Editor : Amethyst00



Seiren Academy was in the middle of its admissions presentation.

Seiren, the academy’s founder, silently took in the sight before her.

'Things have changed a lot. Elven society too.'

Elves had once been a stuffy, tedious race.

They valued harmony, hated change, and arrogantly believed themselves superior to all others.

That was why Seiren had hated her own people.

A truth she had never told anyone.

Closing her eyes, Seiren let out a deep sigh.

The House of Tingel, the family she had been born into, had long been renowned as a distinguished lineage.

After the Age of Calamity came to an end,

the House of Ersar of Velkia, the Fairy Knight, could even have produced the King of the Elves.

'They had more than enough pedigree.'

Velkia was none other than the disciple of Luna, the Poet of the Star, and the Brave Aaron, and also the disciple of Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.

On top of that, she was a great hero who rebuilt the world and led the Great War against Tartaros to victory.

That was why the elves sought to raise House Ersar up as the royal house of the elves.

But the Ersar family never took the throne.

There was only one thing they wanted:

[The formation of the Grand Council.]

'And one of the houses that founded that Grand Council was Tingel.'

It was the birth of the houses later known as the Seven Seed Houses.

The heads of the Seven Seed Houses each served as chair of the Grand Council in one of the seven kingdoms that existed in the northern part of the continent.

In that sense, Tingel could be said to be a house that boasted a pedigree no less illustrious than Ersar’s.

Two thousand years passed after the birth of the Seven Seed Houses.

Until the Age of Dawn began, the only houses that had maintained their seats in the Grand Council were Ersar and Tingel.

The House of Ersar, which established the Seed Houses under the leadership of Velkia, made it impossible for the position of Grand Council Chair to be inherited purely by bloodline.

In other words, they created a law by which a house that had declined in ability would wither away, while a new house that had allowed its potential to bloom could be chosen to take one of the seats among the Seed Houses and be elected as Grand Council Chair.

And that absolute law applied to House Ersar as well.

The Seven Seed Houses had only one goal:

[To revive Star Sorcery, the legacy of Luna, Poet of the Star.]

For 2000 years, countless families withered and bloomed anew in that pursuit.

At the end of that unimaginably long span of time, the very reason for the Seven Seed Houses’ existence finally bore fruit in House Tingel.

Seiren, who had been born into the then-declining House Tingel, succeeded in restoring Star Sorcery.

All elves praised and blessed Seiren's existence.

But Seiren despised her own kind.

'Star Sorcery does not belong solely to the elves.'

Luna wished for the Star Sorcery to illuminate the world brightly.

At some point,

when darkness came again, she wished for it to become a guide for countless people, like the stars in the night sky.

That's why the moment Star Sorcery became exclusive to the elves, it lost its value.

To begin with, aside from Luna, the only being capable of using Star Sorcery had been a human named Kyle.

'The reason Star Sorcery could not be revived for two thousand years in the first place was also the Seed Houses’ suffocating exclusiveness.'

The purpose of the Seed Houses’ existence was the revival of Star Sorcery.

But they never once shared the fruits of their research.

It was because of their suffocating exclusiveness, the belief that Star Sorcery had to be restored within their own house.

And within that, desire began to take root.

The ambition to revive Star Sorcery and ascend the throne that had vanished long ago.

At first, the Seed Houses had bloomed and flourished like fresh green sprouts, but as time passed, they came to harbor such desires.

And just as is always the case with a plant whose roots have rotted,

it withered away, became fertilizer, and nourished other houses.

House Tingel was no different.

In a sense, it was because they had remained pure that they were able to endure for two thousand years.

But in the end, they too rotted and fell into decline.

It was in precisely those days that Seiren was born.

'It was strange. Only Ersar remained like a vibrant flower.'

Even after 2000 years, Ersar had not withered.

They were the only house that had actively shared the fruits of their research.

'And they still hold their seat to this today.'

Seiren thought of Eiran.

3000 years ago.

The head of the Ersar family, lived in the same era as Seiren.

'Enely.'

Enely Ersar always denied it herself, but—

'If it weren't for Enely, I would've never been completed Star Sorcery.'

When Seiren restored Star Sorcery,

no, even to this day, the revival of Star Sorcery is known entirely as Seiren’s achievement.

But the revival of Star Sorcery was the product of everything elven society had built up over 2000 years.

And Enely Ersar was the one who passed all of it on to Seiren.

Enely never once doubted the talent of Seiren, whom she had regarded as a friend.

And just as she had expected, Seiren restored Star Sorcery.

Though all the credit went entirely to Seiren, Enely was genuinely rejoiced.

"Seiren! Thank you! Thanks to you, we were able to fulfill our ancestors’ long-cherished wish!"

The image of Enely, smiling brightly through her tears, rose vividly in her mind.

"No matter what happens, I'll protect you! Even if it costs me my life!"

She could still see her clearly, the way she had sworn those words.

"…..Don't cry, Seiren. I'm just keeping my promise."

Even in the midst of dying during the battle against Erebos, she had smiled so brightly.

She had looked almost like a saint.

A smile that closely resembled Luna's, the Poet of Star.

'Seiren… I have a favour to ask…will you look after my child.'

Those were Enely’s final words, as she entrusted her newborn child to Seiren, whom she had regarded as her dearest friend.

A shadow fell across Seiren’s eyes as she looked upon elven society, now changing, and the new sprouts that had begun to change with it.

'Things will go on changing even more from here.'

The traits Seiren had loathed so deeply would disappear, one by one.

'There will be more elves like Enely.'

More elves would emerge who could look upon the world with a broader perspective and transform it.

The narrow-minded, rigid, and insidious elf supremacists—the kind of elves Seiren detested so intensely—would vanish.

'Yes. Elves like me… should disappear.'

Feeling disgust toward herself, Seiren closed her eyes.

'I’m proud… of the fact that I was your friend.'

The image of her friend, who had breathed her last after leaving those final words, remained vivid before her eyes.

'No, Enely. I was never your friend. I was never worthy of being your friend.'

She had been one of those who mocked her for loving a human slave and bearing that slave’s child.

Someone like that could never be called a friend.

Recalling the person she had been in those terrible days, Seiren bit her lip.

bl

Leo approached Carl as he was coming out of the men’s waiting room.

“Carl.”

“Oh! Your name was… Leona, right?”

“Come with me for a second.”

“Huh?”

Carl looked flustered as Leo grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him along.

Meanwhile—

“…Is Carl in there?”

Eliza had come looking for Carl so she could show him how beautifully she had dressed up for the occasion, and when she saw that he was nowhere to be found, her brow furrowed.

At Eliza’s question, Abad gave a faint smile.

“He went off that way with some woman just a little while ago.”

“A woman?”

“Yeah. She was an elf woman with white hair. She looked like one of the participants.”

“Hm?”

“Aren’t you worried? Your fiancé is off with a pretty woman.”

When Abad teased her lightly, Eliza curled the corners of her lips upward.

“There’s no way that idiot has the guts to try anything stupid, is there?”

With that, Eliza headed in the direction Abad had pointed, intending to find Carl.

Meanwhile, dragged off to a deserted spot, Carl cried out in alarm.

“W-wait a second! I may not look it, but I’m a man who’s as good as married—”

“It’s me.”

“Huh? Wha—Whaaaaaat?!”

The moment Leo released the perception-hindering spell, Carl let out a scream.

“What is this? What is this?! Pwahahahahaha! This is absolutely incredible!”

Carl clutched his stomach and laughed.

“What the hell happened to you?”

Watching Carl point at him and burst into roaring laughter, Leo let out a small sigh.

“Ah! So this is Senior Lyl’s wish, huh? Wow~ Senior Lyl really is ruthless. Seriously, how does someone even think to use a wish like this? That’s why, Leo—you should’ve stopped teasing people so much.”

“I already regret it, so can you stop making fun of me now?”

“Man! Can’t we at least take a picture of this? I bet it’d sell insanely well if we did!”

Carl kept snickering and showed no sign of stopping his teasing.

'When else would I ever get a chance to tease Leo like this?'

Watching Carl grow more and more excited, Leo’s gaze turned crooked.

“So then? Miss. What exactly do you want with me?”

“I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t explain it, but I think something’s happened.”

“What? What is it?”

Carl’s face turned serious.

'It’s a pretty vague way of putting it, especially for Leo…'

Even so, if Leo had sensed something, then it was certain that some kind of trouble was about to break out.

“I’ll make preparations first.”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Heh. They do say a woman’s intuition is a frightening thing, don’t they?”

Leo stared at Carl, who kept teasing him to the very end, then grabbed him by the collar and yanked him closer.

In an instant, their faces were so close it felt as though their breaths might touch.

“Huh?”

While Carl was still standing there in confusion,

Leo stepped back, putting some distance between them, and said,

“So that means what comes next is tonight, right? I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“What does that even…… mean?”

Before Carl could make sense of the situation, still flustered, Leo dashed off in the opposite direction.

“What in the world is goi—”

“Oh?”

“Huh?”

At the voice that rang out from the opposite direction—the one Leo had run toward—Carl turned his head.

The moment he spotted Eliza pulling out a whip, he shouted in panic.

“Eliza, no! That’s not a woman, it’s—!”

“Die!”

“Aaaagh! That’s Leo! It’s Leo! Please, just listen to me!”

bl

Luna frowned as she watched the sudden change in Rena’s demeanor.

'What is this? She really feels completely different now.'

The slightly vacant, absent-minded air she had carried just moments ago was gone.

It felt as though she had suddenly become an adult.

Even her personality seemed to have changed a little.

'What on earth is this?'

Just as Luna tilted her head in confusion—

[She's looping.]

"…?"

At the strangely familiar yet unfamiliar voice that came from behind her, Luna flinched and turned her head.

"Lady Luna?"

Seeing Luna react that way, Rena looked puzzled and turned her gaze toward the direction Luna was staring.

'There's nothing there…'

[I don’t think you should tell that child she can see me. She’ll probably loop again if you do.]

'…Who are you?'

A face so beautiful it was startling.

And yet, it was also a face she knew all too well.

There was no way it could have been otherwise.

It was the face she saw in the mirror every single day.

The only difference was that this one was an adult.

'Me?'

The woman puffed herself up and folded her arms.

[I am Luna, The Poet of the Star! Your future self, destined to shine as brightly as the stars in the night sky!]

As Luna watched the Poet of the Star speak with her chin raised high, a thought crossed her mind.

'This hopeless narcissistic idiot is my future?'

Looking at the future version of herself, Luna let out a long, heavy sigh.

At those words, a vein throbbed on the Poet's forehead.

And then—

Squeeze—!

“Ghk? Kgh! Kgh!”

“Lady Luna? Why are you suddenly choking yourself?!”

Before anyone knew it, Luna’s own hands were wrapped around her throat, squeezing.

Luna realized at once that this was the progenitor of the Nebula’s doing.

'I really am going to grow into a pathetic adult.'

As her consciousness began to fade, Luna could do nothing but lament it from the bottom of her heart.