Chapter 74 - Answering Fate
"You did well."
When she came to her senses, Elenoa was being embraced by a woman, and praised without quite understanding why. Her face was buried in the woman's chest, and she felt a profound sense of relief. She could not move, so her vision remained dark; she could see nothing.
The woman seemed to be sitting on the floor. Elenoa tried to move, thinking she was burdening the other by leaning on her, but was restrained with a "Don't push yourself." It was a voice she had heard somewhere before. It had a transparency to it, yet it was a calming voice, slightly lower than the ringing of bells. Elenoa felt as secure as if she were snuggling against her mother. The woman's body heat felt pleasant.
Though she still could not see, she felt their ages were close.
"You don't have to speak. The 'current' you is about to disappear. —Eri."
—...?
"Who is that?" she tried to ask, but Elenoa realized she could not speak. Seeing her distress, the woman seemed to understand immediately.
"...I see. It seems you've forgotten even your true name. That's fine, then. Toki Eri. I am the only one who knows your name. Old names are nothing more than meaningless symbols, after all."
What a cruel thing for the woman to say.
Even when told "your name," Elenoa thought that she was Elenoa.
"You have died many times, over and over again. In truth, there were even times when you paired with different partners. ...But either you or Louis would reset things immediately.
When you restart, your memories rewind as well. You lose track of even the future you desired. It is better not to believe in things like fate binding you together. I cannot interfere with human hearts, so in the end, the choice is yours."
Indeed, these words too felt familiar.
Elenoa's mind was hazy, and she could not think of anything difficult. She had already forgotten the 'name' she had just been told.
She understood nothing. She was simply sleepy.
"Right now, I am rewinding various things on the outside. It is a systemically necessary time, like 'please wait a moment.' Shall we have a Q&A session in this space? I can answer anything. Though you'll just forget it all next time, anyway."
The woman, unconcerned with Elenoa's circumstances, calmly proceeded with her explanation.
She stroked and combed Elenoa's hair. "It feels good when I do this, doesn't it?" she whispered, and Elenoa nodded obediently. The woman's touch had a softness different from Louis's, snapping the last of Elenoa's resistance to sleepiness.
Before long, Elenoa no longer had any doubts about being buried in the woman's chest.
"First of all, I am from a different world than the one you know. In this world, the 'Spirit of Time' never existed in the first place.
When I ended up in my current position in my own world, I caused a bit of trouble. The repercussions sent Louis, who possessed magic power similar to mine despite being from a completely different world, flying to yet another world. There, I had an idea, and decided to bring Louis's soul and your soul—which had conveniently died at just the right time—here."
Elenoa could not understand most of that 'answer.'
She was sleepy. She desperately clung to the edges of her consciousness, which felt as though it might fly away into the distance.
"Louis's world was 'thin' and easy to utilize. In a world created by humans, there is no absolute god. Faces, forms, backgrounds, and history are all determined by human hands. Even voices are borrowed from someone among the people of your country—Japan, isn't it?"
The woman said that while gods worshipped as part of a narrative might gain self-awareness and divinity, surpassing their human creators, this world was different.
"I borrowed Louis's world to keep you two in it. Until you reached the goal. I took a hint from an interesting method where you get stronger with each restart."
Elenoa missed all of the woman's words.
Elenoa's thoughts, her consciousness, and even her—form were fading within the woman's arms. Unable to even realize this, she simply lay limp, entrusting her body to the other.
"Lastly, regarding my color and your color."
Even when the woman said this, Elenoa did not know what color the woman was.
"It has no relation. It was just a coincidence."
It was a pure white space. A perfect whiteness where one could not even distinguish the boundary between floor and wall.
The woman's hair was a silver that waved gently. Her eyes had a strong shape, yet the light within them had died elegantly, holding a deep blue hue.
A man spoke.
"Are you satisfied?"
The man stood behind the woman. He had raven-black hair and deep red eyes like blood, with well-featured looks. He exuded a hard, cold atmosphere that would make anyone accept it if he were called the Demon Lord.
"Well enough. This time was quite interesting, too."
The woman replied to the man, taking the hand he offered and standing up. There was nothing left in her arms.
"That house had enough information to save that fairy, even if it fell short of your standards."
The man spoke. His tone was accusatory.
"What did you hope to see by stealing those documents from the House of Stylus? ...Is watching them suffer really that amusing to you?"
"You speak as if you doubt my character, but you were the one who actually laid hands on them."
"I merely followed your orders."
"...Hmph. But it was all my own way of cheering them on, you know? Louis's real trial begins after he becomes the Demon Lord."
The woman had a slightly distinctive way of speaking.
Her black one-piece dress and stockings were feminine, with a thin red ribbon at her chest. The man also wore black slacks and a blazer.
School uniforms were out of place in this white space, yet the two fit strangely well within it.
The man did not move to stand in front of the woman. Remaining behind her, avoiding eye contact, he continued the conversation.
"I feel like you could tell me soon."
"Tell you what?"
"The purpose of repeating this world."
"...Oh."
The woman tilted her head in blank surprise. Turning to face the man, she replied with a serious expression, "Didn't I tell you?" The man let out an exasperated sigh. He wondered idly how many thousands of times he had exhaled carbon dioxide in exasperation at this woman.
The woman did not mind. She had long since grown used to being looked at with exasperation, and could not be bothered to care for the man's sensibilities now.
"Well, I don't know how best to explain it, but..."
"Ah."
"Hmm, for now, let's say I let them cultivate their magic power through a life of ups and downs, and finally rewind their memories. Although magic power corresponding to the rewound time is deducted, a 'innate' magic power that cannot be explained by time alone grows. This is inherited as is, accumulating, and by repeating their lives..."
—An outstanding mage is created. That was the gist of it.
"Seeing past memories through dreams was also a technique achieved by his subconscious. Louis's magic power is resisting me... it is proof that he is catching up to me. Elenoa, connected to him, was also partially pulled by Louis's memories. She has sufficient qualities to be Louis's attendant."
"How pitiful."
"If things took the worst turn and I wanted to reset but my spell no longer worked, that would be a true bad end. Well, in that case, I would bring them here no matter what. Whether Elenoa is there or not, Louis is truly what matters."
—Splash.
When the woman took a step without shoes, a large black ripple formed on the ground. It spread endlessly.
Eventually, the white space cracked and became a black sea. It was a sea at night.
"To catch up to the magic power of the Spirit of Time (me)... you're becoming quite the monster. Perhaps it's time to stop being human in the next world?"
The water surface stretched as far as the eye could see, with no waves or land, reflecting the unobstructed starry sky. Faint reddish-purple nebulae, rivers of stars. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, quadrillions, and countless other fine stars.
And there was a large full moon. The full moon displayed numbers along the edge of its perfectly round face, with 'XII' at the top and 'VI' at the bottom, moving three shadow-like hands as it looked down on the two.
Such a giant Moon Clock seemed to wish to avoid being stepped on by their feet. On the water surface that reflected the night sky equally, there was no moon.
"I just confirmed that Louis Stylus's magic power has reached the target point. He is the optimal candidate to succeed the 'Spirit of Time.'"
"Then you should bring him here. There is no need to make him restart; right here, now—"
"I would like to end this carelessly, but they were the ones who chose to restart. My will is not involved in that."
The two walked on the water surface. The man followed the woman's back as she advanced, swaying her skirt while creating round ripples underfoot with each step. And he dropped another question.
"Who made the 'Louis' from a different timeline recall his memories?"
In the now-nostalgic memory regression event, the Louis of the past had recognized the Elenoa before him as a 'mistaken identity.' He had said she was not his Elenoa.
The Louis who came from the past—meaning from the 'previous' world—had been unable to give Elenoa the Hourglass until the very end. Elenoa had given him the Moon Clock, and Louis had promised to give her the Hourglass, but she had become a severed head the next day.
He had regretted that. Until just before resetting his memories—no, even after the reset.
His younger sister had died of illness thirteen times.
Elenoa had escaped from the House of Stylus twenty-one times.
Elenoa had been torn apart and killed by the populace five times.
Elenoa had been discovered in a state of being turned into medicine, whether liquid or powder, three times.
Elenoa had conceived Louis's child, been attacked by a woman mad with jealousy, and stabbed in the chest and abdomen in front of her younger sister-in-law, dying once. Afterward, the siblings had become the Demon Lord.
Elenoa, fighting as a prelude to the Demon Lord, had let her guard down and been beheaded once. At that time, they had loved each other equally, shared everything, and it should have been the most beautiful and satisfying end.
In most cases, Elenoa died, and Louis wished for a reset.
A clock sitting nearby, Elenoa's Moon Clock, the Hourglass that was supposed to reach Elenoa's hands—the reset button was something placed in every household.
"I heard somewhere that you grow stronger through hardships. So I properly provided hardships, and while giving Louis opportunities to grow his magic power, I even considered a partner for him. That Elenoa makes good tea, and they seem compatible. My follow-up care for my junior is perfect. I'm kind, aren't I? A senior should be like this."
—You talk too much.
The man spat poison internally. He did not voice it. It was something the other should not have been able to hear—yet, it seemed to have entered her ears.
The woman laughed.
Chuckling from the bottom of her heart.
"Wasn't it you who told me that a partner is necessary for this torturously eternal time?"
The man's legs stopped. However, his agitation did not last long. He walked after the woman. Step by step, relentlessly.
"Besides, I basically hate those who are happier than me. Those two are pleasant to watch."
Eventually, the two arrived at a white table. It, too, was on the water surface. On the table was an Hourglass with blue sand.
The man pulled out one of the two chairs, and the woman sat there as a matter of course.
The man remained standing behind her back and took out a hairbrush from somewhere. He began to stroke the woman's hair with it. The motion was practiced. He handled those delicate silver strands more carefully than the woman herself did.
"You shouldn't have caught them."
"............"
"If you create an important woman and fail to protect her, only to lament arbitrarily, then you shouldn't have met in the first place. If you choose the option of catching them, the rest might only be bad ends. Reaching a satisfying end on their own... is unreasonable."
"............"
"But no matter how many times I watch, Louis always catches Elenoa."
In the woman's palm was a lock of straight silver hair. The braid was coming undone. Adorning the gold thread hair tie bundling it was a blue stone that had cracked and turned cloudy white.
"Well, do your best."
The woman called the Spirit of Time turned the Hourglass upside down.
The blue sand fell. It fell to the bottom, glittering as it reflected the moonlight.
Time accumulated.
end.