["When’s the wedding?"]

Heinkel’s words startled Alon, but only for a moment.

He felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

For some reason, it felt like something like this had happened before...

Sensing that familiar wrongness, he naturally turned his gaze toward Penia.

And what he saw was—

"......"

Penia subtly turning her eyes the other way.

"...Wow. So now it’s like this too...?"

"N-no, it’s not!"

Evan, who had been quietly observing the situation until now, let out a sound of admiration.

At that, Penia frantically denied it, then immediately continued.

"I never spread any rumor like that in the first place!? Why would I casually go around spreading something that’d get exposed in a few weeks anyway!?"

Penia defended herself with desperate intensity.

[Hm? It wasn’t? The rumor had spread everywhere, so I thought maybe this time it was actually happening.]

"It’s not!"

"For something that isn’t, your eyes sure were sliding off to the side."

But Heinkel and Evan were not so easily convinced.

With a flustered expression rare for her, Penia hurriedly added,

"No, it’s just—that, you know? It’s not like I meant for it to come out that way. It’s just that because of the situation, I was working hard and it kind of ended up like that, and it was never supposed to mean that in the first place, I was just telling people something else, and—"

Penia flailed her hands aimlessly as she rambled.

But only for a moment.

"...So you said we’re in a special relationship?"

"Yes."

As if expecting to be scolded, Penia lowered her head and answered in a voice that almost sank into itself.

Alon nodded once.

Honestly, he did wonder whether just mentioning a special relationship could really make rumors spread this far.

But—

'Considering last time...'

Thinking back to the mysterious rumors that had circulated in the Mage Tower before, somehow it seemed entirely possible.

'But... did she really need to describe it as a special relationship?'

Alon found it odd.

Objectively speaking, even if she had not gone out of her way to define her relationship with him as special, it was obvious the work would still have gone smoothly.

However.

"I understand."

Alon comforted Penia by taking hold of her drooping shoulders.

"...Pardon?"

Penia looked up at Alon.

Her slightly surprised gaze was puzzling, but Alon continued anyway.

"I’ve known you a long time too. I had a general sense of it already."

Penia’s face brightened in a strange way.

"Y-you had a sense of it?"

"Yes, a sense of it."

"Th-that... what exactly...?"

"What you were thinking."

"M-my thoughts?"

"Yes."

"No, I mean—how do you know my thoughts that well— no, that’s not it, it’s just a little sudden to hear something like this—" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Penia kept lifting and lowering the corners of her mouth as she rambled incoherently.

But then—

"You do have a tendency to like showing off a little."

Click.

At Alon’s next words, Penia’s eyes, which had been darting around busily just moments ago, stopped dead.

"...What?"

Penia asked back in a blank voice, but—

Alon nodded as if he understood everything.

"Of course, I’m not criticizing your personality. It’s good to take care of your own self-esteem, fundamentally speaking."

"Ah...."

"Anyway—I have no intention of blaming you for this, so rest easy."

Focus returned to Penia’s wandering eyes.

After confirming that, Alon patted her on the shoulder.

"Ah... yes... Whew..."

For some reason, the sigh sounded halfway between resignation and relief.

"Ooh—"

But the moment Evan tried to cut in, Penia immediately whipped her head around and glared daggers at him.

Seeing that, Alon realized she had gone back to her usual self and looked satisfied.

"...Hm? What is it?"

Then he felt Heinkel’s gaze on him and turned to look at her—

[Hm... what should I even call this....]

"Yes?"

[No, well—it’s nothing.]

"??"

Heinkel stared at Alon with a somewhat complicated expression, then soon shrugged.

The brief commotion died down before they knew it.

[Now then, the preparations are all finished, so I’ll show you.]

Speaking confidently, Heinkel headed toward the center of the library.

A pillar with a broken clock hanging on it stood in the middle.

[Hoo.]

Upon reaching it, Heinkel let out a light sigh and placed a hand on the broken clock.

Tap— tododododok-!!

At that, the clock, which had been silently stopped in its broken state, suddenly began moving like mad.

It ticked so fast the minute hand was impossible to see.

The hour hand spun at a speed the eye could barely follow.

And in that situation, Alon realized one thing.

'...Backward...?'

The clock was turning in reverse, not forward.

And when the clock completed its full turn—

Tak-!

At the exact moment the hour hand and minute hand both stopped on "12"—

Whoooosh—!

The form of Heinkel, whose hand was resting on the hour hand, slowly began to vanish.

Then—

Kuguguguguguk-!

With a grinding noise, the pillar began to open.

Countless cubes jumbled and shifted apart, revealing the inside of the pillar.

And there—

"...!"

Alon, Penia, and Evan saw it.

From within the darkness, Heinkel walked out with a face full of confidence.

"Huhuhuhu—surprised?"

"......"

"......"

"......"

A deep smile hung on her lips.

But Alon, Evan, and Penia could not say a word.

They had no choice.

"...Hm? What’s wrong?"

Because Heinkel was absurdly small.

So much so that it made them doubt whether the one in front of them was really Heinkel at all.

"...She’s a total runt."

When Evan blurted it out directly—

"Ha...?"

Heinkel bristled as if he had touched a dragon’s reverse scale.

Alon, who agreed with Evan a hundred times over, quietly hid his awkward expression.

####

"This body is 155 centimeters tall!"

"Isn’t it 140?"

"It is not!"

"No matter how I look at it, it’s 140...."

"Would you like to experience the Central Mage Tower’s vertical course?"

After Heinkel appeared in an actual physical body.

While everyone stayed quiet in the face of that unexpected cuteness(?), Evan bravely spoke up.

In response, Heinkel threatened to let him experience the tower’s "premium vertical course," a rapid plunge from the ceiling of the Central Mage Tower straight to the floor, and Evan took a step back.

"...And yet, the earth moves...."

Muttering that one last line under his breath.

"What!?"

"Lord Alon! Come to think of it, there’s some information I need to receive, so I’ll head down first!"

As if he just had to proclaim that truth did not change, Evan recited that line to the bitter end and hurried out by himself.

Alon stared blankly at Heinkel again.

'...She really is small.'

Even at a glance, Evan’s estimate looked pretty reasonable.

Just then, as if she had read his thoughts, Heinkel’s eyes narrowed.

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Alon quickly averted his gaze and said,

"...What exactly happened?"

Heinkel still looked displeased, but soon let out a sigh as if it could not be helped.

"Explaining it step by step would take too long, so I’ll just keep it simple. You can think of it as cryosleep."

"...Cryosleep?"

"Yes. By making use of a few artifacts. Want the more detailed explanation?"

"Yes."

This time Penia answered immediately.

Unlike earlier, when the sight of tiny Heinkel had left her stunned, her eyes were now sparkling.

"To start with—"

And then Heinkel began explaining the magic behind it, and an animated conversation followed between the two of them.

Watching them, Alon thought:

'...That’s lore that never appeared in Psychedelia.'

Of course, at this point he had no intention of getting hung up on Psychedelia’s settings.

But in Heinkel’s case, even if the world was destroyed, she had never once appeared in person, so there was no helping how strange it felt.

As he watched the two of them, Alon slightly raised a hand.

"May I ask one thing as well?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"Why did you freeze your body like this in the first place?"

He found himself curious all over again.

At that, Heinkel let out a light little "Ah—" and answered as if it were nothing.

"Because there was nothing left to do."

"...What?"

"I told you. Because there was nothing left to do. Hm—more precisely, rather than saying I didn’t have some great ambition left to fulfill, it’d be better to say I felt my limit."

When Alon tilted his head, Heinkel naturally rubbed her chin.

His eyes were drawn to the gesture, which did not suit a child at all, but she soon opened her mouth.

"As you know, among mages I’m something of a mythical figure. The theories on ranks may all have been passed down from somewhere, but I still created quite a lot of the magic formulas and calculation methods myself."

As Heinkel said, her standing was ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) extraordinary.

"But when I reached a certain point, I felt it. Just—bam. A limit."

"?"

"With the theories I had developed, I was able to reach Origin—the next stage after the magic I already knew—but I couldn’t reach what came after that."

"Beyond Origin...."

"More precisely, it would be more accurate to say there is a realm beyond even that."

Her explanation continued.

"Anyway. In the end, I came to think there must be a realm I couldn’t reach alone, so I decided to borrow the power of time. That’s the gist of it."

"...By the power of time, you mean—"

"Of course, it would be hard for a genius like me to be born twice, but in the end, humans are beings that accumulate knowledge."

Only then did Alon understand.

Why she had gone into hibernation this way, and why she had awakened from it now.

'So in the game settings, the reason she helped promising mages was because of this.'

As Alon nodded, fitting together the puzzle pieces in his mind while recalling her lore, Penia spoke up.

"Then is there a particular magic you’re searching for, Lady Heinkel?"

"Well, yes. In fact, you could say I went into hibernation for these hundreds of years precisely to find that magic."

"...What kind of magic could that possibly be?"

At Penia’s murmured question, full of curiosity, Heinkel gave a somewhat bitter smile.

"...I’ll tell you when the time comes."

An expression that seemed steeped in a long story.

Her body was close to that of a child, but the expression on her face carried deep anguish and sorrow, so Penia pressed her lips together and nodded.

"Ahem—ahem. For now, let’s walk a little. I expected as much, but maybe because it’s been so long, this body feels awkward, and my magic power still hasn’t returned yet."

Heinkel soon erased the bitter smile.

Then, as if trying to cover over a painful memory, she forced out a bright tone and headed toward the library door.

Thunk-!

She walked straight into the door with her forehead and fell backward.

"?"

"?"

While Alon and Penia stood there bewildered—

"Ah- uh-"

Heinkel clutched her stinging forehead, sprang back to her feet as if nothing had happened, and smiled.

"Ah—this is a bit— I-I got too used to moving around in magic form, so, uh, I moved without thinking too much?"

She said it coolly, but her entire face was red.

Apparently embarrassed that the mood she had been building had collapsed, she let out an awkward cough and hurriedly reached toward the doorknob.

She definitely reached for it—

"...Ah."

A faint exclamation slipped from her mouth.

No matter how much she stretched her arm upward and upward again, her hand could not reach the knob.

"......"

"......"

An ordinary door would have been fine, but the doorknob in the library was attached unnaturally high up.

Heinkel tried somehow to grab it.

But even standing on tiptoe, she could not reach it at all.

After trying several times, Heinkel finally stared blankly into the air and then—

"...Could you open this for me...?"

In the end, with both cheeks flushed so red they looked ready to burst, she tearfully asked.

"......"

"......"

Creeeak—

Alon silently opened the door for her.

...While adding to his mental notes the information that Heinkel was unexpectedly kind of a mess.

And at that same time.

In Fildagreen, the kingdom of the elves—

"Sister, did your business go well?"

"Yes."

"So then, what was it that took you out this time?"

"What was it for..."

The Queen of the Elves, Magrina, and Rine were leisurely having tea.

"Would it be wrong of me to ask? You suddenly opened Platon and rushed out right away."

At Magrina’s question, Rine thought for a moment.

"Hm—I suddenly remembered something."

"...?"

"Something I had to tell Godfather at once."

She answered with a faint smile.

While Magrina looked puzzled—

Knock knock.

Along with a small knock at the door—

"Um, excuse me—"

Mu, Magrina’s secretary, carefully came in.

"What is it, Mu?"

When Magrina asked with a smile, Mu hesitated, then—

"Th-the 'information' you always tell me to keep track of has arrived...."

"Information about my brother, you mean?"

"Yes. Th-that is—"

Mu soon began cautiously reading the room.

"Go on and tell me."

Mu looked at Magrina, who still wore the same smile as always, then seemed to steel herself and parted her lips.

"...It’s not entirely certain.... Since it’s information related to a rumor...."

"Hm—"

At Mu’s added explanation, Magrina nodded as if to say that was fine.

However—

"Th-there’s a rumor that the Primal One has entered a 'special relationship'—"

The moment Mu’s report continued—

Magrina stopped moving.

And at the same time—

Crack—

The teacup in her hand began to split.

Crash.

Just like that, it shattered.

But even with the cup broken to pieces before her eyes, Magrina did not lose her smile. As she always did, she set the cup—now with only its handle left—back onto the saucer.

Clink—

Over the black tea that had spilled across the table, over the teacup laid down limply—

"...Would you mind telling me that story in a little more detail?"

Hearing the flat, toneless voice ring out, Mu swallowed hard.