"—That is the end of the story."
"......"
An epic.
Or perhaps a heroic saga.
Chronoa's journey was that kind of story.
The journey of the [Hero] who had amassed more legends than anyone in the world save the First [Hero] was the tale of a great champion who had endured a span of time close to infinity.
That was what it was.
"......Regression..."
"...Well, it isn't something you can believe so easily. When I first met Chronoa, I thought she was just some strange lunatic spouting nonsense."
Luminous muttered quietly toward Shizue, who had drawn in a sharp breath, then cast a sidelong glance at Ria, who seemed to be lost in thought.
"That one... tch, there's no need to worry about her."
Ria remained silent under the gaze of those mysterious heterochromatic eyes.
Ever since the words regression and time had come up, she had been frantically piling formula after formula inside her head.
Like a demon who had reached the ultimate depths of magic, she had already accepted Luminous's words and was now searching for a single answer among countless hypotheses through calculation.
"...I don't particularly like it, but... a [Primordial Demons] really is a [Primordial Demons]."
Luminous, whose mastery of [Holy Magic] could be called second to none, had some idea of just how vast the sea of calculations inside Ria's head must be right now.
And just how absurd that act itself was.
"Trying to analyze Chronoa's power with no more than this little information... If it were any other brat, I'd dismiss it outright, but the name Blanc alone makes her impossible to ignore."
If it had been any other race, any other mage, they would have hit a wall at the hypothesis stage before the calculations could even properly begin.
"......"
Erasing the rest of that thought from her mind, Luminous slowly lowered her gaze and shut her eyes before looking elsewhere again.
"Will this be enough now, Adelio?"
"...Yeah. Thanks for helping."
Receiving Luminous's slightly sulky look, Adelio nodded with a bitter smile.
To avoid any unforeseen butterfly effect, Luminous had refrained from mentioning things like Chronoa's exact prophecy of Rimuru's awakening or the [Double-O Number] that had killed her, but aside from that, she had revealed nearly everything she could.
So even if she was dissatisfied with Adelio for making her speak of a secret, there was really nothing he could do but answer with a wry smile.
"......Hmph... If you truly feel grateful to me, then wouldn't it be better to prove it directly instead of only saying it?"
Luminous spoke in a haughty tone while avoiding Adelio's eyes, her pale cheeks faintly flushed.
"...Ahem. Since you've gone to the trouble of coming all the way to [Night Garden], if you wish, how about holding a small banquet? As it happens, I still have some of the Blood Wine you gave me as a gift... It's a bit much to drink alone, so if the two of us were to share it tonight—"
"—That's far enough."
Just as Luminous, forcing herself past her embarrassment, was making her proposal to Adelio with her cheeks now burning red, a sharp voice cut her off.
"I don't care who I am. I can't just sit here quietly and listen past that point."
Naturally enough, that warning came from Ria's lips.
She had been briefly distracted while calculating Chronoa's power, but true to a [Primordial Demons], she had been listening to every word Luminous said through parallel thought. Now she turned her burning red eyes, lit with possessiveness, toward Luminous.
"Too bad, but we don't have time to stay in a place like this for long. So why don't you stop getting your hopes up? You don't want the land of the [Vampires] to turn back into a battlefield like it did before, do you?"
"Hmph. And who asked you? Blanc, your opinion means nothing to me."
"......"
The air went beyond merely cold and started turning violently savage.
The killing intent of women stained with possessiveness and jealousy was more terrifying to Adelio than any bloodlust he had ever faced in battle.
But he had no path of retreat here, so with no other choice, he forced himself between them and pulled their shoulders apart.
"......Both of you, stop. This makes twice already."
Looking utterly resigned, like a shrimp caught between whales, Adelio let out a short sigh. Then he added that he was begging them not to fight here, shook his head at Ria, and turned back to Luminous.
"Ria may have put it a little harshly, but we really don't have enough time right now to stay here any longer."
"......I-is that so..."
Her voice trembled so clearly that it made her usual title, the cold Queen of Yama, seem almost laughable.
Luminous had gone out of her way to swallow her embarrassment and make the request, so Adelio's words seemed to hit her harder than expected. A dejected look spread across her face.
As the queen of a race and a [Demon Lord], she had almost never had one of her requests refused before, so in a way, it was only natural.
But because it was such a natural reaction, there was naturally a clear way to deal with it as well.
The dejected look on Luminous's face weakened at once, as if it might melt away completely, with just the next words Adelio spoke.
"Though saying 'instead' isn't quite right... this is a good chance, so I'll tell you in advance. Think of it as my thanks for explaining Chronoa's secret this time."
And then—
[—.—.]
The two pieces of information delivered straight into her mind through Adelio's [Thought Communication] were more than enough to lift Luminous's mood.
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