My Daughters Are Regressors

Elle was looking at a thesis.

The title was 「The Correlation between the Ancient City of Uruk and Freesia」. It was a paper written by an early prominent researcher, and its content was indeed fascinating.

"The recorded urban plan of Uruk. And the urban plan of Freesia shows a striking resemblance. This form is a kind of magic circle related to ancient summoning spells─."

The content of the thesis was true.Elle had indeed manipulated the city's architectural plans at will using the golden-bearded dwarf.It was all to complete the 'Summoning Spell' located beneath the city of Freesia.

"Summoning magic is advanced magic. The larger the magic circle, the more complex the calculations and the greater the magical power needed. A carpet-sized magic circle can barely summon a single egg."

Muttering so, Elle's eyes reflected children trapped in a cage.Cecily and Hina.The children were tightly bound inside the cage, but their eyes were fiercely glittering.Of course, Elle did not care about that.

"What could possibly be summoned with a city-sized magic circle? Students Cecily, Hina. If you paid attention in class, you could answer that."

"Mmmph-.""Mmph-."

"Yes, something terrifying, no doubt. The ancient city of Uruk tried to summon gods using the magic circle in the city. Or perhaps, they wanted to become gods themselves. The problem was the immense magical power needed."

According to the paper Elle held, the amount of magical power needed to activate the summoning magic circle was similar to five years' worth of energy used in Freesia.There was only one way to obtain that much power at once.Exploiting the life of living beings.

"Uruk attempted to summon gods using living people. It was before the abolition of slavery, so there were many slaves, war orphans, and disabled people. They sacrificed their lives."

Hundreds?Thousands?It was said that their numbers were beyond counting.

Sacrificing the weak, deemed useless by society, to summon gods-.It was clearly an evil act.And that great evil ended up summoning from the cosmic darkness, not the Father of Light they had yearned for, but an abomination that had been crouching in the depths of the universe into Uruk.

"That's why Uruk was destroyed. According to the hypothesis, it might all have been Nocturne's plan from the start. Tainting the world with evil to bring about his own summoning. Their destruction was fate."

Elle murmured to herself.Elle had a habit of muttering when concentrating.

Beneath Elle's feet, countless butterflies with one wing clipped lay scattered, and under those butterflies was indecipherable ancient language written all over the floor.

"We're going to summon a god. It'll require an immense amount of magical power. Enough to burn the lives of everyone living in the city."

Elle Cladeco chuckled.Cecily was taken aback by those words.

"Burning the lives of everyone... Then there would be no commoners left to look up to the nobility...! Without commoners, the nobility would be meaningless...!"

The city was ablaze.For a moment, horrible scenes flashed and disappeared before Cecily's eyes. Elle added.

"Of course, I'm joking. Burn people? Why would I do such a crazy thing? My source of energy will be these butterflies. I don't need the lives of people. But how did you manage to remove the tape that was on your mouth? It should have been stuck on firmly. No, the tape is still there."

"Speaking with a covered mouth is a fundamental skill of a noble lady...! This Cecily cannot be silenced by mere tape...! This is Cecily's secret skill, the art of subtle discourse...!"

How could she speak like that with tape over her mouth?

What sort of a noble lady's skill is that?Elle couldn't understand what Cecily was saying.She was immensely curious about the method, but she had no energy to spare for that now.

So Elle simply looked at the butterflies lying on the ground.These butterflies were so remarkable that just by flying around, they enriched the surrounding atmosphere with more than twice the magical power.

Butterflies appeared just when a large amount of energy was needed.Who or why someone did this, she didn't know, but for Elle, it was a stroke of luck.

"The world is trying to aid me."

Perhaps Elle was fated to succeed in whatever she did.It could be that the result of Elle's success—was pulling the process from a distant future.

"Elle Cladeco, enough chatter."

Then a man shrouded in darkness appeared.He was darkness personified.No matter where the light shone from, his body was always covered in pitch-black darkness, as if he had his back to the light.

"Is everything ready?"

The man, Mara, asked.He was slightly anxious.

He had consumed Childdrake, killed people indiscriminately, and injected all sorts of drugs, but his realm was stuck at 49.49.999...He was literally one step away.However, that last step was such a high wall that even Mara, who could be considered 'evil' itself, couldn't overcome it.

'Grandmaster, that old serpent, did she feel this way? If she had spent over 200 years in this state, it's no wonder she went mad.'

Mara.To Elle Cladeco's eyes, his mind was extremely unstable.Despite bearing a massive karma of evil that could turn even a saint into a madman, the fact that he has maintained his sanity was more of a miracle.

Was the training he had been doing since childhood somewhat effective?But it was uncertain how long Mara would maintain his sanity.So Elle asked casually.

“Mara, how about killing those children?”

“......”

Mara looked at the girls trapped in the cage but soon lost interest.

“It would be meaningless.”

“Well, as expected.”

Although Mara had slaughtered all the researchers, monsters, and servants in the mansion’s basement, he was unusually passive about the children.Elle wondered if this passivity might be hindering Mara's transcendence.

'Perhaps he carries a strong trauma from the Grandmaster's act of devouring those children back then....'

Of course, it was good for Elle.Because Elle didn’t wish for Mara's transcendence.

What Elle Cladeco wanted was to create a puppet.And through this puppet, all of humanity... or more precisely, she wanted to transcend the dimensions herself.It would be problematic if Mara transcended on his own, like the artificial Demon King Molumolu who ran away.

'This man can be controlled through the children.'

Elle thought it would be good to control Mara through Cecily and Hina.He was a man with a karma of evil, destructively unpredictable, but he behaved quite gentlemanly in front of the children.It seemed he had regained some of his rationality too.

'Before Mara loses his sanity, I'll summon a part of Nocturne. Not all, just a part. That much can be handled within the barrier of Freesia.'

She planned to feed that part of Nocturne to Mara.Literal consumption.By devouring the divine body, Mara would become a being imbued with immense karma.If such Mara was killed by the hands of Elle Cladeco─

'I can transcend. Then all problems will be solved. Not just my problems, but also those that Judas and this Mara are suffering from.'

Truth was simple enough for even a child to understand.The problem was how to kill the monstrous Mara by Elle's hand.

Of course, Elle had a trump card to kill Mara.After all, this Freesia was the city where 'Nocturne' had been torn to shreds and killed.

“Then, I’ll activate the summoning circle.”

As Elle Cladeco prepared the summoning magic, Mara suddenly became curious.

“Wait a moment.”

Wasn’t the magic of summoning basically piercing a hole into another world?Nobody knows what will come through that gate.One would simply assume that something big would come through a big hole.

In fact, the residents of the ancient city of Uruk opened a massive dimensional rift to summon a god, and through that rift, a god did come.It just happened to be an unwanted evil god.

“Can you be certain that what comes through the gate from another world will be Nocturne?”

At Mara's question, Elle fell into silent contemplation.Then she spoke.

"So, I plan to use your blood as both bait and a sacrifice. The only Demiurge to be attracted by a karma as vile as yours would be Nocturne. Now, draw blood from your palm─."

At Elle's words, Mara scratched his palm with his nails.As Mara's dark crimson blood began to flow Ssshhh— into the magic circle, Elle slowly chanted an ancient spell.

"━━──."

Woooooong—The magic circle started to glow, and the butterflies strewn above began to dissolve.Soon, Cecily, who had been watching, spoke through the tape over her mouth.

"Ditch ditch, ditch water, small ditch water. stream stream, stream water, clear stream water─."

It was a song.It was the 'Song of the Ditch' that Sifnoi had taught her, deliberately sung to interfere with Elle's spell.Originally, only true nymphs could sing it, but Cecily, Hina, and Naru were entitled to sing it as they were under the care of the nymph Sifnoi.Its effect was to bring peace to people's hearts.

Of course, Elle wasn't mediocre enough to have her spell disrupted by such an interruption.

'Even with her mouth taped shut, she's noisy. Does she think she can disrupt me with that? I am the golden mage, Elle Cladeco... Ugh.'

"Ughh-."

Elle soon expelled ragged breaths and fell to her knees.She felt an enormous amount of magic draining from her body.Even though she had used butterflies in the summoning circle, such a vast amount of magic was being sucked away.

Woooom—Of course, it didn't matter to her.

Crackle-.She saw the air shatter like glass.It was the sound of a dimensional rift forming.Now, a fragment of a god would seep through this fractured dimensional fissure!

"The dimensional rift is splitting! At last, the path to another realm is in my hands!!!"

Crack— Crackle—Soon, a black strand peeked through the air, like a crack in shattered glass.

Elle Cladeco had never heard of Nocturne having black strands, but while she thought it might be hair, her lips curled up in ecstasy, and she soon frowned.

"What... is this?"

What was summoned atop the activated magic circle.It was about the size of a soccer ball.

━Meow.

Its form was a clump of black, soft-looking fur.Elle realized immediately that something had gone awry.

"...I am Molu. No, Molumolu."

Molu, Molumolu.The creature had barely emerged through the opened dimensional crack.Elle had succeeded in summoning a part of the Demiurge, but it wasn't Nocturne.

"Why are you here when you weren't the bait I intended...? Why did you...?"

Was it because Molumolu, originally created as an artificial Demon King, reacted to the evil karma of the Demiurge?Or was it perhaps due to Cecily's interference?As Elle Cladeco entertained these thoughts, she couldn't contain her frustration.

"Judas's daughters keep interfering...!"

She felt like she wouldn't calm down unless she pinched their cheeks at least once.

━Meow.

At that moment, Molumolu quickly hid with a swift jump.Elle decided she had to chase after the Molu creature instead of leaving Cecily tied up and took a step forward.

"O-Over there...."

Molumolu was a peculiar creature, perhaps even a Demiurge.Pursuing it might mean crossing the barriers to another world.Elle, thinking she might be able to chase after her husband who had left for a distant land, couldn't stop herself.

* * *

"Fascinating."

I had been standing in front of a strange wall for a minute.The wall had a lens-like device which I figured out was a system that recognized the iris to open the door.Who would've thought such a device existed in the continent of Pangaea.

"A system that opens only with the Duke's eyes?"

That’s why they had taken the Duke's eyes. Such a terrible thing to do.

I wonder if they could be reattached if found-.

With that thought in mind, I used the secret technique 「Wall Slither」 to pass through.Honestly, I was curious to try picking this new lock, but the situation was urgent.Securing Cecily and Hina's safety was the priority.

I hurried down the monotonously spiral staircase and finally arrived at a place that could be called a vast cavity.

There were stone floors and pillars erected high, and murals crudely drawn with crayons by Hina filled the walls.

"Where are the kids?"

I took out a compass and measured the directions.After about a minute of walking in the direction, the needle stopped.

I saw the iron bars where Hina and Cecily were imprisoned.I quickly moved and smashed the bars with my fist.Then I freed Cecily and Hina.

Snap—As soon as I removed the tapes from their mouths, they started chattering as if they had been waiting.

"Molumolu...!""Butterfly! Summoning circle! Quickly do something about it, please!"

Kids tend to spout words adults find hard to understand. My daughters especially never seemed to stop talking.But today they were exceptionally gabby.

"Can't make heads or tails of this."

They're safe, that's what matters.I showed Cecily and Hina the way upstairs.They fiddled with their lips as if they had a lot to say to me, not wanting to be separated.

Wham—Hina clung to my legs.Among the children, she was particularly prone to being clingy.Hina finally burst into tears.

"I tried so hard..."

Was she thinking about how hard she had tried yet failed at things?She had a strong competitive spirit and a deep craving for achievement, so she cried out of frustration.

Soon, Cecily also burst into tears.

"Uwaaahh..."

"Why are you crying?"

"I don’t know, it’s just coming out...!"

I see.Even at such a young age, the hearts of girls are difficult to understand.But I didn't have the luxury of time to pat their backs.

"Go, Cecily. Hina. I'll take care of things here. Your mothers will be upstairs."

I was aware of the figure standing behind me.It had been there since I arrived in this basement, like a black stain.

"Hina, on the last page of your drawing diary, was there a person like this stain?"

Hina didn't answer my question.But sometimes silence speaks more than a multitude of cries.

***

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