……Inside the Painting Prison, a magic deployed for the purpose of scouting the world outside the Painting Prison—「Line of Mana」.
It unfolded in a manner slightly different from Silvia’s expectations.
She had thought of a ‘connection of consciousness’ that would simply insert the current Yulri’s consciousness into Alros’s doll, but Yulri’s diary, used as the medium, had overreacted. To be precise, the memories contained in the diary, along with mana and some ‘obsession’, resonated with the magic.
In other words—the ‘Yulri from before the rewind’ that remained in the diary had ended up contained within Alros’s doll.
Perhaps it had been Ifrin’s arrangement.
“…….”
Thus, Silvia was now watching the situation through a crystal ball.
The scene where Yulri, who had yet to even bid farewell properly, met Dekyulrein and confessed her identity.
“How complicated.”
Alros spoke. Kalla beside her also nodded. Silvia quietly turned to look at Yulri.
“…….”
She said nothing. With wide, round eyes, she merely stared at her former self reflected in the crystal ball.
Silvia found it worrisome.
A period as long as ten years was not something one could come to terms with through mere indirect experience.
“Yulri. You may go and train.”
Silvia said to Yulri. Then Yulri looked at Silvia too. Understanding that consideration, she formed a small smile.
“I am fine.”
Yulri fixed her gaze on the crystal ball again. A blue image was reflected in her white eyes.
“I too wish to reclaim those ten years.”
The current Yulri did not know the Yulri of ten years later shown there. Having endured and finally borne such difficult years alone, she would not be wrong to say that she was an entirely different person from the current Yulri.
“Why.”
Thus, Silvia asked again.
To reclaim ten years of time meant, in other words, that she would be taking on ‘another person’s life’ as her own.
“It must be frightening. You are a completely different person from that Yulri.”
The Yulri inside the diary was not the current Yulri.
At that fact, the current Yulri nodded. As if she understood it all too well, she even wore a calm smile.
“Yes. I know.”
“But why.”
Silvia, as well as Alros and Kalla, and even Jaiteu looked at Yulri. Jaiteu wore an expression that was somewhat worried about his younger sister’s decision.
“……I am afraid as well.”
Yulri said.
“I do not know those ten years, and even now, looking at Count Dekyulrein, I feel no emotion whatsoever. But.”
She, who had paused briefly, extended her finger toward the crystal ball.
That delicate finger touched not Dekyulrein, but the ‘Yulri from before the rewind’.
“This Yulri, the Yulri who went through ten years with Count Dekyulrein.”
On Yulri’s face as she looked back and forth between Dekyulrein and that Yulri, a smile somehow spread. As if marveling at something.
“She looks truly happy.”
She looked happy.
Even if she was the Yulri from before the rewind, since her essence was still Yulri in the end, the current Yulri could tell. She could feel it from nothing more than the expression worn by the Yulri from before the rewind.
“Right now, as she faces the Count…… look at the expression I am making.”
Then, everyone in the room shifted their gaze. They looked at the Yulri inside the crystal ball.
“I know that face. It is the face I make when I face my sword.”
Yulri knew.
That her appearance right now was exactly the same as when she faced what she ‘loved most’.
In other words, it was no different from how she had looked when she ‘first gripped a sword’.
“I…….”
That became sufficient proof. It became a firm resolve.
Thus, Yulri murmured, smiling in a voice somewhat steeped in sentiment.
“……With true sincerity.”
To a life of worthless winter, to a bleak world where there was only the sword, a person she loved more vividly than the sword itself.
No, a person she would come to love.
“I come to love the Count.”
That fact was simply curious and wondrous, so much so that she could only watch…….
* * *
An underground evidence storage room where only white canvases lay scattered, where even breathing could be heard clearly.
There, I was looking at Yulri.
Yulri, too, was looking at me.
Finding that gaze burdensome, I scratched my eyebrow and briefly turned my head away.
“……So you’re Yulri.”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in Yulri’s answer.
“Of course, strictly speaking, I am nothing more than an artificial intelligence created through magic. Nothing more than a doll imbued with the diary’s memories.”
Step by step, she continued speaking as she approached.
“Therefore, my lifespan is not very long either. I will fade before long.”
“…….”
“Is that so.”
“Yes. That is correct.”
She was the Yulri whom Dekyulrein had loved.
A foolish woman who had received countless agonies and harsh humiliations from Dekyulrein, yet had ultimately given up even her own life for Dekyulrein’s sake.
“I’ll have to think of what to do until then.”
“……Haha.”
Such a woman smiled at me.
But that composure lasted only a moment. She again took on a guarded expression, placing her hand on her waist.
“Isn’t it already decided what we will do, Professor.”
“…….”
She drew her sword.
Srrrng—
The sound of steel rang out clearly. It was an ordinary sword.
“I believe in you, Professor. No matter what you intend to do, no matter what you are thinking.”
And she turned around. The presence beyond the iron door was palpable. Red currents—that is, death variables—surged.
“I have a vow I made before I died.”
Yulri said.
As if she already knew of her own death.
“That vow was not about becoming a guardian knight, nor the world’s greatest knight.”
Magic power rippled across her sword.
Blue sword aura, inherited from frigid magic power, emanated like mist. It pushed back the dark red death variables flowing in from the dead zone. It blocked them so they could not approach me.
“It was the resolve to become a sword for you alone, Professor.”
Truly, it was a vow befitting Yulri.
I smiled a smile even I did not understand.
“Is that so.”
“Yes. That is correct.”
Yulri nodded.
“If that is so.”
I lifted the canvas using 「Psychokinesis」.
To prevent the continent’s destruction—that is, to preserve humanity—there was much I had to do. On the other hand, there was no time to persuade others of the process.
Without asking anyone’s opinion, I had to walk my own path alone.
“Take it.”
Of course, in such moments, I likely felt no loneliness or solitude.
No matter how much I might be Dekyulrein, no matter that I was a character programmed to be an eternal villain—no, rather, precisely because of that.
“I shall entrust my life to you.”
I could not refuse Yulri’s aid, the resolve of the person Dekyulrein loved most.
I did not want to refuse.
“Yes. It is an honor, Professor.”
Yulri smiled. Compared to the past, when she had always been burdened, she was now much gentler.
“……Before that.”
I approached her. With one hand, I gently wrapped around her shoulder, and with the other, I placed my hand on her sword.
“……Ah.”
A small flush rose on Yulri’s cheeks. She was somehow cute, so I scolded.
“Did you just grab this from some random armory? This lump of steel doesn’t suit your dignity.”
“Hm? Ah…… it was too urgent.”
“Let me change it for you.”
I cast a magic called 「Forging」 upon the blade.
Fwhoooo—
The sound of mana and magic power flaring up.
Since the nature of Seolhwaseok permeated all my magic, Yulri’s sword would also be tempered blue. The appearance of steel would all peel away, and from its root, it would be refined into Seolhwaseok.
Kadudukudukuduk…….
The reverberation of iron and magic power grinding against each other. As if shedding its skin, the steel rose with a bluish metallic sheen, and the hue of Seolhwaseok filled that empty space.
Meanwhile, Yulri watched the process with wide, vacant, doe-like eyes. Staring blankly at the metal transforming into a sword of her own.
“And…….”
Moreover, I added one more process to it.
I tied the final knot.
「Hand of Midas」.
Consuming all my remaining magic power now, I added a property befitting her to the sword.
———.
“……It’s done.”
Before long, the reverberation of Seolhwaseok quietly subsided.
I observed the information of this sword with 「Naked Eye」.
“A gift.”
A hastily improvised sword in an instant, yet one imbued with my magic power and vitality—its name was…….
「Eternal Winter」.
“Will you accept it this time?”
I said to her.
“…….”
And she answered with action instead of words.
Kwadeuk— her small hand gripped the sword tightly.
Almost simultaneously,
────!
The iron door exploded.
* * *
“……Your Majesty. Urgent news.”
The imperial palace where the shades of night hung heavily. At Ahan’s words, Sopien settled calmly without any expression.
“The Intelligence Bureau has been annihilated…….”
The Intelligence Bureau had been annihilated.
Those who had set out to find evidence against Dekyulrein had all returned as cold ice statues. Except for the Red Garnet Adventure Party, everyone had frozen solid.
Curiously, they were not dead.
They had simply frozen while alive.
“At this point…… the Professor has truly betrayed us…….”
At those words, Sopien glared. Ahan quickly bowed her head.
“I am sorry.”
“It is fine. When have I ever blamed you?”
“……Then, Your Majesty. Regarding the Professor…….”
“Do not ask.”
Sopien leaned back into her chair. Blue starlight seeped into her complexion.
“……Long ago, Rohakan spoke.”
In her mind, in her heart, the Rohakan of days past came to mind.
“That I would kill Dekyulrein.”
A stifling prophecy telling of a future already decided, of fate, begging her to distance herself from Dekyulrein.
“……Yes. There was certainly such a time.”
“Indeed, Rohakan is no quack.”
Sopien had an intuition. That prophecy had sufficient possibility of coming true. By none other than Sopien herself.
“But…… Your Majesty. Will you be alright?”
“You speak of my emotions.”
“……Yes.”
Ahan answered carefully.
Sopien loved Dekyulrein. The person who made her feel an emotion called love—no, the existence who made her feel an emotion proper—was only one in this world.
Dekyulrein alone.
Therefore, if he died, Sopien would have no reason to live.
Sopien herself vaguely suspected as much.
She would either fall back into sloth and ennui, or take her own life.
It would be one of the two.
“As if I could be alright.”
Sopien spoke as if smiling.
“……Your Majesty.”
Ahan’s heart sank.
In this inner chamber, the ice statue Keiron also moved slightly as if drawing his bow.
“It is fine. If I come to kill Dekyulrein, it will be because of that fellow’s own will…… Now leave. All of you.”
Sopien issued a gentle dismissal order.
Then Ahan first exited the room in silent backwards steps, and Keiron also canceled his ice statue form.
Leaving a space solely and entirely for Sopien.
“……A night alone, is it.”
Sopien, who had muttered softly, closed her eyes briefly and thought of the near future.
With logic transcending humanity, she slowly predicted.
Everything Dekyulrein intended, and all the schemes underlying his actions—she slowly surmised them.
—Your Majesty.
Then, a voice softly calling to such a her.
Dekyulrein’s voice.
Sopien turned her head and looked down at it.
A tiny hand mirror placed atop the Emperor’s small desk.
Something she had cherished in her youth.
The Dekyulrein contained within it was looking up at her ever so shamelessly.
“It is you.”
—Yes.
“…….”
A wretch who became sorrowful just from seeing his face.
—Your Majesty.
A wretch who became sorrowful just from seeing his face.
—Your Majesty. I have something to tell you.
She did not yet know what this wretch was about to say—no, she thought she knew but wished to pretend she did not.
“Dekyulrein.”
—…….
Calling his name, which received no answer.
“Will you not play Go with me?”
Thinking of how she had grown close to this wretch in the not-so-distant past.
“This is the final command I give as your Emperor.”
An Emperor’s command—no.
“Here, together with me…… let us play a great match.”
She conveyed the request of the human Sopien.