Red Anemones
Living in the medieval era makes one realize just how fast-paced modern life truly is.
Even the hero, who should be the busiest person here, spends most of his time lying in the back of a wagon, staring up at the sky.
Clop. Clop.
As the rhythmic sound of hooves sways his body, the world fills with the chorus of birds.
Chirp! Chirp!
A peaceful classical melody echoes across the land.
“Haaah…”
Even the girl’s drowsy yawn beside him sounds like a lazy cellist joining the ensemble late.
“Sleepy…”
Watching her eyelids slowly droop, Julian gives her a shake.
“Meyrin.”
“Ah, why…”
“Don’t fall asleep.”
“Why…”
“Because your golems will disappear again!”
Clop, clop.
The golems driving the horses outside weren’t people.
They were human-shaped constructs Meyrin had created.
Though she possessed the Blessing of Flames and excelled in fire magic, she wasn’t accustomed to commanding subordinates like golems.
“Haaah. No way. Even if I sleep, the golems can handle it themselves. That’s what golems are for…”
“Then we’ll get lost again, just like last time!”
At the time, Julian didn’t know the truth.
That getting lost had nothing to do with whether Meyrin was awake or not.
“Meyrin. Tell me about magic.”
She snickers, leaning against the straw.
“Do you think I’m a kid? That I’d wake up just because of that?”
“You know, that flower-blooming magic the royal archmage used yesterday. How do you do it? I want to learn it too. It looks simple enough to pick up in a day.”
“You little…”
She bolts upright, fuming.
“You don’t even know the first thing about magic! There’s no such thing as flower-blooming magic! When the mental realm created by the mana inside you protrudes into the physical world and takes hold…”
She rambles on and on.
What incredible efficiency.
Julian simply nods along, leaning back.
Whether in the modern world or the medieval one, people with too much education tended to have prickly personalities.
Like grad students.
“Haa… ha… Got it? So…”
“Yeah, I got it. It’s basically marking territory, right?”
“Marking territory…?”
She sighs and shakes her head.
“Well, sure. Think of it that way if you want.”
“But why flowers?”
“It’s the connection between natural mana and my mental realm blooming. So usually, it’s flowers.”
“Oh…”
Julian nods even though he understands none of it.
“It’s not always flowers. My master’s case is absurdly mushrooms.”
“Could someone like me, who only handles mana without being a mage, make flowers bloom too?”
“Impossible. You don’t have a mental realm, do you? You just stupidly pull mana and shoot it. Only mages like me with deep mental realms might manage it after intense training…”
“Ah, Meyrin. While you were talking, I developed a new spell.”
“What?”
This was another provocative remark.
Meyrin’s eyebrows twitch.
“There’s no way you developed a spell…”
“A spell to wake a mage from sleep.”
The horse pulling the wagon suddenly neighs with laughter.
It was real.
Not a simple snort, but actual laughter.
“Damn it…”
Realizing she’d been had, Meyrin leans back into the straw.
“Aah! I just had another magical epiphany.”
“Whatever. I’m going to sleep.”
“A spell to hand over flowers.”
Julian pulls a bouquet from the straw.
“!”
Meyrin’s eyes widen.
Anemones.
Red anemones.
Her favorite flowers.
“When did you even…”
“It’s your birthday today.”
Exactly twenty blooms.
He’d tried to prepare as many as her age, but sadly came up one short.
It didn’t matter.
The missing bloom blossomed red across Meyrin’s face.
She whips her head away, staring out the window.
“Th-thank you…”
Red flowers bloom in every direction.
“I know that traitor bastard better than anyone on the continent.”
The moment those words reach him—
Thud—
An inaudible roar shakes the air.
Junil’s world stops.
Everything falls silent.
Even the “villain BGM” vanishes.
Swish…!
Red flowers bloom in the crushing silence.
Junil’s pupils tremble.
Mey…
Belzerak’s existence is completely erased from his mind.
Even though she stands right in front of him, he can’t see her at all.
He can’t hear anyone shouting.
He can’t hear what the Constellations are saying either.
He forgets where he is.
Junil’s eyes shake as his focus slowly returns.
Meyrin?
He recognizes her by the approaching silhouette alone.
An elegant yet slightly awkward gait.
Yet always upright and dignified in presence.
Eyes that always meet his directly—except when embarrassed.
Lips like overlapping red petals.
The voice that flows from those lips.
“Why are you so curious about Julian? Hero.”
Everything feels like it might drift away.
He has to cling desperately to his fading consciousness.
Why…
Didn’t they say a hundred years had passed?
Meyrin isn’t even an elf. How?
How is she exactly the same?
Is this some final illusion Belzerak is showing him?
If so, he might want to stay in that illusion forever.
“Suddenly gone mute?”
The Meyrin who might be an illusion tilts her head in confusion.
She doesn’t recognize me.
Neither the descendants of Helket’s master nor the learned nobles and prophets here recognize him, even when he uses the name Julian.
Not only do they fail to recognize him, he never even hears the usual line like “My, you even look exactly like Julian!”
Some force is at work.
Junil senses it instinctively.
There’s a wall.
A wall between this world and Julian.
Untouchable, invisible, even theoretical recognition forbidden—yet the Fourth Wall exists between them.
“Don’t want to answer? Well… anyway, you’re the hero, right? Not bad, killing Belzerak like that. Different from back then.”
Meyrin is clearly thinking of the old Julian.
Yet even with the real Julian standing right in front of her, she can’t make a single guess.
She’s hitting the wall.
If not for the power of the story, this phenomenon would be incomprehensible.
The ministers and king exchange words with Meyrin.
Even Belzerak, crushed beneath his feet, seems to be saying something.
“……! ……!!”
He hears nothing.
All his senses are focused on a single source of stimulation.
Meyrin’s voice, Meyrin’s gaze, Meyrin’s scent…
Scent?
His eyes follow the source of that scent.
Anemones.
Red anemones.
Those flowers have bloomed fully beneath his feet.
Swish—
Junil lowers his head toward the flowers, trying to pick one, but they scatter into mana particles the moment his hand touches them.
“Those aren’t real flowers. So you really are the hero.”
She smirks.
“……!”
Her smile makes his mind reel for an instant.
The exact same smile.
The same smile he now only sees in dreams—
Should I just give up everything?
An overwhelming impulse threatens to take over.
Then—
Chichichichik!
Noise begins to interfere with the world.
A voice reaches his ears.
> Hero-nim! It’s Ham! I’ve been urgently patched in by Fam-nim’s request!
Her voice sounds several times more urgent than usual.
Even the phenomenon where everything stops when she appears fails to activate now.
Meyrin stands ahead, tilting her head in confusion.
> You must never—never—let anyone find out you’re Julian! This isn’t just Fairy Corporation’s rule! It’s a fundamental law of the celestial realm! I… I shouldn’t even be saying this, but! This could cause the Fourth Wall to collapse! If that happens… if that happens, no one will be safe…
Chichichichik!
Her words cut off there.
After all, this isn’t Earth under Storyboard 3.0’s control, but the dimension of Archidia.
The fairies’ intervention power seems extremely limited here.
Still, thanks to her, Junil regains his senses.
Right. Calm down…
He suppresses the impulse with transcendent mental strength.
He mustn’t act like he knows Meyrin.
He mustn’t let anyone know that this Julian is that Julian.
Nothing must be recognized.
Yet—
What should I do… what should I do…
He has only barely suppressed the impulse; his thoughts are already racing in another direction.
Is there a way to convey something without being discovered?
Can he give even the slightest hint?
Somehow?
How is that possible!?
Grind.
Junil suddenly tenses his entire body.
Huh?
Then—
“I-I was going to talk… wh-what the, gah!?”
Belzerak lets out a dying scream.
“Ah…?”
Without realizing it, he has pressed down hard with the foot resting on her.
Thud!
Having lost all her magi, Belzerak’s body is crushed like ordinary flesh.
“Uh-oh!?”
“Hey! Why’d you die! Why the hell are you so weak!?”
Junil grabs Belzerak by the collar and shakes her.
Rip!
Belzerak’s upper body tears away.
“Uh…”
Without her magi, her corpse is far too fragile.
The Constellations think he was toying with Belzerak and rejoice.
This is bad.
But from Junil’s perspective, things have become complicated.
‘Sever Sirvelis’s Right Arm’
📍 Location: Archidia
🎁 Reward: Returning to original dimension
[You will be reverse-summoned back to the original dimension.]
Wooong!
Blue light begins to envelop Junil.
Meyrin tilts her head.
“What? You killed her without even listening to the answer? She said she’d tell you tomorrow.”
Apparently Belzerak had been shouting that she would reveal Julian’s truth if only he let her live until tomorrow.
But Junil hadn’t heard a single word.
It couldn’t be helped.
Setting aside the fact that Meyrin’s sudden appearance had robbed him of his sanity, Belzerak was someone he had to kill no matter what.
This quest had a time limit.
And Junil has a time limit now too.
Damn it, I have to say something.
The reverse-summoning countdown begins.
[10]
In ten seconds, he will return.
[9]
What could he say without breaking the wall?
[8]
Combine what was said earlier… something Sagosul would say, not Julian…
[7]
He wants to leave a hint without collapsing the character.
[6]
“Well, I know Julian’s truth best anyway. No need to listen. Good job killing her, Hero. You shouldn’t talk to demons~”
Meyrin grumbles that she came for nothing and turns away.
“I guess I wasn’t needed after all…… The hero isn’t ‘that guy’ either……”
[5]
Whoosh.
Her reddish-brown hair flutters as the ministers rush forward to attend to her.
Even the Constellations are starting to think she might not be an ordinary character.
[4]
This is getting more dangerous.
The fact that the Constellations are showing interest in Meyrin is a bad sign.
[3]
It might become harder to give hints.
Should he take this gamble?
[2]
The usual Junil probably wouldn’t.
He doesn’t like rolling the dice.
But—
“……W-wait a second!”
Whoosh!
The die has been cast.
“?”
Meyrin turns around.
[1]
“I……”
Point!
Pointing at himself, Junil deliberately shouts.
“It’s me! Julian!”
Meyrin and the Constellations probably all wore the same expression.
“……?”
The only difference is that the Constellations burst into laughter seconds later.
Meyrin looks displeased.
“I know your name ‘happens’ to be Julian, Hero. I’ve seen dozens of guys like that by now.”
Her retreating back, turning away in annoyance.
That is the last sight of her Junil is permitted.
Shoom!
Junil completely vanishes from Archidia.
[Calculating reward grade.]
[Settling……]
After a hollow farewell, cold calculation awaits.