Chapter 35
Chapter 35
“Quite bold. To toy with me even knowing who I was.”
She had spoken in an intentionally arrogant manner, but she certainly had the power to back it up.
The flames covering the surroundings grew ever fiercer.
Unlike just moments ago when only my clothes had burned, they now carried a heat vicious enough to be unmistakable.
“I won’t kill you right away. At the very least, you’ll have to confess what you know.”
As Chris lightly waved her hand, hellish flames encircled me.
It was a desperate, life-or-death crisis.
Before awakening—before I had even reached the realm of a Sword Master—I still lacked the strength to bring her down.
‘But…….’
At the very least, I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“No one can harm me.”
Just before the tidal wave of flames swept over me, I recited the predetermined activation phrase.
A bluish radiance wrapped around my body, soon forming into a suit of armor with a familiar appearance.
[SYSTEM: The effect of Armor of Achilles (Magic Reflection) is activated.]
A status window floated above the densely packed flames.
Soon, metaphysical runes began to shine across the armor, and the torrent of fire rushing toward me abruptly changed direction.
“……!”
Chris, who had been watching me burn with crossed arms and a cold expression, widened her eyes as the flames suddenly slipped beyond her control and surged back toward her.
I wished that had dealt her some damage, but with another casual wave of her hand, the flames that had been flicking their tongues died down like gentle lambs.
‘Hah!’
But I didn’t miss that opening.
To begin with, what mage would truly be harmed by their own magic? Hiding behind the fading flames, I kicked off the ground with all my might.
I unleashed power I rarely showed except when facing a Sword Saint.
This was probably the last attack I could muster.
That was why I didn’t think about what came after—abandoning defense entirely, I thrust my sword forward with a single-minded wish for a one-hit kill.
Fiore Style Le Punte(Le Punte).
The Fiore Style technique erupted from the tip of my blade.
There were sword techniques stronger than this among the Sword Saint Style secret arts, but my proficiency with them was woefully insufficient.
Using anything else would lack depth.
With half-baked skills, I wouldn’t even be able to reach Chris.
Shiiiiiik-!
The lightning-fast thrust detonated forward.
As I pierced through the flames and rushed straight toward her, Chris’s eyes went wide once more.
Woooong-
At the same time, a pale green hexagonal shield formed in front of her.
I couldn’t tell whether it had been created in that brief instant or was some sort of automatic defense mechanism, but the blue aura blooming along my blade paid it no heed.
Kang-!
Like a pane of glass shattering, pale green fragments scattered through the air.
It failed to stop my intent to pierce through, and my sword came to a halt right in front of her face.
“Whew…….”
Looking at her stiffened expression, an indescribable thrill bloomed in my chest.
I had gained the upper hand against a powerhouse I absolutely couldn’t defeat at present.
Though it wasn’t a straightforward victory and had been steeped in luck and her momentary carelessness, the result proved that all my efforts so far hadn’t been in vain, and a smile naturally spread across my face.
“Whew.”
Perhaps because I had explosively drawn out all my strength in an instant, my breathing turned ragged.
Only after calming it down did I finally open my mouth.
“First, I apologize for deceiving you. But at this point, don’t you think we’re at least in a position to talk?”
“…….”
Chris stared at me without saying a word.
Unlike just before, her pitch-black eyes were devoid of vitality.
I wondered if she was angry, but more than that, an inexplicable chill crawled down my spine.
“Fine, you don’t seem like a mere trash talker.”
“……!”
Hearing Chris’s voice coming from beside me, I flinched and hurriedly turned my head.
There she was, sitting gracefully atop a table and sipping black tea, her demeanor identical to before.
“…Huh.”
At the same time, cracks spread across the form of Chris that had been standing before me.
The vivid skin of a living person turned into dry soil, soon losing its shape and crumbling away.
…Everything I had desperately fought against until now was just a clone?
While a sense of emptiness washed over me, it was also a situation I could understand.
Think about a Sword Saint.
No matter what tricks you used, you wouldn’t stand a chance head-on.
In that case, the same must hold true for Chris, who stood at the opposite extreme.
“However, I must hold you accountable for the crime of toying with me.”
Snap.
Chris lightly snapped her fingers.
At the same moment, I hurriedly scanned my surroundings, but before I could react, I felt a constricting sensation tighten around my body.
“……!”
Dull purplish chains had already bound my entire body.
I hurriedly poured strength into my limbs to break free, but they merely swayed slightly, showing no sign of snapping.
“Hm.”
Chris stood up and approached me.
Then, with a touch that suggested growing interest, she stroked my armor.
“Doesn’t seem like something those damn dwarves made.”
The one who had crafted the Armor of Achilles was Gandarf, a figure once called a Great Sage in past history.
I didn’t know who stood at a higher level between him and Chris, but she was clearly intrigued.
“……?”
Examining my body with eyes tinged with blue brilliance, she frowned her delicate brows and made a displeased expression.
As if something didn’t quite make sense, she sank into thought for a moment, then poked my armor.
Srrrk-
[SYSTEM: Armor of Achilles has been removed.]
Whatever trick she used, the Armor of Achilles deactivated on its own, reverting back into the form of a necklace.
Having returned to a bare state once more, I felt a slight sense of shame, but she continued to scrutinize my body intently.
“This is…….”
Then she carefully pinched my upper body with her index finger and thumb.
Something like transparent scales was caught between her fingers, and she fluttered it with curiosity as she spoke.
“Interesting thing you’re carrying around.”
“…….”
I wanted to say something, but the chains binding my entire body had sealed even my mouth.
Chris set aside the Blessing of Invisibility and grasped my chin with her slender hand.
“Then.”
Eyes tinged with a bluish radiance met my gaze.
She was probably trying to read my thoughts.
[SYSTEM: External intrusion has been detected. Would you like to activate the defense mechanism? Y / N]
As if to say that, the status window issued a warning.
Just as I was about to activate the defense mechanism, I thought that it might not be a bad idea to show her part of my memories as they were.
Chris’s dearest wish was revenge.
The elf race, who lived for a thousand years, were few in number but shared an extremely strong bond.
However, several hundred years ago from now, by the whim of a dragon that had awakened from hibernation, all of them except a single one were slaughtered.
The reason she, who had loved nature, broke her seclusion and wandered the human world for hundreds of years was precisely to cultivate the power to take revenge on that dragon.
Elven magic was high-level in and of itself, but as she traveled across the continent, she mastered human magical systems as well, and as a result of hundreds of years of training, she had risen to a position where she contended for the title of the strongest being in the world.
[SYSTEM: Some memories are being exposed.]
In an instant, my vision grew distant.
A pitch-black landscape covered the surroundings, and numerous letters began to float through the air.
And finally, I reached the scene I wanted.
A single castle.
And a dragon of similar size roared toward the sky.
Countless spells and siege weapons poured down, but all of them came to nothing against the shockwave the dragon casually exhaled.
And at the center of it all, Leios stepped forward calmly with a single sword in hand.
Tyrfing, the strongest and most vicious demonic sword in history, shone brilliantly and cut into the dragon.
Unfortunately, it failed to reach the story’s conclusion.
Along with a stabbing pain pounding through my head, my vision became chaotic, and the world began to collapse.
“…Ghk!”
[Absolute plausibility takes effect.]
The familiar words of the status window floated before my eyes.
It seemed that, due to a flow different from the original work, the will of something had intervened.
“Hehehe.”
But what could I do, when she had already seen this? A laugh escaped me at the overturned fate.
This would never harm me.
Chris’s dearest wish was to take revenge on her mortal enemy, the dragon.
And there was no way she could kill me, the one who would carry it out.
“…….”
My vision returned to normal.
Chris and I were once again standing on the plains.
Srrrk.
The seal on the chains binding my body was released.
When I barely regained my freedom and set my feet on the ground, pain throbbed through my limbs.
“You, you are…….”
Chris wore a confused expression.
Given her ability, she must have realized it clearly.
What she had just seen was the memory of my mental image.
That it was not something fabricated or manipulated.
“Before we go into details.”
I picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground when I was bound by the chains, brushed off the dirt, and slid it back into its scabbard.
Then, with a calm expression, I spoke to her.
“Could you at least give me something to wear?”
***
The sweet scent of black tea tickled my nose.
Having returned to the dean’s office, we sat across from each other at a table as if nothing were amiss.
For reference, the uniform that had burned away had been recreated by her magic.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t restore my underwear, but it was still far better than being naked, so I took what I could get.
“To start with, what you saw is something that will truly happen in the near future.”
“How did you come to know that?”
Chris spoke with deepened eyes, stroking her chin.
Knowing the future.
In response, I slowly chose my words.
If it had been Tyrfing or Alice, I could have roughly patched together a story about the Akashic Records, but she was a great archmage who had reached the pinnacle of magic.
She wasn’t someone flimsy lies would work on.
“Once, I happened to see something in which the story of the world was recorded.”
From the short past, through the present, and into the short future.
It was vague, but it was the truth for now.
She seemed unable to find any falsehood in my face, as she nodded slightly, urging me to continue.
“I want to change the future. Not for some grand cause or for the sake of the world. To protect the people precious to me.”
Countless people and countless stories.
Along the flow of time, small reverberations created numerous causal links, and they converged into inevitable results.
It sounded ridiculous, but the person most precious to me was myself.
In other words, I was struggling like this simply because I didn’t want to die.
Unable to know that, Chris looked at me with eyes that had grown moist despite her age.
Ah, elves were rich in emotion.
No matter how worn down she had become by the tempests of the world, her nature was still that of an elf.
Chris let out a small sigh and opened her mouth.
“…This isn’t the time to be talking about power struggles or battles for the throne.”
“You can leave those guys alone. They’re not much of a threat anyway.”
Imperial princes were no longer even an eyesore to me.
Once the first part ended and the second part began, the empire would fragment into scattered factions.
They’d be too busy clinging to their own power to pay me any attention.
“Then what should I do?”
Realizing that her goal and the future I sought pointed in the same direction, Chris’s attitude turned friendly.
In response, I grinned and answered.
“Nothing.”
“…Huh?”
Perhaps because my answer was unexpected, she tilted her head.
Of course, Chris’s abilities were immense.
Used well, she could easily turn the world upside down.
‘But this world is still full of unknowns.’
From Absolute plausibility to the suddenly appearing status windows.
And if she were to twist the flow of this world, another branching point different from the future I knew could emerge.
“…Well, waiting is what I’m best at.”
Saying she had already spent several hundred years doing just that, Chris smiled softly.
Her face was smiling, but why did her eyes look so forlorn?
‘There really is no one who’s happy anywhere.’
I could only pray from the depths of my heart that they would meet a happy ending at the end of this story.