The Delivered Sincerity
by Afuhfuihgs
Lumiel stared intently at Roel. Meeting her gaze, Roel predicted her next move. Either she would not forgive the person who endangered the city she cherished and attack, or she would coldly calculate the losses like a merchant, considering the value of El Dorado and handing over the Holy Grail.
However, Roel’s prediction was wrong. Lumiel leaned her face on her arm resting on the sofa, showing no anger or embarrassment, and simply looked at Roel with her usual listless, gloomy eyes.
Faced with an unexpected reaction, Roel couldn’t help but doubt his own memory. The ‘Lumiel’ he knew was fundamentally lazy, but she also had a tendency to cling to the remnants of her lover, to the point of fighting the Demon King to protect El Dorado.
That’s why he used Parvati as a bargaining chip for El Dorado. Roel predicted that the Lumiel he knew would definitely hand over the Holy Grail out of affection for El Dorado.
Lumiel, looking up at Roel with her head tilted, gave a faint smile.
“That’s a decent threat.”
With those words, Lumiel winked towards the corner of the room. Roel, puzzled, followed her gaze and noticed a huge mirror attached to the wall.
“If there hadn’t been an earlier guest.”
With that, the mirror opened like a door. The person who entered the room through the passage was also familiar to Roel. A steadfast ally and wise advisor who always chose the right thing. One who always fulfills his role determined by fate in the vortex of destiny.
It was Headmaster Nelson of Transcendence Academy, a great mage, and Ellie’s teacher, the Sage Nelson-nim.
“Headmaster Nelson-nim… how are you here?”
“I thought you would come here.”
Nelson approached Roel with a gentle smile. When a flustered Roel hesitated and tried to get up, Nelson placed his hand on Roel’s shoulder, preventing him from standing, and sat between Roel and Lumiel.
“By the way, Parvati has already been rescued.”
Roel’s brow furrowed at Nelson’s usual tone. He hadn’t considered Nelson’s intervention at all. Roel sighed, lowered his gaze to the floor, and asked.
“Are you going to interfere with me?”
“Of course, with all my might.”
A strange atmosphere flowed between the two. However, unlike Roel, who showed vigilance, Nelson simply stroked his well-groomed beard calmly. Roel, who hesitated to speak for a moment, carefully asked.
“…Why?”
“Because I know your choice is wrong. As the headmaster of the academy, I can’t just stand by and watch a student go down the wrong path, can I?”
As if pricked by a needle, Roel suddenly raised his head. With eyes filled with terrifying emotion, Roel glared at Nelson. Enough to make Lumiel, who had been watching the conversation lazily, react a little.
After staring silently for a while, Roel asked.
“…Do you think I’m wrong?”
Instead of answering Roel’s question, Nelson asked with a gentle smile and a kind voice.
“What wish were you going to make if you got the Holy Grail?”
“…”
Roel didn’t answer. But even in that silence, the Sage found what he wanted. Nelson spoke to Roel, who had his shoulders tense and was ready to wield the Holy Sword at any moment.
“You are the protagonist who will lead the story to its end. If you disappear, the story can never be finished.”
At those words, Roel reflexively bit his lip.
“You, who are swayed by the Saintess’s prophecy, will never understand.”
Nelson slowly shook his head at Roel’s rebuttal.
“This matter has nothing to do with the Saintess. She doesn’t know about your plan.”
“…The Saintess doesn’t know?”
Roel’s eyes widened slightly. Until now, Nelson had always been on the Saintess’s side. From the beginning, Nelson moved as the Saintess ordered and acted for her.
The Saintess used future information to move Nelson, help Ross, and create various variables. So, he naturally thought that the reason Nelson interfered with his plan was because of the Saintess’s orders.
But Nelson spoke with a voice full of sincerity, as if to say he wasn’t lying.
“Me coming here is entirely of my own will, and it’s all for you.”
Roel couldn’t believe those words. To interfere with his plan for his sake was like an excuse. However, Nelson, whom Roel had experienced so far, had never used futile schemes or deceived him with lies. Nelson spoke to Roel, who was hesitating about what to do.
“May I explain how I predicted your actions?”
At Nelson’s suggestion, Roel wiped his face once and asked in a heavy voice.
“…Was there really no involvement from the Saintess?”
Instead of answering, Nelson gave a gentle smile and took out his staff from his bosom. Then, he waved the staff and cast magic. In an instant, the area around the sofa seemed to be inside a huge water droplet. The transparent barrier slowly froze, creating unique patterns.
Waves rippled around the sofa, conveying the movement of mana. Soon, the unique patterns around the barrier overlapped each other semi-transparently and began to spiral. The water droplet collapsed, and the spiraling patterns became one and emitted light.
A jewel-like, very small sphere flew to the end of Nelson’s staff. Lumiel, who had been lazily watching the magic, blankly stared at the small sphere emitting light and said.
“This is… impossible. How can all the elements be harmoniously mixed without causing a collision…?”
The magic Nelson used was impossible even with the power of a dragon. Even though that small sphere contained the colors of all the elements, it was emitting a clear light that illuminated everything, not a black light.
A sphere without the chaos that inevitably comes with complex mixing. That magic contained the innate uniqueness of a special mage.
“This magic is…”
There was only one person who knew how to handle all the elements. The uniqueness of the magic Nelson used had her traces so clearly remaining that Roel couldn’t deny it.
“It’s magic that only Ellie could do…”
Muttering like that, Roel blankly stared at Nelson. The current Ellie is at a level where even attempting it is impossible. But the timeline hasn’t been twisted. The fact that Nelson is still alive tells the flow of the timeline.
Nelson smiled at Roel, who was glaring fiercely as if demanding an explanation, and lightly shook his staff to make the sphere disappear. As the sphere emitting light disappeared, Lumiel, who had been staring blankly, let out a faint groan.
Nelson, who put the staff in his bosom, stroked his beard and said.
“A long time ago, I had a special experiment with the Coordinator. I wanted to confirm the hypothesis that other worlds exist. Our experiment was a success. With the magic of the Coordinator and me, we were barely able to open a passage to another world for a moment.”
Roel already knew the story Nelson was telling. He had been warned about the dangers several times by Nelson and the Coordinator in the past.
It was the story of how bringing a leaf from another world caused the balance of the world to fluctuate greatly, affecting causality, and the leaf brought from another world was denied by the world and turned to ashes.
Roel, who didn’t want to waste time with a story he already knew, spoke first.
“…Are you talking about the leaf that was denied by the world?”
Nelson smiled at Roel’s words.
“Yes, I was originally going to talk about the leaf. But haven’t you ever thought that this story is a bit strange?”
At Nelson’s question, Roel tilted his head without realizing it. Roel was the one who had experienced the most the leaf turning to ashes due to being denied by the world in exchange for conveying memories. There was nothing strange about the leaf turning to ashes due to the world’s denial. The answer to the question came from Lumiel’s mouth.
“The leaf.”
Roel’s gaze briefly lingered on Lumiel before returning to Nelson.
“That’s right. The leaf is the contradiction.”
Roel frowned and thought. What contradiction is there in the leaf? He pondered for a long time, but Roel couldn’t find the answer. Roel swallowed and said.
“What contradiction is it?”
“It’s remembering being denied by the world.”
“…!”
At Nelson’s answer, Roel flinched without realizing it. If it was denied by the world, it means that the existence of the leaf brought from another world disappears. But Nelson and the Coordinator had the memory of the leaf being denied by the world. That’s a contradiction. How can you remember something whose very existence has been denied?
“…Actually, what was denied by the world was not the leaf, but something else.”
As he spoke, Roel realized. The reason why Nelson could use the magic of Ellie, who had become a great mage.
“Yes, I thought it was a leaf for a while because of the causality created by the world’s denial and forgot about it… but in the end, I was able to resist the world’s denial with the power of the Sage and regain my memory.”
Nelson gave a genuinely happy smile.
“My other self in another world taught his disciple well.”
There was only one such being in countless worlds. Roel, who already knew the result, prevented him from making the same attempt from the beginning.
So, the one Nelson met was the very first and last… the girl who poured all her mana to create a variable, split the sky of the world, and disappeared.
“She gave me all her memories, even losing her own existence to save the person she loved. To create the last variable, and so that you can eventually win.”
That person was,
Ellie from the first world.
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