The garden of the imperial palace was vast. Vast enough that if one wandered without knowing better, one would lose their way, and even walking for a week would not be enough to traverse it all.
In that immense magical space, the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—coexisted. And in the winter garden, Sophien, the master of the garden, was sparring with a knight.
───! ───! ───!
Bang, bang, bang! Swords met swords, yet the impact roared like mortar fire. The mana scattering from them was as brilliant as the sun, bright enough to tear the retina.
Even so, Lia kept her eyes wide open. She stubbornly followed the scene of the spar. She did not waste even the slightest bit of such a precious sight.
Thud────!
Because the two people engaged in this fierce sword dance were none other than Emperor Sophien and Keiron.
A duel between two of the strongest beings in the world was something money could not buy.
Crackleeeee———!
The emperor’s blade and the knight’s blade dragged against each other, still locked together. Mana surged like lightning, and the ground shook as though an earthquake had struck.
“……You are growing stronger at a steep pace, Your Majesty.”
Keiron spoke while looking at the emperor beyond their crossed swords.
Sophien gave a faint laugh. Then she forcefully pushed Keiron’s sword away.
Claaaaang──!
The sound of metal shattering. Steel scattered like fragments.
Rustle…… The remnants of what had once been a sword settled to the ground.
“…….”
Keiron looked at the sword in his hand.
Only the hilt remained.
“Growing stronger at a steep pace…… It seems I have already transcended.”
Saying so, Sophien sheathed her sword. Lia quickly ran over and handed her a towel, while Ahan offered a cool water flask. As if they were competing.
“Good.”
Holding the towel and water in both hands, Sophien looked at Keiron.
“Deculein has gone to Rohakan now?”
“Yes.”
“And Julie has been healed.”
At that moment, Ahan’s and Lia’s shoulders trembled slightly.
Keiron hesitated for a moment before nodding.
“Yes. Knight Julie has been healed.”
Julie, freed from every painful memory, curse, and wound.
It was no different from being released from a restriction, just like Sophien herself. Sophien was rather curious to see how rapidly Julie would grow.
“Good.”
“However, fortunately, Knight Julie does not remember the past.”
Keiron said. His tone seemed to say there was no need to worry. Yet Sophien’s reaction was unexpected.
“Why is that fortunate?”
“…….”
Keiron first closed his mouth. He could not yet tell whether this was one of the emperor’s common whims, a mischievous jest, or truly her genuine thought.
“That professor must be suffering, even if he does not say it. If Julie were to fall in love with some random fool…… Even I would not wish to see such a sight.”
Keiron quietly lowered his head. Inwardly, however, he smiled.
Because something precious called “empathy” was appearing in the emperor.
“But it is fine. In the end, I shall set it right.”
Sophien laughed softly. Then she waved a hand.
“Now, all of you return. I wish to rest comfortably alone. Only you stay, Lia.”
“……Yes.”
Sophien pointed directly at Lia and no one else.
Keiron and Ahan, for some reason seeming jealous, narrowed their eyes slightly as they glared at her before leaving the garden.
“Lia.”
Sophien sat at the tea table.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I have seen it, and I have heard it.”
“What…… do you mean?”
“Deculein burning Julie’s diary with his own hands.”
A memory that had been faint within her consciousness. At first, that scene had been distant, as though it were a hallucination or an auditory illusion, but as time passed, it rewound more and more clearly until now it had settled as an “absolute fact.”
“…….”
Lia silently widened her eyes.
“Deculein was the same as I.”
A faint smile spread across Sophien’s lips.
“Because he loved Julie, he wished for her not to be unhappy as much as he loved her.”
With a somewhat sentimental expression, she lowered her head. She looked at the teacup upon the tea table.
“……Lia. All of your advice was correct. A strange thing, truly. How is it that you understand Deculein, whose inner thoughts no one knows, so well?”
Sophien spoke. Lia quietly looked up at her. Soon, Sophien met her eyes as well.
“And so I have been thinking.”
Then, in a small voice, she whispered.
“Yu Ara.”
Lia’s heart stopped.
Finding Lia adorable, Sophien placed a hand on her small head.
“So that was you.”
* * *
Rohakan’s vineyard. I was walking among the vines, holding a pocket watch in one hand, in order to fulfill his request.
Shaaaaa…….
A clear wind swept in from the far side, and amid the fragrant, gently swaying scent of grapes, the person I was searching for soon appeared.
“Oh, you’re here~”
A child looked up at me and waved his arm cheerfully.
“……You have become younger, Rohakan.”
Rohakan, small in stature.
I quietly looked down at him, now transformed from an old man into a boy.
“Haha.”
Rohakan laughed energetically. Then he plucked two bunches of grapes. One for me, the other for himself.
“I was granting another disciple of mine a request, you see.”
Rohakan spoke as we walked through the vineyard. I shook my head.
“There was no need for you to go out of your way to do so. It was merely one meal—”
“Merely? Do you know how great a comfort that time must be for that child? Even if she had not asked, I would have done it myself.”
While we spoke, we reached Rohakan’s hut.
“Sit.”
Rohakan pointed to the wooden veranda.
I sat there and took out Epherene’s pocket watch.
“Epherene asked me to deliver this to you.”
“Hmm. Just keep it yourself.”
Rohakan looked at it and shook his head.
“In any case, I will no longer be able to meet her.”
“…….”
It was a declaration.
Though, looking at Rohakan’s current appearance, it was something I could tell from the start.
I said,
“So the time has come before we knew it.”
“To me, it has only been brief. I will go like this, but you still have work left to do, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
The negotiation with Quay.
However, Rohakan asked about what came after that.
“And after that, what about you?”
“…….”
I did not know what would happen to me after that.
I already knew this body did not have much life left. Therefore, if I were given the option to return to Kim Woojin’s world……
“I am thinking it over.”
“Yes. I suppose you would be.”
Rohakan smiled gently.
“By the way. That fellow Quay is quite a pitiful ancestor.”
“Is that so?”
“One who served a god, unable to accept that god’s death, remained alone for far too many years.”
Quay was the final boss. The most devout, and the most unfortunate believer.
What choice would he make at the end?
“Deculein.”
Rohakan turned to look at me. Unlike usual, his expression was solemn.
“There is not much time left.”
“……Yes. I know.”
The conclusion of this world, the end of the main quest, was no longer far away.
Then a sly smile returned to Rohakan’s lips.
“Before that. Are you not going to meet Julie anymore?”
“No.”
“Liar. You must want to see her too.”
“I will be going.”
I rose from my seat. Even knowing Rohakan would die now, there was not much for us to say.
But behind me, Rohakan stubbornly added,
“Take a few grapes with you and give them to her as a gift. They are white grapes, good for rehabilitation.”
I stopped for a moment and looked back at him. Boy Rohakan smiled brightly and waved his arm.
“Farewell. I’ll die well.”
“……Yes. Thank you.”
I gave a small nod. Rohakan scratched the back of his neck as if embarrassed and gestured at me.
“Thank you, you say. It doesn’t suit you. Be off with you. Deculein, and……”
He paused for a moment, then raised his eyebrows slyly. As though he were expecting me to say it myself.
I granted his wish.
“Kim Woojin.”
Another soul, young within my body.
“……Yes. Kim Woojin.”
Rohakan must have realized its existence at some point—perhaps quite a long time ago.
“That is a good name.”
* * *
Meanwhile, Idnik, Allen, and Julie returned from “Time” to the empire. Their destination, for now, was Freyden.
“You possess truly remarkable talent.”
With only a single 「Stride」, they arrived at the foot of Freyden’s mountains.
Julie looked at Allen in admiration. Allen merely smiled faintly without a word.
Idnik asked,
“How is your body?”
“I am all right.”
“Good.”
As they climbed the cold, frozen mountain path, the two conversed.
“You still do not understand what I told you, do you?”
“No.”
Young Julie was confident in everything.
“Was I truly cursed?”
Of course, she knew the rough outline. She had been cursed and suffered for over a decade, then detoxified through “Before Time,” the only method of healing.
That was all.
—Yes. That is correct.
A chilling voice seeped in from somewhere. The three flinched in surprise and turned toward it.
Beneath the shade of a cold tree, shadows clumped together and formed the shape of a person.
“Hello, Julie.”
It was Julie’s older sister, Josephine. Julie looked at her with somewhat unsettled eyes.
“Sister…….”
“Thank you.”
Josephine strode over and linked arms with Julie while looking back and forth between Idnik and Allen.
“For saving Julie.”
“……We are not the ones you should thank.”
“Are you speaking of that child, Epherene?”
Josephine smiled radiantly. Idnik found that smile somewhat eerie.
“……Yes. But I don’t see where she has gone.”
“Then I will be sure to repay her later.”
“I heard Freyden’s condition is not good. Is repayment possible?”
“What?!”
At that, Julie let out a sharp cry.
“What do you mean, Freyden’s condition is not good?”
“……Shh. We will talk about that later.”
Josephine placed a hand over her mouth and pulled Julie along.
“Then, I will take Julie with me now.”
“……Do as you like.”
Idnik nodded.
* * *
Freyden, the Winter Castle.
Julie had returned to her hometown after a long time, but she lost her words at the climate and scenery that had grown brutally cold.
“……An ice age?”
An ice age had come to Freyden.
The frozen earth had wholly transformed into glaciers, the farmlands were frozen over, and even the wild beasts had frozen to death.
“Yes. Freyden is in very poor condition. Sit down first.”
Josephine sat in the dining room and pointed to the seat opposite her. Julie hesitantly sat there.
“You are hungry, aren’t you?”
“……Yes.”
Julie answered somewhat honestly. Josephine smiled faintly as well.
“The meal will be served soon. More importantly, you must have many questions?”
“Of course. But my brother and Father……”
“Father passed away. We held the funeral as well. All of us together.”
For an instant, Julie’s eyes widened.
“Father…… did?”
Her eyes grew moist in an instant.
“Do not cry.”
Josephine wiped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.
“That is why Zeit is our family head now, but at the moment he has left to resolve this ice age.”
“…….”
Julie was dazed.
It was only natural. A gap of ten years could not be narrowed so easily.
For Julie, her father, who had been perfectly fine just last night, had died, and peaceful Freyden had become an ice age.
“……What about me? What should I do?”
“For now, leave Freyden. Nothing good will come of staying here.”
“What? Then where am I to go?”
“You are still a university student, aren’t you?”
At Josephine’s words, Julie unconsciously nodded.
At least, in Julie’s memories, she was indeed a university student.
To be precise, a knight cadet of the Imperial University’s affiliated knight order.
“Then you must go to the university. Stay at the university. While staying there……”
Josephine took out a thick bundle of documents. It was the minutes from the Freyden family meetings.
“These are records from the past ten years. As you read them, you must accept the passage of time on your own. Will you be all right?”
Julie slapped her swollen, puffed-out cheeks and answered.
“Yes. But is it truly true that Father has passed away, and that I was cursed?”
“……Yes. It will all be in the minutes, but it is true.”
Josephine’s expression grew rather sorrowful. Then she handed Julie another briefcase.
“Take it. Inside are a train ticket to the empire, your identification, spending money, and your student ID.”
“…….”
“Do not worry too much. Your sister will be watching over you.”
Julie picked up the identification. But when she saw what was written on it, she tilted her head.
“The name is different.”
“……Yes. Even if you tell people you are yourself from ten years ago, they will not believe you. And if you say that, you will also catch the eye of the Purifier.”
“The Purifier…….”
Julie quietly murmured.
She had heard of it before.
The Floating Island’s Purifier.
“Julie. You came back to life through an absurd magic called Before Time. If the Purifier sees you, what do you think they will think?”
“…….”
Julie understood as well. She set the briefcase down beside her chair.
Just then, the meal arrived.
It was boar meat. However, even at a glance, it was not in good condition.
Josephine gave a bitter smile.
“Everything brought up to the castle is wild beasts that froze to death. You know Zeit’s personality. We eat the same as the people of the territory.”
“Yes. That is better.”
Julie nodded and tore into a boar hind leg. She hesitated for a moment after taking a bite—because it tasted terrible—but still forced herself to chew.
“And…… Julie.”
“Yes.”
Crunch, crunch. To her, tearing into the meat like a bandit, Josephine said,
“Beware of Deculein.”
“……Pardon? By Deculein, do you mean the one from the Magic Tower?”
“Yes. He is now the chairman of the Magic Tower.”
“?!”
Julie’s eyes flew wide open.
It was more shocking news than anything else.
Of course, he had been famous as a mage with excellent achievements and handsome looks, or rather, he had been famous, but to think he had become chairman……
“But why is that man dangerous?”
“……You will understand once you read the meeting minutes.”
Whooooo—
At that moment, a hail-laden cold wind struck the window. Josephine rested her chin in her hand and murmured softly,
“He is your former fiancé. The one whose engagement you broke off because of the curse.”
Gulp—
Julie’s throat bobbed loudly.