······In her dream, Sylvia lay asleep in someone’s arms. They were so warm and firm, just right to use as a pillow.
Yet something felt a little lacking, so she sidled closer and buried her face in his chest.
She worried it might be too much childish affection, but as if to say it was not, he instead reached out and wrapped his arms around her.
Warmth filled her heart.
The place where she lay was soft like grass; flowers bloomed around her, and butterflies and honeybees fluttered through the air.
Everything in every direction was beautiful.
It felt as though the whole world belonged to her.
And yet, one corner of her heart still ached.
Because of a certain doubt that tormented her to the bone.
Did he know how she felt? He held her even tighter. And then, he told her words that put her at ease.
Sylvia smiled and nestled in his embrace.
Now she was no longer alone.
She did not have to endure loneliness, sorrow, all by herself anymore.
Because that person was by her side······.
“······.”
Sylvia opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the ceiling. It was the artificial lodging she had made.
Rustle, rustle—
She touched the corner of her eye. A single tear came away. No, her fingers were soaked with moisture.
“······Ah.”
Because it had been such a happy dream, it was agonizing.
The emotions she had desperately kept sealed away surged up all at once.
—I will not let you ruin Sylvia.
That person’s words played again in her ears.
Sylvia covered her face with both hands.
Her breathing grew rough, and as if she had fallen into a panic, she could not breathe.
After trembling like that for a long while, she took a vial from her inner pocket. She shaped the medicinal ingredients inside the bottle into the form of a pill.
Gulp— she swallowed it.
“Haa.”
The panic that had felt like drowning stopped in that instant. Sylvia calmed herself, breathing evenly. Afterward, she dismantled her personal space.
Whoooooosh······.
The three primary colors lifted, and the scenery was revealed.
Before she knew it, many people were around her.
“Sylvia. I knew it was you.”
Nearby, Epherene grinned. She was with Karixel, and some woman Sylvia did not know.
Sylvia nodded.
“Stupid Epherene. You passed somehow.”
“Heh. It’s me, you know. Oh, right, we were attacked too? Some strange men broke in here—”
Epherene boasted, but Sylvia did not even look at her.
Just then, the proctor Mimic announced the end of the exam.
“Now. Seventy-two hours have passed, so time is up. Everyone, please gather. A total of 113 of you have passed the first exam. The 900 who failed will separately take exams by other divisions.”
The examinees sat down and watched the proctor.
Mimic wrote numerous names in the air.
“The second exam is ‘Mentor and Mentee.’ You may think of it as an interview evaluation. Choose one of the proctors above yourself, and go directly to be evaluated.”
Gindalf, Rose Rio, Deculein, Ihelm, Crancia, and so on······ There were many highly renowned mages. Rose Rio and Gindalf in particular.
However, Sylvia’s gaze had already fixed on one person.
“Please decide within thirty minutes and stand before the doors of the proctors.”
The darkness of the long corridor brightened, revealing interview rooms. A certain name was written on each doorplate.
Among them, Sylvia approached the door that read [ Deculein ].
“Debutante Sylvia and Debutante Epherene. You two cannot be evaluated by Professor Deculein.”
Mimic suddenly stopped them. Sylvia narrowed her brow. Epherene, standing behind her, tilted her head as well.
“Why?”
“Because you are from the same university. There is a concern that it would go against fairness.”
“······.”
Sylvia had no choice but to choose [ Rose Rio ]. A mage who had reached the Aether rank at a young age.
On the other hand, Epherene pondered for a bit before approaching the door of [ Gindalf ].
“Now. The exam will begin shortly, and please keep in mind that the higher the rank and fame of the proctor, the more difficult the interview may be!”
Sylvia pouted and looked at Deculein’s door. There was one man and one woman. The man was Karixel, and she did not know who the woman was.
* * *
Karixel and Meiho were the two who had chosen Deculein. Perhaps Deculein’s fastidious personality was quite famous, for out of 125 people, there were only two.
“Miss Meiho. Then, I’ll go in first.”
“Yes~”
Karixel smiled brightly and opened the door with the nameplate [ Deculein ] attached to it.
The interior itself was ordinary. Deculein sat on the far side of a white, clean room. Karixel closed the door and approached him.
“Good day, Professor Deculein. Thank you for earlier.”
Karixel first expressed his gratitude for the incident half a day ago. Deculein made no idle reply.
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
Karixel sat down. Then, before Deculein could say anything, he asked first.
“Professor. By any chance, is this process being recorded or filmed with a crystal orb?”
“What does that matter?”
Deculein answered offhandedly as he picked up Karixel’s report.
Thirty-three. Three children. Karixel.
Karixel asked again, solemnly.
“It is important. Please.”
“······I am merely writing a report. There is no recording or filming.”
“Is that so.”
Then, for some reason, Karixel nodded resolutely and spoke words Deculein could not possibly have imagined.
“Professor. I am a Red Demon.”
“······?”
Deculein, who had been scanning the report, looked at Karixel. He tilted his head at the abrupt declaration.
“Haha······ From the beginning, my goal was to meet you, Professor, ‘just the two of us.’ Of course, we met twice before, but there were too many eyes then, so I waited.”
“Did you know the contents of the exam in advance?”
“Yes. To some extent.”
“······.”
For now, Deculein listened in silence.
“I came to find you for negotiations, Professor. The previous ‘Grand Festival of All Peoples Terror Incident’ was not the work of us Red Demons. Our clan only wants peace.”
However, perhaps out of disbelief, his posture remained frozen, the report still clenched in his hand.
“All of it was the Altar’s scheme. The Great Elder of the Red Demons will also issue a statement. If you wish, the Great Elder is even willing to speak directly with the Empire—”
At that moment, Deculein’s face transformed like that of a rakshasa. Leaning his body toward Karixel, Deculein glared into his eyes and said,
“The moment the Great Elder reveals himself, he dies.”
“······.”
Karixel’s heart stopped for a moment.
However, this was a fact without the slightest falsehood.
The Great Elder must not reveal himself. The moment he appeared publicly, death triggers and sudden events would activate madly.
“No, if he sets foot on Imperial soil or shows himself, I will kill him myself.”
The words that he would kill the Great Elder. A powerful warning from Deculein to the Great Elder, who had to survive for a long time yet.
He leaned back against the chair again.
“······Your courage is commendable, and the Floating Island is bound by no law of the continent, so I will bury your statement here. However.”
He glared at Karixel. Eyes as sharp as a specter’s. Karixel, overwhelmed by nothing but that gaze, felt Deculein’s renown in full.
“Do not misunderstand. Now is not the time for the likes of the Red Demons to dare step forward. Especially not before me.”
“······.”
“Hide yourselves before you are exterminated. That is my advice to you.”
From Karixel’s position, the negotiations had clearly failed, but he still had something to say. He had not thought from the start that this negotiation would succeed.
His purpose had been somewhat different from the beginning.
“Then, please send me to the Rohalak prison camp.”
It was a far stranger thing to say than before. Deculein placed the pen and report on the desk.
“I am more famous by the name Brolin than Karixel.”
At his name, Deculein nodded. Brolin was not an important named figure, but he was on the list of most-wanted criminals handed over by the Imperial Guard.
“Professor, arrest me and gain merit and fame, and allow me to be with my clan in Rohalak.”
“······.”
“Is that not a bad trade?”
Deculein glared at Karixel with narrowed eyes. Karixel did not avoid that gaze.
Deculein tested Karixel’s honest resolve.
“Why should I bother? I could seize you right here and put you on the gallows.”
“Of course, Professor, you could do that. But Professor, do you remember Lokhak?”
Lokhak.
A mage hunter, and the first Red Demon Deculein had met.
“Lokhak said you were a true noble, Professor. He also said you were the only noble who understood the Red Demons, rather than seeing them as devils.”
“······.”
“The words you said to him—were they lies?”
Deculein had been the only noble in Bercht to protect the Red Demons, and he had not killed Lokhak even knowing he was a Red Demon.
Karixel trusted not Deculein the mage, but Deculein the noble. He appealed to his dignity as a noble.
“······What do you intend to do there? All those confined in the camp will have their dantian abolished.”
Karixel’s method was correct. He swallowed a sigh of relief and continued speaking.
“I have special items. Items I made with a talent called the 「Hand of Midas」. The things I have made in advance continue to operate even if my dantian is abolished. So please, allow me to bring only my personal belongings separately. They absolutely will not be a means for terrorism or escape.”
Karixel possessed the same trait as Deculein. No, it was Karixel’s trait that Kim Woojin had given to Deculein.
“······.”
Deculein looked at him without a word.
At that moment, Karixel’s heart was pounding like mad. However, he was somewhat certain. Even if thought of solely as a “trade,” the numbers should balance for both sides.
──At last.
“I may abolish your dantian and cut off one of your limbs.”
“Yes. I will gladly accept it.”
It was a chilling permission. Immediately afterward, Karixel took a notebook from his breast and wrote a sentence. It was about where and how he would be captured.
Deculein held the note between his fingers.
“If this is a trick, I will slaughter your clan without hesitation.”
“Yes. As you will not betray me, Professor, I will also be sure to keep my word.”
Karixel answered so and bowed at the waist.
As if his crown might touch the ground, trusting the man who had declared he would kill his clan’s Great Elder.
“Now get out.”
“Thank you.”
Deculein watched Karixel as he rose from his seat and left.
The back of the man walking away, step by step, was exceedingly broad. He did not even think of the future of hardship soon to come; rather than fearing the abolition of his dantian and the pain that would follow, he was filled with relief that he could be with his clan.
A curious man.
No, a true leader.
Deculein asked such a man,
“It says you have three children. Is that false personal information?”
Karixel, who had stopped for a moment, smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“It is not false, but they are children who will live well even without me.”
“Hmph. A fair man, are you.”
Deculein twisted his lips and waved his hand.
It was an order to leave.
*
Meanwhile, Sylvia looked at Rose Rio in her interview room. More than anything, Rose Rio’s pink hair was fascinating.
“You, what comes to mind when you look at this?”
Rose Rio pointed to the magic circle on her desk. Sylvia reconstructed the magic circle with her sight and recited the scenery that rose in her mind just as it was.
“A city. There are mountains behind it, and a river flows through the center.”
“Good~ You pass.”
“······.”
An immediate pass.
Sylvia tilted her head like a child. Rose Rio chuckled and explained the reason.
“This formula can only be seen if you have certain mana sensitivity and understanding of the categories. To an ordinary mage, it just looks like a collection of lines and circles. If they have a little more talent, maybe it’d take about ten minutes. But you saw it in ten seconds. So that’s the end of it.”
“······.”
“Oh? Don’t look at me with such suspicious eyes. It’s insanely difficult, you know?”
Sylvia nodded and asked,
“Then may I leave now?”
“Sure. Go on, and let’s meet again later. You’re coming to the Floating Island, aren’t you? On the Floating Island, let’s spend a little more time together.”
“······.”
Those words from Rogerio.
Without a word of answer, Sylvia went outside.
*
[ Gindalf ]
Ipeurin opened the door bearing Gindalf’s nameplate. Beyond the threshold lay a long, dark passage.
“Looks like things are getting serious……”
Gulp—
She swallowed hard and took a step forward.
The ground sank with a squelch, but she hastily radiated mana to forge a foothold.
In that instant, an arrow whistled— down from above. She immediately blocked it with a 「Barrier」 woven on the spot.
Whishiiick—!
This time, whips surged in from every direction. She deployed a 「Flame Serpent」 melding flame and wind. The Flame Serpent bent more nimbly than the whips and devoured them all.
“Hoo! Nice.”
Ipeurin wiped away sweat and praised herself. Yet the passage remained long, and a strange fog obscured her vision.
Her head grew dizzy, as if from cigarette smoke.
“Hoo…… hoo……”
She swayed as if about to collapse, but did not fall.
The dense, heavy mana in the air seemed to pull at her entire body, yet she resisted stubbornly and pressed on without giving up.
And so— had she walked for a full ten minutes or so along a passage barely thirty meters long?
A light appeared on the far side. Ipeurin squinted and looked.
An old man bearing an exact likeness to a fairy-tale wizard— Gindalf— was stroking his long beard.
“……Ah!”
She rushed over to him. Gindalf smiled benevolently upon seeing her.
“Congratulations. You’ve passed the interview, I daresay.”
“……What? It’s over?”
“That’s right. The passage you traversed is a magic trap I crafted with my own hands. It gauges three things: mental strength, mana, and magical improvisation. Passing that is more than enough. And is there truly a need for interviews or examinations to be complicated? You are a ‘Solda’, after all.”
“Ah……”
She understood immediately.
Solda mattered only to Debutants; to those who had reached ranks such as Eterna or Monarch, it would be nothing more than cute.
“Let me see…… your name is……”
Gindalf fixed his eyes on the paperwork atop his desk, but soon, as though recalling something, opened his eyes wide and lifted his head.
“My, my. Hold on.”
Gindalf scrutinized her. Startled, Ipeurin straightened her seated posture. Resting both fists on her knees, she gulped.
“W-why do you ask?”
“You are…… hm……”
Gindalf spoke, frowning and humming deep in his throat.
“Smile for me. And take off your robe.”
“W-what? M-my robe?”
“Quickly.”
Ipeurin looked at Gindalf with a face full of doubt.
Could this old man be a kindly degenerate?
No way, there must be another reason.
After hesitating, Ipeurin first removed her robe.
“Now, try smiling.”
“W-why?”
“Hurry!”
That urging reminded her of the tiger-like village chief from her countryside hometown.
Ipeurin forced the corners of her mouth up.
“Not like some monster, you see.”
“Like a monster? No, I— eheheh!”
A laugh suddenly burst from her. Gindalf had tickled her armpit with magic.
“Ehehehe, a-ah, really, why are you doing this, stop, heuht! Eheheh!”
Seeing that bright smile, Gindalf let out a soft sigh and leaned back against his chair’s rest.
“Ah, really, w-why on earth are you doing this! I-I’m going to report you!”
Ipeurin, who had been laughing endlessly, wrapped her arms around herself. Gindalf gazed at her steadily and muttered.
“So you were the child of the assistant in that pendant.”
“……What about me?”
Gindalf recalled.
The pendant that Dekyullein had once asked him to restore.
The child in the photograph inside it.
Gindalf had only glimpsed that photo for a moment, but his memory was unmistakable.
“What is your relationship with Dekyullein?”
“What?”
Gindalf asked quite seriously. Ipeurin was simply bewildered.
“What do you mean, relationship……”
“Speak honestly. My eyes cannot be deceived.”
Mana flickered in Gindalf’s eyes.
The Harmony school signified empathy between the world and humanity, and between human and human. For Gindalf, who stood at the pinnacle of that school, distinguishing truth from lies was easier than anything in the world.
Watching Gindalf’s mood, Ipeurin answered.
“……We are enemies.”
“Enemies?”
“Yes.”
“You mean Dekyullein is your enemy?”
“……I won’t say any more than that.”
Ipeurin clamped her mouth shut, and Gindalf crossed his arms with a thoroughly perplexed expression.
Ipeurin, who had been fidgeting with her fingers, suddenly flared up in anger.
“No, really, why are you doing this? Is this part of the examination?”
“……How curious. To think that you consider Dekyullein an enemy.”
“What’s so curious about it? If you don’t tell me, I might really report you.”
“Report? What do you mean, report?”
“You made me take off my robe. You tickled me by force. There must be a reason. A reason I can accept.”
“……”
Gindalf gazed at her as if at a loss, but soon muttered quietly.
“You may consider Dekyullein an enemy, but it seems Dekyullein values you more dearly than you think.”
“……Wh-what? Precious?”
Ipeurin’s haughty face contorted.
That Dekyullein, value me? Precious?
It was such absurd drivel that it wasn’t even funny.
“Were it not so, he would not have asked me to restore a pendant so worn and frayed, much less ‘request’ it of me.”
Gindalf recalled the events of that day.
—Elder Gindalf.
—Hm? Dekyullein, was it you who called for me?
—Yes. There is something I wish to request. I ask you to restore this pendant.
“He made the request directly to me, who had been sworn enemies with his father. The boy takes after his old man in pride alone.”
Gindalf himself had never imagined at the time that Dekyullein would come to him directly.
Yet Dekyullein asked him for the pendant’s restoration, paid the price, and left.
“What kind of request was it? Tell me, please tell me!”
Ipeurin cried out, clenching her fists tightly. Gindalf cast a sidelong glance at her.
There was little price he could extract from this child.
No, none at all.
In his youth, he would not have spared a glance for anything that did not pay…….
Had he grown old, after all? An old man’s curiosity and impishness were truly vexing.
“Dekyullein once asked me to restore a pendant. Inside that pendant was a photo of you when you were young…… ahem. A photo of you from your childhood.”
Dekyullein had also mentioned the “assistant who committed suicide,” but Gindalf deliberately stopped short of saying that.
“He would not have requested its restoration from me were it not a truly precious item. Dekyullein’s father always despised me so.”
Ipeurin went rigid.
As though time itself had stopped, she merely stared blankly at Gindalf.
“What a curious chap. A heartless scoundrel carrying around a pendant with a child’s photo—I had merely assumed it was a relative…….”
Gindalf let out a bitter smile.
“To think it was his own disciple in her youth.”
Ipeurin was dazed. Not one facial wrinkle or muscle twitched. Only her nostrils flared now and then.
A smirk tugged at the corners of Gindalf’s mouth as he watched her.
“Ho-ho, I’ve truly grown old. To think watching a young child’s confused face would be so amusing. Kehkehkehkeh.”
Is this what it means to be a connoisseur?
—That’s right! Exactly, exactly!
Recalling Adrienne’s crisp voice, Gindalf broke into an open smile.