"Looks like it's just us now ♪... Care to finish that chat?"
Cyrene clasped her hands behind her back and looked at Stelle with a smile.
"Huh? What's this about now?"
Stelle was completely dumbfounded.
She looked back and confirmed that Phainon was no longer beside her.
Cyrene's words had clearly been directed at her.
Cyrene noticed Stelle's confusion, but instead of explaining, she smiled gently and said, "To be honest, from the moment I saw the cute note left by the fairies, my intuition became even more certain..."
"Perhaps when we step into the Maze again after all these years, the wheels of fate will finally start turning."
Stelle opened her mouth, but had no idea what she should say. Her mind was a complete mess right now.
At a time like this, if Lygus could speak inside her head like he had just now, that would actually be helpful.
At least Stelle could ask him what exactly was going on. But Lygus was just that mysterious.
When he should appear, he didn't. And when he wasn't needed, he would suddenly pop up and mysteriously ramble on about a bunch of things.
Stelle looked at Cyrene in front of her, and in a flash, her poor brain arrived at a conclusion that only March 7th could have come up with.
"Don't tell me you're behind all this." Stelle blurted out in alarm.
It wasn't her fault that her train of thought was so bizarre. The main problem was that nothing happening right now could be explained.
Earlier, with Phainon present, she could still interpret some of Cyrene's words as questions directed at Phainon.
But Phainon wasn't here now! Why could someone inside a play see her and even talk to her?
Stelle couldn't think of any reasonable explanation.
And usually, an existence that concealed itself this deeply and appeared so unexpectedly was often the mastermind behind everything!
Upon hearing Stelle's words, Cyrene's originally gentle expression suddenly sharpened.
"What if I am... what would you do?"
Nearly every hair on Stelle's body stood on end. But the next moment, Cyrene burst out laughing.
"Just kidding, don't read too much into it!"
Was that really the kind of joke you could make?! The audience outside the screen nearly suffered cardiac arrest from Cyrene's sudden scare.
...
: Holy shit!!!
: I nearly got scared to death!
: No, seriously, what the hell is going on?!
: Is this really a play? Damn! No, no, no, regardless of whether it's a play or not, she's clearly not someone from the main story's timeline, right?! So why can she talk to Stelle?!
: My brain is going to explode!
: Something's wrong. This makes absolutely no sense!
: I feel like the real core of the problem isn't whether this scene is a play or reality. It's Cyrene herself.
: Lygus was probably telling the truth about this being a play. Everyone else in the scene basically acts like an NPC. Only Cyrene occasionally pops out and scares the hell out of us.
...
After being frightened again and again, the audience quickly identified the heart of the problem.
It was Cyrene herself. The strangest thing about Cyrene's behavior in the story was that sometimes she seemed able to see Stelle, while at other times she couldn't.
Assuming this really was the play Lygus had described, most people's behavior fit that explanation.
Only Cyrene would suddenly act outside the "script." But this state wasn't constant. Sometimes it appeared, and sometimes it didn't.
The closest thing the audience could think of was something described in novels, some immensely powerful being who could freely take control of themselves at any point in time and at any location.
But that explanation... was a little too fantastical.
As the play continued, more and more questions emerged.
As more time passed since the Re-Creation at the opening, the audience had absolutely no idea where the story was heading.
...
On screen.
After giving Stelle a scare, Cyrene smiled and said, " you know what? Even if fate is set on its path, no matter where it steers the world... If we're together, there's nothing to worry about, right?"
"So, if you're willing..."
One moment she had been frightening her, and now she had suddenly started saying things like this to her. Stelle could no longer figure out what the girl in front of her was trying to say.
Naturally, she had no idea how she was supposed to respond either. But Cyrene had already expected that and hadn't been counting on Stelle to answer.
She merely sighed with a hint of emotion.
"Forget it. It's nothing."
"Ah~ forget it. If the wheels do begin to turn... that's when I'll make my request♪"
After saying that, Cyrene acted as though Stelle beside her didn't exist at all and crawled into the tree hollow on her own.
"...?"
"Lygus, this play is still a little too advanced for me."
Stelle watched Cyrene disappear into the tree hollow, then sighed and resignedly crawled in after her.
She still couldn't understand what Cyrene had meant.
At most, she had noticed that the final intonation of Cyrene's last sentence carried a slight musical note.
And after saying it, Cyrene had gone back to pretending she couldn't see Stelle, once again becoming the Cyrene who seemed completely unable to perceive her.
She couldn't tell! She really couldn't tell at all!
But the audience had managed to notice a clue.
After all, every musical note was clearly marked in the subtitles.
Thinking back carefully... It seemed that whenever Cyrene said something particularly direct, something that especially didn't sound like a line an NPC version of Cyrene should be saying, the sentence always ended with that musical note.
Perhaps... this was some kind of distinguishing trait?
But before the audience could think about it more carefully, as on screen, Stelle had already crawled into the tree hollow.
The tunnel wasn't long, and soon her vision suddenly opened up. What appeared before the audience could hardly be called a tree hollow.
It was practically another world!
Leaving aside the space that seemed to stretch almost endlessly into the distance, just the massive tree trunks covered in moss and green grass, each as thick as a road, made it feel nothing like they were still inside the Grove of Epiphany. Instead, it was as though they had stepped into some dreamlike fairy-tale world.
And not far from Stelle, Phainon and Cyrene, who had arrived ahead of her, seemed to be talking with someone.
Stelle quietly walked closer. Looking past the two of them, she finally saw the "person" they were speaking to.
"M... Mem?!!"
The one who appeared in Stelle's field of vision was none other than that little cute little creature which had always been by her side!
Mem, whom she had been unable to summon ever since Lygus pulled her into this play!
Truthfully, the shock Lygus' play had brought Stelle was no less intense than her usual adventures.
"So that's why I couldn't summon Mem. You've been hiding here!"
The moment she saw her constant companion, Stelle's mind, which had been filled with confusion and uncertainty, was instantly washed clean by surprise and delight.
She quickly stepped forward, intending to reunite with Mem. It was only after getting closer that Stelle noticed something different about this Mem.
It wasn't pink, but purple. Even its speech was a little unclear, as though its nose were stuffed.
"Woah... look who's finally back memi!"
"Snowy, you've grown so tall and dashing! I couldn't even tell it was you at first!"
"But look at Reney. She hasn't changed one bit! How fascinating!"
The purple Mem was stamping her feet as she spoke to Phainon and Cyrene.
Hearing this, Stelle slammed on the brakes and stopped in place, staring dumbfounded as she finally realized what was going on.
This isn't my Mem! So Mem actually has a whole family?!
Stelle was still digesting this shocking discovery.
Up ahead, Cyrene, whom the purple fairy had described as someone who never changed, smiled and said, "Perhaps I'm like you, Relimem, just another fairy of the Maze?"
"Huh? Is that so?"
"Cyrene is actually a fairy!"
"Such a huge fairy!"
The purple Mem immediately fell into shock.
Her adorable appearance made Phainon and Cyrene unable to hold back their laughter.
Phainon especially couldn't resist. He stepped forward and rubbed Relimem's soft fur. The satisfying feeling beneath his hand made him sigh with emotion:
"Dolimem, Relimem, Milimem, Falimem... Ah, I've missed these cute little troublemakers."
"We used to gather around the fire, singing and dancing, imagining all our future journeys... Without coming back here, those memories might've faded away entirely."
But after hearing Phainon's lament, Relimem angrily planted her hands on her hips and criticized him, "How could you, Snowy! You swore you wouldn't forget about us, but you were gone so long you almost did!"
Phainon froze, then awkwardly scratched his forehead.
"Oh, he's just copying those bards from his stories, being all melodramatic. He couldn't forget about you all even if he tried."
Cyrene hurriedly comforted her for a while before finally calming the puffed-up Relimem down.
Once Relimem had settled down, Cyrene gently stroked her fur and asked, "Actually, we're here for the oracle cards. Have you seen them?"
Being stroked made Relimem narrow her eyes in pleasure as she hummed and replied, "Oh, the oracle cards! Right, the chief asked us to get those!"
"Chief... you mean Dolimem?"
Phainon and Cyrene froze and exchanged a glance.
"What do they need the cards for? If they want a reading, they could just ask me."
Cyrene asked in confusion.
Relimem shook her head, taking the opportunity to snuggle even further into Cyrene's hand. "I'm not sure... but Chief specifically wanted to meet with you all."
Phainon and Cyrene didn't understand what she meant. But since they were already here, they might as well meet her.
Led by Relimem, the three soon arrived before a treehouse.
A "Mem" whose fur had already turned completely gray-white, revealing her age, was waiting there.
This was the village chief of this place, Dolimem.
After seeing this gray-white Mem, the viewers also set aside some of their doubts and immediately began commenting.
...
: So they really are Mem's family. We've stumbled straight into Mem's nest now.
: I thought Mem really was some kind of sacred beast of Oronyx. Turns out her hometown is also Aedes Elysiae. Damn!
: So this isn't just Phainon and Cyrene's hometown, but also the hometown of little fairies like Mem.
: Purple Mem, gray Mem... maybe we'll even see Mems of all sorts of different colors later.
: The ecosystem of Amphoreus is seriously incredible.
: But when we first saw Mem, I mean, the pink Mem, I think it was at the Temple of Fate, right? Stelle had only just come down at the time, and the temple was already on the verge of collapse.
: Maybe after Aedes Elysiae was destroyed, the fairies' homeland was destroyed too, and only the pink Mem survived and escaped there?
: Mhm, that makes perfect sen, wait!! There's a bug!
: Cyrene and Phainon have met fairies before. How could they possibly not recognize what Mem is? But Aglaea called her Oronyx's sacred beast. That doesn't make sense, does it?!
: Holy shit?
: Bro, I can't take this anymore! My brain is about to burn out. Is this a plot bug?!
: Feels more like a code bug! Damn! Was Lygus' dumb ass really ever gazed upon by Nous? Why is the Emperor's Scepter code this guy modified nothing but spaghetti code?
...
Cyrene's strangeness alone had already pushed the viewers' brains close to exploding.
And now they had stumbled into Mem Village on top of that. \
The viewers' brains were completely overloaded... But the real key to the problem wasn't any of this.
The first thing they needed to confirm was exactly when the Phainon and Cyrene they were seeing... were from. Starting from the village of Aedes Elysiae, and continuing all the way to their arrival at Mem Village.
The entire plot had actually been revealing the truth through small details all along.
But without knowing exactly which point in time this Phainon and Cyrene belonged to, the viewers would take this information and combine it with the established facts of the "time" they were familiar with, inevitably arriving at conclusions that were chaotic and mutually contradictory.
That made watching the story somewhat mentally exhausting. But during filming, the consultant had never intended to change this.
Because every single detail... would become fuel for the blazing sun.
At a certain crucial moment, all these doubts and contradictions would shatter and rearrange themselves inside the viewers' minds, transforming into an even more magnificent and tragic story.
If even a single detail were missing, then at that moment, unanswered doubts would remain in the viewers' minds, preventing them from enjoying pure "anger."
That simply wouldn't do.
...
While the viewers' brains were overloaded, Dolimem also sensed the presence of Phainon and Cyrene.
She was already very old, and her eyesight wasn't particularly good anymore, so she could only rely on this method to perceive the things around her.
But that was enough.
"Hehe... welcome back, my dear children." The elderly village chief kindly greeted them.
"Oh Chief! You haven't changed a bit, still so full of life!"
Seeing that an old acquaintance was still healthy and vigorous made Cyrene genuinely happy from the bottom of her heart.
"No need to fuss, my child. You haven't forgotten, have you? As long as our songs are sung, the children of the maze will live on -
"just as our paths stay forever linked."
The elderly village chief spoke slowly, then took out a book.
The camera zoomed in. It was actually As I've Written III!