episode_0117

000

The mansion’s underground workshop. Sophia had left, and the noisy meal of the group had ended.

After that, Cleon and Laila came down to the basement to interpret the Memoria Cube’s video.

They thought there wouldn’t be much of a problem even if others saw it, but perhaps out of consideration for Cleon, the others decided to wait upstairs.

They knew what could be seen inside anyway.

“Connect this line here… Okay. That’s the preparation done. All that’s left is to use the Stone Gun to open the Memoria Cube, and it’ll record all the video.”

Laila said, after finishing the final check, holding the Tris Megistus Stone Gun that she had received from Cleon.

Then, Laila looked at Cleon, who was sitting in a chair she had designated, lost in thought, and went closer to him, holding Cleon’s hand.

“Why don’t you put on a brighter face? This is finally the fruition of all the hard work you put into deciphering this.”

Even though she said that, her wry smile showed that she was worried about Cleon.

“Ah… That’s right. Sorry.”

Then, Cleon also slightly closed his eyes at Laila’s words, then raised his head and looked at the desk where the Memoria Cube was placed.

If he opened that cube, he could find traces of Lesia, whom he had been chasing for a long time, a part of her.

She was sucked into the crack in dimensions, wandering through distorted space-time.

And, the conclusion is that it has been decided that a massive disaster called `the Golden Comet` will destroy the primordial world.

But even so.

If there was even a sliver of hope that he could find and save her, Cleon had no choice but to bet on it.

“…Then. Please, Laila. Open the cube.”

“Okay. As soon as the video magic tool processes the video, I’ll immediately extract the scene with Lesia. It won’t take that long….”

Cleon nodded at Laila’s explanation, and Laila went to the front of the desk, holding the Stone Gun in her hand, and chanted the activation words.

“Access [connection]. And since everything came from one thought. May everything be connected as one.”

The Tris Megistus Stone Gun, which was thought to be a simple calcareous key, slowly began to shine with an emerald light as Laila’s activation words ended.

Not stopping there, the emerald light irradiated all the objects around it with emerald-colored light. It was as if it was trying to identify the objects around it.

[You gain the glory of all things. And ambiguity will disappear.]

The bright light disappeared, and three-dimensional letters made of magic floated up and disappeared above the Stone Gun, which had finished starting up.

When the Stone Gun was pointed at the Memoria Cube, a keyhole made of illusion floated above the cube.

Perhaps that was the protection magic that maintained the cube’s seal.

With a high magical power reaction sound that was enough to grate on the ears, the Stone Gun was inserted into the keyhole and turned.

The cube’s protection magic shattered on the spot as if it had never existed in the first place.

With a hissing sound, smoke rose from the Stone Gun.

Both Cleon and Laila could clearly see that it had become slightly smaller than before it was used.

“Connect the video recording magic tool to the Memoria Cube. Extract the contents… Start recording.”

Immediately, a thread of magic stretched out from the magic tool and extracted all the contents recorded in the cube where the protection magic had disappeared, and began to record them onto a disc for recording.

“How long will the recording take?”

“Even if we were to do all 100 years’ worth, it wouldn’t take that long. We’ll probably use about two discs… Even so, it’ll only take about 3 minutes.”

Laila walked next to Cleon, who thought it was fortunate that the recording would be finished faster than expected, and pulled her chair over and sat down.

Since Laila and Beatrice were the only ones who could use the video magic tool, it was natural that one of them had to stay here.

But, the truth was that Laila herself was also interested in the hero Lesia.

What kind of woman was she that made Cleon so obsessed?

She still had the memories from when she was mind-controlled.

Also, Cleon had told her that he loved her before going into the dimensional rift in the final battle.

Laila also knew that human emotions had varying degrees.

Perhaps, no matter who you compared her to, including herself, Kuon, and Sasha, no one could beat the size of Cleon’s feelings for Lesia.

“Hey, Cleon.”

“Hmm…?”

“If we find Lesia and save her, what will you do? Will Cleon’s adventure be over with that?”

Cleon closed his mouth for a moment at Laila’s sudden question.

`What to do after saving Lesia.`

Cleon’s purpose in becoming an adventurer was not fame, money, or status.

After all, he thought that he needed strength and information to find Lesia, and he thought that the fastest way for him, a magic swordsman, to do that was to become an adventurer.

Therefore, he thought that if he found Lesia, his adventurer life would end.

No, to be exact, Cleon himself was thinking, `Will I be able to find Lesia before I die?` and vaguely thought that it was his fate to wander around looking for her until he died.

But in reality, he began to feel that he was getting closer to her, little by little.

The Memoria Cube that Cleon had obtained, and the conclusion he had heard from the Black Gospel.

Perhaps, he thought that he might be able to meet her in the not-too-distant future.

But, he hadn’t thought about what would happen after that.

Laila seemed to have anticipated Cleon’s thoughts to some extent, and was looking at his eyes.

“What we talked about earlier, during the day.”

“…During the day?”

Cleon rummages through his memory for a moment at Laila’s words. If it was during the day, was it when he came to the underground workshop with Sasha earlier and handed over the Stone Gun?

“About Hellis.”

“Ah. Why that?”

Laila closed her mouth for a moment at Cleon’s words, then blushed and replied.

“Well, you said that it would be nice to spend the rest of your life leisurely in a town like that in your old age. If your adventure ends… Would you like to go to Hellis with me?”

Cleon blinked his eyes two or three times at Laila’s hesitant words, then opened his mouth.

“…So. That’s… Are you saying we should go live in your hometown…?”

“Kuh…! Th, that’s right… That’s what I mean. It’s better to live in a town where someone you know lives than to settle down in a place you don’t know, right? So….”

Cleon looked at Laila, who was squeezing out her voice while enduring her embarrassment, but her words were still becoming more and more numerous, and then nodded.

“Not bad.”

“Huh!? Really!?”

Laila turned around and looked at him with wide eyes at Cleon’s favorable answer, without even realizing it.

That was because she had said those words with the feeling that she had nothing to lose.

“Yeah. As you said, it seems like it would be better in many ways to live in a place where there are people I know….”

“Th, then! Since we’re living in the same place anyway, how about living together? Our main house is as big as this mansion. It’s too big for me to live in alone, so we can reduce our settlement funds.”

Laila gets excited and talks as her future plans with Cleon are organized in her head.

“I see… Since there are also Galatea and Caliburn, we’ll definitely need a big house.”

“Ah.”

But Laila covered her head as if she had forgotten something obvious at Cleon’s words.

That’s right. This guy is a magic swordsman. And, he has both a magic sword and a holy sword that can transform into humans.

In other words, no matter where this guy goes, he always has two women with him.

It was an obvious fact that it would be difficult to expect a marriage of just the two of them.

“And Sasha too….”

“S, Sasha too!?”

Does this guy not feel any romantic feelings about the fact that he’s living with me?

“Cl, Cleon? The story about living together that I told you… Th, that is. Something that can bear the fruits of a relationship between a man and a woman… To put it simply, it’s a con-”

At that moment, the projector made a whooshing sound, and the activation by magic stopped, and a loud noise indicating that the recording was complete was heard.

Thanks to that, Laila, whose words were buried in the sound, turned around with a sulky expression and went closer to the projector.

“How is it? Can you find it?”

When Cleon said that, Laila turned around and moved the disc to a magic tool for analysis this time.

“That depends on how well you remember Lesia. Now, come over here and put your hand on this.”

When she got closer to Laila, who was calling her, there was a crystal ball placed on the magic tool for analysis to put her hand on.

“Put your hand on this and remember Lesia’s appearance well. Got it? Then, the analyzer will capture the image in Cleon’s mind and find out if there is anyone with the same appearance in the recording.”

When Cleon started manipulating the crystal ball as instructed by Laila, the magic tool for analysis lit up and rummaged through Cleon’s head, sorting out the records to find on the disc.

“Kuh….”

He felt a slight dizziness from the feeling of having his brain directly manipulated by magic, but soon that also subsided and the operation of the magic tool stopped.

Then, it was visible to both Cleon and Laila that only a very small part of the disc was emitting light.

In total, it was a very small area that was less than 10% of the two divided discs.

Perhaps this part contains the record of Lesia, who fell out of the crack in dimensions and moved to another timeline.

“…Is this, is this it?”

“Yeah. Then, I’ll play it right away… I’ll tell you in advance, Cleon. I can’t figure out which era this video is from unless there are hints left in the record. So….”

Cleon knew what Laila was trying to say.

Don’t be disappointed even if it doesn’t become a big clue.

But when Cleon nodded as if he was okay, Laila stopped talking and played the disc.

Finally, it was time to face the hero in the record.

001

It was inside a cave where all sides were blocked by stones and only dim moonlight falling from the ceiling was shining down.

In the isolated environment where it seemed impossible for people to live, there was a crude bed, a desk, and some furniture that looked like it belonged to the ancients.

The Memoria Cube was inside something that looked like a large candlestick of a distinctly old type among the furniture.

It was recording the inside of the cave without missing anything.

What stood out in the cave was, of course, the platinum blonde woman sitting in front of the desk.

Despite her shabby appearance, wearing armor that was worn and torn in many places, and wearing a tattered cloak to protect herself from the cold.

The woman straightened her back and diligently wrote something, then came closer to the Memoria Cube.

“After all… this is a Memoria Cube. The one Sophia talked about before.”

When she looked at the front, it was undoubtedly the face of an innocent and curious-looking girl.

Platinum blonde hair and sparkling eyes. And, white skin.

It was the appearance of the hero Lesia, who seemed a little younger than what was in Cleon’s memory.

She reached out her finger and tapped the Memoria Cube with a slightly curious look.

“So, everything that happens here is recorded? Ugh… I’ll have to go outside to change my clothes.”

She let out a sigh as if she was a little uncomfortable, then straightened her back and stretched.

“Ah! No, this… If I do this.”

As if she had realized something, she covered the Memoria Cube with the tattered cloak she was wearing.

Then, the entire screen turned brown, and Lesia was faintly visible outside through the thin cloth.

“Okay. This way you won’t be able to see it, right? Hehe. It’s for privacy. Please bear with it. People of the future.”

002

The video skips a little from there.

Since they were only searching for and watching the parts where Lesia appeared, it was not recognizing Lesia covered in cloth.

With a whoosh, the cloth was removed, and Lesia’s plate armor, which was on the verge of being completely broken, was gone.

She was wearing light armor that was easy to move around in, and she had a sword on her waist.

“When I thought about it, I realized that I can record if I use this without having to write a diary every time. So, I’m going to leave it through this if there’s anything I want to convey.”

Lesia talks shyly as if she is talking to someone invisible.

She glances up at the sky.

The time of this video was also night, and the moonlight that was coming in was the only light that illuminated the inside.

“This time period is older than any history I knew. Is it the `primordial world` that Sophia was talking about…? Fortunately, the war between the ancients hasn’t started yet….”

Lesia continued to speak as if she was pondering something.

She wasn’t very good at studying, but she tried to remember what Sophia had told her because it was also related to her power, the Holy Sword.

“I was wandering through the crack in dimensions and came out through a hole I somehow found, but to think it’s a world thousands of years ago… That’s too much, even for me….”

She sighs as if lamenting her situation.

“…That day. I don’t know who the people who banished me to the crack in dimensions are. If you happen to see this record, I’m sorry. I’m still alive. I was able to endure it somehow through the magic power of the Holy Sword in the crack in dimensions.”

Lesia speaks with an expression as if she is remembering something old.

“In the world of the ancients, blonde hair and blue eyes like me are apparently a symbol of slaves… So I’m hiding in a place like this… Ahaha…”

Then she lets out a dry laugh as if she is mocking herself, and then sighs.

“I have to go back to the original timeline somehow….”

Then she stares at the Memoria Cube for a moment as if glaring at it, and continues the story.

“But it’s okay. There’s an ancient researcher who is the only one who listens to my stories… Tris, who said that he would investigate how to open the crack in dimensions again.”

Lesia lets out another sigh and glances back. It was as if there was someone beyond that.

“…That’s it for today.”

With that, she covered herself with the cloak again.

003

After that, Lesia’s stories continued at intervals of several days.

Most of them were stories of meeting and being chased by the ancients, stories of fighting ancient monsters. And stories that the ancient researcher who became her friend was making progress in his research.

It was when that record was nearing the end that the atmosphere of her record suddenly changed.

She had taken off her cloak as usual, but her face was covered in black dirt, and it could be seen that she was sweating all over her body.

“Haa… Haa…”

She wasn’t injured, but she looked like she had just fought a battle no matter how you looked at it.

A commotion was heard outside, as if they were chasing her.

“…Because my Holy Sword was found out, I’m being chased by the ancients… The researcher who was helping me was also captured… Fortunately, I managed to get a magic tool that can open the crack in dimensions… Kuh….”

Lesia had no choice but to lower her head with a sad expression.

A hero with a powerful force that can defeat the Magic Sword Emperor. But because she is a hero, she cannot abandon her compassion or pity for people.

That was why she couldn’t properly wield her sword against ordinary people.

“It’s a do-or-die situation, but I’m going to open the crack in dimensions. So, this is the last record.”

Lesia looks outside for a moment, then looks at the Memoria Cube and makes a sad face.

“…If there’s anyone who sees this record, my comrades… Sophia, Talcheck, Eska, Ruti…”

And she hesitates and adds one person’s name.

“…Cleon.”

“…If it’s you, I’m, I’m okay. Please. Me-”

As if Lesia was looking directly at the faces of her comrades who were watching her from beyond the Memoria Cube, she spoke while clutching her tearing chest.

“Fin-”

[I broke through! The Holy Sword is in here!]

At the next moment, a shout was heard from outside. It was a group of ancients who had gathered to steal Lesia’s Holy Sword.

Lesia grits her lower lip and gets up.

And, in the Memoria Cube’s field of vision, another person who had been hidden by Lesia until now appeared.

A young girl with black hair, black eyes, and snow-white skin.

Lesia hurriedly reached out her hand to her and took out a magic tool from her chest and used it.

“Ugh…! Let’s go, Lilith!”

“Okay…”

Like that, she opened the crack in dimensions and jumped in, and at the same time, the ancients poured in from outside.

They looked around and clicked their tongues and finished the recording by chasing after Lesia’s traces.

004

“… …”

Laila didn’t know what kind of reaction to show after playing the record.

That’s because this record itself wasn’t that valuable.

She didn’t know which point in the primordial world Lesia had moved to, and she didn’t know where she was.

How was she supposed to chase after her with this?

When Laila thought so and glanced at Cleon, his reaction was a little different from what Laila had thought.

Of course, he was angry at the ancients who had pointed their swords at Lesia.

But more than that, he had a slightly surprised expression.

“That girl at the end….”

“Ah, yeah. The Black Magic clan… Was she?”

It seemed that Cleon was concerned about that girl.

“I’ve seen her before.”

“…What?”

Laila made an unbelievable expression at the words that followed from Cleon’s mouth.

“Where?”

“Just recently. The succubus girl that the red-haired demon who was interfering with us had with her.”

“…Ah!”

Laila clapped her hands as if she had remembered at Cleon’s words.

Certainly, if she listened to Cleon’s story, her face matched perfectly.

Of course, she didn’t have demonic features such as wings or a tail.

“What is it then…? How did the timeline go? The girl in the record and that succubus are the same person… No, at least they’re related?”

“It’s better to think so… One more reason to go to the royal capital. Because there’s something I need to ask her.”

Laila was silent for a moment.

Of course, if she chased after the few clues she had now, that was definitely the right decision, but-

“…And. The ancient researcher who helped Lesia. Tris. Have you ever heard of that person, Laila?”

Just as she was about to interrupt Laila’s thoughts, Cleon changed the subject to the next story, and Laila thought about it for a moment as if she was troubled, and then her eyes widened.

“Tris…? That’s right! Tris! Tris Megistus! The person who made the Stone Gun we used! He’s a human who is recorded as the most genius among the ancient researchers! It’s a common name in modern times, so I forgot about it, but in the ancients, the only person who could research how to open the crack in dimensions would be that person…!”

“…If we look into his records, we might be able to find out more about Lesia.”

Laila also nodded at Cleon’s words.

The possibility of that was greater than finding a girl who may or may not be that person.

“Haa… I’m glad. It’s a relief that there wasn’t no harvest at all….”

Cleon let out a sigh of relief as if he was exhausted and bent his back forward.

Laila, who seemed to have seen him like that for the first time, blinked her eyes two or three times and pondered for a moment whether to stroke his back, then clapped her hands on it.

“We’ve only just barely made it through the entrance. I’ll continue to help you in the future, so just trust me.”

“…Thank you, Laila…”

The next thing to do was decided.

The records of the ancient researcher, Tris.

And, the succubus girl of the Black Magic clan.

It was to extract Lesia’s information from these two people.

To do that, they still needed to go to the royal capital.

Tris Megistus was a person who was researching in the area where the current royal capital is located.

And, the girl was also with the red-haired demon who was rampaging in the royal capital.

Cleon clenched his fist while looking at the scenery reflected beyond the projector for a moment.

He felt that he was getting closer to her slowly, little by little.

`Please find me-`

A part of the video flashes through his head.

Cleon couldn’t know what the words that followed would have been.

But even so.

“I will definitely, you…”

His will was unchanging.