Just as the golems they had been fighting crumbled, the lich suddenly addressed Nellin with familiar warmth. And rather than a voice echoing inside their heads, it sounded like one coming from a human throat.

Most of the group regarded the lich's sudden behavior with wary confusion.

But two of them reacted differently: Nellin and Fresia.

"Ah, aaah..."

Fresia looked ready to burst into tears. She had heard that voice, still alive in her memories—the voice of the man she loved.

"Hah. So you were acting after all?"

Nellin lowered her bow and frowned.

"Hahaha! Wasn't I pretty convincing? Didn't I seem like an evil lich?"

"Evil, my ass."

Nellin's reaction puzzled Smartass. He thought he had put on a decent performance, but from her response, it seemed she had known he was Ventus Frail from the beginning.

"It seems you already suspected me. How did you know?"

"Well, I wasn't sure, you know? For one thing, you're wearing that tacky crown you made back then."

"Tacky! I designed it to give me an intellectual air!"

"Seeing you get all worked up confirms it. Anyway, that was what first tipped me off. Once we started fighting, I could tell you were bullshitting."

Nellin gave a little smirk.

"You were far too considerate in the fight. Made it easy."

"Considerate? I did try to make it feel a little more dangerous."

"It was tough, sure. But that was all. You didn't summon so many golems that Paulen and those guys couldn't handle them. Your spells were powerful, but you didn't even interfere when we tried to block them. And most of all..."

Nellin pointed her thumb at the tree behind her.

"Does it make any sense that this tree hasn't got a scratch after all those spells you threw around? Not unless you were protecting it with the barrier you put up at the start."

He had erected the barrier on the pretext of keeping them from escaping. In truth, its purpose was to prevent his magic from doing serious damage to the hill.

Everyone except Nellin and Fresia looked back and forth between the lich and the tree. Despite the ferocious battle, neither the tree nor the hill had sustained any serious damage.

The front-line fighters had been too focused on the golems to look behind them. Gracie had been busy countering spells, and Amelia had been constantly casting blessings and attacking with holy arts. None of them had noticed.

But what shocked them even more was that the lich was suddenly chatting so familiarly with Nellin.

"B-Boss. What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know either."

"What is going on, damn it!"

"I-Is the fighting over now?"

Godric and his companions were utterly bewildered.

Meanwhile, Paulen remained on guard, ready to move again at any moment.

Nellin put a hand on her hip and stood at a slant as she questioned Smartass.

"So why the hell did you do all this?"

"Hahaha! It's been so long since we last met. I'd developed some new spells, and I wanted to show them to you. Well? My magic was magnificent, wasn't it?"

"Good grief. You never stop showing off your damn magic."

Nellin shook her head.

"Is it... is it really you?"

Fresia approached Smartass, her voice trembling.

"Ventus."

"Ventus?"

"It can't be...!"

The name Fresia had spoken was Ventus—the name of the Mage of a Thousand Spells, Nellin and Fresia's companion fifty years ago.

Amelia wondered if she had misheard, while Paulen stared at Smartass with wide eyes.

But the most astonished of all was Gracie, who admired the Mage of a Thousand Spells more than anyone.

"W-What!? Ventus? Are you saying that lich is my ancestor!?"

Smartass wanted to tease the stunned onlookers, but first he chose to speak to Fresia, who was walking toward him.

"That's right, Fresia. It's been a long time. And I'm sorry. I took the joke too far, didn't I?"

His reply was gentle.

"Ah, Ventus... It really is you. It really is."

"Hey, aren't you going to apologize to me?"

"Yes, yes. I'm sorry to you too, Nellin."

"What a fucking half-assed apology!"

"Ah... What... what happened to you, Ventus? Why did you become a lich? Didn't you die in a magical accident?"

"No, I didn't die in a magical accident. I was caught in a trap."

"What? A trap? Who did it?"

Nellin had been fuming at Smartass's offhand reply. But when she heard that his death had been a murder, not the accident everyone had been told about, she began radiating menace.

"Let's discuss that somewhere else first. Ah, of course..."

Smartass looked at Godric and his companions, Paulen, and Amelia in turn.

"We'll be talking about the slime too, so all of you, come along."

"A-About Bouncy?!"

"Yes, about Bouncy."

SNAP!

When Smartass snapped his fingers, the barrier surrounding the hill vanished, and a black space appeared in midair.

"Now, go on in."

"Come to think of it, what's that black thing?"

"Warp, a teleportation spell I developed. Pass through it, and you'll arrive right where I live now."

"A teleportation spell..."

Still unable to believe Smartass was Ventus, Gracie gazed at Warp with eyes full of curiosity. To a mage, an unknown spell held an allure that drew the eye almost involuntarily.

Fresia was the first to approach Warp.

"You'll really tell us everything if we go in there, won't you, Ventus?"

"Yes. Ah, but I no longer need to eat now that I'm a lich, so I don't have any tea or snacks to offer you. I'm sorry, Fresia. I'd have prepared your favorite tea if I could."

The more she heard those considerate words, the more real it became to Fresia that the lich before her was Ventus.

"It's all right. Even without any of that, I... could listen to you for as long as you like."

"Hmm."

Tears had gathered in Fresia's eyes—tears of joy at meeting Ventus again and being able to speak with him.

Smartass scratched his cheekbone awkwardly.

'She's this happy to see me. I'm happy too, but somehow... it's embarrassing.'

Without a trace of suspicion toward Smartass, Fresia was about to pass willingly through Warp when someone stopped her.

"Please wait, Saintess Fresia!"

"Paladin Paulen?"

"I'll go in first, just to be safe."

Paulen was Amelia's guard, but Fresia was a Saintess too. As a Paladin, he could not let a Saintess be the first to do anything that might pose even the slightest danger.

'I wanted to be the first to go in... but it can't be helped.'

Suppressing her disappointment, Fresia stepped aside for Paulen. He passed straight through Warp without hesitation.

"P-Paulen."

Amelia was worried about him. What if something went wrong? Even with her faith that Paulen would be all right, she could not help feeling anxious.

Just then, Paulen's head suddenly popped out of the black space.

"Aah!"

"It's safe, everyone. There's a cave beyond this that appears to be a laboratory. I believe you can come in."

"P-Paulen! Don't startle me like that!"

"Pardon? Ah."

Paulen looked down to check his appearance. Only his head had emerged; beneath his neck, there was still nothing but the black space.

"I see. So this is how it looks when I stick just my head through first."

This time, he brought his body through as well and stepped outside.

"Then I'll go in first this time."

Now that Paulen had confirmed it was safe, Fresia immediately entered Warp.

"Hey, hurry up and follow us."

Nellin went in after her.

"Y-Yes, Big Sis Nellin! Wait for us!"

"Heh. Another experience of the unknown."

"Quit saying stupid shit and get over here!"

"B-Bouncy! I'm coming!"

"...! Quivery!"

Amelia passed through Warp after Godric and his companions, leaving only Paulen and Gracie.

"Miss Gracie. Come, let's go."

"Y-Yes!"

Gracie, who had been staring blankly at Warp, came to her senses at Paulen's words and walked toward the black space.

Finally, Smartass passed through. The black space disappeared from the air, leaving no one on the hill.

+++

The group arrived at Smartass's secret workshop through Warp. A sphere of light suspended near the ceiling by magic illuminated the cave.

"Where are we?"

"A secret workshop I built when I was alive."

"A secret workshop, huh? Well, I can see you building one. So... tell us now. How did you die? You said you'd tell us when we got here."

"Of course I will. First, everyone, make yourselves comfortable."

RUMBLE!

With a single gesture from Smartass, stone chairs rose from the ground, one for each person.

'Incredible.'

Gracie was awestruck. Creating stone chairs of different sizes to fit each person required considerable skill. Yet he had done it all at once, so effortlessly.

'Is he really... really my ancestor? Then I...'

Gracie recalled what she had said after first blocking Inferno Fall.

["I am... Gracie. Gracie Frail! A descendant of my illustrious ancestor, the Mage of a Thousand Spells, Ventus Frail!"]

Gracie's face flushed bright red with embarrassment. If the lich really was Ventus Frail, that meant she had said those embarrassing words right in front of the ancestor she was so proud of.

"Gracie? Are you all right? Do you have a fever?"

Amelia, who happened to be beside her, saw her face and asked in concern. After thirty minutes of such fierce fighting, it was entirely possible that exhaustion had hit her all at once after the battle and made her ill.

"N-No. I'm fine. I'm just embarrassed by something I said..."

"Pardon?"

"U-Um. Where's Bouncy?"

Meanwhile, Def had been looking around the secret workshop for the slime. Unable to find it anywhere, he asked Smartass.

"I'll explain that too, one thing at a time. Don't worry. The slime is safe."

Once everyone was seated, Smartass began.

"Then I suppose I should start with how I died. As I already said, I died after falling into a trap. I drank poisoned liquor."

"W-What? Who would do such a thing!"

At last, they were hearing the truth of what had happened. Learning that Smartass had died from poisoning, even the normally gentle Fresia could not contain her anger.

"The culprit was Brooks Besilza. The bastard who's now master of the Mage Tower."

"What!? Th-The master of the Mage Tower was the one who trapped my ancestor!?"

At this further shocking revelation, Gracie sprang to her feet in reflexive astonishment.

She could not believe it. To Gracie, the current master of the Mage Tower, Brooks Besilza, was the man who had supported her decision to become a magical-device mage.

"Yes. He offered me poisoned liquor, saying I'd been working hard. Then, after I collapsed in agony from the poison, he blew up the room I was in to try to disguise it as a magical accident."

"How... how could he?"

Gracie's eyes trembled violently at the unbelievable truth.