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“What the hell happened while I was dead for 10 years?”
I asked curiously. I wasn’t sure what had happened in the past 10 years, but I could feel it vaguely when I walked among the people earlier. It was thanks to the unique intuition of a person who has lived for a long time.
The mood of the people has completely changed. As if something big happened to them as a group.
Masha, who was wandering around her room, stopped at my question.
“It will be a long story.”
“Tell me as simply as possible.”
Well, it’s a time to be reckoned with, but did something special happen? Although it bothers me that Dante is crazy, people always exaggerate the news about celebrities. I thought lightly and poured the remaining tea into my mouth.
“A war broke out between the Liam Empire and the Norbert Kingdom. And your husband is a war hero.”
“I’m sorry, just explain it all to me.”
I canceled wondering whether anything special happened. I set the teacup down as calmly as possible.
What happened in the gap of 10 years may have been more serious than I thought.
***
Masha, who had been rummaging through the storage room for a long time saying that she had something to show me, soon brought a thick bundle of newspapers.
At first glance, she seemed to have accumulated years’ worth. She slammed the unusual thickness down on the table, and began to leaf through the newspaper. She could just explain it in words, but it’s pretty serious.
“What happened on the battlefield, how the high-ranking officials handled things, how they were politically intertwined, I don’t know these specific things, alright? Consider all this and listen.”
“I don’t know about that either, so it’s fine.”
“Okay. Now, look at this first.”
The first thing Masha showed me was a newspaper with the date 10 years ago.
“Huh, this…”
“That’s right.”
Flip, flip. The sound of me flipping through the newspapers was heard for a moment without a word.
“This is our village.”
A very small, even barely published article in the corner of a newspaper. The article said that an explosion occurred in a border area, killing all the villagers.
It’s estimated that the explosion magic was engraved in the magic stone and exploded simultaneously…
As I read the article, I felt strange.
As in the dry words that conveyed only facts, I couldn’t find words to express the fear, confusion, and despair experienced by the villagers at the time.
In a way, it was natural, but I felt uncomfortable when I was in the position of reading this after experiencing it myself and surviving.
“…Is this the only article related to this?”
“Yeah.”
If someone deliberately set off a bomb and killed all the villagers, it would be covered in many places. Why is there only one such short article published?
Is it because they don’t want to know about an incident that happened in a rural village they don’t even know the name of? Or in consideration of the people who will be anxious after reading this?
For some, it would be other’s business.
I checked Masha’s expression while reading the article, yet I couldn’t tell what Masha was thinking as she hardened her face.
“…Masha.”
When I called in a low voice, she hastily loosened her stiff expression. Clearly pretending to be fine, Masha held out another newspaper.
“Now, look at this.”
Another newspaper unfolded in front of me, and Masha’s finger pointed to an article. Unlike the small article I just saw, this article was filling up one page of the newspaper.
The first thing that caught my eye in the headline was one word. War.
“Our village… And that’s what the Norbert Kingdom did. It was equal to announcing the start of a war.”
Grr, there was a grinding teeth sound. I couldn’t see Masha’s face because her head was down, but her fists, which came into my field of vision, were clenched so tightly that they could be seen trembling.
With my head down, I read the article slowly, deliberately not looking at Masha. If I knew she cared, she’d probably pretend nothing was wrong.
“They decided to explode it while working at it without the Empire knowing from long ago. And, really, the troops of the Norbert Kingdom were beyond imagination. Because at the beginning of the war, we were helplessly pushed out.”
No matter how discouraged the situation was, they wouldn’t have tried to let people know that fact. It will only increase anxiety and reduce morale. It’s a bit surprising that Masha knows this far, I tilted my head for a moment.
“You said you didn’t know the specifics, but you know more than I thought.”
“I picked it up because some of my customers were high-ranking.”
It seems that many of the high-ranking customers had a cheap mouth. Well, I heard that the more luxurious a clothing store is, the more carefully it prepares a place for guests to have a conversation. After thinking about it, I nodded my head several times to show that I understood.
“What do you mean Dante is a war hero?”
“I will explain that from now on.”
Masha corrected her posture, sat down, and began to speak in a calm voice.
“If the structure at the beginning of the war had been maintained, where the kingdom was constantly advancing and the Empire was barely enduring, this war might have ended quickly with the Empire’s defeat. However, a variable appeared during the war.”
“A variable?”
As I raised my head, my gaze met Masha’s. Her clear blue eyes were intense enough to pierce me.
“The Magic Tower.”
“Hmm.”
“To be precise, it’s the Master of the Magic Tower.”
Another newspaper was placed before my eyes.
“The reason why we were defeated in succession by the Norbert Kingdom was because of the magicians on the side of the kingdom’s army.”
[How did they who were once respected take the side of the perpetrator of the war.]
Below the large letters were illustrations of people wearing black robes.
“Magicians?”
“Yeah. Did they say that they weren’t magicians belonging to the kingdom army from the beginning, and that it was a kind of alliance relationship… I can’t remember.”
“Are these people from the Magic Tower too?”
“No.”
Some rumors about these magicians later circulated. Since the Magic Tower became so famous, naturally they were also interested in the magicians. However, they say that they’re not affiliated with the Magic Tower. Masha, who had explained that far, raised a teacup and hydrated her throat.
“The way to fight magicians is to bring in stronger magicians, yet the Empire didn’t have a proper way. The magicians of the Magic Tower must have excelled in their skills, but… The possibility of the Magic Tower supporting the Empire was low.”
When I asked if there was any particular reason, Masha shook her head.
“It’s because the Magic Tower doesn’t belong to any country. They are treated like some sort of academic institution.”
“Hmm.”
“So whenever there was a conflict between countries, they kept neutrality, and everyone thought it would be the same in this war. The Magic Tower won’t take either side in particular.”
The last newspaper unfolded before me. The newspaper, which looked worse than the others, had the face of a very familiar person.
Except for the cold expression, the face that remains in my head. He was my husband who hadn’t changed at all, even the star-like purple eyes.
The article title is…
[The Master of the Magic Tower, who is crazy about slaughter…]
Ah, I haven’t read all of it, but I’m going crazy. I eventually tossed the newspaper far away on the table.
“About a year or so after the war started, there were rumors that outside forces were helping the Empire. It’s not the Imperial Army, but someone whose origin isn’t known is killing the enemy very cleanly.”
“Cleanly?”
It’s an expression that doesn’t fit the word that he killed people. As if she was answering my thoughts, Masha continued with her usual voice.
“It means that he killed until no one was alive once he went there.”
“…Hmm.”
“It’s as if he will kill as soon as he sees someone. And that too extensively.”
There was silence for a while.
“And another year later, two years after the war started, the Magic Tower officially sided with the Empire.”
The person killing the kingdom army was the Master of the Magic Tower.
The voice ringing in my ears was clear. However, at the same time my head went blank, so I had to try to focus on the story.
“Next, what? The Magic Tower, which gathered all the best magicians on the continent, stood on the side of the Empire, what would happen?”
As she continued to explain, Masha drank the tea in front of me, as if her throat was burning.
Feeling like it would be difficult to answer, I managed to answer in a small voice.
“We must’ve won the war.”
“Right.”
Clank. The teacup Masha had set down hit the table.
“The Empire has won. Thanks to the Magic Tower standing on the side of the Empire.”
That’s why your husband is the greatest contributor to this war. The added words quickly dissipated in my head.
***
We sat on the couch for a while, saying nothing. It wasn’t until the light that hovered around the window faded away and the sunset became clear that Masha opened her mouth.
It was a somewhat subdued voice.
“It’s obvious why Dante killed the kingdom’s army. The obvious reason, no one in the world knows, other than you and me.”
“…”
I was silent without opening my mouth. Masha muttered to herself, casting her gaze out the window.
“Maybe it was because of you that the Empire was able to win.”
You might think so. With a head, which I didn’t know whether it was calm or empty, I thought Masha might be right.
Yeah, if I hadn’t been killed by that bomb, Dante wouldn’t be killing people. I wouldn’t have been told that he was crazy about killing, and…
As I kept my mouth shut with my head down, Masha asked me cautiously.
“What are you going to do now?”
“…What am I going to do?”
What to do was decided even before I heard the story.
Maybe even before meeting Masha, no. It may have been decided from the moment I died and woke up.
From then until now, I have been thinking of Dante. My husband, who was said to have gone crazy because of my death, and the Master of the Magic Tower who swept through the battlefield.
I missed Dante.
“…It’s not what I think, right?”
I smiled at Masha, who looked at me with a twisted face.
You’re right, Masha.
“I have to go find him.”
He might be stuck, crying somewhere, I need to, as soon as possible.