Epilogue: The Sorcerer’s Memories

After finishing dinner, Sophia and Daian left the restaurant. Sophia’s car was waiting for her.

“What about you?”

Sophia didn’t know where Daian lived. She asked in case he was going in the same direction and needed a ride.

“Uh, no thank you. I drank a little too much. I’ll get some night air and sober up as I walk home.”

“Wait, wait, wait... Are you...”

Sophia was surprised at his answer. Or rather, she was worried. Daian was, without a doubt, the world’s greatest mind. He was one important reason that Wiltia won the recent war. She couldn’t let such an irreplaceable person walk the streets alone at night.

“I’m head of the development bureau’s security. I may be off-duty at the moment, but I won’t allow this.”

The usual etiquette was for the man to see the woman home, but the circumstances were a little different with these two. Defeating Sophia without wicked fighting skills would be difficult. She wielded combat techniques capable of defeating Greyten’s mechanical soldiers barehanded.

And today, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, she was wearing her beloved short sword at her hip. And a holster inside her coat held her trusted firearm.

“You... Your brain may be powerful, but you’re below average physically.”

Daian had less than half of Sophia’s physical abilities and about one-fifth her skill.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got guards galore.”

“What does that mean?”

Daian wasn’t suggesting he had personally hired security.

“Special ops soldiers, Apuvea operatives... plus folks from the recently established Security Department.”

During Genitz’s rebellion, the first location to fall under attack had been Daian’s base of operations, the Weapons Development Bureau. At that time, Daian requested protection from the Yamato Embassy, as well as cooperation in reclaiming the royal palace.

That worked out. But what if he had seized that opportunity to flee to another country? It would have been a massive loss for Wiltia. Reminded of the danger this posed, Wiltia’s various organizations started keeping an eye on Daian. With all that surveillance, a group of bandits could attack and his guard detail would crush them before they could lay a finger on him.

“I’m quite popular! I get invitations from all sorts of countries!”

“You... You shouldn’t say that out loud!”

Sophia paled as she cautioned him against such casual bragging.

Wiltia didn’t want another nation to steal Daian. Not only would that be a loss for Wiltia, it would be an enormous gain for another nation. To prevent that, Wiltia would take decisive action.

“Yeah. They’d rather kill me than see me go somewhere else.”

“You know that?!”

In disbelief, Sophia shook her head.

“After all, I’m not a Wiltian citizen. No matter what happens, they won’t trust me. But I’m not currently thinking about defecting to another country.”

Undoubtedly, he was telling the truth.

“That’s because you’re in Wiltia, Sophia!”

“You...”

Even now, Daian was flippant, but Sophia wasn’t angry.

“Hey, tell me one thing. I know you’re not a Wiltian. So where were you born?”

She at least wanted this one clue to this mysterious man.

“I was born and raised in Europea.”

“Which explains nothing!”

Sophia was exasperated all over again. He said he was born and raised in Europea, but that applied to almost everyone.

Sophia, the waiter in the restaurant, the driver, the special ops soldiers watching Daian, the people of the August Federation, the people of the Greyten Empire, the people of the Republic of Filbarneu, the people of the Kingdom of Haugen... They were all born and raised on the continent of Europea.

“I was born on this same continent. The details don’t matter!”

“Details? You are so...”

The world had just been at war for ten years over such “details” as where one country began and another ended. Sophia herself had fought in that war.

“Oh, right. Sophia! Here!”

As if just now remembering, Daian handed her a small box.

“What’s this? A ring?”

When she opened the box, she saw a silver ring decorated with a rainbow-colored gem.

“This kind of thing is...”

Sophia had a tough personality, but she was also a beautiful woman. She was from a noble family, so countless men flocked to her. She received scores of presents, and jewelry was among them.

“I don’t want you to do things like this!”

Sophia didn’t like it when admirers gave her gifts. She thought they were attempting to buy her affection. And she didn’t want this goofy sorcerer to join their ranks.

“Don’t worry. The stone isn’t really a gem. It was a byproduct of my research. If I sold it to a jeweler, it would fetch no more than a glass bead.”

Daian smiled wanly as if guessing what was in her heart.

“It’s all right. It won’t harm your health. It’ll just sparkle prettily. I thought it would look good on you. That’s all.”

As if alive, the ring’s gem radiated seven colors. It was like a crystallized rainbow.

“By the way, I also made the ring’s setting, so it’s one hundred percent handmade.”

“What?! This is very delicate work!”

“I told you I’m good with my hands!”

During dinner, he had said that he could approximate something just by seeing an example—and he hadn’t been exaggerating.

“Would you please take it?”

“Hrmm...”

After all this, she thought it would be rude if she didn’t accept Daian’s gift. And she wasn’t exactly unhappy at all the effort he made for her.

“Okay... I’ll take it. But I’ll repay you sometime!”

Sophia answered him with a slightly embarrassed look.

“Heh heh...”

Daian laughed in amusement.

He wanted to add, “That’s another cute thing about you!” But if he said that, Sophia’s face would turn beet red and she would get angry, so he kept his mouth shut.

“Well, thanks for tonight, Sophia. Let’s do it again when we have a chance!”

Then he spun around and—just as he had intended—walked off alone into Berun.

“Uh, hey... Um...”

For a time, Sophia watched him walk into the night. It was strange how she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She stood rooted in place until the driver asked, “Are you going to get in?”

After leaving Sophia, Daian walked alone through the streets. As he thought about the evening, he was happy from the bottom of his heart. And because it had been such a wonderful night, he remembered the past.

How long ago was that? He didn’t know how old he was at the time. And he didn’t know his exact age anyway, so there was no way to confirm it. Nonetheless, he remembered what had happened.

“It appears my time is ending.”

Daian Fortuner said this to him one day. Nothing lasts forever. Even Europea, which had once created a god in hopes of eternal prosperity, had fallen to ruin. So nothing lasted for an eternity.

“My operability limit approaches. I will stop in approximately eight thousand seconds.”

The life of the rezanium reactor that was Daian’s heart and brain was at most one thousand years. Daian could have used the factories to create replacements for the other parts, but not for the rezanium reactor.

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” the boy asked as he drew closer.

There wasn’t even enough time to say good-bye to the only person he had known in the ten years since he was born—or rather, since he was removed from the cryogenic sleep capsule.

“Do not look so dispirited. That is why I did not tell you until the last moment. I do not like to see you like this.”

Daian laughed while speaking. It wasn’t an ironic laugh. Daian’s belief was heartfelt. Daian had spent over 500 million seconds with the boy, and the time had been thoroughly satisfying. So satisfying as to make the preceding tens of billions of seconds seem meaningless.

“I am grateful. Without you, my existence would have frozen. Without any meaning, I would simply have disappeared. Thanks to you, I grew a little closer to being human.”

The boy thought about the meaning of those mysterious words.

“You aren’t human?”

Daian laughed at the boy’s response.

“Correct. I am not human. Perhaps it would be better to say that I was not human. But, thanks to you, I can now die.”

Death is not merely an ending. Stopping all movement would be merely cessation of functioning. After human beings end, they are mourned and their existence lives on in memory. That is human death.

“As long as you exist, I will exist within you.”

Daian spoke faintly. The strength necessary for physical movement was beginning to fade, so Daian’s remaining energy was dedicated to thinking.

“No, that is not quite right. I will explain simply.”

Once more, Daian extended an arm toward the boy’s eyes.

“Before I disappear from the world, would it not be sad if there was no one to cry for me?”

Daian gently wiped away the boy’s tears.

“I taught you everything I know. Knowledge, wisdom and how to survive... So you will be able to live on your own with no problems.”

Daian had concluded that the tower might be unsafe after its lone maintenance worker ceased functioning, so a door to the outside was now scheduled to open.

That probably should have happened sooner, but Daian lacked the authority to initiate the cessation of functioning. There had been no choice but to wait for natural power depletion.

“Oh, right. There is something I must give you.”

Daian had almost forgotten. There was something the boy would need for life outside the tower. Since there had been only the two of them, they had no difficulty addressing each other.

“You still need a name.”

Daian decided to give a final gift to the boy as he went out into the world. Daian wouldn’t need it anymore anyway. Here at the end, Daian could give the boy everything.

“From now on, you shall be called Daian Fortuner.”

This was the last thing she could do for the boy.

“———”

The boy Daian spoke to the dying maintenance worker.

“—!”

As she died, the maintenance worker looked startled for a moment, then smiled happily.

“Ha ha... I like being called that.”

Her final moment was at hand. Only ten seconds remained.

“Yes... that is right.”

As she disappeared, the maintenance worker used her final moments to say something. And those words were...

In Berun, the royal capital, at the Royal Weapons Development Bureau...

Daian was inside the top-secret facility. This area of the Bureau required the utmost security—the area that gave birth to Sven and Rebecca. Daian had created a hidden room here. At a glance, it looked like a wall. It wouldn’t open unless he inserted a special card into a seam, then went through voice, fingerprint and retinal identification—plus twenty-four additional checks.

Only Daian could enter. And only Daian knew about this room. During Genitz’s recent rebellion, even the Schutzstaffel had been unable to find it. It wasn’t included on the facility floor plan registered with military headquarters.

Daian had created this room in utter secrecy as his own special place. There was a woman inside who would never move again and she was still wearing the smile she had at the moment she stopped functioning. It was the body of an automaton that had attained human death. It was she who had given Daian his name. There was a plate on the case in which he had enshrined her. It read “ORIGINAL NULL”—designating her as the model for all the humanoid Hunter Units, including Sven, Rebecca and Lillie.

Daian stood before her silent form and spoke.

“It has been quite some time since that day I left the tower.”

It was eighteen years to the day since the automaton Daian had ceased functioning and the newly christened Daian had stepped through the opened Door into the outside world. On that day of the Holy Festival, he had passed through the Door, an ancient relic from an ancient world, to this external world.

“I was born and raised in Europea.”

That’s what he had told Sophia. And that wasn’t untrue. He was the only person in this world left over from the European Empire.

“Much about this world is interesting. I discover many things and they fill me with fresh emotions. And I’ve met an absolutely adorable woman!”

Daian was known as more of a clown than a sorcerer, but at the moment, his smile was unusually heartfelt and kind.

“I owe it all to you, Mother.”

He had called her Mother for the first time at the very end, on the day she had named him. Even now, Daian wished he had called her that sooner.

“However, I still don’t understand your last words.”

On this day in particular, he wondered.

“You said ‘they’ destroyed the European Empire. Who did you mean?”

That day, as Daian had died, she had told him something.

“Now you will go out into the world. With your knowledge and skills, you can live in any world. But be careful of one thing. If they come near you, use every means at your disposal to escape. Those two destroyed Europea. The Saint and the Devil.”

Today—December 25, year 920 of the European Calendar—was exactly one thousand years since the fall of the European Empire.