One person had been sent off.
Ludger, recalling the aged face of Gariel, stood still and watched the slowly rising sun through the window.
The light of dawn shimmered faintly through the sea fog, scattering across the horizon.
Even on this broken, half-destroyed island, that fair light fell upon all things equally, offering a faint warmth of hope to those who had despaired.
Ludger stood motionless for a long while.
If not for the pulse of mana he felt from within Rine’s room, he might have remained there in the corridor indefinitely.
Woooong—
A deep resonance vibrated through the air.
Ludger’s eyes narrowed; that sound felt strangely familiar.
‘No way—’
He hurriedly opened the door and stepped inside.
Floating above Rine’s head was her magic beast—her familiar.
Unlike normal ones, its form resembled a bizarre geometric construct, something born from spatial-attribute mana—an unprecedented, anomalous being.
The entity hovering over her radiated a faint glow, and perhaps sensing it, Rine slowly opened her eyes.
Still hazy with the remnants of a dream, she sat up from bed, but when her gaze met Ludger’s, her expression froze.
“Oh... no, I mean, Professor.”
There was hesitation in what she called him.
‘Does that mean her sealed memories have nearly all returned?’
Ludger’s guess was correct.
In the midst of her body breaking apart under the clash between divine power and spatial mana, Rine had recalled everything from her past.
The seal Ludger had cast had been erased by the internal storm raging within her.
Because of that, all of Rine’s memories had returned.
Perhaps it was because all the suppressed memories had burst open at once, but even after so many years, the images of that day were as vivid as if they had just occurred.
Ludger was a person who stirred unbearably complex feelings in her.
As a child, Rine had liked him. Even after she lost her memories, she still liked him.
But Ludger was the one who had killed her mother.
And to that, he had erased her memories and hidden the truth. It was only natural that she would resent him.
Love and hate—
Rine’s feelings toward Ludger were tangled beyond untangling.
So instead of choosing between them, she chose to run.
Woooong—
Anywhere would do, as long as it wasn’t where Ludger was.
Her magic beast, moving on its own will, unleashed a surge of power and carried Rine away.
In an instant, both she and the familiar vanished like phantoms.
Startled, Ludger scanned the area.
The first time they had been drawn into Isla Machia had also been due to Rine’s runaway mana pulling them through a spatial transfer.
But this time, her teleportation was completely different.
‘Faster... and more precise.’
Perhaps because her mana had stabilized—or because the divine power that had interfered with her control was now gone.
Or maybe both.
Ludger traced the lingering afterimage of mana where she had stood.
‘The trail’s still here.’
A faint, threadlike remnant stretched from the spot where she’d vanished, leading outward through the window.
‘Not far.’
Fixing his eyes in that direction, Ludger cloaked his body in shadow.
* * *
Rine stared at the changed scenery.
An endless sprawl of mechanical devices filled the island, and beyond them lay the fog and the sea.
So this was Isla Machia, the place she had only ever seen described in books.
She could guess why she had ended up here.
“Was it because of you?”
She asked her familiar, but there was no reply.
She understood. It had only helped her—the real reason she was here had been her own will.
She had simply wanted to go somewhere—anywhere.
When her lost memories had come flooding back, confusion had taken over. In that chaos, she’d thought, anywhere without Ludger is fine.
And amid that confusion, somewhere deep inside, the thought had surfaced—I want to see my teacher.
Just that single fleeting wish had been enough to make the power of space carry her to the island where her teacher once was.
Now she could feel what her power truly was.
It was not a power born from technique or calculation, but something that responded to the deepest stirrings of her heart.
It was less like modern magic, and more like a miracle.
If she had truly wanted to escape from Ludger, she would have left Isla Machia long ago.
Yet she had not.
Because deep within her heart, there still remained a desire not to leave him.
The old Rine would have run.
The truth she had recovered was too painful to face.
Even with her strong mind, it was nearly unbearable.
But much had happened while she had been unconscious.
Rine could faintly feel it—
That there were people who had tried desperately to save her.
And—
That Ludger Cherish had been one of them.
Yet the one who changed her heart most of all was her teacher.
He had told her that the time would come when she would want to run—but that she should face it instead.
She didn’t know why he had said it then, but now she felt this was that moment.
That was when she sensed a presence behind her.
Rine turned slowly.
From within the blurred shade, a pair of blue eyes glimmered.
It was a formless shadow.
As the shadow stepped out into the light, its true identity emerged.
“Professor... no, Heathcliff.”
“...So, you’ve recovered all your memories, Rine.”
She nodded.
Even now, as they spoke, Rine couldn’t decide how she should treat him.
But one thing was certain—
She couldn’t run anymore.
No matter how cruel the truth, she had to face it to the end.
Sensing that determination, Ludger felt a complicated ache within his chest at how much she had grown.
She had become stronger—but that strength had not been something she had wanted.
Cruel fate had forced her to harden herself, and she had survived only by growing strong.
And he... he had been the one who had cast her into that cruel fate.
“I remember everything now,” Rine said quietly. “From the day I first met you to the last moment.”
“...I see.”
“So I want to ask. Why did you do it?”
She couldn’t understand.
He had killed her mother—yet he had delivered her mother’s keepsakes to her.
He had erased her memories—yet he had treated her gently, and risked his life to protect her.
Contradictions.
To Rine, Ludger’s actions made no sense.
If he had simply been evil, she could have hated him without hesitation. But she couldn’t.
Not when she saw the look in his eyes now.
He tried to hide it, but within them lingered a sorrow that could not be disguised.
He had done unforgivable things—so why did he look like that?
“Why did you save me?”
Just asking that was, in a way, an insult to what he had done.
But Rine had to ask.
He had killed her mother, sealed her memories—so why?
Ludger finally spoke.
“Because... I wanted you to live.”
“In this cruel world? Did you want me to suffer longer?”
“I...”
After a long pause, he answered softly,
“Even so, I wanted you to live.”
“Why?”
“This world may be cruel to you—now, and in the future. There will be times you’ll ask yourself whether life is worth enduring so much pain for.”
Rine said nothing.
Because she realized those words weren’t only for her—they were for him as well.
“It is worth it,” Ludger said, firm with conviction.
And in that moment, something fluttered before her eyes.
A butterfly.
A small, trembling creature with delicate wings.
An ordinary insect—yet it flew through this lifeless island of machines and steam.
Even though a brush of heat could sear its wings, even though there was no grass or flowers for it to rest on, only cold metal pipes—
Still, it flew.
It had broken free of its cocoon and spread its wings.
Even as the sea mist dampened its wings, even without a single flower in sight—
Still it fluttered.
Still it lived.
“No matter how hard, how painful—no matter if you want to give up everything right now—this life still has value.”
Because—
To live is, in itself, beautiful.
“Rine,” Ludger said gently. “There is something I want to show you.”
He stepped closer to her.
“With your power now, it’s possible. Close your eyes and picture it—the scenery of that day. The meadow, the hill, and the house upon it.”
Almost entranced, Rine obeyed.
She closed her eyes and imagined the scene.
Within that vivid image, she felt both longing and pain.
A strange tingling sensation crept along her skin—
And when she opened her eyes, she gasped.
The scenery she had imagined stood before her, real and solid.
Her old little cottage from childhood stood there.
Disbelieving, she reached out; the rough texture of the door pressed vividly against her fingertips.
Taking a deep breath, she opened it and stepped inside.
—You’re home?
For a moment, her mother’s welcoming voice echoed in her ears, and she almost answered before the illusion dispersed.
Still, even after ten long years, the inside of the house remained exactly as it had been.
“Everything’s... the same.”
Staring at the spotless table, Rine murmured in disbelief.
As though someone had carefully maintained it all this time.
“Was it you?”
“I thought... maybe, someday, you would come back here.”
“Why...?”
Instead of answering, Ludger brushed his fingertips across the table’s surface.
Just as Rine recalled that day, Ludger too was remembering.
The laughter, the chatter, the shared meal around this very table—
Scenes that now existed only in memory, a mirage of a distant past that could never return.
“I miss that day, too,” he said softly.
Just as Rine did.
Because he, too, longed for that time.
“Rine. You must have realized by now—your mother had the same kind of mana as you. Or rather, you inherited hers.”
“My mana...”
“Unattributed mana. We now know it’s spatial mana, and that the pain came from divine interference—but back then, no one knew that.”
His voice grew heavy.
“If only I had discovered the truth a little earlier... things might not have turned out this way.”
He knew it was a useless wish.
It was precisely because of those painful memories and all those choices that Rine had survived to this day.
But the human heart was like that—
It couldn’t let go of the what ifs.
“My mother...”
“She was already terminally ill—just like you once were.”
Rine’s mother had never had long to live.
And yet she endured.
Even through unbearable pain, she had pretended to be strong and kept living.
“Was it because of me?”
“The opposite. It was thanks to you.”
If Rine hadn’t been there—if she hadn’t had a family to protect—would she have endured at all?
Her mother had searched desperately for ways to survive.
Driven by a single thought—that she didn’t want to leave her only daughter alone in this world.
She had struggled, fought, and clawed her way forward to keep living.
But the heavens never grant more life to those who fight hardest.
In the end, when she lost even her last hope and could no longer bear the growing pain, she chose to run.
“Your mother was exhausted. After years of enduring the pain, she had already outlived her destined time. The agony had become too much.”
Knowing her end was near, she chose the most extreme path.
While Rine slept, she had intended to go somewhere quiet and die alone, unnoticed.
“I tried to stop her,” Ludger said.
He looked down at his hands.
And in his eyes, those hands were—
“Stained with blood.”
