V2 Epilogue

"Congratulations on becoming a couple, you two. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors together."

"U-Um...thank you very much, Miss Myriel..."

"Yeah—though on the other hand, please calm down with your alcohol intake. You've just downed a bottle of wine a minute ago, remember?"

This new bar owned by Myriel features a design that's no comparison to any tavern in this world, but a commonplace in the one where I came from. It's still early in the morning, and the sight of her masked 'servants' doing the cleaning of the entire establishment can be such a weird spectacle, even when seen from the outside.

Why are we here, you ask? Well, just as when we were about to go back to Plate Town, a piece of paper flew right onto my face and when I took it off, I saw our names written on it, along with some seemingly random string of numbers. Using the [High Priestess], I found out that the numbers were coordinates and when Lerish used her [Tower] Arcana, it pointed us to this place, located in the capital's South Quarter. Upon arrival, Myriel has been waiting for us at the entrance for some time now, wanting to meet us.

And now, we're here in the VIP room of her bar, and we're watching her get wasted on her wines.

"I just can't help it, you know? Seeing my beloved younger brother finally getting a woman for himself...ahh, I feel so happy for you..."

"M-Myriel?! Stop it, you—"

"...You woman! How dare you pinch my big brother's cheeks like that, huh?!"

"My, my, aren't you ruining the mood, you little brat? I'm just congratulating him...or could it be that you don't want me to do that because, in actuality, you don't approve of them going out together?"

"...H-Huh? What nonsense are you saying?!" Aoi slammed the table with her hands. "Well, just so you know—I don't care how many women big brother takes for himself! After all, none of them can take the number one position from me anyway!"

"That's..."

Earlier, when I asked Aoi if she's alright with me having Lerish as my girlfriend, she said that 'as long as I'll still be the most important girl in your life, I'm fine with whoever you end up with' or along those lines. I mean, I'm happy that she's okay with it, but please don't brag about it to others.

"My, so that means everything's good on both sides now that you have the approval of her parents and this brat, I believe? How splendid," Myriel spoke while pouring herself another glass of wine. "Well then, let's move on already and focus instead on the main reason as to why I wanted to meet you. You over there, please come out."

"""Hmm?"""

"Please, Miss Rewriter, don't treat me as if I'm also one of your animals. Haven't we already agreed to treat each other as equals?"

Huge build, all-black clothing, heavy aura. Appearing from the dark corner of the VIP room, the man I frequently call Boar Guy walked towards our table while pushing a cart that contains some scrolls and books. Such a sight would frighten anyone especially if the person's standing right behind you, but since we've met him a few times already, his surprise appearance didn't somewhat come as a shock.

"I can't help it, you know? You don't quite look out of place when put next to my masked servants, so I always mistake you for one," Myriel joked.

"You're a funny woman, Miss Rewriter. Unfortunately, I don't have time to listen to your jokes."

"Uh...can you guys stop playing around and get straight to the point already? We still have to travel back to Plate Town, no?" I raised my hand to call their attention.

Seriously. I don't understand the dynamics of these two, despite knowing them for quite some time now. Anyways, I'm also part of their troupe (despite it against my wishes), and I have to deal with these people for as long as I could.

"My apologies, boy; I promise you, this elder sister will never waste too much of your time again."

"Then I'll get started then, Miss Rewriter since I'm the one who took the effort to find these anyway."

As Boar Guy has said, he opened one of the larger scrolls and placed it on the table, revealing to us a large wall of text, written in a language that's completely unrecognizable from the ones I've seen before.

"The language used on this scroll was one of the oldest languages in the world, appearing only slightly later than the one used by the old gods. Considering that the language itself is very old and a certain little brat destroyed the whole population of its speakers for no reason at all, there's no one left in this world who can speak or understand this language nowadays."

"Ah. I wonder if this certain brat has something to say about that matter..."

"...H-Hii?!! No, t-that's..."

When I looked to my right, the person in question immediately waved her arms frantically as she began to panic.

"...I-I didn't know k-killing all of them would result in such consequences, so, um...I-I'm sorry..."

Well, whatever. It's no use crying over spilled milk, so the only thing I can do for those people is to reprimand Aoi for her actions in the past. I'm sure this isn't the only case that Aoi had done something like that, so I gotta be prepared.

The Boar Guy then continued, "Although the speakers of this language were already eradicated from the face of this earth, there's still hope for those who wish to learn and understand their language: that is, with the help of the two of you."

"By that, you mean..."

"Yes. The Arcanas that you obtained are the keys to understanding this ancient language, as well as the secrets lying underneath it. That's the reason why this lady over here wants you to find the tower...and everything that's connected to it."

I get it now. So in the end, it's not just a simple 'see it to believe it' kind of thing. We did get something out of it though, but since we're dealing with Myriel, there has to be some hidden agenda with every request she makes.

Myriel spoke, "Will you help us decipher this language, and uncover the knowledge that's almost got lost to time? Who knows, the answers you're looking for might be in these scrolls."

The answers we're looking for, huh? At times like this she could be bluffing to bait us into playing right in her hands, and judging from her eyes it's obvious that she is, but what if all of that is true? What if these scrolls do contain the information needed to recreate the process that was used to transfer us into this world—the thing those people at Arandel said that could only be used once?

I know it's foolish to believe in the very slight chance of that ever happening, but...

"A-As long as it's not something dangerous, then it's fine...I think."

"If this Arcana of mine will be of great use in uncovering lost knowledge, then I shall gladly help too."

"Ah, excellent!" Myriel exclaimed happily. "I know that you two will never let me down. Now then, shall we start?"

While all of that is taking place, Aoi on the other hand—

"...Meh. You guys are no fun, wasting time on those useless sheets of paper. I think I'll play outside instead."

"But Aoi, do you know the way out?" I asked. "We're still in Harlin and not Plate Town, I hope you remember that."

"...Of course, big brother! I may be just a child, but that doesn't mean I'm an idiot!" she replied.

As much as I want to stop her, I understand that the current situation was a bit boring for her, so I simply agreed to let her go outside.

"Fine. Just don't go too far, okay?"

"...Nn!"

Immediately, she stormed out of the VIP room, leaving us 'older' ones behind.

"I'm sorry for my little sister's behavior just now," I apologized to everyone. "Alrighty, where did we stop..."

-----

Even though I said to big brother that I know the way out, it seems that my mouth got the best of me and right now I'm trapped in this corridor between that room where they are, and the establishment's front.

This new place that lewd woman built, has an entire maze of passageways separating the front, where people usually buy drinks, and the rooms, where I think shady business happens. As much as I'm naive about the ways of this world, I know enough of its filthy side that it makes me want to puke.

Ah, I'll destroy this place once I get all my powers back...

Well, regardless, I've been walking around for some time now, using the decorations as landmarks, but it didn't help me at all. All of the art displayed looks the same after all, so it's a failure right from the start. I even checked for any heartbeats nearby, and it also didn't work out well.

"...Big brother, Lerish, anyone...please, pick me up..."

As I was sobbing on the floor in the middle of this corridor, my senses picked up something. It's faint, but I'm sure it's a heartbeat, and it's coming from around the corner not too far away from here. With renewed vigor, I stood up and walked cautiously towards the source of that heartbeat.

"...Um, it doesn't look like the door that I saw at the passageway's entrance earlier, but my senses tell me that there could be another exit here..."

I was so surprised when I pushed the door. Although it's about five times as tall as me, it didn't give much resistance, and I was able to open it fully with what little strength I had. Behind that, however, wasn't the exit that I was looking for. Instead...

"...Ugh. Another library?"

Much like the library that Erlai woman manages, it sure is filled with books from nook to cranny. There's only a single table and chair in here, so I think this place's only used by that woman.

In any case, I'm starting to get tired of seeing books around me.

"...Well, I'm tired of walking around, and I'm sure Lerish can locate me with her Arcana, so I might as well wait here and fiddle with that woman's belongings."

Thanks to big brother, I can now read some books that have a simple vocabulary, particularly those that are for children. Even so, this library also has a collection of books written in the ancient language in which I am still completely fluent, but the topics were too complicated and mature for my taste.

I wonder if she also has some picture books lying around here—

"...Hm? That box up there...looks suspicious."

On top of one of the shelves, there's a box with the words 'FILES: FOR PERMANENT STORAGE' written on it. Curious as to why it's placed there and not in the corner, I decided to take a look at what the box contains.

"...Hnnggg...almost there..."

Even with the use of the ladder, I found nearby I still struggled to reach the box, thanks to my short stature. I'm already standing on tiptoes, and my fingers could barely touch the box.

"...If this won't work, then—"

I can use my powers to summon a dark tendril that could pick up the box for me, but I don't want to use my already scarce resources on useless things.

No matter what, I have to rely on my strength and get this box...

"...I...I did it. I did it! I'm able to pick it up—WOAH?!!"

Overjoyed by my great feat, I didn't realize that I'm starting to lose my balance while on top of the ladder, and I fell to the ground along with the box.

"...Ugh, it hurts...but thanks to this box it wasn't that bad...OH NO!!!"

W-W-What should I do?! Because the box caught my fall, it has become crumpled quite heavily. Fearing that I might've destroyed something inside, I hurriedly opened the box, and I saw...

"...W-What...is this...?"

Inside the box, were wide sheets of paper stacked together. Using the light emitted by a nearby candle, I quickly noticed that the paper used was of very high quality, and the drawings on each page look too real to me. The only problem, however, was the texts: they used a language that was completely foreign to me to understand, and the writings were so consistent and beautiful that it doesn't seem like they were written by hand.

"...Why would Myriel collect all of these, I wonder..."

Spreading them on the floor, I realized that the pages were bound together like a book, though without any hard cover. One by one I picked up the sheets, and they all exhibit the same properties. I then arranged them all on the floor, taking up a huge space, until I finally reached the last few sheets at the bottom of the box.

"...Now for the last one, let's see...eh?"

The middle leaves of this book-like thing...were made into a single, larger page, and on it, there are only a few unknown words written on the corner. What made me gasp, however, was the black-and-white image on the background, which took the entire space of this two-page spread.

"—?!!"

In the image, there were a group of young people wearing similar uniforms, with the boys standing at the back and the girls sitting at the front. All of them looked towards the reader, allowing one to easily looked at their faces: many of them looked unremarkable, some looked more attractive than the others, but one of them...has a smile that made my whole body freeze.

There's no way my eyes are lying to me right now. Among the boys standing at the back, second from the right—was a young man of middling height and appearance. To others, it might seem that he's just another ordinary stranger, but to me, he's more than that. His face, his scent, his heart—I know them better than anyone.

And right now, there he is—my beloved big brother, smiling for the readers to see. This drawing is too high quality for me to mistake him for another person.

"...But, I don't understand. Why is he—"

"Ah, what a surprise. You're here, Death Goddess."

"—?!"

Looking behind, I saw Myriel standing at the door with her arms crossed and a tight grin on her face. In a panic I hid the sheets I'm holding on my back, but she already saw what I'm doing.

"Haven't your brother taught you not to touch other people's things without permission, Death Goddess? I'm sure that he'll scold you once he finds out."

Gritting my teeth, I replied, "...I-I'm aware of that. But, more importantly—what's the meaning of this? Why do you have this image of big brother hidden inside your library? Who are these people around him?"

The more I ask her, the more her grin becomes apparent as if mocking me and my ignorance. This woman—if ever I find out that she's planning things against big brother, I will break the words I said earlier and end her right here and now.

"...What secrets are you hiding from me, from big brother, from everyone?! Answer me, Myriel!!!"

Amidst all of my questions, Myriel—

"I don't have anything to hide from you, Death Goddess. I can prove it to you if you ask for it, see? Your brother, on the other hand..."

"...E...Eh?"

With her body much larger than me, she was able to pin me against the wall. I tried to scream, but I was quickly covered by her overwhelming aura, making it very hard for me to move or speak.

"Up until now you're still uncertain about your brother's origins, and yet you never scrutinized his origins—even going as far as to say you know him far better than anyone. I wonder why: do you love him so much, that you're willing to put aside all of his past?"

"...M-My...riel..."

"On the other hand, it's also his fault for hiding so many things from everyone all this time. It is a detestable act, but he has a reason for doing that."

Saying that she took the papers away from my hand, and placed them where I can't reach them. Then, with a voice so soft and gentle it sent shivers to my core, she whispered:

'Your beloved big brother...do you want to know who he really is?'