"…"
I looked at Ihelm. His appearance had changed quite a bit since the time I met him in Bercht; now, he was skinny and pale.
"Did you go on a diet?"
"They said that it is hard to avoid the happiness of others. The world is boring. It feels like I'm eating moths with every breath."
Ihelm offered a sour smile as he tried to provoke me. I saw the mana fluttering next to him with my Vision.
"You've grown quite a bit even though you say that."
"…Don't pretend you know something. What do you know?"
The Ihelm I knew was not a very special Named. Of course, in pure magical talent, he was superior to Deculein, but he was far short compared to many other powerful Named. But now, his mana purity was beyond my expectations.
"Hmph. But it's amazing. I have whiskey, brandy, vodka, tequila, and all the drinks I could ever want to be brought in from the archipelago, but my magic insight is clearer than ever."
Ihelm tilted his head, watching me with his red eyes.
"Is this also thanks to you? Deculein, Head Professor."
"Probably. It seems that I have a talent for enlightening other people's magical talents."
"…Haha."
Ihelm chuckled. But soon, his face contorted viciously.
"Deculein. I still don't understand you, snake bastard. What are you going to do with Luna's daughter?"
"…"
"Rather than kicking her out of the tower, you accepted her as a teaching assistant? When you had the chance to expel her, too."
I buried my back in the chair without saying a word. Conversely, Ihelm pushed his upper body towards me.
"I thought about it a lot. If you resembled Decalane, one could have guessed about you accepting Luna's daughter. But you don't look like Decalane."
─Then.
As consciousness sounded the alarm, a certain voice rang in my mind. It was Idnik.
-…I thought you would kill that child. Because the first person to discover that child was Decalane.
Ihelm's sneered.
"Why? Do you have any sympathy for her?"
It flowed in one ear and out the next as I carried on with my thoughts. I recalled the personality of Decalane I met in the diary, and pondered his words.
-…I am the learning intelligence of Master Decalane. The master entrusted me with the [Family Succession Eligibility Test] as my top priority.
The former head of Yukline, Decalane, was not satisfied with Yeriel or Deculein. The result was that they were both to be eliminated. Then, was Decalane looking for a new head of the household? Neither Deculein nor Yeriel, did he want another talent to continue the family called Yukline brilliantly?
Was that candidate Epherene?
"Are you sorry for Luna's daughter, who's father pretended to love her? After watching that fool, you suddenly pitied her, so did you want to act as her goddamn father instead? Or, do you want her body?"
I looked at Ihelm, thinking for a moment as to whether I should crush that face.
"…Hmph. Okay. Whatever it is, the announcement of the succession of the chairman will probably come within the week."
Ihelm, twisting his lips, spoke in a threatening manner.
"You and I, our past. Luna's daughter, the tower's history, and the deal between Luna and Yukline. I'll reveal all of that at the public hearing and interrogation."
What the deal was, what the past was. Ihelm laughed, threatening things I didn't even know about.
"Let's die together."
The guy was about to stand as I manifested Psychokinesis. I grabbed his hand tightly, clamping it down around the chair's armrest.
"Let go."
Ihelm tried to move his hand away, but my Psychokinesis couldn't be broken so easily. The guy shook his chair and sat back down.
"Ihelm. You'll die before the hearing at this rate."
"Pfft. Really?"
He smirked.
"You don't know it, but I'm already dead. From the day you took everything from me."
"Then you will die one more time."
"Kill me then."
Ihelm raised himself. I unlocked Psychokinesis since the way he was holding onto his chair and trying to get out was ridiculous. He threw the chair and left, fiddling with his wrists.
Slam-!
The door slammed shut, leaving me alone in the dreary office.
"…"
Being left alone, I organized the mind. Epherene. Luna. Yukline. Decalane. Ihelm. The past was intricately entangled around me like a spider's web. As I was counting those relationships, I suddenly looked out the window and saw the reflection of myself through the dark glass.
My expression was one of quiet but intense anger.
"The reason I accepted Epherene."
I asked myself again Ihelm's question. The reason was certain without having to think twice. Now or in the distant future, it was because she was my disciple.
* * *
Bang-!
Returning to the assistant's laboratory, Epherene placed her bundle of documents on the desk. It was just a hundred chapters. She repeated that like a mantra, confidence swelling inside her. Inwardly, she cheered herself up and rolled up her sleeves.
Driiin-!
The alarm went off on the Ouija board. Surprised, Epherene looked at the screen.
"Oh!"
[The post 'Does anyone know the history of the tower from 10 to 15 years ago' has been deleted]
[Reason: Exceeded period]
The history of the tower 10 to 15 years ago, when Deculein and her father went to the magic tower together. She even put a bounty on it… Epherene was, on her own terms, trying to dig into the past between Deculein and her father.
"Is 100 Elnes too little?"
Well, the fair price for most class notes was 500 Elnes or more. Epherene corrected the price with trembling hands and wrote the post again.
——[ Does anyone know the history of the tower from 10 to 15 years ago? There is compensation. ]——
: Anyone who knows the history of the tower from 10 to 15 years ago, if you give me information, I'll give you 600 Elnes.
"600 Elnes should do it."
Now to begin her study in earnest!
"Now… let's see."
First chapter. The first page was the introduction, illustrating the value of creating a new pure element, plus an overview of the four series magic established based on it. She skimmed through it and moved on to the next page.
"Huh?"
The content didn't follow. The first page and the second page were different. From the second page onwards, there were suddenly a lot of formulas, as if something were missing in the middle.
"Did the Professor give me something wrong?"
Epherene placed a finger on the first sheet of paper and moved it. Then, the page flipped over.
"…Oh."
Only then did she realize this was no ordinary paper. It was state-of-the-art magic paper. Therefore, the length of one chapter was… 300 pages. That is, 300 pages of magic paper per sheet, and with 100 sheets…
"…30,000 pages."
There was less than a month left, but the content to study was 30,000 pages.
"Ah…"
Epherene instantly felt a pain shoot through her back like a hammer had been taken to her spine. It felt like the whole world was far away.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the basement of the Intelligence Agency.
"…Hmm."
Hundreds of millions of papers, stuffed and sealed monsters, illegal magic books written from ashes and human skin…
The [Intelligence Agency Records and Evidence Storage Room] was full of all sorts of things. In the so-called Purple Room, named for the simple reason that the wallpaper was purple, Primienne was digging through information related to Sierra.
"Fuck."
Investigating a person's life was very cumbersome. This was because the character's exact trajectory of life couldn't be obtained from the person.
"Damn it… not this one."
Human life came from those around us, not ourselves. Why are humans human? Because we live with humans, we live among humans, so we are human. If there were only one human in this world, they would not be human.
"This ten."
Therefore, Primienne was searching for all the people around Sierra. In this way, composing a person's timeline was a chore she had been doing since her junior days.
"This is all because of that bastard."
Mumbling dryly, Primienne found a burnt letter in the list of evidence.
"What is this?"
A question that sounded more like self-talk, but the agent waiting to the side answered.
"Oh, that? The official name is Lucky Letter."
Primienne rolled her eyes and read the contents.
[ Whoever reads this letter will be cursed within three days. The only way to heal is to accurately translate the contents of this letter to three or more people. Also, if you spread this letter to more than five people, your next day will be full of good fortune…]
"This is stupid."
"The people who received the letter were cursed and died. It's a letter that killed hundreds of people."
"Ah."
Primienne quickly threw the letter away, rubbing her hands against her clothes.
"It's a quietly buried case in the magical world. It has been more than ten years, so the deputy director must not know."
"…Magic is mysterious. And crazy."
"The letter is not magic. It was a demon."
"A demon. Just this?"
"Yes. This letter was from a phenomena-type demon."
Primienne nodded at the agent.
"Well. You were under that bastard, no, that professor and learned well."
"Yes. I found it out naturally as all the books in the Professor's library were like that."
Primienne looked back at the agent who was rummaging through the Purple Room with her.
"They also have the hospital records of Sierra and Sylvia here, huh? They must have been in and out of the hospital often when they were younger."
This was a place where eavesdropping or surveillance was impossible. Of course, there is a crystal ball on the ceiling, but it was only for video recording, so that it couldn't capture sound. Therefore, it was perfect for facilitating a secret meeting.
"The letter that took the lives of 358 people more than ten years ago… the dispelling of that letter was undertaken by Decalane, the head of the Yukline."
Primienne saw a record related to the Lucky Letter.
"Many have died."
"Yes."
"If Sierra is involved in this case, we'll have to go through all 358 people."
"I think so."
"Damn it. I'm not a fucking servant."
Watching her mumble curses, the agent had to secretly swallow their laughter.
"I'm doing what I used to do when I was a rookie. It seems that I shouldn't have hired the Professor. Should I hope this fucking world is destroyed tomorrow?"
"Oh, hey~. Sylvia, that girl will be able to comfort Professor Deculein."
Then, without a word, Primienne looked at the disguised agent. Her eyes sunk coldly.
"…You like people who slaughter their own."
"It isn't a massacre yet. And, just in case, I'm there to prevent that from happening."
Allen, no, it was Ellie's answer.
Primienne, biting her tongue, suddenly remembered something that had happened relatively recently.
"Ellie."
"Yes?"
One day, at Hadekain's restaurant, Betan suggested a soup called Rotaily. She only said that she didn't eat Rotaily because she didn't like mushrooms, but Deculein said something to her.
—Primienne, do you know?
─What?
─We met once in Bercht. We ate together at a restaurant there.
"We met in Bercht before."
Ellie nodded.
"Yes. You came to Bercht on vacation. At that time, you ate with Professor Deculein."
Ellie's memory, unlike anyone else's, was reliable. Her mind was akin to a black hole, pulling in all information and letting none of it escape.
"What was on the menu that day?"
Primienne asked Ellie. Pretending like it was nothing, as cold and casual as usual.
"It was the matsutake mushroom steak."
—The menu then was steak with mushrooms.
In an instant, the voices of Ellie and Deculein echoed as if they overlapped. Primienne's hand, flipping through the documents, halted.
"…Was it?"
That day, the words that Deculein had said.
-Haha. It's a joke. How could I remember… what I ate a long time ago?
"…"
Primienne put all the records related to Sierra in a box.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
She grabbed everything that might be helpful.
"Ellie. You can't stay with the Professor forever. The longer you endure, the greater the chance of you being discovered by the Altar."
"Yes. I know that. 'Double Agent' is my middle-name, after all."
"If you know, leave."
"Yes! I'll go! Lilia Primienne, bye~."
Allen grinned and pulled 'his' hat back on. Then proudly opened the door to the Purple Room and left.
"…You don't need to have more feelings for the subject than necessary."
With a mumble, Primienne put the boxes down and flopped into a chair.
"Damn stocks…"
It hurt as if her head were being punctured. The damn stock market crash came to mind as his voice trembled in her ears.
—I didn't know you hated mushrooms.
"…"
─…The menu at that time was steak with mushrooms.
"…"
—Haha. It's a joke. How could I remember… what I ate a long time ago?
Expressionless, she mumbled, tapping her foot against the box that she had placed on the floor.
"Damn mushrooms."
* * *
Today, I visited Sophien as a teaching wizard. However, the place was different from usual. It wasn't the field of learning, but in the garden of the Imperial Palace.
"Deculein, it's here."
The garden to the northeast, with its scenery of eternal winter. A snowy field where bare trees were as dense as thorns, and the perennials that colored the road surface white were endless. On the other side, next to a log cabin, was Sophien.
"Here, here."
The Emperor wore a fur coat and hat, waving her hand gracefully. Today's Sophien had a much-improved look. As I approached the snow, I thought about the gap between Episode 2 and Episode 7, remembering the promise I could not keep.
"Come here."
"Nice to see you, Your Majesty. You look fine today."
"Yes."
Sophien grinned.
"But today, I'm with someone you know."
She flicked her fingers. Then, Julie walked out of the hut. The woman, who escorted me to the Imperial Palace today, somehow arrived at this garden before me.
"These days, I've often been sleepy, lazy, and haven't had time to take lessons, so I decided to take my sword and magic lessons at the same time."
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you in advance. I was also caught on my way back."
"…"
As a teaching knight, not an escort knight, Julie had a rather stiff expression. I was a bit disconcerted, but I nodded.
"Your Majesty. Would you like to train with the sword first?"
"No. Let's just sit down."
Sophien led us to a tea table near the hut.
"These days, my boredom and idleness are going beyond the limit. I think that the cause is coming from the outside, not the inside. "
Saying so, she glanced at Keiron standing by the hut.
"Keiron, that knight doesn't say anything… Professor Deculein. So, do you think you know the cause?"
Sophien pulled out a mirror and placed it on the table. I didn't say anything. If I said I didn't know, it would be a lie.
"Deculein, tell me. What do you know?"
Sophien narrowed her brow a little harshly. When I met her piercing gaze, Julie was reading the mood.
"…!"
Suddenly, Julie opened her eyes, her body flinching. The teacup on the table spilled.
"…Professor? Your Majesty?"
Julie looked blankly between Sophien and me. It was a sudden move, but for some reason, I thought I knew the reason.
"Julie."
"…Yes?"
"What did you see?"
Julie blinked while looking around. As if very confused, her hair floated in the air. Pajijik-
Sparks of static electricity spattered off her.
"Oh, that… I think… I was dreaming. I'm glad it was a dream-"
Julie's eyes were dyed with concern. I cut her off sharply.
"No. Julie. You cannot dream in this place. You haven't slept a moment."
Sophien looked at Julie with curious eyes. Then, she picked up the teacup that had fallen to the ground and wiped it clean.
"Tell me, Julie. What did you see, what did you do, before you came back here? No, what were you dreaming about?"
"That… Professor…"
Julie swallowed hard. Then, she clenched her gauntleted fists against her thighs.
"It was a dream that you were dying."
Then the smile on Sophien's lips widened. Julie put her hand on her chest and checked her pulse as if trying to distinguish whether this was real or not.
"I am so glad…"
Julie was grateful. But I shook my head and said.
"No. It's not fortunate because it's not a dream."
"Yes?"
Now that Julie had regressed. In some future, to be exact, in the future where I will die, she had cut down Nescĭus.
"If you don't explain, I will die like that again."