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“Master! Maaasteeer! Time to wake up already!”
“…Mm. Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment.”

Momo shook my shoulder, pulling my mind back to reality.

I must’ve been thinking for quite a while—judging by the exasperated look on her face, I’d clearly overdone it.

“While you were spacing out, Mr. Icarus fell asleep too, and the door with Kogorou behind it closed.”
“No, that’s for the best. If it had stayed open, I’d be on edge wondering what you might blurt out. …So, what have you been doing?”
“Well, I just couldn’t stand leaving Mr. Icarus lying on the ground like that.”

Icarus, now fully in a dormant state, had been laid down and covered with a blanket Momo had found somewhere.

He wouldn’t wake for a long while now that the threat we posed had passed—but when he finally did open his eyes again, I wondered how he’d react.

“Anyway, let’s head back to town. I’m exhausted—if we stay any longer, I might actually collapse.”
“Hey, you should’ve said something sooner! So, the ruin survey continues tomorrow then?”
“No, this one’s done. Icarus shutting down means he’s passed on all the information he intended to. That’s enough.”

There were still things that piqued my curiosity, but I couldn’t afford to linger in Regulus.

Digging through the remnants here would yield less than chasing the new lead we’d been shown.

That was surely why Icarus had left us that trail to follow.

“By the way, where’s the king? I haven’t seen him for a while.”
“Oh, the king? He went outside to catch the look-alikes—uh, I think their name was Mantis?”
“Oooi! Pink-haired one! Come lend me a hand, would you? I cannot possibly carry all of these alone!!”
“…What on earth is he doing now?”

From outside came the clanging of metal and the unmistakably gleeful voice of that king.

If I remembered right, the other side of that door was piled high with deactivated golems.

To a king as greedy as him, it must have looked like a mountain of treasure.

“Momo, go stop him. I don’t want those golems called Mantis being taken outside.”
“Ugh… you really think the king’s gonna listen to me? I’ll do my best, but no promises!”

Grumbling as she went, Momo headed out of the room to try and reason with him.
Silence quickly settled in her absence, leaving only me and Icarus behind.

The only other sounds came from the ancient magic devices that still whirred softly after all these centuries.

The monitors cycled through fixed-view images of the nearby village, while the instruments continued to record temperature and magic density inside the ruins.

“…Even this alone would be worth a fortune if taken outside.”

The mechanisms here were so advanced that even I couldn’t fully grasp their principles.
If we were to bring them out into the world, the history of magitech would leap ahead by centuries.

But that wasn’t what Icarus would’ve wanted. Everything left here was technology that never should have existed in the first place—showing it to the public would only draw the attention of Theo’s group.

“Master! Help! Seriously, help! The king’s not stopping!!”
“Ahh, alright, alright—I’m coming. Hold him off for just a second.”

With a gentle gust of wind, I lifted Icarus’s resting body and moved it carefully to the corner of the room—out of the way.

Just in case.

Who knew how many years—or even decades—would pass before someone else stumbled upon this place? If that day came, I didn’t want them kicking him in the head by accident.

Whenever that time came, he’d need to wake again. Because if I failed… I’d need him to take over.

“Don’t break before then, alright? If I run out of time, you’ll need to guide Momo in my place.”

――――――――…………

――――……

――…

“All right — that was quite the entertaining experience! Still, I’m dissatisfied we couldn’t haul those golems home.”
“No way. If Momo tried to carry those things, she wouldn’t be able to lift me.”
“That’s right, and if we took it out, Mr. Icarus would get furious!”

It then took the two of us about three hours of persuading to finally get the king to agree to leave the ruin under Regulus’s custody. “Custody” here meant strict prohibition on removal — in fact, Regulus was to set up thorough surveillance to deter any extra intruders — a tedious responsibility, but the king seemed satisfied once he got the assurance that the ruin would be under his control.

“I’ll say it again: do not take golems outside. If you want to avoid Theo and the others razing the town, you’ll obey.”
“I am not so foolish as to embroil my people in my private whims. I will restrain myself.”
“That’s worrying…”
“It is worrying…”
“Hahaha — I’ll forgive the insolence. I too lack confidence, but if that dragon girl targets me, I won’t come away unscathed. Still, I shall exercise restraint.”

We couldn’t argue with him if he spoke that way; all we could do was hope Regulus would at least try to keep the ruin intact after we left. Whether Regulus succeeded after we departed was no longer our concern, but I did want him to prevent the ruin’s destruction if possible.

“Momo, when we return to the castle I’m going to rest a bit. Wake me in the evening; if I don’t wake up, leave me be.”
“No! You will be woken — and you will eat dinner. You can’t keep sleeping all the time or you’ll never keep your strength up.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll try. Besides, our road ahead will be long, so you’d better stuff yourself with food too.”
“So you are leaving Regulus already. You shall be missed.”
“Yes. Our destination is set — Thank you for the hospitality so far.”

I had the next destination Icarus had shown us firmly in mind. I would need to double-check the castle maps later, but even a rough estimate told me it wouldn’t be a short trip.

“Still… if you are headed there, be warned that it will not be an easy road.”
“Oh, you know the place, Your Majesty? I don’t remember the map at all.”
“Yes. Your destination is Fomalhaut — a city that was once destroyed by a curse.”