#16. The Imperial University Magic Tower
The Imperial University Magic Tower.
In a broad sense, it was a place no different from her hometown, and Epherene had returned there after a long absence, taking in the scenery.
“……It’s spring.”
As if to announce that spring had indeed arrived, cherry blossoms swelled in abundance all across campus, asserting their presence. Beneath them wandered university students or mages—men and women whose relationships were ambiguous, whether couples, almost-couples, or something else entirely.
Such peaceful, gentle youth.
A youth that could not be bought even with a fortune.
“I’ve been too far removed from the mundane world all this time.”
Standing in the midst of it, Epherene recalled a childhood that now felt like the distant past.
“Back then…….”
That spring, when she knew nothing and was foolish beyond measure, bound together only by her grudge against Deculein—“stupid Epherene,” as Sylvia had put it.
As she was showered by these cherry blossoms, she had harbored some empty, grand ambition.
“I wanted to bring the Professor down.”
Deculein’s downfall.
Muttering that stale objective, one that might already have been achieved, Epherene took a step forward.
Whoooosh—
At that moment, space folded, and she arrived at once on the top floor of the University Magic Tower.
The so-called “Chairwoman’s Office.”
“Eek!”
At her sudden appearance, the chairwoman, who had been working, flailed in surprise.
Crackle—!
So startled that she hastily released mana, she confirmed that the uninvited guest was Epherene and furrowed her brow.
“……Honestly. You.”
“It’s been a while, Professor Louina.”
The new chairwoman, Louina.
In place of Deculein…… no.
In truth, because every record of Deculein had been erased, because Deculein had fallen into being a villain whose very name could not be spoken, Louina was not the chairwoman “after Deculein,” but rather the one who came directly after Adrienne.
“You startled me. Did you come to get what you mentioned before?”
Louina let out a faint laugh as she stroked her chest.
“Yes. Like I told you before, I’m going to the Desolate…… no, to the Frontier.”
That land, once the Desolate Land, had now been completely purified.
Thus it was no longer called the Desolate Land but the “Frontier,” and vegetation grew there, rain fell, and birds flew freely.
“Mm. So you need the key to the Lighthouse, right?”
However, the “Lighthouse,” the product of Deculein and the Altar, remained unchanged.
Perhaps because of Deculein’s magical workings, it would not break or be destroyed no matter what was done to it. At present, it was under the strict management of the Imperial University Magic Tower.
The reason the Imperial University Magic Tower was managing it was simple: the Frontier fell under the Empire’s jurisdiction.
“Here.”
Louina handed over the key without hesitation. Epherene slipped it into her coat and smiled.
“Thank you.”
“For what? I’m the one who should be grateful.”
Louina held out her hand to Epherene as she spoke.
“I hope it goes well. Whatever it is you’re trying to do, esteemed Archmage.”
Epherene clasped her hand with a pleased expression.
“Yes. Thank you.”
Professor Louina, who had once seemed as high as the heavens. Even now, as her role model, her praise always felt good.
“You take care too, Chairwoman.”
“Mm. Go on, then.”
Thus, after exchanging what might be their final farewell.
Epherene was about to leave at once when, suddenly—
She found herself curious about the 77th floor.
That place, which had now become another person’s floor as “Head Professor.”
Step—
Epherene took one step and shifted her location to the 77th floor, standing blankly in the middle of the corridor.
“Ah…….”
A sound slipped from her lips before she realized it.
A tremor soaked in sentiment.
The arrangement and structure of the laboratory, office, meeting room, and the rest were very different from when Deculein had been there, but the appearance of the corridor itself was the same.
The sight of herself running down the corridor from here to there; Allen following after her, saying she would be scolded if she ran; Drent with his slightly foolish face; and Deculein, always walking with noble composure.
Those memories that could never be returned to rose hazily, like afterimages or mist.
“……Hh.”
Suddenly, tears welled up in Epherene’s eyes. Before the drops could fall, she quickly shook her head. She steeled her heart.
Forcing herself, she took a step forward.
Step——.
#17. The Lighthouse
Having arrived at the former site of the Desolate Land, the Frontier, Epherene’s head was tilted upward.
Without saying a word, her eyes were fixed on a single place.
“…….”
She was looking up at the Lighthouse.
A majestic structure that seemed to touch the sky. In this era, it was the symbol of Deculein—known as the “root of evil”—and of the Altar.
“……It’s beautiful.”
Made entirely of snowflake stone, burning blue and pure white, it was beautiful.
Truly beautiful.
A Lighthouse that could be described simply with that single word, and only with that word; no matter what flowery language was added, it could not be properly compared to anything else. It was simply “beautiful.”
A work of art imbued with Deculein’s effort and sense.
“I’m ready.”
Just as she was lost in appreciation, Sylvia’s voice pierced her ear.
Epherene belatedly came to her senses.
“……Yeah. Looks like it.”
Looking around, she saw blue lines forming a massive magic circle around the Lighthouse.
These were lines of mana embodied by Sylvia’s “Three Primary Colors,” linked to the formula of the “Passage.”
The fuel that would manifest the magic was the hearts of everyone gathered here now, and at the same time, the fragment of the meteor that Sophien had preserved.
“I’ll begin soon.”
Epherene said that and looked around her.
There were many familiar faces.
First, Sylvia, who had provided the greatest help for this plan.
“Cheeky Epherene. Make sure you come back together.”
Next, Lia of the Red Garnet Adventurers.
“I’m sure you can do it. Oh, and when you come back from there, I won’t be here. I’m not supposed to meet the Professor.”
Lia’s words were meaningful, but Epherene did not have the leisure now to question that meaning.
Then came Delric and Gawain of the Imperial Knights.
“Ahem. I believe in you, Archmage Epherene.”
“We will be waiting.”
And also Idnik and Al Los, who had crafted the “outer skin” that would allow her to endure the cold of the Eternal Winter.
“I’ll say it again, but that outer skin isn’t invincible. Keep that in mind, Epherene.”
“In the end, against the Eternal Winter, you and His Majesty the Emperor must endure on your own.”
Nodding to the two who offered their warnings, Epherene turned to the emperor who would accompany her through the “Passage”—Sophien.
“Shall we depart now?”
The emperor answered calmly.
“Let us.”
Only the two of them would enter the “Passage.”
No more people were needed, and the more people there were, the greater the possibility of deviation.
“Do not worry, Your Majesty. If the remnants of the Altar come rushing in, we will stop them with our lives.”
Before they left, Delric voiced his resolve.
The remnants of the Altar.
Quay had already vanished, and the Altar had now lost both its doctrine and its god, yet some of them had survived like zombies.
They even seemed to know a portion of the truth, and because they regarded Deculein as a traitor, they remained a major headache for the Empire.
“……I trust you.”
At Sophien’s words of commendation, Delric’s face flushed red.
“Yes, yes! Your command!”
Leaving behind the man, who was unable to contain his overwhelming honor,
Epherene activated the magic. She poured her mana into this enormous magic circle.
———.
The first resonance, the first step of the “Passage,” was quiet. It was merely Epherene’s mana slowly circulating through the magic circle.
The current that flowed like a stream, however, at a certain moment—
Kwaaaaaaa———!
Ran violently out of control. A massive turbulence surged up as if tearing space apart, and cracks were etched into the ground.
A sudden change that would have shocked anyone.
This phenomenon, which could be mistaken for something like qi deviation, was instead a process Epherene had guided with extreme precision.
“There is no need to worry.”
Because the key point of the “Passage” as revised by Sophien was “to cause an incorrect answer.”
It was a dangerous technique that deliberately caused collisions between mana, manifesting the magic more rapidly and destructively.
Crackle— crack-crack-crackle—!
The formula, spewing out a harsh rhythm like static electricity rising before a bolt of lightning struck, soon reached the extreme of that friction.
──────———!
It distorted the very space of the world, and within that distortion manifested an elliptical “Passage.”
Kwadududuk——!
A passage of time that devoured space as it rippled, the very essence of “time” turned into particles.
…….
Everyone who witnessed the twisting of spacetime was left speechless for a moment.
A silence filled with tension settled quietly over them.
“Your Majesty.”
Epherene looked back at Sophien. Sophien also looked at Epherene.
Between them, no special words were needed. There was no need to hesitate.
As if by prior promise, they simply moved forward together.
Into the “Passage” where he awaited them.
#18. Eternal Winter
The journey through the “Passage” was dizzying.
It was a strange sensation, as if they were passing steeply through a wormhole where spacetime had been overturned; in an instant, their entire bodies flipped, their bones and muscles trembling.
After that brief wave of nausea, the place they arrived at was——
An era no one on the continent had ever experienced even once.
A forgotten and vanished past.
“So this is the Eternal Winter.”
A world where everything had frozen, the ten-thousand-year Eternal Winter.
“Yes. That’s right. Fortunately, it isn’t overwhelmingly cold. Maybe because it’s almost time for it to awaken.”
Sophien and Epherene looked around the continent frozen in deep blue.
Everything, all things under heaven and earth, were in perfect hibernation, exactly as they had been before destruction. Waiting for the spring that would soon arrive.
“Still, let’s hurry. We can’t stay long.”
But there was no time to sightsee.
Epherene took the lead and opened the Lighthouse door. Sophien also followed calmly behind her.
—Tick!
At that moment, the sound of a clock rang in her ear.
Epherene’s body stopped slightly. Her complexion grew tense.
Sophien, reading her expression, asked,
“Is it the world’s interference?”
“……Yes. Quickly.”
This second hand, originating from her heart, was the countdown to the approaching interference of the world.
If they could not save Deculein before the proper time passed, the “corrective force” would detect them, and a fairly serious problem would arise.
“Move!”
Epherene ran. Holding the canvas in her arms, she climbed the stairs of the Lighthouse.
—Tick.
With every step, the sound of the second hand gradually quickened.
For now, they were still within the safe zone.
—Tick.
Fortunately, she already knew Deculein’s location.
Her “Wood Steel” was telling her.
—Tick.
Using the Wood Steel like a GPS, she ran and ran and ran until she arrived at the center of the “Eternal Winter.”
“There, over there…… he’s there. Professor.”
“I see.”
At the place guarded by the knight Julie, Deculein stood. Still as straight and proud as a crane, as if he alone had not frozen.
—Tick.
Epherene approached him. At his hibernating feet, she poured mana into Sylvia’s canvas and looked back at Sophien.
Sophien also nodded.
“What are you hesitating for?”
“……Hoo.”
A single deep breath.
Wooooong———.
The mana Epherene manifested in that way wrapped around the frozen Deculein, carefully lifting him and placing him inside the canvas.
——Tick.
But suddenly, the sound grew urgently louder.
Epherene bit her lip, but there was still something she had to do.
———Tick.
At once, one more clear warning bell rang through her mind.
It was probably the final count.
Craaaaaack……!
Immediately after, a crack in time echoed from somewhere. Like ice splitting apart, fissures were opening here and there throughout space.
This was an error they had assumed would inevitably occur.
As the interference of the “corrective force” she had once experienced before, if left alone, it would become a calamity that would once again destroy the continent.
But Epherene had already anticipated it.
She had also prepared the method to resolve it.
“Your Majesty.”
Epherene called to the emperor. The emperor silently looked at her.
“Your Majesty, you should go first—”
“Epherene.”
Cutting off her words, Sophien pulled the canvas containing Deculein into her own grasp.
It was ordinary “Telekinesis.”
“Your Majesty! What are—”
“We will take care of the rest.”
As if she knew everything, the emperor calmly shrugged. But for Epherene, it was an unforeseen situation shocking enough to make her cry out.
She urgently shook her head.
“Your Majesty!”
Shing—!
The sharp sound of a sword cut off that cry.
Sophien drew the sword at her waist. With its blade, she aimed at Epherene.
“To block this rift, a sacrifice is needed. Just as you were about to do, one must enter the rift directly and seal it with one’s own body, is that not so?”
Craaaaaack———!
As if responding to Sophien’s words, the distortion of spacetime roared even more thunderously.
“But you are impudent, Epherene. I am certain I told you. That I would devote myself personally.”
“……Your Majesty.”
Epherene’s expression hardened.
At the sight of her, perhaps even tinged with hostility, Sophien merely twisted her lips as if she found it cute.
“Professor Deculein wouldn’t want Your Majesty to sacrifice yourself. Nor do I.”
“Mm…… I wonder if that is truly so.”
She murmured with all the composure in the world, stroking her chin.
Epherene looked straight into the Emperor’s eyes. With the situation as urgent as it was, she openly defied her.
“The Empire needs Your Majesty. To lead the Empire properly—”
“No. The Empire is already proper.”
“What do you—”
“Yes. You know this as well, but I shall say it again. I love Deculein.”
Sophien calmly confessed her feelings.
“However, if you think this is a decision made solely for Deculein’s sake, you are mistaken.”
Craaaack———!
Even as she spoke, the fissure in spacetime grew darker, and the shell protecting them from the cold began to slowly crumble.
Sophien said,
“This is because I do it for the Empire and the continent.”
“……No. That’s not true.”
Epherene denied it.
After the Altar incident, Sophien had stabilized the Empire and the continent by her power alone, drafted and implemented laws and policies, and severed every chain of hatred—the greatest Emperor in the continent’s history.
“The continent needs Your Majesty. It still relies on Your Majesty’s judgment, resolve, wisdom, and experience. Even the remnants of the Altar still remain. And above all, Your Majesty has…… always been right.”
Sophien reigned as an absolute Emperor, never once seeming to be wrong.
“Ha, yes. As you say, I have always been right.”
As if to say, You have spoken well, Sophien smiled in satisfaction.
“However, the fact that I have always been right, that I have never once been wrong, has made the people think of me as some ‘absolute reason.’ If I were to say dog shit was soybean paste, they would believe it.”
Epherene’s brow trembled.
Because she understood the meaning hidden within the words absolute reason.
“……Your Majesty.”
“In this Empire, everything is decided by my will, and by the will of the Imperial Family. Then, was this Empire raised up solely by the Imperial Family?”
Sophien’s self-question cut off the voice that tried to dissuade her.
“No.”
And her answer.
“It was not the Imperial Family that raised the Empire. It was the people who raised it.”
“…….”
“Maho once said this to me. That the owners of a nation are the overwhelming majority of its people. That they are the ones who make up a nation, and that the power of a nation also comes from them.”
Sophien’s will was firm. As if it were a purpose she had long ago resolved to fulfill, it was solid, without even a crack to slip through.
“Is that not truly right?”
“…….”
Epherene silently lowered her face. Her gaze sank to the ground.
“So long as I remain in this Empire, the people and the retainers alike will only depend on me. They will only lean on me.”
She could not turn the Emperor’s heart back.
She could never send the Emperor back to the continent.
“And if I were to grow old and die, the descendants of the Imperial Family would inherit that place. But that would only be a continuation of usurpation.”
With her death now, Sophien was trying to return her Empire to its owners.
“To sever that chain, what is needed now is the sacrifice of the greatest person of this age. The one who will remain the greatest even in the future. That person must cut this chain by her own hand.”
Sophien, the Emperor who would remain the greatest forever, until the continent met ruin once more.
If her will shone this brilliantly, it would spread not only through the Empire but through every kingdom, and in the end, it would change this world.
“In other words——”
Sophien declared to Epherene.
Bearing the will of an Emperor who would not yield, who could not yield.
“My death…… shall set them free.”
At that moment, Epherene had no choice but to acknowledge it. No choice but to accept it.
The vessel of one called Emperor was truly something that could not even be compared to someone like herself.
“So return, and tell Deculein.”
————!
A storm of corrective force raged. The fissure in spacetime yawned wide. As she looked upon all those gaps spreading in an instant, like lightning……
“That I, being able to give you the gift of the continent—”
Sophien smiled.
There was happiness in that smile. Joy. Fulfillment. Completion. Affection.
“Am infinitely……”
She sincerely wished.
That she might die for the one she loved.
That she might gift him a life upon this continent.
“Happy.”
Kwaaaaa——————!
The rift in spacetime exploded, and the corrective force engulfed them.
But before that, Sophien swung her sword. She cut diagonally across Epherene’s chest.
“Ah……!”
Then Epherene’s form blurred, and before she could say a word, she vanished.
She had left.
No, the Emperor’s sword had “exiled” her to her original timeline.
“Farewell.”
Sophien twisted the corner of her mouth with a faint laugh and looked back.
Kwaaaaaaaa────!
The surging storm of time.
Into the tidal wave of corrective force that would seize and shatter her august body, willingly……
The Emperor walked against the flow.
#19. Return Alive
……Cut by Sophien’s sword, Epherene returned to her original timeline.
Standing outside the lighthouse before she even realized it, she stared blankly at the approaching party.
They all had the same faces.
Sylvia, Delic, Al Roth, Idnik—everyone stood in the exact same places.
They said something to her. Their lips moved busily, each in their own way.
But Epherene could hear nothing. She could say nothing to them.
Because the eyes that looked at her were searching for someone else.
—Drip.
Suddenly, a small raindrop settled on the bridge of Epherene’s nose.
Wooooong——!
At the same time, the vibration of woodsteel spread out. Those two cold and clamorous energies awakened Epherene’s mind.
Without a word, she turned and opened the lighthouse door.
Clack—!
Like someone possessed, she went inside. And then she simply walked.
Endlessly, as her woodsteel guided her, staggering on and on…….
At last, she arrived before a certain underground door.
The entrance to the “gallery.”
Throwing open that door, Epherene looked straight ahead first.
That was enough. There was no need to search in a frenzy.
In the middle of the gallery, in the place most visible of all, “he” was there. The canvas containing Deculein hung proudly.
No—the Emperor herself had hung it there.
“…….”
As Epherene only stared blankly, Sylvia ran over. Pointing at the canvas, she shouted.
It worked. We succeeded. Epherene. The Professor is inside this. He’s still hibernating, but we can wake him.
At those words, Epherene shed tears.
A feeling she could not tell was joy or sorrow.
An emotion that was far too happy, and yet far too sad.
At the sight of her, everyone else belatedly grew tense as well.
—Suddenly.
Delic asked.
Where His Majesty the Emperor was.
Epherene did not draw it out.
In a trembling voice, she answered simply.
That His Majesty the Emperor had gone on a distant journey.
That she would never, ever return.
#20. Lia
……Time passed.
Not stopping even once after that day, but shining in myriad colors moment by moment, or sinking darkly, as if blessing the lives of all beings on the continent.
Time changed the continent.
After Emperor Sophien’s sudden death, Sophien’s will announced by Creto—the declaration of a republic.
A tome of no less than five hundred pages, stating that the Empire would be reformed into a republic; that the basic framework of families would be maintained temporarily, but the status system would remain only in form and be completely abolished as time passed.
That, containing the Emperor’s final will, was published as a book and read by everyone on the continent.
Of course, by social convention, it should have been a cataclysmic change that could never be accepted. Yet Yeriel of Yukline, Sylvia of Iliade, Zeit of Freyden—the great families that should have opposed it most fiercely—and lastly even Sophien’s younger brother Creto expressed active agreement, and now, one year later.
The Empire is slowly becoming a republic.
And thus, time changed “me.”
[Sub-Quest Complete: The Restless Cave.]
“Is that the end~?”
At the quest notification, I stretched.
This was a cave in the south where some insane monsters were said to appear.
As the vice-captain of the Red Garnet Adventurer Corps, Lia was carrying out a commission.
Ah, it had just ended.
“Phew.”
Thud—
She lay down on the ground and looked up at the dark stone ceiling. The stalactites hanging like icicles were pretty.
Perhaps because of that silent, tranquil atmosphere.
As she blankly stared, suddenly.
“……Has it been about a year?”
That guy she had barely managed to forget came to mind.
Whenever she counted time passing like a stream like this, he came to her like an annual event.
Deculein.
No, Kim Woojin.
No, Deculein.
No, Kim Woojin.
“I wonder what he’s doing around now?”
Lia knew now. She could cleanly admit it.
Deculein—he was no longer Kim Woojin, the man she had once loved most fervently.
“Still……”
Of course, she was not particularly sad.
She could not help sinking into sentiment from time to time, but even that was now a memory that adorned her day.
“You’re having fun living too, right?”
Lia murmured as if speaking to him.
“I’m having fun. Even if I can’t meet you.”
She could not meet Deculein.
The person called Lia was under the protection of the world’s focus—in other words, the “system.” If she were to meet him, then he would once again catch the world’s eye, and that would ruin everything.
“……Even if we’re in the same world like this, we still can’t meet.”
It wasn’t as though she were some tragic heroine.
Chattering to herself, Lia kept lifting the corners of her mouth in little smirks.
“I already stayed with you at your end, didn’t I?”
Deculein’s final moments.
The words he had said to her then as Kim Woojin still remained in Lia’s heart…….
—Lia! Lia!
Leo’s shout suddenly rang out. A noisy echo filled the cave.
—Here! Lia, come here! This place is weird!
“Ugh.”
He was going to be an adult soon, yet he was still like that.
—Lia! I said hurry up and come! My foot’s stuck in mud!
In any case, there were still many unknowns on this continent.
There were many things to resolve, villains were still endless, and there were an absurd number of interesting dungeons.
—Liaaaaa~!
“No, what is Carlos doing?”
—He left me behind!
That was why, whenever Lia went on an adventure, her heart boiled. She enjoyed exploring the unknown, and was happy to encounter new regions, people, and lives.
Of course, this too might have been because of the trait called “Adventurer.”
“When are you guys ever going to stop fighting?”
—Hurry!
It no longer mattered.
Just as you are both Kim Woojin and Deculein.
I think I am both Lia and Yu Ara.
“Okay, okay. I’m coming, I’m coming~ Ugh.”
Sighing with her mouth, yet smiling with her eyes, Lia ran off, and from her pocket, a small letter fluttered down and settled.
Flutter, flutter.
A piece of paper that fell onto the road without Lia noticing, swallowed by the darkness of the lighthouse.
The sentences written upon it. Lia’s heart, pressed full of modest feelings, of sincere feelings.
……Woojin.
Like what you said back then, my world isn’t you. Now I know for sure what you meant by those words.
My world is everything I see, hear, feel, and experience—this continent. This planet, so very different from Earth.
So I’m glad I’m an adventurer. I’m glad there’s so much to adventure through on this continent.
You know what a giant once said?
That the blessings given to humans are their foolishness, their small eyes, their short legs, and the life that must one day die and wither away.
No matter how much I run, and run, and run again, this continent will have no end, right? There will be infinite meetings, right? There will be vast unknowns, right?
And so, these days, I find myself thinking this.
That this boundless land, this endlessly soaring sky, this continent that could never be conquered, was the happiness granted to me.
That it was entirely thanks to you that I came to know this happiness.
Mm……
To be honest, I don’t really know what kind of letter I want to write to you right now.
So, just… to put it briefly.
I am happy on this continent.
I think I’d be fine even if I never returned to my original world.
So I hope you’ll be happy too. I hope you’ll live well.
Got it?
……Hehe.
Writing this letter is making me think of the old days, but…… nah.
I probably won’t be able to deliver it anyway.
Still, take care.
Please, you have to take care of yourself, Ujin.
Only then will I be happy too.
Because only if you’re doing well can I be well too.
And, lastly……
……Lastly.
I really did love you.
Yeah.
I mean it.
Goodbye.
#21. Knot
Hadekain, the metropolis of the Crebaim Republic.
Even within that great city, with its distinctly advanced and modern scenery, the Yukline mansion was the most resplendent of all.
In its study, I am reading a book.
Seated in a rocking chair, I am willingly engrossed in a book on magical theory published by Luina.
Rustle— rustle—
An everyday life I never asked for, enjoyed as I peacefully turn the pages.
Incidentally, Yeriel is busy.
When we first met, she cried and wailed so hard she could hardly speak, but now, after about a year, it seems she has grown more or less tired of me.
If anything, that is much more like Yeriel, so I do not mind.
“……Still as dull as ever.”
Thud—
I closed the book.
Luina’s theories remain simple. Well, teaching has always been her specialty.
At any rate, I finished reading in fifteen minutes and looked out the window again.
“It is clear.”
Clear.
A sky that was only blue, without a single cloud. A sun burning brilliantly.
Together with that nature, I am still alive. Thanks to a plan one might call rather splendid, which exploited the gap between past and present.
“…….”
But at first, I was dissatisfied.
For if one is a villain, then dying in that manner is the proper conclusion, the certain destiny.
Survival did not make me glad.
I could not be glad.
“……Your Majesty.”
Even now, I am recalling Sophien.
The Emperor who devoted herself to give me the world, and to give freedom to the Empire despite everything.
“Your Majesty’s reward is far too generous for me.”
The time she gave me is likely not particularly long.
Perhaps I am merely dying slowly.
“However, if this is Your Majesty’s wish.”
If my living is her wish.
If being content with the time I have been given and remaining faithful to the present is her happiness.
“I shall gladly enjoy my life……”
I smiled softly.
“So that I may keep the promise I have not yet kept.”
I am still Deculein, and I am Kim Ujin. That identity cannot be expressed by a mere name.
And yet, I still have one promise I have not kept.
“At the very, very end, I will come to see you.”
To keep that “last promise,” I will continue striving for as long as I live.
—Ah, Brother! What are you doing, not coming out already!
Kyaaaak—!
Suddenly, a loud voice rang noisily from the crystal orb. It was Yeriel.
—The banquet is all ready, I told you.
When on earth is this girl going to acquire any dignity?
I shook my head. Setting the book down, I rose from my seat and descended to the mansion’s garden.
“…….”
A lawn reserved exclusively for Deculein, screened off on all sides so no one outside could see in.
There were many welcome faces there.
Delic, Gawain, Sylvia, Epherene, Yeriel, Al Los, Idnik, Jackal and Carla, Ellie, Yuli, Maho……
“Brother! Why are you so late!”
Yeriel, shouting for me with veins standing out on her temples; Epherene, who had been eating some Loahawk and only belatedly noticed me; Sylvia, who gave me a small smile; and even Yuli, standing awkwardly as though gauging my reaction.
“Hurry up and come here!”
As I walked toward that insolent shout, I loaded a forehead flick. I intended to shatter the forehead of this girl, who remained so undignified even in front of guests.
Holding it ready, I approached right before her—
“Agh!”
The sharp snap rang out.
Everyone laughed together.
The sunlight settled transparently, and the horizon was dyed blue.
The tree branches cried whoosh, and the grass swayed with the grain of the wind.
……Rustle.
……Rustle.
On that clear and peaceful afternoon, fallen leaves mingled throughout the garden. They were maple leaves, reddened with autumn. The red trails of the maple leaves sank like a graceful arc curved in a bright smile.
“Professor.”
In a world without the Emperor, receiving maple leaves that resembled the Emperor, and seeing Epherene who had at some point approached me with a smile, I quietly thought.
It was not a grand thought at all, but an exceedingly simple one.
“You know.”
The life Sophien gave me. The span her devotion lengthened, even if only by a little.
In the time that remains, because these people are with me, because those I can trust and rely on are by my side———
“I’m glad you came.”
———even a villain wants to live.
FIN.
#Side Story. Sophien
……Chirp chirp—
……Chirp chirp chirp——
The song of birds chirping noisily somewhere in the sky. Sunlight stinging her closed eyelids.
Annoyed by them, Sophien shifted about, and without realizing it, opened her eyes.
“…….”
Then she blankly looked up at the sky. As she gazed at that scene, she briefly recalled what had happened just moments before.
After hanging Deculein’s painting in the gallery, she had been caught in the storm of time and exiled. In the open rift of time, her body had been torn, ground down, shattered. As it was being disassembled……
“Is this the continent?”
Whether it was the past, present, or future; whether this was the continent, an island, or some other planet; knowing neither time nor place, she had fallen into some nameless forest.
“……A small price.”
Sophien checked the condition of her body.
Her remaining lifespan was, at most, a day or two. Death was already certain, but considering it was the cost of blocking the restraining force with her entire body, it was certainly cheap.
“So this body breaks as well.”
She had thought it eternal and imperishable.
Whether dying like this was fortune or misfortune, she could not say.
Sophien let out a hollow laugh despite herself. She forced her twisted body to its feet.
“…….”
Now, all that remained was to find a place to die.
Of course, her corpse would spontaneously combust, but dying without even knowing where this place was did not sit well with her.
———Crack!
Yet just as she was about to walk even a little, the sound of something breaking rang through the mountains. Another needlessly irritating disturbance.
Sophien looked toward it.
Grrrr——!
It was the savage cry of a beast. A tiger was chasing some nameless woman.
The shabbily dressed woman was running with a child in her arms. Precarious and dangerous, but desperate.
“…….”
Sophien could have ignored her.
Even saving a single person from a mere tiger could prove fatal to Sophien as she was now. It could shave away more than half of the life she had left.
“Even if half a day dwindles to half of that.”
It did not matter anyway.
A life that had been merely long. The endlessly repeated cycle of regression. She had no lingering attachment to a life stained by those things.
Thus, Sophien gripped her sword. She took one step forward and swung it without hesitation.
Whoooosh—!
A sword wind surged up and severed the tiger’s neck. The woman was caught in the wind stirred by mana and lost her footing as well.
“Eek!”
“…….”
Even so, the woman still clutched the child to her breast as she tumbled miserably to the ground.
Without a word, Sophien approached her.
Step— At the sound of that footfall, the woman sprang to her feet.
“Th-thank you! Thank you, my lord! I was going down the mountain to get the child’s milk bottle when I ran into a tiger……”
She bowed again and again, expressing her gratitude. Her face was covered in wounds, and tears hung brimming in her eyes; Sophien had no particular wish to look at her for long.
Drip—
“Thank yo……?”
Like a red spot, a drop of blood fell onto the ground.
……Sophien’s blood.
“A-ah. A-are, are you all right?”
The woman hurriedly looked up at Sophien and asked. Sophien shook her head.
“I am not.”
“A-ah! I-I am sorry, my lord. M-my home is nearby, so please, please come with me. I can offer at least some poor treatment……”
“No need.”
The woman leapt up to guide her, but Sophien refused.
“It is fine. It is already too late.”
“N-no, how can you say such a thing……”
Waaaaaaah——!
Just then, the child began to cry. Startled, the woman soothed the infant in its swaddling cloth, and as Sophien glanced at the child, her brow twitched ever so slightly.
Sophien spoke again.
“……I will go.”
“Yes?”
To the woman who tilted her head, Sophien gave a faint smile.
“To that house of yours, or whatever it is.”
“……Ah! Yes! Please follow me!”
The woman quickly guided Sophien.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
They skillfully traversed the mountain path, pushed through the underbrush, and arrived deep in the mountains. There stood a small cabin built on a slanted mid-slope.
“This is the place. Please come in.”
Creak—
The woman opened the door, which groaned as if it might break. Sophien entered as well.
“Please sit.”
Then she seated Sophien on the one and only bed, placed medicinal herbs into a container, and began grinding them with a pestle.
“Please wait just a moment. I will treat you at once—”
“Before that. There is something I wish to ask you.”
“……Yes?”
“I do not need treatment. Did I not say so? It is already too late.”
Concealing her pallor, Sophien asked.
She wanted to ask. What the current era was, whether this place truly was the continent, whether it was the Empire or the Republic, or some entirely different alien planet—more than any of that.
“What is the child’s name?”
“……The child’s name, you say?”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“Yes. That child’s name.”
Sophien’s voice as she asked again was quite cheerful. For a dying person, the rise and fall of her tone was far too delighted.
“Um……”
It was sudden for the woman, but as she saw it, every aspect of Sophien’s appearance and bearing was noble. She must be someone of very high status……
The woman answered.
“It is Keiron.”
“……Haha.”
At those words, Sophien smiled without realizing it.
The black-haired fellow, wailing in his mother’s arms.
Now that she looked, even as a newborn, he already bore quite a bit of what he would become in the future.
“……Keiron, is it.”
Sophien laid herself down on the bed.
“I see.”
It was a murmur mixed with wonder.
But as though her utterly broken body could no longer sustain itself, her consciousness gradually grew hazy.
……A-are you all right?
The voice of the woman she had met by chance grew faint.
The woman hurriedly slathered powdered herbs over her various wounds, but there was no way they would have any effect.
……Mm.
Sophien quietly closed her eyes.
I am… a little sleepy.
The world grew distant, dim, and dark.
Sophien’s life-exhausted body slowly ceased functioning and sank into utter stillness.
The end she had once yearned for so desperately.
Freed at last from that regression which had robbed her of death, becoming a body that could finally hear nothing and see nothing.
Flesh and spirit wholly separating……
——Your Majesty.
Just as she was about to savor her end, someone’s voice spread in soft ripples.
Sophien opened her eyes again.
—…….
The scenery reflected upon her retinas was rather bewildering.
She had surely met her death. Her eyes and ears should have failed, leaving her unable to see or hear.
Yet as she quietly looked around, she could see everything and hear everything.
……A lakeside.
Lotus flowers lay beautifully upon the clear water, and pale mist rose faintly, forming a strange and fantastical sight.
——Your Majesty.
Then that same voice seeped in once more.
Sophien felt she knew who it was without even looking.
—Keiron.
When she called that name, he smiled.
——Yes, Your Majesty.
Sophien glared at him and asked.
—Is this a dream?
Was this place a dream, or the afterlife? Even Sophien, who learned all things with ease, had never experienced a space like this, so she had no choice but to ask Keiron.
——It is a magical space. It seems our souls have been trapped here for a short while.
A magical space.
Moreover, a grand magic capable of “trapping souls.”
——How truly vicious.
Keiron said with laughter in his tone. Sophien wore a similar expression.
It was obvious whose doing this was.
——Of course, it must be the Deculein of the future. To keep the final promise he made to Your Majesty.
Saying so, Chiron pointed somewhere.
A square wooden board lay at the place where lake and land met.
At the sight of it, a smile formed of its own accord on Sophien’s lips. She simply could not hold it back, and laughed aloud.
—It’s baduk.
Baduk.
The “final game” that Sophien had asked of Deculein, and that Deculein had promised, only for Sophien herself to abandon it on a whim.
——Yes. The final game still remains.
Thus, this was a magical space, one that could seize even the soul, invented and realized by the future Deculein, who had continued to advance on his own.
The medium for such a fantastical magic was—the “promise” we had made in life itself.
——Until the game is over, Deculein will not let us go.
At Chiron’s words, Sophien nodded as well.
—Then.
If she truly could not escape.
If that damned, lovable wretch had imprisoned her here.
……Then gladly.
She passed through the mist hanging over the lake, splashing through the water as she walked, and sat before the baduk board.
—Until Deculein comes, you will remain by Our side, will you not?
It was a question that needed no asking.
Chiron answered with satisfaction.
——Of course. I, Chiron, shall serve Your Majesty for eternity.
That was enough.
If he was by her side, she could focus solely on baduk.
—Then let us wait.
Sophien said, gazing at the baduk board and the stones.
—While thinking of a way to defeat him.
Her opponent had not yet arrived.
For the sake of one who could be called a master of baduk, no amount of practice or preparation would be too much.
Therefore, time would surely pass in an instant.
—But you see. This final game, for some reason……
Sophien stopped speaking at a slightly joyful thought. She toyed with her lips with a finger and smiled.
—……I feel it may take quite a long time.
For an emperor, it was far too modest a wish.
- The Villain Wants to Live: The End -