The Lighthouse of Annihilation was the last main questline. It was the worst ending, which attracted foreign comets and destroyed the continent. Therefore, Lia’s eyes looking at Deculein were filled with hostility and regret.
“…Fixing the lighthouse?”
Carlos asked. Lia placed her hand to her lips.
“Shh.”
She again concentrated on observing him. Maybe she had gotten it wrong.
Whoooong-
Deculein’s Psychokinesis moved the lighthouse. The gigantic tower was dismantled, disassembled, and reassembled over and over again… it advanced to a correct structure.
“Why…”
Lia couldn’t understand. In her opinion, Deculein was not a ‘good man.’ Unlike Julie or Ganesha, he wasn’t a hero who’d save the continent by sacrificing himself. However, he was quite different from the original story, clinging to principles, wishing for his family’s glory, and claiming to be loyal to the emperor.
“…”
Watching him rebuild the lighthouse in Annihilation, Lia started biting at her nails.
—Stomp.
At that moment, a sound came from behind. Cold air brushed the necks of Lia and her companions.
“…Are they priests?”
Lia warmed up her mana and looked back… Julie?
“Huh? Knight?”
It was Julie. She looked up at Lia.
“Are you okay?”
“…What. Did you just arrive?”
“Yes. I have decided to entrust the situation down there to lord Zeit.”
Come to think of it, he wasn’t the kind of person who needed help. Julie muttered bitterly and joined Lia’s party.
“But what made you leave in such a hurry?”
Julie asked. Lia looked up again. Deculein was still there. He was building the lighthouse with his mana. The blue and cold nature of the Snowflake Obsidian filled the stones. It would withstand all kinds of disasters, such as dark energy storms, heavy rains, and the thunderbolts that occasionally fell upon Annihilation.
Snowflake Obsidian was that kind of metal.
“…”
Lia watched Julie silently. Her eyes blankly reflected the robed Deculein.
At that moment, a hypothesis popped into Lia’s mind.
“…No way.”
The meaning of Julie and herself to Deculein. It could be some kind of setting and relationship, or it could be a part of programming. However, either way…
“It must have been painful.”
Lia lowered her head.
Deculein lost both of his fiancées. One was the setting of Yuli, which she put in because of her greed. The other was the knight named Julie, looking at her here.
“…Yes?”
Seeing Julie questioning her, Lia felt a certain kind of pain in her heart. It must have been painful. There was no way he wouldn’t have felt anything. Looking at her, who resembled his old fiancée, looking at Julie, who had forgotten all her memories. Deculein’s inner, deepest heart that no one could see was slowly rotting away.
“…First.”
‘Was it my fault for thinking of Deculein as steel or a giant tree? Was it my inexperience, never trying to know his feelings, but just making up my mind?’
Lia pressed down on her temples and clenched her fists tightly.
“First…”
The next words wouldn’t come out. But if Deculein became an enemy, if he joined the final boss…
—Are you outsiders?
Lia and her group looked around, their eyes widening. Someone was approaching up the stairs, making noise to be heard.
—Hmm.
A robed man peeked his head out.
“So you’re outsiders.”
That voice was somewhat familiar to Lia. The lower part of his face was familiar too.
“…Your Majesty?!”
Julie’s eyes widened.
“Malady? What malady?”
Leo murmured like that, and Carlos slapped him on the head.
Slap-!
“Be quiet.”
“Ouch!”
“Haha.”
The man whom Lia had called Majesty, Kreto, smiled a little and pushed back the hood of his robe. Julie immediately knelt on one knee.
“I see you, Your Majesty Kreto.”
“There is no need for that courtesy anymore. I have worshipped the Altar.”
“…?”
Lia and Julie’s mouths fell open at the same time. Kreto snapped a finger. Then, a faint soul fluttered around him. It was a transmitter.
“God allowed me. What God created, I can use too.”
Kreto stared at Lia. She gulped.
“Adventurer Lia. I want to entrust you with a request.”
“…Yeah?”
“As you think, Deculein is also working with the Altar.
“!”
“Yes?!”
Julie’s eyes widened. Leo and Carlos wore similar looks.
“…”
How should she answer? While Lia was contemplating, Kreto produced a map.
“So, take this. It’s the map of the Altar Sanctuary. Deliver this to Her Majesty Sophien. Her Majesty will know at once what to do.”
“What?”
Handing over the map, he then smiled softly.
“Her Majesty is the only one who can stop the Altar.”
“…Yes.”
Lia understood those words. Kreto deliberately infiltrated them for Sophien’s sake.
“And… Knight Julie.”
He called to Julie, who was still on her knees. At the call of ‘Julie,’ she startled. However, it wasn’t a knight’s duty to hide from the royal family. Julie raised her head and answered.
“Yes, I am knight Julie, Your Majesty Kreto.”
“I saw Zeit here.”
“…Yea-.”
“He is locked in the flower garden.”
“?”
Julie’s expression revealed her confusion. Zeit, whom Julie believed in, wasn’t a man who could be suppressed so quickly.
“Don’t worry. There is no danger to his life. Lia. Open the map.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Lia opened the map, and Kreto pointed at one of the areas.
“The garden. Zeit is here.”
“Then-“
“You will also be imprisoned now.”
Gently restraining Julie, Kreto held something out for her.
It was a sword.
“…This is?”
“A sword made of Snowflake Obsidian.”
“…!”
Snowflake Obsidian was a metal more expensive than a diamond. Especially for Julie, who was born in Freyden, this was a dream.
“I was still using it for self-defense, but… it seems to suit you better.”
The blue sword was perfectly forged, and the pattern engraved on it was a circuit that made it easier to transmit mana. Befitting a swordsman and a knight, it was a beautiful weapon that she couldn’t help but be greedy for. However, Julie looked to her waist. For ten years, she had been using this old, antiquated sword…
“If you became a new person, you have to use a new sword.”
Julie trembled.
“Haha. Also, it would not be polite as a knight to refuse the Imperial family’s favor.”
“…Yes.”
Kreto smiled and pressed the sword in her hands, and Julie received it with the courtesy of a knight.
“You should go back now. Come back with Her Majesty.”
Kreto moved his hand as if conducting an orchestra. The transmitter moved accordingly. Only then did Lia realize the identity of the person controlling the transmitters of the Imperial Palace.
“…Your Majesty Kreto, did you bring us here?”
“…”
Kreto only smiled a little.
* * *
Whooooosh-
The space changed with the rush of mana. Lia, Julie, Leo, and Carlos slowly opened their eyes. They were back in the room where they were playing cards. Safe in the Imperial Palace.
“…It’s like a dream.”
Lia muttered. It was so confusing and so sudden.
“Yes. It was.”
Julie said so and looked up at the ceiling.
‘Zeit is trapped in the flower garden.’
“…In fact, it still seems like a lie. How can the lord Zeit be defeated in an instant?”
The Zeit that Julie knew was the strongest. He was and still is. Lia reassured her of it.
“It will be okay because it isn’t a life-threatening thing. And I think I know roughly what happened to him.”
Then, Julie’s head turned.
“You mean you know?”
“Yeah. He said he was locked up in a flower garden.”
He was locked in a flower garden. There was a setting that came to mind from those words. The final boss’s power was outside the world. In other words, it was the power to separate existence from the world. Even though it was Zeit, he couldn’t stand against his powers that were beyond human, so he must have been isolated outside the world.
“I will go to Her Majesty. Since I have to deliver this.”
Lia pulled the map out. Then, she looked to Julie.
“…Say it.”
Julie’s expression telling her to speak was firm. Lia smiled.
She was reliable. She had no injuries, no limits, and no restrictions. Julie surpassed Zeit and had the same level of talent as Sophien. Before falling into Eternal Winter, before Julie’s heart froze, there was Four Seasons, one of the most brilliant talent settings. She had the power to encompass all four seasons.
“…Beware of Deculein.”
Lia told her.
“Deculein is now our enemy.”
Deculein, designing the lighthouse in cooperation with the Altar, was their enemy.
“…Is it true what His Majesty Kreto said, that Deculein is cooperating with the Altar?”
Lia answered with a serious look.
“Yes. He is building the lighthouse.”
* * *
The next day, early morning. Julie was walking through the corridors of the Imperial Palace, waiting for Sylvia.
“Why…”
No matter how much she waited, Sylvia didn’t show up. Also, Lia’s words last night kept bothering her, and they lingered in her mind.
Deculein was the enemy. Deculein was now our enemy.
“Although I hope he’s not an enemy… I can only say that he is.”
Lia’s feelings were exactly that. But Julie didn’t know anything. It was impossible to keep up with the gap of ten years.
“Hmm. Are you the Knight Yuri?”
A voice called her as she stopped. Julie looked back and bowed her head.
“Yes, Knight Raphael.”
Raphael. A former colleague and her senior, but now an uncle of more than twelve years who had completely cut off ties with her. Raphael got very old.
“Are you waiting for the screening wizard?”
“Yes. I heard that you are Ihelm’s escort.”
“Yes. He doesn’t have many friends, so he has no one to help but me.”
Raphael laughed and beckoned.
“By the way, I’m bored. Would you like to go to the training grounds for a moment? I’m curious about your skills.”
“Ah. Is that so?”
“Yes. You look so much like an old friend of mine.”
Old friend. Maybe he was talking about Julie, the old Julie.
“…Yes.”
Julie followed him with a slightly confused expression.
Stomp, stomp.
Raphael spoke as he walked through the Imperial Palace.
“You have similar names, and you’re from Freyden, so for some reason, I like you.”
“Is that so?”
“And… huh?”
Then, Raphael stopped talking. He was looking out the window.
“…Yes?”
Julie asked, but there was no answer. He was just staring at something without saying a word. His eyes were busily chasing after something, and the more he stared, the bigger his pupils grew with surprise. Julie followed his gaze after a moment.
“…Oh.”
She quickly understood the reason.
It was Deculein. Deculein was swinging his sword in the training grounds. Those sword moves were a type that Julie had also seen before. At the Knights’ training ground, the man who aroused her admiration…
“…”
At that moment.
Deculein stopped moving as if he felt their gaze. He looked back, and his eyes met Raphael and Julie’s.
Clank—
Watching him stab his sword into the ground, Julie’s body moved on its own. She shouted without realizing it.
“Don’t you want to spar?!”
Deculein’s brow furrowed.
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