…A faint space in the lost time. A metallic glow cut through the darkness.
“Professor!”
Julie ran to him. Scars marked his body, but no hesitation could be found in his expression. He was leaning against a wall. He didn’t lie down or fall but stood firm.
“Your wounds are deep!”
Blood pulsed out of him. As a knight, Julie’s body and brain moved instinctively. She had to perform first aid, starting with wound identification and quickly moving to control the hemorrhaging. It was a habit she had been training for 20 years.
“Calm down, Julie.”
“Don’t talk.”
Her heart was pounding, but there was no time to be blinded by emotion. Just when she was about to start her magical healing.
Grab-!
Deculein grabbed her hand. Julie looked up at him, confused, but he was smiling.
“…It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay!”
“If I’m not okay…”
He placed his hand on Julie’s cheek. She trembled.
“Am I dying?”
“…”
Julie closely inspected his wounds. Several vital points had been pierced. She clenched her jaw.
“…You are dying.”
That trembling voice brought back the memories of Kim Woojin inside Deculein. It was a pretty old one. In the monitor, the scene where she stopped breathing and the dying will of Deculein played out.
‘Damn it-.’
“Even Iron Man can fail… Julie. I have seen myself die.”
“Stop, stop talking!”
Julie wanted to cover his mouth. The more he spoke, the more blood spurted out, but Deculein stubbornly continued.
“It’s strange. That future will probably be the most beneficial for you.”
“Professor, please…”
“I know, Julie. This can’t be the end.”
If he died like this, he wouldn’t be able to save Julie and his original form. If Deculein died, it should be in Julie’s hands.
“For you and me.”
He put his hand on her shoulder.
“If you kill the one you fear the most, we will meet again.”
“…Professor.”
“Keep in mind. If you kill the one you fear the most, we can meet again.”
“What does that…”
“…”
Deculein didn’t speak any further. He just closed his eyes.
“Professor! Professor-!”
He didn’t bend until the end when he was broken.
* * *
…Julie, who regressed to the present, glanced between Sophien and Deculein.
“Julie. Unless you suddenly went crazy….”
Sophien spoke, tapping her upper arm with her finger.
“Are you saying you’ve regressed?”
“Yes. It was exactly a week from today.”
Julie nodded firmly. She was very quick in judging, organizing, and understanding the situation. Perhaps it was because the memory was too clear to dismiss it as a mere dream.
“It’s amazing. What happened before Deculein died?”
“There were reports of demons haunting the basement of the Imperial Palace.”
Julie turned her head away for a moment.
Cough-! Cough-!
“So we went together to the Imperial Palace…”
Blood flowed from the corner of her mouth. Julie wiped it away as if it were nothing and continued.
“The Professor entrusted me with guarding the entrance to the basement. Professor alone went in the basement-“
“Did I die there?”
“…Yes.”
Julie appeared to have a hard time admitting it. Her forehead was already slick with a cold sweat.
“And… sigh.”
Feeling dizzy, she shook her head and grabbed the table.
“Then Your Majesty was asleep. The vassals tried, but you wouldn’t wake up.”
“…Really?”
Sophien frowned.
“Yes. Cough-!”
Julie coughed, blood splashing out. It dyed the snow red and-
Thump-
A moment later, her upper body landed softly in the snow. She had fainted. I got down on one knee and lifted Julie.
“What’s going on?”
I felt a fever seeping through Julie’s body. I closed my eyes to [Understand] her injury.
“…Her wounds are serious. This is a side effect of regressing… Julie is dying.”
She had undergone the process of regression from the future to the past. Therefore, the mana in her body fluctuated. Of course, if her body were strong and her circuit tight, she would adapt quickly, but Julie’s body and circuit weren’t in a condition to endure due to the curse stuck to her heart.
With such a body, Julie returned from a week ahead rather than a day or two. This was the price of reviving my future.
“Deculein. Now your face looks scary. Whoa.~”
Sophien spoke with a small chuckle.
“It’s a face I’ve never seen before. Do you love her that much?”
I silently checked Julie’s consciousness and pulse. She was vaguely awake and aware.
“…No.”
So, my words would shimmer in her memory.
“I have never loved her that much. I just want to have her. But these days, since she’s suffering from this disease, it’s quite annoying.”
“…”
Sophien’s lips twisted cynically as she looked at me. Soon, the members of the Imperial Palace arrived. They put Julie on a stretcher, and I watched them walk away.
“Deculein.”
“Yes. Your Majesty”
“I’m very good at growing used to everything. Really, everything. When I first met you, it was difficult to understand your feelings. That’s easy now.”
“Is that so?”
“Deculein, you lied to me.”
Sophien said sternly, and I didn’t deny it.
“I’m very disappointed. It makes me want to cut your head off right now.”
“…I apologize. But I probably don’t love Julie as much as Your Majesty thinks.”
Just as Julie was completed because of Deculein, so Deculein was completed because of Julie. I could not disobey that fixed story.
“It’s probably much more than that.”
It’s not that I can’t do it, but because I don’t want to. Deculein’s unique ego, that strong personality, and stubbornness were what wanted Julie.
“…Hmph. Forget it.”
Knowing what I meant, Sophien laughed morosely. Then, all of a sudden, she leaned against the wooden desk.
“Gosh… all of a sudden… I’m tired, and I’m sleepy. After rebuking you for lying to me… I wanted to learn some runes, but…”
Sophien’s slowly stopped talking. I looked to Keiron, who approached with a nod. Again, the door to the basement was opened.
* * *
「Episode 7」
I entered the underground past. As soon as I opened the door, the scenery I saw was the Imperial Palace garden. The spring lake surface reflected Sophien. She was sitting in a wheelchair. I tried to approach her, but it seemed I was already too late. She was blind and deaf, now experiencing the last moments of her life.
I couldn’t tell her that I had come. I couldn’t tell her I couldn’t keep our promise.
“Your Highness–!”
Her servants gathered by her side, crying and calling out to her. I approached her.
Rustle-
I trampled on the grass and sent the soil splashing away. Sophien, who was dying, asked in a small voice.
—Who is by my side…
A question that could not even be answered.
“Yes. I am by your side.”
The moment I answered Sophien’s words.
—…I wish someone were.
And, the moment she said it, the world changed.
Rumble-!
A vibration shook the heavens. Eventually, the entire space collapsed and turned over again. It was a rapid regression.
「·········Episode 13」
The scenery of the re-established Imperial Palace showed Sophien in Episode 13. She committed suicide by hanging herself before her illness worsened. And again, the world had changed.
「·········Episode 16」
Sophien in Episode 16. She died while taking folk remedies from a cult set in the archipelago.
「··········Episode 21」
Sophien in Episode 21. Tired of regressions, she wept and wept and then banged her forehead against a rock until she died.
「·········Episode 29」
In episode 29, Sophien refused to eat and died of starvation. So the Episodes 33, 37, 40, 43, 48, 53 passed by. I watched through the mirror every moment she died. 「The Devil’s Mirror」 deliberately showed me Sophien’s deaths. In the meantime, the Nescĭus ran wild, but there was nothing I could do.
“…”
Observing and accepting all her deaths, I reached a realization.
“…Mirror. Now I see what you want.”
Why was this Devil’s Mirror keeping the abandoned worlds? Why was it so obsessed with Sophien’s death? Also, why did a mirror exist as the medium?
“‘World.’”
I looked up into the sky.
“Yes, a world. That’s what you want to be.”
Then, a door appeared in the air. A plain, rustic wooden door that told me that my answer was correct. It touched the road’s surface as quietly as the snow falling.
I opened the door.
* * *
“What did you see?”
Returning to the Imperial Palace, I walked along the corridor on the first floor with Keiron. We were passing the so-called Knight’s Forest, in which statues of knights in plate armor were lined up on the left and right.
“I realized something.”
Since the knight statues possessed a certain level of magical resonance, it was impossible to eavesdrop or monitor someone here.
“What?”
“First of all, the regression revolves solely around Her Majesty. I’m almost certain of this.”
The truth was more than that, though. Perhaps that whole world revolved around Sophien.
“And the Devil’s Mirror wants a world.”
“…A world?”
“Yes. This underground bastard is a demon that far transcends the common sense of people.”
This demon had a will, intelligence, and desire. The countless worlds that Sophien returned to and abandoned. Presumably, the one who grew up with them found a dream as time passed.
‘I want to be like that world too.’
‘I want people to live in my world and continue every day.’
‘I want to become a reality, not a mirror…’
So now, it wanted an existence that made its world a proper one. Sophien, the proof of the world.
“Does it want to become a god?”
“It’s more than that.”
“How do we solve it?”
“…”
I looked at Keiron’s firm resolve.
“Keiron. What happened when you followed the Nescĭus?”
“I kept pursuing, but I couldn’t find a specific place to corner it. It was running round and round like it was making fun of me.”
“Yes. He’s probably cheating. The Devil’s Mirror wants to become a world by itself. It wants to exist in this realm as a real-world, not a mirror.”
Granting that wish was the next best thing.
“It must have spread some Nescĭus all over the continent. But somehow, I think I know where the Altar bastards are gathering for Her Majesty’s return.”
“Where?”
Keiron focused his gaze on me, his eyes blazing. It was a bit uncomfortable.
“Julie gave me a hint.”
“A hint…”
“Under the Imperial Palace. Didn’t she say that the demon haunted there?”
“…What?”
Keiron frowned. I reminded him of something, some information he already knew.
“Isn’t there another door leading to the basement?”
The passage connecting to The Devil’s Mirror was the back door, not the main entrance.
“It is dark under the lamp, Keiron.”
In the past, the main gate where Jolang tried to guide me into the basement and failed. A door that had never been opened. An absurd smile crept onto Keiron’s lips.
“Gosh.”
“I don’t know yet how many hundreds or thousands of years the Altar bastards have gathered for, but we have to use it first.”
“…I know what you mean. However, Julie may not be the only person who returned that day. The enemies may also have-“
I shook my head. It was a reasonable concern, but it was impossible due to the nature of the demon called Nescĭus.
“It will not. The Nescĭus is a simple demon, so he can only collect and transport. To artificially use the collected energy, you have to kill him, but if you kill him, it’s a breach of contract.”
“Breach of contract?”
“Yes. Small demons like the Nescĭus are usually the product of a contract. It has intelligence, feelings, and if you don’t comply with their contract terms, it will act out of line. Under a group that has killed their own, they will do nothing.”
“Out of line… huh.”
Keiron smirked, appearing slightly disconcerted.
“Keiron, the decision will be made in five days. Until then, act as normal as possible.”
“Okay.”
I left him behind and turned. I didn’t even walk a few steps, however, before Keiron stopped me.
“Are you going to leave right away? Soon, Julie will wake up. Aren’t you going together?”
“…”
Both my legs were stiff. I remembered Julie lying in the hospital room.
“…No need to.”
The turbulence of her return must have had a tremendously adverse effect on Julie. To meet with me again, it was impossible to fathom how much of her life she had burned. Rather, that was why I shouldn’t be by her side. I would only be an aggravating factor.
“I don’t need Julie’s escort anymore. I’ll tell Her Majesty as well. A knight who is not healthy is nothing but a load, not an escort.
I left. Our separation would arrive soon, and our relationship would crumble and vanish.
* * *
“…Hmmm.”
Meanwhile, Primienne put down her letter with a sigh. The inference of events through the information she gathered was also related to her magical properties, so she succeeded in figuring out a fuzzy outline in only 28 hours. She pulled out her timeline from her head and put it into the barrel of mana.
Here, the barrel of mana was a rectangular frame composed of mana. If you put your memory inside it, this barrel would take care of it and carry on its logical reasoning separate from your mind. That was how Primienne was able to become the youngest deputy chief of her department.
Whoooong- Whoooong-
Her memories and thoughts flashed like a scanner. As the process progressed further, Primienne put her memories back into her head.
“Ellie.”
“Yes?”
Ellie, who was rummaging through the drawers of the Purple Room behind her, glanced up.
“You said that Professor Deculein was going to have an anniversary.”
“Anniversary?”
“Engagement anniversary.”
“Oh, yes! He hasn’t skipped a single one every year.”
Primienne smirked.
“Well, now I know why that professor asked for an investigation of Sierra.”
“Really?!”
“Yes. It’s still a suspicion, but I’m almost certain.”
“Oh! Then, fill out the report and send it to the Professor.”
At Ellie’s words, Primienne stiffened. Then she stared at her with narrowed eyes.
“…A report?”
“Yes. The Professor likes reports. He likes to receive everything in that form. He said that face-to-face conversations are a lot of talking, spitting, and are a waste of time.”
“Ugh. He’s a very sensitive son of a bitch.”
She rubbed her temples quietly. Putting this huge content into a report… did he think she was his underling?
“What the fuck…”
Primienne prepared all sorts of abusive language for him under her breath.
“Okay. I’ll spit on the report instead, so you know.”
“No~, you can’t, otherwise!”
“Leave me alone.”
Primienne slammed a piece of paper on her desk and grabbed a pen. At the same time, she rummaged through her memory.
The Investigation of Sierra was requested by Deculein. As a result, Primienne found out that Deculein had killed Sierra. To put it dryly, ‘Deculein murdered Sierra.’ His motive was probably revenge and also to incite. However, there was yet another secret that only the intelligence service probably knew.
“Ellie. Ask the intelligence officer for this document.”
“Yeah~, I’ll ask them.”
A document classified as Level 1 or 2 couldn’t be opened even in the Purple Room. If someone opened this one up, she would see the whole story.
“Report. That professor knows how to annoy people…”
Primienne started writing the report on the timeline she figured out.
