Chapter 155

“Do you know what you harbor?”

“The Seven Secrets.”

The flame in Shion Pollinglight’s heart,

Septem Arcana.

The promise of seven arts in the Seven Secrets.

“Is that what you call it? The name sounds plausible. Its essence is far uglier, hotter… and powerful to the point of being alien.”

Shion shrugged his shoulders.

It was to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about.

It was a story from before the Septem Arcana was called the Septem Arcana, when it was in the form of unrefined chaos.

The silver dragon narrowed her eyes at Shion’s brazenness.

“You endure it well. Can’t you hear the screams ringing in your ears even now? The smell of blood must be nauseating, and auditory and visual hallucinations are surely a constant. It’s not something a mere human should harbor.”

“I live as if such things don’t exist. I’ve grown used to it somehow.”

“Is that really so? Your insides already look like a complete wreck.”

A hunchback lives inside Shion.

It is the incarnation of a broken, melted-down, and knotted heart.

Even now, it wails, Cordis, Cordis, the hateful Empire.

It is pounding on Shion’s heart, asking how much longer he will let them live, and it seemed the silver dragon could hear the sound.

“What’s the use in talking more?”

The silver dragon approaches, wrapped in mist.

“As you wish, I will open it for you myself.”

Everything about her was silver.

Even things that would have originally been transparent had frozen for too long, embracing the years and beginning to glitter.

Therefore, she was sorrowfully brilliant.

She is the Last Mage, Sen Sorti and the Great Witch.

To manipulate the world, she did not particularly require cumbersome procedures like incantations or magical tools.

She simply held an intention, and when she sent it out, the world listened to her will.

The silver dragon lowered her gaze.

She wished to open Shion up.

His mind split wide open towards the silver dragon.

Shion could have stopped it if he wanted to, but he did not.

Rather, he waited quietly, as if urging her to look inside his heart.

At his strangely composed attitude, the silver dragon snorted and took a step into Shion’s mind.

Inside Shion, the silver dragon became a silver-haired woman.

She pushed through various memories and thoughts, descending deeper and deeper.

It was not uncommon for her to delve into another’s mind.

She knew well where and how to dig to reach the deepest place.

Deeper, deeper.

To a place more fundamental and more hidden.

To the deepest heart, to the deepest secret.

Shion did not hide it.

He opened his heart wide and showed it to her.

***

First, the scent of wild raspberries wafted.

My other half, met again after a long time, the heart-wrenching sound of crying from empty eye sockets.

Poesia, Poesia, my beautiful Chyallo flower.

Where did you go? Where have you gone, my child?

Oh, Serena de Verchello, a name I am afraid to even approach, a name that always makes me take a step back lest you break as before, yet you are so beautiful that I can never let you go.

In my eyes, you are lovely and lovely beyond anything else.

After the sorrowful heart, so much that it resembled a single poem or song, passed, jade-colored eyes appeared.

Inside Shion’s heart was Amethus Aretion.

He was a man who could part the sea if he ran about with a double-edged sword in hand.

His loyalty was something Shion could rely on.

The seven years in the West passed by in a flash.

Shion and Amethus had plotted various things in the West.

The silver dragon felt a slight interest but did not pay it much mind.

To her, who had lived for a thousand years, it was not an incredibly remarkable affair.

Seven years in the West, the events while escaping the Empire.

Beila Beile from a memory saw her.

He waved, so she pretended not to see.

He was her old colleague, embarrassing no matter when she saw him.

Deeper still, though it was already deep.

To the time when he was called Zionis, the 5th Prince.

The Succession War! The Grand Convergence!

The name Pies Roesti, the name Nebulo Le Etier, the memories of Zionis, the neglect in the Imperial Palace, the mockery from the likes of Nebulo, the life of a child who was always wary.

‘…….’

Just how deep does it go?

Deeper still, without even a moment to question.

The soil of the great mountain range, the taste of insects, the smell of blood, the raspberry-colored eyes that looked at the sea with him, the silver-haired mage.

Shion’s past days surge up.

The battlefield. Ah, my unforgettable comrades.

The time that has passed and the things that were lost, the things I want back but cannot retrieve, the sorrow known so keenly, the voice of the woman telling me to go back, and that Imperial Throne that I must one day reach…….

All of this is…….

‘Memories of a twisted time…!’

The silver dragon was horrified.

She was, before she knew it, in the deepest part of Shion’s mind.

There, seven flames were rising. They were flames she knew, but she could not understand why they were inside Shion’s heart.

And so, she reached Shion’s origin.

The place she reached was, as expected.

As if it were a matter of course…….

“How futilely you ended, Shion.”

***

“To fall right before the Imperial Throne you so yearned for.”

She said with a chuckle.

“But don’t worry. When you open your eyes, it will be the past. Yes, Regression. Another chance. That was the promise, wasn’t it?”

The silver-haired mage smiled faintly.

“You have to reach it this time. That Imperial Throne, at the end of the destiny you could not reach, now, go back, Shion Pollinglight. With the soul that harbors the Seven Secrets, reach the pinnacle of the Great Empire… is what I should say, but you’ve heard this story many times, haven’t you?”

She, how could she, in someone else’s memory, in an unshakeable past, moves as she pleases and shakes the memories as she pleases.

She recognized that she was herself.

She also recognized that she was herself.

Which she was, which she was not very important.

“Let’s cut the rest and welcome the guest.”

She greeted herself.

“Hello, me.”

***

The silver dragon who had just entered tilted her head as she saw the Great Witch who was already there.

“Are you me?”

“Yes. I am you.”

“So it was true.”

“What was true?”

“He said I was his master.”

“I am that child’s master.”

“Then I must be that punk’s master too.”

“That’s right.”

The Great Witch smiled bashfully.

The silver dragon smiled along.

“You turned back time, didn’t you?”

“He went back in time.”

“Finally, after a thousand years?”

“Finally, after a thousand years.”

Their conversation resembled an echo.

She spoke to herself, and she gave herself an answer.

The same heart went back and forth, yet it was a different heart.

It was a rare experience even for the silver dragon who had lived for a thousand years, so the two Sen Sortis could not hold back their laughter.

She was she.

They were she.

The Last Mage, Sen Sorti, Beluchian Pollinglight, the Silver Dragon and the Great Witch.

“If that’s the case….”

The silver dragon from the outside posed a question to the Great Witch who was inside. Her tone was very cautious.

“…This child must be that child.”

“Yes. That child is this child.”

The Great Witch inside smiled, and the silver dragon from the outside smiled back.

They had the same face, yet they had different smiles.

Only a hint of sorrow was identical.

“The time has come.”

“The time has come.”

“Will Cordisias fall?”

“It would be nice if he did.”

Silver laughter was exchanged.

They shared the same heart with the same face.

The Great Witch inside extended her hand.

She knew her role was done.

It was time for the thought-form that lingered in Shion’s mind to disappear.

There were no regrets.

She had been waiting for this moment from the very beginning.

The silver dragon from the outside took her hand.

She chose to inherit the new self she had just met.

The self before her would disappear, but it did not matter.

Because she was still she.

“This is as far as I go.”

“I’ll take it from here.”

***

The silver dragon stepped back.

She was able to exit Shion’s mind in an instant.

She took the form of a silver-haired woman and swept back her hair.

She looked at Shion with completely different eyes than before.

“It was you….”

There was no coldness in her gaze.

A hard-to-describe generosity and warmth resided in it, bewildering Hulohelle and Jeberk.

“Yes, it was you….”

The silver dragon saw Shion Pollinglight for the first time today.

However, she looked at him with affectionate eyes, as if she knew him very well, as if she had been watching him for a long time.

“My Shion, my disciple.”

“…Are you my master?”

“That’s right. It’s me, at least half of me.”

Beluchian Pollinglight smiled faintly.

“The me that was inside you passed on her memories. So I’ll probably be similar to the me that you know.”

“That’s welcome news.”

“It’s rare for the heart to move along just by gaining memories, but perhaps because it’s the memory of me from a different timeline, my heart is quite stirred.”

She slowly approached Shion and stroked his head.

Shion entrusted his head to her hand.

He smiled, but he couldn't hide a slight sadness.

It was because he had passed too much time and gone through too many things to face her again.

“Let me introduce myself again. I am Shion Pollinglight. I am your disciple.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Shion Pollinglight. I am Beluchian Pollinglight, your master.”

Beluchian asked.

“Shion, my disciple. Why have you come to this powerless master, who has no talent other than frolicking above the clouds?”

“I need your help.”

“What kind of help? I am bound by my promise with the last emperor.”

Beluchian Pollinglight cannot descend below the clouds.

It was a promise made between a human god and a human god, so it could not be broken.

It wasn't simply that her body couldn't go down.

The magic she wielded, the breath she exhaled, nothing new that came from her could go below the clouds.

This was also why she commanded her five retainers.

“I just need a few materials and a few spells. I’ve already organized a list.”

“Let’s see, hmm… it seems you need to save someone. Alright. I’ll make it quickly and send it over. I’ll have Jeberk do it.”

“You’re accepting very easily.”

“This much for my disciple is nothing.”

The silver dragon smiled benevolently.

“Is this your only request? If so, I’d be disappointed.”

“There are a few more, but they won’t be that difficult for you, Master.”

“Tell me everything. All I can do is give you a few items with a few spells in them.”

Shion told her everything, relieved.

It was an unexpected triumph. He had intended to persuade the silver dragon to get what he needed.

However, he had judged that it would require a lot of preparation and effort and might be very dangerous.

But what was this, she had accepted the thought-form that was in his mind and had become the master he remembered.

For her to be so amiable!

“Hmm….”

The silver dragon looked Shion up and down.

Her tone suggested that something was bothering her.

“Yes, that would be good.”

“What would you do?”

“I’ve thought of a gift to give you.”

She shot a look at Shion’s chest as if to tap it.

“The Septem Arcana is in a much more unstable state than you think. It seems I might be able to supplement it with the materials I have on hand.”

“…The materials on hand, you say.”

“You know them well, too.”

Beluchian Pollinglight raised her voice.

“Valziart!”

Her voice echoed deep into Shion’s soul, to reach the ears of the shadow noble who was pretending to be asleep and looking for an opportunity!

“Valziart, get out here right now!”