Chapter 55: The All-Knowing Chronicler, Akuru Irmphis

—To the girl, the world she was born into was nothing less than hell itself.

Looking back, I've certainly come a long way.

"Urgh...!"

"Lord Padron?!"

"Don't worry about me! It only grazed me!"

In the world where she was born, there was no "magic," no "sorcery," nothing of the sort.

Learning from the chaos that had plagued the realm under the previous king's reign, when fraudulent fortune-telling and black magic ran rampant, the king had rejected the fantastical altogether. Such things were treated as dangerous ideologies, delusions that led people astray.

『――The trail I yearned for that day』

A mountain of books left behind by her parents, who had been imprisoned as swindlers.

The books had been confiscated as forbidden texts. Only one book had survived, hastily hidden away at the last moment.

Its contents were third-rate at best. Nothing more than an ordinary tale of heroes, the kind you could find anywhere.

『――Beneath the sky of a distant star long ago』

She read it by starlight, over and over, day after day, taking care not to be discovered by the authorities. She read it so many times that she eventually memorized it.

Because... what else could she do?

It had made her heart race. She had thought it was so cool.

『――The fantastical tales of childhood dreams』

It was surely the sort of dream everyone entertained in their youth.

Something like a discarded outer skin that everyone shed as they grew up.

Just as snakes shed their skin, humans cast off their fantasies as they become adults.

"...Sparkling. ...Are those stars?"

"...? I hear something, nya."

"Could this be... an incantation?"

A fantasy no one would take seriously.

An absurd tale that only a fool would believe.

And yet—

『――The ideal I yearned for.

――The miracle I desired.

――The fragments of fantasy I clutched in my hands』

—She had fallen hopelessly in love with that fantasy.

『Chaos――』

And then, that day.

The fateful moment.

『The world――. The imagination――』

The world changed completely.

Swallowed by Chaos, fantasy became reality.

『The ideal――. The dream――』

The first thing she tried to achieve was having "odd eyes."

There was no deeper reason. She just thought they looked cool.

That was where it began. From there, she charged ahead without ever looking back.

『The stars of that night――』

Now that she thought about it...

That day, when she gazed up at the starry sky through the holes in the roof.

She had come an awfully long way since then.

And now, I stand in a position where I can influence the fate of the world.

『――I shall unite them all and bring them into being here』

Now, then.

The starry sky that had once been beyond my reach was no longer out of reach.

『Descend, starry sky. Into the palm of my hand』

The wisdom I had gathered would become the staircase that carried me toward a miracle.

『The night when stars rain down――』

I shall make this body reach that miracle.

『――The miracle of healing』

Behold! I am unbelievably cool right now...!

Sparkling, sparkling.

Pillars of light rained down from the heavens.

Ten, twenty, thirty... More and more, multiplying until they were beyond counting.

They blanketed the battlefield, filling every inch of it.

A starry sky was materializing on the ground itself.

It had probably been about twenty minutes since Ms. Tierra withdrew from the battle.

Honestly, I was proud of us for holding out this long.

But Kizuna and the others, who had gone on ahead, hadn't returned. Neither had Ms. Tierra. ...In other words, there was a good chance they still hadn't managed to persuade the elves we were after.

Which meant we had failed.

After putting on such a brave front in front of Ms. Tierra, how pathetic could I be? At this rate, earning Father's recognition was nothing more than a pipe dream...

"Urgh...!"

"Lord Padron?!"

"Don't worry about me! It only grazed me!"

...Apparently, even my attempts to keep myself motivated were reaching their limit.

My body, which I'd been forcing to keep fighting by sheer will, felt incomparably heavier than usual. My reflexes and judgment were slowing down, and I was getting hit more and more often.

The strength was also draining from my arms, especially the ones holding my sword and shield.

If I kept fighting any longer, I'd have to be prepared to lose at least one of my limbs.

"Well, even so... I've got no choice but to keep going."

Even so. Even so, stand back up, Padron Zalfedahl.

There was no need to think about what came afterward. For now, I just had to buy a little more time—

"...Sparkling. ...Are those stars?"

"...? I hear something, nya."

"Could this be... an incantation?"

As Rene murmured those words, I noticed it, too.

Something like sparkling particles of light was drifting down around us.

"Stars" was a surprisingly apt description. It was as though we'd wandered right into the middle of a starry sky—

"...?! What the hell?! Is this an attack?!"

The next instant, pillars of light rained down. Pillar after pillar after pillar.

Countless beams of light crashed down over the battlefield, swallowing it whole.

"...No! Rather than an attack, this is probably...!"

"...My wounds... they're gone."

"My stamina and magic are completely restored, nya?!"

"Oh-ho! I see, I see! Now, what do we have here? Could it be...?"

The stamina we'd lost during the prolonged battle, our battered bodies, our completely depleted magic—everything came surging back. Strength welled up inside us, overflowing as if we could hardly contain it.

"This isn't Ms. Tierra, is it?"

A violent kind of healing.

Those contradictory words surfaced in my mind.

This was the polar opposite of Ms. Tierra's delicate healing, which gently enveloped everything in its warmth.

There was no doubt about who had performed it—

"KUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You look like you're in quite a predicament, young men and women who proclaim yourselves saviors!"

With the starry sky raining down behind her,

accompanied by booming laughter and an inexplicable pose,

the girl declared, looking thoroughly delighted with herself:

"For I am the observer and chronicler of every phenomenon in all of 'Chaos'! A greedy traveler who has surpassed wisdom itself and reached for omniscience! And who might I be, you ask? None other than Akuru Irmphis!"