Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/2912051601476634937
The heart of the royal capital.
There stood a tower that towered above everything else.
The Tower of Magical Research.
The kingdom’s largest research institution.
And.
It was also the headquarters of the guild led by Lilia.
“Guild Master!”
The moment she entered the tower.
A young researcher rushed over to her, looking flustered.
“What’s wrong?”
Lilia stopped in her tracks.
“I just can’t get the calculations for the teleportation magic circle to add up…”
The researcher handed her some documents.
Lilia took them.
A few seconds.
She glanced over them for just a few seconds.
“Here.”
She pointed to a spot on the paper.
“The magic power conversion rate is reversed.”
“Huh?”
“And the coefficient for Formula 4 is wrong, too.”
The researcher hurriedly double-checked.
And then.
His face paled.
“Ah…!”
“J-just that alone…”
“Also, add one auxiliary spell.”
“Y-yes!”
The researcher rushed off in a panic.
Voices of admiration escaped from the surrounding researchers.
“As expected of the Guild Master…”
“really is a genius…”
“the kingdom’s greatest mage.”
Such voices could be heard.
But.
Lilia wasn’t interested.
That sort of thing.
She couldn’t care less.
“Lady Lilia!”
This time, it was another researcher.
“A certificate of commendation from the kingdom has arrived!”
“Just leave it on my desk.”
“Y-yes!”
Saying only that, she started walking away.
The kingdom’s greatest.
A genius.
A Grand Mage.
Achievements in research.
Award.
Honor.
Things like that.
She didn’t care about any of it.
Because there was only one thing
she truly wanted.
The top floor.
The Guild Master’s private laboratory.
She closed the door.
Silence.
No one was there.
It was at that very moment.
“Haa…”
A deep sigh escaped her lips.
The tension that had been building up inside her suddenly dissipated.
Lilia sat down in her chair.
On the desk lay a mountain of documents.
Ancient ruins.
Spatial magic.
Teleportation theory.
Dimensional interference.
Spacetime distortion.
All of them were complex and difficult studies.
And yet.
There was one thing they all had in common.
Alto.
Lilia picked up a single document.
It was from five years ago.
“Investigation Report on the Site of Alt’s Disappearance”
She didn’t know how many times she’d read it.
For five years.
Over and over.
Over and over.
She had reread it.
“In the end, he wasn’t found, was he?”
She muttered softly.
She tossed the document onto her desk.
Next to it lay
the medal awarded by the kingdom,
the certificate of commendation,
her research achievements,
and countless other honors.
Lilia looked at them.
And then.
She snorted derisively.
“Ridiculous.”
The Kingdom’s foremost researcher.
A discovery that would go down in history.
That’s what everyone around her said.
But.
What meaning did any of that have?
“Not with Alt gone.”
That single sentence put an end to everything.
For five years.
She researched.
She achieved results.
honor.
But.
The one answer I wanted, I never found.
Where did Alt disappear to?
That was the only thing.
I couldn’t figure out.
“And yet…”
Lilia closes her eyes.
She recalls today.
Alt.
We met again for the first time in five years.
The same face.
The same voice.
The same smile
She couldn’t help but smile.
“You idiot, Alt.”
Lilia sank deeper into her chair.
She looked around the lab.
Bookshelves covering an entire wall.
Piles of research materials.
A thesis left open on the desk.
Ancient scripts.
Teleportation magic.
Spatial magic.
Theory of space-time.
Disappearance cases.
Ancient texts designated as banned books.
It was a volume that would take an ordinary researcher a lifetime to read through.
But.
Lilia had skimmed through almost all of them.
All of them.
To find Alt.
That was the only reason.
She searched every ruin in the kingdom.
She gathered records of ancient civilizations.
She even deciphered ancient manuscripts that no one else could read.
As a result.
The kingdom was astonished.
Countless research achievements.
The restoration of lost magical theories.
The development of new magical artifacts.
Awards.
Medals.
Research funding.
Honor.
She got everything she wanted.
But.
“I don’t need any of it.”
Lilia looks at the medal sitting in the corner of her desk.
“Something like this.”
The one thing she truly wanted.
There was only one.
Alt.
That was all.
Lilia quietly opened the drawer.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
A worn-out note.
It was in Alt’s handwriting.
The contents were nothing special.
“Buy bread”
“Return the book to Lilia”
“Return money to Leona”
Truly trivial things.
Normally.
She would have thrown it away long ago.
But.
She couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.
Because it was in Alt’s handwriting.
That was the only reason.
“How silly of me.”
She chuckled softly.
Those words.
Were they directed at herself?
Or.
Was it meant for Alt, who had vanished without a trace for five whole years?
I don’t even know myself.
But.
There’s one fact: Alt came back.
I was happy.
Truly.
From the bottom of my heart.
I was happy.
But.
At the same time, I’m furious.
Five years.
How much do you think I searched?
How much do you think I researched?
How many sleepless nights do you think I spent?
And yet.
He himself.
Was smiling with his usual expression.
“What an idiot.”
That’s just like Alt
That’s why it’s so frustrating.
That’s why I can’t just leave him alone.
That’s why.
I guess I’ve fallen for him.
Lilia let out a small sigh.
And then.
She recalled the conversation from earlier that day.
The magic circle from five years ago.
The time discrepancy.
A phenomenon no one could explain.
“It’s intriguing, isn’t it…”
Her curiosity as a researcher was piqued.
It could be explained in theory.
But.
She’d never heard of a real-life example of it happening.
What was that magic circle?
Who created it?
What was its purpose?
She wanted to investigate.
I want to unravel it.
I want to know.
But.
Right now, more than anything else—
Alto was more important.
Lilia opened another drawer in her desk.
Inside was a small crystal.
A transparent crystal.
But a faint light flickered at its center.
Lilia smiled as she looked at it.
“It’s reacting just fine, isn’t it?”
Noon.
When they reunited.
So that no one would notice.
For just a split second.
She had cast a tracking spell on him.
A byproduct of her research.
Not just throughout the kingdom—
no matter where on the continent he went, she’d be able to find him.
The light in the crystal flickered.
It displayed Alt’s current location.
Lilia narrowed her eyes.
“Now I can finally rest easy.”
She murmured softly.
For five years.
She hadn’t been able to find him.
No matter how much she searched.
No matter how much she investigated.
He was nowhere to be found.
That’s why.
She never wanted to go through that again.
Lilia gently clasped the crystal in her hand.
“I’ll never lose track of him again.”
Her voice was quiet.
“Because…”
Her words trailed off for a moment.
Then.
She continued in a voice so soft no one else could hear it.
“I don’t want to go through that again.”
Only silence remained in the lab.
But her expression—
It wasn’t that of the calm, genius mage she was during the day.
It was simply that of a woman.
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