Shadows Beyond Reality (1)
“Huh……?”
When I came to my senses, it was morning.
Thin rays of sunlight poured through the gap in the open door, casting a faint glow over the chilly interior of the room. The sound of wind brushing against bare branches and the distant cries of shivering birds seeped into the cabin.
I surveyed the room by the slender shafts of light. My hands were still tightly bound with handcuffs and cloth, so I couldn’t cast any spells to chase away the darkness.
I was lying on a slightly rumpled blanket atop a hard bed. The sheets, damp with sweat that hadn’t yet dried, had grown cold in the night air. The moist fabric silently testified to what we had done the night before. My face flushed red.
A small girl’s fragile breaths tickled my chest as she nestled snugly in my arms, still fast asleep.
Seeing Pirel’s angelic face, lost in innocent slumber, brought an involuntary smile to my lips. Careful not to wake her, I gently wrapped my bound hands around her head and pulled her close.
The pleasant scent rising from Pirel’s downy hair brushed softly against my nose. It was the natural smell of a person—different from the inexplicable scent of bread that clung to my own body. The scent of a girl……
Without thinking, I pressed my nose to the crown of her head and inhaled deeply, only to realize what I was doing and blush again.
Still…… this was the smell of my mother. It was almost addictive.
Perhaps because I had disturbed her, Pirel’s sleep grew shallower, and a contented murmur slipped from her lips.
“Hehe, Lady Kaira…… Lady Kaira…… I like you, I like you…… You smell like butter, ehehe……”
……There was nothing I could say to that. I could only watch the murmuring girl’s face with a helpless smile.
‘Even so…… she really went through something awful.’
I hadn’t expected Viran to brainwash me instead of Pirel, so I hadn’t noticed until my mind was kneaded like a toy. And now she had broken Pirel’s mind as well. Guilt welled up inside me.
Given the vast difference in computational ability and the capacity of our mana circuits, even if I had noticed Viran’s plan, there was little I could have done.
‘So what do we do now……’
She had said she would kill us both……
How could we escape the clutches of that horrifying witch who treated people like toys for her own amusement? No solution came to mind.
Though she had shown murderous intent, it seemed we at least amused her as toys for now. If there was no way to run, I could abandon the plan to entrust Pirel to Azalea and instead beg for our lives, living as her playthings. That was certainly one option……
‘But setting aside pride or dignity, there’s no telling when a witch like her might suddenly grow bored and kill us on a whim. I can’t entrust ourselves to that madwoman.’
Just as I shook my head and steadied my resolve, footsteps approached from outside the cabin. The sound of someone walking on thick cloth rather than shoes.
“Girls, it’s morning. Time to get up.”
And then a voice.
With a creak, the half-closed door swung open, and the large silhouette of a robed woman stood framed against the sunlight.
“Eek……!!”
Unable to withstand the fear etched into my instincts, I gasped and scrambled backward on the bed in a pathetic retreat.
“Oh my, are you still afraid?”
“Ugh, p-please…… D-don’t…… kill me……”
Tears already blurred my vision from the unbearable terror. The overwhelming gap in talent and skill—someone who had been merely a decent mage like me could never hope to face a grand mage who had lived for centuries.
“Pfft.”
A light laugh, free of hostility, escaped her.
“I understand. After seeing the analysis results, I’ve changed my mind. I won’t kill you or use you as toys. Not for a while, at least. I promise. If you want, I’ll even write up a contract. So eat this.”
Viran held a wooden bowl of something steaming in each hand. She glanced at her tattered, dirty bandages and added a few more words.
“It’s been a long time since I made anything, what with this body that doesn’t even need to eat. I hope it at least fills your stomach. I prepared a portion for Miss Pirel as well, so feed her when she wakes.”
I accepted the bowl of suspicious, thick substance and sniffed it. Aside from a faint, bitter earthy smell, there was nothing else.
“Since I no longer need to eat, I haven’t stockpiled any food. So this morning I dug up some root vegetables with tubers, mashed and boiled them, then seasoned them with herbs I’d been growing. It’ll be bland without salt, though.”
With a dubious expression, I stared uneasily at the bowl before cautiously taking a sip. The starchy thickness, the aroma of several herbs spreading with the scent of earth—that was all there was to the taste.
“……Thank you.”
“Good. At least it’s not inedible. Mind if we talk for a bit? Don’t be scared. I’m not here to discuss how best to dispose of you two for maximum cruel pleasure.”
Without waiting for agreement, Viran grabbed a chair and set it down beside the bed—right in front of me as I blew on the porridge and drank. It was suspicious that the grand mage had suddenly turned gentle and even prepared breakfast, but I had no right to refuse.
Viran muttered something and flicked her hand lightly. A soft light traced itself in the air. One more gesture from her and it would move, enveloping its target under her influence.
“Now, Miss Kaira. Can you tell me the name of this spell I’ve prepared just short of activation?”
It was a spell I knew—an elementary mental interference spell.
“Saron’s Clumsy Truth…… is it?”
“Correct. You know it well. I’m going to use this on you. At least it’s not something that freezes and shatters you, or turns you to stone for instant death. You wouldn’t object to a spell of this level, would you?”
I muttered timidly.
“You don’t need to use something like that. I’d answer your questions honestly anyway……”
Faced with such an overwhelmingly superior opponent, I couldn’t possibly say no outright, so that was the most I could manage.
“After living so long, this old witch can’t bring herself to trust every word people say. Anyway, you know you have no choice, right? Yap.”
……Once again, she tampered with my mind at will. It wasn’t as though my personality or will had been shaken. It was simply that the desire to lie to the grand mage before me had vanished.
What did this witch want to ask? What result had the measuring device shown that made her wear that theatrical smile, prepare breakfast, and even use magic just to face me?
“Miss Kaira.”
Viran pulled the chair closer and sat down.
“I once served as a professor at the magic university. Only for about thirteen years before I quit. During that time, I examined the talents of many children.”
A strange vitality stirred across the witch’s face—the face of someone who had long since lost her life—as if reminiscing about the past. It was a warm vitality ill-suited to a body reeking of preservatives and rotting flesh.
“Talent comes in all forms. From easily understood supernatural abilities like igniting whatever you touch or draining heat, to talents like imbuing even nonsense with persuasiveness, radiating intimidation just by existing, or dispelling wariness. Unfortunately, I had nothing beyond the ability to use magic rather well. Ah, right.”
Then Viran suddenly grabbed my hand and sniffed it with her dead nose.
“The ability to give off a pleasant scent…… I’ve seen rare cases of that too. It’s a nice smell, Miss Kaira. To think you emit a scent that even stirs the old memories of someone who’s no longer alive.”
Viran offered a warm, guileless smile.
“But I’ve never seen a talent like yours—one that twists time, causality, and the laws of the world on such a grand scale. If there’s a secret behind your power, Miss Kaira, something you haven’t told me yet…… would you be willing to share it?”
I hesitated for a moment.
Though the spell Viran had cast lingered in my mind, it only prevented lies—it didn’t force me to speak what I didn’t want to. I could have stayed silent if I wished…… but I didn’t.
Viran was undoubtedly a mad witch who lived as she pleased and made no distinction between human lives and those of flies, but she was also the only person with enough experience to offer me advice.
“It’s a long story. I need a moment…… to organize my thoughts.”
“Take all the time you need.”
Viran waited patiently while I gathered my thoughts, and I began to speak. It was the same story I had once told my companions, without omission.
About my time on Earth, my experiences in the intermediary realm, my initially weak ability that had failed to bloom, and the various turning points that had allowed it to grow.
“An interesting tale. A reincarnator, huh.”
That was all Viran said after a long silence.
“I’ve heard many stories of those who retained memories of their past lives achieving great feats with fascinating talents. Though I’ve never met one myself.”
I thought I had heard something similar from Mervin. Was retaining memories through reincarnation truly such a difficult thing?
“And according to the records, most of their endings were not good.”
“What……?”
I hadn’t heard that from Mervin.
“Think about it for even a moment and it’s obvious, isn’t it? If we take your word for it, such immense talent wasn’t something you were born with—it was something given to you. No matter how successful you become by borrowing power that was never truly yours, it’s still a success built on sand. Of course it will collapse. And the greater the talent, the more spectacular the fall.”
Viran gave me a peculiar smile.
“That’s why your fate interests me even more. I know your life so far has been miserable. But I wonder just how much more horrific a destiny awaits you? I’m positively thrilled.”
Only a deranged grand mage like her could spout such vicious words so brazenly to the person’s face. I was offended, but I had no choice but to stay silent.
“I’ve heard your story, so now I should tell you mine. I thought you ought to know what the measuring device recorded as well. As expected, your power shares the same nature as those from beyond. It doesn’t immediately corrupt people, but……”
“I see.”
……At least it was a relief that my power wasn’t demonic energy itself.
“Still, you’re vulnerable to the erosion flowing in from that side. The ability to tear apart reality and twist the laws of the world is the specialty of those beyond, and they won’t overlook someone like you who wields similar power. And it’s not just you. Pirel, the people you saved while working at the hospital, and your precious heroes—they’re all the same.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Viran offered a slightly pitying smile and continued her explanation.
“Magic carves a small rift in reality, allowing mana to flow in from the other side. Your power, on the other hand, tears that rift wide open, connecting reality to countless other sides of the world. To infinite possibilities and countless realms with laws different from our own. Among them must be worlds where even the direction of time can be reversed. So it’s only natural that you severed my neck. You tore the world itself apart—there’s no way even I could avoid being torn along with that rift.”
I looked down at the wooden bowl in my hands. I could feel the surface of the half-eaten porridge trembling.
“Because your ability tears reality apart so violently, unlike magic, traces remain on the objects or people whose time you’ve reversed. That’s probably why, the moment you offered your body to the cultists in that forest, you became a conduit for the corruption of the outer gods to flow in. So, Miss Kaira,”
Viran looked at my trembling arm along with me.
“You may not be the Demon King yourself, but you’re a dangerous existence who might turn every single person and object in this world into a candidate for Demon King. Who knows? The powerful being from beyond that supposedly granted you this ability in that ‘intermediary realm’ you mentioned might have simply been cleverly luring you in while pretending to reincarnate the soul it had obtained.”
“Th-then…… what…… should I…… do……”
“It’s only a hypothesis. There’s no need to fear what you might do just yet. But you and Miss Pirel may not be able to escape your fate. A future where you become hideous monsters covered in tentacles, lose your sanity, and become conductors that summon those from beyond.”
I glanced back at Pirel, who was sleeping soundly. The memory of tentacles sprouting from Pirel’s corpse resurfaced.
The Pirel of now was utterly innocent. …Of course, we had done those kinds of things together last night. But could it be that a corruption invisible to the eye alone had taken root in this child as well?
Because of me.
“In that sense, I also recommend entrusting Miss Pirel to the Light Denomination. The God of Light is a deity of this world, not some suspicious dimension, and his fanatical believers should be able to suppress a rift that has opened in a single person. Of course, that’s assuming they don’t burn her alive as a contaminant.”
I turned back to Viran and asked something that had been bothering me.
“By the way, all this time you’ve…… Ah, no. Um, what should I call you, Grand Mage……?”
The witch with a corpse’s body chuckled.
“Hmm. You can just call me by my name if you like. Actually, I did teach you a spell, didn’t I? How about calling me Master? If you claim to be my disciple, I’d be willing to keep you alive a little longer.”
……It was a playful remark, but not a lie, and I wasn’t in a position to refuse, so I did as she said.
“……Understood, Master. But from what you’ve told me so far, magic—which forces open the rifts of the world to let power flow in—seems like it would ultimately attract the attention of those evil gods as well……”
Viran answered surprisingly frankly.
“Well, that’s true. There are schools of thought that claim the dimension from which magic flows and the dimension of those extraterrestrial beings are different other-sides of the world, but my hypothesis is that manifested magic is no different from extraterrestrial power. Perhaps that’s why mages go mad after living so long, or why they rarely hold any faith?”
Viran spoke in a chilling tone as if to frighten me, then softened her voice again.
“But you shouldn’t underestimate the arrogance of mages. Even if such extraterrestrial gods exist, mages would think of conquering them rather than serving them. So there are plenty of ways to use magic safely.”
It was a mage’s typical optimism. After all, it was common sense that anyone who didn’t believe they could hold the laws of the world in their hands and wield them wouldn’t be able to properly complete the magic university’s curriculum.
“In that sense, you’re special, and you mustn’t die in vain. If you become an excellent mage like me and crush the will of the gods trying to dominate you, it would bring great progress to magical studies as well. So here’s my proposal: I—”
Viran’s words stopped. A look of surprise—rare for a witch who had lived so long—crossed her already pale, corpse-like face, making it seem even paler.
“Wait! Miss Kaira, danger……!!”
Before Viran could finish, something stroked the nape of my neck. Feeling a chilling sensation, I turned around.
“Ehehe, Kaira, Ka, Ka…… Ka, Kaka, Kai, Ka, Kaira…… niiim…… I love…… you…… I love, love you……”
With a grotesquely broken voice, tentacles—manifestations of torn reality—writhed from every orifice on her face. Pirel’s face smiled with shattered eyes, broken and ruined.
“Ah……”
Though a terrified gasp escaped me, I had already braced myself for something like this. It was a sight I had witnessed countless times in nightmares, and I had thought just as much about how to respond. I quickly grabbed Pirel’s left arm, which was turning ashen.
‘Rewind.’
Only then did I remember that the cloth suppressing that rewinding ability was still carefully wrapped around my hands like mittens.
“Huh……?”
A foolish groan left my lips, followed by Viran’s sharp intake of breath from behind.
And then the writhing tentacles from Pirel’s face lunged at my ears and mouth.