novelraw Chapter 336
Chapter 336
Chapter 336
I could think of nothing but that he was insane. That thought filled my head entirely, leaving no room for anything else. Leo had put an artifact into his arm. That meant there would be knife marks beneath the hem of his shirt and the bandages, and beneath the skin, a gemstone whose properties had been altered by Magic Power. I had known for a long time that he was the type to do anything to achieve his goals, but even so, this went too far. It was behavior that defied all common sense, and my head went dizzy. After staring blankly for a long while, what finally came out of my mouth was a completely pointless question.
“…Did you come wearing summer clothes just to tell me this?”
“What do you think?”
Leo asked, tilting his head slightly. I had experienced this before, answering a question with another question, and that memory flashed past me like a revolving lantern. So that meant yes, right? He had gone this far on purpose? Leo had? For a moment, all sense left me, and I collapsed back onto the bed. I set aside, for now, the suspicion that he had come just to mess with me, but I still could not believe that there was a gemstone embedded in his arm. I had read in magic history books about insane ancestors who stitched artifacts into their flesh to inject Magic Power directly into their veins, but I had never heard of anyone putting one inside their body just to keep it from being stolen. An unprecedented madman was standing right in front of me. And that madman was someone who would one day become the King of Bavaria. Someone who would establish a new Emperor of the Empire. A strange sense of crisis suddenly took hold of my entire body. I pressed my face hard with my hands, rubbing it dry, and spoke.
“…You are not that kind of person.”
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
“Someone who follows rules obediently and clings to regulations. The type teachers like.”
I could almost picture him wearing an armband, standing at attention with his hands clasped behind his back. At least, that had been true until a certain point. Even knowing my words were sarcastic, Leo smiled calmly.
“I thought I listened to you and left things exactly as they were for the past six weeks. Was I wrong?”“…No, you are right. Thank you for being considerate. I do not know how you will take this, but I am more sorry and grateful than I can put into words. I mean it.”
“Hm.”
“But why are you so relaxed? Is embedding a gemstone in your body something to be proud of?!”
“I will say it again. I did not expect you to do that thing over a dozen times on the spot.”
Leo’s eyes, fixed squarely on me, burned with a cold fire. After staring intently for a long while, he turned his head and spoke in a calm voice.
“I know it is not your fault. I have no intention of ignoring the moment when you made that self-contradictory demand out of consideration for me, nor the moment when you must have felt indebted to me because of it, and then venting my anger however I please. That is why I had no choice but to do this.”
“…….”
Because it was not your fault. His voice, like ash scattering in the wind, quietly recited those words. I thought of the finger-length red knife wound that must be beneath those bandages. Because it was not my fault, he chose not to blame me and instead put the artifact into his own body. That was what he meant. The tears that had once pooled beneath his pale blue irises when he first saw me overlapped with his current eyes, now completely devoid of moisture. The more I listened, the more distant everything felt. I felt as though I understood the meaning, and yet I could not. He was different from the abstraction in my mind. Leo, who lived and breathed outside of me, understood me far more deeply than my one-dimensional imaginings, and precisely because of that, he did not pour out his desire to blame me without restraint. And because of that, he returned after doing something even more insane.
“I am only grateful to you. You never waste time, and this time as well, you found the best possible world within the worst circumstances. I fully understood that consideration you showed for me. Lukas, that is why I cannot stand myself.”
A bitter smile crossed Leo’s face.
“I understand perfectly what you fear and despair over. But regardless of how grateful I am for your kindness, I am not so weak that I must always hide beneath your goodwill.”
The moment he finished speaking, Sound Insulation Magic was cast. Leo continued in a gentler expression than ever before.
“I am fine with any amount of time. I want to share all of your time. Am I not allowed to have that privilege?”
“…….”
Only the sound of the wind blowing in through the window remained. Because he was not so weak as to hide beneath my goodwill, he decided to share every moment with me. No matter what I said, he would do so. I knew that fragments of time, now nothing more than a midday dream, were clinging stubbornly to his memories and embedding themselves in his eyes. He knew it too. Even knowing exactly what he had gone through, he said he was willing to fall into the very center of that time again. I stared at him, unable to close my mouth, and spoke.
“It is not a privilege.”
Only then did Leo smile peacefully again.
“Right. The ability to turn back time is not a privilege. But being able to share a burden that you carry alone, a burden that no one in this world even knows you bear, is clearly a privilege granted to me, and it is the duty I must fulfill as your friend.”
He went beyond asserting a right and invoked duty. A duty that was neither excessive nor lacking. The child I had taught for dozens of days in another world now wore the face of a fully grown man, having made the raw knowledge he learned in childhood wholly his own, and began to speak its fruits naturally.
“The difficulty of earning one person’s trust is no different from the difficulty of earning a kingdom’s trust. I received that trust from you. Even if being with you were to dull my soul with the kind of fatigue you mentioned, even if such a crisis were to come, I would not regret it. And if I am with you, it will not happen anyway. There will be incidents like this again in the future. You will always feel a double fatigue, torn between leaving me behind and enduring successive deaths. And I, I too hope that you do not lose the clarity of your soul. Is it wrong to want to repay you, who did everything you could to ease my suffering?”
His righteousness manifested through all of his kindness. He said that I had been considerate of him, but I felt that very sentiment toward him instead. Even if the result was more than enough to leave me flustered, the essence of it did not change. I watched for a long time as the soul reflected in his eyes pulsed within the light, then slowly moved my lips, which I had not been able to close.
“You already sliced open your arm and embedded an artifact. What are you even asking now?”
“…….”
He understood what I meant. Leo finally smiled brightly and raised an eyebrow.
“That is a relief. I was worried you might insist on splitting my arm open yourself.”
“If I told you to cut it, would you?”
At my words, Leo shrugged with his arms crossed. That smile of his, clearly saying no chance, was strangely irritating. We had talked enough. To change the subject, I swung a Magic Power-infused fist, broke the Sound Insulation Magic, and jerked my chin toward Elias.
“Eli is going to sulk.”
“I have nothing against Luka, but I do have a problem with this annoying prince. There are three of us here, and you put up Sound Insulation Magic in front of a friend? What kind of manners are those~? I almost smashed it, you know.”
Elias slung an arm around Leo’s shoulder and glared. Then he looked at me again with pitiful eyes and spoke.
“What have you two been doing this whole time? What artifact is it? Do not be vague. Tell me too!”
I was about to make something up, but Leo cut off his pleading with a cold voice.
“You do not need to know. Go home.”
“Why! Tell me too! I am your friend as well!”
At that ear-piercing shout, Leo leaned his body away from Elias. The moment the shout ended, he snapped back sharply.
“You spent the entire past week secretly meeting with Lukas, yet you did not tell me a single word no matter how much I asked. What exactly have you done so well that I should explain anything to you?”
“Go play with Nicolaus. I am going to play with Luka. Why do I need to explain to you that I am playing with Luka? And Narce was in those meetings too!”
“Hoo….”
Leo furrowed his brow. He must have decided that there was no point in continuing the conversation with Elias any longer. Elias glared at Leo, then flopped onto the bed and muttered.
“Ah~ I wonder when Narce is coming. At this rate, he should be watching Trier Cathedral and retrieving the Holy Nail.”
‘Watching these two is kind of fun….’
Leo and Eli, that is. Given that they were apparently like this well into their late twenties in the novel, I decided not to expect any development. They would behave like this until the day they died.
More importantly, I needed to think about points now. Judging by the situation, Leo probably believed that I had used up almost all of my twenty-two chances. His estimate was correct. I had four points left. I had spent most of the points I had accumulated, along with those gained from increases in Luck, leaving me with exactly enough for two more uses. Just in case, I needed to find a way to earn more points….
I decided to leave that to the system for now. There was someone I needed to go greet briefly. I asked Elias.
“What about Senior Mecklenburg? He was hospitalized here too, right?”
***
“Senior.”
I did not hear anyone tell me to come in, but I threw open the door to the hospital room I had been guided to. Mecklenburg, dressed in outdoor clothes and sitting on the sofa reading a book, looked at me with surprised eyes. I had just finished my discharge procedures as well, and it seemed he would soon be returning to Brandenburg too. I took a long, deep breath and opened a window I did not particularly want to face.
Albert Mecklenburg
Favorability +5 [Available for (Stage 3/5)]
‘Hm.’
I thought it would be fairly low, but apparently not. The time we fought together at the Brandenburg Archdiocese must have changed how he perceived me.
I had turned back time many times, and during my final stay at headquarters, I repeated exactly what I had done with the 98th Class Team A and Albert Mecklenburg in the first run. I joined Erich Reichenau’s strategy game, answered the strategic questions of the 91st Class representative Mage the next day, stopped the use of firearms, took custody of the military dog from Mecklenburg, this time, I passed it on to someone else, and during all other times, I took leave, warped away immediately, avoided Leo, and finally returned on the day of the strategy exam. I had revealed that I was Nicolaus more than ten times by now, been trapped with Mecklenburg behind the warehouse five or six times, and secured plenty of time to talk with him.
On one timeline, inside a closet behind the warehouse, he had asked me this.
“Why are you hiding the fact that you are Nicolaus?”
I stared at him and kept my mouth shut. After that, he asked the same question on several more timelines, but it was only on the final timeline that I changed my response. At the time, I had entered the warehouse too early and needed to buy some time.
“What do you think of your older brother?”
Yes. I repeated exactly the same question I had asked him in a vanished timeline, word for word, in the final run. I saw Mecklenburg’s face stiffen with confusion once again. He was skilled at hiding his emotions, but in an extreme situation, and under the shock of facing Nicolaus, everything showed on his face. His reaction was immediate, so my reply was similar. Because of that, I was able to build a certain degree of consistent closeness with him on every timeline, washing away my fatigue little by little. Ironically, as time went on, the sense of closeness I felt toward him grew stronger. Perhaps it was best described as camaraderie formed under extreme circumstances. Along with my continued distaste for his nineteenth-century ethics, I had seen the bodies of comrades who became corpses to protect me several times, and the feeling that arose from that was close to a one-sided emotion.
I had never been someone who felt deep hatred toward others, so with Mecklenburg as well, I accepted his distortions and crookedness as immaturity itself. Even if I felt strong displeasure at the wrongdoing born of such immaturity and judged it to be wrong, I did not develop emotions intense enough to call it malice toward humanity. That would have been an unnecessary waste. My emotions had not started in the negative, but even so, the fact that an imbalance had formed in such an unexpected direction was quite ironic.
In any case, he answered my question just as he had the first time.
“He is a good friend.”
“I am asking what you think.”
“I told you he is a good friend.”
“Is this really the time for wordplay?”
“What exactly are you dismissing as wordplay?”
“Were you not on the verge of losing your mind wanting to defeat my brother?”
At those words, Mecklenburg stared at me blankly. His eyes blinked rapidly. No matter how one looked at it, he was older than me, yet in that moment, he looked endlessly young. His worst memories overlapped in his gaze, and fear seeped in on top of them.
“Losing my mind? Watch your words. I am not particularly….”
Continuing to evade would lead nowhere. Even if I needed to buy more time before leaving, it was not as though I had all the time in the world. I also had to conserve the Magic Power consumed by Sound Insulation Magic. Looking into eyes that reminded me both of Nicolaus and of Adrian Askanian, I provoked him.
“You cannot even look properly at that younger brother’s face. What are you trying to hide?”
“…What did you say….”
“You want to beat your older brother but never have, so after losing for over a decade, just seeing his face makes it hard to breathe, does it not? Well, I suppose gaining vicarious satisfaction by hearing words of respect from a junior seven years younger than you….”
“…Stop!”
Mecklenburg cut me off. I saw his face flush red once again.
“Fine. So what? Do you think I am ridiculous because I am inferior even to Adrian, Lord Nicolaus Ernst? You might not understand from the position of a capable younger brother with a capable older brother, but living as a perpetual second place is not easy.”
“…….”
I realized that the words were spilling out of his mouth uncontrollably. He was blurting things out in a voice that sounded as though it would break into tears at the slightest touch. I calmly soothed him.
“I never said you were ridiculous. I simply asked you to answer honestly, since I already know.”
“Then what should I say? That after passing the phase where I wanted to drag that bastard down and shove him into the mud, I no longer even want to be involved with someone like Adrian Askanian, and that I cannot stand to even look at news from the Ministry of Magic? Should I say that even so, it would not resolve the grudge built up over fifteen years? That the time to surpass Ian has already passed, that he has climbed to a place no one can reach, while no matter how desperately I try, I remain stuck in the same spot, and it is infuriating? That no matter how I avert my gaze, it is agonizing to know that I can never catch up to my friend? Is that what you want me to say, that you are provoking me like this in a situation like this?”
He was more enraged now, but good. I needed to draw out this answer. Claiming endlessly that he was just a close friend of Adrian would lead to no progress. More importantly, because of his agitation, the Sound Insulation Magic was shaking violently. His legs kept bumping into things, and it was irritating. And more critically, there was another problem. At the time, with only four Retry points left, I was pressing my forehead and waving my hand at him. But before my attempt to stop him could reach him, he fired off words like a machine gun.
“As I was trying to forget someone like Adrian and live my own life, you came in as my junior with that face. And so I was afraid. Afraid that if I did not keep you beneath my feet at every moment, I would once again be trampled by that face. Afraid that no matter what I did, I could not shake off that fear, now instinctive after fifteen years. Yes, to be honest with you, I wanted to be acknowledged. Or else, I wanted to defeat you and be satisfied that way. But then, then I found out that you were Nicolaus…!”
I covered his mouth. His breathing was breaking off, yet the words would not stop, making him look truly insane. And yes, the reason he was in such a frenzy was ultimately because he had learned not long ago that I was Nicolaus.
“Very well. I will tell you why I brought this up now.”
When I removed my hand, Mecklenburg lowered his head deeply and muttered.
“…Now that you have heard all that, I do not know if you can even breathe without feeling sick. That must be delightful to hear for someone from a family of geniuses.”
“…It is an illness. Now please listen to me.”
“I know. No one trampled on me. I trampled on myself. There are problems that cannot be solved even when you know that. I probably want to solve this more than you do. I know that by insulting your precious older brother, I must have made myself so hateful to you that you never want to see me again.”
“…….”
“I will not trouble you anymore. That is enough. I had been gradually forgetting him since graduation, and though it seems I will soon be working on the same team as you, I know, as I always have, that my problems are mine to solve. I am sorry for projecting Adrian onto you, who had done nothing wrong. Once you leave here, I will not acknowledge you anymore….”
I covered his mouth again. I understood. Just be quiet for a moment. Since you know that I am Nicolaus, and since someone regarded as a close associate of Adrian Askanian knows that, I cannot possibly leave things as they are. In about thirty seconds, a Monsignor would enter. I glanced at the clock, then quickly returned my gaze to his eyes.
“You say you will not acknowledge me. Who decided that?”
“…….”
“You said that by insulting my brother, I must now hate you. Now? Where does that confidence that I would only start hating you now come from?”
“…?! No…!”
Mecklenburg’s eyes twisted. I looked into them and smiled. It was ten seconds before the Monsignor would enter.
“I am joking. In fact….”
I folded my fingers to show him how much time remained and continued quickly.
“What would you think if I said that I am starting to like you a bit now, Senior?”
Mecklenburg’s eyes narrowed, then, understanding my meaning, widened as if about to burst. It must have sounded absurd to hear that someone who insulted one’s brother was starting to be likable. After that, we could not bring up the topic again. There was no time left in that space, after all.
And now, I was looking down at him as he sat in the hospital room wearing his outdoor clothes. When I only stared at him silently, Mecklenburg, his complexion normal and free of blood, looked at me awkwardly.
“…If you came in, you could at least say something.”
“Senior.”
“Yes. Stop calling me that and get to the point.”
“How is your condition?”
Mecklenburg suddenly straightened, as if a chill had run through him. When I let out a hollow laugh, he shook his head.
“I am fine. I was not seriously injured, so there was nothing to treat. If anything, you must be tired from constantly using Di… Magic.”
“I have an excess of Magic Power, so I am fine.”
“…….”
Mecklenburg looked at me with an expression that clearly said, what an insufferable bastard. I sat down on the chair in front of him and took an apple out of the fruit basket.
“Would you like one?”
“Does your superior know that you behave so recklessly?”
“You mean His Highness the Crown Prince. Of course he does.”
“…….”
Mecklenburg narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, looking as though something was very wrong. Then he rubbed his face dry.
“…I have been thinking about this since yesterday. Nicolaus in the imperial government… together with the Bavarian Crown Prince….”
“Together in the Imperial Mages’ Association 101st Class, Senior. Both of us learned well from our 98th Class seniors.”
“…….”
“It is thrilling. Incidentally, among all the seniors there, you are the only one who knows.”
Mecklenburg did not remove the hand covering his face and let out a deep breath. Then, as if weighed down by complicated thoughts, he looked at me, then looked away repeatedly. He seemed too lost in thought to speak at all. After a while, he smacked his lips and asked.
“…Since when?”
“Since when for what? From the beginning. What are you asking?”
He had said earlier that he had been thinking about it since yesterday, and if I left him alone, he would just start spouting nonsense again. I shrugged and spoke first.
“I did not come because I had anything particularly long to say.”
“Then why did you come? We will see each other again at headquarters once the leave ends.”
“I needed to greet you. I survived thanks to you.”
“…I am not in a position to receive thanks. I survived thanks to you.”
I responded with a smile and changed the subject.
“Do you remember the conversation we had in the warehouse? You wondered why I was Nicolaus, and why I was living while hiding that identity.”
Mecklenburg stared at me and nodded.
“Yes.”
“I also told you that after hearing about your brother, I actually started to like you. You remember that too, do you not?”
“Of course. How could I forget such a crazy thing?”
“As you may have guessed, I created the identity of Nicolaus because of my older brother.”
“…….”
With just that one sentence, Mecklenburg could infer that something existed between Adrian and me. Superficial relations no longer mattered. He could not know the exact circumstances, of course, but he could reasonably infer that there was something negative between us that was not known to the public. After a moment of silence, Mecklenburg looked straight into my eyes and spoke.
“Even if I had asked, you could have brushed it off with excuses. Why are you telling me this?”
“Because our aims will align well. Even if our motivations differ. Am I wrong?”
Mecklenburg’s eyes hardened. He must have sensed that this was no ordinary matter. There would be no reason for someone with no problems to create and hide behind the identity of Nicolaus, so in a way, that conclusion was natural. To ease his tension, I put on a relaxed smile and said.
“And since you have already learned my identity, there is nothing to be done. You have no choice but to help me now.”
Even though I spoke offhandedly, Mecklenburg looked at me with a serious expression. I could guess the thoughts melting into that look. After a long moment, the words that came were his assent.
“That is true. I know now.”
I smiled at him. After that, I gave him a brief farewell and left the room. The moment I stepped out of Mecklenburg’s hospital room, I saw a white mass standing in front of me. Elias, dressed as though he absolutely had to go play somewhere, spread his arms wide and shouted.
“Luka! Narce is here!”
“Really? Where is he?”
“He went to the Crown Prince’s Palace. You need to pack too, so stop by!”
“Pack? Why?”
I did not really want to go there anymore. More than anything, it was a hassle. When I responded indifferently, Elias, his eyes sparkling, grabbed my ear and spoke solemnly.
“We are going to the hot springs.”
“What?”
“We are going to Yuliane’s place!”
Now? We had been talking about going for a while, so it was about time. I was a bit taken aback, but since we had all been granted leave, it made sense to rest now if we were going to. Smiling, I was about to say that I would go get my things shortly.
DING, !
< Chapter 7. Truly, truly, I say to you…. >
Suggestion 2: Increase Favorability with Elias Hohenzollern +1 (0/1) (23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds)
Route 1 ― < +5 point >
Route 2 ― < Suggestion 3 >
‘Hm.’
So it was giving me a chance. I would check it properly in a bit…. I was about to dismiss the window naturally when I froze upon seeing the name inside. Whose Favorability was I supposed to raise? Even if I closed it and opened it again, it was the same. Elias waved his hand in front of my eyes.
“Luka~?”
I alternated my gaze between the Suggestion window and Elias’s face. It did not take long for my vision to go dark.