Something seeped into my consciousness.
They were someone’s memories.
And I could vaguely tell whose memories they were.
Countless memories, far too vast to fully grasp.
Stories from long, ancient ages, stretching back over thousands of years.
It was impossible for a human brain to remember each and every one of them.
That was why, among them, all I could perceive were fragmented, powerful impressions.
…Memories of Ignis left behind in the heart.
Among those countless memories—
There was someone strangely familiar.
A figure whose appearance was exactly the same as it was now.
It was their final conversation, between the owner of this memory and her.
[…Lily.]
[I’ve ended up placing far too heavy a burden on you.]
[The foolish adults left you all alone… I’m truly sorry.]
It was a very fragmentary memory.
But the emotions contained within it reached me completely intact.
It was a wound steeped in regret and sorrow.
Words imbued with Ignis’s pain.
She had listened in silence without saying a word, then slowly raised her hand.
In the memory, she had lowered her head.
What could she have been feeling then?
What kind of expression had she been making?
…There was no way for me to know.
An unfamiliar light swirled in the hand Lily had raised.
And the moment it burst—
The final memory between Ignis and her came to an end.
A conversation from thousands of years ago.
A farewell from thousands of years past.
It was probably a memory from the time of the Dragons’ War.
…How empty.
Well, that was the nature of war.
In the end, it was always the survivors who were left to suffer.
I didn’t know the exact details of that war, but whatever emotions she, the sole survivor, must have felt surely couldn’t have been pleasant.
Great… I saw something I didn’t need to see…
These were memories I didn’t need to know. Memories I never wanted to know in the first place.
All that remained now was a lingering sense of discomfort.
***
Clang!
Clang!
A familiar sound rang in my ears.
Reacting instinctively, my eyes slowly opened.
The first thing I felt as my returning consciousness settled in was the sensation of my body sizzling in the burning heat.
“Oh, you’re awake? You sure managed to stay alive, huh?”
“…Of course I did.”
“When you pulled off that crazy stunt like it was nothing, I honestly thought you had a death wish.”
“As if I would. …But seriously, if you were going to lay me down, there’s a bed right over there. Why did you just throw me down on the bare floor? Right next to the forge, no less?”
“Hey, lying there for a bit won’t kill you.”
For an ordinary person, this was practically the perfect environment to meet an untimely death, you know?
This muscle-brained guy… Just like in the game, there wasn’t a single thing about him I liked.
“By the way… this isn’t the lair, is it?”
“Right after you pulled that stunt, I shut it down. If something went wrong with the heart and the lair collapsed, that’d be a real disaster.”
“I see.”
Just as he said.
The place where I had woken up was the very forge where I had first met Tarhen.
He was casually continuing his work, forging weapons like it was just another day.
…Talk about having a consistent hobby.
“Hmmm… Well, seeing as you’ve woken up, it looks like that crazy stunt of yours was a success.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet, and you already know the result?”
“I can feel it. Compared to before, the unstable lair has changed quite a bit. And so has my body, for that matter.”
He said this while proudly flexing his muscular arm.
…Reviving this muscle-head didn’t exactly fill me with pride.
“Anyway, I’m really grateful.”
“…Empty words, huh?”
“Haha, of course not! Here, take this.”
Clang!
As he struck the floor with his hammer, a bright light flared up, and something appeared at the spot he had hit.
It was a ring, faintly glowing with a red color.
“I have a rough idea of how you managed to link with the Dragon Heart. You’ve been carrying around something pretty interesting, haven’t you?”
“…….”
“As thanks, I’ll give you something that’s perfect for your unstable body. It’s one of the rarest items in the lair.”
“Huh? This is…”
“Pretty cool, right? Now, as for what this is—”
“I know what it is.”
I stared at the ring he handed me. My expression was stiff with surprise.
Never in my wildest dreams had I thought I’d see this here.
Why is the Flame of Life here?
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary ring.
But knowing its abilities, I was at a loss for words.
This wasn’t just some magic item. It was a holy relic.
If I remembered right, this would’ve been in the second year.
It was a Holy See episode that appeared in the Aria or Seria route.
One of the holy relics owned by the pope who had shown up back then.
…That bastard of a pope. He didn’t have it on him the last time we met, so I figured he’d hidden it somewhere. And it turns out it was in a place this random?
No, more importantly—
If this relic had originally been inside the lair,
Then how on earth had that pope bastard gotten his hands on it?
What had happened between then and now?
…Of course, no matter how much I thought about it now, there was no convincing answer.
“What, you know what this thing is?”
“It’s a holy relic.”
“Huh~ Look at you. That thing earlier too. What the hell were you before all this? You seem to know everything.”
“I’m not telling you.”
“…Tch. So you even know what kind of relic it is?”
“Of course.”
Holy relics were often called objects imbued with divine blessing.
But the holy relics I knew couldn’t be defined by such a simple standard.
Because the origins of their creation were all completely different.
Some were objects into which divine blessing had accidentally flowed.
Others were made directly by a god or had divine authority embedded in them.
…Some were even tied to the very laws of the world itself.
In any case, each relic differed in both the type and extent of its power.
And this ring—
It was a relic I had been searching for all this time.
The Flame of Life.
Unlike the half-finished book relic I had—
This was a ring infused with complete power.
The main culprit behind the pope’s second phase pattern in the game.
It was a ring with an overpowered ability, commonly referred to as the resurrection pattern.
To be precise, it contained a fragment of the power tied to the concept of life, overseen by the Sun Goddess Iris.
With just this, even if the vessel holding mana was completely shattered, it could be restored once.
In other words, I now had a form of insurance for my terminally ill body.
Talk about luck.
All I wanted was to remove the burden lodged in my heart through the Dragon Heart.
And yet, by sheer luck, I ended up with something this ridiculous.
A smile naturally tugged at my lips at the unexpected windfall.
Beep— Beep—
“…Huh?”
A sudden alert sounded from my chest.
It was the communication magical tool Ren had given me earlier.
“…By any chance, how long was I unconscious?”
“Hmm, not too long, I think? Maybe a little over five minutes?”
…Thank goodness I hadn’t been out for days.
With a sigh of relief, I channeled mana into the badge on my chest.
Beep— crackle!
– Ain! Can you hear me?
As soon as the call connected,
Ren’s urgent voice came through before I could even say a word.
“…Ren? What’s going on?”
– Are you still in the black market?
“Huh? Uh… yeah, I am. Why?”
– Something’s going on downstairs. The employees are forcing people out.
They were forcing people out?
Thud—!
At that moment, a tremendous roar echoed from afar.
At the same time, the forge I was in began to shake.
– Ain! If you’re— there— then I—!
Beep!
The unstable communication soon went dead.
It seemed something upstairs was interfering with the mana transmission.
…Wait a minute.
Was there any sudden event like this in the game?
A random event.
There was definitely an episode that took place in the black market.
If it was an event big enough to cause this kind of commotion…
…It has to be the chimera escape.
It wasn’t a particularly important event.
Just like Ren had said, the employees would drive people out, and there wouldn’t be any civilian casualties.
Normally, it would end as a fairly dull event where players were simply kicked out of the black market like everyone else.
The problem was that I wasn’t on the surface level….I was in the underground area.
Even in the game, if a character was in the underground area when this event triggered, an unexpected boss fight would begin.
A special gimmick where you had to defeat the chimera in order to escape.
…What a pain.
It wasn’t a tough enemy, but it was definitely a hassle.
This event was a kind of time attack. You had to kill it before the chimera’s rampage caused the black market to collapse.
I glanced around the forge, which was shaking from the tremors, and said to him,
“Looks like something’s going on outside?”
“Seems like it.”
“What about you, Mr. Tarhen?”
“Me? Hmm… well, I don’t really care if this place collapses. I was thinking of relocating anyway, now that I’m awake. I’m not particularly interested in the mundane world.”
“…I see. Then, I’ll get going first.”
Well, that made sense.
From his point of view, he probably had no interest in anything except guarding his master’s lair.
There was no need to worry.
“…Oh, right. If this place collapses and you need to find me, just go where your heart leads you.”
“Where my heart leads me?”
“Yeah. One way or another, the lair is now connected to your heart, so you should be able to sense my location whenever you need to.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
He suddenly stood up.
Staring at his final creation in his hand with satisfaction, he gave me a big grin.
“You’ll have to figure that out on your own, idiot.”
Whoosh!
With just those words,
The gatekeeper vanished without a trace.
Like a flame.
“…What the hell was that supposed to mean?”
Why would he even tell me how to find him in the first place?
Did he expect me to need that someday?
…Another mystery that wouldn’t be solved just yet.
Right now, this wasn’t what mattered.
I checked my physical condition and immediately stepped out of the building.
Outside, the area was filled with green fog.
This is the mist created by Vanek’s poison…
It was a familiar sight.
Back when I used to fight boss battles in the game, the black market was always shrouded in mist.
– Kieeeeek!!
Thud!
Thud!
A grotesque shriek echoed through the streets.
“…It’s coming from that direction.”
I stirred the magical power stored in my heart and completed my preparations for battle.
…Perhaps it was due to the influence of the Dragon Heart, but manipulating magic felt unusually light today.
Well, that works out. I needed to test this ability anyway.
A chimera seemed like just the right opponent.
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