Chapter 324

[From the future, you say. A wildly fanciful and frankly ridiculous claim.]

Minerva was still watching me with those crimson eyes that glittered like jewels.

[Had anyone other than you spat out an answer like that, they wouldn't have escaped my wrath.]

"…I should take that as a good thing, then?"

[It means you are a human who has earned my trust. Yes — the first such human, in fact. You may take pride in it.]

I'd thrown the line out as a joke, but Minerva responded in dead earnest and gave a solemn nod.

[…However, as you should know, this Minerva is not patient. So before what little patience I have runs out, laying out a proper and convincing explanation would be best — for you and for me.]

That said, Minerva slowly lowered herself down into a resting position.

Watching her settle in to listen comfortably, I perched on a nearby boulder myself.

I quietly asked the original Minerva, and after a beat of thought she gave me an answer.

[Calling up my memory… you needn't go into great detail. What I — what she — would really want to know is less whether you truly came from the future, and more how exactly you came to bear a Seven Calamity's power, my own power. The rest you may trim and gloss over as suits the moment.]

"All right. So where do I start, then…."

I dragged the words out, deliberately stretching the moment as if mulling it over.

Despite her earlier impatience, Minerva was now waiting quietly for me to speak.

"The truth is, ending up here was a freak accident."

I started slowly, holding her gaze.

Those crimson eyes had me wholly inside them, and with the strange sense that I might fall straight into them, I took Minerva's advice and gave her the story in dressed-up, hedged terms.

Even though this era's Minerva would eventually come to know I was from the future, and even learn some of the surrounding details — including my sister — there was no telling what could happen if she learned all of it, and I naturally had to tread carefully.

[I see. So an accident dropped you from the future into this place… that does account, to some degree, for why you would be in the company of that shifty thing Milited. It was the one with the deepest interest in defying time, after all.]

She broke off there and let out a snort that said she wasn't even amused.

[Much the same reason it dared covet my heart. Immortality and time. Trifling things, both of them.]

She muttered it as if dismissing the lot of it, then turned her eyes back on me.

[…Well, then. So you'll be returning to your own time, in the end?]

"That's the plan. My friends and comrades have to be worried, and there are things I absolutely have to take care of once I get back."

[Hmm.]

Minerva slowly nodded.

For some reason, in that instant, a chill of warning ran through my whole body.

[…Then are you saying you intend to leave right this moment?]

"No, I've still got things to do here, so I won't be heading back right away."

I answered her and started ticking the points off on my fingers, muttering them out.

The uneasy prickle that had touched the back of my neck a moment before melted away like snow, and I ended up tilting my head slightly, puzzled by it.

"Venus, Juno. I have to seal those two. Milited, too — I have to seal it as well."

[Hooo.]

"And on top of that, Minerva, the promise I made with you isn't finished yet. If I'm going back, I have to see all of that through first."

[…]

She said nothing.

Her mouth shut as if she were mulling something over, and the very tip of her tail swayed, just barely.

[…Yes. Now things make sense. I'd been wondering, in the back of my mind, why you looked so unsurprisingly familiar with me and the other Seven Calamities — now I see it. But even so, questions remain.]

"You mean about earlier."

[Mm, that.]

Minerva gave a short nod.

She seemed faintly thrown off that I clearly wasn't trying to hide anything.

[That you came from the future… honestly, it still sounds like a fairy tale, but I can believe it. If you meant to lie, you'd have spat out something a touch more plausible. And from what I've seen of you so far, you aren't the kind of man to throw out empty fancies like that.]

[…You do spit out useless wordplay and noises that sound like the dirge of an undead, but that's a different matter entirely.]^※TL Bruh

"……"

That last part really hadn't needed to be tacked on.

Still — somewhere along the way, I'd apparently earned a fair amount of trust from her without realizing it.

[Then in the future, you and I did fight, didn't we? And that form you took… is that something you gained from that as well?]

I was about to answer yes without much thought when:

[Wait, you!]

The original Minerva cut me off in a hurry.

Before I could answer, she spoke to me urgently.

[You — from this point on, just repeat what this Minerva tells you to say. Understand?]

I gave a small nod without saying anything.

For some reason, I had the feeling that the chill of unease I'd just felt and what she was doing now were connected.

"A little… different."

[Different? What do you mean.]

"It's true I met you in the future, and it's true we fought. But that form you saw earlier — I didn't get it from you."

[Mmh….]

I started shaping the story the way the original Minerva fed it to me, line by line.

In short, the story was this.

In the future I had fought Minerva and lost, taking heavy wounds and only just managing to escape.

In the process I'd ended up with a curse, and learned that lifting it would require a dragon's blood and heart.

Later, by consuming the heart and blood of another dragon, I'd managed to finally break the curse — but whether due to the curse's lingering effects or the influence of what I'd consumed, in emergencies my body was forced into a dragon's form against my will.

What had happened earlier was just that — my heart taking a fatal wound, and my body reflexively shifting into that shape….

"…And because it isn't a complete ability, I can't hold it for long either. As for the shadow, that's a power I already have, which is why a doppelgänger took on its own form and mass. As you know, Minerva, that kind of doppelgänger takes after the shape of the original."

[Mm….]

Minerva frowned faintly at the explanation, looking unsatisfied.

[Even so, the trace of my power on you was too strong. Yes — the scent of me coming off you was far too thick for that. You're telling me the reason is nothing more than the wounds you took from me?]

"…That might be because you drank my blood, Minerva."

[Blood?]

"You know — there's a magical theory about it. When you share blood, the magical connection between you ends up stronger, that kind of thing. And like you said yourself — you couldn't understand why you hadn't noticed sooner because the scent was so thick. My guess is that what started out as just a faint trace got stronger after you drank my blood."

[Mm… true enough.]

Minerva nodded, conceding the point.

At her reaction, someone in the shadow let out a small, relieved sigh.

She mulled it over a moment longer, head bobbing slightly, then turned her head and asked:

[But — tell me this.]

"Yeah?"

[…The me from the future pushed you that hard?]

Minerva asked it with a hint of suspicion in her tone.

I waited a beat, and only nodded once a go ahead came back from the shadow.

"You were stronger back then than you are now."

[That wasn't what I meant….]

"What? Then what?"

[Never mind. It's enough of a disgrace to keep questioning you. Let's leave it there.]

She muttered, sounding faintly displeased about something, then straightened up as if to say she was done.

After that she launched into a long stretch of intense thought.

How much time passed, I couldn't say — but eventually she nodded slowly, as if she'd reached a conclusion.

[…Yes. We've come this far already.]

She said it and slowly blinked once at me.

[Very well, you.]

[Take it as an honor — this Minerva shall lend you her strength.]

"What?"

The proposal blindsided me, and I asked back before I could help it.

"Minerva, are you really sure?"

[And what is there to be unsure about?]

She gave me a sharp look from under furrowed brows.

[…Or what? This Minerva is offering you her strength of her own accord, and you doubt that I can be trusted?]

"That's not what I meant. Of course if you helped me, I'd be incredibly grateful. It's just — there's your position as a Seven Calamity to consider too, and—"

[Hmph, I've simply been still until now for lack of a proper opportunity. I owe those creatures neither loyalty nor affection.]

She muttered it in a sharp voice, like it carried the edge of an old grudge.

[Of course, as you say, acting in this fashion isn't my usual way.]

[…But one time is plenty for being interfered with and inconvenienced because of them.]

[I simply decided that hunting them all down and being rid of every last lingering doubt — and then handling my own affairs at my leisure — was the far better course.]

From my standpoint it was a more-than-welcome offer.

If she joined the fight, Venus and Juno would surely be no real trouble, and on top of that, even if something unforeseen happened — like today — we'd have more than enough margin to handle it.

[Also, your fifteen-day promise to me remains.]

She unfurled her wings and spoke in a solemn voice.

The kind of voice that made clear refusal would not be entertained.

[Until everything I just spoke of is finished, that day of our promise too shall be postponed.]

She lifted into the air, and tossed the words out as if my answer hardly mattered.

[Your fifteen days with this Minerva have not yet come.]

That was the last of it.

The moment she finished, Minerva flung out her wings and shot away in an instant.

As if she didn't want to hear any reply, whatever it might be.

In the space of a single breath.

[All right. What in the world was that about?]

Sbeungali asked Minerva in a voice Yu Ji-hyeok couldn't hear.

Knowing her as he did, the way she'd just behaved made no sense to him.

[…Sbeungali.]

Minerva quietly said his name.

[Like anyone else, this Minerva has her own habits.]

[Habits?]

[Yes. For example — spitting out a breath first when squaring off against an opponent, to gauge their reaction. Or having a set rhythm to my wingbeats….]

She trailed off, then said in a tone of certainty:

[Just now, when the past me was asking whether he'd be returning home — do you know what she did?]

[…]

[Her eyes traveled over him, slow and thorough. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet, every inch. And at the end of it, she fixed her gaze squarely on his throat. Do you know what habit of mine that is — what I do before I act?]

[I don't.]

[That was the habit I had right before throwing myself at an opponent to tear them apart.]

Minerva said it quietly.

Sbeungali fell silent.

[I'm certain of it. If anyone would know it isn't anyone else but me. The me from a moment ago, with one slip, was going to lunge at him then and there.]

[…Hold on, that doesn't track. Why would you — no, why would the past you hurl yourself at Yu Ji-hyeok of all people?]

[Hmm…….]

Minerva answered.

[What I can say for certain is that only once she heard he intended to seal Juno and Venus, and beyond that to keep the fifteen-day promise before leaving, did her gaze finally lift from his throat.]

At that, Sbeungali couldn't help a flinch running through him.

A single hypothesis had already surfaced in his mind.

[Wait. Don't tell me….]

[Yes. That very don't tell me, Sbeungali.]

Minerva let out a great sigh.

[Events that took place in the past, and have since been twisted, affect those of us living in the present too. I've been treating that fact far too lightly, it seems.]

She quietly confessed the emotion that was raging inside her.

[Right now, this Minerva can hardly bear it — I want, if I could, to swallow him whole and make him entirely my own.]

[…]

Sbeungali had nothing to say.

The sheer sincerity coming through her voice had, in that instant, pressed down on him before he realized it.

She means it.

A single, sharp click.

The sound of a beak snapping shut.

She means it.

She really does — she's really thinking that.

Sbeungali, calling it a disaster inwardly, opened his mouth anyway to try and steer the situation somewhere safer.

To be precise, he tried — but he couldn't.

[Oh, please…!]

A presence — unfamiliar, but carrying an uncanny déjà vu, as if he'd brushed against it somewhere before.

There was only one being he knew of who gave off this kind of presence.

And it was the very last being he'd want to meet in a situation like this.

A notification window surfaced.

I knew without having to look.

"……"

For an instant it felt as if I were the only person left in the whole world.

The sound of the wind, the chirring of insects, every sound the forest made — every one of them, just for this moment, was silent.

The only thing I could hear was my own breath.

"You."

I forced my mouth open and quietly let my eyes shift.

In one corner of my vision a glittering notification window was making its presence known.

[Quest 'The Seventh, Final Evil' begins.]

[The Seven Calamity 'Ahriman' has, at last, broken its long wait and silence and begun to move.]

"Ahriman."

Only after I'd said the name did the air I'd been holding finally begin to move again.

It felt as if the world that had been holding still was finally moving once more.

The last Seven Calamity I had never met… no.

The one I might already have met any number of times stood before my eyes.

Without the slightest warning.

"A pleasure."

It greeted me in a familiar voice.

My voice. My face. My form.

"Ahriman, they call me."

It inclined its head slightly in greeting.

"The very Ahriman you've been so desperate to meet."

He was standing right in front of me now.

The one I had been searching for from the day I dropped into this world up until this very moment.