episode_0087

“Sigh. This should be enough, right?”

“There’s still a lot lacking, but I don’t see anything else to fix at this point.”

“‘Don’t see anything to fix’—sounds a bit arrogant, but I agree.”

Having found their own answers regarding their future plans, the two moved forward.

All that remained was to minimize the potential variables and risks that could arise from those plans.

“What if we just call the Imperial Army here? If they act directly, it could help calm the chaos among the citizens. There are elite soldiers around the palace, handpicked and trained by Elia herself.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. After Fairchild’s attack, I doubt anyone’s even standing properly. People are far weaker than you think, unnie. From a distance, preaching alone makes it seem like they’ll cheer and follow anything, but that’s just an illusion.”

“Even I wouldn’t delude myself to that exten—”

“No, you would.”

Kristen sharply cut off Cecilia’s words.

“Don’t forget, unnie. The only reason we survived Fairchild’s attack in the previous world and stayed sane until the Demon King crushed us was entirely because of oppa. If he hadn’t brought that magic formula to suppress it, we’d have all been finished right there. We’d have been crawling on the ground, drooling like the others.”

“That magic—didn’t you call it a worthless trick back then? I remember you used the spell Eric brought almost immediately.”

“That… well…”

Kristen shrank back.

“It was just bravado.”

“Bravado?”

“Yes! Just bravado! The formula oppa brought wasn’t that difficult. I could mimic it right now if you asked me to.”

“Then do that.”

“A rough imitation isn’t enough. What you and I are trying to do now is, frankly, a suicide mission that could endanger the entire Empire. If we fail, I can’t even imagine how many people will be left as empty husks. Even though you proposed this first, since I agreed to join, I have to do my part. So let me be clear—I can’t perfectly replicate the magic Oppa used.”

“Even a mage of your caliber can’t perfectly reproduce it?”

“I don’t know how highly you think of me, but I’m not some perfect superhuman. I just know a bit more about magic than others. Even Elia unnie’s magic and your divine magic are full of mysteries to me.”

“Then was what Eric brought some kind of ancient magic?”

“No. Probably not. The magic oppa used back then deployed a mana circuit in a way I’d never considered, so I couldn’t understand it. Mimicking it is one thing, but perfectly replicating a magic I don’t fully comprehend just from a brief glance? Impossible for me.”

Kristen stared at her hands. In the first iteration of the world, she had dismissed that magic as a worthless trick, insulting and belittling his efforts. But now, faced with the same task, she wished she could go back and beat some sense into her past self.

“Then what if we try persuading Elia again? Maybe I didn’t do it right last time. If we approach her more diplomatically—”

“That won’t work. You know how sharp Elia unnie is.”

“So in the end, we have to face Fairchild ourselves. Hah, saying it out loud makes it sound even more absurd.”

BANG!

“Damn right.”

The door to the heavily guarded room burst open. And standing there was the last person Cecilia and Kristen wanted to see.

—

“What the hell is this nonsense? Huh?”

“I—I have nothing to say.”

“Kris, you got anything to add?”

“…Can I speak?”

“…….”

Cecilia and Kris were currently kneeling before me, arms raised in a punishment pose.

At first, they stubbornly resisted, but when I implied I’d overheard everything, they obediently pressed against the wall and knelt without protest—almost comically so.

“Why the sudden silence? I can explain exactly why you did this.”

Seeing Kristen glaring at me defiantly, I stopped lecturing. That look told me she’d already known enough to join Cecilia’s plan. Cecilia was one thing, but if Kristen started arguing back seriously, I’d be the one in trouble.

So, I changed the subject.

“Sigh. Cecilia.”

“Y-yes?!”

“What the hell were you thinking, planning something this insane? Was being part of the Hero Party too much pressure? So you figured, ‘Might as well go all out since we’re giving up anyway’? What a saintly move.”

“That’s not it! We just—”

Cecilia looked at me indignantly but eventually hung her head.

“Right. You’ve got no right to feel wronged. No matter the goal, treating a friend like that was never the right way. I’m almost curious what you said to Elia. If she didn’t even want to talk about it, you must’ve really hurt her, huh?”

I had a vague idea of what she might’ve said, but I hadn’t expected even the cold, composed Elia to break down so quickly. Before entering this room, I’d steeled myself not to fall for Cecilia’s temptations or gaslighting—only to find her argument was something else entirely.

“Eric, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“What?”

“I said you don’t need to worry. This is between me and Elia. It’s not your place to interfere!”

I pointed at Cecilia’s arm.

“Have you forgotten the situation you’re in? If anyone other than Elia had noticed, you’d be executed on the spot. You were planning to unleash Fairchild. That monster.”

A monster whose most fitting description was “something that forcibly regresses people.” It might see itself as a miracle, but having read the original and lived through its horrors in the first iteration, I couldn’t call it anything else.

“And it’s ‘not my place’? Don’t bullshit me. If you mess up, the ones cleaning up the mess will be me and the rest of the Empire.”

“…That’s exactly why—”

“What?”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you!”

Cecilia shouted back at me, her arms still rigidly raised.

“Is it so hard to just stay quietly at home? You’re weak! No, you’re pathetically weak! You can’t even take down a single demon on your own, yet you talk about ‘cleaning up’? You’ll just shoulder everything alone and make a mess of it again!”

“What?”

“You’ve always been like this. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. If you found out, you’d cling to us, insisting on finding a ‘safe’ solution for everyone!”

“Well, obviously! Even if the chance of failure is small, as long as it’s not zero, you always double-check and—”

“And who pays the price for that failure?!”

Cecilia’s agonized scream made me reflexively lean back.

“Fine words, sure. ‘No one gets hurt, everything gets solved perfectly.’ Fairchild vanishes without fully breaking the Church’s seal, and the Empire goes back to its normal life. As if that could ever happen! Fairchild’s seal has already lost its power.”

“Lost its power? How do you know that?”

“We met it.”

Kristen, as if resigned, answered flatly. Unlike Cecilia, her slightly slanted arms seemed to reflect her current mood.

“Before finalizing the plan, unnie and I went to where Fairchild was sealed. We needed to scout ahead and see how well the Church was guarding it.”

“And?”

“It could come out anytime it wants now. There were guards, but they wouldn’t be much help. It’s already gained sentience—not only that, it read our memories. It said it wasn’t planning to leave yet, that it was waiting for something, but at the time, we had no choice but to believe it.”

“Damn it.”

If Fairchild had gained sentience, it could decide to leave the Church whenever it wanted. The fact it didn’t kill Kristen and Cecilia on the spot suggested it was at least somewhat rational.

“You said it read your memories. So who did it copy? If it took Elia or His Majesty’s form, we’d need to act now—”

Fairchild assumes the form of the most ideal person from the memories it reads. If it copied Elia or the Emperor—people even I’d struggle to handle—we’d have to move immediately.

Once embodied, Fairchild can think and act exactly like its original in every way except its fundamental drive for survival. The only silver lining is that it can’t replicate combat abilities.

“Oppa.”

“It’s you, Eric.”

“Me?”

“Well, you were the first person that came to our minds. Couldn’t be helped.”

“……”

That… makes sense!