The sea, tinged with dusk.
The Kenturi sailed quietly across the ocean, dyed red as far as the eye could see.
…The battle was over, and the subsequent ritual had concluded.
I quietly gazed at the waves…
“…”
No one was around.
The Manager seemed about to call out to me, but…
Aage told him to leave me be, and everyone else worried about me.
As I stared at the setting sun alone, feeling an inexplicable emptiness in my chest, a familiar woman suddenly appeared beside me and spoke.
“Good work… Honestly, I thought fighting a Leviathan would be easy, but to think it was Roa’s doing was quite the upset. Of course, facing that meant we couldn’t achieve a complete victory without casualties… But I think we’ve bought ourselves about ten years with this. I think I did well, don’t you agree?”
“…Who are you? No, that, that appearance…”
Long, purple hair.
A huge, bouncy bust.
…Her tone, hair color, and hairstyle were slightly different, but…
it was undeniably my Master… Lady Seleneis.
“…I know this is difficult to say, immediately after we just parted ways,”
She said, laughing softly as she ran a hand through her hair.
“I am Takakura. I’m glad to see you again… Didn’t I tell you? That I am an immortal being… Hehe, was it something like this?”
“M-Master?! Wh-why…? No… what is this?!”
I had thought my Master had returned.
Understandably… her voice, presence, and the quality of her magic were all the same.
But… there was a sense of incongruity in places.
Her tone was clearly different, and her magic was considerably weaker compared to my Master’s.
However… that transparent blue quality of her magic was unmistakable.
“N-no way… Why are you here…?”
A mixture of joy and bewilderment rendered me speechless.
“Um, Master… just to be clear, this is one of Lady Seleneis’s alternate bodies. Body Alpha… a being similar to, yet different from, your Master. No offense, but… if you were going to show up, I wish you had come a little sooner.”
Monjirou suddenly appeared from somewhere and stood beside me.
…In fact, he had been hidden nearby this whole time, watching over me.
He hadn’t called out to me, but he had been considering his timing, or perhaps waiting for me… Apparently.
It’s very much like him…
“My apologies. It’s an excuse, but until just now, my resources were concentrated on Beta, so all other bodies were in a shutdown state. I’ve finally managed to restore myself, so I took the trouble to use Spatial Transfer to come and congratulate you. Takakura-kun, I’m sorry about Beta, but you don’t need to worry about it. Embodied bodies, while powerful, have short lifespans and are inefficient… you could say they’re like expendable items for short, decisive battles. This has happened many times before. If you get depressed over something like this, it’ll be a problem for us. So, don’t be discouraged, cheer up.”
Saying that, she placed a light hand on my shoulder with a broad smile and a very casual tone.
…What can I say.
Unlike my Master, her demeanor and tone were so gentle.
Unlike my Master, who was the very embodiment of strictness, she gave off a relaxed and informal impression.
I heard that the bodies shared information, but it seems they weren’t all completely identical in personality, or rather, they weren’t entirely The same person.
A parallel group consciousness… was it?
I don’t really understand… Even if I grasp it logically, it doesn’t sit well with me.
And… “expendable items” and “something like this.”
Those words inexplicably bothered me.
At the very least, I didn’t want my efforts to be dismissed with such words.
“Th-thank you… Um, it’s a pleasure to meet you… right? You seem… very casual about it, but don’t you have any feelings about this? Your own body… was lost? And you call that… ‘something like this’…?”
I had heard from my Master.
That there was another Seleneis interacting with Roxus…
And that this other individual had explained my safety and training to everyone, not my Master.
It was said that it was like a part of one’s own body, connected at the root, sharing memories and information. So, it was fine to think of them as The same person… That’s what I had heard.
But when I actually met her, confusion came first.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Come to think of it, I suppose this is technically our first meeting? But because of the memory sharing with Beta, I don’t really feel like it’s our first meeting. Was I a little too familiar? Um… I don’t really get it, but am I… being blamed?”
“N-no, not at all… But you have a very different atmosphere from Master…”
“That’s right… Beta… your Master was a specially tuned individual who materialized to train you. A significant amount of resources were poured into her, making her a top-tier divine being. So, it’s a painful loss there, but in exchange for sealing Roa and protecting you, it’s more than worth it. But, do you really think our atmospheres are that different? Her tone was adjusted to a guiding personality, so she might have sounded a bit haughty. In fact, I’m closer to the original…”
Personality configuration… transfer.
The words, as if describing a machine or a robot, made me feel like my legs were about to give out.
No… my Master wasn’t like that.
“…How dare you! Don’t dismiss it so easily! Master… unlike you, she never called herself a machine or a robot. You… are not Master! Don’t think that just because you have Master’s voice and face… you can replace her!”
I got angry without realizing it.
But Monjirou stepped in front of me with a stern expression.
“Master Takakura! That’s unreasonable! You were properly explained about the God Race… and what those bodies are, weren’t you? You heard it from Master herself! Please think about it calmly. Master’s body… Beta-dono was indeed lost, but… the person herself says it’s a trivial matter, so that’s not something Master should be fixated on! It’s wrong to try and understand them with your own common sense… with human common sense!”
I understand… I understand, Monjirou!
This is something I’m caught up in, a self-imposed predicament.
“Monjirou, it’s alright. Takakura-kun isn’t wrong… This is probably a normal reaction. Humans can empathize with others. That means… he sees me… sees Beta not as a divine body, but as a person. That’s probably a good thing. That’s why I say… you’re not wrong. You did the best you could at the time… More importantly, you defeated the Divine Beast Leviathan almost single-handedly… At this point, that’s already the act of a Hero. And you confronted the Demon God Roa and survived. Even an apostle is powerless before that… The fact that you confronted him as a human and survived with all five limbs intact is a miracle. I think you should be proud. Let me say this myself… I’m glad you returned safely… You worked very hard. Well done!”
Saying that, she hugged me and stroked my head.
…This profound insight of hers.
The weight of her words, as if seeping into my soul.
Her all-encompassing embrace, accepting and holding everything.
Ah, even though her tone and demeanor were different, this person was undoubtedly… my Master.
That final, casual phrase, “You worked very hard,”… dissolved all my lingering doubts.
“…I-I’m sorry… I just got carried away… And Monjirou, I’m sorry too… I thought you wouldn’t get angry or raise your voice… In a way, you’ve grown stronger, haven’t you? Monjirou’s words… they really resonated with me.”
I bowed to Monjirou.
Then, his stern expression immediately softened back into his usual relaxed smile.
“Hahaha! I’m surprisingly good at acting, so I’m not actually angry. But still, a Hero struggling isn’t really my style. That’s something for pathetic, gloomy mob characters like me to do. Though, lately, there are some pathetic people who quit reading just because someone dies or exits, aren’t there? I wonder if they’ll start quitting because they felt sorry for some Monster or Thug they killed, huh? Fufufu…”
…Was that intensity just an act? Even I was momentarily intimidated.
Well, I could be angry about being deceived, but I can’t help but feel respect.
By the way, what was that strange complaining at the end?
Well, when you’re a writer like Monjirou, you probably get exposed to a lot of selfish demands from idiotic readers.
Still, Monjirou is a man who stuck to his artistic principles even when he opposed state power.
For this great master, external noise is probably just the wind.
