The tunnel was longer than I expected.
I sighed as I fiddled with the stifling area around my neck.
‘This is supposed to be a pass?’
The choker with a red gem embedded in the center was just uncomfortable. As I fidgeted with it, Simon spoke to me.
“Um, Anne. It’s just… the villagers tend not to like outsiders very much.”
He let out a small sigh.
“The atmosphere might feel a little tense.”
“Well, could it be worse than how you were at the Magic Tower?”
“……”
Simon glanced at me silently.
Still, for him to say something like this...
And what Ricardo said earlier, too—it all made me a bit anxious.
“Even so, I hope you understand.”
“Sorry?”
Simon stared silently at the end of the tunnel before opening his mouth.
Orphen both feared and admired Carpea’s magic. They wanted to be like Carpea, which had achieved dazzling growth based on the great power of mana, and constantly targeted Drimokan.
However, even among those people, there were those who did not believe in magic.
They considered magic ominous and could not understand a kingdom that wanted war for its sake.
Eventually, those who opposed the war left for a place untouched by magical power.
“That became the origin of the magic-restricted zone—Bilpart.”
Before I knew it, we had reached the end of the tunnel. As my eyes slowly blinked, adjusting to the light, the view of Bilpart became clearly visible.
‘Oh, it’s more than I expected…’
It looked ordinary.
It wasn’t much different from the other villages I’d seen so far.
A village that reeked of everyday life, with nothing special about it.
Of course, as Simon had mentioned, the gazes directed at us weren’t exactly friendly, but I had expected that much.
‘He said his family opposed him becoming a mage, didn’t he?’
Back then, I thought it was simply because Simon was too young, but now that I knew more about Bilpart’s situation, I found it impressive that he had ventured to Carpea so boldly.
“I’m planning to head straight home, but Anne, where are you going?”
I hesitated for a moment at Simon’s question.
It would be difficult for me to track the 'weirdo' that Peril had mentioned all on my own.
If I’d known, I would’ve asked Peril more questions.
I started speaking hesitantly.
“Actually, um… I came because I heard there was someone who used to research the timeline.”
“What?”
Simon tilted his head as if wondering if he’d misheard.
D-Did I say too much?
But it was already too late to take it back.
“I heard he passed away, but I was wondering if there might be any materials he left behind.”
Simon’s expression became subtle as he listened to me.
“…Have you perhaps heard of him?”
Should I bring up the spiral story too?
Draw it on the ground now?
“Sorry. I was just joking.”
Simon looked as though he’d heard something absurd, so I quickly backtracked.
Ricardo, who had been listening next to me, casually added,
“They’re not going to willingly share information about Bilpart with outsiders like us, so we’ll probably have to search around.”
Yeah. Gotta do some legwork.
“Then let’s meet again on the way back.”
I gave him a light farewell and started walking away. At that moment, Simon asked again, looking confused.
“How do you know about that, Anne?”
“…Sorry?”
He still looked deeply puzzled.
“I mean, you’re talking about Lord Atkins, right?”
It was an unfamiliar name, but seeing Simon act like he knew something, I hurriedly nodded.
“Y-Yeah! Him!”
* * *
Atkins.
He was a man with no known background. No one even knew his full name, so people just called him by his surname.
“He was a legendary adventurer surrounded by rumors. The children of Bilpart grew up hearing his tales.”
“His tales?”
Simon nodded.
“A legendary figure who defeated monsters and uncovered the world’s secrets. Don’t they have stories like that in Carpea too?”
Well, I wasn’t sure, but it did sound like a common tale.
As I stumbled while climbing the mountain, Ricardo grabbed my arm to steady me.
“T-Thanks.”
“It must’ve rained yesterday. Be careful—the path is slippery.”
Ricardo calmly picked up the broken conversation.
“So, are you saying this legendary figure was real?”
“Yes! Other kids said I was obsessed with fantasy, but I actually found something Lord Atkins left behind!”
“Then what you wanted to know before was…”
Simon smiled with satisfaction.
“That’s right. It’s something he left behind.”
Something he left behind.
Could the ‘weirdo’ Peril mentioned be Atkins?
Simon, now excited, continued speaking with passion.
“Lord Atkins defeated many monsters. Beings so unimaginable, not even a human mind could conceive of them…!”
“Haha, is that so?”
As I subtly avoided his gaze, my eyes met Ricardo’s. He had been watching me for some time.
“What is it?”
“Do I need permission to look?”
He really knew how to leave someone speechless.
Simon climbed the mountain while rambling on about Atkins’s adventures.
He looked incredibly happy to have met someone he could talk to.
But the problem was—
‘Is the person Peril mentioned really Atkins?’
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed far from the kind of adventurer Simon described. Even when I tried asking about the timeline, Simon was too caught up in his own thoughts to pay any attention to my words.
In the end, I decided to just keep walking, half giving up.
“Here it is!”
Only after quite some time did Simon come to a sudden stop.
It was a dark cave. It took a while to enter, which suggested it was spacious inside. But Simon, moving with familiarity, walked right in and turned on a lamp.
“…That’s not a magic tool.”
“You’re right. This is a treasure Lord Atkins brought.”
The lamp looked oddly familiar. It gave me a strange sense of incongruity.
“Lord Atkins once said, a force greater than magic exists, so we don’t need to covet what Carpea has.”
As I listened to Simon, I approached a box placed in a corner. It was filled with stacks of old books.
“You said you wanted to learn about the timeline, right?”
Simon, who had followed me, pulled out a book buried deep in the box and handed it to me.
“This should help.”
“Thank you.”
As I flipped through the pages, the smell of old books wafted strongly.
[Without a doubt, I believed there were no right answers in this world.
Not everyone can make the right choice, and blinded by greed, people are bound to make the wrong ones.
However, in this world, a correct answer already exists.
I don’t know what to call it, but there is a similar word.
Destiny.
It is a force led by time. Time, connected in a single line, has already determined the past and the future.
But if there is something destiny did not anticipate, it is human will.
There appeared a person who changed destiny through will. However, time follows destiny.
Destiny, nearly identical to the correct answer, and the altered future are now merging.
The timeline is trying to untangle the twisted threads to return everything to destiny.
In that process, someone will glimpse destiny. If that happens, even the rule that one cannot cross between worlds will break.]
“I have no idea what this so-called destiny book is supposed to be. I thought maybe I’d find the answer if I became a mage.”
Simon paused for a moment.
“Anne?”
“Yes? Oh, haha…”
I let out an awkward laugh. But my head was filled with other thoughts.
No matter how I read it, this was my story.
‘…So, the original novel I read is what they’re calling destiny?’
Thinking about it, there were differences between the original story I knew and the current world.
For example, Eileens.
‘Then could she be the one who defied destiny?’
Is the world now trying to proceed with the story as written in the original novel?
“The place this man says he’s been adventuring… is it another world?”
Ricardo, who had been looking at the book with me, asked quietly.
“That much, I’m not really…”
“An outsider has invaded!”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice rang out from outside the cave.
“They must be here to kill us like last time! Everyone, let’s go eliminate them immediately!”
At the same time, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed into the cave.