What Comes After the Ending
The treasure chest held a variety of supplies, food and camping gear among them.
"This is already our second time camping like this."
"I already miss having a roof. I want to stop sleeping outdoors."
X and Circe set up camp in a safe location. The wide stretch of ground they'd chosen had no patrolling skeletons, making it a secure place to stay — likely a safe zone that had never been properly described in the original novel.
After ordering the skeletons to stand watch, the two of them lit a campfire in the center and warmed themselves by the flames.
"Not having a river is a real problem. I want to wash up."
"We have plenty of drinking water. Just use that."
"Where?"
"Right here."
"...In front of you? Ha."
For some reason, Circe wore a slightly mischievous smile. The meaning behind it was the leisurely look of an adult thinking, So you're just a hot-blooded boy after all.
It was a massive misunderstanding that needed to be corrected immediately.
"I won't look. I won't stare. I won't even glance your way, and I have zero interest, so don't worry. Just set up a tent in that corner over there and wash up."
"..."
For some reason, Circe's mood seemed to sour at the words meant to correct her misunderstanding. X's social instincts — honed to a razor's edge through years of workplace survival — rang every alarm bell he had.
"Why are you looking at me with those terrifying eyes...?"
"Are you really seventeen? Sometimes you act like you're older than I am..."
Crap. Was I too obvious?
For convenience's sake, X had never revealed that he was a transmigrated soul. Telling people he was originally forty years old would only sow confusion and wouldn't help a thing.
Being treated like a kid by the people around him was a little annoying at times, but not unbearable. As far as anyone was concerned, he was a seventeen-year-old student who had seen the future. He wasn't particularly eager to have that cover blown.
"Circe, between your reincarnated life and your previous one, which was better?"
X deflected her suspicion with a change of subject. A this-or-that question was interesting to anyone, regardless of the era. Sure enough, the question evaporated Circe's suspicion and plunged her into a new line of thought.
The fact that she was taking so long to consider it was unexpected. He'd assumed Circe would immediately pick one as better.
"Well... it's hard to choose which one was worse."
Ah. So that's the angle she was thinking from.
Then again, Circe had suffered endlessly in both her previous life and this reincarnation. Choosing which life was better would be difficult.
After a long deliberation, Circe trailed off as she spoke.
"I guess my previous life was worse, after all."
It was a somewhat expected answer.
"In my previous life, I was constantly clawing just to stay alive. Even when I slept, I had to stay tense in case someone attacked. And I always wondered whether all that suffering would ever actually pay off."
Circe recalled her previous life. It had been a life of daily anxiety and terror. There had been moments when the suffering was rewarded, but the moments when it wasn't were so numerous they made her sick.
War is hell. The Demon King who had created that hell had to be slain. She had hated the Demon King who slaughtered her family, her friends, and her home. Driven by that single-minded thirst for revenge, Circe had set out for the Demon Realm before she even came of age.
"I've said it before, but it wasn't a particularly good life. I dreamed of romantic adventures, but the reality was hell, and it was cruel. I grew to hate the smell of burning flesh, and before I knew it, I was only using ice and lightning magic."
"So that's why you prefer those schools of magic?"
"Yeah. Fire magic reminds me of my previous life. Besides that, ice magic is just useful in all sorts of ways. You should try studying ice magic yourself sometime."
"That's something only you can do, Circe."
X still wasn't comfortable with magic. Swordsmanship was being forcibly beaten into him by Roxwell, so he had no choice but to get used to it — but nobody was properly teaching him magic. He was learning through self-study and class lectures alone.
At least once I learn something, I barely ever forget it. If it weren't for that, reaching the 4th Circle would have been a pipe dream.
Perhaps because of that, he hadn't made any further progress with magic. Using higher-level spells would be a huge help going forward, but even X couldn't say when he'd raise his Circle.
"This just occurred to me, but who did you learn magic from, Circe? I know you didn't self-study or learn it at some educational institution."
"My master? That's a long story..."
Circe's expression twisted more than usual, as if she'd recalled something she didn't even want to imagine.
"I don't know for sure, but that monster is probably still alive."
"...Is she a dragon? An elf?"
"A mage who's glimpsed even a fragment of the pinnacle of the magical path has their lifespan dramatically extended. They can regulate their physiological functions with mana. She was researching things like immortality and fate to begin with, and a hundred years have passed, so she's probably accomplished something by now."
Damn witch... she muttered, then clamped her mouth shut. The atmosphere didn't look good, so X didn't press further.
As time passed, fatigue began to set in in earnest. They couldn't tell the weather, so they had no exact sense of how much time had gone by, but X's internal clock gave him a rough estimate.
"It should be past eleven by now."
"Let's get some sleep. We can't do anything if we're exhausted."
Circe naturally climbed into her sleeping bag. It was so oversized that it looked like she'd crawled under a comforter, and she kept tossing and turning, apparently finding it rather uncomfortable. It was a bit roomy even for X, so he could imagine how inconvenient it was for Circe's smaller frame.
"...Want to stuff some extra blankets in there?"
"I guess I should..."
Circe picked up a blanket from the pile of supplies. Then, on her way back, she turned and headed toward X.
What's she up to now...
With an indifferent expression, Circe sat down and leaned against the sleeping bag X was lying in. The weight of one person pressed down on his stomach, but it wasn't particularly heavy.
"Circe. You're heavy."
"You gonna keep saying things that get under my skin? I'm not even heavy..."
"Did you have something to say?"
Circe closed her mouth for a moment, then glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Then she carefully opened her mouth.
"You said you saw the future. You know this world's fate is a story. That Elysia or whoever is the creator god."
"...? Well, yeah."
"This is a hypothetical."
Circe leaned back as if she were going to lie down. In a posture like she was reclining on a sofa, she asked,
"What will you do if everything ends ideally?"
A sudden question, typical of her.
"Nobody dies the way you want, the world doesn't end, the Demon King is slain... a happy ending, I guess? I was asking how you'd live after that."
Circe continued, recalling the past.
"I've thought about it sometimes too. How I'd want to live after slaying the Demon King. But I never found an answer I liked."
"What did you come up with?"
"I thought about founding a Magic Tower and looking beyond the limits of time magic."
"You mean you'd try reversing time? That wouldn't work."
"...Really?"
Back in his editor days, he'd heard in passing from Elysia that acts of going against time were strictly forbidden. Time reversal was, personally, a romantically appealing trope in fantasy, so he'd been a little disappointed that it was off the table.
Hearing that from X, Circe let out a disappointed sigh.
"Well, it was a dream I'd already given up on, so at least I didn't waste my effort. I thought of all sorts of other dreams too, but... it ended up like this. Failing to slay the Demon King, reincarnating, and doing it all over again..."
The mention of a crushed dream made X feel a little guilty. He knew Circe was just lamenting, but he wondered if he shouldn't have said anything.
"That's why I still don't know. What I should do once all of this is over. I've never seen what comes after something ends."
"You could still found a Magic Tower even without researching time reversal, couldn't you? You're not going to hide the fact that you're Aerial for the rest of your life. With that name alone, one or two Magic Towers..."
"...To be honest, I'm disappointed in the people of this era. Almost nobody takes the path of magic seriously. The Magic Towers of this age, the powerful and wealthy who sponsor mages... I've watched them all turn a blind eye to the threats and go blood-mad over one more coin. I'm sick of it."
Even after the scenario had gone off-script and a fair amount of time had passed, that thought hadn't changed. Her sense of responsibility and duty as a hero remained, but she had no intention of fattening the bellies of greedy pigs. Having folded her dreams one by one like that, Circe had ultimately lost her sense of what she should even dream of.
"That's why I'm asking. You're still a young student with your whole life ahead of you. You should at least have a proper dream, unlike me."
Circe had now sprawled out completely. She seemed more comfortable around X than he'd expected. That closeness let X relax as well, and he answered.
"Once it's all over, I plan to go back home. I'll drop all of this and live a slow, comfortable life."
"...You are seventeen, right?"
"My life has had too many twists and turns, so my dream is to spend the rest of it in peace. I don't particularly want to do anything else."
It was a decent goal, aside from the minor problem that his hometown was in another world. The path there would just be hellishly difficult.
Hearing that, Circe said in a voice barely loud enough to hear,
"...Maybe I should go there too."
"...Pardon?"
"It's nothing."
Circe got up as she was and headed to her own sleeping bag. After stuffing the blanket inside, she seemed a bit more comfortable — the rustling was less than before. Her thoughts apparently settled, she fell asleep immediately. Her face looked fairly at peace.
Even a Sage worries about the future.
Finding the sight unexpectedly novel, X closed his eyes as well. Tomorrow, they would begin a proper assault on this place. Refining the plan in his head, he gradually sank into sleep.
Meanwhile, at the Academy...
"X and the students went missing during the evaluation?"
Because time flowed differently, it had been a little under an hour since the incident occurred. Darius had received unbelievable news from Milia.
"What the hell is this... What was the professor overseeing the evaluation doing to let something like this happen?!"
"Professor Leder is claiming it was a malfunction of the training ground and the Safety Device artifacts."
"This is insane...!"
Because he had to maintain the pretense of being at odds with X, Darius hadn't been able to actively monitor or intervene either. He'd tried to compensate by raising the Academy's overall security level, and this still happened.
It didn't take long for Darius's complex thoughts to arrive at a single conclusion.
"Lock down the entire site. This is likely not a simple accident. Detain and investigate everyone connected to the training ground, students included. Warn them that anyone hiding information about this incident will be subject to the most severe punishment."
"I'll carry it out immediately."
The extreme response might cause misunderstandings, but this was a case of an imperial prince going missing — it would be fine. And if this incident was connected to the nobles, it couldn't simply be let go. This was evidence that there were people willing to challenge imperial authority at any time. Depending on the circumstances, a purge might be necessary.
First, confirm the urgent matters.
"Milia, have you finished identifying the missing students?"
"Well..."
Milia reported the information she'd gathered.
"According to Professor Leder, there were sixteen students, but only twelve came out of the training ground. The professors have formed a search party and are combing the interior, but..."
"There are still four missing?"
"...That's correct."
That meant three people were missing besides X. Checking the list of the missing, Darius's brow furrowed even more deeply.
Even with the situation as it was, there was still something the two of them hadn't grasped. When Professor Leder had checked the status board, the number of people confirmed wasn't sixteen — it was twenty.
In other words, the missing weren't four. They were eight.
One of the missing had no choice but to hold her breath at the sudden anomaly and the situation around her.
Where am I...?
A flash of light, and she'd been transported into some unknown, pitch-dark labyrinth. Then some skeletons had been wandering around, followed her, and were now staring at her blankly. From far off in the darkness, explosions and the sounds of fierce combat would occasionally ring out, and then it would go quiet again.
What even is this place...?
Thrown alone into this darkness, she was barely in her right mind, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
The one stroke of luck was that the skeletons, who appeared to be the labyrinth's guards, weren't aggressive and followed orders well. For reasons she didn't understand, a skeleton holding a strange flag was also following her around. The number of skeletons trailing after her had already exceeded several dozen.
I'm hungry and exhausted... So sleepy...
After wandering around for what felt like a full day, all she had to show for it was a horde of skeletons and aching legs and feet. She had no sense of where to go. She tried to call for rescue, but her Mana Phone was dead. It seemed to have broken when she was spatially transferred here.
How do I get out of here...?
Unable to fight the incoming exhaustion, she slumped down in a suitable spot. Luckily, she'd found jerky, a blanket, and a sleeping bag scattered on the path — otherwise, she might have had to sleep on the freezing floor.
"Nnngh... X... Where are you..."
One of the missing, Lola, drifted off to sleep in the middle of a skeleton troop. Never imagining that she'd been in the same labyrinth as X from the start, and that they'd simply taken different paths and missed each other.
And without knowing that something unidentified was continuously watching her, Lola sank into sleep beneath the crushing fatigue.