Chapter 259: Recall (11)
When I regained my senses, I realized that at some point I had already come outside the collapsed Auction House.
But it was not the Academy or the streets of the Capital.
Still dark, damp, and surrounded by crumbling structures, I narrowed my eyes as I looked around.
“Here is….”
“We are still beneath the ground.”
At my questioning voice, Berenistella answered quietly.
From her perspective, it was the gentlest voice she could produce.
Though to others, it would likely still sound curt and sharp.
“Going straight up to the surface would have caused several problems, and there were too many eyes watching. So I deliberately moved us outside the Auction House but still beneath the ground, and toward the rear.”
“There are many eyes watching?”
“Yes.”
Berenistella nodded.
“The Group of Dragons have arrived.”
“Ah.”
Dragons.
The omen of destruction we had tried so hard to prevent.
In the end, it had come like this.
“…….”
I exhaled as if lamenting and unconsciously shut my eyes tightly.
Watching me briefly, Berenistella spoke in a quiet voice.
“Even so… it looks quite different from before. Perhaps it is reasonable to hope for a somewhat different outcome.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. As you know, I do not utter empty words.”
Berenistella said,
“They came with a different intention this time. Before, it was a warning and a threat. In other words, a declaration of war. But now they are clearly cautious and careful… yet they reveal their presence to us without hiding it. It is clearly different from the past.”
“…….”
“…So let us hurry. Before your companions… fall.”
As she said this, Berenistella looked at me as if urging me onward.
“You must have many things you wish to ask me. ……That is why I deliberately moved us to the rear. There were other humans underground besides you, so I also wished to avoid their eyes.”
Velita, Lancia, and Artemia.
It seemed they were still underground.
As I fell briefly into thought, she added as if to reassure me,
“…I checked on their situation just a moment ago. Their enormous energies were being consumed and shaken, but none were fading away. At the very least, it seems we have time for a short conversation.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
Because she was right. I had many things I wanted to ask her.
Since this was an opportunity that might never come again, it would be acceptable to spend a little time.
“Ask.”
Berenistella said,
“It is a Mentor’s rightful duty to answer the questions of a Disciple.”
“Did you also come back after reversing time, Mentor?”
At my first question, she nodded.
“Yes.”
“How did you…?”
“How did you come back after reversing time?”
“…….”
I could not answer.
Berenistella frowned slightly.
“…It is rather embarrassing to answer a question with another question when I just told you to ask anything, but even I find it difficult to explain clearly.”
“You mean even you, Mentor?”
“I am not someone who knows every phenomenon in the world. I simply know a little more, and a little wider, than most.”
At my question implying that there might be things even she did not know, she cleared her throat softly.
As if she were holding back a laugh.
“…Anyway, thanks to that, the smell has been rather troublesome because it refuses to leave. Both you and I are emitting the same scent. That is how Talia discovered that we had returned after reversing time.”
“Yes, I heard something similar in the Room of Memories.”
“In that case, there is no need to explain further. ……Though I hate to admit it, she probably explained it more clearly than I could. She has far more experience as a Mentor than I do.”
That was not particularly true.
But I did not say it out loud and instead asked the next question I had prepared.
“As far as I remember, you should originally have been in your territory at this time, Mentor. Did you come all the way here to the Capital to meet me?”
“Of course.”
She nodded.
“In fact, I wish to ask you the opposite. If not for that reason, why would I come all the way here?”
“…It was a little unexpected. I do not mean to criticize, but… the Mentor I knew before…”
I paused for a moment.
I was searching for the right words so that she would not feel offended.
“…You hated troublesome things very much. And if someone made things troublesome for you, you hated it even more.”
And you certainly did not bother considering other people’s eyes or being considerate like you just were.
It was completely different from the Berenistella I remembered.
The Berenistella I knew had been arrogant, willful, and completely indifferent to others’ opinions—befitting the name Eight Demon Lords that once shook the world.
“I was like that.”
Contrary to my concerns, Berenistella nodded calmly without showing the slightest displeasure.
“But Lian… Gwendil, if you say that, the same applies to you, does it not? The first image of you I remember was that of a clumsy and immature person, drowning in pity and helplessness as if all the misfortune in the world had fallen upon you. Was that not completely different from how you are now?”
“…That is true.”
In other words, she too had undergone many changes in her state of mind after reversing time.
So much so that it was enough to make me doubt my own eyes.
“What exactly was the book you gave me?”
“You mean the one written in the ancient Garusol language?”
“Yes.”
“It was a little prank I wrote myself, and also a scheme of mine.”
Berenistella answered.
“More precisely, I intended to use it to examine your mind and body.”
“…….”
“It was my first time reversing time as well. I had no idea what kind of side effects there might be.”
She let out a small sigh.
“…There is no need to hide it. The Berenistella in your memories and the one standing before you now may as well be completely different people. The difference in existence and power is enormous. You felt it as well, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“Even this is after I recovered somewhat. At the beginning, it was truly a pitiful sight.”
Berenistella continued quietly.
Despite the chaos around us, she slowly raised her hand as if to block the faint light shining from the ceiling.
“I was once revered as one of the Eight Demon Lords, placing part of the world beneath my feet and fearing nothing. Yet even I ended up like this.”
She murmured while staring blankly at her hand blocking the light.
“So I worried about what might have happened to you… That was one of my greatest concerns. Simply glancing over you would not suffice. I had to examine your mind and body carefully over a long period of time.”
But…
She paused briefly.
“…As you know, there was no way I could afford that kind of time. Unless I kidnapped you to my territory and detained you there.”
Even as she casually said something terrifying, I simply nodded as if accustomed to it.
“So that is why you gave me the book while pretending it was an intentional meeting. So that I would focus on interpreting the passages in the book myself… and while I did that, you could naturally examine my mind and body.”
“Exactly. The more you interpreted the passages written in the book, the stronger my influence upon you would become. I placed a Ritual Sorcery on it.”
“Then I do not need to cling to it anymore?”
“There is no harm in learning the ancient Garusol language. Study it little by little whenever you have time.”
I nodded at her words.
“Did you give me the Brand, just as Talia said?”
“There is no need to hide that either. Yes.”
Berenistella looked at me and suddenly stuck out her tongue.
Her exposed tongue was clean.
The Brand I had seen before had vanished without a trace.
“My Brand has been engraved upon you.”
“So that is why I was able to see a short glimpse of the future.”
“That is likely. As you grow more accustomed to it, you may be able to see further into the future.”
“When and how did you give it to me? I cannot even guess…”
“…….”
Berenistella fell silent.
To answer my question, she would have to tell me that she had met me in a dream while I was asleep—and that she had kissed me.
“Mentor?”
“…You do not need to know.”
She said again in a stern voice.
“Even if I explained it, you would not understand.”
“…Understood.”
I nodded.
Because the Berenistella I remembered was not someone who spoke carelessly.
If she said I would not understand, then I truly would not understand.
“…Haa.”
Seeing me accept it so easily, Berenistella quietly let out a sigh of relief.
However, she flinched slightly at my next words.
“I will return it.”
“What!”
It was I who became startled by her sudden outburst.
I blinked my eyes in surprise, clearly not expecting such a reaction.
In truth, she had not been angry—she had simply been flustered.
“…There is no need. With your ability, you would not even be able to return it properly. Do not cause unnecessary problems. Just keep it in your body.”
“But…”
“I have already reached a level where I no longer need it.”
Berenistella said, calming her excitement.
“Even if my original power has diminished, my skill and experience have only become more refined. Even without it, there is nothing that would place me in danger. So stop worrying about such pointless matters.”
“…Understood. Thank you.”
I nodded.
Berenistella quietly released another sigh of relief so that I would not hear.
The only methods she knew were extracting it from the dead, or transferring it like she had done in the dream.
The former was naturally out of the question.
As for the latter…
‘Hmm.’
It was hardly dignified.
Berenistella closed her eyes, blaming herself.
“There are two more things I am curious about.”
“Ask as many questions as you wish.”
“…Will you be able to answer these questions without hiding anything?”
At my unusual tone, she slowly opened her eyes again.
I had already stopped walking and was looking at her with a serious gaze.
“…If possible.”
She answered.
Swearing falsely was fatal for someone like her, who wove spells with her words and revealed the future.
More than anything, she did not want to lie—at least not to me, her only Disciple.
“My bloodline… my mother… Did you know that she was not human?”
“Yes.”
Berenistella nodded.
I did not seem particularly surprised.
“…I thought so. Otherwise many things would not make sense.”
One of the mysteries that had continued from my previous life was finally resolved.
The day we first met.
If she had simply needed the Brand I possessed, she could have killed me immediately or subdued me and dragged me to her territory.
But instead she made me her Disciple, and despite hating troublesome things, she traveled across the continent with me.
She said it was simply to pass the time, and once I understood her unpredictable personality, I assumed it was merely a whim.
But to her, I had been an important subject of research.
A rarity so unique that she might never encounter another like it.
“…….”
And there was also what Talia had said earlier.
If someone accepted a Brand recklessly, their mind and body would collapse.
Only those she called Seekers of the Path could withstand it—and I carried their blood.
And had Berenistella not just admitted earlier that she herself gave me her Brand?
If she had not known my lineage, that act would have been no different from trying to kill me.
It was far more convincing that she had known I would endure it.
“What is your other question?”
“…….”
I remained silent.
Only after taking several deep breaths did I finally speak.
“Even this time.”
The memories of that day resurfaced.
The moment just before death.
Things I had forgotten, and things I wished to forget.
Only after recognizing them did I finally voice the question that had lingered since I regained part of my memories.
“…Even this time, are you planning to drive me to my death?”