The Lighthouse of the Extinct Land was the main quest line that continued to the very end. The worst ending, in which an otherworldly ore was drawn in and the continent destroyed.
Thus, Lia’s eyes as she looked at Deculein now held doubt and hostility.
“……Repairing the lighthouse?”
Carlos asked. Lia put a finger to her lips.
“Shh.”
Then she focused on observing again. Just in case she had seen wrong.
Gooooooo——
Deculein’s 「Psychokinesis」 moved the lighthouse. The enormous lighthouse, like the body of a giant, was dismantled, disassembled, and reassembled over and over…… ‘evolving’ into a more proper structure.
“Why…….”
Lia could not understand.
As far as she was concerned, Deculein was certainly not a ‘good man.’ He was not a hero who would sacrifice himself to save the continent, like Yulie or Ganesha.
However, he had changed quite a lot from the original work, becoming a man obsessed with principles and rules, one who desired the glory of his house and claimed to be the Emperor’s loyal subject—a nobleman through and through.
“…….”
Watching him build the lighthouse in the Extinct Land, Lia bit hard on her fingernail.
—Tap.
At that moment, a sound came from behind. Cold footsteps brushed the necks of Lia and her group.
“……Priests?”
For now, Lia warmed mana through her body and looked at whoever was climbing the stairs…….
Yulie?
“Huh? Lady Knight?”
It was Yulie. She, too, looked up at Lia.
“Miss Lia. Are you all right?”
“……What? You just came here?”
“Yes. I decided to leave matters below to Patriarch Zeit.”
Come to think of it, he was not someone who would be helped just because I tried to help him. Yulie muttered bitterly as she joined Lia’s group.
“But why did you rush out in such haste?”
Yulie asked. Lia looked back up at the surface of the Extinct Land.
Deculein was the same as ever.
He was building the lighthouse with his mana. The blue and cold nature of 「Snowflower Stone」 was being bestowed upon the lighthouse.
If that happened, the lighthouse would not be damaged.
It would be able to endure even the demonic storms that occasionally raged through the Extinct Land, the torrential rains of demonic energy, lightning, and every other kind of disaster.
Because 「Snowflower Stone」 was that sort of metal.
“…….”
Lia silently turned to look at Yulie.
A face that had forgotten all memories, including those of Deculein, and me reflected in those transparent pupils.
At that moment.
A certain hypothesis surfaced in Lia’s mind.
“……No way.”
The meaning that Yulie and she herself held for Deculein.
It might be a kind of setting and relationship, or it might be part of the programming.
However, whichever of the two it was…….
“There’s no way it didn’t hurt.”
Before she knew it, Lia lowered her head.
Deculein had lost both of his fiancées.
One was the setting called ‘Yu Ara’ that she had inserted out of greed.
The other was the knight named ‘Yulie’ looking at her here and now.
“……Pardon?”
Looking at Yulie as she asked back, Lia felt a certain pain in her heart.
There was no way it didn’t hurt.
There was no way he was fine.
Seeing me, who resembled his former fiancée; seeing Yulie, who had forgotten every memory.
Deculein’s insides, the depths of his heart that no one could see, had been slowly rotting away.
“……For now.”
Was it my negligence, having thought of Deculein as steel or some great tree all this time?
Was it my immaturity, deciding he was nothing but a firm great tree or steel without ever trying to understand his heart?
Lia pressed down on her own temple. She clenched her fist tightly.
“For now…….”
Her head hurt.
The next words would not come out.
If Deculein had truly turned into an enemy, if he had joined the final boss’s side…….
—Outsiders, are you?
At that moment, a chilling voice rang out. Lia and her group hurriedly raised their eyes and turned toward it.
From below the stairs, someone was approaching, tap, tap— deliberately making his footsteps heard.
—Hm.
The man in robes let out a leisurely hum as he looked up at them.
“You are outsiders, then?”
That voice was somewhat familiar to Lia. So was the lower half of his face, faintly revealed.
“……Your Highness?!”
At the title Lia shouted without realizing it, Yulie’s eyes widened.
“A phone? What phone?”
Leo muttered that, and Carlos struck him on the head.
Thwack—!
“Be quiet.”
“Argh!”
“Haha.”
The man Lia had called Your Highness, that is, Kreto, laughed softly and pulled back the hood of his robe. Yulie immediately lowered herself to one knee.
“I greet His Highness Kreto.”
“There’s no need for that sort of courtesy anymore. I have devoted myself to the Altar.”
“……?”
Lia and Yulie’s mouths opened at the same time.
Kreto snapped his fingers. Then, around him, a spirit with a faint form rippled.
It was a ‘Messenger.’
“God has permitted it to me. The things God created, I can use as well.”
Kreto stared at Lia. Lia gulped.
“Adventurer Lia. I would like to entrust you with a request.”
“……Yes?”
“As you think, Deculein is also cooperating with the Altar.”
“!”
“What?!”
Yulie’s eyes widened. Leo and Carlos wore similar expressions.
“…….”
What answer would be the right one? While Lia was pondering, he took out a map from inside his robe.
“So, take it. It is a map of the Altar’s Sanctuary. Deliver this to Her Majesty Sophien. Her Majesty will know at once what to do.”
“Yes?”
To the bewildered Lia, Kreto personally handed the map. Then he continued in a low voice with a smile.
“The only one who can stop the Altar is Her Majesty.”
“……Yes.”
At those words, Lia realized. Kreto had infiltrated on purpose for Sophien’s sake.
“And…… Knight Yulie.”
He called to Yulie, who was still kneeling. At the call of ‘Yulie,’ Yulie flinched in surprise.
However, hiding herself even from royalty was not the way of a knight.
Yulie bowed her upper body at an angle and answered.
“Yes. I am Knight Yulie. Your Highness Kreto.”
“Good. Zeit is here.”
“……Yes.”
“He has been trapped in the garden.”
“?”
Yulie’s face was dyed with innocent confusion.
First of all, it was a matter of time.
The Zeit Yulie believed in was not a man who could be suppressed so quickly.
“Do not worry. His life is not in danger. Lia. Open the map.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Lia showed the map. Kreto pointed at one place on it with his finger.
“The garden. Zeit is here.”
“Then—”
“You, too, would only be trapped right now.”
Gently restraining Yulie, Kreto took something out.
It was a ‘sword.’
“……This is?”
“A sword. A sword made of Snowflower Stone.”
“……!”
Snowflower Stone.
A metal more expensive than diamond of the same weight, and especially to Yulie, who hailed from Phairden, something she had considered a dream.
She stared at the sword in astonishment.
“I have used it for self-defense until now…… but it seems it would suit you better.”
The blue blade had been perfectly tempered, and the patterns engraved on its surface were circuits that aided mana transmission.
As a swordsman, and as a knight, it was a weapon as beautiful as a work of art, one that could not help but stir greed.
However, Yulie looked down at her own waist. The old, sharp sword she had used for ten years was…….
“If you have become a new person, you should use a new sword.”
At Kreto’s words, Yulie trembled.
“Haha. Also, refusing the favor of royalty would not be proper etiquette for a knight.”
“……Yes.”
Kreto laughed lowly and bestowed the sword upon her shoulder, and Yulie received it with the courtesy of a knight.
“Then you all should return now. Return again with Her Majesty.”
Kreto moved his hand as if conducting. The ‘Messenger’ moved accordingly.
Only then did Lia realize the identity of the one who had controlled the ‘Messengers’ of the Imperial Palace and transported them here.
“……Was it Your Highness Kreto who brought us here?”
“…….”
At Lia’s cautious question, Kreto merely smiled faintly.
* * *
Whoooooosh──
Along with the resonance of mana, the space changed. Lia, Yulie, Leo, and Carlos slowly opened their eyes.
It was the room where they had been playing cards until just now.
From the Sanctuary of the Extinct Land, they had returned to the Imperial Palace.
“……It feels like a dream.”
Lia muttered. That was how bewildering, and how sudden, it had been.
“Yes. It does.”
Yulie said that and looked up at the ceiling.
Kreto’s voice from just now replayed by her ear.
‘Zeit has been trapped in the garden.’
“……To be honest, it still feels like a lie. That Patriarch Zeit could be defeated so quickly.”
The Zeit Yulie knew was the strongest. He had been so before, and he was still so now.
Lia reassured her.
“He said his life isn’t in danger, so he’ll be all right. And I think I roughly know how he was defeated.”
At that, Yulie whipped her head around.
“You know?”
“Yes. He said he was trapped in the garden.”
Trapped in the garden.
There was indeed a setting that came to mind from those words.
The final boss’s authority was 「The Outside of the World」.
In other words, it was the authority to separate existence from the world. No matter how much of a monster Zeit was, as long as he was human, he could not oppose an authority, so he must have been isolated to 「The Outside of the World」.
“I’ll go to Her Majesty. I have something to deliver.”
Lia took the map out from inside her clothes. Then she looked at Yulie with a somewhat complicated expression.
“……Please speak.”
Yulie’s expression, telling her to speak, was firm. Seeing her, Lia smiled faintly.
Dependable.
Indeed, Yulie, with no injuries, no limits, and no restraints, had talent equal to Sophien’s, surpassing Zeit.
Before she fell into 「Eternal Winter」, before Yulie’s heart froze entirely, she had one of the most dazzling talent settings: 「The Four Seasons」.
The power encompassing all four seasons existed within her.
“……Be careful of Deculein.”
Lia said to her.
“Deculein is our enemy now.”
The Deculein of the present, the one cooperating with the Altar and designing the lighthouse, was now their enemy.
“……Is what His Highness Kreto said about Deculein cooperating with the Altar true?”
To Yulie, who asked back with a grave face, Lia answered.
“Yes. He is building the lighthouse.”
* * *
The next day, early morning.
Yulie was pacing the corridors of the Imperial Palace, waiting for Sylvia.
“Why…….”
No matter how long she waited, Sylvia did not come out.
Moreover, Lia’s words from last night also grated on her mind. They kept circling in her head.
Deculein was an enemy.
Deculein was now their enemy.
Lia had also told her the detailed reason, had spoken of the ‘lighthouse,’ the tool that would destroy the continent, but from her sorrowful expression, Yulie somehow read her heart.
“Even while hoping he is not an enemy…… she has no choice but to say he is.”
Lia’s heart had been exactly that.
However, Yulie knew nothing.
She simply could not understand.
She could not possibly keep up with the gap of ten years.
“Hm. Is that Knight Yulie?”
A voice called to her as she paced. Yulie turned toward it and bowed her head.
“Yes. Sir Raphael.”
Raphael.
Her old comrade and senior, but now their connection had been completely severed, leaving him merely an older man more than twelve years her senior.
In truth, Raphael had aged greatly.
“Are you waiting for the chosen mage?”
“Yes. I heard Sir Raphael is Ihelm’s escort.”
“That’s right. That fellow doesn’t have many friends, so there’s no one to do it if not me.”
Heh heh. Raphael laughed and beckoned.
“By the way, I’m bored. Shall we go out to the training ground for a bit? I’m curious about your skill.”
“Ah. Is that so?”
“Yes. You resemble an old friend of mine far too much.”
An old friend.
He probably meant Yulie—that is, herself.
“……Yes.”
Yulie followed him with a slightly complicated expression.
Step, step. Step, step.
As they walked toward the Imperial Palace’s training ground, Raphael said,
“Your name is similar, and you are from Phairden as well, so for some reason you feel familiar to me.”
“Is that so?”
“And…… hm?”
At that moment, Raphael’s words stopped.
He was looking somewhere outside the window.
“……Yes?”
Yulie asked in confusion, but there was no answer. He merely looked somewhere in silence. His eyes, as he stared, busily chased something, and the more they did, the wider his pupils grew, expanding with surprise.
Yulie belatedly followed his gaze.
“……Ah.”
She quickly understood the reason.
It was Deculein.
Deculein was swinging a sword on the training ground.
As if it were his morning exercise, he was performing a sword dance.
That sword dance was of a kind Yulie had once seen before.
At the knights’ order’s training field, the one that had drawn her admiration…….
“…….”
Then.
As if sensing their gaze, Deculein stopped moving. He looked this way. His eyes met Raphael’s and Yulie’s.
Shrrk—
Watching him sheath his sword, Yulie’s body moved on its own.
Before she knew it, Yulie shouted.
It was close to an instinct that said, ‘I want to see more of his swordsmanship.’
“Would you spar with me?!”
Deculein’s brow furrowed in puzzlement.