‘No, but!’

But you’re talking about this to Sergei so casually? Since when have you two been that close?

“My lady, are you alright?”

“Are you okay?”

As I cough after choking, Lord Joseph and Sergei look at me with concern.

After taking some time to calm down, I was finally able to breathe steadily.

“I’m fine now.”

“Perhaps, did the Duchess not know that Lord Joseph is the heir of Chronomancy?”

“No. I knew, I knew. But I didn’t know he was a magician. I just found out…”

And I also learned that Lord Joseph had been hiding something from me all this time.

I wonder what else he’s hiding? With that in mind, I glared at Lord Joseph, who said with an amused smile:

“Why so surprised? Isn’t it stranger that a magician who can even turn back time can’t use elemental magic, which is considered the most basic?”

“…”

That may be common sense to you. I swallowed the words I wanted to say.

It seems there are more important things to discuss now than nitpicking words.

“Anyway… Since the Duchess also knows, I think there’s something I should tell you about Lord Joseph and Chronomancy.”

Sergei began like that. Though one eye was covered by a bandage, his emerald eye looked quite stern.

And his gaze was directed not at me, but at Lord Joseph.

“Excuse me, but I have a question, Lord Joseph. Is the reason you came to see the Duchess now to tell her that you can turn back time and save Lord Saul Rogier?”

…Ah!

Come to think of it, there was such a method. I sat up straight.

Lord Joseph is the one who said he would rewind time if there was a problem.

This incident is certainly a big accident, and there are casualties. Even Sergei lost one eye.

Isn’t this the right timing to turn back time? He said the headaches would be fine if he made contact with me…

“If that was really your intention, please don’t.”

But at Sergei’s stern words the next moment, I had to put a brake on my rising expectations.

“Why? Is there some problem?”

“…Yes. There’s a big problem.”

What is it?

Curious, I looked at Lord Joseph, and he had an uncharacteristically grim expression.

I could intuitively tell.

That Lord Joseph’s purpose in visiting me was as Sergei mentioned.

“First, there’s something I need to say before explaining.”

Sergei said with a sigh.

“As a scholar of the Tower of Honor, my field of study is ‘Ancient Magic Studies’.”

Ancient Magic Studies.

It is a discipline that has completely disappeared in the current Age of Glory.

As the bloodline of those called true magicians in ancient times vanished, the towers that allowed even ordinary people to use magic also collapsed.

Moreover, the thick fog covering the sea prevents anyone from even finding the fallen towers…

As the Age of Magic came to an end and a thousand years passed, all objects related to magic were moved to the Tower of Honor.

After all, no one but the tower scholars would want to study a lost discipline.

I didn’t know Sergei was researching that field.

Was there a reason for him to be interested?

“I haven’t been researching for that long, but fortunately… I came across a traditional text that mentioned ‘Chronomancy’, which was treated as forbidden knowledge by past Magic Emperors.”

What? Wait.

“Magic Emperors? Forbidden knowledge…?”

As I asked in surprise, Sergei nodded.

“That’s right. Here, Chronomancy doesn’t refer to magic that manipulates the time of a specific individual on a small scale, but on a much larger scale… in other words, the power to move the time of the entire world. Simply put, it deals with causality.”

“Oh my…”

“…Hmm.”

While Lord Joseph’s reaction was indifferent, I couldn’t help but gape, my jaw dropping open.

In fact, the only magic I’ve experienced is Lord Joseph’s regression ability.

No, even that is ambiguous to call an experience. I’ve never directly seen him use magic.

Anyway, because of that, I had never gauged how great an ability it was.

But thinking about it, it’s true.

Regression is, after all, a powerful variable that defies the laws of the world and nullifies causality.

Is that an ability humans can possess?

Isn’t it the realm of God?

“Wait, wait a moment.”

As talk that continued to transcend common sense went back and forth, I needed to organize my thoughts for a moment.

Right, first things first.

“…First of all, I think there must be a reason why Chronomancy was designated as taboo.”

“That’s right.”

Sergei nodded affirmatively again.

“Those who use Chronomancy must pay a terrible price.”

“A terrible price. I guess you’re not talking about pain?”

I said, recalling what Lord Joseph had mentioned. Sergei shook his head.

“In Lord Joseph’s case, that’s included. But that’s not the true price.”

My gaze naturally turned to Lord Joseph. I wondered if this was one of the things he had hidden from me.

But Lord Joseph seemed not to know well either. Sergei asked with a serious face and furrowed brow.

“Do you know what ability the user of Chronomancy must have?”

Lord Joseph answered.

“…It seems to be absolute memory ability.”

“That’s right. Perfect memory ability. Without it, even the caster of Chronomancy loses memories while turning back time. Because the nullification of causality occurs equally to others.”

Listening to their conversation, I could roughly understand the ability called Chronomancy.

Rewinding time, nullifying causality. Though they’re using such difficult words, what I understood was a simpler concept.

“…Somehow, Chronomancy feels like magic that erases the world’s memories.”

“Yes. That’s exactly right, Duchess. That’s why the caster of Chronomancy with perfect memory ability feels like they’ve ‘regressed’ when the world’s memories are erased.”

“…”

It was an unfamiliar concept, but not difficult.

As I nodded as if I finally understood, Sergei continued with his questions.

“Then do you know what perfect memory ability is?”

“I’m not unfamiliar with it.”

This time, Lord Joseph’s explanation followed.

When I first heard about it, I couldn’t help but think of the hyperthymesia that Chersion suffers from.

But the more I listened, the more I realized it was a different kind.

Perfect memory, or absolute memory ability, was a higher concept than that. It means remembering not only the moment of perception, but all the senses the brain detected at that time.

“…It seems to be called divine memory as well.”

“Theoretically, it’s something difficult for humans to handle.”

For example, Lord Joseph says he can remember the exact time that has passed while we’ve been talking, down to the second.

Even if he doesn’t particularly try to remember.

Honestly, since we’ve already far exceeded the realm of common sense, I have no thoughts from this point on.

Rather, I brought up the part I was curious about again as a topic.

“But Lord Sergei. Weren’t you talking about the price? Is perfect memory ability related to the price of Chronomancy?”

“It is. I was just about to tell you about that.”

To my question, Lord Sergei began to speak while looking at Lord Joseph.

“Generally, knowledge classified as taboo has clear reasons. Either it has a high potential for abuse, or it can bring great calamity.”

That’s right. I nodded.

“It’s similar in the case of Chronomancy. Since it’s a power that erases the memories engraved in the world and nullifies causality, if we think about it within a common sense range, we can see that the individual who is the caster bears the nullified causality.”

“The individual bears the causality?”

“Yes. Especially since it’s magic that erases memories, what will come back as a price is… Yes. As you expected…”

With a grave face, Sergei concluded.

“It would be the damage to the perfect memory ability.”

Honestly, even if he says that, I don’t really get what it means.

Lord Joseph seemed similar to me, as his expression when he turned back was full of questions.

“Please explain in more detail, Lord Sergei.”

“To put it simply…”

At my request, Sergei added a more intuitive explanation.

“It means that part of Lord Joseph’s memories will be destroyed.”

“Part of his memories?”

“Yes, and…”

The corners of Sergei’s eyes twisted with sympathy towards Lord Joseph.

“…Starting with the memories the caster cherishes most, they are completely lost in order.”

“…!”

I was at a loss for words. And it must have been the same for Lord Joseph.