Kays Translations

Epilogue [Part 1]

A week later, the excitement of the Lion King Grand Festival had completely faded.

The nobles from within and beyond the empire, the travelers who had filled the Imperial Capital, and the many festival stalls had all disappeared. The city had returned to the way it had been before the preparations began.

The same was true at the capital’s many academies. Conversations praising those who had competed in the various events had dwindled. Now, students mostly spoke about assignments and the approaching summer vacation.

At the height of summer, during lunch on the academy rooftop—

“…It’s quiet.”

“…It really is.”

Only Ren and Licia were there.

Ren sat on a bench, while Licia leaned against the rooftop fence.

Was this peaceful academy life their ordinary existence, or had the extraordinary events of the other day become their true normal? After experiencing so much, Ren had begun to feel that the two were not all that different.

“You were still saying you felt tired yesterday, Ren. How are you today?”

“I’m back to normal. What about you, Licia?”

“Me too. I finally feel as energetic as I did before the Lion King Grand Festival began.”

Their exhaustion had come less from physical wounds than from depleted mana and mental fatigue.

So much had happened afterward that they had only regained the chance to truly relax a few days ago. At last, they could spend a quiet moment like this.

“Shall we visit the Lion’s Holy Office today? It has been a while.”

“…It may be about time.”

By “about time,” Ren meant that they had rested long enough.

Only a few hours had passed for them, but their time inside Roses Caitas had been far too intense.

After the battle with the Sword Demon ended, the two of them had continued falling into the depths below.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The space around the hole was collapsing with them. They could not use Nature Magic to take root in the crumbling walls and climb back upward.

They fell while cutting through countless rocks and pieces of debris, wondering how long it would continue.

What felt endless lasted only several seconds. Then their bodies plunged into an underground lake connected to a subterranean waterway.

Licia’s Sacred Magic protected them from the falling rubble. For several minutes, they surrendered themselves to the current, repeatedly surfacing for air before sinking beneath the water again.

“Pwah!”

“Cough! Cough!”

When the darkness began to brighten, Ren surfaced first. Licia appeared next, coughing as she spat out the water she had swallowed.

“Ren! Can you swim!?”

“I’m completely fine, but don’t tell me you can’t—!”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’ve simply never had the opportunity to swim!”

“I-I see. For now, hold on to me!”

Ren could not remember having swum before either, yet he had no trouble.

They surfaced outside Roses Caitas, somewhere in the river flowing through the gorge beneath the bridge.

The current was not especially strong, and the water there deserved to be called a clear stream. Apparently, it had carried them along a channel leading out of the mountain.

“Licia, take my hand.”

“All right. Thank you.”

Ren walked through the shallows and helped Licia toward the riverbank.

Licia gathered the hem of her skirt and wrung out the river water. Ren summoned the Flame Magic Sword and felled a nearby tree.

It was living wood, but the Flame Magic Sword ignited it without difficulty.

Even after she squeezed out the water, Licia’s skirt still clung uncomfortably to her skin.

“Hehe. I never imagined I would be grateful for a bonfire in the middle of summer.”

They intended to rest briefly before returning.

However—

“Look up there.”

Licia raised her gaze.

Far above stood the bridge leading toward the mountain where Roses Caitas had been located. Its dizzying height was not what drew their attention. They were looking beyond it, toward Roses Caitas itself.

The angle prevented them from seeing much of the site, but the Cage of Time was gone. Faint cries of surprise drifted down from the people nearby.

“It really did break.”

“We couldn’t have escaped otherwise, so I suspected as much. What worries me is how much time has passed.”

“Since we entered the Cage of Time?”

“Yes. As you can see, checking my watch isn’t an option.”

Of course it had broken. The glass over its face was cracked, and the hands had vanished.

“I’d like to lodge at least one complaint with the Elfen Church, but doing that might turn this into an enormous affair.”

“Right… If people began asking why only the two of us were caught and suspected some connection to the Demon King cult, it would become troublesome. We should consult Ulysses-sama and Radius first.”

“Agreed. Though if it becomes truly unbearable, perhaps we should run away together.”

“Oh dear… We’d become wanted fugitives.”

They were joking, of course. They laughed together, certain that the situation would not become so dangerous. As far as they knew, no one was even aware they had been inside Roses Caitas.

There was no point trying to find an answer here, so they looked up toward the bridge once more.

Then, almost simultaneously, they sat on the gravel and turned their attention back to the bonfire.

“Neither of us can move properly. We should rest a little longer.”

“Yes… I feel as though I could fall asleep this instant.”

Perhaps because the tension had finally left them, the heaviness in their bodies was extraordinary.

Licia could heal them with Sacred Magic, but Ren had no intention of placing an unnecessary burden on her. For now, the wisest choice was simply to let their bodies recover.

“How are we supposed to get back from down here?”

“Um… Perhaps there are stairs somewhere?”

“At the bottom of a gorge?”

“…Now that I’ve said it aloud, that seems unlikely.”

“Then we’ll have to climb the mountain.”

“A-Again…?”

Thinking about the journey ahead left them dispirited.

Even so, nothing could outweigh their relief at having survived.

—A little over ten minutes later, Fiona and Chronois hurried down to them.

Fiona had planned to watch the martial arts tournament with Ren and Licia that afternoon, so she had been waiting in the Hanging Garden. When word reached her of an anomaly at Roses Caitas, she and Chronois rushed there together.

Chronois found the two by sensing their presence at the bottom of the gorge.

“—First, both of you must come somewhere safe.”

Even without knowing the details, Fiona immediately understood that the two people on the riverbank were connected to the disturbance.

In the end, the safest place was beside Ulysses, for several different reasons.

On the way back to the Imperial Capital, Ren and Licia learned something from Chronois.

“The more I hear, the stranger it sounds… I suspect the people outside saw the seal vanish without warning. I don’t know why the two of you were trapped inside it, but…”

“Chronois-san, does that mean—”

“Yes. The two of you were trapped in a space where time did not pass.”

Ren and Licia stared at a clock in disbelief.

Not even two hours had passed since they heard the choir’s hymn.

In other words, the people outside noticed the Cage of Time’s collapse only after the battle within it had already ended.

They had no way of knowing what Ren and Licia had done inside.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The two told only those closest to them what had happened. The truth of the Cage of Time was known solely to the members of the Clausel and Ignat families, Chronois, and Radius.

Radius placed everyone under a strict order of silence regarding the account Ren and Licia gave that day.

“Leave what comes next to us for now,” he and Ulysses had said, their strong voices tinged with anger.

Back on the rooftop, Ren and Licia heard the academy bell.

Normally it announced the beginning of the first afternoon class, but there were no afternoon lessons that day. The entire academy had been dismissed at noon because the faculty had work connected to the Lion King Grand Festival’s preparation period.

“Shall we go home?”

“Let’s.”

They left the rooftop.

The door creaked as they opened it and returned to the school building.

The corridors were lively with students preparing to leave and others lingering to talk with friends.

Kaito noticed them and called out. Licia stepped a short distance away, considerately allowing the two boys to speak.

“Hey, Ashton! Want to get something to eat?”

“Sorry. I was already planning to head home.”

“Ah… Then I’ll ask again another time!”

Kaito started to turn away, then hurriedly faced Ren again.

“We haven’t crossed paths much lately, so I never got to say it, but thanks for the Lion King Grand Festival! Because of you, I had a great time right to the end!”

“But the semifinals and final were canceled, weren’t they?”

“That’s my only regret. Still, it couldn’t be helped. Once everyone heard the seal at Roses Caitas had vanished, the whole place erupted. No one had time for the tournament after that. The sixth and seventh days might as well not have happened.”

“That’s true,” Ren said with a wry smile. He scratched his cheek and stared off into space.

Licia happened to be standing in that direction, wearing the same awkward smile.

“I heard the inside of Roses Caitas was unbelievable,” Kaito continued.

“What was so remarkable about it?”

“The traces of battle! The plaza of divine statues from the legends was completely gone, and there was a gigantic hole stretching deep underground. There must have been one incredible battle there long ago.”

“…Yes. Perhaps there was.”

“The Elfen Church is investigating now. They still have no idea why the seal suddenly disappeared.”

Everything Kaito described concerned Roses Caitas after the incident. Since only a handful of people knew Ren and Licia had been involved, the public account had advanced no further than that.

When he finished, Kaito waved and left.

“Ren.”

Licia returned with quick, light steps.

After a moment’s hesitation, she gave him the same wry smile as before.

“What sort of reaction do you think he would have had if we’d told him we were responsible?”

“If it were Leonaal-senpai, he’d probably laugh and say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.'”

“Hehe… I think you’re right.”

Come to think of it, Radius and Ulysses had taken charge of everything following the incident.

Several days had passed since Radius promised to come to them if anything happened.

(Perhaps there really isn’t anything important enough to tell us.)

Radius had not shown himself to Ren since the sixth day of the Lion King Grand Festival, when Ren and Licia entered the Cage of Time. Mirei had visited the academy and told him only that Radius was extraordinarily busy dealing with the incident.

They left the school building and passed through the gate.

Their plan had been to walk to the station as usual and return to Elendil.

However—

A short distance beyond the gate, Radius appeared before them.

He looked at the startled Ren and Licia.

“I’m sorry to ask so suddenly, but may I have some of your time?”

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter