“Then is the reason why you decided to accept Marilyn as a member is to observe her?”
“Yeah. I thought I could extract some good information from her if she joined.”
“What kind of information are you talking about?”
“I think those guys have at least one tree in their possession.”
Lyla’s face stiffened, but she soon nodded.
“Since they knew that I was the Core and have gone through several regressions, I think there’s a high chance that they have control over the entire system.”
“Moreover, since all the trees were in places that were important to the Empire like the tombs of their emperors or their laboratories, I’m sure they have at least one tree if they have control over a system that is related to the Empire. There are five trees in total after all.” The whole Adrowon Forest could have had some kind of important meaning that they didn’t know about for the Empire too.
“Marilyn is certainly not the robed figures’ lackey. If you look at her role and abilities, she’s probably in a considerably high position in the organization. I think she must know exactly where the tree near the system is then.”
“…Do you think she would know the way to control the tree?”
“I don’t think the organization can even use the tree perfectly. Even if they have the tree under their control, they probably wouldn’t be able to control it as perfectly as Clowon. However, as an organization that has seen the tree for a long time, there’s a high chance that they would know many methods to control it.”
“I’m sure it would be ideal for us to learn other information besides that.”
Zich nodded. “If my guess is right, even if she does love me, she prioritizes her loyalty to her organization above everything and uses me for them. Since even the people in the lower ranks of the organization don’t open their mouths, you can imagine what Marilyn would be like since she is probably in the upper ranks. She won’t open her mouth even after torture.”
“So, are you planning to extract information secretly?”
“Yes, but the main problem is that she’s extremely sharp. Even if I hated using my head before the regression, she was thorough enough that I didn’t suspect her as a spy at all. I highly doubt she would leave traces of information carelessly.”
“Then, wouldn’t it be basically impossible to get any information from her?”
“No matter how meticulous she is, she is human. She wouldn’t be able to help, but there should be some openings. The same can be said for even the great me.”
“Ah, never mind that.” At Zich’s self-praise, Lyla cut him off instantly. She snorted like she was annoyed by him and Zich continued, “The reason why she showed no openings before the regression wasn’t only because of how careful she was, but also because of the regression. She would have known what I would do. In other words, she could predict my actions and events in the future.”
“Now you are saying the current situation has become unpredictable for her, right?”
“Yes. Even if many regressions had happened, I doubt there were many instances where people besides them had knowledge about the concept of regression. Even I wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for this guy.” Zich tapped Windur. “In other words, those guys had their plans completely ruined in this timeline.”
“It’s a situation that could make Marilyn not know what to do.”
“Exactly.” Zich nodded. “Since they have the power of the regression, changed variables must not pose a great threat to them. They can just turn back time, so the changes must be simply bothersome. However, if that changed variable learns the concept of regression, the story would change, even more so if the changed variable’s skills are outstanding.”
“They would be since the changed variable could have an effect on their power.” The difference between knowing about their existence and not was huge.
“Okay. So, I get the suspicions you have. I think they have merit.”
“You want to ask why I am telling you this now, right?”
“Yeah. You don’t have to tell me the reason why you hid this from me. Considering your personality, I’m sure you thought you wanted to hide things like this as much as possible, even from people on your side.” Since she was used to this part about him, Lyla said indifferently, “The reason why you are bringing up this now is because you have no more reason to hide it and you need my collaboration?”
“Yes, Lyla. I need your collaboration.” Zich nodded. “I do have another reason for keeping this matter from you. If I told you beforehand, Marilyn might have become suspicious. Like I told you, she is freakishly sharp. I don’t think your acting is bad, but I don’t think you would’ve been able to trick her for long.”
“Does that mean you plan to take care of her soon?”
“Yes.”
In this tense atmosphere, Lyla recalled Marilyn. She was her vibrant friend who always clung close to her while smiling. She felt a strong bitterness that was equal to swallowing a big clump of sand.
“It seems that you have become attached to her in that short period of time,” Zich said, catching her feelings just by her expression.
“If I must say something, there’s a high possibility that the reason why she stayed so close to you was because she wanted to dig out information from you.”
“…Because I am the system’s core?”
“She might have tried to figure out the reason why there was so much more change in this timeline than the other ones through you.”
“How depressing.”
“Really?”
“You are so calm about this.”
“I was betrayed like this or backstabbed by my colleagues all the time before the regression. The Demon People Era was a time like that.”
Lyla stared at Zich’s face. He appeared completely indifferent. Lyla was saddened by the fact that the second person she could possibly call a friend besides Zich could be a spy who infiltrated the team to bring them down. Even though it hadn’t been that long since she met Marilyn, she felt complex feelings about her; yet, Zich said he was used to it.
‘How many things did he have to go through when he went from Steelwall to Moore?’
Seeing the stark contrast between their personalities, it seemed to have been unbelievably intense. The stories Zich brought up from time to time proved this. For the first time, Lyla began to feel pity towards Zich Moore.
Whether he knew this or not, Zich continued, “I think that she might have come to this city to conduct research for her organization. The owners of Estellade and Tornium changed in this city’s ruin. Even though they instigated the monster ambush, Glen Zenard also personally witnessed the shadow beings here. They’re a huge change from a variable, right?”
Moreover, these changes were not just small matters.
“However, we appeared again in this city. She probably approached us to steal information from us. As long as I was in this group, she was probably confident that she would be able to join our group.”
“So what should we do from now on?”
At Lyla’s question, Zich quietly began explaining his plan. She carefully listened to his plan. After he finished giving his explanation, Lyla nodded. “I got it. I’ll do as you said.”
“I’ll leave it up to you.”
Lyla got up from her seat. “I’ll start heading up. If I take more time, I’ll draw out suspicion.”
“Take the food as well.” Zich filled up three bowls with stew and passed them to her. Lyla stared at the stew bowls in front of her. One was for Elena and one was for Hans. The last remaining one was for Marilyn.
“…It’s not completely certain that Marilyn is a traitor yet, right?”
Zich nodded at Lyla’s question. “Yeah.” He threw down the ladle in the pot and continued, “However, there’s a very high possibility.”
At that moment, Lyla saw a crack in Zich’s calm expression for the first time. The expression that came out was similar to what Lyla was experiencing right now—it was bitterness. “But I still want to believe her till the very end.”
* * *
Zich and the whole group gathered together. The companions, including the three mages who couldn’t hide their tired eyes from long hours of research, sat in a circle around a campfire. Since it had been a while since they all gathered together to eat, the food in front of them was luxurious. They each grabbed a cup of alcohol and a thick, well-cooked piece of meat full of spices and seasoning. The companions’ moods lightened up as they saw the fancy feast, which was hard to come by while camping out like this.
Koo! Nowem also let out a happy cry as he vigorously pushed his portion of the meat with his small mouth.
“Have you had any success?”
At Zich’s question, Lyla shook her head. “Not yet. It’s slow because we don’t have any prior information about this subject.”
“Do you think you’ll need a lot of time?”
“Probably?”
Like this, as Zich and Lyla began talking to each other, they gathered everyone’s attention. However, this was the extent of the other companions’ reactions. It was common for Lyla and Zich to exchange conversations like this during mealtime.
“Then, we’ll have to camp out here for a while. However, we can’t stay here forever.”
“I know. I also don’t want to keep staying in an underground tunnel like this. Moreover, we’re in a grave.”
If they went inside the stone chambers, they could easily see corpses whose time of death were difficult to pinpoint. A person lacking in fortitude wouldn’t want to stay in a place like this for even a second. The others also seemed to have the same thoughts as they all nodded.
“So that’s why I’m thinking about changing the plan a bit.”
“The plan?”
“You know, the letters in the stone chamber. I’m thinking about translating those first.”
“Do you think they’ll have information written about that brown tree or that green tree?”
“Don’t you think there’s some possibility? We also found interesting clues from there as well…” Lyla stared at the air, and she slightly frowned as if she was trying to recall previous information. “The Brushel System. Clowon. We found those clues from there after all.”
Elena asked, “Teacher, Clowon is the name of the ancient empire, right?”
Only Zich and Lyla knew information about regression, but the disciples knew about things like the name of the ancient empire.
“The name of the empire?”
At Marilyn’s question, Elena explained, “It’s probably the name of the empire that made this tomb. I heard that it was an extremely prosperous empire in the past.”
“Is that so? Then, what’s the Brushel System?”
“I also don’t really…” Elena stared at Lyla to ask for help.
Lyla took a sip of her wine and replied, “I also don’t know either. It seems like it was an important system of the empire but… Well, if I continue to translate the letters, won’t I find out what it is?”
“Do you think information about that system will be on there?”
“I think there’s a high possibility it might.”
Marilyn nodded. “Understood. Then, did you find out anything else?”
“You’re really curious. As expected, mages can’t help them themselves.”
“Should you of all people be saying that to me?”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
“There was nothing much. I wasn’t able to look at all the stone chambers, but there’s a good chance that there’ll be important information. So for now, I’ll ask you to continue researching the tree with Elena. I’ll also come back to research the tree once a day. The translation won’t take long too. Most of the passages are just praising the emperors. If I skip those passages, there probably won’t be much important information.”
“I understand. Leave the research to me.”
“Thanks, Marilyn.”
Several more days passed by.
“I’ve found out how to stop the Brushel System,” Lyla said to her companions after she had focused intensively on decoding the letters.