After finishing his audience with Siyan, because they had talked until late into the night, Alon had no choice but to spend one night in Theria. It was only the next day that he was able to leave Asteria's capital and head for the Central Mage Tower.
"Phew—"
"You seem to have had a lot on your mind since yesterday."
Maybe because he had spent so long calling Alon Marquis, Evan spoke awkwardly, as if the old habit still wouldn't leave his mouth.
"Do I look that way?"
"Yes. You looked so serious that you barely said a word yesterday."
Alon sank into thought without answering.
'The second run...'
The second run.
The speculation Siyan had offered yesterday had startled Alon in a number of ways, but parts of it had still left him uncertain.
He had seen the Spear of Longinus with his own eyes, and he had heard from Siyan about the inherited "memories."
Even so, it was not easy to readily accept that this was his second life.
Even if he were someone familiar with that kind of knowledge.
But separate from that—
the new puzzle Siyan had handed him fit all too neatly into the empty space he had never been able to fill until now.
Alon recalled the moment Divine blood had fallen.
Those beings who had come crashing down while uttering strange things.
At the time, Alon had not been able to understand.
Why Divine blood already seemed to feel something toward him.
He had thought it was possible that they knew who he was.
It was only a guess, but they had been in the sky, and from there they could have observed his every move if they wanted.
But emotion went beyond mere recognition.
Whether it was hatred blazing with rage—
or, on the contrary, that naked favor they showed him so openly.
That was why Alon had continued to question it.
'But if Siyan is right, and this world really is the second run... and if the higher-ranking Divine blood, if not the lower ones, remember it—'
then it was not impossible to explain why Divine blood had reacted that way.
And that was not all.
"Evan."
"Yes?"
"Elivan... how is he?"
"If you mean Elivan— as far as I know, he still hasn't come out of unconsciousness."
"...I see."
Alon thought of Elivan.
The one who had seemed as though he had known everything in advance and prepared for it.
...The one who had been like the protagonist Alon knew—
and at the same time unlike the protagonist he knew.
The truth was, until now, he had never been able to guess why Elivan had moved the way he did.
'But if Elivan remembers the first run the way Siyan does...'
then even if Alon still could not know his exact intentions, the circumstances behind his actions finally fell into place.
And once he started fitting the pieces together that way, one particular person naturally rose into his mind.
'Teacher, do you happen to remember that time?'
'...That time?'
'Yes. When that Seraph of Envy appeared.'
At the time, Alon had not thought much of it, but she had naturally known the name of a sin he had never explained.
'Yes, probably before long, everything will return to normal.'
And when all the people of Rosario had been trembling with anxiety because they could no longer connect to Sironia, she had calmly declared that everything would return to how it had been.
'...Could it be.'
Yutia Bloodia.
"Whew......"
As Alon pictured her face, he rubbed his own.
Too many thoughts had flashed through his mind all at once.
But—
'...Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'
Alon soon folded that line of thinking away to one side.
Because it did feel as though he was getting too far ahead.
So Alon turned his thoughts elsewhere.
There was still plenty left for him to think about.
And separate from forcing together a puzzle that might not fit, Alon had gained several new questions through yesterday's conversation with Siyan.
The foremost among them was his own emotions.
Naturally, Alon did feel all of his emotions; it was only that they failed to show on his face.
...At least, that was what he himself had believed.
'...The me from the first run and the me from the second run are different.'
Siyan had said that the Alon in her memories and the Alon now were similar in how they operated, even if their outward appearance alone was different.
But in the end, the key point was that there was a difference.
Then where had that difference come from?
'—The you now is emotionless no matter how I look at you. As though someone forcibly restrained your emotions, or stole them away.'
['You cannot even recognize the restrictions placed beneath one of your own "eyes." Black-eyed ■■.']
Two things came to mind.
One was what Siyan had said yesterday.
And the other was what he had heard the very first time, in the East, when he met that noise-ridden being presumed to be the Blue-Eyed One.
At the time, he had not understood it at all.
But thinking back on Siyan's words, Alon carefully retraced those remarks, which now seemed faintly connected.
Just then—
"What did you talk about?"
Evan's voice broke through Alon's thoughts.
'From here on, I think this will be a process of confirming a speculation.'
'...Confirming it?'
'Yes. Everything I've told you is only the most rational truth I could infer from the information gathered so far, so it cannot yet be called the truth. But if what I'm about to say now happens—'
'...Then the speculation becomes certainty?'
'Exactly.'
'I'm listening.'
'First, before long now, the Contract of Salvation will be carried out.'
'The Contract of Salvation?'
At the Alon in her memory asking back, Siyan nodded as if she understood.
'It would sound unfamiliar. I understand. Even I only learned what it was after inheriting the memories and searching through old texts. Simply put, the Contract of Salvation is a contract made several hundred years ago by someone called the Savior, who mediated between the Allied Kingdoms, the Empire, and us.'
'Of course, for a contract, its contents are nothing special. It merely forbids groundless conflict between the Allied Kingdoms and the Empire, and says that if the continent faces destruction, all sides are obligated to protect it together, that's all.'
Siyan briefly explained the Contract of Salvation, which Alon had only known in the most general terms.
'In other words—'
'If the Contract of Salvation really does come to pass, then my speculation will have been correct.'
'I see.'
'Ah, there is something else I should tell you as well.'
'About the speculation?'
'Mm, this time it would be more accurate to call it preparation.'
The Siyan in his memory wore a quiet smile.
'Create Apostles.'
'...Apostles?'
'Yes. More precisely, create Apostles and believers who do not merely borrow your divine power and stop there, but consume your power completely and evolve through it.'
'Why are you suddenly saying that...?'
Even at Alon's question, Siyan did not erase the smile from her face as she continued.
'Because in the inherited memories, there are times when you say things like that. If only you had done that beforehand, you could have stopped more Divine blood— something like that.'
Of course, she added the caveat that this memory might also be taken as something Alon had said after traveling from the future to the past, which made it difficult to use as evidence for speculation.
Quietly recalling Siyan's words, Alon muttered,
"Create Apostles..."
"Hm? She told you that?"
"She did."
The truth was, Rine had told him something similar too.
From the beginning, she had also told him to evolve Divine Land.
And yet the reason Alon had kept his hands off Divine Land lay in his divine power.
From the moment Divine blood had fallen, his divine power had changed strangely.
'Ah, and if you have concerns about your divine power, try visiting Divine Land once. You'll find your answer there.'
But Siyan had advised him as though she had already known that concern of his.
"Hm— I knew that person was interested in your affairs, Lord Alon, but it's more than I expected."
"...Is it?"
"Yes, ah—"
As he was speaking, Evan suddenly let out a sly grin, as if something had occurred to him.
"Could it beee... feelings or something like that?"
Evan's voice was thick with mischief.
At that, Penia, who had only been quietly listening from the side, cut in.
"Hm— I don't really think so?"
"Really? For that, there sure is a lot of interest."
"Even so, if she'd had feelings for Lord Alon in the first place, wouldn't there have been plenty of chances for that to show from long ago?"
"That's true, but—"
Leaving the two of them to bicker behind him, Alon recalled the final exchange he had shared with Siyan yesterday.
'Thank you for telling me something this valuable.'
'What of it? Given the relationship between you and me, something like this is hardly difficult.'
'...Is, that so?'
'Yes. It's still only speculation, so I can't say it with certainty yet, but— if my speculation becomes certainty, then you and I had quite a close relationship.'
'...A close relationship?'
At Alon's question, the Siyan in his memory smiled and nodded.
'Yes, close.'
'What kind of relationship did we have?'
'Hm—'
Siyan thought for a moment, then opened her mouth as if recalling a certain moment.
'Do you happen to remember that time?'
'...If by that time.'
'Last time, I told you about Cardinal Yutia.'
'Ah, yes, I remember.'
'Do you remember what Cardinal Yutia said back then?'
'...Don't touch what's mine?'
At Alon's answer, Siyan smiled.
'Yes. That was our relationship.'
Then she pressed her index finger to Alon's cheek and pushed up the corner of his mouth into a smile.
'If you try to guess why she said that, you'll naturally understand.'
Our relationship, that is.
That image of Siyan smiling as though her speculation had already become certainty was vividly seared into his mind.
Two weeks passed after Alon moved to the Central Mage Tower, and Alexion, back in Palantia, was staring at the blueprints laid out before him in admiration.
"This is truly... incredible."
"Isn't it?"
At the Brown Mage Tower master's words, Alexion nodded.
'Honestly, when they first said they'd build the castle for free, I was a little suspicious...'
But unlike those concerns, the two tower masters had really brought him blueprints as though they fully intended to build Palantia a proper castle.
And looking at them, Alexion was being shocked in real time.
He knew little about architecture himself, but even so, he could instinctively tell how extraordinary the blueprints the two tower masters had brought were.
'...Just the magic circles engraved into it alone number in the hundreds.'
A staggering design, to the point that calling it a fortress rather than a royal castle would not have been strange.
While Alexion stood there blankly, the Brown Mage Tower master, watching him with satisfaction, asked,
"But why do you keep looking at only page one?"
"...Hm? Page one? Isn't this all of it?"
"Ah, dear me, I hadn't undone the magic."
At Alexion's words, the Brown Mage Tower master belatedly realized the mistake and immediately waved a hand.
At once, the paper Alexion was holding began to thicken in an instant.
So much that he had to spread his hands wide just to hold it.
Alexion's face grew even more blank.
"...This is all blueprint material?"
"Yes. They're all blueprints for different sections."
"...Different sections?"
"That's right."
Judging by the scale drawing in the blueprint Alexion had first read, the size of the castle depicted on that single page was on par with the inner castle.
Which was why the frozen Alexion—
"...So, you mean all of these are blueprints for entirely different sections?"
—asked in a faltering voice.
"Isn't that obvious? There'd be no reason to draw the same thing twice."
"...Then if we build the castle exactly according to these blueprints..."
"Well— probably a little smaller than this territory itself?"
At the Brown Mage Tower master's reply, as if Alexion had asked the most obvious thing in the world—
'...Are these people out of their minds...?'
—Alexion stared in open-mouthed shock.

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