“Apparently, big brother’s memories have returned to when he was young.”

Because of Magrina’s shocking words—perhaps a move Rine, who couldn’t make it here, had thrown in desperation—

the murmuring atmosphere that had filled the place just moments ago sank in an instant.

“......What does that mean?”

Radan asked, forcing a serious expression.

Magrina let out a sigh and spoke.

“It’s exactly what I said. Big brother’s memories are gone. To be more precise...... his memories went back about thirteen years.”

A declaration that stamped it in place like a seal.

And once again, the group was swallowed by silence—only for a moment.

The one who broke that heavy silence was—

“Don’t tell me... someone attacked Teacher?”

Seollang, who—like Radan—hadn’t been able to hide the shock on their face—

now wore a blank expression that felt like it couldn’t feel anything at all.

“Huh?”

“Big brother—”

“Was attacked?”

Maybe Seollang’s words were the fuse.

At that single sentence—

from the ones who’d been maintaining silence, an eerie momentum—

no,

mana began to spill out.

Kwadjijik—!

Just from scattering their mana, the surrounding terrain started changing shape in an instant.

“Who was it? Who messed with the boss—”

“......We should kill them.”

“.......”

With a jjeojeok sound, the nearby trees began to collapse, throwing up a massive roar.

So massive that—

─────KUNG—!

“......?”

Even Alon, who had no idea what was going on,

could hear it by his ear—

far away, but still loud enough.

“Mm—did monsters start fighting each other or something?”

“This is......?”

“Sometimes when big monsters fight, you do hear sounds like that. But around here, there shouldn’t be any big monsters, should there?”

As Penia explained while they worked through documents together, Alon tilted his head—

and then—

“Wait. Everyone, calm down.”

“Does this look like a situation where we can calm down?”

“......I think it’d be better to hear everything first before you get angry.”

Magrina cooled the overheated air.

If she left them alone, it looked like they’d smash everything around here right now—

and go hunting for anyone who might have attacked Alon.

In a calm voice, Magrina started explaining why the current situation had happened.

For about ten minutes.

“......I see. So big brother temporarily regressed thirteen years for the sake of magical achievement. But because of an accident, that state is lasting longer than it should.”

“That’s right.”

“Mm—then Teacher wasn’t attacked by anyone?”

“No.”

“Whew, and here I thought—”

Ryang-a let out a sigh, then continued.

“So? Is there a reason you’re telling us?”

“Of course.”

“What is it?”

“Right now, big brother hasn’t really let it be known outside that he’s lost his memories.”

“......If it got out that he lost his memories at this point in time, it doesn’t seem like it would be good in any sense.”

At Deus’s words, Magrina nodded.

“That’s why I’m telling all of you first. Even if the marquis acts a little strangely, to some extent—”

“You mean we should pretend we don’t know.”

“Correct.”

At her confirmation, everyone gathered there nodded in unison.

“If it’s that kind of matter, it would look suspicious if we reacted strangely.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Me too.”

“Mm-mm—okay. I’ll do that too.”

The atmosphere relaxed in an instant.

It was hard to believe these were the same people who, just moments ago, had been leaking mana like they could casually tear someone apart.

“Then there’s nothing else you need to tell us?”

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Me too!”

“Me as well.”

“I have to go too. I still have things to prepare.”

Before long, everyone waved lightly and left.

Last of all, Historia disappeared after flapping a hand with an yep— sort of feel.

Watching that, Magrina let out a small sigh.

Because, ‘on the surface,’ everything she needed to do was finished now.

“.......”

Magrina recalled what she’d just seen again.

They’d waved their hands, relieved that it wasn’t a big deal—

but at the same time, they’d also vanished while thinking hard about something.

Every single one of them had been shining with the same look.

A look that said they thought they could do something at this timing.

Magrina let out a reflexive ahem— cough.

......In truth, the moment she’d heard today’s news from Rine, she’d also made her own ‘preparations’ in her own way.

“......I hope tomorrow comes quickly.”

Magrina muttered that, turned her body, and disappeared into the forest.

Soon, no one was left in the forest.

####

Late at dawn.

Alon, still not asleep, sat alone in an office with not even Penia there, lost in thought.

It was about magic.

‘What am I supposed to do?’

Aside from the one week he’d spent adapting to a world that had suddenly changed,

Alon had spent the remaining three weeks thinking about magic.

More precisely—

about how to remove the weaknesses of the ‘phrases’ and ‘hand seals’ he used.

The reason Alon had ended up like this, after taking the Regression Drug through Penia, was—

to find a way to eliminate the weaknesses of ‘phrases’ and ‘hand seals.’

But unfortunately,

over the past three weeks, he hadn’t gotten any kind of clue.

In a way, that might’ve been natural.

The Regression Drug.

Its basic operating mechanism was to temporarily erase your memories, return you to childhood, and based on the imagination you had then, find paths you can’t see from the present.

Because a child’s imagination is richer than an adult’s.

And Penia had said there were even mage tower lords who’d benefited from this Regression Drug, so at the very least, the drug should have been helpful.

But even if it helped mages—if it even helped mage tower lords reach the eighth tier—

it didn’t work that way for Alon.

Now, think about it.

Basically, what mage tower lords aim for with the Regression Drug is imagination from childhood.

But unfortunately—

Alon had never once had ‘a child’s’ imagination in this world.

Because he was someone who’d entered from the game.

In other words—

he never had any imagination to “get back” with the Regression Drug in the first place.

Instead, the only thing that existed was a memory so worn-out it was practically rotten.

He couldn’t obtain the ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ imagination you’d expect from the drug.

“.......”

Because of that, he even thought,

‘Did my future self do something meaningless because he was stupid?’

But not long after, he dropped that thought.

No matter how urgent it was, there was no way his future self wouldn’t know this fact.

So Alon judged that his future self had drunk the Regression Drug even while knowing this.

‘And the reason... is probably to erase my knowledge about the game.’

For that—

Alon recalled his memories.

The memories about magic he’d seen in the game, which had been vivid until he properly came to his senses, were now faint beyond belief.

Like he’d read Psychedelia in a book.

Meaning: before drinking the Regression Drug, he—

seemed to have deliberately thrown away the knowledge about magic he’d had from the game.

As if he was expecting something.

“.......”

It was around the point when about three weeks had passed that Alon realized that fact.

And based on that, he tried to develop his line of thought.

......And up until now, he hadn’t achieved any particular results.

‘......Why did I throw away my knowledge of the game?’

Alon asked himself that question again—one he’d already asked more than ten times.

Of course, no answer came back.

“Hoo—”

The one thing Alon had managed to infer in the meantime was this:

Future Alon thought that in order to improve the shortcomings he currently had, ‘knowledge held from the game’ was unnecessary—

no, that it was actually poison.

Feeling his eyelids drooping before he knew it, Alon stood up and looked at the night sky.

Unlike the sky he’d been looking at a month ago,

it was a sky where you couldn’t find a single star—

only the moon hung there.

Staring at it blankly, Alon eventually started walking to his bedroom to get some sleep.

Even as he returned to his room, Alon’s thoughts refused to stop.

####

The next day.

Even though he hadn’t been able to sleep because of magic until dawn yesterday, Alon woke up fairly early.

Rubbing at his tired eyes, he thought.

‘They said today is my birthday.’

Once he thought of it, Alon’s heart grew heavy on its own.

Because he had to deceive everyone who came to see him today.

‘......I did hear the information roughly, but—’

Alon had heard all the explanations from Penia about who would come today, and who might come.

But of course—

just hearing explanations wasn’t going to make him suddenly able to lie naturally when he usually couldn’t do it properly.

‘It’s kind of a burden.’

Feeling that unnecessary weight, Alon pulled back the curtains that always hung down like usual—

and there, as always, were the peaceful village scenery and the statue that held the “pose of the northern governor”—

“......?”

A statue...

was there.

Yeah. It was there.

Like always.

In that spot.

Exactly.

And yet the reason Alon was staring at it blankly was—

“......Did it get bigger?”

Because the statue...

had gotten bigger.

“.......”

A thought flashed through Alon’s mind: Did I see it wrong?

He closed his eyes a couple times and opened them, then looked closely at the statue.

The pose was definitely the same.

“.......”

Alon turned his gaze to the side and looked at the auction house.

Because he knew that from where he was, the statue was about one and a half times the auction house’s height.

After a short while—

“......Two times?”

No matter how many times he measured the statue’s size based on the auction house’s height,

Alon had no choice but to reach an unbelievable conclusion.

The statue had really gotten bigger.

An hour after that.

“Greetings, my lord marquis.”

“......Yeah, Deus.”

Alon looked at Deus and—behind a blank face that didn’t show it—admired him.

‘He’s handsome.’

Unlike how he appeared in the game, where he’d had a grotesque face, Deus Makalia was incredibly handsome.

So handsome that if he walked around like that, it was obvious everyone—young and old, men and women—would turn to look and admire him wherever he went.

So Alon stared at Deus in surprise for only a moment.

“Then how is the gift?”

“Gift?”

“Yes. The statue.”

“Ah—”

At those words, Alon realized.

The reason the statue had gotten bigger overnight was because of Deus.

Before he could even be shocked and wonder how he’d replaced that gigantic statue in a single day without making any noise—

“Yes, since you like it so much, my lord marquis, I prepared it bigger this time...!”

Hearing that his future self supposedly liked that ridiculous statue of the northern governor—

Alon was even more shocked.

But he couldn’t show it.

“......Thank you.”

Even as the question ‘That... I... like that?’ swirled in his mind, he answered as calmly as he could.

“Then perhaps next time, shall I prepare two more?”

“......Two more, over there?”

“Yes, because you like it so much, my lord marquis!”

At Deus’s enthusiastic fussing, Alon felt nothing but confusion, and yet—

“Yeah, well...... that would be fine. I like it too.”

—in the end, he answered like that.

And—

“Right, of course you like statues, my lord marquis...! I’ll prepare them!”

Watching Deus leave with a face that looked absurdly proud,

Alon began to feel a vague fear about what kind of person his future self had become—

and right around then—

“Teacher! This!”

“......This is?”

“It’s a present...!”

This time, Seollang brought a gift.

“The present Teacher wanted!”

......A marriage registration form.

‘What is this supposed to be...?!’

Alon’s mind went hazy.