I don’t know if Eleris believes that I know the future.
But I had to reveal my most important secret to Eleris because I needed her cooperation in preparation for future events.
Time will tell if what I said is true.
I think she understood to some extent why I wanted to contact the magic society and why I have many strange aspects.
This made me feel more comfortable discussing the details with Eleris.
We will prevent a huge crisis that is going to occur in the future.
With such a grand premise laid out, there was no need to hold back my words.
But there is a problem.
“……You don’t know?”
“Well, I don’t know everything.”
“You said you know the future, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t say that I know everything. There’s still a lot I don’t know.”
“No, but even so, how could you suggest deceiving the Black Order!?”
Eleris exclaimed, looking incredibly frustrated.
“Wha- what…?”
It feels like I did something wrong and now my mom was going to scold me…
“The only thing I know is that Aaron Mede is a member of the Black Order, but that doesn’t mean we can meet them anywhere. I just threw it all out as there was no chance of getting involved with them if we missed that opportunity.”
“Sigh… What should we do… So you don’t know much about Cantus Magna either?”
“That’s right.”
“Hah…….”
As I wrote, I realized a problem arises as the story grows longer.
When you start a long-running series, there are certain things that you can’t control because human memory is limited and your abilities are limited.
One might forget the ‘breadcrumbs’ they’ve scattered, or the ‘breadcrumbs’ might become difficult to collect.
The Magic Societies are those so-called ‘uncollected breadcrumbs’ for me. I haven’t forgotten about them, but I’m unsure if I can handle the consequences if I were to follow through.
A product of my own irresponsibility.
The Black Order makes one appearance in Aaron Mede’s case, and there’s a mention of the Taboo Hunters as well, but that’s about it.
I described them as if they were some kind of impressive people, and I had some settings in my head, but they haven’t appeared since then. All the little things got sucked up or forgotten when the gate crisis exploded.
I have never talked about what they did during the Gate incident.
All I can think about are the things I had in mind when I set up the Magical Order.
Magic societies act and move according to their own standards, regardless of society’s morals. The Taboo Hunters, Cantus Magna would likely be the same as the Black Order in that respect.
The Black Order has only made one appearance.
Cantus Magna was mentioned, but did not appear at all.
In the end, since this mess is my own fault, I have to somehow take the initiative to figure it out myself.
If the Gate incident was caused by a magic society, I need to know about them for sure.
The problem now is that I’ve pretended to have information that would appeal to the Black Order, when in reality I don’t have any.
So Eleris is looking at me pitifully, as I have tried and failed.
“Well… I don’t know much about Cantus Magna, but I know how to meet them.”
“Is there such a way?”
Ah.
But if I open my mouth again, surely I’m going to get in trouble for this…
No, it’s not complicated, on the contrary really it’s super easy.
And I could think of no other way right now.
“They’re the Taboo Hunters, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then, of course, we’re going to use forbidden magic, am I right?”
“…….”
Eleris’s expression turned sour. It feels similar to the way Ellen sometimes gives me a fierce glare.
But Ellen was always expressionless, so it was fine. It was just that Eleris, who was always smiling, looked so grim with that expression.
Really…
I felt a sense of crisis.
To lure the Taboo Hunters, one can use forbidden magic.
I mean, it makes sense!
“You really do want to get hurt!”
Elise eventually screeched and struck my head.
-Bam!
“Ack!”
“Oh no! What did I do……!”
She was surprised at herself for what she had done, so she patted me on the head and apologized.
My suggestion to use forbidden magic to lure the Cantus Magna was rightly dismissed.
“Eleris, calm down and think about it. After all, if the Black Order finds out I lied to them, we’ll end up fighting them anyway, right?”
“Shut up!”
Eleris sighed in frustration.
“There might be some members of the Council who know something. Let’s start by looking for clues there. After all, there are families with close ties to royalty.”
“Really?”
“A long-lived vampire inevitably becomes a wizard. There’s no better way to pass the time than with difficult studies.”
Putting aside the very risky method for now, I decided to look for clues within the Vampire Council.
It will determine my future actions. It’s crucial to see if they can be in my grasp or not.
Aside from life at the Temple, I’ve instructed Eleris on what to do outside.
We still haven’t found a clue about Cantus Magna or the Black Order, but the likelihood of us fighting them is very low. I could always use forbidden magic to summon them, though. The Black Order must have their own reasons for not using that method.
Aaron Mede’s job has been completed, and Eleris is the only one who shares my secret.
But there’s an issue.
“…….”
“You know, you guys are kind of obvious, right?”
“What.”
I was quietly eating breakfast when Liana was chewing on the tip of her fork with her teeth while looking at me and Ellen.
“Did you fight again?”
“No? What do you mean?”
“We didn’t fight.”
But the look on everyone’s face says, ‘they fought’.
“They don’t talk much anyway, but I can see if they’ve been fighting or not.”
Adelia giggled at Liana’s comment and then hurriedly covered her mouth. It’s probably because she thinks I’m going to lose my shit if she says anything.
After the incident last time, Ellen and I became strangely quiet, as if we had fought but not really. Ellen was angry with me, and I was angry with her.
We were worried about each other, but the end result is that we only made each other feel worse.
What to say.
What should I say?
There were so many problems in and out of Temple that I felt that my head was going to explode.
Ellen is not the only problem. This time, Liana asked while looking at the person sitting next to her.
“Why are you like this lately?”
“… It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
Harriet looked up with a gloomy expression, interrupting her quiet breakfast.
Harriet was experiencing something akin to PTSD from the shocking sight she witnessed at Aaron Mede’s mansion.
She didn’t personally engage in combat. After casting an anti-magic field, Ellen had taken care of everything.
But Harriet had seen controlled human-like Homunculi who had fallen victim to her own anti-magic spell.
It wasn’t murder, but it felt like it to Harriet.
And the horrific chimeras she saw in the underground workshop.
That was likely the direct cause of her trauma. I never went in there, so I didn’t see it firsthand, but it seemed like something Ellen didn’t want to think about either.
It was an unavoidable situation.
I also had nightmares for a while after seeing zombie hordes.
In a way, it’s fortunate that Harriet, who was raised in a nurturing environment, is only suffering from nightmares and trauma after seeing such a scene. I mean, it was fortunate that she was still able to go about her daily life.
What happened there was a secret, and very few people knew about it.
So, except for Bertus, no one knew why we looked the way we did.
“Should we do something to lift our moods?”
As expected, Liana, who couldn’t just stand idly by in this situation, suggested with forced cheer.
“I heard there are a lot of autumn flowers blooming by the Irine River. Why don’t we go take a look after class?”
I had a feeling that if anyone refused, she would give them an electric massage with a big grin on her face, so everyone nodded, although somewhat reluctantly.
After class, Me, Ellen, Harriet, Liana, and Adelia left Temple.
Ellen walked a bit away from me, and Harriet stayed with Adelia.
Naturally, Liana and I took the lead and walked ahead.
“Hey, what happened with the last thing?”
“…… It’s roughly resolved.”
If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have followed along like this. Liana seems to have good intuition, but she’s also a strange person who can be absent-minded.
“It seems like we ended up in this situation because of that….”
She seems to suspect that an accident happened somewhere she doesn’t know, but she didn’t ask.
But suddenly flower viewing?
I’m not interested in that kind of thing. Come to think of it, Harriet and Adelia are only interested in magic and have no real connection to flowers. Of course, Harriet probably lived in a palace with a garden, but Ellen doesn’t seem much different.
“Do you like flowers?”
At my question, Liana cocked her head.
“Not really? Maybe if it’s clothes.”
In the end, she clearly has no interest in flowers, even though she suggested changing the mood.
Who are we doing this for, again?
Irene River..
It’s the same with the Han River in Seoul..
When the Rotary Gang was here, I used to come here often, but after the headquarters moved, I haven’t had a chance to come back.
There were many people strolling around, enjoying the autumn flowers blooming along the river. This is the world after the Demon King’s death, a peaceful world.
We were also included among those people, just enjoying the flowers without any particular worries, and Liana was the same.
Since we were already there, we walked along the path and looked at the flowers blooming along the river.
Liana grabbed my arm and pointed to a certain flower that was blooming the most.
“What kind of flower is that?”
“It’s Cosmos.”
“…What, how do you know?”
“Well…it’s common knowledge.”
Do you need to know the name of a flower to enjoy looking at them?
But it seemed that it wasn’t just Liana who didn’t know, as everyone else looked at me with surprise.
All of a sudden, a weird mood came about.
“You guys didn’t know either?”
Adelia scratched her cheek at my question.
“It’s not that we don’t know it’s a Cosmos…”
“Is it that impressive that I know the name of a flower?”
Ellen, Harriet, Adelia, and Liana all nodded in agreement.
Well, I guess so.
It’s amazing that a bastard like me knows the name of a flower, no matter how common it is.
Fuck.
I don’t really care, but I do know enough to get by.
Of course, there have been times when I tried to memorize flower names and their meanings just for the sake of expanding my vocabulary. It didn’t actually help me with my writing, though.
Nevertheless, I ended up memorizing the meanings of some common flowers and a few others.
For those common flowers that everyone else knows…
“Hey, what’s that?”
“Chrysanthemum.”
“And that one?”
“……that’s also a chrysanthemum.”
“But they’re different colors. The one earlier was white, and this one is yellow.”
“You don’t know that a red rose and a white rose are both roses? Are you really that stupid?”
“Oh, I see. They do look the same.”
It’s not really that impressive, but everyone looks at me as if I’m amazing.
Just what did you think of me in your heads?
For some reason, Liana thought it was funny and asked me if there were any flowers in bloom that I didn’t recognize.
Even though I picked up the names of various flowers during this time, there were still many flowers I didn’t know.
I couldn’t tell if they were flowers that only bloomed in this world, or if they were flowers from the original world that I just didn’t know the names of.
In the end, I didn’t know everything. Naturally, there were more things I didn’t know.
But as the sun began to set, everyone’s expressions towards me became a bit strange.
It was as if they were seeing a completely different side of me for the first time.
“Why are you all acting like this? Is it really that impressive that I know a few flowers?”
“Of course it is,” Liana replied, representing everyone.
“The more I look at you, the more mysterious you become,” she added.
In the end, it seemed that my different side was not being perceived as negative.
Harriet was blushing, though I didn’t know why.
These guys… it seemed like there was a big misunderstanding going on.
I decided to change the atmosphere.
“But isn’t it strange to go flower watching?”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
Everyone seemed curious as to what I would say next.
“Well, if you think about it, flowers are like the reproductive organs of plants, right?”
Technically, it would be the stamen and pistil.
“Isn’t it funny that people gather around to see these reproductive organs?”
“Uh…”
“…”
“…”
“Yep, you’re definitely crazy.”
I successfully broke the tension.
I’m not sure if just one flower-viewing experience was enough to change my mood. Everyone started to leave, but Ellen grabbed my arm.
“A little longer.”
“Huh?”
Ellen gave me a look.
“Let’s stay a little longer.”
It seemed like she wanted to talk to me alone, whether it was to clear up the misunderstanding that we had fought or just to spend more time together. Everyone seemed to understand without saying a word and left us alone.
It was an autumn evening when the sunset was fading away and we sat on the stairs near the river.
“…”
“…”
We were still angry at each other.
I was going to do more dangerous things, and most of it I couldn’t even tell Ellen. I didn’t even want her help.
It was too dangerous.
If Ellen found out about even a little bit of what I was going to do, then it wouldn’t be a problem that I was doing dangerous things, but the fact that she would know my secret.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen next if something like that were to happen.
“It’s weird,” Ellen said softly.
Ellen said as she finished.
“What?”
“If someone is precious to you, you should only say good things to them and do good things for them, that’s what you should do.”
“….”
“Instead, when someone is too precious to you, you end up saying only bad things to them and hurting them.”
Ellen looked quietly at the calm surface of the river with its red waves.
“I feel foolish.”
“…. Yeah.”
I threw a rock towards the river bank for no reason, watching the small ripples it caused as it sank beneath the waves.
Under the burning autumn sunset.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. I’m sorry.”
We apologized to each other.
Ellen leaned her head on my shoulder.
It was a long time since we last did this.
“Reinhardt.”
“Yeah.”
“Aron Mede. You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“….”
Ellen already knew.
She couldn’t help but know.
I implied that I was the one who killed him, but Aaron Mede died with his head exploding. I couldn’t have inflicted such a wound.
Although I hid the body, Ellen could have seen it.
“Hey.”
Ellen didn’t ask anything.
“When you become a Swordmaster, will you tell me your secret?”
“….”
Even if I became more than a Swordmaster, I couldn’t tell her.
I couldn’t tell her anything.
The moment Ellen learns of my secret will come someday.
It felt like an inevitable thing now.
I could avoid the Gate incident, but it seemed impossible to avoid this.
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