People say that when you’re young, even seeing someone again after a short while can make them seem completely different.

But the face reflected on the water’s surface wasn’t something that could be dismissed with ‘you’ve changed a little.’

Because I had changed a lot. For one, I was taller, and even my face had become somewhat more mature and imposing.

It felt as though at least several years had passed.

"And here you are getting shocked over aging a mere few years.”

As if dumbfounded, Nightchaser grabbed both of her cheeks and stretched them.

Her cheeks extended smoothly like a human’s at first, but after a certain point they stretched far beyond what skin should possibly allow. It was practically like she was made of clay.

"You think you’re truly human just because you were in human form? Now that you can create things, life and death alike are under your will. So why fear the passage of time?”

"...That’s not what I meant.”

The fact that I had aged wasn’t really the issue.

The problem was something else.

"How much time has actually passed?”

"Hmm. I never bothered counting.”

Heavenly Balance narrowed her brows thoughtfully before looking up at the sky.

"I do remember it snowed 5 times.”

"You’ve got to be—”

Heavenly Balance had been so absurdly calm about it that I hadn't even realized.

This utterly insane woman had apparently left me submerged in the lake for a full 5 years without even bothering to take me out.

Though now that I thought about it, maybe she genuinely assumed I was already dead. As my mind rapidly cooled, another question suddenly occurred to me.

"...How has the world not ended?”

"Hm?”

"Five whole years. You’re seriously telling me Great Void did absolutely nothing all that time and the world’s still standing? Ah. Right. I get it now.”

Realizing the truth, I let out a sigh while once again relearning the lesson that in Korean, you should always listen to the very end.

"So only my body’s time passed by five years, right? Not actual real-world time? I mean, if you’re going to explain something, explain it properly. You scared the hell out o–...”

"I’m glad you at least understood that much.”

Heavenly Balance suddenly reached into her robes and pulled something out.

A grotesquely warped crown. The moment I saw the crown decorated with silver and rubies, I blinked in faint recognition.

"This is..."

"The Empire’s crown. It was lying abandoned in the capital.”

"..."

"You were correct. For those 5 years, Great Void moved in many ways—and the scars remain.”

Her tone remained perfectly calm.

"The world did not survive. A regrettable thing.”

And with that detached voice, she gave her answer.

* * *

There’s a saying. In times of chaos, heroes suited to that chaos will appear.

No matter how terrible the era may be.

Even in a world where 30% of the population had died, half the nations had fallen, and 70% of all mages had been captured—there would still always be people who rose above the rest.

Linmel didn’t particularly like that saying.

Because in the end, the name everyone mentioned was always hers.

"Commander Linmel, um, this…"

"I’ll look at it later. I’m busy right now.”

Lightly brushing off the adjutant who was pestering her, Linmel let out a sigh and entered the capital’s training grounds.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about trivial matters. The situation itself was too urgent.

"Come on, try and dig my grave!”

"..."

-Crunch!

"Ooh..."

"S-so this is how the commanders fight…”

A blood-soaked training session was underway in the arena. Exactly as Linmel had wanted.

The only difference was that instead of the younger Knights she’d hoped would be training— they were all huddled together, watching a duel instead.

And that duel consisted of the exhausted-looking Carose and the gleeful Brimdal trying to slaughter each other with real blades. Nothing but carnage.

"Here we go again.”

Linmel sighed and pushed her way through the crowd of Knights.

The Knights who’d been about to glare at whoever shoved them from behind with expressions clearly reading ‘Which bastard dares…?’ immediately went pale the moment they saw her face and hurriedly stepped aside.

"C-Commander Linmel! G-good health to yothk!”

"What?! Commander! I-I already finished my training and was just watching! Seriously!”

From the Knight who bit his tongue the moment he saw her to the one snapping into a perfectly rigid salute…

Linmel briefly wondered whether these idiots truly understood they might be the last generation of Knights. Then she stepped forward.

"Wahahaha, no matter how fast you are…”

"Sir Brimdal…”

That was all she said.

"Hm...?"

Before Brimdal even fully registered Linmel’s exasperated voice, he noticed that the sword he had raised suddenly felt strangely light.

Only afterward did he hear a distinct ‘clack.’

It wasn’t the sound of drawing a sword but the sound of a blade being returned to its sheath.

And only at the very end did he realize a chunk of metal had fallen to the floor.

Then he saw the mysterious young woman glaring at him with blazing eyes, poking aggressively at his chest with a finger.

"I! Told you! Not to fight Master here!”

-Clatter...

Staring blankly at the severed remains of his sword, Brimdal finally looked toward Linmel and frowned.

"Every time I see you, you’ve learned something new. How did you break through my martial awareness?”

"Don’t change the subject!”

Linmel immediately unleashed a barrage of complaints at the bewildered Brimdal, acting as though the near-divine feat she’d just displayed didn’t matter at all.

"When you fight, my trainees can’t focus! And Master, you too! Why do you even humor him?! You could’ve just walked away!”

"...M-my apologies.”

Carose, who had been left blankly staring after witnessing—or rather, only realizing something had happened without actually perceiving the strike itself, hurriedly coughed awkwardly.

"It’s not that I wanted to fight. This lunati…I mean, Sir Brimdal suddenly started trying to kill the trainees for having rotten attitudes. I couldn’t exactly stand by and watch…”

"When did I ever try to kill them? I was merely trying to give them some true education.”

"I very clearly saw you trying to slice open the back of their necks, so what kind of nonsense are you spouting?”

"Are your eyes broken? I was only aiming to leave scars. You see, once a person starts bleeding from the neck, they immediately realize they’re in mortal danger and fight with everything they have from that point onward. That is when true growth begins…”

Listening to the two bicker, Linmel once again grabbed the hilt of her sword and issued a warning.

"I don’t care what your excuse is! But from now on…never! Never come into this training ground again. If all the Knights here die too, we’ll end up handing swords to carriage drivers.”

"Hm, I wonder if there’d really be much difference.”

"Get out!”

"Fine, fine.”

Grumbling, Brimdal bent down and picked up the broken fragments of his sword from the ground.

Then he looked at the severed blade and frowned once more.

'...Perfect.'

Cutting a sword apart with another sword was obviously not something achievable through ordinary means.

If one blade were some low-quality scrap-metal weapon, perhaps, but Brimdal’s sword was a masterpiece among masterpieces. One he had personally forged.

And yet it had been sliced so cleanly it looked as though it had originally been cast in that shape.

When he looked again at the sword Linmel had redrawn, there wasn’t even the slightest flaw upon it. It was impossible to tell what part of the blade had done the cutting.

Seeing that, Brimdal clicked his tongue and headed toward the exit of the training grounds.

"...Gold that refines itself? That’s so unfair it stops being interesting.”

"Huh? What was that? You just insulted me, didn’t you? If you want to spar that badly, I’ll gladly fight you.”

"Don’t. It’ll lead to death.”

His own.

Swallowing the last word to preserve the remnants of his pride, Brimdal departed. Watching him leave, Carose stood there looking vaguely uncomfortable.

'Why am I…?'

After all, Linmel was still technically her disciple.

Being surpassed in skill was unavoidable, but as long as that relationship remained unchanged, what kind of master would feel uncomfortable standing before their own student?

Yes, Linmel had achieved far too much recently and clearly become rather full of herself, but wanting to remind her that her essence hadn’t changed, Carose adopted a stern expression and opened her mouth.

"Ahem, Linmel. You—”

"Master. Come somewhere with me.”

"...What?"

"It’s urgent. The ground collapsed. That means at least five mages captured by Scarlet Abyss all fell at once. And it happened near the grain-producing regions. If even that area burns down, the disruption to the food supply will be catastrophic.”

"I-I see. But must I really go? Protecting the grain regions was your duty, wasn’t it?”

"Yes. But I can’t handle this alone. I need your strength, Master.”

"I see."

If she’d thought about it for even a moment, Carose might have realized it made no sense for a monster like Linmel to be incapable of handling a mere five Fallen on her own. But hearing her overwhelmingly powerful disciple openly say she needed her filled her with delight, and so she nodded without resistance.

"Understood. I shall help you.”

"Thank you, then let’s go immediately!”

"?"

Before she could even ask what she meant, Linmel grabbed Carose by the hand and hoisted her directly over her head.

Before she could even protest the treatment that showed not a single shred of reference toward her master…

"Commander Linmel! Urgent news. You absolutely need to hear this…”

"I’ll hear it later! I’m seriously busy!”

Linmel sprinted off. On foot.

There were many Knights capable of running faster than horses, but the reason they still rode horses was because maintaining that speed consumed a proportional amount of stamina.

But Linmel didn’t feel as though she’d expended any stamina at all just from running a little. So she abandoned the horse and ran on her own two feet.

Despite the grain region being dozens of kilometers away, they arrived in less than a few dozen minutes.

"Please make sure the Fallen don’t burn down the grain region around here!”

"W-wait, Linmel—Then what are you going to do?”

"I have something nearby I need to search for.”

Linmel answered vaguely on purpose, her head already turned toward the forest.

But Carose had seen it hundreds of times already. She knew exactly what Linmel searched for whenever she spoke like that.

5 years.

‘So it still wasn’t enough time to forget, huh?’

That thought crossed her mind when—

"So I’m counting on you!”

"?"

Carose frowned as she watched Linmel disappear into the forest exactly as abruptly as she had arrived.

Protecting the grain region itself wasn’t a problem. For the sake of her beloved disciple’s impossible wish, she was perfectly willing to get saddled with cleanup duty.

There was only one problem.

"She still never told me where she tied up the horse..."

Unlike Linmel, Carose couldn’t simply sprint all the way back.

—Linmel returned to the new capital at dawn the next day.

* * *

Unfortunately, Carose’s sacrifice ended up being meaningless.

"S-shit! What is this?! What the hell?! Why is the Sword Demon here of all people?!”

"Haah..."

Linmel dragged along a cult member who had proclaimed himself ruler of the new world, tied to a stick like a trussed-up pig.

It was a common occurrence these days. Survivors from fallen nations declaring themselves masterminds behind the catastrophe and gathering exhausted people into cult-like organizations.

Ordinarily, it was a crime worthy of immediate execution. But the current world lacked the manpower to spare for things like that, so most cases were simply ignored.

Linmel had agreed with that approach too. At least until she heard rumors about this cult leader being able to freely manipulate water.

Technically, he could manipulate water. If you counted moving slime (that wasn’t even water) mixed with metal powder around using magnets as ‘manipulating water.'

Ah, and aside from the fact that he was a seventy-year-old man who looked absolutely nothing like Jern.

"Be quiet. You’re noisy.”

"..."

After smacking the cult leader, who was squealing like a pig, a few times, he immediately quieted down.

A little too quiet, actually. But it still wasn’t nearly enough to ease Linmel’s complicated feelings.

'...He’s definitely alive.’

The world had been overturned. Countless famous wizards had overestimated their own abilities, fell, and died at the hands of the Fallen.

This was now a world where, if a wizard disappeared for even a single day, the proper response was no longer filing a missing-person report but praying for their soul.

And yet despite all that, Linmel still believed that one boy who hadn’t shown himself for five years was alive.

Because if she stopped believing that, she felt like she’d lose even the reason to keep holding a sword.

"...Ah."

-Thud.

At some point, Linmel had walked headfirst into the city gate. Staring up at the dark night sky, she simply climbed the city wall instead.

She could have just asked for the gate to be lowered, but she didn’t want to create more work for the guards this late at night.

Linmel vaulted over the vertical wall as naturally as breathing and spotted something waiting there.

"...Zzzz."

It was her adjutant, asleep.

Linmel frowned and nudged her awake with her foot.

"Cough…Huh, Commander! You finally came back!”

"What about you? Why are you sleeping here?”

"Well, whenever you go searching for that man, you always come back at night and climb over the walls. I’ve been watching you for years, you know. You’re ridiculously predictable, Commander Linmel!”

"...Don’t call him ‘that man.’”

"And you’re in a bad mood too. Same as always.”

Linmel glared at her, briefly considering whether she should flick her forehead—

"Right, actually, I wanted to tell you something about that.”

But she decided to hold off until she heard what she was about to say.

"One of our Knights was exploring the nearby mountains and found a really strange new terrain formation that wasn’t there before.”

"What kind?”

"A lake, well, it is a lake, but…that idiot apparently got thirsty and drank from it.”

"He must be dead then.”

If new terrain suddenly appeared, then nine times out of ten it was a landscape created by a Fallen.

And such places were never kind to humans. Carelessly approaching one always came with consequences.

Did this generation seriously have no sense of danger? Just as Linmel was thinking that the adjutant’s next words made her slowly freeze.

"No, he didn’t die. But he said it was incredibly salty.”

"...What?"

"He said it felt like drinking seawater. He even brought some of the water back, and when we boiled it, actual salt came out—”

"Where?”

"Ah, it’s in the large mountain range northwest of here, but it’s a really long way…”

Linmel immediately threw the cult leader she’d been carrying into the moat and leapt from the city wall.

"Ah, seriously! She’s doing it again!”

'The sea!’

A memory surfaced in Linmel’s mind.

The story that elf mage had told her about the world Jern had fallen into.

A distance that should have taken several days to cross vanished in an instant.

Countless thoughts raced through her mind as she arrived at the mountain, climbed it without a moment’s hesitation and finally reached the lake.

"..."

It was an enormous lake, glittering with emerald light.

So beautiful and vast that, if the situation had been different, she might have wanted to dip her feet into it herself.

-Splash!

"!"

And someone actually was dipping their feet into it.

Gripping the hilt of her sword, Linmel slowly pushed through the bushes toward the source of the sound.

Rather than beating with anticipation, her heart steadily grew closer.

'This time...'

Slowly parting the last stretch of brush, she fixed a sharp gaze upon the figure sitting by the lakeside.

"Hmm?"

"?"

Their eyes met.

It wasn’t Jern.

And with that realization alone, the reason she had come all this way vanished. It should have been deeply disappointing—

but before disappointment came shock.

"Ahaha, what’s this?”

"..."

"You look exactly like me.”

Because—

Her younger self was sitting there, looking at her and laughing in amusement.