Chapter 24
The brightly glowing underground chamber suddenly went dark.
Jake had experienced the exact same thing not long ago.
Or rather...
A very long time ago.
It had happened beneath the Imperial Palace.
The life he had experienced there...
Jake grabbed the Ego Wand with a distorted expression.
-It's a small-scale Reality Replication Magic Circle.
Fatima explained kindly after Jake supplied mana.
-Because it was designed for research, it only replicates the underground laboratory.
-The maximum duration is one year.
-But for magical training, there's nothing better.
Jake's expression did not change.
The duration was shorter.
The range was smaller.
But just as he feared...
He had been caught in the same kind of magic.
-This is another world created entirely from mana.
-It can only exist for one year, but you can complete any training you need during that time.
-One year later, you'll return to this exact moment while keeping the memories of everything you experienced here.
-Time inside has been accelerated hundreds of thousands of times.
-To the outside world, almost no time will have passed.
Apparently, Fatima noticed Jake's mood turning worse.
She quickly explained the nature of the world.
But even without her explanation...
Jake already understood this kind of world far too well.
He had entered one before.
Not a small region such as a dungeon...
But an entire copy of this world, or perhaps the whole planet.
And he had lived there for decades.
Jake turned around.
Jessica had been dragged into this world with him.
-What happens to the companion who entered with me?
-Oh.
-There were other people inside the dungeon, weren't there?
-After one year, they'll disappear along with the replicated dungeon.
Fatima corrected herself.
-Or more accurately...
-When you return to the original timeline, they won't remember what happened here.
-Other people?
-This entire research facility was replicated.
-Anyone who entered other sections would have been copied as well.
"My god."
It was not merely the dungeon Jake and Jessica entered.
The massive dungeon next door had also been copied.
The expedition members Jake saw in the illusion earlier...
Had not been a mistake.
Every expedition member inside the dungeon had been dragged into the replication.
"Did something go wrong?"
Jessica looked worried.
She seemed to think the magic itself had malfunctioned.
Jake decided to tell her everything.
You're only telling her because she won't remember after we return, aren't you?
Another version of himself seemed to mock him from within.
Jake accepted the criticism.
Then he spoke.
"Please don't be shocked."
"Listen until I finish."
Jake told Jessica everything...
Except that he had reincarnated from another world.
He started with being born into a low-ranking noble family.
Becoming an apprentice scribe.
What happened beneath the Imperial Palace.
Living an entire lifetime inside the magical world.
Escaping from the palace afterward.
Meeting Jessica.
Traveling all the way here.
Jake told her everything that had happened since he had been born in this world.
Jessica became completely confused.
No...
Her expression honestly looked as if she no longer understood what anything meant.
Jake's explanation exceeded every wild theory Jessica had ever imagined about him.
By several times.
If he had mentioned reincarnation too...
She might have simply decided he was insane.
In the end...
Jake had to explain everything several times.
Only then did Jessica barely manage to understand.
"So..."
Jessica carefully asked,
"Jake isn't just a little old man."
"You're actually a grandfather... sir?"
Jake shook his head.
"I only have the memories."
"Treat me like you always have."
"And I'm officially dead, so you don't have to treat me like a noble either."
Jessica breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness."
"I was seriously worried things were going to become awkward between us."
At last...
Jessica could understand Jake's strange behavior.
His broad knowledge.
His social skills.
His refined manners.
His survival ability.
And the way he constantly acted as if he already knew what would happen.
Then...
She became extremely happy about the future of her childhood friend.
"Then Conrad becomes a Great Sword Master in the future!"
"That's amazing!"
Unfortunately...
The future had already changed.
Jake no longer knew whether Conrad would truly become a Great Sword Master.
Still...
He saw no reason to ruin Jessica's happiness.
Conrad had already achieved his dream of becoming a knight.
Even if he never became a Great Sword Master...
That alone was enough.
"The problem is that we're trapped here now, right?"
"Yes."
Jake nodded.
"We're stuck inside this dungeon for one full year."
"Of course, we could just kill ourselves and end it early..."
"But that's not exactly realistic."
Even if Jessica believed Jake...
Believing him enough to commit suicide was another matter.
And Jessica had absolutely no intention of killing herself.
"We basically received one extra year of life."
Jessica shrugged.
"Even if we die, we'll come back."
"It's a shame I won't remember anything, but you'll remember."
"So it doesn't really matter."
Perhaps because of her naturally cheerful personality...
Or simply because she had never experienced such a world before...
Jessica accepted the situation surprisingly easily.
Or perhaps...
Because this would help Jake.
Once she understood everything...
She worried less about the magic and more about how they would survive the next year.
"Jake can spend the year training magic."
"We can get water from the pool we came through."
"Hmm..."
"Then food is probably the problem."
"There weren't any animals or monsters in our dungeon..."
Fortunately...
Fatima claimed there was a solution.
A huge food storage facility had been built in another section of the dungeon long ago.
Preservation magic had been cast over it.
Fatima believed the food might still be safe.
But so much time had passed...
They would need to check.
Before that...
There was one more thing Jessica needed to know.
The expedition team inside the larger dungeon had also been caught in the replication.
Naturally...
Jessica's eyes widened.
And then...
Time passed.
One year later.
The final day of the replicated world.
Jake stood before two piles of stones.
There were no names carved into them.
But Jake had carefully built them as graves.
Jessica's grave.
And Amber's.
Amber had helped him study magic.
Jessica had struggled for Jake until the very end.
Of course...
Their deaths had occurred only inside a one-year replicated world.
But to Jake...
They felt no different from real deaths.
"Still..."
"I'll be able to see them again soon."
They would not remember anything that had happened here.
But even so...
