# 8. Collapse
Shaaaaaa……
It is as though starlight is scattering.
Like waves rolling in and breaking upon land, like soft petals falling vainly from a flower.
The fragments of Locralen, dismantled by someone’s “Great Magic”—by a “miracle”—settle down with a soft rustle, rustle. Through that descending current, clear sunlight pours in.
The wreckage of Locralen disperses, filling the world.
Transparent shards of glass drifting in the air.
It is such a beautiful scene, so fantastical as to be truly unreal, so much like a dream even now, that Epherene holds back her tears.
“……It’s strange, isn’t it?”
Gazing at the place where the tangled flow of time had already vanished, she murmurs to herself in place of tears.
“All this time……”
One year and three months.
That long span of fifteen months remains in Epherene’s heart. Every day she spent with him will be treasured above all else, and remembered until the very end.
“I was the happiest I’d ever been.”
She had been that happy.
Even in Locralen, where all things were stagnant and the very concept of time had disappeared, simply because she had been with that person.
The days that did not pass, each fixed and unmoving day, had been satisfying enough, and more joyful than anything.
“Maybe I was too happy.”
But perhaps now she had awakened from a dream that was far too happy.
Perhaps this was an ending reached far too soon.
Clutching her diary tightly, Epherene lowered her head.
“……”
When she stayed still like this, so many emotions welled up from within her body.
She could not express those many-colored feelings in words.
Her throat choked, and her heart surged violently. Her heart cried out that merely recalling it was painful, that it was sad.
……Because she knew.
That now, she truly would never be able to see him again.
No matter how much she wished, no matter how much she wanted, no matter how hard she tried.
Even if she became a great archmage, greater than anyone, she could no longer be with Deculein.
“There is still the Sanctuary, though.”
Of course, there was still a chance to speak with him. The true final place Deculein himself had told her of—the Sanctuary of Time.
Deculein himself had said that there, she would still be able to speak with his past self.
“There’s no way I could be satisfied with only that.”
Epherene smiled. She shook her head.
A meeting in the Sanctuary.
If one called it a meeting, perhaps it could be a meeting.
Even a brief exchange of a few words was still a conversation.
But now that she truly loved “Deculein of every moment in time,” such a meager meeting would be nothing more than poison.
“……Well, it’s fine.”
A poison that would make it impossible for her to ever forget him, that would torment her for the rest of her life.
A prescription that, even if she drank it, would not make her better, but only make her miss him all the more.
“I have no intention of refusing.”
A meeting with him would be no more than an instant, yet the pain would only be eternity.
If that sounded strange, there was nothing she could do.
Because that instant was powerful enough to overcome eternity.
Because time was always relative.
“I’ll always go. Wherever it is.”
Epherene stepped forward with strength.
Rustle—rustle—turning away from the collapsing Locralen, carrying only the memories of Locralen in her heart, one step after another……
She was moving away from the past.
# 9. The North
Freyden, the greatest city in the North.
After the Altar incident, the place that had become the Empire’s northern stronghold regained its former status as a holy land of knights.
Freyden Castle, called the Castle of Winter, was visited every month by thousands of aspiring knights as though on pilgrimage, and the Freyden Knights were treated as second only to the Imperial Knights.
Even the image once represented by severity, barrenness, and backwardness had been completely shed through cooperation with Yukline. Now, Freyden had become the hegemon that led the entire North, an immense territory.
“……Phew.”
And this place was a small workshop somewhere in Freyden.
In a workshop where not only wood, but various metals such as copper, silver, and gold lay scattered as they pleased, Julie was making a sculpture.
“Done.”
The finished piece in her hand was quite satisfying, and she wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with a bright smile.
In a way, swordsmanship and sculpture were very similar. Both resembled the human soul, and the color of a person.
Thus, in sculpture, and also in swordsmanship, the trajectory of one’s life was imbued. The emotions of that moment seeped into them.
Jingle—
Just then, as she was looking pleased, a small bell suddenly rang out.
Julie’s shoulders flinched.
Had someone entered the workshop? No, there shouldn’t be anyone who knew this was her workshop.
Tilting her head, Julie turned to look.
“……Hm?”
There was indeed someone standing there. Someone in a black robe. Judging by the build, it was a man, but his face could not be seen.
He strode to the center of the workshop and quietly looked over the sculptures on display.
His appearance might have seemed somewhat suspicious, but his gaze seemed only to be admiring the sculptures in an ordinary manner. Having entered as he pleased, he even nodded as if satisfied.
Julie, her curiosity stirred, asked first.
“Who are you?”
At that, he silently turned to look at her.
Because of the robe, only the lower half of his face was visible, and it was a face she did not know at all.
“……A customer.”
That was his answer. It was indeed an unfamiliar voice.
“I see.”
Julie approached and stood beside him. This sudden guest was a stranger, but she did not want to treat him coldly for no reason.
Of course, he was certainly someone she was seeing for the first time, but should she say there was a scent about him that made him feel somehow not like the first time?
“May I purchase just one?”
He asked, pointing at one sculpture with his finger.
“……Ah.”
Seeing it, Julie flinched in surprise. If possible, she would have liked to sell it, but she scratched the back of her neck in confusion. With a bitter smile, she shook her head.
“This piece is……”
That sculpture was a statue of Julie, made from snowflake stone.
In other words, it was a small statue depicting “Julie von Deya Freyden.”
This small full-body statue, about the size of an forearm, depicted the woman who had sacrificed everything to save the continent—the final moments of the great hero Julie herself had witnessed with her own eyes.
“It is not for sale.”
A knight with both hands gripping a sword, wrapped in eternal ice.
The woman who had fulfilled all her dearest wishes.
For that reason, this sculpture could not be sold to anyone.
“……”
Suddenly, he turned to look at her. His eyes were somehow piercing. Piercing enough that even Julie, who had reached a fairly high realm as a knight, flinched slightly.
“I would like to purchase it.”
He said again.
“……I’m sorry.”
Julie politely refused.
He let out a sigh.
“Hmm.”
No, rather than a sigh, for some reason it was a breath like laughter.
Then came a question in a low voice.
“It’s a shame you won’t sell it. Have you put down the sword and taken up sculpture now?”
“Pardon? Ah…… I have not put down the sword, but……”
Julie had now become Julie.
In other words, the Julie whom the entire continent knew no longer existed.
Therefore, the connections of the old Julie, the people tied to her by fate—Julie as she was now had no choice but to pretend to know them even while not knowing them.
Because the “meteor collision” caused by the Altar was something that did not exist on this continent.
Because no one wanted that truth to be revealed.
Because Julie would feel the same.
“Ahem, it is true that I have been devoting myself to sculpture.”
Julie cleared her throat and answered.
She would not be exposed easily. Thanks to Josephine’s makeup skills, her face roughly imitated her former skin and apparent age.
“I see.”
“Yes. That is so.”
“Very well. Keep up the work.”
And then, blandly, without another word, he turned around.
Without asking again even once, he simply strode to the workshop door, opened it, and went outside.
Creeeak—
Bang.
Watching the door close, Julie blinked.
He came in an instant, and left in an instant.
“……What was that?”
She was briefly dumbfounded, but soon thought, Well, he must have had his reasons, and turned around.
——At that very moment.
Julie’s large eyes opened wider than ever.
“……Uwaaagh?!”
A scream she had not let out even when pierced by a sword.
That was how shocking it was—the corner of the display stand that had become empty. Precisely the place where Julie’s statue had been.
No, even saying “had been” was ridiculous. Only three seconds ago—
“You damned—!”
So he had been a thief.
Julie hurriedly rushed outside, but beyond the door, it was already empty.
“Ha……”
It was simply Freyden in midwinter, as always. The cold sky and the air stretched taut as if about to tear.
Since the workshop was far from the city, that much of a scene greeted her as it always did.
“……Son of a—”
Julie, who had nearly cursed for the first time in her life, fortunately suppressed it with effort and returned inside the workshop.
“What exactly does he take Freyden’s public authority for……?”
Stomping furiously, she strode over and was about to call the police through the crystal orb in one corner of the workshop.
“……”
Julie discovered it.
A small note placed on her table.
A very short and simple sentence.
[Think of it as tuition belatedly collected.]
“Tuition……?”
Tuition.
Tuition.
Tuition.
After repeating it about three times, Julie suddenly felt goosebumps rise all over her body.
“……Wait.”
Tuition.
Perhaps, throughout this entire life, she had only ever received lessons from one person.
“Don’t tell me…… Deculein?”
At that thought, Julie turned back again, but beyond the door she had hurriedly flung open, only an empty wind swirled.
# 10. Winter Cabin
Whooooooo——
A high mountain where a bitter cold raged.
Lia was climbing the ridge of a winter mountain covered in eternal snow.
As an adventurer who had accepted the Emperor’s request, and as a player who wanted answers to her own questions, she was searching for this “villain of the era.”
“……There it is.”
And today, at last, having reached the summit of the most rugged and towering evil mountain even in Freyden.
Lia looked down somewhere and let out a sigh of relief. She was grateful to him for not having fled any farther.
“Where!”
Then someone dressed like an Eskimo came rushing over. With both eyes fixed on the place Lia was looking, she shouted loudly.
“Where! Where are you talking about?!”
This woman, so impatient by nature, was the current head of Yukline.
Also, “officially,” she was the meritorious figure of the Empire who had seen through Deculein’s evil and reported him—Yeriel.
“I can’t see it well?!”
That Yeriel was in a state of excitement.
Because she was always calm and composed, and sometimes even heard that she “had no emotions,” it was a sight that would have shocked anyone on the continent into falling over. But she herself paid no attention to such dignity.
“Where! No, where!”
“Miss Lia, I can’t see it well either~”
Beside her was also Ellie, the hero of the Red Coffin and the benefactor who had been of great help in searching for Deculein.
Because this wicked mountain was also famous as a magical space, without her talent, climbing it would have taken ages.
“Over there. There. The chimney of the cabin is sticking out just a little.”
Lia pointed to the cabin.
Below the mountain peak. Buried in snow and the like, it was hard to see, but in any case, something like a chimney was sticking up sharply.
“Ah! Ah! Yes! Right, I see it! I see it, I do!”
Yeriel answered with her eyes wide open. As though terribly anxious, she bit at her fingernails, while her breath came rough and ragged with swelling expectation.
“Then, then let’s go! What are we hesitating for!”
Just as Yeriel was about to rush forward, flailing her whole body, a hand caught her.
So tightly that she could not move even one step.
“……What is it? Why? Let go.”
The captured Yeriel glared at the owner of that hand—Lia—as she spoke.
It was quite a fierce gaze, but Lia shook her head.
“Head of the Family. Could you…… please wait just a little?”
“……?”
Yeriel only blinked blankly for a moment.
Naturally, she could not understand Lia’s words. She had no idea why this adventurer was acting like this.
They had come this close, and now she was telling her to wait? What kind of dog-eating-grass nonsense was that?
Some mere adventurer who was neither Deculein’s family nor anything else.
“……Why?”
Yeriel asked back, purely.
It was so absurd that she could not even get angry.
She was genuinely dumbfounded, and because she was that dumbfounded, she was also curious about the reason—such was her bewilderment.
“Well……”
With an apologetic expression, Lia scratched the back of her neck.
“There’s something I want to talk to him about alone for a moment.”
“What are you talking about. Ha, what are you? I want to be alone with—”
At that, Yeriel’s anger belatedly surged up. Her eyes, nose, and mouth sharpened like awls as she was about to snap at Lia—
“Miss Yeriel?”
But Elli gently stopped her. Smiling, she approached and crossed her arms.
“I’ll let her go. It won’t take long anyway, right, Miss Ria? Right~?”
Having bound Yeriel in place, Elli gave Ria a signal. Ria quickly nodded.
“Yes. It won’t even take ten minutes—no, not even five. I’ll come right out when I’m done.”
“No—”
“Do that. Because we found the Professor thanks to Miss Ria, didn’t we~?”
“…Why are you two acting like this together?”
Yeriel looked back and forth between Elli and Ria.
For her—for her who was practically Deculein’s younger sister—this situation itself was absurd and unfair, but these women’s expressions were strangely serious.
Faces that looked like they wouldn’t listen even if she threw a tantrum.
In these mountains where not a trace of another person could be seen, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t overcome these two women.
“…Hurry. Finish it as fast as possible.”
Yeriel spoke through gritted teeth. Ria bowed at the waist.
“Yes. Thank you. Thank you, House Lord.”
“Enough, just go. Five minutes—no, three minutes. Finish within three minutes. If Deculein isn’t there, you’re taking responsibility.”
“Yes!”
“I said go before answering!”
Immediately, Ria ran.
Leaping from the mountain ridge, she slid forward at a speed transcending human limits, reaching the cabin door.
“Huu….”
A moment far more nerve-wracking than she had imagined.
Ria took a deep breath, gauged Yeriel’s glare from behind, and counted the three minutes she had barely been granted.
Squeeeeak—
She opened the wooden door of the cabin.
Crackle— Crackle—
The first thing to reach her was the warmth of the campfire.
Crackle— Crackle—
The sound of flames burning.
And…….
“You came.”
The same noble tone, still lofty and still majestic.
Ria placed her hand on her pounding heart and turned toward him.
“Deculein……”
Deculein.
He sat in a rocking chair near the campfire, gazing at her. With a face as relaxed as always, as if he had known I would come.
“You found me after all.”
Deculein smiled.
That appearance was no different from the Deculein of old, but Ria could tell.
She could fully feel that something was ‘different.’
……His life was now nearing its end.
“You are dying.”
Ria spoke bluntly. Deculein merely raised an eyebrow.
“What is the point of saying such a thing? Everyone already knows.”
“I read the diary.”
The diary.
The notebook Deculein had given to Ria before the continent’s destruction.
“…Is that so.”
Deculein answered as if it were no big deal.
“I read it countless times.”
Ria took the diary from inside her clothes. An object stained from being read too much.
“There was nothing special in it.”
The contents of the diary were nothing special. In other words, it was merely ‘evidence.’
Evidence fabricated by Deculein to prove his own misdeeds.
Truly, that was all.
Nothing—enough to make a fool of me who had wondered so long, so endlessly, what meaning was hidden inside.
“But somehow, something like this happened in the past too.”
But that it was a hint, Ria realized only later.
“Someone gave me a letter like this a long time ago.”
It was quite a long time ago.
Before they were dating—that is, before they had confirmed each other’s feelings—that guy had handed her a letter.
A letter with truly no content.
A letter that merely jotted down what had been happening to her lately, just her thoughts and feelings and heart laid bare.
No, a diary that could barely be called a letter.
“I worried about it the same way back then. What hidden meaning was in it. Staring at that letter for hours each day.”
But in the end, there was no hidden meaning in that letter.
Of course.
“There was no meaning after all. He had just sent it to tease me.”
Because it was a prank.
Because it was truly, purely that guy’s mischievous prank.
“Pfft.”
Then a smile flowed from Deculein’s lips. It was a mischievous laugh.
Ria’s eyes turned fierce.
“Yes. There was no special hidden meaning in that diary. It could merely be used as evidence to prove my guilt, that’s all.”
“…Don’t you regret it?”
Ria asked.
Deculein asked back with a face full of smiles.
“What.”
“Dying like this now.”
“…….”
Deculein was still smiling. He looked at Ria as if she were cute.
“…I don’t know if I have no regrets, or if I was designed to have no regrets.”
Ria was confused as to whom that voice, suddenly turned gentle, belonged.
Was it Kim Woojin’s, or Deculein’s?
“However, I am not afraid of this death.”
“I have a ticket.”
Ria said.
There wasn’t enough time left to look for better timing. Once the promised three minutes passed, they couldn’t be alone together.
“…A ticket.”
To that question, Ria pulled out a sheet of paper from her inner pocket.
The final reward of this Main Quest.
A piece of paper smaller than her palm, but a ticket Ria had truly, desperately wished for until now—one that would send her back to reality.
“With this, you can survive.”
Today, Ria was certain.
The man looking at her before her right now was definitely Kim Woojin.
“If you return there—”
“Ara.”
But he gently cut off her words.
“That’s yours.”
He blocked her mouth with the words “It’s yours.”
“…Why?”
“Hm. Could you come here for a moment? My body doesn’t move well.”
He gestured to her.
Still smiling, but feeling his own heartbeat gradually slowing.
She approached him.
To her who had drawn near, he whispered.
—Because I loved you.
Words of love, plain and simple, without any rhetoric.
Words that for some reason grew sorrowful.
—Because there is no meaning if I am there alone.
“…….”
Was this consolation?
Perhaps, it was consolation.
Consolation that brought no comfort whatsoever.
“…Hey.”
Yoo Ara spoke with a trembling voice.
Looking at her love that had gone so awry, she placed her hand on the cheek of this fellow who was so hateful and yet so sorry.
“My world was you.”
“No.”
He shook his head. Yoo Ara’s eyes turned fierce again.
Even so, a corner of her heart was dyed warm.
This guy trying to ruin the mood until the very end, truly.
Truly—
“Your world is everything you see, hear, feel, and meet.”
He tilted his face for a moment and pressed his forehead to my forehead.
“It’s not merely someone like me. You know that.”
The warmth contained in his voice spread through her body.
Crackle, crackle.
It settled inside her heart, inside her mind, and burned like a campfire.
“And…….”
Then, exactly 180 seconds ticked down in Yoo Ara’s head.
“Take care.”
Squeeeeak—
The door opening the very moment the promised three minutes elapsed.
Three women appearing from within.
Yeriel and Elli.
“……Oppa!”
Yeriel ran to Deculein as soon as she saw him. She embraced him in the rocking chair and sobbed.
Unable to say any words, unable to make any expression—simply conveying all her emotions through the most primal weeping.
“…….”
Watching the two of them, Ria stepped back for a moment. Elli beside her smiled faintly and pressed Ria’s shoulder firmly.
“…Miss Sylvia is on her way too.”
Ria nodded without a word. Perhaps, right now, her face must look so dazed and foolish.
Eyes soaked with tears, lips swollen from being bitten too much, hair disheveled—wouldn’t she look like the old Yoo Ara?
Elli spoke.
“You’ve worked hard, Adventurer Ria.”
But to Ria now, the words “You’ve worked hard” somehow sounded like “Game Over.”
Whether she had won or lost in the game, either way, this game was over.
“…Yeah.”
With a slightly confused face, and also a slightly relieved face, looking at Deculein, she spoke.
“You’ve had it hard too.”
# 11. Time
……Time flows on the continent.
Whether someone dies or someone lives, human life always passes uniformly, always like that. Everything on this continent does so.
Even if the most important person in the world exists, even if he dies, eventually time will make him forgotten.
Just as the giant who once ruled the continent fell into a faint legend, just as the destruction of the continent caused by the last believer so easily became “something that never happened.”
Of this fact, Ifrin was well aware.
For she was now the supreme archmage of this continent, a wise one whom any mage would seek guidance from…….
Twang—
A fishing line bent at the shore. The bait sank below the water’s surface, and the bobber floated atop it.
In that state, Ifrin waited.
Had one year passed since his death, two years, or three years?
She didn’t know how many years had passed.
“…….”
Ifrin was simply fishing for time.
Of course, it wasn’t fun.
She had tried to find it fun.
Through fishing, writing, literature, and everything else on this continent that could be called a “hobby.”
But it was not easy at all.
Really, it was too difficult.
“Professor.”
Ifrin muttered quietly. Gazing at the shore, she mumbled to herself like a delirious murmur.
“I now know why you left, Professor.”
Human.
They say humans are called humans because they live together, but now Ifrin could not feel a reason to live together with anyone.
Mages merely revered her, nobles were too obsessed with ceremony and decoration, and the Floating Island only coveted her research…….
Everything of such a continent was merely futile to Ifrin.
“Is the Archmage doing nothing but fishing?”
In an instant, a lofty tone seeped into Ifrin’s ear. That majestic and dignified resonance represented the “person” of she who was greatest on this continent, but Ifrin remained leisurely.
“Yes. I’m doing nothing but fishing.”
Emperor Sophien. The past Ifrin who would bow to her was no more.
“They say you haven’t been to the Floating Island for several years. Is it five?”
“…Five years? Has it already been five years?”
Had five years already passed?
Ifrin found that change meaningless. No, she herself was strange.
“Yes. I observed Deculein’s deathbed from afar, and exactly five years have passed since then. Today is the day it becomes five years.”
“Ah…… I see.”
Ifrin nodded indifferently.
If five years had passed, then it was five years.
“Pfft.”
Sophien snickered and planted herself in the chair beside her.
“I shall fish as well.”
On two very small and narrow fishing chairs, the two most noble beings on this continent sat.
It was truly a precarious and wondrous sight, but unfortunately, the spectator who would relay this tale was not present.
“Being too attached to one person is not such a good phenomenon either.”
“…….”
One person.
Ifrin found that funny.
That “one” person was more precious to Ifrin than everyone on this continent combined.
“Indeed. I find it curious too. Time, space, people—they all seem to be relative.”
“So, do you miss him?”
“…….”
Ifrin turned to Sophien without a word.
Sophien added with a snicker.
“I asked if you miss him.”
“…I do.”
Tsk. An answer with a click of the tongue.
A conversation both useless and worthless.
That she could be this relaxed even facing the Emperor—Ifrin felt both proud and bored.
“If so. I know the method.”
“…?”
In that moment, at those words, the Emperor’s fishing line bent toward the water’s surface.
Splash—!
A large ripple spread with a splash.
Sophien looked at the distant sea and formed a deep smile.
“There is a method? It’s not fishing?”
To Ifrin’s question, Sophien shook her head.
“However. That method requires the devotion of both I and you.”
Your and my devotion.
The meaning of those words was unclear even to Ifrin the Archmage.
“And thus, I wish to ask you.”
But there was no need for long deliberation.
Because Sophien herself did not like riddles, nor did she intend to drag out time.
And so, she spoke the main point.
“Could you sacrifice yourself for Deculein?”
At the question of whether she could sacrifice herself, Epherene smiled before she knew it.
“Is that…… even a question?”
Twitch—
Just then, a fish took the bait.
“He told me to live my own life, but…”
Neither of them knew which line it had bitten, but both gripped their fishing rods.
“I think I understand now. You see, if I could see him again just once—just one more time.”
And then, at the same moment, they lifted their rods.
“I wouldn’t mind dying.”
Splash——!
A fish burst up from the surface, scattering spray through the air. In that instant, as the blazing sunlight diffused through the droplets, a new spectrum of color appeared.
A rainbow of seven colors.
That beautiful arc, between Epherene and Sophien as they looked at one another……
……rose in dazzling brilliance.