covered the whole pig with a film of mana.
“Hah-hah.”
She smiled at me as I watched in disbelief, then changed her expression again.
For some reason, her eyes were wistful.
“Thank you, Professor.”
Like some puppy caught in the rain.
“And…….”
There, she paused for a moment. Her lips only moved silently, then she needlessly let out one syllable at a time, until in the end she shook her head and swallowed the words.
“……The rest later.”
At that moment, three Purification Officers appeared, passing through the wall of the restaurant. A whip of mana lashed out fiercely.
Tick──
However, the pocket watch’s second hand.
The flow of a mere single second.
In that instant, Epherene was gone.
Naturally, along with the Roahawk.
“……Hm.”
I wiped the corners of my mouth with a napkin. The purge officer’s face was one of utter shock.
Well, no wonder, since they had sealed off the entire vicinity of this Pig’s Flower with a barrier.
“……”
“Everything you do ends in failure, doesn’t it, you people?”
The purge officers turned to look at me. Their eyes were filled with anger and confusion.
“If you had just stayed still, you might at least have received a surrender.”
I murmured mockingly as I rose to my feet.
One of the purge officers replied.
“We have no need of a surrender. Only culling—”
“Is Epherene a pig, that you would cull her?”
Though she was half a pig, more or less.
The purge officer shook his head.
“She is one of the most dangerous mages on this continent. If a temporal paradox phenomenon were to occur—”
“In our magical world, we usually call the most dangerous mages…”
I set the napkin down on the table, straightened the hem of my clothes, and spoke.
“Archmages.”
The purge officer shook his head.
“An archmage is what one is called when that talent is controlled. Power that cannot be controlled is a calamity.”
“That is precisely what I said. Epherene is advancing toward that rank.”
“……”
The purge officers fell silent for a moment.
They were fellows whose thoughts I could never quite read. Individually, their martial power could be called a mage’s natural enemy, but since they had no social lives, they were terribly inflexible.
“Are you saying you will not cooperate?”
The purge officer, after thinking, repeated the words.
“I will cooperate. I am merely saying that whether I cooperate or not, you will not catch her.”
Their comprehension truly was lacking.
Muttering that, I walked out of the restaurant.
……
“Phew.”
Meanwhile, Epherene, having leapt through time, was looking around at the scenery.
“When is this?”
First, she pulled the hood of her robe tightly over her head. So that, by any chance, her face would not be revealed.
“I need to get a mask too……”
The Roahawk in her arms.
Not letting this thing go had consumed ninety percent of her mana.
She tore off one of its hind legs and ate it. It was delicious.
“……Still, it doesn’t taste like it did just now.”
It was delicious, but not rapturous.
As expected, who you ate with was as important as what you ate.
“More importantly. Where is this?”
Shwaaaaaa……
For now, it was a beach where waves were crashing.
It seemed to be near Hadekain.
Epherene gazed at the distant horizon. There was an island shrouded in black mist.
“……Ah. It’s Sylvia’s island.”
The Island of Voices.
It was right there.
“Right.”
Remembering something, Epherene let out a small laugh. Then she waved her hand. In an instant, a flat oval appeared.
It was a spatial distortion portal.
If she took a single step inside—
She would be on Sylvia’s island immediately.
More precisely, in Sylvia’s gallery. The space where she displayed the paintings she had drawn.
“Sylvia. You said it, didn’t you? That I would steal one.”
Muttering mischievously, among the many paintings of Deculein lined up here……
“If I’m going to be cursed at even if I don’t steal it, then isn’t it better to steal it and get cursed at?”
She chose the painting she liked most.
It was a portrait of Deculein, the size of a small frame. He was staring straight ahead, neither beautified nor diminished, a painting so identical it could be mistaken for a photograph.
“……I’m going to make sure you don’t die, Professor.”
Epherene made that vow, and with a clack—
She took the painting down from the wall.
Weeeeeeeeeee———!
At that moment, a siren blared, but Epherene only smiled.
“Thanks, Sylvia. I’ll carry it around carefully, like a talisman.”
Tick—
The sound of a clock ticking within her heart.
A chime announcing her departure from this time period.
“Goodbye.”
And thus, Epherene began her endless drifting through time……