I Want to Hear Your Story (4)
I Want to Hear Your Story (4)
"Again...?"
Kiel, embedded in the ice, furrowed his brow. His face said he could not comprehend Olivia's irrational behavior at all.
She didn't kill him. But she also wasn't torturing him to extract information.
Every morning she just seared his head once and left.
"What in the world do you want?"
Olivia didn't answer, as always. She simply looked down at Kiel expressionlessly.
Now that she had confirmed that the memories inside the Clue influenced the present, there was no reason to talk to Kiel.
[The favorability value of '+7' will be applied normally five years later.]
Wouldn't keeping him frozen ruin his favorability? It was already ruined beyond repair, so it couldn't drop any further.
'I'll grind the favorability hard through the Clue, freeze him for a few years, then wake him up.'
No matter how she thought about it, that was the best option. Even if his favorability only ended up around negative 50, at least he wouldn't charge at her trying to kill her first when they fought the Demon God.
"Don't just stare at me, say somethi..."
Olivia seized Kiel's head as always and sent a current through it. A familiar notification sounded.
[Regressor 'Kiel Rothschild' subdued!]
And with that, she entered the memory once more.
[Remaining Time: 40:00]
[Olivia]
Level: 80
Class: Advanced Ice Mage
Title: Trusted One, Academy Valedictorian.
Olivia checked her Status Window first, as always. Her level had gone up by two in the past twelve days—what in the world had she been doing?
Had she been running a dungeon?
'At this speed, was it the Ancient Golem Dungeon?'
All Olivia could do was rummage through her memories and make a rough guess.
Olivia slowly surveyed her surroundings. A familiar landscape stretched outside the window. Multi-story houses stood neatly arranged around the plaza fountain.
"This place..."
An exclamation escaped Olivia's lips. Not because she admired the scenery, but because she had recalled where this was and what she had done at this time.
The Gold Magic Tower.
Level 80.
There was only one answer.
'Archmage class change.'
Considering that level 80 was the minimum level required to advance to Archmage, it was a rational inference.
Of course, Olivia had no intention of wasting precious time on something like a class change.
'The Genocide Run version of me will handle it anyway!'
Olivia kicked open the laboratory door and rushed out. No, she tried to.
"...Hold on."
Kiel was gone.
"Where the hell did this bastard go?"
******
"My apologies, Duke Kiel. The Gold Tower Lord has just left to inspect the Blue Tower."
Kiel narrowed his eyes.
Today it was the Blue Tower, yesterday the Red Tower, the day before the Green Tower.
"It isn't even the end of the year. Does she carry out inspections that often?"
"Haha..."
The secretary let out an awkward laugh. Had the visitor been an ordinary noble, he would have simply thrown him out without needing such an excuse.
The Gold Magic Tower's status was so high that most nobles couldn't even dare to look at it.
But the man standing before him was a duke. He was a figure who could, if he so chose, remove a mere secretary and use force.
"I know the Gold Tower Lord is avoiding me."
"...Pardon?"
"But who I came to see today is not the Gold Tower Lord. It is one of the mages belonging to the Gold Tower."
"..."
The secretary rolled his eyes.
There was clearly no issue in principle. But he couldn't easily believe that a duke would go this far just to meet a single mage.
If Kiel used the mage as a pretext to enter and then dashed straight to the Tower Lord's office, it would be a disaster.
'If I send him in rashly, I'll be the only one who gets fired.'
He had no confidence he could withstand Melina's wrath.
"May I ask the name of this mage?"
"Olivia."
"Ah, you refer to Olivia... I'm sorry?"
How did the Duke know Olivia?
The skin around the secretary's eyes twitched.
There was a reason he was reacting so sensitively.
Olivia's existence was rather exceptionally special within the Gold Magic Tower.
The Gold Tower was a fossilized... no, an elder Magic Tower whose employees' average age was a staggering forty-seven.
While the Gold Tower Lord contributed heavily to driving that average up, even excluding Melina, the fact that the average age remained high was undeniable.
The secretary himself had already entered his forties.
The Gold Tower's sole member in her twenties was Olivia.
With her lively personality, striking looks, and considerable skill, the older mages could hardly help adoring her.
There were even some mages who practically considered Olivia their own niece.
Thus, Kiel had just declared his intention to take away their beloved niece.
"..."
The secretary's tightly clenched fist trembled uncontrollably.
A mere duke?
Dared?
Other dukes might be one thing, but he could not allow Kiel. No, thinking again, even other dukes could not be allowed. The imperial crown prince, at the very least, would have to come for it to be a proper match.
But the Empire had no crown prince yet, and therefore no man on the continent was worthy of Olivia.
Was that too subjective a judgment?
To every mage of the Gold Tower, the Tower Lord included, it was infinitely objective.
The secretary stared at Kiel with ill-concealed displeasure.
"Is there a problem?"
"...No."
But he had no intention of letting emotion ruin his work.
"Follow me. I will guide you to Olivia's laboratory."
After all, he knew. There was no way Olivia, a natural-born mage, would express interest in a sword-wielder like Kiel.
'She must not even have enough time for her research.'
It hadn't been long since she returned from the training journey she left on half a year ago. There were even rumors she would soon break through to a new realm. At her busiest time, there was absolutely no chance she would agree to meet Kiel.
It was an exceptionally rational inference derived from exceptionally rational grounds.
Duke Kiel would waste his time today and go back empty-handed.
"It is the room at the center of this corridor. However, whether young Olivia will be able to see the Duke is..."
"Kiel! What are you doing over there!"
The secretary froze on the spot. Screeeak, screeeak. His neck turned slowly to the side, as if rusted.
"I don't have time! Come in, quickly!"
That innocent figure, poking just her head out past the door and waving her hand, was—most regrettably—directed at Kiel.
"Wha, what is the meaning of this... Urk, urrgh!"
Seeing the secretary shudder in despair as he denied reality, Kiel wore a sympathetic expression. Certainly, a third party would have ample room for misunderstanding.
But Kiel had no intention of bothering to correct that fact.
"I shall take my leave now."
No reply came back.
*****
The door slammed shut with a bang. Only after drawing several magic circles onto the closed door did Olivia turn around and relax.
"...What were all those?"
"Soundproofing magic and a septuple locking spell."
"...Septuple?"
"The people here are a little excessive."
That was certainly true. Scanning with her Ki Sense, she detected countless humans milling about outside the door.
- Dammit. It's locked!
- Bring a crowbar!
- A hammer! A hammmeeer!
"...I'm not sure 'a little' quite covers it."
"..."
Only after Olivia reinforced the soundproofing magic another four layers deep did the noise filtering in from outside finally cease.
'This insane Magic Tower.'
She had briefly forgotten. She had forgotten what kind of people the mages of the Gold Magic Tower were. They were a breed whose ability to sow chaos in a person surpassed anyone else's.
It was Kiel who spoke first into the silence.
"Truthfully, there were things I wanted to ask you before. Questions like which is the real you—the you from ordinary times, or the you of now."
Olivia nodded. Her face said what must come had come. But Kiel's next remark far exceeded her expectations.
"But... I found those questions meaningless."
"...Why?"
"That is..."
Kiel's expression suggested he had much to say as his lips moved silently.
He had thought that way ever since speaking with Melina.
Perhaps Olivia had lived far longer than she appeared.
The way her realm rose so swiftly it couldn't be explained by mere genius, the way she interpreted ancient runic characters freely, even the way she was so composed about her own disappearance.
Perhaps it was all because of that.
Olivia's gaze went briefly crooked.
"Why did you stop mid-sentence?"
"..."
Over the past twelve days, Kiel had devoured various old texts related to mages. Those texts contained detailed accounts of how a mage whose self was divided ended in self-destruction.
[When the self is split in two, they fight each other for dominance until at last they destroy themselves.]
One line was added after that.
[Unless one side accepts its own disappearance.]
At that sentence, Kiel had lost his words. His hands had shaken so violently he had nearly dropped the book.
- It's a different matter from trust. You... wouldn't understand even if I told you.
Only then did Olivia's words make sense to him.
He truly had understood nothing.
Nothing at all.
Olivia...
She had been more afraid of killing her other self and surviving than she was of her own death.
Repeatedly killing that self, over and over.
Somehow...
His lips went dry. His throat closed tight as if blocked.
Olivia must have had reasons like that for hiding this truth.
She must surely have had reasons like that.
Yet...
"...I."
Kiel pulled himself together and spoke.
"I wish to save you as you are now."
"No."
"...Why?"
"You can't save me. It's not possible."
Olivia's will was firm.
If she lingered aimlessly within this remembered past, she couldn't know how it might affect the Ending.
To see the Ending, this Run unconditionally had to be a Genocide.
And therefore.
"It's right for me to disappear."