Every person on the continent—no, every life—no, every “existence” is subordinate to time.
The life of an existence is always held fast by time, and is also constituted according to time.
Life is, in the end, the gaining of time; death, in the end, the exhaustion of the time one has been given.
Thus, time is an absolute shackle that binds even the smallest natural thing on the continent… and yet.
Epherene is not included within that providence of nature.
She is not subordinate to time, nor constrained by it.
A mutant who has deviated from the perfectly straight “line” of time, from which no one can escape, and drifts apart from it.
She belongs not to “time,” but to an “interval.”
The beginning of that interval was the moment “Sophien’s regression” entered her body.
The end of that interval is… the activation of the “Lighthouse.”
In other words—
The continent’s destruction.
Thus, the end of the interval clearly exists, and Epherene is endlessly repeating the time between the interval’s beginning and its end.
Like, say, a radio’s “section repeat.”
That span of less than two years—Epherene has been passing through it alone for decades.
Rustle—
This is somewhere in the Empire. The downtown district, where a murky wind swirls. A sheet of newspaper blown in flutters near her ankles.
Epherene lifted it with only a glance.
[…Captain of the Guard Deculein Faces Expulsion Crisis]
The newspaper’s headline is concise.
Deculein’s downfall.
He, who had always radiated his dignity from a lofty height, is collapsing. Everything he has built is in jeopardy, and under attack.
The Magic Tower, the Round Table, and the Floating Island have gathered together to denounce him, while the Imperial Family remains silent.
Epherene can do nothing but watch those outcomes.
Because she must not interfere.
“……”
Taking her eyes from the newspaper, Epherene begins walking again. Her purpose now is simple.
To imprison as many people as possible in Quay’s “Painting Prison.”
Whether ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million… to lock them all away, so that even if the continent is destroyed, at least their lives will be preserved.
Because the comet from the outer world will inevitably fall.
Because the destruction of the continent is an established fact.
—Barcious….
At that moment, a small resonance whispers beside Epherene’s ear.
An incantation.
The instant she recognizes it, mana rises from some gap in time and space, seizing Epherene. It drags her in by force.
However, she is not bewildered.
Rather, it is what she expected.
“Mm. So this is how I die.”
Epherene knows of the events related to her.
She is vaguely aware that the Floating Island once tried to kill her and failed.
Because she once obtained a file called—
[Epherene File]
The exterminators who chased me all died, apparently.
“…Or rather, it isn’t that I die, but that I kill them?”
Most likely, I killed them.
Because if I don’t kill them, I die.
But since the incident on the Floating Island is something I can’t know unless I go up to the Floating Island, I’m honestly curious about the details, and it’s a shame that I don’t know, but…
“Now I’m going to find out.”
It seems she will know soon.
Epherene entrusted her body to the current of the enormous spell pulling her in.
* * *
……Epherene, fixed to a “specific time period”—or more precisely, allowing herself to be caught according to their purpose—stands at the edge of a cliff, admiring the scenery.
Whooooooo—
Across the entire mountainside, the exterminators’ murderous mana surges and swells. It writhes like blue snakes.
Fssss—.
Like sparks flaring, particles of mana scatter, and they are so sharp that when they touch her cheek, they leave shallow cuts.
Step—
But there is no time for appreciation.
Time is always something she has in abundance, so saying there is no time is a little funny.
“…Is it you?”
At the voice approaching from behind, Epherene’s heart freezes cold.
But she does not let it show.
She merely turns around normally, facing him as though nothing has happened.
“…Yes. It’s me.”
She says to him.
A conversation she had longed for over decades.
A moment where words connect to words, where they can face one another, where tears surge up for some reason and her throat chokes.
“I wanted it to be just the two of us.”
Epherene smiles with ease.
“There are so many uninvited guests.”
The killing intent of the exterminators is brutal.
How can they pour such crimson murderous intent toward a fellow human? We don’t even know each other.
“Why did you call me?”
Epherene asks despite knowing everything.
Deculein, likewise knowing everything, answers.
“Are the abnormal kidnappings occurring across the continent your doing?”
“Yes.”
Epherene does not hesitate. Telling those who already know and have come after her that it is not would change nothing.
“……”
In an instant, Deculein’s brow furrows, and one exterminator attempts to immediately unleash a spell, only to be stopped.
Deculein asks.
“Why?”
“Because the future has been decided.”
As she says that, Epherene unconsciously takes a step closer.
She wants to be closer to him.
Even if it is only by one very short stride, even a little.
“The future has been decided?”
Deculein asks back. With his ever-arrogant gaze, with a face that says, “How dare someone as lowly as you.”
She even misses that.
“Yes. I can only move between futures that exist. I cannot go to futures that do not exist. And futures that do not exist definitely exist.”
To Epherene, time is less like time and more like probability.
Among the countless stretches of time extending forward, she stays in a certain time period with an entirely equal probability.
However, that future is severed after the “Lighthouse’s renovation.”
With the shockwave of the comet pounding the continent and the final light flooding the whole world as the last things she sees, Epherene’s future disappears.
“The continent will be destroyed.”
That is why Epherene declares it.
“Hah.”
Even so, Deculein snorts.
He truly does not believe her words.
“The continent will not be destroyed.”
“It will.”
“What makes the likes of you so certain as you prattle?”
“I saw it. With my own eyes.”
Epherene points to her eyes with two fingers. Deculein twists the corner of his mouth as if amused.
“Then your eyes must be wrong.”
“…Unbelievable.”
“To begin with, the exterminators here believe you are a greater danger than any such destruction.”
Deculein jerks his chin toward those behind him. Then he stamps the road surface with his wooden staff.
Boom—!
A vibration spreads throughout the mountain.
“…Because of your foolish delusion, subjects who know nothing of magic have been trapped inside magic.”
Epherene clenches her teeth.
She had wanted to see him so badly, wanted to talk to him, but how can he make someone so angry the moment they meet?
Is this why I killed all the exterminators?
“You’re still suspicious.”
“Do you still not know? Suspicion is a wizard’s virtue.”
“……”
Epherene glares at Deculein.
It feels horribly unfair, but Deculein is, as expected, Deculein.
“…That’s just like you, Professor.”
At her words, Deculein nods.
As if that is the signal, the exterminators’ mana also turns into definite weapons, forming a magic circle.
“Dispel,” which obstructs the manifestation of her magic; “Phase Decomposition,” which directly harms space; and, beyond that, the sight of the exterminators casting enhancement spells on themselves to prepare even for hand-to-hand combat…
“Haa.”
Epherene lets out a sigh. Then, shaking her head, she gathers her mana.
“You cannot defeat them, Epherene.”
Deculein suddenly speaks.
As if trying to break her rhythm—some pointless war of nerves.
“No. I win.”
“Your reason?”
Deculein asks back. His tone is quite serious.
“…Because I saw it in the future.”
“Then your eyes must be wrong.”
“……”
The same words again. Now it has gone beyond absurd and reached a level that is simply funny… just as she is about to think that.
Epherene’s eyes open slightly.
“What else did you see?”
Deculein says. Epherene carefully watches his movements as she answers.
“…You fall, Professor.”
“Is that so.”
He takes off his coat. That much is understandable, but what comes next is surprising.
Flap—
He throws the coat down onto the ground.
Of course, time on this mountainside is currently stopped for a moment, so it won’t get dirt or dust on it, but still…
“The reason?”
“…You’re betrayed. First by the Floating Island and the Magic Tower.”
“Then.”
Deculein removes his wristwatch.
Clink— The metal watch is also set down carelessly with his outer coat.
“Why am I betrayed?”
“…It would be the reason you know, Professor.”
“You do not know?”
“I want to tell you, I do. But if I approach too closely, a time paradox will occur.”
She wants to tell him. She wants to change that future.
But even that is part of the time paradox, and so she is left helpless.
Deculein nods.
“Do not be certain when you do not know the details.”
At the words that follow, Epherene feels a slightly prickling headache for some reason.
Is it anger? Or frustration?
“The future you saw is nothing more than a phenomenon.”
Deculein rolls up his sleeves. He loosens his necktie. He sweeps his hair upward again without leaving a single strand behind.
“What is most important is ‘you,’ the subject interpreting that future, Epherene.”
Those words of Deculein’s touch some part of Epherene’s heart.
“Epherene. You said you kidnapped the subjects into paintings ‘because the future has already been decided,’ but that is not the correct answer. It was so stupid an answer that it was almost astounding.”
Deculein takes a vial of some reagent from his inner pocket. Epherene looks into Deculein’s eyes.
Everything around them has nothing to do with anything now.
The grand spell that has bound her, the exterminators’ killing spells screaming as if they will slaughter her at any moment—none of it is visible.
Only Deculein and herself.
“I will ask again.”
Deculein looks at Epherene and asks once more.
“Why are you kidnapping the subjects?”
“……”
Swallowing the saliva pooled in her mouth, Epherene takes a deep breath amid needless tension.
……It truly has been decades.
She had spent decades alone and thought that by now she had become reasonably adult.
“…Because I believe I can save them only if I do that.”
“No. You have gone astray.”
Yet before Deculein, who cuts her off so coldly, her heart still lurches.
She finds herself wondering whether she has been thinking incorrectly.
“The method you chose is wrong.”
Deculein says.
The moment the person she trusts most denies her so firmly.
It is quite painful to endure, and even standing is quite difficult, but Epherene can withstand it now.
“No.”
Against his words denying her, she can protect herself.
She can make her conviction and belief stronger.
“This is the right method.”
“……”
At that, Deculein lowers his gaze in silence. The sharpened corners of his eyes are frightening for no reason.
Just like in the past.
Back when she was a too-young, foolish university wizard.
“Are you certain the continent will be destroyed?”
His words, like a question asked again about the content of a lecture, truly feel like a class.
A class meant to set her, who has been shaken until now, straight…
No, a class meant to tell her why she has been shaken all this time.
“That’s not it either. I am kidnapping them in order to prevent destruction.”
“The reason?”
“Because even if the continent is ruined, if people remain, then that is not destruction.”
Epherene answers thus.
Was it the correct answer, or was he dissatisfied?
Deculein quietly looks at her, then inserts a syringe into the vial in his hand. The violet spiritual fluid seeps into the syringe.
“It cannot be helped, Deculein. There seems to be no room for persuasion.”
It was the exterminator Mayev speaking.
“There is nothing but extermination.”
At those words, Epherene prepares for battle.
For some reason, she feels relieved.
Her eyes, which had gradually grown muddy within the entangled time; the self that had become faint and distant—just ten minutes? Twenty minutes?
With this one short lesson, she feels as if she has returned.
As if she has returned to her clear, lucid senses.
A memory of that old time, strange yet nostalgic, nostalgic yet inexplicably painful.
A yearning for those days to which she can no longer return.
“I see.”
Suddenly, Deculein tilts his head.
At that moment, Epherene flinches.
It is good that she has come to face herself in reality like this, but suddenly, questions spring up in droves.
As Deculein taught, the future is not an outcome but the product of interpretation.
And the subject of that interpretation is none other than “herself.”
……But.
If so.
What about the situation she is in now?
Herself, caught in stagnant time. The seventeen exterminators surrounding her, and Deculein.
And—
“Sir Adrienne is standing by for bombardment. If we fail to complete the mission, she will blow away this entire mountainside.”
Adrienne, waiting somewhere.
“……”
How, exactly, can I win?
How can I win and leave this place alive?
“Let’s try it, then.”
Though it is quite a hopeless situation, Epherene’s mind instinctively begins calculating. She prepares hundreds of structures for magical combat: dismantling all the exterminators’ spells and launching a counterattack.
In this way, Epherene is now very different from long ago.
“Epherene.”
But Deculein calls her again. In the exact same voice he used long ago to call the foolish Epherene.
“Yes. What is it?”
Epherene answers as she did back then.
Deculein, too, speaks as he did back then.
“You, who spout only words no one can believe, are a truly unreliable disciple.”
As he says so, he inserts the syringe into his own vein.
Suuuk— The violet liquid is pushed into his blood vessels.
“…And?”
Honestly, up until that moment, Epherene had been resolved to fight Deculein.
No, she thought Deculein would bombard her first.
But.
“I will believe in such a disciple.”
—Those untimely words
turned Epherene’s entire mind into question marks.