Lia confessed to Deculein.
That she was Yu Ara.
Deculein had surely heard those words too.
He must have.
Thinking that, Lia was carrying the unconscious Deculein. With the tall man on her back, she was descending the mountain.
She could not use magic or mana. In his state of demonic encroachment and mana rampage, he would react fatally to even the slightest mana particle.
Whoosh— whooooosh—
As she ran, the wind scattering through the mountainside suddenly grew clamorous. The presence of mana swelled vividly, and signs of people seeped in quietly.
“…….”
Lia’s steps came to a halt.
She closed her eyes for a moment. From the rustling leaves, the faint sounds of footsteps, the traces of the currents pressing in, she pictured the situation around her. She guessed the identities of the uninvited guests gathering here.
The Imperial Intelligence Bureau.
There had to be at least over a hundred of them, and they were binding the foot of the mountain like a siege net.
“……Damn.”
Lia made a quick judgment.
First, there was no way she could escape without being noticed. The agents of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau were not a rabble of nobodies, and if a hundred of them gathered, they would be able to find even an earthworm buried in the soil.
“Leo, Carlos.”
Lia murmured in a small voice.
Then, from between the bushes, two heads popped out.
Leo and Carlos. Those guys, who had arrived just a little later than her, had been following them for roughly ten minutes.
“Why?”
“Why.”
Their answers were the same, but their expressions and tones were different. Leo was smiling brightly, while Carlos looked far from willing.
“Distract them for a bit. I’ll hide and follow after a little while. Okay? Got it?”
As she said that, Lia pressed her palm to the ground. The mana she released opened a small passage.
“Okay!”
“Why.”
Leo answered energetically, but Carlos was indifferent.
Lia was about to go underground with Deculein when she looked back at Carlos.
“What, Carlos. What do you mean, why?”
When she asked back, Carlos narrowed his eyes. His gaze still held a little fear of Deculein, and a little hatred.
“Weren’t we hired to kill Deculein?”
“Nope, we weren’t.”
“Why weren’t we? You said he was the person who’d destroy the continent. He’s the guy who went berserk trying to kill me every time he saw me, so why do I have to help him?”
Carlos glared at Deculein, who was on Lia’s back. Lia answered briefly.
“Deculein didn’t kill you.”
“……That’s because Lia stopped him.”
“Yeah. Even so, he definitely had chances to hurt you. Deculein didn’t do it.”
Of course, she did not know his true feelings.
However, there was no way Deculein had not known of Carlos’s existence until now.
“You know who Deculein is too, right? With his authority, if he just released people, if he hired adventurers, he could have found us anytime.”
“…….”
Carlos chewed his lips for no reason. Lia looked at the child rather warmly. She spoke as though coaxing him.
“Carlos?”
“……Fine. I just have to run with Leo in opposite directions? He’s stupid, so running is all he can do anyway.”
Carlos pointed at Leo.
“What’d you say! I’m not stupid!”
Leo snapped in anger, but Lia nodded.
“Yeah. Just do that for me.”
“……Got it.”
Carlos pouted as he loosened up. Leo also warmed up with stretches.
“……I’ll follow soon.”
Lia descended beneath the tunnel with Deculein, and Carlos and Leo ran off in opposite directions.
* * *
……Patter, patter. Rain falls from the sky. Streams of water tremble as they sink down. They touch the glass of the window and gather into round beads.
In this way, nature is the fairest of all.
Whether in the noble inner chamber where the Emperor resides, in the dark alleys where street thugs roam, or in the lowly prisons where criminals cling, the smell and sound of rain will spread, diffuse, and seep in all the same.
“…….”
Now, Sophien, watching the rain, is calmly composed. Quiet and still, she only gazes at the window where patterns of rain are being formed, revealing no words and no reaction.
“……Your Majesty. Are you certain you need not ask whether it is true?”
To the Emperor, who has become soaked not in rain but in thought, the court lady Ahan asks.
“…….”
Without a word, Sophien rested her forehead against the glass window. The chill of the world outside touched her. Her eyelids trembled faintly.
The news had already been delivered. The Floating Island had acknowledged it, and the Imperial Intelligence Bureau had observed it.
Deculein had annihilated the Floating Island’s Extermination Officers.
“It must be true.”
In truth, Sophien, as the Emperor of the Empire, had demanded cooperation from the Floating Island.
In order to bring down Quay and the Altar, the Floating Island’s strength would be of great help.
Therefore, the Extermination Officers of the Floating Island this time were scheduled to be mobilized in the coming war. It was certain.
“But why would the Professor do such a thing…….”
Ahan bit her lip hard.
“The Floating Island is enraged.”
“I know. However, they will not dare reveal the reason. Even if only because of their pride.”
Seventeen Extermination Officers. Every single Extermination Officer the Floating Island boasted of had been defeated by Deculein alone.
Considering the Floating Island’s arrogant behavior, it might have been an incident that felt rather satisfying, but Sophien was not pleased.
“Then…… Your Majesty. This report…….”
Ahan continued haltingly.
The report from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau lay on Sophien’s desk.
A confidential document that had caught signs of Deculein’s betrayal and described them in detail.
“……Dispose of it for now.”
Sophien still needed more thought.
No, she needed more time to prepare to think.
She needed more time before she could begin to judge.
The emotions in her heart, and even the reason in her head, were rejecting this report. They were reluctant to read the sentences and ponder them deeply.
“It will not take long.”
Sophien loved Deculein. However, she would not allow that love to eat away at herself and the Empire.
Of course, that was because she loved Deculein.
For Deculein would not want her, the Emperor, to collapse merely because of love.
And yet, precisely because of that.
“I do not wish to dig into Deculein’s thoughts. I am somewhat afraid to learn what lies in Deculein’s breast.”
Sophien had an ominous premonition.
No matter what future Deculein was drawing, and no matter what moment he was waiting for, in that future, ‘Deculein’ himself would not exist.
Such a premonition.
* * *
Meanwhile, Sylvia, Yulie, and Zeit are still trapped inside the painting prison. However, their situation is not urgent, nor are their circumstances desperate.
Rather, it is comfortable.
Comfortable enough to feel guilty, wondering whether it is all right to be this at ease.
“Silvio. You truly have the talent to become an archmage.”
Naturally, it is thanks to Sylvia.
The Three Primary Colors of Iliade.
She, possessing power close to Authority, has done more than transform this ‘empty’ painting prison into a pleasant place—
“To think you would paint a world. How astonishing, and how admirable.”
She is manifesting a world.
Watching the great Silvio like this, Zeit cannot help but think of his homeland. He cannot help but recall his house, Freyden.
The reason Zeit is not impatient is purely thanks to this archmage candidate.
“As expected, the talent needed by Freyden was not far away. A magician saving the holy land of knights must also be the fate of the world.”
The person who could resolve Freyden’s ice age was right here, before his very eyes, her hair swaying sleekly.
Zeit’s eyes shone as he looked at Silvio.
“Therefore, Silvio—”
“Quiet.”
“……Understood.”
“And it’s not Silvio, it’s Sylvia.”
“Ah.”
Zeit pursed his lips.
To think he had called the great magician’s name incorrectly.
“……You are amazing, Sir Sylvia.”
Then Yulie spoke.
She was looking around at the scenery Sylvia had created, her eyes shining.
“This space has completely become Sir Sylvia’s world.”
“Indeed, you speak the truth!”
Zeit chimed in. He strode toward Yulie. Yulie flinched, but soon looked up at him and smiled.
“Yes. Freyden’s future will be bright.”
“Indeed. Is that not so, Great Sylvia?!”
Watching the two of them as though dumbfounded—eating rice cakes among themselves when the person who was supposed to give them had not even thought of it—Sylvia’s expression hardened seriously again.
“……Now is not the time for that.”
“Mm. I know. However, leave it to us. Leaving this place, and protecting the Great Sylvia as well—we will do it all.”
Zeit stretched out his arm and pointed to ‘we.’
For reference, the number included in this ‘we’ is quite large.
It is increasing day by day.
Jackal, Carla, and Al Los are included as a matter of course, but aside from them, unknown subjects also nod with somewhat bewildered faces.
“……Everyone, go inside and rest.”
Sylvia gestured as though annoyed.
The many houses manifested by her Three Primary Colors now number in the hundreds, and those kidnapped here without knowing why number in the thousands.
“By the way, Magician. Have you perhaps discovered something? A way to escape from this place, perhaps.”
Yulie asked. Sylvia whipped around to look at her sharply.
“There is no way to escape.”
“……Pardon?”
“Because that stupid Epherene locked us in here.”
Sylvia feels like she understands now.
The reason that stupid Epherene brought her here.
“I think I know why she prepared an empty canvas of all things.”
Anything can be drawn on an empty canvas. Anything can begin anew.
Moreover, because this painting prison’s very attribute is ‘paper,’ Sylvia’s talent functions at the level of Authority.
“On top of that, the canvas’s area is infinite.”
Literally, there is no end.
If Sylvia draws a river, it becomes a river as it is, and even without any additional supply of mana, it becomes independent as the element known as ‘water’ forever.
It means that Epherene had already made preparations.
In other words.
“Epherene seems to be preparing for the end.”
“By the end, you mean…….”
“So that even if the continent is destroyed by the Altar, people can go on living.”
Even if the land called the continent collapses, she wants her to make a space where those who can live may live.
Because only you can do it, I ask it of you.
“That’s what she’s saying.”
* * *
Again, beneath the mountain foot where Deculein and Lia are hiding.
Lia placed a wet towel on Deculein’s forehead.
Sizzle—
It sounded like water droplets splashing on a frying pan. Lia flinched in panic, but then used ‘Elementalization’ again to readjust the wet towel and place it on him.
Sizzzzzle—
The sizzling was the same, but it was different from just now.
To be precise, Lia had realized water with a different boiling point.
In other words, not boiling at 100 degrees, but at a minimum of 300 degrees.
It was a principle that ignored natural science, but this was not a world of science to begin with, was it?
“Phew.”
In any case, thanks to that, the water in the wet towel did not boil and cooled Deculein’s body.
——At that moment.
Deculein’s eyes flew open.
“Gah!”
Lia hurriedly stepped back. Deculein moved only his pupils to look at her.
“…….”
Without saying a word, he only glared for a while, as though threatening her.
Lia met that gaze and answered.
“What.”
She had confessed that she was Yu Ara.
She did not know what Deculein would think of ‘Yu Ara,’ but his behavior would certainly change as well.
“You said you are Yu Ara.”
Deculein asked. In that instant, her heart lurched.
But it was not a lie, was it?
“Yes.”
“My former fiancée.”
“……Yes.”
“That is you.”
Deculein looked at her with suspicious eyes. Hmph—he snorted, then chuckled as though it were utterly absurd. It was a sneer unlike Deculein.
“It’s true. My memories are incomplete, but I am Yu Ara.”
“Can you prove it?”
“……What kind of proof do you want?”
“…….”
For an instant, Deculein’s expression stiffened briefly. Lia only tilted her head.
“Why?”
She asked back, but Deculein gave no reply. He merely glared not at Lia, but at someone else—beyond Lia’s shoulder.
Step— step—
Suddenly, footsteps resounded.
An echo approaching beneath this ground.
Lia hurriedly turned to look there as well.
“……Ah.”
There stood the final boss of the Altar, the being who would compose the last moments of this continent.
Quay.
He was approaching them with a smile.