episode_0109

The morning sun was bright, and the time for departure had arrived.

Only Arina, Millen, and Ian were traveling together this time. Since there was no need to bring others along, it had been decided this way.

Before setting off on their journey again, Arina bid farewell to those who had helped her greatly.

“Thank you, as always. This is the second time you’ve saved me, Master.”

The memory was still quite vivid for Arina.

That late night when she had gone into the forest to gather herbs for her sick younger sister, Livia.

The unlucky day she had encountered a wolf-type magical beast roaming the woods and was chased away.

Running until her legs gave out, tripping over a tree branch, and throwing a stone in a last desperate act of resistance—only to provoke the beast further.

It was then that she was saved by Elin, who happened to be nearby at the time. That encounter had led her to enter the Magic Tower.

“Hehe, that’s a nostalgic story. But next time, don’t let it get to the point where I have to step in. It won’t end with just one or two magical beasts like back then.”

Truthfully, now that her disciple had far surpassed her, there wasn’t much Elin could do to help Arina anymore.

If Arina couldn’t defeat an enemy, neither could Elin. This had been a special case.

“There won’t be a second time. I’m all grown up now—I don’t plan to bother you anymore.”

“You’re still young for a mage, though. But since it’s you, I suppose I can trust you.”

“Of course.”

“Come to think of it, you’ve always been a low-maintenance child ever since you first came to the Magic Tower.”

A disciple who studied on her own after just the standard theoretical lessons. If she didn’t understand something, she’d write it down and ask, and the direction and level of her questions were flawless. From a teacher’s perspective, she was an endlessly easy student.

But for a master and disciple—no, for two people whose relationship was closer to parent and child—it wasn’t always a good thing.

Elin had often felt sad that she couldn’t see her self-sufficient disciple more frequently.

“Come here. Let me hug you.”

“Everyone’s watching…”

“What does that matter? Getting embarrassed over this just proves you’re still a child.”

Without a care, Elin pulled Arina in and buried her face against her chest.

Arina, her face slightly flushed from the awkwardness, soon wrapped her arms around Elin’s back.

With her eyes closed, Elin’s scent became even more vivid, stirring a sense of nostalgia.

“Well… this isn’t so bad once in a while.”

“Right? You like people more than you think.”

That certainly didn’t seem wrong. Just being held like this made her feel at ease.

After a slightly prolonged embrace, it was Daniel’s turn to step forward.

“Hello, Sister.”

“Daniel, I’m sorry about what happened. No matter how much Dennis betrayed us, given your personality, watching your younger brother get executed couldn’t have been easy.”

“Yes. I’m more worried about how devastated Mother will be when she hears the news. But Father was furious, so the outcome wouldn’t have been much different anyway. If anything, it might be better that she didn’t have to see it herself.”

“Hearing that makes me feel a little better. Thinking about it, I’ve only ever taken from you while calling you my brother—I haven’t given much in return.”

At most, she had only been there to lend a bit of intimidation when force was needed.

Given the considerable damage Dennis had caused as family, Daniel wouldn’t hold it against her, but Arina still felt indebted on a personal level.

“Not at all. Thanks to you, I saved on hiring bodyguards, and I enjoyed it too.”

“At the very least, I’ll take care of the merchant guild matters, so don’t worry about that.”

Due to Dennis’ betrayal, the fact that they had hidden Riel Frost had been exposed, cutting the Hight Merchant Guild’s influence in half.

Arina turned her head slightly to look at Lilith.

“If needed, I’ll keep lending Lilith to you.”

At those words, Lilith flared up.

“Who said you could just lend me out like that?! Don’t you know how much I contributed to this operation?! If it weren’t for me, Master’s life would’ve been over—do you not realize that?!”

“I know. That’s why I said it. You looked much better when you were with the Hight Merchant Guild.”

It wasn’t just that she had more opportunities to shine—her skin was smoother and glossier, and overall, she seemed in better condition than when they had first met.

“Well, meeting more people meant more chances to absorb vitality, I guess?”

“Seems like you’ve found your true calling. Anyway, I’ll set you free now, so from here on out, do as you please.”

To Daniel and Lilith, she promised the merchant guild and freedom, respectively.

“Arina.”

“Marin.”

The past had already been settled. But what about the future?

The reason Marin had approached Arina in the first place was because she had been a character in the game she played.

So, were they friends now? Or was it still a relationship between a character and a player?

A complicated, subtle tension still lingered between them.

“There’s something I wanted to ask. No matter what happened before, you said you wanted to help me in this world, right? That’s why you captured the original porter.”

“Yeah.”

“Then why didn’t you come to me first? Whatever the reason, I know you liked me and wanted to travel together. If you avoided me because you had to, what’s different now? Why did you stay quiet until that day we met by chance?”

She no longer thought, If Marin had been there, this wouldn’t have happened.

If she hadn’t been betrayed by her comrades and turned into a woman, she wouldn’t have met Ian. Now, he had become someone irreplaceable to her.

She could no longer dismiss the past as purely bad. If everything had to happen this way, she could accept even the horrors of the past.

So, this question was purely to resolve her curiosity.

“…That was a miscalculation. I avoided you until the original story’s starting point to minimize variables—that much is true.”

Marin hesitated, unsure how to explain the butterfly effect.

But she was certain that if she had intervened with the hero’s party earlier, the story would have diverged drastically from the original.

With the power she gained as a reincarnator, Marin was strong enough to easily defeat the entire early-game hero’s party.

What if she stole their experience points, leaving them underleveled? They could easily die facing stronger enemies in higher-level areas.

“So, I planned to interfere at the exact moment the hero’s party met the porter in the game. But by then, things had already changed so much that you weren’t where you were supposed to be.”

Even after that, she kept searching, but Arina wasn’t in the places she should have been at that point in the timeline.

It was only later that Marin learned Arina had left the party and was wandering alone, just like in the original story.

“Because the porter made his move before you could.”

“Yeah. Honestly, when I met you, I was already giving up. Originally, you were supposed to join the tournament about a year earlier.”

In Arina’s memory, she had been captured by the porter for about a week. That one week had created the massive divergence leading to now.

“I see. So, because of that bastard porter, your movements changed, and we ended up meeting.”

Originally, Arina and Ian were never meant to meet. The fact that Marin didn’t know about him was proof of that.

If Arina had arrived at Felix’s territory a year earlier, she wouldn’t have met him—he would’ve been dragged to noble gatherings at that time.

“How ironic.”

“Right? The guy who ruined my life completely is also the reason I met my savior.”

What would have happened if she hadn’t met Ian?

She might have eventually succumbed and accepted the Demon King’s offer. Or maybe she would’ve died earlier, struck by Erwin’s arrow in Blacksmith.

“Good to know. I’ll take that into account when I kill the porter.”

After finishing her goodbyes, Arina left the castle with the other two. Since they planned to take the imperial carriage to the territory, Arina headed straight to the Emperor and spoke to Aitri.

“Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

“There’s something I didn’t receive. Are you sure you haven’t forgotten anything?”

At her roundabout words, the Emperor tilted his head in confusion.

“Forgotten…? I can’t think of anything. What do you mean?”

“So, the Empire plans to just walk away like this? Understood.”

Only at her cold muttering did the Emperor finally grasp her meaning.

“I thought we had sufficiently explained why we cooperated with the Kingdom.”

“Having a valid reason doesn’t mean everything is forgiven. As Kyle said, the other two nations also share responsibility.”

“…What do you want?”

“Guardians. The summoning rights for Infinity.”

Pulling up her sleeve to reveal her wrist, Arina showed a single mark drawn on her right hand.

The white summoning circle of the Holy Kingdom’s Guardian, Unlimited.

“So, you’ve already settled things with the Holy Kingdom.”

“They made the first offer. I waited for the Empire, but there was no word.”

“That crafty old man—I didn’t anticipate his move.”

Now, the Empire had no choice but to comply.

“Fine.”

With the reluctant air of being extorted, the Emperor had no choice but to share the summoning rights for Infinity.

“Thank you.”

With a slight smirk, she now had two Guardians, the backing of the Magic Tower, the love of the future King of Gilias—and was herself the world’s greatest mage.

Aitri pondered how to forge ties with someone who now wielded near-absolute power.

I’ll have to push my son to marry whatever child comes from those two, he thought.

And then—

“Is this the person Oppa mentioned?”

Blink, blink. Crimson eyes filled with curiosity blinked rapidly.

“Hello… young lady.”

Even the absolute power that made the Emperor tremble lost its meaning before those who would soon become family.

“Yeah! Nice to meet you, Sister-in-law!”