Epilogue
The pillar of fire in the red-light district was visible from the royal castle.
It was eerie, and it was ominous. What was happening? The sky was still dim, yet the castle was in an uproar. A crowd had formed in the garden of the mansion where the girls lived as well.
“Those flames...”
Satsuki’s face tensed as she stared at the burning flames in the distance. The way it was burning was far from natural. Someone had clearly created those flames artificially and was using sorcery or spirit arts to control them. And when Satsuki thought of the ability to control flames, one thing came to mind.
“Don’t tell me...”
Satsuki shook her head, dismissing the thought. Aki and Masato were nearby, looking on uneasily. Eventually, the flames ceased, but the garden of the mansion was silent for a long time.
“H-Hey... Those flames...” Masato eventually said, nervously.
Aki looked around restlessly in order to shake off the bad feeling she had, but Miharu was nowhere to be seen in the garden.
“H-Hey, where’d Miharu go?!” she exclaimed.
Just then, a vast amount of magic essence appeared in the sky above the castle. Feeling pressure great enough to shake the air, those that could sense the essence immediately got ready for combat.
“Is that the presence of a spirit?!”
Sara and the other spirit folk girls looked at the corner of the garden with a gasp. Their contract spirits had informed them of the spirit presence they had detected. Standing there was Aishia, in the middle of putting on her mask.
“Who...?” Everyone tilted their head curiously.
Aishia?! Why did she materialize... No, then that thing must be very bad news.
That is, everyone besides Celia, who guessed at the reason as to why Aishia had appeared. After all, whatever had appeared in the sky had a tremendous amount of essence.
“Run away!” Aishia said, flying up into the air. Even though she was normally detached from her emotions, there was a strong sense of urgency in her voice.
“Everyone, something bad is sure to happen if you stay! Hurry!” Celia said to everyone.
It was at this moment that Miharu came out of the front door of the mansion. She slowly trudged forward with a dazed look on her face.
“This way, Miharu! Quickly!”
Celia called Miharu over to her in a fluster. But Miharu merely came to a stop and stared up at the sky as though she hadn’t heard her.
What’s wrong, Miharu?!
Celia tried to rush over to Miharu, But Miharu opened her mouth.
“Assumo.”
“Huh?”
Celia doubted her ears. That spell? How? Why? All kinds of questions rushed through her head.
“Exemplar: Septimum Caelum Vel Persona.”
Miharu continued reciting the spell and activated her magic.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, sometime later, far away in the Holy Kingdom of Almada, in the Holy City Tonerico...
It was early morning, not long after the sun started rising. Rio and Sora had decided to go back down into the labyrinth. They were on their way to the giant entrance of the labyrinth when they encountered a familiar face.
“Hey, if it isn’t Rio and Sora. We meet again,” Eru said to them happily.
“You’re...Eru?” Rio and Sora came to a stop and blinked at her.
“The same one you met yesterday.” Eru recounted how they had eaten at a restaurant in the capital together yesterday with a nostalgic look.
“Erm... You remember us?” As a transcendent one and their disciple, Rio and Sora were easily forgotten existences. Rio was extremely surprised to hear she remembered them.
“Like I said, I’m confident in my memory. Besides, it was just yesterday.”
“Well, yes, I suppose...”
“Ah, seeing your faces has made me hungry for paeja again. You promised to treat me to your homemade paeja next time, right?”
“I did... But what are you doing here, Eru?” Confused, Rio kept the conversation going.
“Yesterday, I told you to check out the labyrinth yourself if you were interested in it, right? So I figured I’d meet you two again if I waited here. It was exactly as I expected,” Eru said with a shady smile.
“I see... That’s an incredible coincidence... No, or was it a coincidence?” Rio tilted his head as he said that out loud.
“Perhaps it was inevitable, considering the relationship between you and me. No, between all of us. Sora included,” Eru said, looking at Sora.
“Inevitable?” Rio stiffened a little.
“Yes. The truth is, I was going to tell you something important if I met you today. A secret just between the three of us.”
“What kind of secret?”
“Regarding your— Huh?”
Just as Eru was about to say her important secret, the space around Rio distorted. The last thing he saw was Eru moving her mouth to say something...before the distortion in space swallowed him and Sora. The two suddenly vanished.
“Oh, my...” Eru was left behind by herself. After a while, she sighed with equal parts frustration and exasperation.
“Good grief... This is that woman’s fault, isn’t it?” she mumbled with a pout.
“It seems like this future was predicted, big brother.”
She gazed in the direction of the bright sun rising in the east, the direction of the Galarc Kingdom.
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