“Haaam…….”
At the very top of the lighthouse, at the entrance of a cave frozen like crystal, Ganesha was yawning.
“……You can yawn at a time like this?”
Gawain shot her a sidelong glare. Ganesha pouted and took out her crystal ball.
“What else am I supposed to do~? We were told to wait here. More importantly, where is Lia and what is she doing this time?”
Even when she glared hard at the crystal ball, no reply came back. She did not seem to be dead, but what on earth was she doing?
“……More importantly.”
Ganesha looked around at the group.
Maho of the duchy, the leader of the Jeokgwe, loyal knights and court mages. The advance that had begun with around three hundred people—though now fewer than ten remained—still had every race and origin evenly represented.
“Isn’t it strange? We’re really mixed together.”
Among them, Ganesha looked at the Grand Elder of the Jeokgwe. Elesol was still dressed in her robe.
The Grand Elder said,
—Before a great evil, race does not matter. Even now, outside this lighthouse as well, many of the Jeokgwe are fighting for Her Majesty.
“……Sure~ Work hard.”
Ganesha flapped her twin tails. Then she peered beyond the lighthouse again.
“I can’t see a thing.”
There was nothing to see, and merely staring made her head dizzy.
It was her first time encountering cold that froze “concepts,” after all.
“But, um…… even if we kill Professor Deculein, will that meteor really disappear……?”
That drawling voice belonged to Maho. As the princess of the duchy, she had somehow managed to remain until now, but she still seemed ignorant of the ways of the world.
“Then are you saying we should let Deculein live~? The man who called down that meteor~?”
Ganesha asked with a smile. Maho fidgeted with her fingers.
“Wouldn’t it be better to persuade him……? To stop the meteor, we’ll need a mage…….”
“…….”
Ganesha silently shook her head. Gawain wore a similar expression.
“For now, we obey Her Majesty’s command.”
Gawain said so and drew his sword.
“So that no one may go beyond this point…….”
Vroooom———
Just then, from below the lighthouse, there suddenly came the faint sound of an engine. Whether it was a car or something else…… No, how would a car climb stairs?
Vrooooooom———!
While they stood there dumbfounded, the engine noise grew louder, the screech of tires drew closer, and in the end, everyone turned to look.
“……Is that a car?”
Ganesha muttered blankly.
Just as she said, a car really was approaching. With some sort of barrier wrapped around its body, it was climbing the stairs.
“…….”
It was a situation that left them utterly speechless.
Soon, the car drew close, and they could see the faces of the two women sitting in the driver’s seat.
Yeriel and Luina.
—Wait! Wait!
Their shouting was so out of place—and more than that, how had they brought a car all the way here?—that all manner of confusion spread through everyone’s minds.
Kwaaaaa————!
Yeriel and Luina’s luxury sedan soared up like a dolphin leaping from the sea and landed. With an artistic drift, it parked safely.
“……Oh.”
Without realizing it, Ganesha clapped. Maho and the other Jeokgwe blinked as well.
Stepping out from the driver’s seat, Yeriel held up the analysis sheet clutched in one hand and shouted,
“I have something to say!”
* * *
……Because space had frozen, the road stretched on and on.
Because time had frozen, the road felt infinitely distant.
Sophien, walking there, could not perceive the flow of time or the scale of space.
She simply walked.
Only toward that man.
In order to meet that man.
—I am reminded of the old days.
Suddenly, Rohakan’s voice echoed in her ears. The words Rohakan’s soul had spoken to her in the not-so-distant past.
She quietly recalled them.
—Deculein had no talent. Truly, his limits were clear.
Rohakan, reminiscing about Deculein.
—I pitied him, and honestly, I thought it was fortunate.
He had said it was fortunate that Deculein had no talent.
—His nature was wicked. He was one who held evil at his very root.
Rohakan’s words.
—He was born with the fate of becoming a villain. However…….
……The Deculein now is different. There is a secret about him that you do not know.
“A secret.”
Deculein had a secret.
And yet, strangely enough, Sophien felt as though she vaguely knew what it was.
She felt as though she already knew what secret Deculein possessed.
Crack———
Suddenly, the ground beneath Sophien’s feet froze over.
An extreme cold that froze flesh in an instant. The moment Sophien touched that freezing point, she realized that this place was the destination.
“…….”
Sophien quietly raised her head and looked at someone standing beyond.
She was a pure white woman, the knight of winter, and the sword meant only for Deculein.
“Yulie.”
Sophien called her name. She took in her figure with cold eyes.
“You are…… truly pure.”
The body of a doll that contained Yulie’s soul. Yet that form was still intact.
Thanks to having frozen before it could shatter, she remained in the form of a knight, standing upright forever like a statue.
As the purest, most innocent human being……
“…….”
Sophien approached her. Step by step, enduring the mana that froze space and time.
She reached out to Yulie’s cheek.
She gently caressed it.
“Yulie. I know your heart.”
This knight’s heart, her loyalty toward Deculein, was known by the highest emperor on this continent.
“So……”
At the corners of Yulie’s mouth, there seemed somehow to be a faint smile. Sophien traced that smile with her finger and murmured softly,
“Rest in peace.”
———Creeeeeak.
The sound of a door opening. The warmth of light seeping in.
Had Yulie granted her permission?
Sophien smiled sorrowfully and looked beyond it.
At the retainer who stood firmly waiting for her—so insolent as to dare summon the emperor to him.
“……Deculein.”
She called his name.
* * *
“……Deculein.”
Sophien’s voice calling me. The voice of Her Imperial Majesty. It awakens my mind, which had briefly come to a halt. It makes the body of Iron Man stir and move.
“…….”
I looked at Sophien.
My dying body—no, my body already dead—unfortunately could not welcome Her Majesty warmly, but there was still time left.
“Yes. Your Majesty.”
I observed proper courtesy. As a noble of Yukline, to the most exalted emperor of the Empire.
Sophien showed no expression.
“You do not look well.”
She merely asked that and approached me.
“Yes.”
I answered.
Sophien said,
“As promised to you, I have come to Myeolji.”
“It is an honor, Your Majesty.”
Glory.
Could there truly be any expression greater than that?
As Deculein, and as Kim Woojin, I respect Sophien.
As the emperor of this continent, from that aloof seat with one above and ten thousand below, Sophien always appears as Sophien. I admire her for that.
“Your Majesty. I, too, intend to keep my promise now.”
I placed the wooden board I had prepared for Sophien—nothing more than a Go board—on the table.
“…….”
Sophien stared at it silently for a while, then asked in a low voice,
“Where is God?”
God. The one who created this world and seeped Kim Woojin’s soul into Deculein.
“He is likely watching us from somewhere.”
I answered so.
Sophien nodded and asked again.
“Where is the god of the Altar?”
“……At the end of this lighthouse, Your Majesty. You will meet him after you kill me.”
There are stages to a game. The final boss is always at the end.
To begin with, if it is not at the end, it is not the final boss.
“……Will you play a match?”
I asked. Sophien looked at the Go board on the table, and at the forget-me-not placed beside it.
“A flower.”
“Yes.”
Sophien reached out and picked up the forget-me-not. She stroked the blue bud. Softly and carefully, as though touching a baby’s skin.
“……Deculein.”
Returning the forget-me-not to the vase, Sophien shook her head.
“Deculein. If I pierce your heart, will you truly die?”
There was a measure of fear in her voice.
For her sake, I answered.
“……A glory beyond that will follow.”
“Glory?”
“Yes.”
Sophien furrowed her brow. I smiled faintly and pointed to my body.
“Spell formulae have been implanted throughout my entire body.”
The essence of psychokinesis had been engraved into every blood vessel and muscle, and this heart would serve as the magic crystal core that would drive that psychokinesis across the entire continent.
“The moment this heart is destroyed, that surge will activate my magic.”
The magic with which I intend to save the continent—no, the method by which I intend to preserve humanity—is very simple.
It is not something that could be called grand magic.
It is merely the very first magic I learned: “psychokinesis.”
To lift every human and living being on the continent as they are, and forcibly place them inside the canvas.
“In that way, I will manifest a miracle.”
“…….”
Sophien smiled in disbelief.
“Could you not block the meteor with that psychokinesis?”
“Fate does not change, Your Majesty.”
I spoke of fate. Sophien quietly looked into my face.
No—at some point, she had stopped taking her eyes off my face. As though she did not want to miss even a single minute or second.
“The destruction of the continent was fate.”
The destruction of the continent was fate.
Even if not now, then someday.
Thus, this lighthouse did not manipulate the orbit of the celestial body; it only adjusted the celestial body’s speed.
Because it is a “fate” that cannot be stopped unless it is now.
“But even if the continent is ruined, so long as people remain alive.”
I approached Sophien. I placed a hand on her shoulder.
“We can live on.”
“……And the price of that is your death?”
At Sophien’s question, I nodded.
“I am already dead, Your Majesty.”
A body that was already dead, a body with no possibility of revival.
I had merely dragged it stubbornly this far for the sake of this moment.
“…….”
Sophien said nothing. She remained silent like that for a long while, then looked up at me and asked softly,
“Then. Is today your last day?”
“…….”
My last.
I pondered for a moment, but shook my head.
“There is still one thing I must do.”
Even if I manifest the magic in this lighthouse, even if Sophien pierces my heart, I will not die.
Perhaps a little time will remain.
But that time must be devoted solely to “that one.”
Because it has already been decided that way.
“…….”
Sophien slowly lowered her gaze. Her eyes reached the table. That wooden board, neatly and cleanly wiped.
“Also, there is a ledger here that I recorded myself.”
“…….”
Sophien raised her eyes again and looked at me.
“With it, you should be able to weed out the Altar’s agents.”
I am certain of success. Sophien’s will and my magic could not possibly fail.
“Turn back those who can be turned back, and punish those who cannot.”
And so, I spoke to Sophien of that future. I offered it as advice, as a request.
“…….”
Sophien remained silent.
……Tap.
Then, raindrops gathered on the lighthouse window. The marks of a shower were etched into the sky where the celestial body had gone awry.
I said softly,
“God is coming, Your Majesty.”
God. Whether I would be able to meet her again, the woman I had met in my old world, was still uncertain.
But that sort of question had to be set aside for now.
“So, with the little time we have left.”
Now, at this very moment.
“Will you play one final match with me?”
This had to be time solely for Sophien.
“…….”
But Sophien said nothing.
——Tap, tap.
Even as raindrops struck the window, even as wind wrapped around the lighthouse, she said nothing.
She merely remained like that……
“That is enough.”
And shook her head without expression.