A Request from Irene
The sound of footsteps following behind him slowed, and Michael turned his head.
A short distance away, Irene stood biting her lip while staring at the Stone of Quiet in her hand.
Her face was filled with tension, yet there was no fear on it. Instead, there was a mix of anticipation and excitement for what lay ahead.
Michael deliberately slowed his pace so Irene could stand right beside him.
Normally, Irene would always lift her head and look at him at such times.
But now, she seemed lost in deep thought and had even forgotten that he was standing there beside her.
‘She asked if I was unhappy with the plan.’
There was no way she could have meant that.
Irene’s plan was nothing short of flawless.
The only thing that bothered Michael was the part where she herself would have to be the bait.
Another point unsettled him even more.
‘This is a task I could accomplish without you.’
The fake Wilhelmina might be grotesque in form and power, but she was not an especially strong monster.
That meant there was no need for him to be the one to catch it.
Even the young knights like Felix or Maksim could handle such a monster as long as they could strike before it disappeared.
‘I always wished you needed me.’
He would have done anything to be useful to her. He could have committed the most ruthless acts without hesitation if that was what Irene wanted.
But what Irene wanted from him was nothing more than to go to the dungeon together.
It was something he had always done, an ordinary task for him.
He had felt so guilty for simply asking her to do that.
Michael wanted to be an even greater help to Irene.
But now Irene was moving in a direction that didn’t require his assistance at all.
Michael recalled Irene’s plan.
Irene had given the maids who roamed the fortress artifacts to alert them to the monster’s appearance.
If she had simply asked, the maids probably wouldn’t have cooperated so easily.
After all, fleeing was the best option for them when a monster appeared.
Yet seeing their comrade being treated made the maids hold Irene and the other purifiers in high regard and commit wholeheartedly to the plan.
‘Irene must have calculated that far as well.’
When Michael first heard Irene’s plan and suggested it was good to boost the maids’ motivation by having someone treated, Irene’s eyes had widened.
“What if I can’t move because I’m paralyzed? Then I have to be helped.”
Michael swallowed a bitter smile at her bewildered expression, as if needing a reason to treat a person was absurd.
That was Irene’s nature.
She helped those in need without expecting anything in return.
And now, that selfless act was moving everyone in the best direction, without calculating any gains.
An altruistic heart that didn’t think of its own interests.
Once she had lived like that and left the world behind in hardship, he had thought she would take a different path in this life.
Sure enough, Irene’s actions had changed a lot from before.
She no longer shrank back but faced the evil coming toward him head-on.
She asserted her thoughts firmly without hesitation and didn’t back down easily when someone questioned them.
Yet her kindness remained the same. Once she achieved what she wanted, she didn’t get greedy for more.
‘That’s why I can’t tell who is walking the path of a god.’
Michael swallowed a bitter smile.
He lightly tapped her side with his hand as if pretending it was an accident, and only then did Irene lift her head and look at him.
She smiled faintly and took his hand.
Michael quickly intertwined his fingers with hers on her hand, holding it tightly.
Irene leaned her head against his arm and said, “Don’t worry too much. You’re here, and there are other purifiers and knights too. Just catch that monster quickly so everyone can relax.”
“…Understood.”
As they walked with matching steps, Michael thought.
He wanted nothing more than to crush the princess Cecilia’s neck right then and there.
But the monster that lost its summoner was likely to rampage in fear of its own existence.
There was also the fact that he couldn’t kill Cecilia right away for another reason.
‘If I kill her before the time I first did so in that world….’
This world would end.
* * *
As they walked together, they soon reached Irene’s room.
“I’ll wash up and change clothes for a moment.”
Having walked in the midday sun, she was sweating and her body felt sticky.
Irene reached for clothes from the closet and headed to the bathroom, and Michael naturally followed and stood right beside her.
“I will wash you.”
“Michael!”
His utterly calm appearance made Irene, who knew they were alone, suddenly startled and covered his mouth with her hand.
“W-what are you saying…!”
Irene’s face flushed instantly as she struggled to find words.
Michael decided to step back one pace, since he knew she would never allow it.
“Then I’ll just undress you.”
“That won’t do either!”
Irene shouted and, worried he might follow, hurriedly entered the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
The thick door was more than enough to block sounds from inside the bathroom.
The only issue was that his ears could catch even the smallest sounds.
Swish. Shick.
The soft cloth sliding down over skin that was even softer made Michael swallow dryly by reflex.
It was a sound reminiscent of the softness he could touch without restraint inside the dungeon, and only a few days ago as well.
Soon the sound of running water joined in, mixing with Irene’s embarrassed muttering that soon faded away.
Michael sat on the chair closest to the bathroom door.
At this time, no monster would appear anyway.
At dawn, when the sun of this world had just hidden beyond the mountains and was about to rise again, everything was chaotic in the quiet darkness.
It would emerge again then.
He stared into the empty space in front of him for a moment, waiting for Irene to finish.
Then the ordinary space suddenly distorted, and soon a deep darkness appeared beyond a tear as if something had been torn apart.
It held an unknown depth like the entrance to a dungeon.
Michael briefly shifted his gaze as if he could see beyond it.
“Ah.”
Like someone who had found what he wanted, he let out a short sound.
A moment later, a small metal fragment slipped out from the darkness and appeared before him.
As it emerged, the chest in the corner of Irene’s room made a rattling sound.
Michael moved his fingers lightly, and the chest opened. The metal fragment wrapped in cloth that Irene had hidden deep inside also floated up.
Michael quietly stared at the metal fragment floating in the air.
It was an artifact as well.
In the past, in the messy rubble of the collapsed fortress, the Hand of Appraisal had shown him what this was and what abilities it had, then passed it on to him.
The artifact’s name was ‘Impossible’.
The ability it possessed was to reverse time.
Activation condition was….
“…the complete annihilation of all dungeons and monsters.”
Michael’s face filled with heavy fatigue as he muttered that.
When he learned the condition, Michael could not tell whether the reason it was called Impossible was because it reversed time, or because the activation condition was simply absurd.
But the moment he realized there was a way to erase all regrets and see Irene again, he immediately acted.
He didn’t even know how many dungeons he had entered or how many monsters he had slain without restraint.
The scenery outside the dungeon changed every time.
Buds sprouting, everything withering in the hot summer air, fallen maple leaves, and finally snow covering everything.
He had seen something like that hundreds of times.
He didn’t know when his body had completely been corrupted by demonic energy, but it had already become a monster and no longer affected by the flow of time.
Every time he entered and left the dungeon, the world’s appearance had changed quite a bit.
The number of dungeons had increased daily, and the fortress’s paired knights could no longer block them all.
Every time he left and returned, the fortress was falling apart more and more.
Then, at some point, there were no human figures outside the dungeon.
The places where humans had walked were now filled with monsters, and the sky had turned red.
To him, it didn’t matter.
After all, they were all going to be killed anyway.
Then, as no more dungeons appeared, he began killing the monsters roaming outside.
Now, under the dark sky that no longer seemed to rise, at the moment he ended the final monster’s life, the fragment in his possession glowed.
The one Irene had held.
And the one he had found.
The two fragments glowed in the air and soon merged into one.
And Impossible had been accomplished.
But….
His tired gaze glared at the metal fragment with resentment.
The ability to reverse time had been welcome. He had accepted the absurd activation condition as well.
After all, he had done it.
But in the time that was reversed, there was a problem.
He covered his face with his hand.
A long time ago, the mistake he had made when he first reversed time came to mind.