“Titee, are you feeling nostalgic?”
“Ah, a little bit. But while it’s nostalgic, it isn’t quite right. It’s completely different from that empty plain. Back when I was a child, there wasn’t a single splendid town like the one we saw earlier. There were only a few tiny settlements, barely even villages.”
Before arriving here, we’d glimpsed what Titee called “nice towns and villages” from afar. Naturally, compared to a thousand years ago, the area was simply larger and the culture was more advanced. That made sense—it wasn’t the same. This wasn’t Titee’s Viaysia.
“Kanamin, this is the ideal Viaysia. You could say it’s a country that needs no further work. There’s no hunger, no discrimination. Wars with the South? They might as well not exist. Frankly, it’s too different from the Viaysia I lived in. Of course, I’m not saying that’s bad, and I truly believe it’s for the best. But still, I wouldn’t want to return to this one, because it’s not my home.”
She shook her head, confirming her feeling that Ide’s wish to start over here was wrong. Those were words that had been unimaginable when she was in the Dungeon. She must have grown up. Titee would never again throw a tantrum and try to escape into a false world. Not even if it was her brother’s request—no, it was precisely because it was her real brother’s request that it wouldn’t happen again. From her words, I understood she was heading back to her real home. She was aiming for a home just for her and Ide, one unrelated to things like kingdoms, queens, or chancellors.
And so, the carriage moved across the plain. Along the way, I left the driving to Rouge and did some light warm-ups and confirmed the spells I’d use. With the Quadragesimal Guardian awaiting us, we were now no different from the divers who stood just before floor forty. Like proper divers, we’d already finished our battle plans. I’d shared the information gained through Future Sight on our journey so far and decided on responses to unforeseen circumstances.
Rocked by the carriage’s movement, I finished my final checks with my companions...and then, we arrived. First visible from afar were the walls. Encircling an area as vast as the re-created city of Viaysia within the Dungeon, wooden walls stood on the plain’s horizon.
These dark-brown walls stretched horizontally, resembling a row of watchtowers. Their roofs, stained green by natural foliage, might lead the uninformed to mistake the plain for a strange, sprawling forest. The walls weren’t particularly high, yet they completely enclosed the vast royal capital.
But the infamous castle towering over the center of the city was clearly visible. It looked exactly like the one we’d seen in the Dungeon. Immovable and impregnable. Its sheer size made it obvious at a glance that destroying it would be no easy feat.
Carefully searching for differences from the thousand-year-old castle, we approached the capital and reached its entrance. The massive wooden gate stood wide open, revealing the city within. It was eerily quiet. I couldn’t hear a single voice.
The scenery inside was more prosperous than the town found on floor sixty-six of the Dungeon. As befitted a royal capital, many elaborate, tall houses stood in rows. The sight reminded me of Whoseyards in the Allied Nations. The difference, if any, was the gentle architecture integrated with nature, where the scent of the town’s planted trees and soil seemed to reach even beyond the castle walls.
On the gravel boulevard were the characteristic leylines of this era. Those leylines stretched straight ahead, reaching all the way to the towering Viaysia Castle at the center.
Facing this sight, Titee murmured first, her voice heavy with emotion, “We’ve finally arrived.”
Yeah, finally. Put into words, it was short and simple. Yet the depth of emotion she felt, having endured a hellish thousand years, couldn’t be easily grasped. A little over a thousand years had passed since she’d last fled Viasiya Castle, and now, at last, she’d returned.
“But this place has changed quite a bit. What’s with these walls? Sure, with Ide’s power, they could be cheap and improvised, but wouldn’t they burn like kindling in a fire attack?” Titee chuckled, tossing out a lighthearted joke.
To avoid casting a shadow over the end of our journey, I stopped the carriage with a bright expression.
“These are made with Wood magic? It’s the first time I’ve seen wooden castle walls.”
We disembarked cautiously before the gate. Then, recalling the sensation from the previous layers where Guardians had waited, I cast my usual spell. “Right, let’s scan for threats before entering. Dimension.”
Having conserved my magic all day, my condition was perfect as planned, and my MP fully charged.
Using that magic, I filled every corner of the royal capital. As my prior intel stated, no one was there. No people in the houses or inns, none on the main street or shopping district—not a single person anywhere to be found. The evacuation of all townspeople was complete. It felt strange seeing a town I knew to be rich and bustling where not a single human voice echoed.
“There really is no one here. The only ones in the castle town now are—” While scanning for threats, Dimension detected moving figures, which startled me, cutting me off.
There was a café situated along the main avenue leading to the castle. Two people sat boldly at an outdoor table on its terrace. One was a girl with short blonde hair that was tied back. The other was a girl with long black hair that hung loosely. Only those two were relaxing, looking like girls enjoying an afternoon tea party.
The blonde girl wore no sword at her waist, instead sporting a cute dress and a distinctly feminine expression. The black-haired girl wore a tunic that seemed anachronistic for an Outworlder, her eyes half-closed in a melancholy gaze.
Both outfits were unfamiliar to me, but I couldn’t mistake the people. That would be absolutely impossible.
“Dia! Hitaki!” Calling out their names, I tensed my legs, ready to dash forward.
“Wait, Kanami!” Before I could move, Titee shouted, stopping me. She’d used my proper name, not her usual nickname for me, and her voice was extremely serious as she sought confirmation. “This is just a guess, but once you go deeper, there’s no turning back. This might be our last chance to talk properly.”
“It’s fine. I finished all my preparations along the way.” I wasn’t pushing ahead thoughtlessly. I felt no hesitation now. My mind was clear, my HP and MP were full. I was facing the next Guardian battle in the best condition I’d ever been in. “I have no intention of retreating—or of losing. I’ve decided I will bring the two of them back. Titee, is it different for you?”
“Hmph, seems I’ve caused a pointless delay. Well then, that’s fine. Snow! You continue protecting Rouge! The fighting should be left to me and Kanamin! We’re going in!!!” Titee’s lips curled into a combative smile. Though she’d confirmed it, she clearly had no intention of holding back either. She lined up beside me, and together we charged forward.
We passed through the wide-open gates of the royal capital, traversed the highway, and reached the café observed by Dimension...toward a reunion.
Seeing us emerge from the south, Dia rose from her seat to welcome us. “Over here.” She beckoned with a cheerful expression. The wind made the hem of her thin beige dress flutter, revealing glimpses of her supple limbs. This figure was so different from the Dia I remembered.
“Dia?” Without thinking, I called her name.
“Yeah, it’s been a while. Kanami.” She called my name back. Just that alone felt so nostalgic, my body trembled.
At the same time, a chill ran through me, because there was no trace of agitation in Dia’s expression as she said my name. I had expected it, but something was clearly off. This was our reunion after that unwanted parting in the port town of Cork a year ago, yet she was far too calm.
I immediately snapped my fraying thoughts back into focus, reminding myself that I wasn’t reuniting with a friend in the city streets but facing a Guardian’s trial.
With that in mind, I slowly approached. “Dia, are you okay?”
“Hm, I’m fine, you know? Actually, I was the worried one. Since you never showed up, I thought something might’ve happened to you.”
She smiled casually and started walking back to her seat on the terrace. It was the kind of ease you’d expect meeting an old friend after a few weeks apart, an attitude hardly fitting for a reunion after a year.
“But I had people I needed to protect,” she continued, “so I couldn’t come see you. Sorry, Kanami.”
I turned to face the other girl at the table. The name of the black-haired girl in my line of sight was Aikawa Hitaki. My little sister.
Hitaki sat frozen like a statue at the white table. Judging by her half-open eyes, she didn’t seem to be asleep.
“Hitaki...” Just like with Dia, her name slipped out naturally. Then, my feet moved on their own, drawing me closer. Right before my eyes now was the most important thing in the world. Ever since waking in the Dungeon, I’d been searching for her endlessly. My sister, more precious than anything else. My only family. The thing I’d come so close to reaching during the battle with Palinchron yet failed to grasp.
If only I had Hitaki, I could say my battles in this other world were finally over. She was my ultimate goal, my very destination. And now she was right before me. It was only natural that my body moved forward on its own, reaching out to my sister.
“Huh?” Sensing the emergence of hostile Ice magic, I let out a voice of confusion. The fingers on my outstretched hand were freezing over. I instinctively leaped back, retreating about five paces from the white table to reassess the situation. Just now, the spell activated because I was about to touch Hitaki.
It was likely the basic ice-element spell Freeze. But it wasn’t just any Freeze. A Freeze capable of instantly freezing warm human flesh required magic power on the level of an Essence Thief.