Even in this tense situation, the magician was unperturbed.

 

Instead, he looked at Irid as though he pitied him.

 

“Your Highness… This is merely an illusion.”

 

“Do not insult the time I spent with her…!”

 

A firmer grip tightened on the magician’s neck. Irid glowered at the magician with enough intensity to kill, and the magician sighed deeply as if singed by the gaze.

 

“What do you hope to gain by denying that it’s an illusion?”

 

“…What?”

 

Then, he began to spout the words of a madman.

 

“This is much simpler, Your Highness. It’s even righteous.”

 

“A naughty magician has played a trick on you, and all the incidents you experienced within are nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream.”

 

“What follows is easy. You justly anger, deal a harsh punishment to the mischievous magician, and that’s it. There’s nothing here that Your Highness needs to take responsibility for.”

 

“But if… for a moment you believe an illusion to be true… Good heavens. Where do we even begin to unravel that?”

 

The magician’s gloomy eyes stared at Irid. Despite his soaring rage, Irid had to relax his grip on the magician, overwhelmed by the indifference swirling in the magician’s eyes, by the seeming levity with which he treated everything, by the madness.

 

“I have seen many like you, Your Highness…”

 

“Those who can’t keep their distance, who immerse themselves, they all meet a terrible end. It’s inevitable. Players are always… outsiders, after all. They can’t be together forever. It’s their fate to part ways eventually.”

 

“Isn’t it better… to confront an illusion that shows what you fear the most? Isn’t that enough?”

 

Irid’s hand trembled as much as his shaking heart.

 

His heart was struck with vicious insults and humiliation, yet, they were irresistibly enticing. If the wounds he had endured, the crisis of Centra, the miserable future known as the fall from grace, were all fraudulent.

 

Then, he didn’t have to be angry at himself.

 

He didn’t have to despise himself for failing to anticipate an attack and letting her get caught up in the explosion. If all he had to do was unleash his anger on the magician in front of him, everything would be settled.

 

But still.

 

The memories he could still vividly bring up when he closed his eyes.

 

The scent of rosemary still lingering in his nose.

 

His aching heart was still resisting.

 

…He couldn’t run away to the comforting option.

 

Prince Irid turned over his nine-day journey in his mind.

 

Scenes from the past swept by like a panorama in Irid’s mind.

 

“At first… I was afraid. It was a horrifying experience, being flung into an unknown future, wandering the back alleys of the city while reflecting on my failure. I can still hear the sounds of resentment sometimes ringing in my ears.”

 

He had tried to abandon everything and give up in the face of a future filled with disgrace.

 

His fear had driven him to try to run away.

 

“But… After that, I was very happy. At some point, I forgot about the pressure of being the emperor and my terrible failures.”

 

She had caught hold of the fleeing Irid.

 

She had led Irid’s soul like a firefly.

 

From Noble mtl dot com

 

“I felt fulfilled as if the hole in my soul had been filled. I received something precious from her.”

 

And there was Irid in the present.

 

Irid, who had been caught in anger and anxiety, was able to look back at himself after hearing the twisted words of the magician. The magician in front of him was mirroring his own future, filled with fear, that campaigned for him to run away.

 

Unable to throw away the precious things he had painstakingly gathered, for the purpose of escaping. He had to embrace all his wounds and joys, and take a step forward. The world called this courage.

 

“…Is that so? Right, that’s how it was.”

 

Prince Irid came to a realization.

 

Why he had woken up in an empire a hundred years in the future.

 

How he managed to find his other half in such a vast system.

 

It was definitely not a coincidence.

 

“It seems that wasn’t a random teleportation spell. The ancient gods are said to have given a trial akin to both sides of the coin to their champion. And they bestowed great power upon those who prevailed.”

 

A trial of fate. During an era when gods directly intervened in the human world, they started a great ceremony where they chose representatives and shook their destinies on a dinner table.

 

“Trials and difficulties. A dimensional magic that leads to a world connected to the fate of the test-taker.”

 

“…Is that what you have decided to believe?”

 

“Surely, you’ve gone through it firsthand, magician. …And then your spirit was crushed?”

 

“I’ve had a few unpleasant experiences. But it was all an illusion.”

 

The magician shrugged his shoulders. The gesture looked very mechanical.

 

After completing the spell, the magician must have attempted to travel across dimensions. And he must have faced a miserable failure. With his spirit shattered, he seemed to dismiss everything as an illusion.

 

“Madman, I won’t comment on you turning away from reality and fleeing. I too, would have given up if she hadn’t been there.”

 

But.

 

“There’s something I still need to do─ cast the spell once more.”

 

I must save Centra. Although the explosion was powerful, those who could handle magic could reduce the damage to serious but non-fatal injuries. Centra’s quick reflexes and keen senses must have surely allowed her to defend herself properly.

 

To ensure a thorough finish, the hardline faction of the Resistance will surely come after Centra’s life. She is vulnerable and in danger. Only Irid can help her.

 

Prince Irid made up his mind.

 

The magician, appearing confused, shook his head and then spoke softly.

 

“…Time is relative, Your Highness. It’s as if time has almost stopped on the other side.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

“It would be best to prepare thoroughly, enjoy a tasty snack, and approach the task again in good spirits.”

 

“It’s a joy to have time. How many chances do I have left?”

 

“…One, Your Highness.”

 

“Then I’ll see you in a week. Send me a list of the necessary items for the recasting of the spell.”

 

Irid straightened the magician’s crumpled clothes and turned his back. With the incident resolved, both the purple tower master and the boy knight, previously in a standoff, withdrew their mana.

 

Irid took the boy knight under his wing and left the tower.

 

In the tower, which had one wall completely devastated, the tower master and I faced each other with blank expressions. What on earth had just happened?

 

I racked my brain, trying to grasp the situation, and then I summarized it all in one sentence.

 

“So I’m being mistaken for… ‘a madman who was driven insane by dimensional magic, reduced to ruins, and brainwashed into thinking it was all an illusion’?”

 

I still couldn’t understand even after laying it out, my mind felt dizzy.

 

Who’s calling who a madman? I made it clear three times it was all fiction!

 

Naturally, I assumed that the Second Prince was deeply engaged in RP—role-playing.

 

I thought he was aware it was all part of a fantasy. But, really!

 

What kind of deranged prince uses his own body to test dimensional magic?

 

You’d think he would feed in about a dozen subordinates and wait until their safety was assured before jumping in himself!

 

He must have thought it was all an illusion, so he playfully wrecked the test out of boredom!

 

Yet, who could have anticipated that the tale of a crazed prince jumping into the dimension magics with his own body was true…

 

Should I be indignant for the misunderstanding and anger, or should I be pleased since it shows how well I’ve managed to simulate virtual reality? As I wavered, the Mage Tower Master cautiously ventured his opinion.

 

“Uh, um… you know.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“If we compare the prince and you, isn’t your mind… slightly? More disturbed. Could it actually be true dimension magic?”

 

“???”

 

I was about to deny the absurdity of the Mage Tower Master’s statement─

 

But upon further thought, there was some truth to it. Compared to the Crown Prince, I wasn’t exactly the epitome of tidiness. At least he remembered people’s names.

 

Could it be that I am actually a brain in a vat?

 

Believing I was the GM, could I in fact be a dimension magician?

 

Had I assumed the virtual idol, Heart-chan, was a character I created and sent out, when in reality, it was my hidden self??

 

“No, that can’t be true!!”

 

Overwhelmed by the Crown Prince’s grandiose gibberish, both the Mage Tower Master and I fell into massive confusion.

 

It was only after rotating a totem and pinching each other, then reconnecting to the virtual reality to create a massive flash mob of three hundred Heart-chans, that we could finally relax realizing it was indeed just an illusion magic, and sleep soundly with our legs stretched out.

 

————-

 

“Knight, summon those versed in calculations among the Flame Tower’s mages. And please contact my sister too.”

 

“…Are you sure it’s okay? Your Highness, I suspect you might be under hypnosis.”

 

“Then would you test that theory?”

 

“My apologies in advance.”

 

The young knight gathered mana in his hand and lightly touched the forehead of Second Prince Irid.

 

Irid staggered for a moment, then steadied himself.

 

“How do you feel?”

 

“Fine. No sudden mood swings, no feeling of memory gaps, and my resolve is intact… wholly preserved.”

 

The young knight frowned. It had been only three hours. In that time, the prince had transformed into a different person. What used to be an impulsive nature now became a force of conviction. The righteous light emanating from his eyes reflected an unwavering determination.

 

“What have you experienced?”

 

“In the future, a hundred years from now… I fell in love. Embarrassing to admit.”

 

“It sounds quite foreign to me. Your Highness, you have never been interested in such matters.”

 

“Well, I simply haven’t encountered an attractive woman until now.”

 

“If you’ve fallen that deeply, I worry whether it would be right to intervene in my loyalty to you, Your Highness. I’m concerned about using dimension magic once again.”

 

“To speak frankly, I want to remain in the future a hundred years from now, but I won’t do that. Because I have to let ‘Beer and Song’ resonate throughout the empire. And I’ll need to stop the dark magician of the kingdom union.”

 

“…”

 

“I’m trying to muster some courage. But before that… I want to save my beloved. Let’s put the empire’s affairs on hold for a bit. Will you join me, Sir Knight?”

 

“You’re quite adorable and lovely. I will follow you.”

 

Irid led the way, and the young knight followed behind him.

 

Only a week remained.

 

Irid gathered experts from various fields to rescue Centra.