Footsteps drew near, wordless despite Keiron’s call.
Before long, the emperor stood in the same place as Keiron.
Sophen.
“It is time you slept.”
“……Is this not too beautiful a sight to fall asleep to right away?”
Sophen was still holding out. She was forcibly enduring Yulri’s bitter cold.
“……I shall look a while longer.”
But Keiron could not hear her physical voice. He could only interpret and receive the language conveyed from within her heart.
For the moment she opened her mouth to speak, her entire body would freeze solid in Yulri’s cold, even if she were the emperor.
“Is that so.”
Keiron spoke. Sophen slowly nodded.
“…A sight one will not see twice in a lifetime.”
Then came the fantastic spectacle: the continent reviving from destruction, fragments of shattered crust fitting together, evaporated waters gushing anew, broken magnetic fields reviving, the torn sky slowly reconnecting—all of it.
All of it like a single painting.
Reflected in the emperor’s eyes.
“Once this planet is regenerated, Yulri’s cold will become the Eternal Winter and freeze it.”
Though the “Eternal Winter” still remained only within the lighthouse, the moment the continent fully recovered,
Yulri would advance outward and put the entire continent into the same hibernation.
It would hold fast to the time of this continent that had accompanied us humans, until the “Outside of the World” perished.
“The giant said so. That this planet was beautiful from the beginning.”
“……Is that so.”
“Yes.”
“……It is a shame. That I could not see that beginning.”
Reading Sophen’s heart, Keiron formed a faint smile.
“It is not. That we could not see that beginning is rather our fortune.”
The giant had spoken.
The blessing bestowed upon humans was their foolishness, their small eyes, their short legs, and their mortal lifespans.
“To not know the end of this world, to be unable to go there on two legs, to be unable to hold it in our eyes—that is the blessing bestowed upon us.”
“……Is that so. What a load of crippled nonsense.”
After all, humans could not understand the giant, and the giant could not understand humans either.
Sophen turned to look at Keiron.
“……By the way, Keiron. Are you not trying to abandon that blessing?”
At her sidelong glance that seemed tinged with worry, Keiron shook his head.
“I have always been blessed. Even now, it is the same.”
Blessing.
What Keiron’s blessing was, everyone knew without words.
“Your Majesty. The moment I first met Your Majesty comes to mind.”
Restless eyes. A small, curious child overflowing with talent in all things.
Sophen, resembling a hawk, who had scattered her long red hair and glared with red eyes like a sovereign.
That figure remained vivid in Keiron’s memory even now, serving as fuel.
“Your Majesty likely does not even remember it, but since Your Majesty’s memories are intertwined, I understand such confusion.”
Keiron’s blessing was Sophen.
There was no reason whatsoever for Keiron to serve Sophen, so the origin of the human named Keiron could not be explained to anyone.
It was as if he were a person born solely to protect Sophen…….
“Keiron.”
Then Sophen spoke. Keiron’s face became slightly surprised, but soon he turned to Sophen with gentle eyes.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You have always followed my will.”
Sophen’s face was stiff. Because she was frozen even as she spoke, her emotions could not be read.
“Yes. I have always done so.”
Yet, at this moment, Keiron was satisfied with Sophen.
“Because your heart is thus…… meeting a loyal subject such as you.”
The appearance Sophen showed her, the heart with which she praised his loyalty, was endlessly, infinitely…….
“To me as well, it was a great…… blessing.”
It was gracious.
“…….”
Keiron, who had momentarily lost his words despite being a statue, soon found himself pitiful and smiled his brightest smile.
“Thank you. And so now…….”
But there was no need to continue those next words.
Sophen had already accepted Yulri’s cold. She had comfortably entered hibernation.
Waiting for the day she would awaken, with the most Sophen-like stoic face.
“I shall protect Your Majesty for eternity, so sleep peacefully.”
* * *
“……Sleep peacefully.”
Someone’s voice lingering at her ear.
That woke Sophen from her sleep, and she felt vitality springing forth from her whole body.
Chirp, chirp—
Birds were chirping.
The sky was clear, and warm air and sunlight soaked her skin.
Whoosh—
A gentle wind wrapped around her whole body, and fluttering leaves brushed Sophen’s cheeks.
“…….”
She opened her eyes without a word.
This place was the summit of the lighthouse.
What she saw was the distant ground.
Land that was no longer devastated, with boundless greenery spread out.
“I know not.”
But because she had no idea whether things had truly gone well or not, or how many years had passed, Sophen simply looked around this world.
She surveyed the continent’s landscape.
——An instant.
It had truly been an instant.
The moment she closed her eyes and opened them but once.
In what was merely about one second to Sophen, the continent had recovered, life was safe…….
“……Keiron.”
Keiron had become a statue.
That ten-thousand-year span which no one else on the continent had felt, an age that could be called eons—by a single person alone.
Keiron was the proof.
“…….”
Sophen looked up at Keiron.
“You have become a statue, have you not?”
Even asked so, there was no answer.
His pupils were deeply hollowed, his light lost, truly hardened like a statue, simply standing as if guarding her at the summit of the lighthouse…….
Merely gazing at the west where the sun burned.
“……I see.”
Sophen nodded.
Indeed, ten thousand years was not a span a human could endure.
Even for Keiron, his ego had worn away over and over, his body repeatedly frozen, and in the end, like this.
He must have become a complete statue.
“…….”
Sophen silently reached out. She touched Keiron’s shoulder.
His body was hard as stone, yet warm somewhere.
“……Even you are leaving me.”
A soliloquy filled with regret and sorrow.
If a single tear she herself was unaware of flowed and reached Keiron’s feet then, would he revive as if in a fairy tale? Would the outer surface of the statue shatter and let her hear his whole voice once more?
It was unknown, but Sophen no longer shed tears.
She merely acknowledged Keiron’s devotion.
“You have suffered greatly all this time.”
Shhkt—
She drew her sword and laid it on his shoulder. She turned her back, leaving the Emperor’s treasured sword upon him.
Leaving behind the subject who remained as a knight like a miracle, as proof of this world, within a magic like a miracle…….
“Rest easy now.”
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud——
Many footsteps climbed up here from below the lighthouse.
They soon reached the summit and discovered her.
“Your Majesty!”
First was Ifrin.
She cried out, looking at her with wide eyes.
“My timeline has been fixed!”
Ifrin’s timeline had been fixed.
Now she no longer had to return to the future or the past, nor was there any way to do so.
Sophen twisted the corner of her lips.
“Naturally. Though the continent was frozen, the time of the universe flowed. Already, ten thousand years have passed.”
Ifrin did not possess the ability to travel to and from ten thousand years.
Even that seemingly overwhelming authority over time had been crushed by the heavier, vaster weight of the years.
“…….”
Ifrin took on a profound expression.
Like one who did not know whether to rejoice or grieve.
“More than that. We still have work left to do.”
Just as Sophen spoke, people came thundering up.
Ruina, of course, and Yeriel, Gawain, Ganesha, the Grand Elder of Jeokgwae and Elli, Maho, Delik…….
That bastard was not among them.
Deculain was nowhere to be seen.
“Listen well.”
Sophen spoke to them.
“We shall now execute the ‘Great Evil’.”
The Great Evil, Deculain.
The purpose for which they had come here.
“……Uh…… Um.”
At the emperor’s command, they opened and closed their mouths wordlessly, but could not bring themselves to say it and swallowed it.
Because they too knew.
What Deculain wanted.
Why he had chosen death himself, pushed his own might into an abyss, and taken the role of the villain.
“And…… we shall mend the continent.”
On the regenerated continent, the mending of the continent spoken of by Emperor Sophen.
That was likely not a very distant tale.
* * *
The imperial palace of the Empire.
Having returned to that ancient palace, the most splendid and lofty on the continent, Sophen first announced her future policies to the people.
Composed of a total of 29 articles, they were as follows.
1. All who cooperated with the Altar shall be arrested based on evidence.
2. Establishment of a Continental Military Tribunal for the punishment of war criminals.
3. Reconciliation between Jeokgwae and the Empire.
4. Intercontinental and international peace treaties.
5. A pledge of dedication for postwar recovery…….
…….
29. Tracking and killing the axis of evil who led the entire affair, ‘Deculain’.
——While state affairs were being managed more perfectly than ever, the Great Evil Deculain, who had become the largest and most evil axis of the Altar, was currently known to be on the run, with a bounty of 5 billion Elne…….
The voice of the press flowing from the radio.
In the inner chamber of the imperial palace, Sophen yawned greatly and looked at Ahan.
“Haaaam……. It seems there is still no word?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The professor still has not shown himself.”
“Tsk. What on earth are Ria and Ganesha and those royal certified adventurer bastards doing.”
There had been no corpse of Deculain at the lighthouse. Because of that, they did not know whether he was dead or alive.
Of course, even if he were alive, it would be his fate to die soon.
“The same with Creto?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Creto had also hidden his whereabouts.
Whether he had perished together with Quay and the continent’s destruction, or was living, having fled somewhere.
Whichever it was, Sophen did not wish to lose Creto as well.
“By the way…… It is rather striking that quite some time has passed. Since that day.”
“Yes. It is so.”
After the celestial collision and destruction, much had changed on the continent.
For one, Deculain had fallen to become the world’s worst villain, but Yukraine still remained Yukraine, and was rather soaring more splendidly together with its leader, Yeriel.
The Grand Elder of Jeokgwae had come directly to the emperor to pledge loyalty and reconciliation, and Jeokgwae’s entry to and exit from the Empire had been permitted.
Besides, various commoners who had received offerings from the Altar like ‘Rellin’ were punished as examples at roughly one-tenth, and the rest were mercifully forgiven.
“More than that, what is Ifrin doing?”
Ifrin, who had become the Archmage and ascended to the floating islands.
That one, who now held all the floating islands under her command, had no contact whatsoever as to where or what she was doing.
“She is doing something, but after all, it is the principle that an Archmage is not bound to the Empire…… I do not know.”
“……Well. No wonder her head got too big, being someone’s disciple.”
Muttering so, Sophen took out a crystal ball from within her bosom.
A crystal ball that had once been connected to Deculain.
Fidgeting with it, she turned her head for no reason and looked at the statue standing against the wall.
“……Keiron. Do you know where Deculain is?”
After asking so, even after passing a moment in silence.
No answer returned, as expected.
Because this one had already become a statue.
“Tsk.”
Just as Sophen clicked her tongue.
“Ah?!”
Ahan, having received some report, pressed the crystal ball inserted in her left ear and spoke.
“Your Majesty. It is said that Archmage Ifrin has been discovered in the Kingdom of Reok.”
“……In Reok?”
Sophen asked curtly, furrowing her brow.
“Her purpose?”
“Ah, that. That purpose is…….”
* * *
“Will you enter?”
“…….”
Right now, Ifrin was nervous.
The mages beside her asked very carefully, watching her mood in case they offended her, but such things were of no matter whatsoever.
Right now, all she had was this “dome.”
“This is Lokralen… right?”
Lokralen, the place where time became tangled.
Epherene had come to that magical space.
“Yes.”
As the Archmage who reigned over the Floating Island, Epherene had personally issued the order to close Lokralen.
To shut down this place, so dangerous and yet so moving, she herself had come down, rather than sending anyone else.
“You did not have to come in person—”
“No. I had to come in person.”
Answering thus, Epherene took a deep breath.
She placed a hand over her heart, repeated, whew— whew— several times, then said,
“As of today, Lokralen is closed.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Also, from now on, no matter how much we pursue magic, any object or magical space that’s too dangerous will be closed down immediately.”
“……”
Perhaps because he was, after all, a mage of the Floating Island, his brows twitched slightly at Epherene’s words in what seemed like dissatisfaction, but he soon nodded.
“Yes. Understood, Archmage.”
“Good. Go on ahead.”
“Yes.”
Then the mages who had escorted her here departed, and Epherene was left alone, looking up at Lokralen.
“……Ah, I’m kind of nervous.”
But no matter how she thought about it, she was far too nervous, so, as if to prepare herself for a moment, she took the crystal orb from her pocket.
She needlessly tried speaking to her friend, who should be in Freyden by now.
“Hey. What are you doing?”
—……
No response.
Epherene waited for a moment, then thumped her chest again and said,
“Hey. Sylvia. I asked what you’re doing. Talk to me for a second. I feel like my heart’s going to burst……”
* * *
At the same time.
Sylvia was looking at the “artificial sun” from the top of Freyden’s lordly castle.
—Hey. What are you—
Just then, Epherene’s voice flowed from the crystal orb, but—
“So this sun will no longer go out?!”
Zeit asked. At that thunderous shout, the crystal orb trembled. Sylvia glared at him through narrowed eyes.
“Seriously. You’re so loud. You’ll make something that should work fail because of you.”
“Ah. My apologies.”
Zeit clamped his mouth shut. Sylvia clicked her tongue and said,
“There won’t be an ice age in Freyden anymore. I guarantee it.”
“Ooh…… Finally.”
As if those were truly the words they had longed to hear, not only Zeit but all the knights of Freyden lined up behind him let out exclamations close to screams.
Ooh— Oooh— Khhh—
The cries of those pitch-black beasts were dreadful to Sylvia.
She shook her head and asked Zeit,
“More importantly. What is Julie doing?”
“Ah, Julie, you mean. Julie is, well, devoted to her main work. She’s immersed in sculpting.”
Sculpting.
Julie had put down the sword.
Instead of a sword, she held a chisel and carving knife.
She had no less talent in that field than she did with the sword, so now the name Julie might be as famous as a sculptor as it was as a knight.
“Ah, I’m here as well.”
A voice suddenly seeped in softly.
Among the dark men, Julie appeared, scattering her brilliant silver hair.
She smiled brightly and said to Sylvia,
“Thank you, Mage Sylvia.”
“……I should be thanking you.”
Sylvia smiled faintly.
“More importantly, is the sculpting going well?”
“Yes. Sister Josephine is helping me, so it is going well.”
“I heard they’re expensive.”
“Yes. I sell the sculptures to nobles for a high price, and use all of it to serve those in need.”
Like this, Julie was different from the Julie of the past, but she had not strayed.
True to her nature, she had grown into someone so kind—a beautiful person who sculpted the four seasons.
The only problem was……
“What’s that book?”
Sylvia pointed to Julie’s book. Julie smiled bitterly and showed her the cover.
“Stocks Even Complete Beginners Can Do — Stock King Primienne”
“Ah. It’s stocks. If I learn this a little, I can grow the money and use it for better—”
“Don’t.”
“……Pardon?”
“If I say don’t, then don’t.”
Sylvia shook her head, and whiiing—
At that moment, the crystal orb vibrated again.
—I’m going in now. Into Lokralen.
It was Epherene’s voice.
“……”
Sylvia’s lips pouted for no reason.
This girl, who would soon enter Lokralen, was about to meet the person Sylvia envied more than anyone else.
Still, well.
This too was each person’s fortune.
“Anyway. It’s good to see you living well, Julie.”
“……Yes. Thank you. As you advised, Mage, I am living as myself.”
The words that she was living as “herself.”
The emotion contained in that voice was so deeply contented that Sylvia smiled clearly.
“Yeah. Good.”
Swaaaaa——
Just then, the winter wind blew in.
The cold of Freyden was harsh, but the artificial sun emitted an equal warmth.
Whiiiiii……
This artificial sun, which Sylvia had completed with the mana crystal core she had ultimately inherited after studying Deculein’s Art Magic to death, digging into it like mad—
“It will shine upon Freyden forever. Just as my professor wished.”
“““““Ooooooh———!”””””
At once, the ghastly shouts of Freyden’s knights boiled up through the lordly castle.
It was so loud that her entire face twisted, but anyway.
“……Yeah. As long as you’re happy.”
Sylvia chuckled.
“It’s thanks to you.”
Truly, it was thanks to you.
Thanks to you, who sacrificed yourself; thanks to that harsh resolve of yours to take on the role of villain, this world, and this continent, will now become better, will change into something warmer.
Perhaps exactly as you calculated, or perhaps even more perfectly than that.
“You’re watching, aren’t you?”
But Sylvia also knew.
That somewhere, surely, you were watching us.
“I know.”
The way we live and move, laugh and cry, and as human beings, find “ourselves.”
The way we believe in ourselves, and, just as the word human means, the way everyone lives together, relying on and loving one another—surely.
“The villain… is still alive.”
Somewhere, you must be watching with satisfaction……