Physical training and magical practice are part of my daily schedule. A routine I adhere to without fail.
So that, even if the body of the “Iron Man” slowly collapses before long, and the weight of my life gradually grows lighter, my “principles” can support it all.
So that even if my body dies, I can remain alive and moving.
……And yet.
“…….”
I looked at Yulie in silence.
With her cheeks puffed out, as though she had already prepared herself for how she might appear to me, she approached with a calm face and asked about swordsmanship and sparring.
“Sparring?”
I asked back briefly.
“Yes. In truth, this is the second time I have seen your swordsmanship, Count.”
“The second time.”
Yulie nodded.
“I saw it at the Imperial University Knight Order.”
Raphael, beside her, laughed amiably.
“……She is my junior knight, Yuri. A hot-blooded knight from Pheirden, so it seems she has many questions. By the way, that form just now?”
Though he said that, Raphael, too, seemed curious about the form I had just performed.
Well, to me, it was no more than a warm-up now, but knights would recognize it at a glance. This form had been designed more efficiently and naturally than any other sword art.
Sheathing my sword, I said,
“It is merely part of my physical training.”
“For training, it looked perfect. The linkage and composition of the forms were clear, too.”
Raphael cut in. I furrowed my brow.
“Do not misunderstand. I am not coveting it. My swordsmanship is already one with me, so even if I wanted to change it, I could not. It’s just that your sword dance is quietly famous among knights.”
“……Famous?”
“Yes. Quite a few people have witnessed that physical training of yours. At Reccordak, I saw it myself.”
Reccordak. There, I had broken Yulie with my sword.
Raphael smirked.
“But you seem to have improved even more since then. Enough to make me want to cross swords—”
“There is no need.”
Cutting him off, I studied Yulie’s face for a moment. Yulie, on the other hand, subtly avoided my gaze.
“……You are young.”
Young.
Innocent.
Clearly, she was not the Yulie I knew. The Yulie before me now was a Yulie known only to “Deculein.”
In the memories of me, who was both Deculein and Kim Woojin, there was no Yulie this young.
“Yes. A young knight. Like you and me, she is from the Imperial University.”
“…….”
“But, Deculein. Are you not curious? About what Yulie is doing now.”
Then Raphael asked.
Yulie flinched along with his words. Then and now, it seemed she was not accustomed to hiding herself.
“It has been several months since she disappeared…… The world says Yulie is dead, but I know that is not true. You do too, don’t you?”
Raphael’s voice, as he said that, was somewhat steeped in sentiment.
Perhaps growing old had caused some hormonal issues.
“Yulie is alive, Deculein. Gwen and I, all of our cohort, believe so.”
As Raphael spoke of Yulie, he glanced at Yulie. To Raphael now, Yulie was nothing more than a young knight who resembled Yulie.
Thanks to that, only Yulie was sitting on pins and needles.
Raphael smiled bitterly.
“Ah. I said something strange for no reason when I was supposed to be introducing my junior. I think I’ve grown too old. Are you all right, junior?”
“……Yes. I am all right.”
She bowed her head once, then slowly raised her eyes to mine again and said,
“However, Count. That form tempts me. Somehow, I feel it suits me, and I wish to cross swords with you now. I wish to seek instruction.”
“…….”
Yulie was bold.
And lively.
The personality the old Yulie now displayed, the way she asserted herself, was very different from the distant future.
Was it because she had not been stained by Deculein?
“There is no need to cross swords. I will have my secretary handle it.”
I spoke. Yulie tilted her head with her eyes wide.
“I have left the forms in writing.”
“Yes?”
Just as Yulie had said that it somehow seemed to suit her, just as she had felt by instinct, this form was a sword art more suited to Yulie than to anyone else.
From the beginning, I had designed it to fit her body, taking into account even the nature and characteristics of her mana, her personality, and her habits.
Therefore, it was only natural that I had recorded it. It had been, in the first place, a form meant solely for Yulie, to be delivered to Yulie.
“If you want it, I will give it to you.”
“……Would that be all right?”
Yulie’s face showed genuine surprise. Then Raphael gave her a gentle look.
“Junior. Whether it is all right is not for you to decide. All you need do is say thank—”
“There is no need for thanks either. It is of no use to me, a mage.”
I cut Raphael off.
“I will have someone deliver it to you today. Do not trouble me any further.”
Leaving the two of them in the garden, I turned away.
* * *
“……Really? Deculein gave you the forms?”
The imperial palace garden.
After finishing her spar with Raphael, Yulie was having refreshments with Lia, who had joined her belatedly.
“Yes. The Count said he would give me the written record of the forms.”
“Anything else?”
In truth, the reason Yulie had deliberately contacted Deculein despite the risk of “having her identity exposed” was also, to some extent, to probe him.
“Nothing. He left before I could say anything more.”
“Hooong…….”
Stroking her chin with a finger, Lia was still lost in thought.
Ever since returning from the Sanctuary, she had not slept a wink, spending every moment worrying.
“Please do not worry too much.”
Watching her, Yulie spoke.
“The Count surely has his reasons as well. The Deculein I know was, of course, a famous figure with a strong desire for recognition and a tendency to become the subject of gossip, but he was not a madman who would sell out the continent.”
“……What if he is?”
“Yes?”
“What if Deculein has undergone a very great change of heart and has decided to do just that?”
Even as she replied that way, Lia found herself snorting for no reason.
After all, the two “greatest causes” of Deculein’s betrayal—if it truly was a betrayal—were having this conversation with each other.
“Then we stop him. You are strong, Miss Lia.”
“…….”
Yulie’s answer was simple.
Lia fidgeted with her lips and asked again.
“That easily?”
“It will be difficult. But there is a way, is there not?”
“……What is it?”
“Unification.”
Yulie smiled faintly.
“Everyone is worried, just as you are, Miss Lia. We stop him together with them. Even at the Imperial University, there should be many who will lend their strength immediately.”
The Dark Forest of the Imperial University. The mysterious helper they had met there—whom Yulie strongly suspected to be “Gawain”—as well as Lia, Leo, and Carlos here now, not to mention Raphael, Gwen, and Vice Captain Isaac.
The more righteous wills gather, the stronger they become.
“Well…… More importantly, aren’t you worried?”
“Mm? Are you speaking of Lord Zeit, the head of the house?”
“Yes.”
No matter how strong Zeit was, if his opponent was the final boss, it could be difficult.
Yulie answered calmly.
“Lord Zeit is not someone the likes of me should worry about. He is the sort of person who would hate even the fact that I was worrying over him in the first place.”
“…….”
True. If I were Yulie, I don’t think I’d worry about Zeit either.
Just as Lia nodded.
“Ah, you’re still here.”
Raphael, who had stepped away for a moment, returned with a certain knight.
“Come here, Delric. This is Knight Yuri.”
It was Delric, the emperor’s escort knight.
“Sir Delric, you’re here?”
Greeting him with a childlike smile, Lia whispered to Yulie.
—He’s one of Deculein’s closest aides. The closest, closest, closest.
A knight of the imperial palace said to be the closest of the closest of the closest aides. Yulie looked at Delric as well.
“Huh.”
When their eyes met, Delric flinched and shook his shoulders. The wrinkles on his face moved on their own. His expression was neither quite admiration nor shock.
“……She certainly does resemble her.”
She resembled Yulie.
That was what Yulie, rewound ten years into the past, had heard most often so far.
She truly did resemble her, but she was too young and innocent to be suspected, so everyone merely said it with a look of astonishment.
“Ahem.”
After clearing his throat, Delric took a neatly bound booklet from his breast. Yulie’s large eyes looked at the paper book.
“You said you were Knight Yuri. Take it. This is what Captain Deculein of the Imperial Guard is giving you…… a bound swordsmanship manual.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Delric trudged over and placed the booklet on the table. Even as he did, he kept studying Yulie’s face before asking carefully,
“So. You are still a university knight?”
“Yes.”
“……You are young. Your future seems bright, so devote yourself to your training. Ah, and do not think of using this as an opportunity to cling to the Captain of the Guard. A day like today will not come again.”
With that warning, Delric glanced at the booklet.
“If you understand, open it.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Yulie also looked at the booklet. For now, the title on the cover was simple.
[The Trajectory of Forms Grafted with the Harmony School]
The Harmony School and forms.
Harmony referred to a school of magic, and forms meant swordsmanship forms, exactly as written.
“……Hurry and read it.”
“Yes. The title is fresh.”
At Delric and Raphael’s respective urging, Yulie turned the first page. The first thing she saw was elegant lettering. A hand from which the dignity of a noble flowed profoundly.
Yulie read the sentences with admiration.
─The forms I have devised are not forms allotted simply to the sword and swordsmanship alone. They are a sword art that assimilates with the environment in which the forms are deployed—that is, with “nature,” such as the earth and the air. Therefore, they can be said to have been inspired by the “Harmony School” among the eight schools of magic…….
A brief introduction explaining the forms.
Swordsmanship forms inspired by a school of magic, something she had never seen before in her life.
Yulie, of course, read with focus, and Delric, Raphael, and Lia, too, were now scanning the sentences with serious faces as though peeking.
─Thus, these forms will become a sword that utilizes “air currents.” They will also become a sword that changes according to environment and climate. If they advance and progress further, they may become a sword that controls and encompasses the seasons.
A sword that controls and encompasses the seasons.
It was difficult to understand just by reading, but the moment she turned to the next page, a very clear illustration appeared.
It was a form depicted in detail like an anatomical diagram. Not only the movements, but even the “flow of mana” required for them was expressed.
Scrape—
Yulie pushed her chair back and rose. She immediately grasped her sword and performed the form.
First, a horizontal slash flowing from the upper right to the lower left.
The core of this form was to make the “direction of the wind” generated when swinging the sword and the “grain of mana” emitted from within the body become equivalent.
In other words—the form was to be performed so that one’s sword and mana did not go against the nature of the surrounding area, but instead harmonized with nature…….
……And so, perhaps about two hours passed.
“Can you learn it?”
Lia asked.
Yulie quickly nodded. Her face was exceedingly bright.
“Yes. I think two weeks will be enough.”
“Only two weeks?”
“That is recklessness, junior.”
Only two weeks. Lia, Raphael, and Delric all looked at Yulie with faces that said it was absurd.
“No.”
But Yulie shook her head. With bright eyes, she looked at the booklet.
Of course, she had still only skimmed about twenty pages, roughly one form, but—
“It is perfect enough that only two weeks will suffice.”
To Yulie, this booklet was that good. In every respect, it was easy to understand.
It was, so to speak, a perfect fit.
“Really?”
“Yes. Especially if you look at this part.”
Yulie paused for a moment, then pointed to a certain paragraph in the booklet.
Not only was each movement of the form described in great detail, there were also helpful “footnotes.”
“There are parts the Count has written out. It is as though he already knows where I would struggle, and what questions I would ask. If I feel I do not quite understand a form, there is immediately an additional explanation for that very point.”
Yulie found that fascinating. Rather than a bound swordsmanship manual or textbook, it felt as though Deculein was teaching her from right beside her.
“……Hmm.”
Lia snorted for no reason.
Deculein knew that this Yulie was Yulie. So this textbook must have been made deliberately to give to Yulie.
“Then now, Sir Knight, return to the knight order.”
Lia said. But Yulie still had a duty to fulfill.
“Mage Sephin has not yet—”
“She’ll come out soon. Today’s schedule is over. So go to the knight order and do what you must do, Sir Knight. Until I call you again, you can master the swordsmanship completely, right?”
A suddenly mature manner of speech, and a voice sunk low and deep.
Facing this somehow suspicious adventurer, Yuli nodded.
“……Yes. I will return with the mage I am guarding.”
* * *
Night, drenched in darkness.
Sylvia returned to the guest room after nearly thirty-six hours.
Having had everything sucked out of her(?) by the emperor all this time, her whole body felt languid, but her mana was still brimming.
In this way, even Sylvia herself did not know her own limits.
If measured in numbers, it felt as though she had consumed tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of mana, yet aside from mental fatigue, she was perfectly fine.
Because of that, Sylvia did not rest even in the VIP room.
Not as the emperor’s magic tutor, but as a mere part-time lecturer of the Magic Tower, she continued preparing lessons, writing textbooks, and researching papers.
“……Are you going to keep watching me like that?”
But there was one person who bothered her.
Yuli, whom she had deliberately brought along. Unaware that her identity had been discovered, Yuli stood blankly in one corner of the VIP room, guarding her.
“Even inside the Imperial Palace, I fulfill my duty.”
Of course, she wasn’t only guarding her. She was holding some book in one hand.
Sylvia peered at its cover and asked,
“What’s that?”
On the cover was scrawled: [The Path of Forms into Which the Harmony Series Has Been Grafted].
In truth, Sylvia could tell at a glance. It was Deculein’s handwriting.
“It is a swordsmanship form. The Count assigned it to me.”
“…….”
She felt pointlessly jealous, but Sylvia was now sufficiently grown-up. An adult who could sufficiently suppress mere emotions.
“Mage Sephin.”
But then, Yuli abruptly set the book down. Then, in a rather solemn voice, she said,
“May I ask you just one thing?”
“……What?”
At that moment, Yuli’s expression changed. Suddenly stiffening, she asked as if exhaling in a low breath,
“How did you know my identity?”
“…….”
Sylvia was briefly flustered, and Yuli calmly continued.
“In the car, Mage Sephin, you called me Yuli.”
On the way to the Imperial Palace, inside the car, Sylvia had called Yuri “Yuli,” and Yuli had answered unconsciously.
No—she had mistaken herself for answering unconsciously.
“Of course, the names are similar, but not so much that they should be confused.”
……I underestimated this woman too much.
No matter how young she was, Yuli had her own thread of sharpness.
Sylvia blamed herself a little and smiled a little.
“However, what I am more curious about than that is, in truth, the relationship between Count Deculein and myself.”
“……Relationship?”
“Yes.”
Yuli let out a small sigh and, with a somewhat forlorn smile, said something that to Sylvia was close to a bombshell declaration.
“Count Deculein, too, seemed to already know who I was.”
“…….”
“Of course, I doubt he knows for certain. It is probably only a ‘vague sense.’ Just as you, Mage Sephin, tested me by calling my name.”
This woman—why is she so quick on the uptake?
Sylvia felt needlessly flustered.
How had a woman who had been like a bear become, after growing ten years younger, a nine-tailed fox more foxlike than any fox?
“So…… if you happen to know anything at all.”
“Why are you curious about that? Are your family’s meeting minutes not enough?”
Sylvia pointed at Yuli’s bag. Yuli also turned to look that way.
Inside it, a corner of the Freyden meeting minutes was jutting out.
“Yes. According to these minutes, Deculein is a vile bastard who deserves death. Every time I read them, there are parts that make anger surge up in me. However…….”
Yuli looked straight at Sylvia again and said,
“I intend to believe only what I see and hear for myself.”
“……Why?”
Sylvia’s voice trembled for the first time. A rise and fall entered her question.
“Because, for some reason, the me of the past seems to have been swayed by things that were not me.”
“…….”
At those words from Yuli, Sylvia withdrew her gaze. She looked down outside the window of the VIP room. Closing her eyes for a moment, she manifested the spell called “Wind” and pursued Deculein.
He was in the Imperial Palace.
In a not-so-distant VIP room, he was reviewing a paper.
“……Oh.”
What sort of coincidence was this, now?
The name written on that paper was “Sephin.”
Right now, Deculein was reviewing my paper.
“Mage Sephin.”
Yuli called her again. Sylvia glanced sideways at her and shook her head.
“You said you believe only what you see and hear, so why are you trying to listen to me?”
“……That is.”
“In the past, there was a phenomenon called ‘Echo.’”
Sylvia began in a low voice.
Echo.
A phenomenon triggered by the demon called Voice, in which voices from the past lingered in the present.
Among them, the voice of the past Yuli—that is, the Yuli from ten years later—certainly existed as well.
“I won’t tell you what kind of phenomenon it was.”
“…….”
“A teacher does not teach by cramming. It remains as a record, so find it yourself.”
Yuli understood what she meant as well.
“Echo……” she murmured softly, clenching her fist tight.
“Yes. Understood. I will look into it myself.”
It was at that moment.
Rattle—!
The window suddenly opened, and a fierce wind rushed in from outside. Within it, a single sheet of paper fluttered down and settled.
Sylvia held back her scattering hair and picked up the note.
“…….”
A very small white slip of paper, one most people would think was worthless trash.
And atop it, a very faint aura of mana layered over it.
Sylvia knew whose mana this was, who had sent this note.
After all, it belonged to the very person who had made Yuli ten years younger.
“……Where are you?”
And yet, she could not sense that person’s presence at all.
Sylvia swept her gaze outside the window and muttered,
“Impudent Epherene. Just where are you?”
“……Epherene? Who is that?”
Yuli asked back. Sylvia turned to her and answered,
“The person who saved your life. But right now, she’s an idiot who got thrown out of time.”
Then, as if responding to the word “idiot”—
Whoooooosh—
An even rougher wind surged in sharply…….