**#334. Side Story 3. The Colors of Love (1)**
—
Ray could say this with confidence.
“There’s probably no one who’s been busier than me this past year.”
Ray’s official public title was *Administrator of the Imaginus School*.
His yearly schedule was packed with responsibilities like overseeing exchange students and attending academic conferences, leaving him with barely a moment to breathe.
Even during his busiest times, he had to make room to meet with leaders from various schools and related organizations as part of the preliminary work for the wall’s collapse.
In his spare moments, he visited the mansion in Sector 28 to give magic lectures and, at the same time, had to scoop up Nero the cat, who roamed the halls, onto his lap and shower it with affection.
He also couldn’t neglect playing frisbee with the mechanical dog, Kelley.
He even squeezed in time to solve and submit entries for the *Monthly Magic Magazine* crossword puzzles.
And naturally, when one lives that kind of hectic life, there will be things that inevitably fall by the wayside.
“So that’s why you haven’t visited the settlement for over six months?”
“Yeah.”
To Veronica’s question, Ray nodded firmly.
He hadn’t visited simply due to time constraints—he hadn’t forgotten the settlement. Not at all.
Absolutely not.
Someone like him, who was a million miles away from being careless, would never do such a thing, right?
Anyway, this was his first visit to the settlement in nearly half a year, and that explained why Ray was quite surprised at the landscape unfolding before him.
“…A forest?”
The last time he arrived near the settlement using spatial magic, there had been some greenery here and there, certainly more so than the surrounding wasteland, but it hadn’t been anything like this lush forest.
“Did I mess up the coordinates?”
“No! No! You’re in the right place! Just stay put!”
Veronica quickly stopped Ray from reactivating his spatial magic.
“This is the settlement, alright. The synergy between elven growth magic and dwarven technology made this happen.”
“You don’t seem too surprised, Veronica.”
“Well, I came here a few times in between.”
It was an open secret that Saint Veronica used the settlement as a hideout after deserting the Order.
The endless greenery, so unlike the human sectors, brought deep peace of mind.
Rustle.
Just then, a wild boar appeared from the brush.
It spotted them and froze, locking eyes with Ray.
A tense air.
A breathless silence, and then—
*Squeal!*
It turned and bolted between the trees.
“…I won.”
“Don’t be proud of something like that.”
Veronica gave Ray a light smack on the back.
Regardless, Ray was struck by a sense of time’s passage.
Originally, animals that had migrated from the last forest recognized their faces and weren’t wary.
But the boar’s reaction just now meant—
‘Second generation.’
Or maybe even later.
Offspring had already been born from the first generation and were now living in this forest.
With that strange feeling lingering, Ray continued walking. Soon, elves and dwarves who had been tending to the trees came running.
“Lord Ray! Is it really you?”
“Ray? The Ray I know came back?”
“See! I told you he’d come back within a year at most!”
The attention shifted to him in an instant.
Everyone looked as if they had spotted a mythical beast—faces filled with intense joy.
“I came to see Rael.”
“Oh, you mean Lord Rael?”
“Yeah. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s right behind you.”
Ray and Veronica flinched and turned around.
There stood someone who, by all appearances, looked exactly like a corpse pressed up against them.
“At last, you’ve arrived, Lord Ray.”
“KYAAAH!”
Ray caught Veronica as she fainted in shock.
Then he turned his attention to the figure who had appeared.
“Rael?”
With unkempt hair and beard, sunken eyes—yes, it was Rael, the dwarf.
“Yes, that’s right. I am Rael—the very one who waited long years for Lord Ray, only to be cast aside at the settlement after the first few meetings.”
“….”
There seemed to be some barbs hidden in those words, but Ray decided it was probably just his imagination.
Once Veronica calmed her startled heart, she asked:
“L-Lord Rael? You look a bit… different from the last time we met…”
“Ah, Lady Veronica. I apologize if my shabby appearance startled you. I’ve been so immersed in my research lately that I’ve somewhat neglected to groom myself. Oh, come to think of it, someone else also neglected a being who waited for them many years.”
“Sounds like a really bad person.”
This seemed to go beyond mere ‘neglect.’
At this point, it looked like he had locked himself in and gone without food or sleep just to focus on research.
Well, technically he was a machine, so he didn’t really need to eat anyway.
Rael vented his frustration to Ray.
“Why haven’t you checked any of the messages I sent you?”
“You mean besides the one from yesterday?”
“All the messages I’ve sent over the years must number in the hundreds!”
“Then they probably got buried and I missed them. I get a huge number of messages sent to my receiver code.”
Ray pulled out a square mana pad from his robe.
Originally, communication was limited to within the city of magicians.
But Rael had modified this pad so that it could send and receive messages even from hundreds of kilometers away.
Rael looked at the screen.
\[Important – Regular Conference Information]
\[This message began in Sector 27 and brings good fortune to all recipients…]
\[Collaboration – Work Support Notice]
\[Sir, this is truly a great investment opportunity.]
\[Hello. I’m Hekel, head of the architecture firm we discussed earlier. The reason I’m contacting you is…]
“I was really busy. I didn’t even manage to check many of the other important ones.”
He hadn’t been exaggerating—he’d barely had enough time to breathe. Only now, after the wall collapse was over, was he able to relax.
“Hmm…”
Rael let out a small sigh.
The work-related messages seemed to scroll endlessly.
He must have been truly busy.
Ashamed of having blamed him so much without knowing that, Rael began to feel a little guilty.
Then one message caught his eye.
\[Read] \[Sender: Rael]
\[Marked as Important]
\[Photos of cute little animals playing in the forest of the settlement.]
“Seriously…”
“What was that research you recently completed?”
Just as Rael was about to explode in frustration, Ray quickly steered the conversation in another direction.
“Ah, the research! Yes! I recently resolved a long-standing issue and completed a study. I even created an invention. One that could truly be called the invention of the century!”
The invention of the century.
It was the same phrase written in the message Rael had sent yesterday.
It was also why Ray’s curiosity had finally brought him to the settlement today.
“What kind of invention?”
“Lord Ray, are you familiar with love?”
At the mention of love, Veronica’s ears perked up.
Ray fell into brief contemplation.
‘Love.’
Unlike the many emotions he had come to understand during his journey, this was one he still had no grasp of.
「Love? There’s no one who understands it better than me!」
Veronica had once claimed she’d explain it clearly, but had been avoiding the topic for a year now.
「Veronica, what does love mean to you? Do you have someone you love?」
「Uh, um… That’s… It’s not the right time to tell you yet…!」
Her flustered face showed a mix of embarrassment and frustration.
He was the one frustrated from not knowing, so why was she the one acting like that?
“I don’t really know much about love.”
“Yes, exactly. Love is a truly elusive emotion. Every time you look away, it changes shape and form. It splits into many branches and subtleties.”
A constantly shifting, amorphous emotion—that was Rael’s definition of love.
“My invention is directly related to that emotion.”
“Oh?”
“An invention related to love?!”
“Rather than explain it with words, I think it’s faster to show you. Let’s head to the lab.”
With hearts pounding, the boy and girl followed Rael.
As they walked through the thick forest, they exchanged updates on each other’s lives.
“Life in the settlement has been entirely comfortable. In fact, my descendants care for me so attentively that it’s sometimes overwhelming.”
The dwarves of Rael Row didn’t care that the current Rael was a robot imbued with his memories and behavior.
On the contrary, they saw him as a technological miracle and living testament of a bygone era.
「A body of flesh and blood? That’s just a shell. What matters is the mind.」
「Transferring memories into a mechanical vessel to achieve immortality—what a brilliant concept!」
「Whether machine or lifeform, as long as it’s intelligent, that’s what counts, right?」
But where there’s light, there’s always shadow.
The dwarves’ obsession and fervor for technology led to attempts to dissect Rael and study his structure under the guise of reverence.
「Ancestor! Please have a word with us!」
「Pant! Pant! Wait! We’ll just take a quick peek!」
「Just a little taste!」
「He’s escaping! Catch him! No—escort him to a proper place!」
Eventually, a proclamation from the elders was issued.
\[Concerning the recent incidents: Any who dares bring harm to our great ancestor Rael—regardless of rank—will face severe consequences….]
In short, Rael was declared an endangered species. He could be looked at but not touched—and anyone caught doing otherwise would be wrecked.
Since then, Rael had escaped the daily terror of being dissected and was able to focus on spreading ancient technology throughout the settlement.
“With the ancient tech I possess and the physical strength of giants like Nel, the construction of the underground city progressed far faster than expected.”
Rael proudly pointed with his finger.
A metal structure rose from the ground.
A giant bear’s face, mouth wide open—
“The entrance to hell.”
“…The entrance to the underground city.”
Rael let out a small sigh as the pride left his face.
“I had no hand in the design. When I suggested putting up a metal structure in the forest, those wretched pointy-ear—ah, no, the elves—insisted on doing the design themselves.”
Apparently, dwarf elf-hatred was a deeply rooted tradition.
Veronica blinked wide.
“Pointy-ears…?”
“*Ahem, ahem!* Of course not. Would I ever use such discriminatory terms? Anyway, throughout the forest, there are entrances to the underground city in the shapes of various animals… But more importantly, Lady Veronica, you seem to be visiting the settlement quite frequently these days.”
As Rael desperately tried to change the subject, Veronica flailed slightly.
“A-ah! I’m on extended leave right now!”
She had submitted her own leave request.
And approved it herself.
Not a single priest from the Order, including Solite, agreed with it.
But still, the Saintess was officially on vacation.
“Veronica, most people would just call that ‘running away’…”
“Ray, if you value your life, keep your mouth shut.”
Ray, not wanting to die at the hands of the highest authority in the Order, zipped his lips.
While chatting about various other things, the group eventually arrived at their destination.
A fortress of machines stood there.
Wrapped in vines and branches.
Resembling an ancient ruin.
Bathed in sunlight, cloaked in silence.
It was the Rael Row, the one left behind after all the dwarves had moved to the underground city.
