Chapter 472

When Belkerp activated the Magic Circle, the pattern drawn across the entire floor began to glow with a brilliant blue light.

 At the same moment, Tatsuro and the others could feel World Force being gathered to this place all at once.

 Before long, consuming a vast amount of that World Force, something resembling a platinum-colored fireball was born directly above the capsule where the remains lay.

 It started the size of a thumb and gradually swelled larger and larger, until at last it began to take the shape of a woman with a rounded belly.

 Then, golden letters erupted from the remains and were drawn into the platinum-colored humanoid flame.

 "It's beautiful."

 "It really is. I think that platinum-colored thing is the soul, and what looks like the golden letters must be the memories."

 "Witnessing this with my own eyes makes it feel all the more extraordinary - to have constructed this theory from scratch, without any reference, is no ordinary feat."

 "And yet, I am surprised the Life God permitted something like this at all. This surely falls within the divine domain of that deity. What is the situation there, Leela?"

 "I asked the Ice God about that just a short while ago. Apparently, if an ordinary human had attempted this, they would without question have been deemed an enemy of the gods. However, he - Setepuenberkelp, the Clear Elf - has made immeasurable contributions to the gods. Taking that into consideration, they have decided to turn a blind eye this time."

 "So he was someone trusted by the gods to that extraordinary degree."

 Before long, the torrent of golden letters weakened and then ceased entirely, and the existence that had been a platinum-colored humanoid flame clearly transformed into the unmistakable form of the woman known as Lucy Tarant.

 "Lucy..."

 Belkerp shed tears of deep emotion at the sight of her faint, translucent figure, and before long it overlapped with the remains, as though being absorbed into them.

 Her remains flashed with a brilliant radiance, and then it ceased as swiftly as it had come, and the glow of the Magic Circle that had been illuminating the surroundings faded away.

 "What happened?"

 "From what I can see as well, it appears to have succeeded, but..."

 Staring intently at Lucy, who lay perfectly still with her eyes shut, Belkerp noticed her eyelid give the faintest twitch, and he immediately opened the lid of the capsule.

 "Lucy! It's me! Open your eyes! Please!!"

 He gripped her hand as though imploring her, and as he felt warmth beginning to return to it, the tears came one after another, without end.

 "Mm... Bel?"

 "Yes, that's right! I've aged quite a great deal, but I am Belkerp."

 "...Oh, goodness... You've gone and become a proper old man, haven't you."

 It was something of a bewildered reply, yet she had seen through him all the same - recognized him as Belkerp, despite how greatly the elderly elf had changed with the years.

 "You can tell? I've changed quite considerably..."

 "Of course I can tell. You're the most important person in the world to me. A change in how you look isn't enough to fool me."

 She was still lying flat, unable to sit up well on her own, and her speech came slowly and with great care, yet the voice he was hearing after tens of thousands of years was exactly as he remembered it.

 "But something doesn't make sense. Shouldn't I have been the one to grow old first..."

 "Never mind that now... Truly... truly, I am glad... Now that I've been able to see you again, I need nothing else."

 He had adjusted her memories so they would begin just before the time of her torture, so the agonizing recollections had not been imprinted upon her. That was likely why she had no awareness that she had ever been dead.

But none of that mattered - or so his every action seemed to say - as Belkerp held Lucy gently in his arms. She, not fully understanding what was happening, accepted the embrace of the one she loved.

 "It seems to have been a success. And yet, to think a person could truly be brought back to life... As expected of magic from another world."

 "At this point, you might call it less a matter of magic, and more a miracle."

He gently lifted her upper body into his arms, and Belkerp's already deeply creased face broke into a smile he had not worn in tens of thousands of years, etching new lines deeper still. And so they watched over the long-awaited reunion between the two of them without interruption for some ten-odd minutes.

Just how long were they expected to keep watching this display of affection? - even Tatsuro and Ai, who were usually on the giving end of such scenes, had begun to wonder. It was then that Leah, who had also been watching with the same lukewarm gaze, suddenly tilted her head.

"What is it, Leah?"

"No, it's just... something..."

Observing Lucy's condition through All-Seeing Eye, Leah suddenly felt a sense of wrongness. Yet she could not quite grasp what it was - like reaching for something shrouded in smoke.

 "Wait, so fifty thousand years have already passed outside!? You can't be serious!"

 "It's true. That's precisely why I ended up looking like this."

"When you put it that way... that does seem like the only explanation that fits."

Belkerp had told her the lie that she had been sleeping for fifty thousand years due to illness. Seeing that she had finally accepted this with a look of understanding, Belkerp let out a breath of relief - and then, all at once, he noticed that the feel of her hand, which he had been holding, was wrong.

"What's the matter, Bel? You're making such a frightening face."

The moment he glanced down at the hand he had been holding, Belkerp's face went rigid.

"Why... why... My theory was supposed to be perfect..."

Troubled by his murmuring, Lucy moved her gaze to where his eyes were directed - her own right hand.

And then -

"Kyaah!?"

The flesh and bone of her right hand had dissolved, like mud.

The moment Lucy herself noticed and flung her right arm with all her strength, it came away at the shoulder with a wet thud and melted away into a sludge of flesh.

"No - what - what's happening, Bel! Help me -"

"No... nooo... noooooooooooooo!"

With a wet, crushing sound, her lower body dissolved into a sludge of flesh.

Desperate not to lose her again, Belkerp stretched out his hands, trying to catch what remained of her upper body. But that too crumbled away without form, and Belkerp was forced to watch, helplessly and unblinkingly, as the face of the woman he loved, contorted with terror, melted away - and so he came to endure the loss of the one he loved for a second time.

What remained there now was no longer Lucy Tarant... only a sludge of flesh and bone.

 "Why, why, why, why, why... A, ah... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Belkerp collapsed to his knees with a cry of anguish.

"Leah! That Magic Circle... I mean, I don't really know enough to say, but it was correct, wasn't it!?"

"I - It should have been, Sister. From what I could see as well, so long as the Magic Circle activated in accordance with the proper Magic Formula, theoretically, the revival should have been achievable... Yes. The Magic Circle was perfect...... Then, don't tell me…"

"Leah! Where are you going!?"

As soon as Leah hit upon something, she dashed into the room housing the Computational Devices. Tatsuro and the others remained behind to keep watch over Belkerp and ensure he did not lose control, while only Nana followed after her, serving as her escort.

When Nana entered the room with the Computational Devices, Leah was scanning every inch of them with eyes like saucers. Then her face crumpled, and she murmured to no one in particular.

"Just as I thought... I wonder if this too is what they call karma... Let's go back, Nana."

"Wait a moment. What on earth is going on!?"

Grumbling at Leah for turning right back around after she had gone to the trouble of following her, Nana nonetheless hurried after her once more, returning to the room where the original Magic Circle was inscribed.

When they arrived, Belkerp was on all fours, crawling around over the drawn Magic Circle, muttering to himself over and over about what could have gone wrong. It was a sight so pitiable that it was difficult to believe this was the same man who had once been called the father of the Clear Elves.

Leah's expression fell into one of quiet resignation as she began walking slowly toward him, stopping in front of Belkerp. Nana pressed close to her side, staying alert and ready to respond to anything Belkerp might do.

"Belkerp-san, crawling around like that won't lead you to the cause."

"...... What... do you... mean...?"

 Belkerp looked up at Leah with vacant eyes and his mouth half open, his expression dull and lost.

Leah took a deep breath to steady herself, then resolved to make the cause of this failure unmistakably clear.

"Belkerp-san. As I now believe - you should never have involved yourself with something like that."

"Something like that...? W - what do you mean!? What - what was wrong with what I did!?"

He crawled toward Leah's feet with his eyes wide enough to fall from his face. Though she shrank back ever so slightly at the force of it, Leah held her ground and pressed on.

"The cause lies with those Cores made from brains. They are certainly remarkable as tools, but every one of them retains the consciousness it held in life. And if all of the Cores placed there desired the failure of your magic..."

"W - Wait. The Cores are designed to come entirely under my control when in use! Individual thoughts of that kind should not be worth taking into account!"

"Indeed, if we were speaking of a few hundred, whatever each one might think would amount to nothing. But in this case, thousands upon thousands of Cores harbored nothing but hatred for you, and they all united as one, pouring their calculations into wishing for your failure. As a result, the intricate Magic Circle that could not afford even the slightest error was warped. Belkerp-san, a person of your ability could surely have built a Computational Device from inorganic matter, as I was able to do. Can you say with absolute certainty that it was not your hatred of humanity that led you to actively take in brain Cores?"

"There was no time... I had no choice..."

"I disagree. Rather than creating Cores from human brains, my Magic Brain has no individual variation, operates with greater stability, and is easier to produce in quantity. Had you once understood the method, there is every possibility you could have realized your goal far more quickly."

"I cannot act on speculation without any certainty! If there had been a clear way to do so, then even I would have..."

"Would you have? Can you truly say so, with your whole heart, and swear it before Lucy-san?"

"That is…"

Belkerp fell silent.

Even if he had known a method like the Magic Brain, his past self-had been consumed by vengeance. Using the people of the nation that had killed her to bring her back to life - was that not the perfectly fitting revenge? With thoughts like that, it was far more likely that he would have ended up using human brains regardless.

And realistically speaking, he had not known the method to begin with, and his reason had been so clouded by rage that even if existing technology had been available, it would have been difficult for him to think to build a Computational Device in the way Leah had. What Leah was saying was, in the end, no more than an ideal that might have been possible - nothing more.

And yet, even so, if at some point along the way he had been able to conceive of a Computational Device built from inorganic matter - one that harmed no one, that drew no one's hatred - the fact remained that she would have been revived without incident.

"I see... I was wrong from the very beginning, wasn't I..."

No matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, he could say with certainty that there was no flaw in the Magic Circle itself. And if that was the case, then what Leah had said settled neatly, perfectly, into place within his chest. He drew in a long breath, and let it out slowly, slowly. Then he fixed his gaze once more upon the result of what he had wrought.

"Lucy... I'm truly sorry for letting you die a second time..."

He said only those words to what had once been her - now nothing but a sludge of flesh - with sorrowful eyes from which the tears had already stopped, and then he slowly rose to his feet.

Tatsuro and the others, with worried looks on their faces, hurried over to Belkerp's side. Putting on a brave face for them all, Belkerp turned back with a faint smile.

What stood there was nothing more than a hollow old elf who had lost every last trace of will.

"I'm sorry for dragging all of you into something like this."

"No... that's all right. Are you all right - no."

Tatsuro had almost instinctively asked if he was all right, but immediately thought better of it, knowing there was no possible way he could be, and closed his mouth.

Whether Belkerp sensed Tatsuro's consideration, he turned to face Leah next, wearing an expression of one who had understood everything and been freed of all things.

"Would you tell me your full name?"

"Leah Schleiermacher."

"I see. Then, Leah Schleiermacher - I entrust everything of mine to you."

The moment he said this, he produced an enormous pile of bundled papers from his Item Box and brought them into existence on the floor in a great heap.

They were, without question, the complete Research Materials he had devoted his entire life to compiling.

Those materials, without a doubt, were filled with a depth of wisdom that even the current Leah could not begin to imagine.

"I - Is that all right? Surely they are precious to you?"

"It's fine. I no longer have any need for them. Everything that was truly important to me is already gone. And besides - having seen me in this state, someone like you would not make ill use of everything I have researched. And I believe that you, unlike me, will not be swallowed up by a hideous thirst for revenge, but will forge the right path forward."

"Yes. I promise I will never make ill use of Belkerp-san's knowledge."

"Thank you... please do. Also, Tatsuro-kun - this isn't really an apology, but here is something for all of you."

What he brought out were all manner of rare Materials, ranging from Dragon Meat to mysterious substances of a kind none of them had ever seen.

"These too, I no longer have need of. Use them however you wish."

"If that's what you say, then we'll gratefully make use of them. We swear not to make ill use of these either. Well then... let's move for now. We don't have to do anything right this moment, we should still be fine for a bit, right, Leela-san?"

"Y - Yes. Leaving it for hours would be a problem, but I think it's all right to leave it alone for a little while."

There was no question that leaving it for too long would be inadvisable, but facing powerful enemies while leaving Belkerp in his current state was hardly feasible either. And beyond that, leaving him here - in this place where the flesh-sludge that had been Lucy remained - was not good for his state of mind.

"Well then... let's go for now, shall we, Belkerp-san."

Ai addressed Belkerp with concern in her voice and beckoned to him. He gave a small nod and began to move away from where the stacked papers and Materials lay.

"Yes... I'll be right there... Lucy."

"Huh? I'm not Lucy-san -"

Ai thought he had been speaking to her, and was just turning around to check if he was really all right, when a bursting sound rang out from where Belkerp had been standing.

 "What?"

When Ai turned around, scattered across the floor was what had once been Belkerp - dead, with his head and abdomen blown apart.

"How could he... how could he do this!?"

Leah rushed over immediately, checking his body to see if anything could be done, but he was completely and instantly dead. With both of the vital organs - brain and heart - destroyed in an instant, no magic of any kind could do anything now. The only recourse would be to activate the Revival Magic Circle here once more.

"...It appears this person had concealed a Magical Tool inside his body. That must be how he was able to activate the Transfer Magic without any of us noticing at that time either... And it seems he detonated it deliberately to take his own life. If only I had realized it sooner, I might have been able to stop him..."

"...There's nothing to be done about it now. You had so many other things to think about as well, Leah."

As Leah hung her head, overcome with helplessness, and Nana offered words of comfort, Leela suddenly felt as though something had moved at the edge of her vision.

"...What?"

"What's wrong, Leela?"

"Over there... I thought I saw something move inside the capsule where Lucy-san's remains were... Could it be -"

Leela hurried over to the capsule and began digging through it, parting the flesh-sludge. And there, immature and on the verge of death though it was, was a living elven infant - with a proper physical form, not dissolving like mud, truly present.

"Tatsuro-kun! Nana-chan! Life Magic, please!!"

 "Got it!"

"Yes, of course!"

Tatsuro and the others, who had been frozen in shock, immediately sprang into action. They carried the infant out of the capsule and laid it on soft cloth, then applied Life Magic to the newborn who looked ready to stop breathing at any moment, coaxing its life force back.

 "I will not let it die!"

Leah upended the capsule and emptied everything out of it, then, while inscribing a Magic Circle, began constructing a Magical Tool capable of managing the breathing and circulatory function of the infant in its premature state. Receiving generous Life Magic at high output, and laid within the Magical Tool Leah had improvised by remodeling the capsule, the tiny belly could be seen rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm.

When she examined it with Dispel Magic, the condition had recovered to what could be called a stable state. This child would not be in any immediate danger of dying now.

"That movement might have been caused by the shock of Belkerp-san's explosion. If that hadn't happened - if we had been even a few more seconds slower to notice - this child might have died without anyone ever knowing it was there."

"But if we had noticed sooner, he might not have chosen to take his own life."

There was no way of knowing at what point, and what choice, would have led to the best outcome - and thinking about it now was pointless, yet the mind could not help but go there. Even so, whatever else might be said, the promise he had made with Belkerp would go unfulfilled - but even so, Tatsuro resolved in that moment that he would, at the very least, protect the life that had been left behind here.