DSFL | Chapter 128

~Chapter 128~

At the end of my thoughts, I suddenly snapped the book shut.

Thump, thump.

It’s just a useless guess.

Maybe I was just spinning up false hope. But Seiren never managed to take the guide.

That meant he hadn’t gained permission to enter the Library either.

―……

Arkan appeared silently beside me.

“Did you find out who tampered with the timeline?”

―More importantly, why don’t you take a look at this?

He deflected instead of answering, which made him all the more suspicious.

I think I know Arkan a little better now.
Still, this was an improvement from before, when he would’ve just stayed completely silent at difficult questions.

Where he pointed, I saw a book I hadn’t noticed before.

“…You want me to read that too?”

―If you want! No pressure, of course.

He was a master at rousing curiosity.

And just then, letters began to fall from the sky like heavy raindrops.

“…!”

Startled, I turned to Arkan, but he didn’t move an inch.

“Ar-Arkan?”

Something’s wrong, isn’t it?

The words echoed in my mouth unsaid—
because the letters that crashed to the ground were writhing as though begging for help.

I wanted to read the words, but the letters fell too quickly, overlapping and piling up, until they were indistinguishable from the pitch-black ground.

I forced myself to look away.

[Carpea Calendar, Year 931, December 2
The Imperial Alliance surrenders. An outpost outside the capital burns.]

[Carpea Calendar, Year 931, December 6
Under the black flag, the traitor marched from the north and entered the capital walls. Within three days, the Imperial Palace fell.
The truth the Empire had hidden was revealed. The sealed Archmage, the “Nameless One,” fled from the Dremokan Forest. Whereabouts unknown.
All magic tied to her collapsed into nothing.]

[Carpea Calendar, Year 931, December 13
An unusual day of red rain.]

[Carpea Calendar, Year 931, December 14
The Kingdom of Orphen demands the “Nameless Archmage.”
The traitor replies that she has entered a “deep sleep.”]

[Carpea Calendar, Year 932, January 1
A mage of the Ailins bloodline awakens, inheriting the Nameless One’s power.
The Empire expects renewed prosperity from the revived magic.]

…This was—

The rain of letters fell faster, like a meteor shower.

[Carpea Calendar, Year 932, January 3
The Ailins bloodline mage declares that the Nameless Archmage has found a “peaceful death.”]

Ailins was dead.

[Carpea Calendar, Year 932, January 5
Collapse of the curse left by the Nameless Archmage confirmed.
War hero Bluea Roygin and his descendants’ whereabouts unknown.]

[Carpea Calendar, Year 932, January 11
The traitor, Ricardo Hessen, disappears.
Presumed suicide.]

Thud!

My eyes froze on the letters.

I read them again and again, but nothing changed.
The record of the future did not continue.

“Ah…”

My heart neither fell nor burst—It simply stopped.

My mind went completely white. No—completely erased.

“T-that’s a lie, right? You’re just trying to mess with me…”

I couldn’t even form proper words.

That had to be it. This made no sense.

But the letters crashing to the ground twisted as if to deny me.

Ricardo’s voice rang clear in my ears.

〈I’ll follow right after. See you soon.〉

…That’s what you said.

And you said you would never lie to me.

―Didn’t you say it yourself? That even if it wasn’t the shortcut, you could take the long way around?

Arkan’s pitch-black face flickered like a candle in the wind.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trembling.

So this is what that meant.

Arkan held out his hand gently.

And without hesitation, I grasped it.

No doubts. No pause.

***

The Carpea Empire, stripped of Ailins’s magic, was thrown into chaos.

Much was lost. Much was born.
And much disappeared.

…Including you.

Ricardo dragged a hand over his face roughly.

The day she vanished, the world fell completely silent.

No storms. No destruction.

The cursed war was over. The Imperial family was ruined.

Some called it the perfect victory.

But no one remembered her.

〈She’s already dead, isn’t she?〉

Bianca Roygin.

Even with his memories still vivid, everyone spoke in one voice.

She was someone who had already died.

Even Bluea, the grandfather who loved her so deeply, buried his granddaughter’s name in his heart.

It was as if everything had been his delusion.

Others whispered, too.

That the traitor, with blood on his hands, had gone mad.

And now he was paying the price he deserved.

…Maybe they’re right.

The dolls she once gave him as gifts were gone too.

But Ricardo remembered them perfectly.

Because every path he walked was littered with her traces.

He had promised her.

To create the world she wanted, and if she came to love it someday, to stay by his side.
The words were still fresh in his ears.

Everything was perfect.

But what was the point if she wasn’t there?

She had barged into his world uninvited, then vanished without a trace.

Nothing could take her place.

Winter would end soon.
But Ricardo knew.

The spring he had always believed would return—would never come again.

You said you had a place you wanted to go back to.

He wished that were true.

If she had safely returned to the place she longed for, he wouldn’t feel like this.

But she…

〈I’ve grown curious about the world you want to show me.〉

That’s what she had said.

The Bianca he knew always kept her promises.
If she couldn’t, she would deny it outright.

Ricardo recalled the day he met Ailins.
The day she finally regained her freedom.
And he had been the first to find her trail.

〈I must be a fool. I don’t normally believe in promises so easily.〉

Strangely, what he felt then was relief.

Someone else who shared his memories.

She hadn’t completely disappeared.

〈Or maybe… she’s already kept her promise. That could be it.〉

At Ailins’s words, Ricardo remembered.

〈I also have promises to keep…〉

The excuse she had once added.

He could only laugh faintly at the thought.

If it was the woman he knew, she would keep her promises no matter what.

Her kindness toward others had always eaten away at her, and he had hated that.

But ironically, that very trait became the clue that might lead him back to her.

There were so many things he wanted to ask if they met again.

Her real name.

What she looked like apart from Bianca.

…No, the truth was simple.

He just wanted to see her again.

It didn’t matter who she really was. The woman he had seen until now was enough.

Ricardo clenched the key in his hand.

It was something she had dropped the last time they met.

She had always fidgeted with it without realizing.

It must have been precious. He remembered some strange scenes around it.

Ha, they said I liked Idette.

Groundless. If anything, ridiculous.

But the written words had declared it with certainty. That it was his destined future.

…Absurd.

In the story that ended, his name was nowhere. Nor was Bianca’s.

No—nor hers.

Ricardo’s world was already overflowing with her traces.

Nothing could be described without her name.

At that moment, a cold breeze brushed his cheek.

Gentle as her warm breath.

Ricardo smiled faintly.

“Please wait just a little longer.”

He would come soon.