For a while, I just gathered my mind. The scene I had just seen was too vivid. It didn’t leave my mind, as if refusing to allow even forgetting it for a brief moment or pushing it to a corner.
“Please continue to think of me.”
Along with the request Ruvlian left behind.
At that, my already rock-bottom mood became even lower. With my head slightly lowered, I pressed the area around my eyes.
While he wouldn’t let me stop thinking about him even for a single moment, while he acted in a way that made me unable to forget, to leave such words. My pursed lips loosened, and an empty laugh burst out between my lips.
When I had no sense of how long I had been like that, I finally confirmed I had come to the past at the presence felt not far away. It was a confirmation that was very, very late.
The pure white marble and limestone existed not as large and small lumps but formed the temple in delicate shapes. I had good night vision, so I could notice things to some extent even though the surroundings were pitch dark. When I raised my head to look up, I saw a broken magic circuit. At that moment, I strongly felt a rough mana wavelength from a place at some distance.
Ah, there’s a war going on here now. Because Ruvlian occupied my mind proudly, I noticed all these situations late.
Having calmed my rough breathing, I retraced my purpose. Quickly find the sealing method and go to the Supreme God. That was the way to save Ruvlian. If I floundered in these endless emotions like this, his death would become useless. With only the heart to see him alive, I took a step.
“Who are you? I’ve never seen your face.”
After walking only a few steps, I met the owner of the presence I had felt not far away. Perhaps because it was wartime, he frowned and was suspicious first. Though it was a harsh voice, it wasn’t threatening. When I had experienced worse things, how could it be?
Rather, the blonde hair caught my eye. Unlike Ruvlian’s hair that caused the illusion of emitting light on its own even in darkness, it was different, but the single fact that it was blonde drew my gaze. The scene of him dying was still playing repeatedly in my head.
“You don’t seem to be a believer serving Shalome-nim…… Don’t tell me you’re a hidden believer on Shulchimo’s side?”
Shalome, Shulchimo. Since this was the Supreme God’s temple, Shalome seemed to be the Supreme God’s pseudonym, and Shulchimo the Evil God’s pseudonym. I didn’t even think they would have said their true names.
As if he was positioned quite high, he who seemed to know all the temple people’s faces raised his mana. I wondered if he was trying to capture me and interrogate me. However, if there was one thing he didn’t know, it was that I was a Hero who had tumbled and tumbled in the future, more advanced than this past. In short, it was very easy to knock out that believer.
I strongly cast sleep magic on the blonde believer who had gone limp. He wouldn’t wake up for about two days. I put one knee on the ground and lowered my upper body. The moment I placed my hand on his forehead to peek at his memories, I felt another presence. The sound of approaching footsteps rang out loudly.
I used illusion magic to make myself look like that believer and quickly examined his mind. It was to obtain useful information.
At the gradually growing sound, I overlaid clothes that Shulchimo’s believers wore, which I had found in his memory, on the fallen believer and appropriately changed his appearance. With good timing, a figure was revealed and an urging voice was heard.
“Miller. You said you were going to get the sacred object, but what are you doing there? Every moment counts!”
“……Kefil. Why else would I be doing this? Something big happened.”
I who got up while brushing off my knees retraced the memory I had just peeked at and responded a beat late. The believer I put to sleep was positioned at about the level of a High Priest if compared to the temple in Ruvlian’s world.
So there was quite a lot of useful information. Perhaps because of his meticulous personality, thanks to him grasping all the believers’ personal information, it was also easy to notice who the newly appeared believer was.
“Something big?”
“Yeah. A believer from Shulchimo’s side entered the temple.”
I lightly kicked with my foot the one who had transformed into the Evil God’s believer through illusion magic. Kefil’s gaze naturally turned to the fallen believer. His face hardened stiffly.
“……I didn’t know there would be someone who could infiltrate the temple.”
“He’s someone whose identity can’t be confirmed. Seems like he might be a hidden believer……”
I created a leisurely voice and lowered my upper body. I grabbed the believer’s chin area and turned it so Kefil could see his face. I couldn’t find doubt in the clenched fist and the sight of him gritting his teeth. Having confirmed this, I continued speaking.
“He didn’t seem skilled at handling power. The rough wavelength was transmitted as is.”
Since there wasn’t enough time, I couldn’t search the memory perfectly. Most was shallow, and when necessary information appeared, I only dug into that part deeply and quickly. So just in case, I reduced verbal mistakes by integrating the commonly used names of divine power, aura, mana, etc. into “power.”
Fortunately, Kefil still showed no sign of suspicion. He had an attitude of never even considering that the believer called Miller would fall to another.
“Ha. For a beginner to enter here. What kind of beginner’s luck is this?”
“Seems like it. He collapsed in no time. Lock this guy up somewhere appropriate.”
“What? Miller, what are you going to do?”
I watched Kefil who frowned and slowly blinked. It wasn’t a question worth asking from the person who had asked what I was doing there when I said I’d get the sacred object. Was he actually suspicious? There was also the possibility that he acted too well for me to notice. Or there was a part he noticed midway.
Somehow, tension circled in the hall. I tilted my head diagonally and said.
“I have to go get the sacred object.”
“Ah.”
“But Kefil.”
Are you suspicious of me?
At the flat question, Kefil furrowed his brow. Though his face said what kind of bullshit is that, I witnessed that instant when his fingertips flinched.
Well, I peeked at his memory in a short time, so I imitated as I imitated, but the actions could be different. There might be unique habits. Or he might distinguish in that way, like how I distinguished Ruvlian and the parallel world Ruvlian by their eyes.
“Kefil. Does it look like I’d fall to such a beginner?”
“……No way.”
Kefil who glanced at the believer shook his head. Perhaps because I directly asked once if he was suspicious of me, his actions became awkward. He looked like he was wavering, but that seemed to be because Miller belonged to the strong side. That’s why he received one of the five sacred objects and hid it within the temple.
I recalled Miller’s memory and pondered what to do with Kefil. That side was also a person who hid a sacred object within the temple, an important figure no less.
“Kefil.”
What I wanted was the sealing method, so there was no need to fight Kefil. The purpose of sealing the Evil God was also the same. If anything, we were on the same side. Yeah, it felt like a temporary same side.
“Why are you calling me, Miller?”
Coming from the future, and such. That kind of talk wasn’t believable, but it didn’t matter. Whether I knocked out Kefil and the believer who knew the location of the remaining sacred objects to steal information, or revealed it to obtain help, both were the same.
“As you expected, I’m not Miller. This is Miller.”
Nevertheless, the reason I revealed it was to save trouble. Rather than finding them one by one, it was faster to receive the help of Kefil, who was the only one who knew who hid the remaining sacred objects.
Of course, knocking him out and then rifling through his mind was the fastest method more than seeking cooperation. However, in the memory I peeked at, Kefil was the very person who drew the sealing circle, and he risked his life on the sealing. If he noticed the subtle atmosphere of trying to knock him out and committed suicide, things would get tangled.
Even now, wasn’t he sharply drawing out power that couldn’t be distinguished as mana or divine power, aiming at his own neck? I raised my gaze from the neck where blood was flowing. Kefil’s determined face entered my view.
“Are you Shulchimo’s believer? The sealing can be carried out even now. It’ll be troublesome if you kill me.”
Though it was a voice eerie beyond compare, it didn’t feel like a threat. It was no different from a cat’s hissing.
By the way, he certainly lies naturally, whether he’s good at acting. When it could only be executed by luring the Evil God with five sacred objects and even the sealing circle. I stared at Kefil with strange eyes and opened my lips.
“Not really. I have no intention to kill you.”
“Don’t lie! You killed Miller too, Miller too!”
At the stupid words, I momentarily pondered whether to cut off and subdue the wrist trying to use ambiguous power that I didn’t know was mana or divine power. Seeing my mind working like this, as expected, I’m not in my right mind either. Being a Hero who ruins people like this wasn’t worth doing.
“I told you to lock him up since he’s alive.”
“What?”
At Kefil who widened his eyes as if genuinely surprised, I could notice that the first world must have been quite peaceful. How he researched the sealing circle and led this war with such stupidity. Though it might be that he was out of his mind because Miller, who belonged to the strong side, was taken down, the impression that he was naive didn’t change.
“Go check.”
I gestured with my head while withdrawing only the illusion magic cast on the fallen Miller. Naturally, Kefil couldn’t readily move and hesitated. At that sight, when I stepped back three steps, he who didn’t abandon his tension furtively approached and examined the believer.
A fallen body. Blonde hair. Though there were only those two similarities, I thought of Ruvlian. Actually, I don’t know if the expression “thought of” is correct. Even when those believers appeared, he had never left my mind.
I wanted to quickly find the sealing method and return. I wanted to see the deep blue eyes full of vitality, I wanted to feel the actively beating heart, I wanted to hear the coquettish voice.
I just wanted to see Ruvlian alive and breathing.
