"You..."

No matter how she looked at it, this was undeniably herself.

A little younger, perhaps, but there was no way Linmel could fail to recognize her own face. Snapping back to reality, she drew her sword.

"What are you?”

Three years had passed since the world turned upside down. Two years since dying of natural causes had come to be considered a blessing.

Anything abnormal was considered a harbinger of death. And the child before her, bearing her face, was unmistakably abnormal.

Whether Linmel reacted or not, the young-looking Linmel only kept smiling at her in amusement.

"So this is what you looked like before you grew up. Well, I guess that makes sense, considering you are human—”

"..."

Linmel—

ground her teeth without moving rashly.

Over the years, she had seen countless enemies stand proudly before her. She had seen those faces twist into shock and despair.

But at some point, she stopped seeing even those expressions. Once she reached her current level, her opponents simply died while still wearing confident smiles.

So this time, too, that should have been enough. Cut off that neck before the enemy realized her strength.

'Absolutely not.'

Rather than trusting experience, Linkel chose to trust instinct and slowly stepped backward.

"Hmm?”

The girl moved at that action.

Tilting her head, she pulled her feet from the lake and gave a small laugh as she waved a hand.

"Why are you running away?”

"..."

Linmel gritted her teeth at that remark, still retreating, and muttered,

"I’m not running.”

"Ah, sorry if that sounded mocking. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just…right now, I look like nothing more than a young girl to anyone who sees me.”

As though implying she had once been something far beyond that, the girl met Linmel’s eyes curiously.

"I was wondering how a creature with instincts sharp enough to fear this could still exist in this era.”

"Ugh."

Goosebumps appeared on Linmel’s neck.

If that thing took even one more step closer, it would be over.

Linmel abandoned instinct. Her sword moved faster than thought, flying toward the smiling girl’s throat.

It should have reached her and was about to—

"Nightchaser."

A voice overflowing with irritation shook the air from behind her, where moments ago there had been nothing.

It was a familiar vibration. Familiar, because she had recalled it countless times before.

"I told you if you disappeared on your own even once, I’d lock you back in the Abyssal Sea. So what kind of nerve made you think…”

"..."

Linmel turned her head.

And their eyes met.

*t*t*

After crossing over into the real world, Nightchaser would sneak out from the depths of the lake every night under the excuse of wanting to look at the moon.

If Great Void noticed her because of that, I’d be the one dealing with the consequences, so that day too I had gone up to drag her back—

Only to find two Linmels there.

"Jern."

"...Linmel?”

One was Nightchaser, wearing the appearance of the Linmel I knew, smiling wickedly.

And the other was a Linmel who looked like what I imagined she would look like if she had grown older, except twice as beautiful and twice as imposing.

No matter how long I had known Linmel since the orphanage days, I had never experienced the last 5 years alongside her that would have allowed me to get accustomed to this appearance.

So the words wouldn’t come out properly. Linmel was the one who moved first.

-Crunch. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Where the hell have you been all this time without telling anyone a single word?”

"...Well."

"Do you have any idea how hard I searched for you? I searched half the world. And since the other half had already disappeared, after that I had no choice but to search the same places all over again.”

Linmel stepped closer and grabbed my shoulders.

I could feel the same crushing pressure I’d felt back in the mid-layer pressing down through her grip. I wasn’t exaggerating.

And as I desperately tried to produce the best possible answer, convinced that one wrong response would make me the second god to die at human hands…

"I’m glad…”

-Thud

As though my answer didn’t matter, Linmel buried her forehead against my chest.

"I’m glad you’re alive…”

"...I’m sorry."

"...Sniff."

I’d gone through a lot myself, sure.

But in the end, I had vanished without saying a word. From Linmel’s perspective, I might as well have abandoned everything and run away. Or died somewhere no one would ever find.

But it seemed Linmel had spent those entire 5 years searching for me without stopping.

And that—hurt more than I expected.

For a while, I gently patted Linmel’s trembling back and tried to calm her down by explaining everything I’d gone through.

"I was in the Abyssal Sea. A completely different world. There’s no way you could’ve found me.”

"Why were you in a place like that?”

"I needed to find a way to kill Great Void. And I managed to find one, to some extent.”

"...Really?”

"Yeah. I know it’s hard to believe, but…”

"I believe you. If you hadn’t found a way, you wouldn’t have come back at all.”

"Fair enough.”

Linmel lifted her head, glaring at me again with reddened eyes as I nodded.

"THen why didn’t you come to me the moment you returned?”

"To you…? Ah, the capital? Well, about that…”

"This idiot’s still a rookie, that’s why.”

Nightchaser suddenly cut in, dipping her feet back into the lake.

"This rookie doesn’t know how to hide his presence yet. Look at him. Even now he’s leaving traces behind.”

"...Huh?"

Linmel looked down at my feet, and her eyes widened in surprise.

The ground where I stood had caved inward, water bubbling up and forming a tiny lake.

Every footprint I had left behind was the same. And as the water slowly overflowed, carving little streams into the surrounding earth, Linmel titled her head in confusion.

"What is this? Magic?”

"Rather than magic…I became something a little different from a human? Something like that, anyway.”

"Huh...?"

Linmel blinked those bright, clear eyes that hadn’t changed at all since childhood.

We were close enough that our noses could practically touch.

Feeling strangely pressured, I took a step back and shrugged.

"Just by existing, I leave marks on this world. Marks that Great Void can notice.”

"And we really can’t let that guy notice us yet, right?”

At some point Nightchaser had walked over and was now grinning at me in amusement.

"So I was teaching this rookie god how to walk around without damaging the world. He probably would’ve learned by tomorrow—but then you showed up today.”

I glared at Nightchaser hard enough to kill her, and she immediately hid behind Linmel.

Fortunately, Linmel seemed to interpret the word "god" metaphorically rather than literally, because she simply looked at the girl hiding behind her and asked something completely different.

"I see. But who is she?”

"S-someone I met in the Abyssal Sea.”

"In the Abyssal Sea? There are people living there?”

"Something kind of like people. It was lonely, so I brought one back with me.”

"…Then why does she look exactly like me?”

"Well, that’s—"

The answer that rose naturally to my lips suddenly got stuck in my throat.

Nightchaser was the Surface. The mirror that reflected the person her target most wished to see.

So of course she had appeared as Linmel. In the Abyssal Sea, where everyone hid blades behind their tongues, the purest person I knew was Linmel.

But saying that out loud in front of the actual person felt more tortuous than having my nails ripped out.

"Well, you see, I have this one ability…”

"I told her to imitate you.”

Before Nightchaser could say anything weird, I crushed her mouth shut with pressure and continued the explanation.

Linmel immediately asked the obvious question.

"...Why?"

"I got lonely being by myself. So I asked her to copy the faces of people I knew. My memories are stuck 5 years in the past, so that’s why she looks like that.”

"Aha, I see."

For some reason, Linmel wore an expression mixed half with disappointment and half with satisfaction as she grabbed Nightchaser by the back of the neck and lifted her up.

"Hey, put me down.”

"Hmm, so this is how you imagined what I’d look like, Jern?”

"I said put me down, human.”

"Didn’t you make her a little too cute? I don’t think I looked like this…”

"What’s with her? A moment ago she was trembling in fear of me—”

"I was not.”

Linmel softly wrapped an arm around Nightchaser’s neck (though to me it looked more like strangling her) and smiled with bloodshot eyes.

"Still, I’m glad I was able to help somehow. Tomorrow…can you come out of that lake?”

"Yeah. The moment I get out, I’m going to see my master first, then discuss things with the Imperial Princess.”

The Empire had fallen. That statement was half true and half false.

The capital had merely been conquered by Scarlet Abyss, which was practically the same thing as total annihilation, but as long as Sharmia was alive, the embers still remained.

If I could use the people gathered around her, then even with my incomplete abilities—

"...Ah..."

At those words, Linmel lowered her head.

"Well, um…Right. You were gone for 5 whole years. It makes sense you wouldn’t know what happened.”

"...Is something wrong?”

A sense of dread made me ask immediately.

Just as Linmel said, I knew absolutely nothing about what had happened to this world.

All I had were a few things Heavenly Balance had mentioned in passing, and that woman hadn’t even left the mountain.

If Sharmia had died, then…

"The Princess is alive and well. Honestly, we’ve only managed to hold on because of her.”

"...That’s a relief."

The fear vanished at once. If that was the case, then this wasn’t the worst outcome.

As I thought that, Linmel awkwardly tapped her fingers together and continued.

"And your master—Dercia is missing.”

"What??”

"Not long after you disappeared, she returned to the Elven Forest and secluded herself there. Nobody knows what she’s doing.”

That insane elf, in times like these?

Frowning deeply, I immediately revised my plans.

'I guess I need to drag Master back first.'

Dercia was far more versatile than a half-baked god like me.

In the first place, the only reason I’d even dared consider my plan to drown the world in the Abyssal Sea was because she existed. I absolutely needed her help.

"Still, aside from that, Sir Brimdal and Carose are fine, my adoptive father’s fine, the orphanage is fine…everyone’s okay.”

"...Really?"

I could feel my expression visibly brightening.

Because the situation was far, far better than I’d expected.

Everyone I loved was alive and unharmed. And after that, Linmel continued listing people I’d worried about, reassuring me that they were all safe.

Everyone except one.

"But Linmel.”

Scratching my cheek, I finally said the name.

"What about Elisia?”

"...”

For the first time, Linmel fell silent, and my heart dropped.

"Don’t tell me—”

"She’s not dead! It’s not what you’re thinking.”

Linmel hurriedly waved both hands to calm me down again.

"Phew, thank goodness. Was she hurt or something?”

If it were just injuries, unless they were unbelievably severe, I could heal them—

"...It would’ve been better if she died.”

I couldn’t say a single word after hearing the hatred mixed into the end of Linmel’s sentence.

"If you asked people to name the worst Upper Tier among Scarlet Abyss right now—everyone would pick Nihil, formerly the wizard Elisia.”

The silver-haired girl from my memories…

...had become a Fallen.