A Villain's Will to Survive

Chapter 359: Epilogue (2)

#4. Room in Lokralen

Epherene lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, and in a world where time was frozen—without sound, scent, presence, or motion—it was like a void in space, with Lokralen, filled with time energy, all the more stagnant for it.

Tick, tock— Tick, tock—

Epherene passed the time by counting it in her heart, for if she didn’t count it herself, she couldn’t sense the time that was flowing within her.

Tick, tock— Tick, tock—

Tick, tock— Tick, tock—

This kind of stasis was enough to make a person go mad, as if she were swimming naked through the empty cosmos and galaxies, suffocated even while breathing, her chest tightening at times as though her throat were entirely blocked.

… However.

“Professor,” Epherene called.

When she spoke his name, a sound was made, and the presence of someone who could uniquely move in that space where everything had stopped spread clearly, and in an instant her loneliness and silence disappeared, the stasis pressing down on her scattered, and her choked breath was released, restoring her vitality.

“Why did you call?” he replied.

With a bright smile, Epherene turned to face him.

Beside her bed, in the same room, sat her mentor Deculein, a mage who was composing a spell.

“I was just wondering, Professor, were you staying in the cabin this entire time?”

“… Because it is my mentor’s cabin.”

The Professor, first to wake from his hibernation after the destruction, had hidden himself in the place Rohakan left behind—a magical cabin that could be reached in the desert by morning and in the Northern Region by evening.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense that no one could find you. … But weren’t you curious about how the continent had changed since then?” Epherene replied.

“No, the way people live is all the same anyway.”

Deculein’s response was apathetic, and though Epherene was used to the perpetually cold Professor, this definitive and detached tone was very different from how he used to be.

“… By the way, Professor, do you know how many days have passed?” Epherene said, trying to change the subject.

I wonder how much time has gone by—

“108 hours, 13 minutes, and 35 seconds.”

The moment Epherene asked, Deculein’s answer came back immediately, with an accuracy that surprised her, even though she had been counting the time herself.

“Oh… Umm.”

At that moment, a flash of ominous dissonance came to Epherene’s mind, and as she looked at Deculein—his face still absorbed in the spell—she felt a certain emotion… fear, and also concern.

“Professor.”

When Epherene called to Deculein, he turned to her in silence, his composed expression as though he knew everything already—what she was about to say, what emotion she had just felt, what kind of fear it was, and what her concern was.

“Professor, you are—”

“Epherene, I am connected to the truth,” Deculein interrupted.

Epherene flinched, her shoulders trembling, and she hesitantly raised her head to look into his eyes.

At that moment, Epherene’s concern turned into certainty as his eyes, with a depth difficult to describe, shone with a brilliance that radiated an aura beyond mana and outside the scope of humanity, a ripple that made all her hair stand on end.

“As you are aware, I am already on my way to death, and the wisdom I have gained from it has allowed me to understand everything with ease.”

The more Deculein spoke, the darker Epherene’s face grew with each passing moment, her wide eyes trembling as her tightly pressed lips quivered.

“The power of Comprehension over the world and its principles has already become an Authority, and this Authority will advance on its own.”

A smile appeared at the corners of Deculein’s mouth, as if to comfort Epherene and tell her everything would be all right, with a gentle tone he had never shown before.

“In the end, it will consume even my own self, and seek to comprehend all things on its own terms.”

Deculein reached out his hand, and his gentle fingers brushed Epherene’s eyelashes and then brushed her cheek.

“Epherene, the giant could not be together with the human. Do you know why?” Deculein inquired.

Deculein’s question was gentle and warm enough to stir in her a strange sadness.

“… Yes,” Epherene replied, her voice trembling even on that single syllable as she nodded, suppressing the great wave that felt as if it were rising in her chest, and added, “A sage… can never find happiness.”

Epherene knew that a human who knew everything could not be happy, that wisdom never made a human happy, that the happiest person was the most ignorant, and that the most unfortunate person might be the one who knew everything.

“Indeed.”

Then, Deculein gave a brilliant smile as if it were sunshine, saying she had found the answer.

“… Then,” Epherene pouted and grumbled as if only a little hurt. “All my efforts are for nothing? Professor, you will…”

The love between a human and a giant could not be fulfilled because a giant merely cannot love a human, just as a human cannot love an ant.

Then she thought that perhaps, to Deculein, she was nothing more than a mere ant.

“No.”

All of a sudden, Deculein shook his head, as though he had known of Epherene’s concern beforehand and was reassuring her that she had nothing to worry about.

“I remain here to look at you with pure intentions. You, my protégé, are the one I can see as my complete self,” Deculein added.

“… Complete self,” Epherene muttered.

“Indeed.”

Epherene dawdled before reaching into her robe’s inner pocket and fumbling with the Wood Steel within—the steel she had received as a gift from the Professor once upon a time.

“W-Who is the c-complete… Professor? What does complete even mean? Oh, what am I saying…” Epherene asked, holding a piece of steel and stammering nervously.

Even as she asked the question, Epherene felt a familiar sense of sense of shame for the first time in a while, for though she had already grown into an archmage, in front of Deculein she remained to be the same young and foolish Epherene who had only ever caused trouble in the Mage Tower.

“… Haha,” Deculein murmured, laughing without a word for a moment. “The man you see before you.”

“… Sorry? The Professor I see before me?”

“Indeed, the man you have seen is myself. Only you have seen my complete self.”

Epherene didn’t know what he meant, but she wasn’t offended, for the emotion in Deculein’s voice—its resonance and nuance—carried a meaning that was far too pleasant.

“From the beginning to the end of me,” Deculein continued.

From the very beginning, when Deculein was a man with a stronger shade of Kim Woo-Jin, through the days when he began to assimilate into Deculein, to this very moment when neither Deculein nor Kim Woo-Jin could be separated from one another, his existence had been in constant flux.

“Epherene, you were there with me.”

It was the person named Epherene who stayed with him from his beginning to his end, throughout all his changes.

“Therefore, the man before you is my complete self,” Deculein concluded.

Of course, Epherene couldn’t know the exact depths of Deculein’s heart, but she could only accept what she could vaguely sense.

But what does that matter, when the Professor himself tells me this—that I was with him from the beginning to the end, that I am precious to him, Epherene thought.

“… Professor, do you remember the old days?” Epherene asked, twitching her lips as she held out the Wood Steel in one hand and the wand in the other. “They’re my most precious things.”

In both of Epherene’s hands were the Wood Steel and the wand.

“And this as well.”

The bracelet on Epherene’s wrist was already broken, but it was her father’s memento, which she had forcefully mended.

“What do you think? Come here and look.”

“Hmm…”

“Hup.”

Pretending to show him, Epherene wrapped her two arms around the neck of Deculein, who had come closer to see it, and forcibly pressed his face into her chest.

Whump—

A plush sound was heard, but as expected, the Professor was not taken aback.

“… Do you not hate him?” Deculein inquired with a straight face.

Deculein asked if she did not hate her father—the father who had abandoned her, the father who had used her—and how it was possible that she could not hate him.

“It is not within me to hate him. He is, after all, my father.”

Epherene realized that the past was just what she thought it was, and that all real things were ultimately in the present.

“How can I hate the one who gave birth to me, when he is the father who gave me the world?” Epherene continued, looking at Deculein’s face.

Held tightly in Epherene’s arms, Deculein wore a slightly baffled expression, as though he were either reining in his authority of Comprehension or feeling an emotion that even Comprehension could not comprehend.

“And it is also thanks to my father…”

The sight of Deculein’s rarely seen, baffled expression was too adorable that Epherene smiled with overwhelming happiness…

“That I am able to love the Professor’s complete self,” Epherene concluded.

And confessed with all her innocence.

#5. One Year

The year they had promised had passed by, and while the time energy within Lokralen remained, their own time flowed all too easily, with a cruel speed.

“Even after becoming an archmage, there is still so much to learn,” Epherene said.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do in a place where time was stagnant.

In this place, we can’t grow anything together, and we can’t do anything fun together… or can we? The rest is a secret. Anyway, Epherene thought.

In a world where there were only the two of them, in a stillness where nothing moved, Epherene was happy with just being together with him… and she was passionate about it.

“Is that so?” Deculein replied.

The two were currently seated side by side in the Underground Archives of Lokralen, putting something to paper.

“Yes, I’m finding it difficult to come up with a story. I don’t know how Sylvia managed to write so well.”

Epherene had begun her writing three months earlier, a diary and a novel at the same time, a story that was to some degree autobiographical.

“Would you like to read it, Professor?”

Writing is one of the things I can do with the Professor. With this, we can share our thoughts, and I can show the Professor the stories in my heart. Unlike magic, there is no answer in literature.

“There’s a little left. I’ve almost finished writing it, but…”

However, I cannot write the final ending. It is a conclusion that both Deculein and I—that everyone—knows. The conclusion is, inevitably, a parting of ways, and that inevitable final scene… it is not being written. I do not want to write it.

“Are you neglecting your studies of magic?” Deculein said from his place beside Epherene.

“… You told me not to become like Demakan, and that there must be a limit to one’s achievement and enlightenment,” Epherene replied, narrowing her eyes.

“It matters not, as you will never break through that limit, no matter what you do.”

“What did you just say?”

A year has already passed, but I cannot get used to being treated like a child. Of course, that’s not to say I hate it. When I return to the continent, everyone will find me difficult. Meaning, these moments—this special treatment I want but cannot have, this childishness I want but cannot show—are just precious.

“Hmph,” Epherene murmured, snorting with laughter and holding a pencil. “Has the theory been completed, Professor?”

“Indeed,” Deculein replied without hesitation, and as if he had been waiting, he handed her a book already bound and pressed its corner against Epherene’s shoulder.

… I shouldn’t have asked.

“It was completed last night. You too will be able to comprehend it if you look at it.”

Epherene looked at the cover, where the title read Quantization of Time, a book that to anyone else would have seemed less like a magic theory textbook and more like a novel.

“… Yes, I will take a look,” Epherene replied.

However, if the reader were to open it just one page and read the introduction, and if that reader were an archmage like Epherene, they would realize that Deculein’s intellect had already transcended the world and that he was already becoming a giant, a being no longer human.

“To make the quantized time completely disappear…”

Deculein’s purpose was simple enough to be summarized in one sentence, but the theory required to fulfill that simplicity was unprecedented and daring, twisting the world’s principles and overturning its providence, built on terrifyingly precise calculation and regulation.

“It is simple.”

Although it made her somewhat sad, Epherene smiled with confidence.

“Indeed, Epherene. This is something only your talent can accomplish, only you, who can command time,” Deculein replied.

Deculein’s theory had, in the end, maximized Epherene’s talent, a wonder that quantized and then exploded the Kaidezite’s time energy, filling Lokralen with a grand-scale time spell that, from a human perspective, was yet another miracle.

“Yes, I will be able to do it,” Epherene said, without having completely read or looked at his theory. “It will take some time for me to understand it, but the Professor’s theory has always been perfect.”

At that moment, the corner of Deculein’s mouth twisted.

My confidence must be what appealed to him.

“Then…” Epherene said, cautiously leaning her head against Deculein’s shoulder—a gesture he did not refuse. “… Maybe 3 months?”

Will I be able to understand in about three months?

Then, Epherene wrapped her two arms around his waist and hugged him.

“Umm…”

But I am conflicted. It would be selfish of me to draw out time for my own benefit, for in doing so Deculein could be consumed by my own authority…

“No, maybe 1 month should be—”

“Let’s do 3 months,” Deculein interrupted.

Epherene was about to correct him to a single month when Deculein declared it as three months, and she looked up at him in surprise.

“… Are you okay? For 3 months?”

“I can withstand it, without a doubt—because you are here with me,” Deculein concluded, smiling at Epherene’s foolish question.

At that moment, Epherene charged toward Deculein’s lips like a combative and aggressive rhinoceros, as if she were headbutting him.

Kiss.

#6. Three Months

Over the course of three months, Epherene had studied Deculein’s magic and had definitively accepted and completely understood it. This was because Deculein’s theory had been designed as a custom fit for Epherene, meaning that from the logic that explained it to the way the spell was formed, everything was familiar to her.

“… You know,” Epheren said.

Now she was able to do it, and with her own skill—her blooming, overflowing qualities as an archmage—Epherene could manifest his miracle and reduce the hundreds of years of Kaidezite down to just a year and three months.

However…

“If we part like this…”

On the rooftop of Lokralen, a place overflowing with time energy, Epherene stood with Deculein, looking up at him with a slightly sorrowful face, unable to hide her sense of regret.

“Will we ever meet again?”

Not a single second of time had passed, yet every moment of stopped time was precious, every instant was already missed, and Epherene did not want to let go of Deculein, who was standing before her eyes.

“I don’t think I can give up on you, Professor…”

The year and three months of unchanging time felt as though it was lodged in Epherene’s heart, held on her chest, and contained in her eyes, as if she would never be able to forget it.

“But… are you alright with dying like this?” Epherene concluded.

Deculein looked at Epherene without a word.

Deculein stared at the face of the now-adult Epherene, and just as she, needlessly embarrassed, pouted her lips and lowered her face…

“I want to die as a human,” Deculein replied. “As a person like you, and as myself, and myself alone.”

Deculein wished to fall into a peaceful sleep without being swallowed up by his Comprehension or being swayed by his Authority, remaining as he was, both Deculein and Kim Woo-Jin.

Knowing his heart, Epherene sobbed without a word and took a step forward, toward Deculein.

“… Professor.”

Epherene looked up at Deculein from a distance where her nose was nearly pressed against his chest.

“Professor, they say that time is a friend to humanity, as it allows us to forget all our sorrows,” Epherene continued.

As an archmage who had once handled time and remained to command it, Epherene did not feel hatred toward time.

“But… even when many years have passed and my hair is white, and my life is near its end…”

Epherene brought her hands together on her chest, and suddenly the words Deculein had spoken a year ago came back to her—that she was the one who was with him from his beginning to his end.

“Will I be able to forget you, Professor?”

The same words were true for Epherene, for he was the one who had been with her since the very beginning, when she was most ignorant, and he was the mentor who had taught her magic, instilled in her a proper mindset, showed her life and emotions, and revealed to her who Epherene really was—a person she herself had not even known.

“Just looking at you is overwhelming. You who taught me to find myself…”

Even in his final moments, he had come to Lokralen for Epherene and was spending time with her, consuming the small amount of time he had left for himself, as his complete self—Deculein.

“… How could I ever forget you?”

Therefore, he was a genuine savior and the person that Epherene loved above all others.

“Will I ever be able to forget you, Professor?”

Will I forget him as time goes by? Could something as simple as time erase him from my memory?

Even as Epherene asked, Deculein remained silent, merely placing a hand on the top of her head.

“You have grown considerably,” Deculein said.

Did he measure my height?

At Deculein’s words, Epherene found herself nodding without realizing it.

Well, I suppose I’ve grown a lot since then, much taller than in the old days when I was just a young and foolish child.

“Your thoughts have grown quite mature, though I can still see a few foolish parts in you.”

Epherene found herself smiling without realizing it, for he was the only person who could ever call her foolish.

“Time has changed you, making you into such an adult.”

“… Oh.”

The words that she had matured might have been thrown out indifferently by Deculein, but to Epherene they were received differently, because the one saying them was Deculein, the Professor who had seen her since she was not yet an adult and only mistakenly believed herself to be one.

“You’ve become a mage with a sense of responsibility,” Deculein said, placing his hand on her head and patting her, as if proud of her.

Or perhaps as if he found her loveable…

Maybe ‘loveable’ is a bit too much. … But, anyway, Epherene thought.

“You are my protégé. That truth is unchangeable, no matter the passage of time,” Deculein continued, smiling at Epherene as he called her his protégé.

In that moment, something welled from the depths of my heart—a feeling of satisfaction, though it would be a lie to say there was no regret. I am, after all, only his protégé.

“… Yes,” Epherene replied, smiling.

Sniffle—

However, Epherene found herself sniffing, and for some reason her mouth tasted salty as unnoticed tears had seeped in, and all of a sudden they began to fall when she least expected them.

“I guess…”

It was unclear whether she was laughing through her tears or crying through her laughter, but Epherene nodded, hardened her resolve, and pounded her chest once.

“This is enough to say that I have been loved by you, Professor,” Epherene continued.

The love here may not be that of lovers, or between a man and a woman, but isn’t the affection… we feel for each other the same?

“… Indeed,” Deculein replied, nodding in agreement.

Even if it is not an agreement, I will take it as an agreement.

“Okay, then… I believe I am ready now.”

On the roof of Lokralen, a magic circle had been manifested, the spell Deculein had designed and Epherene had constructed with her own mana.

“Should we start now?” Epherene asked.

Epherene gathered mana into her body to manifest once more that unbelievable miracle, the Quantization of Time.

“Indeed,” Deculein replied with a smile as he extended his hand for her to take.

Epherene gladly took that hand of Deculein’s and interlocked her fingers with his.

“… You have done well.”

Deculein’s words made something sting inside her, and Epherene couldn’t contain herself.

“I…Uhgh!”

Epherene hurried into Deculein’s arms, wrapping herself tightly around his waist, and looked up at him, tears streaming down her face from within his broad arms.

“Really…”

While weeping buckets, Epherene prepared the mana to perform the miracle…

“… You too, Professor,” Epherene concluded.

Pressed her face into Deculein’s chest, and buried the man who was Deculein—a man she was certain she would love forever—into her heart.

#7. Imperial Palace of the Empire

Within the Empress’s inner chamber at the Imperial Palace, Sophien admired a painting by some unknown mage and a sculpture by Yulie, both breathtakingly beautiful to the point that it was impossible to say which was better.

Nevertheless, Sophien continued to stroke her chin and devote herself to an evaluation in order to determine the superiority of the two works…

Whoooosh—

At that moment, the rustling message paper was shortly followed by the echo of mana approaching from afar, and Sophien understood the details of the incident before even reading the report on the message paper.

“It seems that Lokralen has fallen.”

It must be that Lokralen, that renowned temporal nexus of time to which so much attention was paid, has fallen. It is for the best, as leaving Lokralen as it was would have been nothing less than sowing the seeds for another destruction, Sophien thought.

“… If that is the case,” Sophien continued with a smile, “then the time has come.”

The Empress knew of what had taken place in Lokralen.

Of course, Sophien had no idea what kind of emotion had been exchanged between Epherene and Deculein or what specific events had taken place, which made her terribly jealous…

“Ahan,” Sophien called her.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Ahan replied, bowing her body as she poured tea by Sophien’s side.

“Summon Ria to me.”

Ahan was momentarily startled by her words, but she soon followed the Empress’s orders with calm composure.

“Yes, Your Majesty. What would you like me to tell her when I summon her—”

“Tell her this,” Sophien interrupted.

While sipping the black tea from her teacup and elegantly chewing the snacks placed beside it, Sophien offered a teasing and mischievous smile.

“That I believe I know where Deculein is, and that it is time for us to go and meet him…”