When they were children, Johan did not mean all that much to Alice.
They were engaged, but it wasn’t because she liked him. Neither his looks nor his personality were her type.
Still, they spent a great deal of time together. The Damus family welcomed her as one of their own and never treated her harshly.
Yes, if she had to put it into words, they were family.
Nothing more than a familial relationship.
More precisely, perhaps he felt closer to a younger brother.
Alice had always felt that Johan was younger than her.
Looking back, maybe they had both treated each other that way.
Johan.
But like clothes slowly getting soaked in a light drizzle without noticing, Alice gradually fell for him. What was it that changed her heart?
Alice enjoyed spending time with Johan more than anything else.
She thought of everyone as family, but among them, there was one person who was special.
It wasn’t because they were engaged.
By the time she realized it, that was simply how she felt.
Johan…
The two of them were always together.
They argued over trivial things and made up over equally trivial reasons.
She enjoyed all of it.
The fights, the reconciliations, even getting scolded after causing trouble together.
Every moment of that time was precious to her.
And because of that—
I don’t want this.
The shadow of death drawing closer with every passing moment became all the more terrifying.
Alice had known from the very beginning that her end was not far away.
Yes, from the very beginning. Even before she entered the Damus household.
She had always known that her life would not be a long one. That was why she lived without regrets.
She did the things she wanted to do and sought out the things she wanted to see.
She never suppressed her curiosity, and once she started something, she always saw it through to the end.
She lived every day with everything she had. She wanted to leave behind no regrets.
But if there was one great mistake in her life—
I don’t want us to be separated.
The fact that she fell in love with someone.
She never should have. She had spent her entire life doing everything she could to avoid leaving behind regrets, yet in the end she had found something she could not let go of.
She wanted more time.
Life was far too short.
I still haven’t even gone sightseeing in the capital with you.
There were so many things she wanted to do.
I still haven’t seen what a whale looks like with you.
There were so many things she wanted to experience together.
Even though I’m with you in my dreams, it still isn’t enough for me.
Alice’s ability was [Lucid Dream].
Originally, it was a romantic power that had no effect on reality whatsoever.
Every time she fell asleep, she dreamed, and she was aware of every dream she had.
Once she became aware of a dream, she could shape it however she wished. Within those dreams lay her ideal world.
One day, she rode atop the clouds and looked down at the sea.
Another day, she soared toward the stars hanging in the sky.
Moments that were only possible because they were dreams.
Scenes that could never be shared because they were dreams.
“Johan.”
Alice always spoke of the future.
She would even make little bets with Johan. What color would the rosemary bloom?
When she talked about the future, it almost felt as though she would truly be able to see it.
She sang of that hope.
But Alice never knew.
She never knew that by promising a future, she would trap Johan in the past.
The day the rosemary bloomed.
To Alice, it was a distant future.
To Johan, it was a long-forgotten past.
The two of them became trapped within that moment.
“If we had been given more time.”
There was never enough time.
She wanted to do more together.
But Alice knew. The time she had left was far too short.
At the end of the moment she had wished would last forever, Alice made a prayer.
“Could we have gone on more adventures together?”
The magic she left behind.
The ultimate possibility born from the seemingly meaningless ability called [Lucid Dream].
One dreams.
Within a dream, anything is possible. Countless possibilities unfold.
And then one day they awaken.
The scenery of the dream dissolves like foam.
The magic Alice created was the act of bringing that entire process into reality.
A magic that truly turned dreams into reality and reality into dreams.
Her future, Johan’s past, and a fleeting dream—
Alice’s Original Magic
[Adventure]
Had now reached this very moment.
***
The current Alice did not know.
She was merely a fragment of the original Alice, and therefore couldn’t use her ability.
The same was true of the magic she had awakened to and brought forth at the moment of her death.
A mirage-like magic that she could neither understand nor wield. She could only know of its existence.
That was why Alice could tell that Johan had activated that magic.
How?
How could Johan possibly use this magic?
She knew he had succeeded in deciphering her spell.
She had even seen him use it before.
But then and now were completely different.
How is the current Johan able to activate it?
It should have been impossible with Johan’s abilities.
He simply did not possess the vessel required to cast that magic.
Even if he fully understood it and had perfectly grasped the mechanism behind its activation, there remained a physical barrier.
Magical talent was not something that could be attained through understanding alone.
Only those with sufficient mana and magical power befitting the spell could truly be called talented mages.
By those standards, Johan fell short in every regard.
There was no way he should have been able to cast a spell that so vastly exceeded his limits.
“Johan…”
Nothing had changed all that much.
The magic that had silently begun eroding reality made it possible to dismiss anything that happened as nothing more than a dream.
Put more simply, Johan had obtained a second life with ridiculous ease.
But she knew.
That alone changed nothing.
Even if Johan had miraculously managed to cast the spell, it meant very little.
“Oracle, what will you do?”
“……”
Johan could not win.
Even if Abraham had failed to notice the magic Johan had activated, it meant nothing.
Even if he had gained a second life, a second chance.
Even if dozens or hundreds of events could be erased and treated as though they had never happened, he would still be unable to defeat the Emperor.
All it would do was prolong the painful moments.
“I will deal with him myself. Then he will give up.”
“……”
Abraham still sat upon the throne, looking thoroughly bored.
He did not regard the situation as anything particularly significant.
He was a monster who had lived for centuries.
Things failing to go according to plan was hardly a rare occurrence for him.
This did not even qualify as a failure.
“This is your last chance.”
Abraham knew how to resolve the situation before him.
Even if every leading actor on the stage abandoned their assigned roles and turned their sights on him, he could still make use of that.
That was why he was the Emperor.
He did not waver simply because his plans had gone off course.
The final chance Abraham offered—
It was mercy.
For someone like him, it was no different from granting a second chance.
Abraham knew.
Even though Alice had stepped forward as if she intended to deal with the matter herself, he knew that did not mean she planned to kill Johan.
She intended to persuade him.
She would convince Johan to turn back, even now.
She herself had already accepted the situation.
She understood death.
And because she understood it, she believed that if she explained it to him, Johan would understand as well and retreat.
“What gives you the right to come here as you please, Johan Damus?”
“I know where this is. I’ve been here a few times.”
“This is not the time for jokes. Who do you think you are to interfere with our plans?”
Alice rebuked Johan.
Right now, that was what she had to do.
The more he lost his affection for her, the better.
The more betrayed he felt, the better.
She had to push him away.
“I was foolish to ever think of you as a companion! To think you would do something this terrible!”
“You didn’t know I was this kind of person?”
“…At the very least, you were never this foolish.”
“You know me well enough to say that with certainty? Then what about the other way around?”
“……”
“Alice, let’s go back. I know at least this much….you don’t truly want to die.”
“…Do not call me by that name.”
“It’s your name, isn’t it? You introduced yourself that way, and now you’re telling me not to use it? Or what, do you want me to be more formal? Miss Alice? Lady Alice? Which is it?”
“I am not Alice. You know that, don’t you? I am not the person you knew. If that is what you felt, then it was nothing more than a misunderstanding.”
“What part of it is a misunderstanding?”
“I am only a fragment of Alice. Nothing more than a piece of her. You are merely looking at a shadow.”
“That’s enough for me.”
“What…?!”
“Didn’t you know? I’m the kind of person who spent more than ten years obsessing over a single trace she left behind.”
Alice bit down on her lip.
Her resolve wavered.
The depth of the affection Johan had just revealed made her feel as though tears might spill from her eyes.
“Then I will drive you out by force if I must. Someone like you is well within my ability to defeat.”
“Ah, I do tend to get pushed around by everyone.”
Johan smiled.
It was a rare smile, brimming with confidence.
“But I’ve never thought I’d lose to you. Not before, and not now. Did you know that? I won our bet.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“We made a bet about what color the rosemary flowers would be.”
“……”
“They turned out to be purple.”
“Then there is no need for further words.”
Alice opened her hand.
Various spells began to gather above her palm.
I have to get him out of here.
She intended to wait for an opening and send Johan far away.
If she could not persuade him, then at the very least she had to remove him from this place.
Once everything was over and she was dead, he would finally give up.
She would die.
The object of his revenge would disappear.
That was enough.
As long as he survived somehow, that alone would be enough.
“Enough.”
Yet despite her resolve, the Emperor had already made his decision.
Having failed to persuade him, no further chances would be given.
“Any more than this would be disrespectful to the other party, Oracle.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Abraham saw straight through Alice’s intentions.
Throw Johan out of here?
A man who had not been convinced?
There was no meaning in that.
“Johan Damus has already decided to become a destabilizing element. If you and I die, what difference would that make?”
“No. He would never—!”
“Do you truly not know him?”
With a faint chuckle, Abraham finally rose from his throne.
His hand moved to the swords hanging at his waist.
Two swords.
One was the blade he normally favored.
The other was the sword that killed gods.
But he did not draw either of them immediately.
Instead, as though choosing between the two, he asked:
“Johan Damus. Answer me.”
“Go ahead.”
The Empire had faced countless threats.
No….not merely threats to the Empire, but dangers capable of destroying the world itself.
There had been plagues.
There had been wars.
There had been famine and death.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had already swept across the continent once before.
And yet the Empire had endured.
Because every time the end approached, there had always been heroes who stood in its way.
But Abraham also knew that there was only a razor-thin line between a hero and a criminal.
He himself was proof of that.
He was the ruler who had ended a great war.
But at the same time, he was also a legendary butcher who had crushed every nation and forced them to kneel.
“What are you, then? Another apocalypse? Or perhaps a prophet? What is written in the apocalypse you have written?”
“I have no intention of becoming something that grand. Then or now, I’ve never been someone with that kind of capacity.”
“Then I shall ask again, Johan Damus. Are you an enemy of the Empire?”
“You overestimate yourself.”
At that moment, Abraham was placing himself and the Empire on the same level.
One individual bearing the weight of the whole.
It was an unbearably arrogant notion.
And yet, there was no one more fitting for such an evaluation than him.
That was why Johan answered.
“That’s right. I am the villain who will turn the Empire into chaos.”
Abraham nodded.
Then he moved the hand resting upon the hilt of his sword.
Past the first sword.
Toward the second.
“Then you too are one of the protagonists upon this stage.”
The Emperor Abraham drew the god-slaying demonic sword—
Lævateinn .
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