135. Hero Fanatic
135. Hero Fanatic
Blink, blink.
At Leona's strange remark, I blinked my eyes.
"...If a ninety-seven-year-old is a wraith of the past, then what does that make you, Vice Dean? A wraith of ancient times?"
"Wh—what?!"
Leona's face flushed red.
"That's not what I meant! A-and! You're supposed to count my age in Beastkin years?!"
Wouldn't that still make her over a hundred?
Of course, I didn't say it out loud.
I had a feeling I'd get hit hard.
"What do you mean, then?"
"I'm saying the Flame Emperor might be an existence even more from the past than I am."
"...Excuse me?"
"Of course, I'm not certain either. It's just that, in my memories... I mean, um... in my memories from four hundred years ago, the Flame Emperor seems to be... there too."
Another strange thing to say. That the Flame Emperor seems to be in her memories from four hundred years ago too.
Either she's there or she isn't.
What does "seems to be there" even mean?
As I tilted my head, Leona let out a small sigh.
"...This is why I didn't want to talk about it... ugh, anyway, I'll only say this once, so listen carefully."
Leona downed her mint-choco latte once more, cleared her throat, and spoke in a serious voice.
"Normally... if you're an ordinary existence who isn't a Demon, you can't keep memories spanning over four hundred years inside your head. You'd definitely go insane. And that... applied to me too."
"What do you mean?"
"You have no choice but to lock away, erase, or discard your past memories. That's the only way to keep living. And in my case, I'm the type who locks them away."
"Then you can just unlock them."
Leona shook her head.
"It's not as easy as it sounds. To open something that's been locked once, and then dig through it to check what's inside, you need a very, very long time. And afterward, if you try to lock those memories away again... you need another very long time. During that process, I can't do anything at all. It means I can't even move, like I've fallen into a brain-dead state."
"Hmm..."
"Of course, that doesn't mean the locked memories sink completely into the depths. If a situation familiar to those memories arises, or if there's a medium that triggers an intense memory, they do resurface, however faintly."
Since I'd never lived four hundred years, nor had any intention of doing so, such methods were unfamiliar to me.
I didn't know what it felt like, nor what kind of... feeling it was.
Then what about Luna and Paulo?
What about Kaloso? Arisa?
How were they coping?
Were Luna and Paulo even conscious in the first place?
That bastard Kaloso probably managed somehow.
And Arisa.
Right now... these were things that were meaningless to think about.
Anyway, I understood what Leona was saying.
"So you're saying you saw the Flame Emperor in those faintly resurfaced memories."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Because every time I see that idiot face, voice, and behavior of hers, it comes back to me."
"...Well, she is a hard person to... forget."
The Flame Emperor's face came to mind—that blank expression with which she'd shown countless admiration, tears, and emotions.
Her way of speaking was unique, and her way of thinking was bizarre.
She was not someone easily forgotten.
"But... that's not all."
"What else is there?"
"This is purely my speculation, but the Flame Emperor... how should I put it. It's like she's not an existence of this world?"
Not an existence of this world.
Something that World Tree lady had ranted about before came to mind. It was probably when she handed over the violet Elixir.
'This Elixir was brought from the homeland where I was born and raised!'
'My mother made it es. pe. cial. ly! and passed it on to me! My mother is a Wizard who commanded the primordial spirits and forged a new pinnacle of magic!'
'Hmm? Why would such a person give it to someone like me? You insolent wretch! How dare you!!'
'Of course, it's true that I... ahem... came to this remote world and nearly had my roots torn out by Demons. But! This too was merely a trial I needed. It was not something to disparage as nonsense!'
There had been more after that. What was it again?
Didn't that World Tree lady say that in her homeland, there was a being who stood at the pinnacle of the gods?
Well, that's not important. Anyway.
"You're saying she came from another world... another dimension?"
At my words, Leona's eyes went wide.
"Another dimension? How do you know about something like that?"
"...It comes up in novels."
I couldn't say I'd heard it from that World Tree lady, so I brushed it off vaguely.
"Pfft!" Leona burst out laughing.
"You actually believe things like that exist? You act like such an old fossil, but you're so innocent about stuff like that? Kids really are kids."
"You're the one who said something weird in the first place, Vice Dean. That strange talk about her not being an existence of this world."
"Yeah, that's right. What I said was plenty strange too. But I... I've lived a very long time, haven't I? So I made that guess based on the experience and memories of that life."
Must be nice being old.
I was about to sneer that, but Leona spoke first.
"The Flame Emperor, it's like... she came from a world that lives in a different time."
"Saying she came from another dimension would be more believable."
"Wh—what! Why are you being so sarcastic?!"
"How am I supposed to believe something like that? Where's the evidence?"
"My experience and thoughts are the evidence! Because there's no existence in this world who knows more and has experienced more than I have!"
"That's just being unreasonable."
"When your master says something, you should just accept it! This worthless disciple keeps talking back to the very end!"
Leona, who had been grinding her teeth, stopped her ranting for a moment and leaned back in her chair.
"Haa... Anyway, that's what I'm saying. The Flame Emperor... yeah. She might not be as dangerous as you say. But still, she's not someone you can just... give your trust to. Among the Six Pillars, she's the most suspicious one."
"What did you mean by calling her a wraith?"
"The Flame Emperor has no scent at all."
"She must wash well."
"You're deliberately provoking me so I'll get angry and spit out the information you need."
Tch, needlessly sharp.
I shrugged and shook my head.
"No way."
"So cheeky... Anyway, it's not that kind of scent. Humans, Demons, Beastkin, elves, spirits, dwarves, dragons. Everything living under this sky has its own distinctive scent. Even the air itself does. But the Flame Emperor gives off no scent at all."
"But you smelled the Flame Emperor's scent the moment you walked in here just now, Vice Dean."
"That wasn't the Flame Emperor's scent. It's the faint Mana residue left behind when she uses her ability. Even that disappears after a day."
Ability... Right. The Flame Emperor had seemed to read past memories in front of me.
"That's why even I can't track the Flame Emperor. Because she has no scent, no presence, no trace, no sense of existence."
I hadn't expected that it wasn't simply because of that barrier-like thing the Flame Emperor carried around, but that there was something about the Flame Emperor's very existence itself.
"Then, has the Flame Emperor ever... caused harm to the world, joined hands with Demons, brewed suspicious Elixirs, or anything like that?"
"She's never done anything like that. Because the Flame Emperor is strictly neutral."
"Neutral?"
"Yeah. That idiot doesn't take the side of humans or Demons. She even says she mustn't belong anywhere. The only thing she does is chase after the Hero's traces and collect them."
If someone who had stood in such neutrality, someone who practically lived in Ge Vihenum, suddenly showed up and approached us...
Well, I don't think it's all that strange for Leona, who utterly despises Demons, to be wary.
But.
"That neutral person has now become Stella's teacher."
"What? Stella? Teacher? Huh?"
Leona tilted her head.
Her tail also bent slightly, as if drawing a question mark.
"If she's become a human Wizard's teacher, doesn't that mean she's ultimately taken the humans' side?"
"...What are you talking about?"
Should I explain or not?
Let's explain. I trust Leona.
I decided to trust the Leona that Mom trusts.
Everything that had happened.
Starting from the labyrinth in the underground waterway, to meeting the Flame Emperor again at the training hall, to her becoming Stella's teacher—I began to lay out the whole story.
*****
Quite a long time passed.
I said what needed to be said, and left out what needed to be left out.
Naturally.
I kept silent about Stella, about Akasha, and about what Arisa had left at the end of the underground labyrinth.
Me, Eurasia, Stella, Pina.
I only said that the four of us had eaten the Elixirs that Samaella had left behind while fleeing.
The weapon. There was no need to reveal that yet.
It hadn't even been made, and at the very least, there'd be no reason to carry it around at the academy.
Leona, having heard all of it, showed a great many reactions. The strongest among them was killing intent. Killing intent toward the bastards who had kidnapped Pina and tried to kill her.
Next was guilt.
Guilt over her own incompetence and ignorance.
After that, she bowed her head to me and expressed her gratitude.
Thank you for surviving, thank you for protecting Stella and Pina... that sort of embarrassing stuff.
Lastly, she scolded me.
She scolded me hard for being reckless.
Still, when I told her Mom had already scolded me, she let up a bit.
Leona calls me an old fossil and whatnot, but of all the people I've seen, the biggest fossil was Leona herself.
I'm so sick of the nagging.
"...So, right now, the Flame Emperor is... teaching Stella?"
"Yes. Probably, right?"
"What on earth were you thinking, leaving Stella with that idiot?"
"You said she wasn't a bad person. From what I've seen, she's suspicious, but she didn't seem like a bad person either. So that's why. Well."
Leona couldn't refute my words either.
The Flame Emperor had shown no particular moves so far.
Whether she was good or evil, no one knew.
In the first place, even dividing this world into good and evil was laughable.
Then was she a good person?
At least to me, she had been.
That was why I asked her to become Stella's teacher.
It wasn't out of pure intentions.
I made that decision because I thought it would bring me a great many benefits going forward.
I don't regret it.
...Actually, I'd been a little scared when Leona said even she couldn't track the Flame Emperor's existence, but according to what she just said, she could feel a presence at the Shurium Training Hall in the center of the Imperial Capital.
Apparently, when Leona returned to the academy and caught her scent, the Flame Emperor was emitting that presence to signal her own innocence.
Anyway, it worked out well, so that's a relief.
Oh, right. There's still one unresolved thing.
"Anyway, since that's how it is, Vice Dean."
"...What now? What are you trying to say?"
Leona clutched her head with a fed-up expression.
"Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious too. So, could you let Stella come in here to the training hall when she's learning?"
"You want to bring the Flame Emperor... into the academy?"
"Well... it'd be nice if she became a formal professor, but if not, we could have her sneak in. She seemed to sneak in when she came to find me this time too, didn't she?"
"Honestly... I keep telling them to tighten the academy's security, and Pina gets kidnapped, and the Flame Emperor comes and goes as she pleases... haa."
Leona let out a sigh full of irritation and sank into thought for a moment.
Like that, tick-tock, ten minutes passed.
"Whoa?! Wh—what's this all of a sudden?!"
Leona scooped me up with both hands...
Carrying me in a princess carry, Leona set her foot on the wide-open window frame of the training hall.
"I need to have a talk with the Flame Emperor. She'll run if I go alone, so you're coming with me."
"No. What about my lesson? I have a lot to ask you."
"I'll tell you everything when we get back. So keep your mouth shut. Unless you want to bite your tongue?"
"No, then at least let me get into a proper stance—"
With those words as the last, Leona kicked off into the air and leaped.