For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

“Please help me… Mom.”

It wasn’t the playful “Mom, Mom,” but a rather serious plea.

At this, the Circulating Life paused for a moment, then scratched her head wildly and shouted.

“Ugh! Okay! I’ll do it, I’ll do it! There’s no reason for you to resemble him, but how can you be so much like Fafnir…?”

Come to think of it, Fafnir in my memories also forcibly pushed unreasonable requests on the Circulating Life.

As I scratched my head, feeling a little embarrassed, the Circulating Life, after letting out a sigh, continued.

“But it’s impossible right now. The current time warp is ultimately to prevent intruders. If used as is, it will cause mental problems. I need time to complete the adjustment for that part.”

“How long will it take?”

“Thank you.”

As I lightly bowed my head, the Circulating Life, sighing repeatedly, walked away. Sitting on a chair and quietly closing her eyes, it seemed she had entered the adjustment process.

The moment I turned my head after gazing at that figure for a while…

“Hold on, sit down here, Master.”

“You? Do you even realize what you just said?”

“Uh, um…”

I expected it, but the reaction was more intense than I thought. I glanced around and slowly backed away.

“Where are you going, Master?”

“Hu, Junior. Let’s talk for a moment.”

I was grabbed by Iris and Faye and forced to sit on a chair.

The others didn’t say anything, but they seemed to feel the same way, looking at me with sharp eyes.

Just in case, I looked towards Milone and Nariell’s place, but….

“…Your Majesty. It seems we can observe the outside situation from here as well.”

“Well, that’s good! Even though I’ve given general instructions, something might happen in the meantime!”

“Yes. Even if communication using magical tools is impossible, we can check directly like this, so if something unexpected happens, we can go down immediately.”

“Then… we’ll have to keep watching here whether a problem arises or not.”

“Indeed.”

They turned their heads away as if they didn’t want to be involved and started chatting among themselves.

Yeah. I didn’t expect anything from the beginning. Really?

While I was clicking my tongue inwardly, Elisha cupped my face with both hands and made me look straight at her.

“You. You told us to risk our lives. But are you trying to sacrifice yourself alone again? Without even knowing what it feels like to convert life force into magic?”

“Whether I know what it feels like or not is not important. It’s something I have to endure anyway. There’s no other way, is there? Even if the Chairman or Lord Havel rushed over right now, it would already be too late.”

“Is that even something to say…?!”

“And telling you to risk your lives isn’t just empty words. No matter how much mana I gather and return, if the Grotesque Proliferation is completely unsealed or Yggdrasil collapses, it’s really over. So, buy me some time until I come back. Slow down the unsealing speed even a little, and protect Yggdrasil from collapsing. It won’t be easy since I’ve left the front line, but it’s absolutely necessary.”

“……”

It was true that the Grotesque Proliferation had not yet captured Yggdrasil, and that they only had an arm out at the moment.

But how long would that last?

The Circulating Life said that a few years would not be enough.

Even if time warp was applied, the longer I stayed, the longer the time that flowed in reality.

Someone must continue to interfere with the Grotesque Proliferation.

It didn’t matter if they couldn’t even inflict a single wound; they just had to stop those who were willingly offering themselves as sacrifices, stop those cult bastards, and destroy the birthing chamber even a little to slow down the birth rate. I, trapped inside the World Tree, could absolutely not do that.

“And it will be dangerous too.”

“…I understand what you mean. But regardless of that, I can’t help but have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Why do you have to suffer so much?”

“Huh?”

That was something I hadn’t thought about deeply.

In the first place, if I didn’t step in, this world would be destroyed, and I and my women would die.

That was why it was a topic I hadn’t looked into deeply. Protecting myself and my people was too obvious.

But Elisha seemed to think differently.

“I know you from when you were still weak. From the moment you tried to win a duel somehow even though you only knew one low-level spell, to when you won, covered in wounds, against a cultist who was superior to you, to the sight of you finally turning around a clearly disadvantageous battlefield where charging in seemed foolish. I remember everything.”

That was right. Carla was the one who was by my side the longest, but Elisha had also been fighting alongside me for a considerable amount of time.

“You have brilliantly accomplished things that everyone said were impossible. Stopping an attack on the Academy, clearing multiple hidden dungeons, uncovering the existence of hidden spies, blowing up half of the undead army prepared for the war, and saving Solaris and the Righteous Radiance, who were on the verge of collapse.”

Elisha, as if she begrudged even a breath, spoke quickly. Only after saying this did she finally take a breath.

“Hoo… I know. That you were created to defeat the Evil Gods, and that you were born with that talent. I know it well now, but…”

Elisha, who had been holding my face, gently removed her hands, then softly brushed her fingertips from my forehead to my cheeks.

“But why did it have to be you? I can’t help but have that thought.”

“…I know. Why me? But one thing is certain: if I’m not here, this world will be destroyed.”

It wasn’t Elisha who responded to my words, but Iris, who was gripping my shoulder beside me.

“If the world can only continue at the cost of the Master’s sacrifice, then to hell with it. Let it all burn.”

“What…?”

At the very determined tone, I unknowingly let out a dumbfounded voice.

Helena and Solaris also flinched, but perhaps thinking that it wasn’t something they should interfere with right now, they deliberately took a step back.

In response, Iris lightly bowed her head to express her gratitude, then stood next to Elisha and opened her mouth again.

“Elisha said that if you willingly chose this path—even if it led to your death—she would follow you. But I feel different.”

“Different?”

“That’s right.”

Iris, nodding her head once, grabbed my hand tightly and said.

“Isn’t it enough now?”

“……”

“If the Master is trying to sacrifice himself because of a duty that was erased from him since he was born, regardless of his own will… I will say it again and again. The Master has done enough.”

“……”

“The Master can now let go and be happy. Even if the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed when it’s time. It’s not the Master’s fault. Even if you pledge allegiance to the Evil Gods, you’re just struggling to survive. No one will dare to point a finger at you.”

Iris, who had said that far, continued with a slightly tearful voice.

“I… I am different from Elisha. Different from the others too. I vowed to revive Alfheim with elemental magic, but in the end, I ended up resorting to spiritism. I am the fool who abandoned the purpose of the past 300 years. Whatever I say on the outside, I have abandoned the goal of the past 300 years with my own hands.”

“That’s…”

“But that’s why I don’t want the Master to be in pain. It’s okay for me to die, but I don’t want the Master to die. To me, the Master—no, my partner is more precious than the whole world!”

Even if the world is destroyed. Even if my mind is contaminated by the energy of the Evil Gods.

Iris, with tears streaming down her face, said that her top priority was always me.

I stared at her for a moment before reaching out and gently wiping away her tears. The warmth against my fingertips made me let out an involuntary chuckle.

“Wh-why are you laughing, Master? I was serious.”

“I know. But both Iris and Elisha, I think there’s one thing you’re misunderstanding.”

“…A misunderstanding. What are you talking about?”

“I’m not fighting for some great cause. Much less a sense of duty. Of course, at first, I fought simply to survive… but it’s not like that now.”

“Then what is making the Master force himself?”

“It’s simple. We made a promise, didn’t we?”

I held up my little finger and gently shook it.

“A thousand years.”

“Ah.”

People often called the vows of a couple “a pledge of a hundred years.” It was a romantic term that promised eternal love to most races whose lifespan was at most about 100 years.

But for elves, who had long lives, 100 years was a long time, but it wasn’t a level that could be said to be their whole life.

That was why the “thousand-year pledge” was created.

The vow that Elisha and Iris had half-playfully, half-seriously made me swear—this time, I found myself saying it again of my own accord.

“Two halves of a soul, a pair of wings, intertwined roots—these are the names we share. Let this vow be etched here, never to fade, even after a thousand years.”

“……”

“……”

I shrugged my shoulders at Elisha and Iris, who were speechless and staring blankly at me.

“No matter how much time passes within the time warp, it’s nothing compared to a thousand years, right?”

I truly believed that.

I no longer fought just to survive. I fought because I now had people I wanted to live happily with.