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Table of Contents
Prologue I: This Dream is Falling Apart—

Chapter 1: The Promise to the Future

Chapter 2: The Encounter With the Girl

Chapter 3: To Each His Own Melancholy

Chapter 4: The World that Began its Awakening

Prologue II: And Yet We Continue to Gaze Into it

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Prologue I: This Dream is Falling Apart—

She often dreamed of that time. Of that far-off memory.

“Got it? Hold my hand and don’t let go no matter what!”

It was a dream where the boy shouted that…

She was always, always shocked.

“……”

Death.

Everyone, everyone was dying.

That place was overflowing with death.

Explosions from bombs, lightning bolts, and flames burnt and

scorched both the sneering adults and the kids running about trying
to escape.

Those who screamed and cried, those who begged for their lives,
those who had no power of their own… were killed.

All she could do was mumble in shock. “This is… no, no more…”

She didn’t like it. She was fed up with it. This atrocity they called
‘training’ repeated day after day. Their survival meant they’d be
forgiven for living in the orphanage. They’d be forgiven for living.

“No… I’m so sick of this, no more…”

A friend she’d talked to just yesterday was lying on the ground dead.
One by one, her friends - no, her family, kids who’d lived at the same
orphanage - were killed.

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She had no choice but to run for her life with a scene like that
spreading out before her eyes…

To protect her life that could end tomorrow, she had no choice but
to run…

She was fed up with it.

“I don’t care anymore.”

That’s what she thought. So she stopped moving. She stopped

thinking.

When she did, the adult standing before her sneered. “Go die if
you’ve given up.” With that, their sword swung up…

But the girl didn’t move. She’d die if she didn’t do anything. She
understood that, but she didn’t do anything. Because…

Compared to living, dying was surely much more enjoyable…

She couldn’t see her dead friends anymore if she was alive. With
that, she could bring her fear of death so strong that she couldn’t
sleep at night to an end…

But…

“What are you doing, you idiot!?”

“Huh!?”

A kick suddenly came up from behind… kicking that sword up into

the air.

When she looked behind her, a boy with black hair had appeared. He
knocked the training overseer over and glared at her. “What’re you
doing? You should still have the power to live through this!”

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She knew of him. He was Roland’s Special Institute #307’s star pupil.
Black hair, black eyes, a thin and lean build and a beautiful face.

Ryner Lute.

His grades were excellent. He had a brilliant mind and was strangely
adept at both physical combat and magic. His chances of survival
were a cut above the rest, too.

He was always their orphanage’s model student. They were always

told to be like him.

He was extraordinary. He got special treatment. He was a perfect

war machine.

He was never worried. He was never afraid. He never lost his

composure. He would never die.

She wanted to be like him if it made it so she wouldn’t be sad when

someone died before her very eyes, if it made it so she wasn’t scared
of dying, if it made things easier…

He looked at her and spoke. “I’m gonna send you flying for this.
People who think it’s okay if they die end up dying, you know!”

“…Huh?”

She didn’t understand what he said. In any case, he looked angry…

but it should’ve been impossible for Ryner Lute to lose his
composure. That’s what she’d been told.

“What am I saying,” he muttered, then continued in an exasperated

tone. “It’s not that… according to your grades, you’re better than
someone who would die here, aren’t you! So live!

Whether you want to live or want to die, there are already too many
people who have died, so don’t be such a baby!”

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What a thing to say to her… for some reason, she began to cry…

“A, a baby…? But I-I don’t want to see… everyone die any…”

Her words trailed off. He was looking at her with a horribly, horribly
sad expression.

“Even I… don’t want to see that,” he mumbled in a small, quiet voice.

“So…”

Even as he spoke, death kept happening around them.

Someone died.

Someone else died.

Ryner Lute, who was supposed to be an unfeeling war machine,

watched sadly…

His expression made her breath catch in her throat.

He was human. He was sad when his friends died. He was sad when
people died. He was sad when he couldn’t save them. He was sad
when he was the only one left.

He was the same as her…

She didn’t know anything either. They shared the same hardships
and the same pain. Even so, he was alive…

Even if all he had left was the power to keep living, he wished that
she wouldn’t die. No… it was because he couldn’t bear the weight of
the guilt of being the only survivor…

He was something that the people at the orphanage longed to be. If

they were like him, they thought their sadness would disappear.

But he wasn’t like that. He wasn’t actually… strong…

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That was a hopeless realization for her. In the end, there was no such
thing as a perfect, worriless existence. Every day was hard. Too hard.
So she’d wanted to be like him. But he worried just the same as her.

“…But,” she whispered.

Ryner’s sad eyes narrowed, and then he opened them wide. He

turned around and shifted one step to the side. Then a bolt of
lightning someone had cast struck the spot he’d just been in.

She could hardly believe it.

He’d dodged someone’s lightning magic. He’d looked at it with his

eyes and dodged.

She didn’t think that was possible. He must have some kind of
precognition… something that let him see magic…

And then she realized. A red pentagram had risen over his eyes.

She knew those eyes. They were an ability known as the Alpha
Stigma. People who had it were feared and loathed and called
monsters.

Everyone feared it, hated it, and called it a monster.

He looked around his surroundings with those pentagram eyes, then

turned back to her. He’d noticed her staring. Noticed her looking into
his eyes.

In a second, he covered his eyes like he was hiding. “Ah… uu…”

He sounded scared. Like he was scared of people knowing. Like he

was scared of being hated.

But…

She smiled.

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She already understood. He wasn’t perfect. He was burdened with
the same worries she was…

He wasn’t someone she should long to be… he was weak, and he’d
wanted to save her.

She reached out her hand.

His eyes opened wide in surprise, but he took her hand and helped
her stand.

People died. They would continue to die.

He took a sweeping look across the battlefield. “Got it? Hold my

hand and don’t let go no matter what!”

She vowed that she wouldn’t let go of his hand no matter what. Not
even if other people called him a monster, and no matter how much
she broke apart.

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Chapter 1: The Promise to the Future

“…Ah, hey… do you know what the word ‘unreasonable’ means?”

“Mm. For example, ‘Ryner Lute unreasonably attacks women.’ That

unreasonable, right?”

“What’s with your example…? Oh, whatever. How about reckless?”

“I often hear about the recklessly perverted criminal sex maniac

Ryner Lute.”

“I don’t do that… augh, jeez, that’s not what I’m trying to say,” Ryner
Lute said and heaved an listless sigh. He had black hair styled from
sleep and a tall, lanky body from which all traces of motivation had
been destroyed. For some reason he was wearing the clothes of the
Roland Empire’s Magical Knights, a special combat outfit made up of
white armor and a robe, but on him, they looked like pajamas…

It was early morning in an Imperial Nelphan forest. Ryner’s black

eyes surveyed the path before them with ten thousand years of
sleepiness. From where he stood, a fort-like building was visible
through the rift in the trees ahead. He gazed at for some time before
turning around.

There sat a beauty on a stump. She was really, truly unbelievably

beautiful. Her long, glossy blond hair shone from the light flitting in
through the trees. She had serene blue almond-shaped eyes. Her
strangely handsome face paired well with her outstandingly stylish
body and leather armor. Her delicate arm rested on the sword on
waist. It didn’t suit her at all.

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She was truly a shining beauty. Of course the fact that she was
always absolutely expressionless kind of bothered you when looking
at her, but… that too was a certain component of her cold charm.

She wasn’t just any old beauty. Looking at her brought the word
‘goddess’ to mind. A beautiful goddess. She possessed a divine
beauty that made anyone who saw her adore her. Worship her.

But Ryner just sighed like he was fed up when he looked at her. “Hey,
are you even seriously listening to me?”

“Mm? Your words are upsetting,” Ferris said, her expression slightly
serious. “I’m… a bit hurt. I’m always serious. Why do you think fghat
off m’?”

“Don’t talk while you’re in the middle of eating dangooooo!!!”

That’s right. The beautiful goddess Ferris Eris was currently busy with
dango.

Ryner sighed deeply. “What’s serious about eating dango while

you’re talking?”

“I’m seriously e—”

“Just shut up!” Ryner yelled, sick of this. “Well, whatever. Listen
while you eat your dango. Look over there. That’s a fort, right?”

“Mmf.”

“I’m not just imagining things when I say it looks like it’ll be guarded
by a remarkable amount of Nelphan troops, right?”

“Mmph.”

“So it’s a high security fort. Protected by the army, no less. It looks
like there might be some truth behind that rumor that an important

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literary relic is kept there. That the country gave it that fort for
protection. Right?”

“Mmh-mmf.”

“I’ll ask once. If the two of us marched on in to steal the relic, would
that be unreasonable or reckless of us? I mean, I tried to ask this
earlier too but… what do you think?”

“……”

Ferris’ eyes narrowed like she was deep in thought. She stuffed the
final dango into her cheeks. Her meal finished, she took a sip of tea
and then stood.

“My dango was delicious again today,” Ferris said. “Shall we go

soon?”

“Hah!? What happened to our conversation!?”

Ferris suddenly looked frightened. “What? You wanted some dango

too?”

“That’s not what I was saaaaaaayyyyyiiiiiinnnngggg!!!”

In the instant he started yelling, Ferris’ sword came out of its sheath
with a sharp noise. She stopped it just before his neck.

“Augh…”

“Nobody would listen to you thinking out loud. There might be a

heroic relic we’ve been searching for over there, so we’re going. You
wrote the report, right? We shouldn’t let these potentially powerful
relics fall into the hands of countries other than the Roland Empire…”

“It’s more like if you don’t listen to Sion’s outrageous orders your
favorite dango shop will be destroyed, right?” Ryner replied with
half-lidded eyes. “I’ve already heard about that plenty of times.”

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“That’s right. The fate of my precious dango rides on that inhuman
King Sion. If I don’t protect the peace of our dango, who will!?”

Though Ferris was getting fired up, Ryner was already at the end of
his rope. He was too tired for this. “Hah… I’m running out of
comebacks about dango… anyway, you don’t think it’s dangerous to
run up there without a plan?”

Ferris sheathed her sword with stunning grace and looked at him.
“Hm. Are you seriously asking that?”

What a thing to say. “Huh? What?”

“Do you really think we couldn’t get through that level of security?”

Ryner looked back to the fort for some time, crossing his arms and
thinking. It was quiet between them as he did. Then he figured out
how to approach the matter. “Ah~, okay, I’ll say it another way. See,
I’ve had an awful feeling in my gut since I got up early this morning.
You ever have that happen? It’s like, when I get up that early I start
thinking ‘oh, I don’t wanna go to school, it’s such a pain,’ and after
awhile my stomach starts hurting…”

“So?”

“Um, so today’s a bad day for me. You should go alone—”

Ferris’s hands moved to her waist faster than the eye could see. Then
a dull sound resounded and for some reason Ryner lay collapsed on
the ground. Once she made sure of that she put her sword back into
its scabbard. “Mm? What’s wrong, Ryner? You’ve suddenly
collapsed.”

“Because you suddenly whacked me in the head!”

“Hoh. First your stomach hurts and now it’s your head? You sure are
a busy guy.”

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Ryner didn’t comment on that. He raised his head from where he lay
on the bare ground. “Haaauhh. My head seriously hurts now. I can’t
do it. I really can’t go. So you’ll have to go alo—”

“Hmph. So your head hurts that much. But rest assured. You won’t
feel any pain at all next time. A refreshing sensation like flying
around through the open sky is waiting for you. Just your head will
spin around up there.”

“…You are super gross…”

Ferris nodded humbly. “It is a pretty gross punishment to put into

practice. Now then…”

Ryner jumped up in a hurry. “Aaaaaaahhh wait! Don’t talk about

putting it into practice as you reach for your sword! I get it already!
Look, my stomach pain’s all cured so I’m ready to storm the fort!
Work really is the most important thing…”

Ferris smiled kindly all of a sudden, though it didn’t reach her eyes at
all. She gazed at Ryner. “Mm. I understand that you’re all fired up to
work now, but you don’t need to be. Your head hurts too, right?
Take it easy. I’ll give you the medicine for it now—”

“I just said not to pull your sword out! Geez… er, yes, yes, I
understand! Okay, let’s go,” Ryner said, a hand to his head as he set
out in a walk. What a pain.

Ferris sheathed her sword again. “You should’ve just said that in the
first place.”

“Um, well, what if you happened to show me some kindness for

once? I’m always tired from working so hard every day, see.”

“Mm? All I see is you napping every day?”

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“Yeah, that’s my job… er, no, that was a joke it was a joke. I get it so
don’t kill me!”

“Mm. That leaves me in a bad place. Killing you is my job. I have a

quota to ‘kill Ryner once daily.’”

“…Must be nice to be so free…”

They headed towards the fort protected by Imperial Nelphan troops

as they spoke.

---

Simultaneously, in the far away Roland Empire…

The morning air was cold around the trees, bursting with life, and
clusters of still, unmoving stones that brought death to mind. The
scene down to the indistinct morning felt like a scene made up of
illusion. He stood still among the stones.

He had long silver hair that gave off an air of nobility, willful golden
eyes, and a proportionate figure.

Sion Astal.

He was extremely well-known within the Roland Empire…

Despite being an illegitimate child of the former king, Sion’s notable

efforts during the war with Estabul helped him climb remarkably high
within the military in an instant. Then he identified the
misgovernment of the previous king and led a brilliantly skillful
revolution to his place as the hero king. With his impressive mental
prowess, charisma, appearance, and political ability, he’d gained the
complete support of his people.

The people who knew him from the castle would say that he was a
flawless king. That he never worried, that he never hesitated, and

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succeeded in all he did as if it was only natural. He was the ideal king
that the Roland Empire had always longed for.

The nobles who hated him from the castle would wonder: didn’t that
man have any weaknesses? Even when the nobles killed his
comrades, he was all smiles and accepted it easily. He was a cold-
hearted king with neither tears nor blood.

Those outside the castle walls who didn’t know him would say that
he was a perfect king. He was as unreachable as a god. He was surely
not human at all - he was just too different from the dirty, vulgar
laymen such as themselves. The country would see peace as long as
he lived.

Because he was the hero king.

Right.

“…I’m sorry I came so late…”

He couldn’t make mistakes. He couldn’t worry. His strong, willful

golden eyes had to stay fixed on what lie ahead.

Even if his precious confidant Fiole was killed by the anti-monarchy

party…

“……”

He had to smile. Because his eyes couldn’t waver. He couldn’t be sad

about something like this. Or worry about it. Or feel frustrated about
it.

But right now… those eyes of his were disfigured by horrible sadness.

He gazed at the headstone before him.

“…I really am sorry for coming so late, Fiole. But right after you died I
had to pay a courtesy call to Nelpha. I was busy with official stuff.

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I couldn’t get away for some time… if I told you that, you’d scold me
for working so hard and tell me I was going to destroy my body,
right?” Sion asked. He smiled weakly.

This was a cemetery. Not an unnecessarily decorated one like that of

the nobility’s. It was a normal, mundane cemetery for commoners.
Due to the long military campaigns in Estabul, this cemetery had
been widened considerably as an apology to all those who died in
the wars.

This place wasn’t suitable for the king. It was only a commoners’
cemetery…

Even so, the king crouched beside it and raised his hand to brush
over where Fiole Folkal’s name was engraved. “Do you remember
what I said before? That I want to create a country with no classes,
where everyone is equal, everyone lives in peace, and there are no
wars… I said those self-important things to you…”

Sion punched the ground harshly.

“Right now, I can’t even control the nobility! Because I couldn’t

escape their eyes, I couldn’t even mourn for you. I couldn’t even go
to your funeral. I couldn’t hide enough to do anything but come visit
you here. It’s like I’m the one who killed you… You ended up being
killed because I didn’t have enough power… I can’t stand on the
same level as you just because they call me king!”

Sion punched the ground again.

“Hey, Sion, cut the shit. You’ll ruin your fist doing that.” A strong arm
grabbed Sion’s fist from his side. Sion raised his face. There stood a
man with red hair and sharp red eyes whose build was hard like
steel. He was in his mid-twenties and the only man in Roland
currently who addressed him without honorifics.

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Major General Claugh Klom.

He’d been Sion’s subordinate since his time in the military, and now
that Sion had become king, Claugh served as his guard. With his
great power and popularity, Claugh held an impressive position as
major general of the Roland Empire’s army.

Right now, he was looking at Sion with an unpleasant expression.

“You’re saying the right thing as always, but you’re not doing the
right thing right now. Fiole would definitely get mad if he saw your
bloody fist now, right?”

Sion looked at his own fist. His eyes narrowed. “You’re right,” he said
quietly.

“Ah-ah-ah-ah geez. That too. That gloomy voice. You sound

miserable. Take me for example. Something huge’s just happened
but I’m calm as could be. But you don’t seem calm at all.”

Sion furrowed his eyebrows. His voice turned serious. “Something

huge? What happened?”

“Whoa whoa, now you’re worrying about me? Even though you’re
the one who looks all beat up? If you work your absolute hardest all
the time, it’s gonna kill you one day.”

Sion just continued to furrow his eyebrows. “I don’t really… I’m fine.
More importantly, this is the first I’ve heard about you being calm.
You have a much bigger problem with it than I do.”

Claugh was a bit taken aback. “What do you think of me? I’m human,
you know. Obviously I’m just regular calm. Not super calm or
anything.”

Sion smiled. It was different from his weak smile from before - it was
ever so slightly bright. “Well, jokes aside. What’re you worried
about?” Sion asked and stood from his place at Fiole’s grave.

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Claugh nodded. “Oh, weeell, see, I’ve actually got this dream.”

“A dream?”

“Yeah. A dream. It’s an amaaazingly grand one too. So much that it

looks like it’ll never be granted.”

“Hoh,” Sion said and nodded. “What kind of dream?”

Claugh’s expression turned mysterious. “I dream of making every

woman in the world mine.”

“Hah!?” Sion’s voice raised of its own accord. “Hey, you, don’t go
saying that all seriou—”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Claugh interrupted. “I know I’m just spouting
bullshit. But that’s not what I actually wanted to say.”

“…Huh? Hmm…”

“It’s just that when you call things your dreams or your ideals then
they sound like they’ll never happen, right? So maybe we shouldn’t
call them that. Am I wrong?”

“…You’re right,” Sion said, his expression changing. He understood

what Claugh was saying.

“Now what do you wanna say? That you’re special? That you can
easily create your ideal world because you’re king? That because
you’re the renowned hero king you, unlike me, can easily make all
the women in the world yours?”

Sion shook his head.

Claugh nodded in satisfaction. “Right? Fulfilling your dreams is

troublesome. But when I look at you, I know you’re not the kind of
guy who complains just because your ideals aren’t a reality yet. Am I
wrong?”

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“…You’re not wrong.”

“Then let’s be more carefree. Right, Fiole?” Claugh asked. He didn’t

direct his question towards his grave. He directed it towards the sky.

“……”

No one replied from anywhere, obviously. Fiole wasn’t here

anymore.

Even so, Claugh turned to Sion. “See. Fiole says so too,” he said with
a smile.

Sion gazed at Claugh with kind eyes. “You’re right. Thank you,
Claugh.”

But Claugh just looked irritated. “Being thanked by a man is gross.”

The bitter smile Sion had until that moment suddenly turned
mischievous. “I’m shocked. In truth, I’ve… I’ve always loved you from
afar…”

“Gaaah, shut up! That’s seriously gross, so please just stop! God…
whatever. Who cares about your jokes. More importantly…”

“Yeah. It’s about time to go.”

Sion and Claugh gazed up at the sky for a moment.

And then, as if talking to someone…

“…I’m going to meet your little sister for the first time today. Geez.
What kind of expression should I meet her with—”

Claugh interrupted. “Don’t worry, Fiole. Even if your sister holds a

grudge against Sion, I’ll hold her kindl—”

“Hey! She’s only fourteen you know!? Don’t touch her! I’ll kill you if
you do!”

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“Hear that, Fiole? Our king is trying to take away my right to free
love. What a haughty—”

Just then, a piece of wood flew from somewhere, aiming for Claugh’s
face.

“Uwah…!?”

Claugh dodged. Sion was just as surprised as he was.

They met each other’s eyes for a moment in astonished silence.

Then Sion spoke. For some reason, he was smiling happily. “See?”

Claugh shrugged, a little bitter. “Oh, I get it. Geez. If I don’t leave
Fiole’s sister out of my plan to make all the women in the world
mine, he’ll get mad.”

As they spoke, they set out.

Towards the place where Fiole’s sister was…

As Sion walked towards the garden, he looked down to the report in

his hand. According to the documents that Calne Kaiwel - another of
Sion’s direct subordinates from his time in the military - presented,
Fiole’s younger sister, Eslina Folkal’s profile was as follows.

Eslina Folkal, currently fourteen years old.

Due to losing her parents when she was approximately eight years
old, she and her older brother Fiole were raised at an institution.
Then Fiole’s job under Sion allowed Eslina to attend a school in town,
however… due to having never attended school before, her grades
started as the lowest in her class. Whether due to her natural ability
or her outstanding efforts to not be anymore of a burden on her
brother than she already was, Eslina eventually managed grades that
towered so far above the rest that she was able to skip a grade.

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Then Calne’s personal commentary was written below: “Judging by
her grades alone, she could be a paperwork and administrative work
genius that could stand up to the likes of Fiole Folkal. Save for the
envy she causes other students, she is in every way the
commendable sister her brother thought she was. I have nearly the
same impression, but I think she’s even stronger inside. She didn’t
cry even when I told her about her brother’s death. She reacts to any
situation with composure, as if she isn’t perturbed in the slightest…”

Sion stopped reading there. He handed the document to Claugh,

who was walking beside him, and walked in silence.

Claugh finished reading the document and spoke. “She’s a good kid.
As expected of Fiole’s sister.”

Sion nodded. “Yeah… too good of a kid. She reacts to any situation
with composure,” Sion spat.

Then that meant that she reacted to her only brother’s murder with
composure too?

That… was stupid. There was no way something so stupid could be

true…

“It’s ‘cause she’s still fourteen, right?”

She turned her grades around to lighten the burden she was on her
only brother. To make her brother’s life easier, even if it was only
one day sooner. So that the two of them could live happily…

Sion understood those feelings so well that it hurt. Because Fiole was
the same. He worked fervently for his sister’s sake. He put so much
effort in that it was eerie. And yet, he… What did Sion end up doing
to him?

---

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There were seven gardens in Roland Castle where Sion lived. They
included three ponds so large a boat could travel on them, flowers
arranged skillfully so that they appeared to never die no matter the
season, and of course they were all needlessly large. All in all, their
combined maintenance costs were painfully high…

There were times that Sion had walked through those gardens with
the late Fiole.

Someday, when he’d seized complete power over the nobility, Sion
wanted to close those gardens and save the people’s tax money from
going to such a frivolous thing. They’d calculated where that money
might have the best effect when they could reroute it elsewhere…

It had been a warmer season then. The flowers were different; they
weren’t cold colors like the ones blooming now. It had been that
season where flower bloomed in warmer, fascinatingly elegant
colors…

Fiole had looked to the abundant, almost excessively blooming

flowers and spoke. “But I think it’d be nice to leave just this garden.”

“Hm? But this is the castle’s largest garden. If we destroyed it, it

could have an exceptional effect on costs.”

“That is true, but… don’t you think a castle without any gardens lacks
dignity?”

“Hey, you sound a liiiitle like a noble right now, Fiole.”

“Really…? Well, that may be. But this garden is beautiful even when
compared to the others. I was just thinking that you might be able to
rest your mind and forget work even a little here, Lord Astal. Please
think of yourself a little too, geez. You work too much! You don’t eat
properly, and you don’t sleep…”

26
He’d started his usual preaching. Sion became flustered. “Ah, alright
alright I get it. I’ll acknowledge that this is a beautiful place.”

“Right,” Fiole said. His expression turned kind. “And I want to be able
to show it to my sister…”

“Hm? It’s fine if you show her.”

“It’s not that easy. If you don’t rest, Lord Astal, then there is no way I
can rest either. I don’t have the time to call on my sister.”

“Huh? It’s my fault?”

Fiole shook his head. “Haha. I’m joking. If I had a little time - just a
little is fine, then I think I’d like to show her, though. And I want to
introduce her to you, Lord Astal… But I want this country to be more
of yours first. Then, in that nearby future… people won’t be
separated by petty things, and it’ll become a country where anyone
and everyone can smile… At that time, surely even I’ll have some free
time.”

“…You’re right,” Sion had said. “I’ll work hard so that’ll happen
soon.”

“Yes. But I really don’t think that future is far at all. Because you
became king of our country…”

Fiole had been looked at the flowers, enjoying himself as he replied.

What had he been thinking about back then?

That happy future that would surely come someday?

That future where everyone could grow up smiling?

But… that future wouldn’t come for him…

---

27
Two people had at last arrived in the garden.

One was a man: Calne Kaiwel. He had wavy golden hair that looked
quite soft, blue eyes, and he left a dainty impression. Like Claugh,
he’d put his life on the line for Sion during the revolution. He was
one of Sion’s chief vassals.

Calne waved when he caught sight of Sion and rushed over to him.
“Geez, you’re laaate! I’ve been waiting for forever! I bet it’s Claugh’s
fault for being such a pain!”

“Aahn? You never know, it might be Sion’s fault.”

“That’d never happen!” Calne said. “I mean, he’s not the type to be
late! On the other hand, you don’t even have a concept of time! Just
the other day you forgot you promised to take a girl out and made
me apologize to her for you!”

Claugh was flabbergasted. “Uwah. Are you really holding a grudge

against me for something that happened so long ago?”

“Hah!? It hasn’t even been a week yet!”

“Ahhn? Is a week really that short to you?”

“A week is short to everyone!”

Claugh was all smiles despite their arguing. “Huh? That so, that so. I
guess I misunderstood. See, I thought a week was pretty long for you
since you’ve already gone out with and broken up with three
people’s wives over the course of one before.”

“Wha!? H-h-how do you know about that!? Ah, it’s not like that,
Sion, sir! There were extenuating circumstances, and—”

28
Sion forced a smile at the flustered Calne. “Amazing, Calne. Certainly,
I had heard that you were seeing Lord Paul’s wife before my visit to
Nelpha…”

“That’s already the far off past,” Claugh said. “I can count twelve
since.”

“Aauuugh, how do you even know about that!?”

“T-twelve!? Isn’t that a few too many?” Sion asked. “You’re going to
get stabbed at this rate.”

Claugh laughed. “Nah, it’s fine. They all dump him anyway.”

“Aww,” Calne muttered, appearing on the verge of tears. “They don’t

need me once they get a new lover… or it seemed like their
husbands were going to figure it out, so they ask to separate… Oh,
why is god putting me alone through these trials…? Did I do
something wrong?”

“Adultery,” Sion and Claugh said simultaneously.

“Aww…”

“Geez,” Claugh said. “Give up on the older women already. It isn’t

decent to be hitting on another guy’s wife all the time.”

“I don’t need you to lecture me. Like you have a problem with dating
women with husbands.”

“Idioot. That only happens to me when they hide it.”

Sion listened to their conversation with a somewhat forced but

otherwise slightly happy smile. “In any case, I’d be happy if the both
of you had a little more restraint. I know you have hardships of your
own, but you’re more or less my chief vassals, so your bad behavior
reflects poorly on me too.”

29
“Hardships? Did you say hardships?” Calne said. “I only have serious
affairs. Please don’t group me in with him, he’s slaphappy!”

“Whoa, whoa, I can’t just let that pass. It’s troublesome for me if you
group me in with a pervert who only wants to fuck other people’s
wives, Sion.”

“Pervert!? Who’re you calling a pervert? I’ll never forgive you!”

“Aah? Who’d you call slaphappy? You wanna go, huh? Why don’t I
teach ya how to say so nicely, since I’m your senior and all?”

“Hey! I’m always super polite even without your help!”

“Well, your super polite needs to be ultra super polite for me!”

What a conversation. It seemed like they’d start fist fighting each

other sooner than later. But Sion just smiled. He knew those two
would never seriously fight each other. Well, they were always
talking about worthless things like this, but… today was different.

Today… the two of them would introduce Sion to Fiole’s little sister
to try to cheer him up.

Sion smiled kindly at the two as they argued and acted like they were
both hopeless. “Geez, you two are being more considerate than the
issue deserves. But, well, thanks. Now let’s go,” Sion said and
walked.

Claugh and Calne followed, puzzled. Then once they caught up to

him they began talking amongst themselves quietly.

“He noticed because you suck at acting,” Claugh said.

“You’re the one who sucks at it! My acting was true to life! I acting
using the same nerves that light up when I whisper love to
someone’s wife!”

30
They might’ve been trying to hide their hushed conversation, but in
the end, Sion heard it all. It wasn’t as if either of them were good
actors, really…

Sion listened to them for no particular reason as he faced forward.

He was watching the girl there. She had a handsome face that tugged
at his memory and shoulder-length amber hair. Her willful blue eyes
contrasted her delicate, almost frail body. Sion looked into her eyes
as he approached, his own eyes narrowing…

When he stopped before her, she bowed deeply. “I am Fiole Folkal’s

sister, Eslina Folkal.”

Calne rushed over to her side, flustered. “Er, um, yes, Sion, sir. That’s
who she is.”

“That’s not an introduction,” Claugh said.

“Aw, geez! Leave the details out!” Calne snapped.

A smile smile curved onto Eslina’s lips. Sion examined her.

She was wearing a simple white dress, no accessories such as

earrings or bracelets, and didn’t seem to be wearing much if any
make-up. Like Fiole, she dressed appropriately for her income
bracket, but Fiole was always working for her sake. It wasn’t as if she
had no money…

She just wasn’t an extravagant person. Sion understood something

of her personality just by looking at her. She was at the age where he
expected her to have at least a little interest in clothes and
cosmetics, but she did without them so as to lighten the burden on
her brother, even if only a little.

Of course, he couldn’t very well look elsewhere for her brother’s

sake…

31
Somehow, her form seemed to shine. She was the exact opposite of
the noble ladies who Sion often had to interact with, who seemed to
have no talents save for reckless spending on luxuries.

But a young girl of Eslina’s age didn’t have a reason to get dressed
up. Fiole was right. She’d without a doubt grow to be beautiful in the
future.

Sion grimaced. Even though Fiole had wanted to protect her above
all else… he’d been killed…

And all Sion could do, powerless as he was… was let it happen.

“…I’m horribly in debt to your brother,” Sion said.

In an instant, Eslina’s expression changed. She smiled, her whole face

lighting up. “Your words are more than we deserve. I am sure my
brother would have wept tears of joy should he hear His Majesty say
such a thing.”

She said that with a smile. She truly looked happy. Even though her
brother was dead, she truly looked happy. Even though it was Sion’s
fault that her brother died…

Eslina watched Sion and continued. “Please, don’t make such a face.
My brother would be sad.”

“Huh?” Sion was surprised at her sudden words. It was like she’d
looked straight into his heart and studied it with those clear eyes of
hers.

“…My brother was happy,” she continued. “Happy to have met His
Majesty, happy to serve His Majesty. He sent me many letters telling
me how happy he was for that. It made me happy. So please don’t
make that face. I believe my brother passed away happily. So I’m not
sad at all. I think he passed away while dreaming the dream that His

32
Majesty drew for him… so I would also like to serve His Majesty. I
also want to help achieve that dream my brother saw.”

He passed away happily so she wasn’t sad at all, she said with a
smile.

But he knew that was a lie. There was no way she wouldn’t be sad.

Sion narrowed his eyes. “Calne. What did you tell her about Fiole’s
cause of death?”

“…Huh? Oh, um…”

“Calne!”

“Yes!? Er, I said… that it was an unfortunate accident…”

“…I see,” Sion whispered. Then he took a deep breath. “It wasn’t just
an ‘unfortunate accident.’”

He knew that Eslina was getting nervous.

“No, um, Sion, sir!?” Calne said.

But Sion ignored him. “Fiole was… killed by the nobility to warn me…
He was killed because I didn’t have the power to control the nobility.
Even knowing that, do you still want to help me?”

Eslina didn’t respond.

Sion took a letter from his pocket and handed it to her. It was the
letter he’d wrote to her just prior to his death… it had been stained
red with his blood.

Eslina, thank you for always sending me letters. Sorry my reply is

pretty late. But you seem well. That really reassures your big brother.

33
It sounds like your grades are good too, and that you’re doing your
best, so I’ll do my best to cheer you on.

I am blessed with a good boss. Lord Astal, the king, is a wonderful

person. He treats commoners like us just the same as anyone else.
I’m truly glad that he became king of this country. I think we can be
proud of Roland as long as he leads it. I’d like it if you could meet
Lord Astal once, too.

Ah, right, Lord Astal has given me vacation time this weekend. See,
isn’t he kind? I think I’ll go see you then. It’s been awhile since I’ve
come home. Make me mom’s special stew, okay? You’re good at
cooking, just like she was. You’ll become a great wife. If your partner
were Lord Astal… well, that’s not something people of our status
should be saying, is it~?

In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Fiole Folkal

“…A…uuh…”

That weekend would never come.

They’d never be able to spend time together again.

Eslina’s hands shivered as they held the blood-stained letter.

“…Uuuahh…”

Tears were overflowing from her eyes. They’d been so courageous a

moment ago.

Fiole had been looking forward to seeing her again. He’d been
looking forward to seeing the country change. He was looking
forward to being able to live happily with his sister in this country.

34
Even so, the letter in which he’d written out that modest wish of his
was stained with blood.

The blood of Fiole, who’d been meaninglessly killed.

“…a, uu…”

Eslina stifled her voice. Even so, her tears wouldn’t stop. She hugged
his letter tightly, but her tears wouldn’t stop. She clenched her teach,
but her tears still wouldn’t stop.

“The one who couldn’t protect him… no, the one who let him get
killed was me,” Sion said as he watched her. It wasn’t an accident. Do
you still want to serve me, knowing that?”

“……”

She took a deep breath to calm herself. She kept the letter held close
to her chest with one hand and wiped her tears with the other. “I… I
loved my brother. It was always just the two of us after our parents
died… and even though he was only eleven, he always protected
me… always, always protected me… He wasn’t like me. He wasn’t
useless at all. He could do anything… and he did, too. He always did
his best, no matter what. Even so, he… I-I can’t even say it… I never
thought this would happen…”

Her words came out mixed with sobs. She sounded like she was
going to fall into another bout of tears, but she held on and took
another breath before continuing.

“But I… I really do think he was happy. After he met His Majesty, he’s
all he talked about. So I want to of use to the one who made him
happy - Your Majesty. Because I don’t want to make my brother
angry…”

Sion didn’t answer.

35
Was that really true?

Would Fiole really want her to stand by Sion’s side? What if this time
the nobility raised their hands against her? Would Sion be able to
protect her?

“I can’t be sure at this time, but I think her abilities will come to rival
Fiole’s,” Calne said. “I guarantee that she’s an excellent kid. A-am I
wrong?”

No. That wasn’t the problem. Her abilities were very good.

More than that… he was afraid that the same thing that happened to
Fiole would happen to her.

“We won’t let the same thing happen again,” Claugh said.

“……”

“And if you’re still worried? I don’t mind looking after her.”

Calne instantly became flustered. “Wait a minute! That’d be bad!

Sion, please make him stop, sir! He has no age limit when it comes to
girls!!”

“The hell does that mean!”

“I think it’s rather obvious!

“What’d you say!? I’m just different from you! Old women aren’t my
specialty!”

“Augh!? What are you saying in front of Eslina! You’re going to make
her doubt my dignity!”

Eslina watched their heated, but very pointless, back-and-forth.

“Wha… gh, geez… ahahaha. Are you two always like this?” She

36
smiled without a care in the world. “I think I understand why my
brother loved this place…”

She looked around. As if led by her, Sion did the same.

The flowers weren’t blooming over-abundantly like they had been

when Fiole was there, but many were still blooming nonetheless. It
was certainly beautiful.

She laughed, and again spoke like she was reading his mind. “Not the
flowers. My brother loved you. You’re kind, kind a fault, and would
even worry about his sister after his passing. He loved his fun
coworkers, too… Please allow me to work here as well. No, even if
you say no I’ll work hard until I reach this place. I come from a pretty
hard working family after all.”

Sion forced a smile. “You’re right about that… well, Calne certainly
does tend to fancy other men’s wives. It might be good for him to
spend some time around a younger girl and learn about their charms
too…”

“Augh!? Even you’re saying that now!? Why did this happen?”

Eslina smiled. “Um, does that mean it’s okay for me to stay here!?
Yay!”

She took Calne’s hand in her happiness.

Sion narrowed his eyes. She was a strong kid.

If she’d wanted revenge against the nobles who killed her brother…

If she’d held a grudge against Sion for helplessly letting her brother
be killed…

She’d already shut those thoughts out… so that she could face
forward and live.

37
Sion wasn’t capable of doing that. He couldn’t smile like her.

His mother’s face rose to his mind. She’d been ridiculed, treated like
an idiot, an insect, a worm up until her death.

Had he been able to make a face like the one Eslina was making now
during his mother’s last moments…?

It was at that moment that he heard a cold voice from behind. A

lifeless, demonic voice…

“Your Majesty. You have spent plenty enough time playing around.
Eslina Folkal. People such as yourself cannot stand at His Majesty’s
side.”

Sion turned around. At some point, a lone man had come to stand
there.

He had beautifully combed pitch black hair. He was around the same
height as Claugh, but rather thinner. His face was breathtakingly
handsome, but… that wasn’t what caught one’s eye when they
looked at him. His most distinctive feature was his cold, dark blue
eyes…

They held a certain frigidity as they looked down on all other people,
and lent him a dark aura…

Colonel Miran Froaude.

He was one of Sion’s personnel. He’d said that he wanted Sion to

have a military rule over Roland… over the whole continent of
Menoris, united as the Great Roland Empire with Sion ruling as its
king.

He’d said that he wanted to shoulder the dark, dirty things necessary
for that result…

38
His abilities towered above the rest. He took on the work Sion
entrusted him with, the things Fiole had done, and the dirty work
that Sion couldn’t let Fiole do all single handedly and completed it so
perfectly that it was obscene…

For better or worse, he was extremely efficient. Because of that, he

didn’t get along well with people like Claugh and Calne…

Claugh was glaring at Froaude even now. “Where’d you come from?”

“…Where did I come from…? I walked here on that path just like
everyone else.”

“That’s not what I meant! I was asking what gave you the idea to
stand and eavesdrop. You erased your presence to get close and
everything.”

He was right. Froaude had completely erased his presence. So

completely that even Claugh, whose sense for these things was
stronger than Sion’s, hadn’t noticed him.

But Froaude just shrugged. “Please don’t turn on me, Major General
Klom. I had no intention of suppressing my presence… in any case, I
see a small resemblance to him in that girl, so I thought I’d speak up.
She is Miss Eslina Folkal, Fiole Folkal’s younger sister, correct?

“What if she is?” Claugh replied.

Froaude held out the hand bearing that unusual black ring of his. He
pointed it towards Eslina and narrowed his sharp eyes. “Then I shall
kill her here and now.”

“What!?”

“You…”

39
Calne and Claugh both responded in an instant then readied
themselves for a fight.

The garden’s atmosphere changed in an instant - it froze over.

Froaude tilted his head. “Oh? Why do you seem like you want to kill
me, Major General Klom? Did I say something strange?”

“Everything you say is strange, you gloomy bastard. I won’t let you
kill Eslina.”

Froaude stared fixedly at Claugh… and then smiled slightly. “Are you
saying that you intend to protect Eslina Folkal?”

“Obviously.”

“How reliable of you. But is your job not to protect Lord Astal? Then
why should you protect Eslina Folkal? She may someday desire
vengeance on His Majesty and seek to kill him. Why should you keep
her in the castle?”

Eslina responded in an instant. “I wouldn’t—”

Calne cut her off. “Eslina wouldn’t do that!” He yelled.

But Froaude just turned his cold eyes on Eslina. “Is that so?”

Eslina shivered under his bottomless gaze, but managed to speak

with great effort. “I-I… wouldn’t do anything that would make my
brother sad.”

At that, a faint - extremely faint, to the point it was hard to see -

smile rose to Froaude’s lips. “Is that so. Make no mistake. I will aide
your revenge. Slaughtering the nobles that writhe within this country
is of utmost importance. If you have any desire at all for revenge for
your brother, then please, come to me at any time. You are still

40
young. Beautiful. If you use your body, trapping the nobility is easy—
”

“If you say another fucking word, I’m going to murder you,” Claugh
said.

“There’s no way Eslina would do something like that!” Calne said.

“Is that so? I heard that Miss Folkal loved her brother horribly so…”

“Keep it at that, Froaude,” Sion said quietly but oppressively. “I won’t

let Eslina do anything like that. I won’t forgive it. And…”

He looked to Eslina, who was hanging her head, staring at the ground
with hollow eyes.

“Fiole wouldn’t forgive that either. It’d make him sad, Eslina. So
don’t worry about that stuff.”

Eslina looked to Sion, taken aback. She nodded wordlessly.

Once he was sure she was okay, Sion looked back to Froaude. He
glared as he studied him.

“My… have I perhaps soured your good mood?” Froaude asked.

“Yeah,” Sion said and nodded.

“How rude of me,” Froaude said. He smiled faintly and bowed. “By
the way, about the matter I submitted to you before…”

Froaude changed the conversation completely… Sion grimaced.

Froaude was always presenting him with this or that recently, all
centering around one idea: that Sion should invade Nelpha.

He wanted Sion to wage a war of conquest.

Sion shook his head lightly. “I should have rejected that already? I
have no intention of going to war with Nelpha now.”

41
Claugh, Calne, and even Eslina all raised their voices in shock.

“Huh!? Sion, what’s this all about?” Claugh asked. “Is Froaude
seriously telling you to go to war with Nelpha!?”

“You’re joking, right?” Calne followed. “The war with Estabul is finally
over… and didn’t you just go to Nelpha on a courtesy call to deepen
our countries’ friendship!?”

Eslina was speechless, but her face said it all.

Even though they’d finally achieved peace…

Everyone here… no, everyone in all of Roland knew what it was like
to fear war from their long history of fighting.

Wars were meaningless and sad. Everyone knew that…

“Is this not a strange conversation?” Froaude asked. “Our friendship

with Nelpha is our chance. We don’t know if Nelpha is also thinking
of attacking Roland, and if we should invade now, we should have
quite the advantage.”

Claugh glared at Froaude, his eyes thick with hatred. “You bastard…
you still intend to spill blood after everything?”

Froaude continued, his tone detached, in defiance of Claugh’s glare.

“Major General Klom, are you familiar with the country of Stowle?”

“Ah? Obviously. It’s one of the biggest countries on the continent.

It’s to the north.”

“Setting aside trivial matters like whether it is north or south…

Roland is approximately the fifth largest country on the continent. It
is impossible to compare their country’s national power and army to
our own. Ah, in that case, do you know of Gastark?”

“No. What are you even trying to say?” Claugh asked.

42
“If I recall, Gastark was a small country up until recently,” Eslina said.
Lord Klom, in a matter of months, they’ve gained an incredible
amount of power. They’ve already conquered two other small
countries… and now they’ve gone to war with Stowle. What Lord
Froaude wants to say is likely… that Menoris is currently entering an
era of war…”

She had already resigned herself to a detached tone. Claugh and

Calne looked at her in surprise.

Froaude nodded. “She is quite a sensible lady. She is correct. Roland

will soon be invaded as well. We have already become a great
country incomparable to the likes of Estabul, but if we allow
ourselves to be consumed by that thought, we won’t move as quickly
as we must.”

“So you want to invade Nelpha so we stay relevant?” Claugh asked.

“But I think it’s fine if we don’t invade Nelpha?” Calne said. “We have
an alliance with our other neighbor, the Runa Empire, too. If Nelpha,
Runa, and Roland all cooperate, it shouldn’t matter how big the
opposing country is…”

Froaude shook his head. “That is impossible. Gastark and Stowle are
both militaristic countries through and through. A naive alliance
cannot stand up against them. To top it off, do you really think the
comfortable nobles of Nelpha would fight for it? They are like
Roland’s nobility who have no sense of impending danger and would
even attempt to assassinate their own king…”

Claugh and Calne were unable to object.

There was no way they could compete with a great country, should
push come to shove.

43
“Even so, I don’t think it’s impossible,” Sion said. “You understand
that, don’t you, Froaude?”

“You don’t have the time to say something so easygoing.”

“Where in Roland is this power to invade Nelpha coming from?

Though Roland might seem to have entered the realm of great
countries after annexing the Kingdom of Estabul, in truth we have
only feeble control over it, right? Do you really think this is the time
to go annexing another country?”

Claugh and Calne nodded.

When they did, Froaude seemed to understand. “I see. So that’s how

it is. As expected, Lord Astal. You understand our country’s situation
well. Then I would like to talk about another of the proposals I
submitted.”

“Shit,” Sion grumbled. “That development…”

“Yes. The development. May I continue in front of everyone…?”

“…Sorry. Guys, can you go on ahead of me?”

“Wait, Sion! Explain—”

“Claugh!” Sion said, raising his voice just a hair.

Claugh stopped, then glared at Froaude and clicked his tongue. “Tch.
Aw, yeah, yeah, whatever. You’ve gotta have another sneaky
conversation. Tell me about it later, okay?”

Sion smiled a little. “Yeah. I intend to.”

“Alright, we’ll head back to the castle first then. Is it okay if Eslina
goes with Calne for now?”

44
“Yeah,” Sion said.

“Let’s go then. Calne, Eslina.”

With that, Claugh walked off, dejected.

“Ah, p-please wait. Sion, I’ll go on ahead, sir!” Calne said.

Eslina cast a worried glance at Sion. He raised a hand lightly to show

it was alright. She bowed once then followed Calne.

Sion watched them until they were so far away he couldn’t see them
any more to make sure they’d left, then spoke. “So?” He turned his
tired face to Froaude.

Froaude smiled coldly and began to speak again. “It is as you said
before, Lord Astal. Our country is in an extremely problematic
situation at the moment. It is not a situation where invading Nelpha
is definitely possible. We must seize complete control over Estabul at
once.”

“Mm. Right. What of Estabul’s royal family’s movements?”

“There isn’t much of a problem there. As you ordered, the royal

family and high-ranking nobility of Estabul have been given
satisfactory Rolander equivalents in status and privilege. They have
been appointed guards as well. It has easily rendered them
powerless. At any rate, they’re cowards who lower themselves
before us. They are no problem at all.”

“So?”

“The problem is the nobility who think of their country. The ones
who don’t wish to bow to Roland without a real war. They have been
stewing in their grudges under the other nobility, and wish to see the
situation turn explosive… The people of Estabul also have faith in

45
them. They hold a certain power that we can’t get rid of even when
we disperse their armies.”

Sion crossed his arms. “So they’re people who want an ideal
government, aren’t they. Nobles who think of their country, huh. I’d
definitely like to bring people like that over to my side.”

Froaude’s dark eyes peered into Sion questioningly. “However - and I

said this before as well - we do not have the time for that. Please
consider my proposal from before: executing Estabul’s nobility…”

Sion’s expression clouded over as he listened. “That’s… not going to

happen.”

Froaude smirked as a devil would. “Of course not. Your majesty is a

generous, open-minded king. No matter how many problems
Estabul’s nobility cause you, you will not punish them indiscreetly…
But what if the nobles who think of their country should all gather in
one place and stage a rebellion? I doubt anyone would complain if
you killed them all then.”

“……”

“It is simple,” Froaude continued. “We create a ‘ringleader’ from

within Roland’s supporters and stage a rebellion ourselves. If we do,
we should be able to easily gather up the anti-Roland faction and
annihilate it.”

It was an unbelievable plan.

Gather up those who are honestly thinking about their country,

Estabul, instill false hope in them, and in the end, accuse them of a
crime and slaughter them all.

The way Froaude went about things was certainly effective. With
methods like this, he could certainly kill many dangerous people at

46
once. Nobody would think that they themselves would cause a
rebellion on their own lands.

If they did that, they’d be able to nip the rebellions that may or may
not happen right to the bud…

But… but even so…

Sion’s face twisted in clear disgust. “Even if… we could capture

Estabul with those inhumane methods—”

“Of course we could, Your Majesty,” Froaude interrupted. “But I do

not expect Your Majesty to accept such an inhumane plan. I only
wanted you to know that such methods exist…’

Just then, a lone man with a frantic look to him ran to Sion. “B-bad
news, Your Majesty! Estabul’s nobility has assembled and, and…
caused a rebellion!”

Sion immediately glared at Froaude.

But Froaude accepted his glare pleasantly. “My, what a coincidence.

The time when you must decide is fast approaching: will you rule
beautifully, or will you become a true king…? I will remain devoted to
you no matter your choice…”

“…Who’s the ringleader of the rebellion?”

Froaude smiled faintly. “Coincidentally, it appears to be an

acquaintance of mine…”

“……”

Shit…

47
Certainly, there were many merits to slaughtering all of Estabul’s
nobility. For the sake of Roland’s people, including those from the
captured Estabul, they had to be prepared for another country to
invade them from here on out…

But even so, he…

He…

“……”

Sion looked up. He ordered Froaude with a decisive expression.

“As you wish…”

Froaude smiled and bowed softly.

---

48
Chapter 2: The Encounter With the Girl

There was a morning breeze blowing through their slightly lazy post-
breakfast atmosphere.

Despite that easy going feeling, the Nelphan fort remained durable.
Its armed guards were still protecting it so securely that not even a
single rat could enter through any of its entrances. There were no
secret passages from which they could enter and every window had
been fitted with iron bars.

The fort was so high security that anyone would think it strange.

That’s the kind of fort it was, but… Ryner and Ferris had somehow
managed to trespass.

It was simple. Ferris just knocked the eight guards at the front gate
out so quickly they couldn’t even call for help…

“Have some common sense,” Ryner muttered. “Isn’t sneaking in

through a back door the polite thing to do?”

Trespassing at all was pretty impolite, though…

They were currently descending the stairs to what they assumed was
the treasury.

Ferris turned back to Ryner when he spoke, but then another voice
came from ahead.

It was a soldier who’d had the bad luck to try walking up the stairs at
that moment. “W-who are y—”

In an instant!

49
“—augh.”

That was all he ended up able to say.

Ferris had cut him off with her hand, using a chopping motion to
knock him dead cold so fast that it was impossible to see her move.
His body slowly slid down the steps.

Ferris left him abandoned there on the stairs. “Mm. It’s going exactly
as planned. Nobody has noticed us at all.”

“…’Planned,’ you say… as if you ever had one of those. If you’d said
‘we’ll use brute force’ or ‘we’ll use coercion’ then I’d get it, but…
well, whatever. This way’s easier…”

Ryner walked around the collapsed soldier and continued to

descend. In the end, neither he nor Ferris looked nervous in the
slightest.

“So? I haven’t heard about what sort of item this heroic relic they’re
protecting is yet,” Ferris said as they walked downwards.

“Hm? Oh, umm… if I remember correctly, it should be a sword.”

“A sword?”

Ryner nodded. He folded his arms as he searched the depths of his

memory for information about it, then looked up. “That’s it. If I
recall, it was a legend that went like this: ‘From far to now; people
from their creation to birth to when death scatters them, their flame
burns. The midnight sun continues to burn. A faraway twilight,
jealousy, a nightmare. A relaxed world, the underworld; it all darkens
as it’s packed into midnight—”

“Make it easier to understand,” Ferris interrupted.

50
Ryner took a long suffering expression. “But we’re still at the very
beginning of the legend. There’s not much to understand yet… and
it’ll get more interesting as it goes on, you know.”

Ferris nodded. For some reason, she almost looked impressed. “Hoh.
Not interested. Summarize it.”

“Huh…? Well, um… not interested, huh… You said that so easily… it’s
whatever, but…”

Ryner looked a little disappointed. He continued reluctantly.

“Anyway, the beginning was about the time when the demon king
took over the world.”

“Demon king?”

“Yeah, like in the legend of that last relic we found, the legend of the
great Dark Emperor. But I don’t just mean he was a super tyrant or
anything. He was literally a demon king. You can see that in the
beginning line, from far to now - that one beast appeared from
somewhere far and trapped the world in the depths of fear. It’s
pretty amazing to think about, right?” Ryner said excitedly and
turned to Ferris.

Ferris just nodded, bored. “Hmm.”

That’s all she had to say…

Ryner sighed. “Hey, you… is ‘hmm’ all you’ve got to say? Aren’t you
curious how a single monster managed to take over the whole
world?”

“No. It’s just a fairy tale.”

“Hey… we’re travelling the world for information on those ‘fairy

tales’ right now.”

51
Ferris shrugged. “I’m only interested in the relics the legendary
heroes used to defeat that monster.”

“…You have no sense of romance, huh,” Ryner muttered, a little

disappointed. “Well, whatever… we’re in a fort that might house a
heroic relic. May as well summarize the legend.

The great knight of legend, Grouse Calvert, defeated the demon king.
When he died, that sword was thrust into the ground somewhere
around here…”

“Hm.”

“And it’s kinda cliche, but no one could pull it out…”

Ferris tilted her head. “No one could pull it out, and yet it’s inside
this fort?”

Ryner nodded deeply. “Yeah, that’s right. No matter how strong they
were, no one could pull it out. It was pretty conspicuous, and I bet it
became a really popular tourist destination.”

Ferris nodded. “And yet I’ve never heard of it.”

“I think that’s why they ended up building a fort on top of it. To

protect Nelpha’s important cultural relic…”

Ferris crossed her arms. “Mm. It’s not a bad idea. Just knowing that a
fort protected their important cultural relic…”

“Yep, that’s about how it is. And so—”

Ryner stopped suddenly tensed. He narrowed his eyes. He could see

a large room at the base of the stairs. It was dark. There was a light
somewhere, but one light couldn’t fix the darkness of such a large
basement on its own.

52
Ryner gazed into the dark room. “It sure would be nice if there were
a heroic relic there~”

“If there isn’t, your head will—”

“Yes, yes, that’s enough of that. So what d’you think of this place?”
Ryner asked, motioning towards it with his chin.

“Mm. I sense eight presences. They appear to be guarding it.”

“I bet. And it seems like they haven’t noticed us, but… hey,
what’re…”

By the time Ryner was able to start asking, Ferris had already
disappeared. Ryner heard eight groans from the basement… and
then a single clear voice from the dark.

“Now then. Hurry up and search.”

Ryner was quiet for a moment, running a hand through his hair and
staring listlessly. “Well, that’s fine, but… how can I say this… I’m not
fired up at all, y’know?”

Ryner entered the basement and looked around. It was clearly a

treasury! That’s all he could think as he looked around this strange
room filled only with numerous treasure chests. Despite how worn
out the treasure chests themselves were, the dark room itself was
spotless.

“Now, which treasure chest should I open?” Ryner asked himself.

“Mm? You can just open them all.”

Ryner shook his head. “You’re so naiiivee. There’s probably only one
real chest. The rest are definitely traps.”

“I see. So that’s what this is.”

53
“Yup. This is a common theme in stories too.”

“Hm. So which one is the real one?”

Even if she asked that… “Huh, oh, um…”

Ryner began to investigate the treasure chests.

“……”

He’d been a layman until a moment ago when they entered. Now he
investigating each and every treasure chest with the utmost care. He
checked to see if they had any traps, any markings, and their
mechanisms of action with skillful hands.

“……”

He finally finished investigating them all.

Ryner raised his head and spoke decisively. “Alright! Actually I don’t
really understand how this works so let’s just open… them a, a…
what am I saying…”

He assessed Ferris’ expression, but she just replied. “Hm. Let’s open
them then.”

“…Hey, at least play the straight man,” Ryner said, looking like he
was about to cry.

Ferris ignored him and lifted the treasure chest closest to her open…
and gazed into it for some time. Ryner peered into it too.

A huge pile of documents was inside. It clearly wasn’t the sword they
were looking for, nor were they ancient documents. They were
brand new.

They were unmistakably not

54
a heroic relic. That meant this chest was a miss for them. But nothing
particularly special happened either…

“…Oh, that trap was amazing,” Ferris said in her usual monotone. “I
saved our lives just now, Ryner.”

“Uu… don’t bully me…”

Leaving aside their worthless conversation… they set to opening

treasure chests one after another.

But…

“……”

In the end, they were all just full of documents.

Ferris took a single paper from one and looked it over with narrowed
eyes. Then she handed it to Ryner. “How will you pay your debt with
this?”

“Huh? Debt?” Ryner asked. He took the paper and quickly read
through the article. It droned on and on about a feudal lord of this
region who didn’t pay all the taxes he collected from his people to
the king and instead unjustly embezzled much of it. Ryner was taken
aback. “It can’t be that this fort was made to cover this up… right?”

“It appears so,” Ferris said easily and nodded.

Ryner’s whole body trembled. “But… but the relics?”

“Who knows.”

“But… I got up so early, and I did all sorts of things I usually wouldn’t
for this… What about all my hardships?”

“Don’t care. But there’s one thing I want to confirm,” Ferris said.

55
“What?” Ryner asked. He raised his head to see Ferris unsheathing
her sword.

“I’ll forgive the debt you owe me for making me waste time and
effort on this if I can cut your head off…”

“Gyaaaahhh!? W-w-w-wait! Slow down! It’s like, see, um, even if I

was completely wrong on some accounts, I do still want to get those
heroic relics…”

Ferris, who was brandishing her sword, narrowed her eyes. “I don’t
want to hear your excus—”

“It’s not an excuse! So slow down! See, it’s possible that the fort with
the relic wasn’t drawn in exactly the right place on the map I have.
It’s probably in the forest nearby.”

“Hoh. So?”

Ryner stepped away from her as he continued. “So like… um, you
know where we camped last night? Back in the forest?”

“Mm.”

Ryner took another couple steps back. “See, when I look back at that
map I found in some documents, I think that place looks an awful lot
like where the sword might be…”

“Hohoh… and why didn’t you tell me that then…?”

Ryner was now hurrying away from her. “Well, I was worried that if it
wasn’t there, then it meant someone already made off with it or that
the whole thing was nothing but rumors to begin with… or that
because it’s been so long it’s buried completely in the ground… I-if
that was the case you’d make me dig for it, right? That’d be such a
pain. I thought it was more likely that we’d find that sword hidden in
this here fort than digging around for a hundreds or even thousands

56
of years old sword outside… and you seemed like you thought the
same, and, um… so… please don’t kill me?”

In the end, Ferris raised her sword… and pointed it in another

direction. “Who’s been sneaking around over there?” She asked
loudly so that her voice could be heard throughout the large room.

Ryner turned to where she was looking, too - it was the nook under
the stairs. “Right, right. You don’t seem like you really wanna attack
us, so what’re you doing?”

It was impossible to see anything but darkness under there where

the light didn’t reach, but Ryner and Ferris had felt a presence over
there for some time now. But they weren’t Nelpan soldiers, nor did
they have any sort of friendliness nor killing intent towards Ryner
and Ferris. They had just stood there silently and watched the whole
time.

Then, the strong, slightly high-pitched voice of a girl echoed through

the room. “Augh, geez! They found us out because you moved, Sui!”

“Eh? It’s my fault?”

“Obviously! You’re always making mistake after mistake and I have

to follow around to see them! I swear, you big oaf of a brother!
Dimwit! Moron!”

“Aah, I understand. I’m sorry, Kuu. But we’d better think of what to
do next too.”

“I know

that! But we’re obviously gonna run!! Which sucks because it was
our chance to steal the treasure since the Nelphan army wasn’t
hanging around outside and all… if these’re those monsters who took
out the soldiers outside, there’s no way they’ll help us!!”

57
“Um, Kuu… well, I realize we have to run even without you going
through the trouble to give me such a spot-on explanation…”

“Aaauuuughhh geez!! You are seriously an idiot! Didn’t I already tell

you!? I said it because then that amazingly strong woman over there
could hear that we only came in here to take the treasure. That was
we can escape easier. Do you understand that? Do you?? They know
it’s bad to chase after us if that’s all we came to do!!”

Her words made her sound like she was begging, but her headstrong
tone sure didn’t…

Ryner watched them dumbfounded as he listened to their loud

conversation. “So what’re you gonna do, Ferris?”

“Hm. Were the goods here not our objective as well? Or do the two
of you actually have no interest in the treasure?” Ferris asked.

The two… or rather the younger sister called Kuu stepped out of the
dark, flustered. “N-n-no! Sui, don’t just stand there quietly! This is a
trap! Nobody could stand before treasure without any interest at
all!”

“Well, I have no interest in it though,” Sui said calmly.

“Huh!? Then why were we hiding here!?”

“Like I said before, I’m curious what they’re hiding in a fort that
Nelpha has protected for years and years. It’s awfully mysterious,
right? Any novelist would find it fascinating,” Sui said.

“Are you serious!? Eating something ‘awfully mysterious’ would

leave anyone unable to work! Augh, geez, this is why I hate
novelists… you’re twenty six but you can’t earn a living on your own

58
at all! I’m only fourteen but I still have to look after you! Aren’t you
embarrassed at all!?”

“Uu… I have given that some thought before… but…”

“And, and… because I always have to take care of you I’ll never be
able to fall in love or get married, and I’ll get old and still have to take
care of you… Oh, I’m such a pitiful girl… don’t you think? Hey, don’t
you think?” Kuu asked.

“Huh? Think of what…?”

“I said don’t you think it’s horrible that a sweet fourteen year old girl
like me has to take care of you until it leaves me rotten! Weren’t you
listening!?”

“Until you’re rotten, huh… that is troubling. I want to see you

happy.”

“Then what about what we’re supposed to be doing now!?”

“Oh… right. Obtaining the treasure, right?”

“Right! Okay, let’s go! We’ll prepare and then go get it, yeah! I’ll do
my best! I’m going! Eyyyy!!!”

With that, the lone girl flew at Ryner and Ferris vigorously. She was a
cute kid. She said she was fourteen, but she looked even younger
than that because of her height. Her hair was a rare color… not
brown, but more pinkish. She wore it long and with bangs. She wore
a suit-like pitch black dress on her petite body. She had a handsome
face and almond-shaped eyes. Her tone from earlier betrayed her
true appearance: that of a beautiful, graceful girl.

She clasped her hands together in front of her, almost shoving them
at Ryner and Ferris in a begging gesture.

59
“That’s how things are! If you want to help rescue me, a sweet
fourteen year old girl, give me a portion of the treasure! Augh, c’mon
Sui! Help me out already!”

A lean man left the shadows after her. He was a little taller than
Ryner but wasn’t intimidating in the slightest. He was the kind of guy
who stared at a situation like this kind of meekly, smiling all the
while. His hair was sorta long, and the same color as Kuu’s - so they
really were siblings - and for some reason he had an ornamental
comb placed in it. His face resembled Kuu’s too, but because his eyes
were closed it was impossible to tell what color they were.

His head bobbed as he bowed to Ryner. “Um, so that’s the state of

things… do you think you could let us have a treasure chest so we
can afford a wedding for Kuu?”

What a thing to say.

Ryner felt like he was losing a mental battle here. “Umm, you
weren’t listening in on our conversation before, were you?”

Kuu tilted her head. “Hm? Conversation…?”

“These treasure chests aren’t full of treasure, they’re… oh, whatever.

Do whatever you want with them.”

As soon as the words left his mouth Sui and Kuu were on the
treasure chests, opening them energetically.

Several minutes passed before they’d checked them all. Sure

enough, Kuu was first to speak. “The hell is this! There’s no treasure
here at all!”

“That’s not true, Kuu,” Sui said. “This is amazing. It seems like this is
what the lord left here. He embezzled tax money and then a
struggling young man of the village and the girl who fell in love with
him… ah, ideas for stories are rushing through my mind like rapids…”

60
“There’s no way a cliche story like that would sell!”

A moment passed.

Sui’s face had fallen into despair. He was so overcome with grief that
it was actually funny. “Uu… Kuu… don’t you know that if you don’t
have anything good to say you shouldn’t say anything at all?”

Kuu completely ignored him, instead turning to Ryner. “What’s with

this? Where’s the treasure?”

Ryner sighed. “There isn’t any.”

“You already finished taking all of it out?”

Ryner shook his head. “No, it was like this from the start.”

“Then what in the world are you two doing here?” Kuu asked.

“Hm? Looking for the heroic—”

Murderous intent suddenly welled up behind him, balled up, and

aimed for his head…

“Eh? Hey, w—”

Bang! A dull sound whacked Ryner to the ground. Ferris gracefully

returned her sword to its sheath soon after.

“We were sent in secrecy by the king of Imperial Nelpha himself to

investigate this matter,” Ferris said.

Ryner rubbed his aching head from his place on the ground. “W-
why’d you suddenly whack… gyah!”

Ferris stepped on his back, leaving him unable to say another word…

61
“Our journey to find the heroic relics is another country’s secret,”
Ferris whispered. “You understand that, do you not? What were you
saying?”

“That doesn’t mean you gotta hit—ow!!”

Kuu piped up before Ferris could deal the finishing blow. “You’re
investigators? What’re you investigating?”

Ferris nodded, her expression very typical of her. “Mm. Our duty is to
expose the unjust acts of the lords and save their people. This time
we’re investigating the suspicious activity of this area’s liege,
Fappel.” Ferris took a paper from a treasure chest. “That Fappel… so
he really was raising taxes unjustly just to embezzle them!”

“Um… I want to hear about it,” Kuu said with a mysterious

expression.

“What?”

“Shouldn’t the ruling lord of this region be Payrose…?”

“Ah, Fappel’s his nickname,” Ferris said. “The nobility all call him
Little Fappel.”

“…A nickname, huh,” Ryner said. “You tell such remarkable lies so
easily… ow, I’m joking I’m joking, I get it, don’t step on me!” Ryner
said then somehow managed to overcome the pain and sit up.
“Anyway, that’s how it is. We should go soon, Ferris. The next
corrupt liege is waiting for us.”

“Hm. You’re right.”

They two of them made to leave, exiting the large room by the stairs.

“……”

62
But for some reason, Sui and Kuu followed them wordlessly from
behind.

Ryner turned back. “Um, why’re you guys coming too?”

“Oh, well, to punish the lords who’re saving up too much money!”
Kuu said. “And if we’re with you guys, we might be able to take some
of that money they’re stockpiling!”

Sui continued, looking like he was getting a little carried away with
the idea. “Ah, secret investigators… doesn’t that have a mysterious
ring to it? I can see it now, the “Expressionless Investigation Girl”
series. This idea is even more intoxicating than the treasury itself.”

“So you intend to stay with us the whole time?” Ryner asked, already
tired.

“Of course!”

Ryner and Ferris began to ascend the long staircase. Then Ryner
sighed and spoke tiredly. “What should we do? We can’t search for
the relics if they’re following us around…”

“Hm.”

“So what should we do?” Ryner prompted.

“Mm. In any case, you said the relic is buried, right?”

“You’re really gonna make me excavate it, aren’t you.”

Ferris completely ignored Ryner’s distasteful comment. “If that’s the

case, our current equipment is insufficient. We need a shovel for our
long stay in the forest.”

“…You’re literally going to make me dig it out… Dig… a relic more

than two hundred years old out of the ground… are you joking?”

63
“Hm. To use your words, I mean it ‘literally,’” Ferris said.

“Ah, right… so you were considering the future. That means our next
stop’s a town, right, I see… but what’re we gonna do about those
two!!”

“Hm…”

“……”

Ryner and Ferris looked at each other, and then… began to sprint.

Then they heard Kuu and Sui from behind.

“W-why’re you running so suddenly!? Wait up!!” Kuu said.

“Ooh, has there been an incident?” Sui asked. “I’d like to conduct a
follow-up survey afterwards!”

With that, they gave chase…

Without turning back to see how close or far they were, Ryner and
Ferris just ran with all their might.

She dreamed.

It was the same dream as always. A dream about the orphanage. A

dream about that boy. A dream about Ryner Lute…

It was the same as always. That place always overflowed with

death… and in the midst of it, that boy had strangely appeared
before her.

The reason was trivial… she’d misjudged the distance between

herself and her instructor’s attack and taken lots of damage. She lay
collapsed on the ground…

It was fatal.

64
Power left her whole body and blood gushed from her head. She was
bleeding too heavily. She couldn’t move. It was pooling around her.
She couldn’t move even a finger on her body.

That meant death.

Being unable to fight meant death.

That was the orphanage’s sole rule.

They’d decide who was allowed to continue living at the end. If one
died then another could live. So it wasn’t just the adults. Everyone
should have overlooked her death.

The friends she’d laughed with yesterday should come to welcome

her because it was the end…

That’s what she thought as her vision clouded from blood loss. Even
so, she frantically surveyed her surroundings with dimming eyes. She
was looking for that boy…

She wanted to see him one last time. Where in the world was he?
She searched frantically.

What would he say if he saw her like that? Would he be angry? Or

would he be a little sad for her?

But when she finally found him, he wasn’t sad at all. Nor was he
angry.

He just stared at her with a strangely hollow, astonished expression…

“…M, Milk… why… what’s… everything’s kind of, urgh, it’s… it’s like…
save me… from this… sa… a, a-a-a, aaaaaaahahahhahaha!”

She heard him laughing.

65
And then… he was able to do something he shouldn’t have been
capable of.

People disappeared one after another. It went exactly like in the

stories: they disappeared, they were crushed, they crumbled…

And the one and only sound through all of it was that laugh.

People disappeared one after another from her view… and then she
heard a scream.

“A m-monster!?”

“What is he!? R-ru—”

“Ryner, stop! Stoooo—”

“Please don’t kill me, no, I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna d—”

They were all silenced halfway. In the end, everyone faded away…
until the only one left in her line of sight was Ryner.

She’d be killed…

She really thought so. This wasn’t the Ryner she knew. This was the
true power of the Alpha Stigma bearers that spread nothing but
death and disaster…

That was why they were feared and loathed and called monsters…

Her eyes had become nearly useless from bloodless, but when she
closed them, she was smiling sincerely. “Are you there, Ryner?
You’re going to kill me, right?”

Ryner didn’t reply. But she knew he was there. She could hear him
breathing. He was right in front of her eyes. He was standing right
before her so that he could kill her.

66
“Don’t worry about it,” Milk said. “I’m happy. Because I think it’d be
nice to be killed by you.”

“……”

He wasn’t laughing like earlier, but she already knew he was going to
kill her. Because once an Alpha Stigma bearer went berserk they
couldn’t go back to the way they were before. That’s why they were
said to be unable to coexist with humans.

So she’d be killed. She knew that.

But… even so…

She wanted to see him one last time.

Because even if he’d become someone else, she still made a promise
to never let go of his hand.

She wiped at her blood with all her strength and tried to open her
eyes, ignoring the pain as her eyelids cracked upwards…

But all she could see was red.

Not because of the blood that’d fallen into her eyes.

It was because every single living being had been killed.

Only she and Ryner were left…

Ryner looked at her from the center of it all, blank astonishment on

his face. “I… killed them? I… I didn’t want to kill anyone… I… I really
am a monster…”

“It’s okay if you’re a monster!” She screamed without thinking.

Ryner gazed at her with questioning, tear-filled eyes. The red

pentagram still floated atop each eye as tears flowed down his
cheeks, his gaze fixed on her…

67
She stared back and continued. “Even if you’re a monster, I’m fine.
You didn’t kill me. Other people… me, my friends, my mother, my
father… we were all killed by other people. You didn’t do it. You
didn’t kill me. So it’s okay even if you’re a monster! So… don’t cry,
okay? Because—”

Her words were cut off there. They were surrounded by men
wearing black combat uniforms.

“This monster really is special. He’s different from the Alpha Stigma
bearers we already have data on. His rampage stopped after 837
reacted. There’s value in researching this.”

837 was the number she was assigned. They didn’t call them by their
names here. They were all trash who’d die and need thrown out
sooner or later anyway so there was no need for names. There
wasn’t a single time they were treated as people.

In the end, she too was a nameless monster…

But she was a little happy.

See, Ryner? Because they were both monsters… he wasn’t alone.

She tried to say that, but…

“Both 837 and the monster may prove useful as research subjects.
Don’t kill them. Take them with.”

The moment one of the men said that, she was smacked hard on the
back of the head and fainted.

---

“…Mm… fuaaaahh… Even though I haven’t seen it at all recently, I

had that dream again… I wonder what triggered it?”

68
Milk Callaud woke against the too-bright sun filtering in through her
wavering curtains. She peeked through the window to see the
cloudless sky. It looked like all day today would have good weather,
much like yesterday. She smiled, but her eyes were wet with tears.

“Ah, I really am gonna cry again…”

She wiped her tears, flustered, and set to getting up energetically.

She made her bed as soon as she was out of it.

That was how she was taught to start the day in the Callaud family -
the place she’d been sold to after the orphanage. She was to make
her bed efficiently and then immediately report for harsh training. It
was so bad that it could make her vomit blood… no, it actually did
make her vomit blood dozens of times. Even so, the training just
continued. That’d been her day-to-day reality.

But she wasn’t going to her training now. And she wasn’t in the
Callaud house now, either. She was in an inn in a large town in
Nelpha. Of course it didn’t come with any of the Callaud household’s
instructors or their training. Even so, she couldn’t shake her deeply
ingrained habits. She stretched for the day’s training while she did
her hair in the mirror.

“Aaaalright, counting off. Ooone, twooo, threeee…”

She counted all the way to ten while she tied her flaxen hair in a
ponytail. She had lovely big eyes and a baby face. She was a little
smaller than the average sixteen year old, and more than anything,
she looked quite young and naive.

Despite her appearance, this girl was chief of a Taboo Hunters

team…

A knock sounded at her door. “Chief Milk, are you awake yeeet~?”

“Oh, Luke? It’s alright. I’m up!”

69
“Oh, how remarkable. You get up nice and early in the morning.”

“Yaay! I was complemented!”

“Heheh. You’re a remarkable child. Now then, breakfast is ready

downstairs so please come down before it gets cold. I’ll go wake the
others.”

“Alriiight! I’m pretty hungry. Wonder what today’s breakfast will

be?”

They kind of talked to each other like a preschooler and their teacher
might…

After all, Milk didn’t look like a Taboo Hunter chief at her age. And
this was her first assignment… but she was in an unbelievably elite
team.

She was to chase down the deserters and runaways capable of using
the Roland Empire’s magic and defeat the spies and such called
taboo breakers so as to keep the secrets of Roland’s magic as
secrets. Now that the war was over, this was the most dangerous job
for those in Roland’s military to take.

There should have been a huge amount of responsibility along with

it, but…

“Tiiime for breakfast!” Milk said energetically as she opened her

door.

A sleepy boy a little older than Milk exited one of the other doors.
“Good mo…uawning, Chief Milk,” he said through a yawn.

Milk smiled. “Oh, Moe! Mornin’. Today’s weather’s real nice! And
Luke says breakfast is already ready!”

“Really? Did Luke make it?”

70
“I hope so! Luke’s cooking is tasty! Which of his dishes do you like
best?”

“Hmm. I like his curry.”

“Ah! Me too, me too! I love Luke’s curry!”

A tall man who had white hair despite only being twenty five came
out of another room with a smile. “My, my. I’m happy you like my
curry so much… but it’s breakfast so there’s no curry, okay? Also, the
lady who owns this inn made breakfast for us today.”

“Whaaat,” Moe grumbled, dissatisfied.

Milk just smiled. “But y’know, just by talking to everyone around the
table I can get full! I love eating meals with everyone!”

Luke and Moe looked at each other and spoke in unison, their voices
filled with emotion. “Ahh, what a good kid…”

To reiterate, Luke and Moe are Milk’s subordinates, not the other
way around.

“Alright!” Luke said. “Since the Captain’s such a good kid this
morning, she gets a big serving!”

“Huh, really? Yaay!”

The door Luke had come out of slammed open to reveal a willful boy
about Moe’s age. “Aa-ah! It’s not fair if the Captain’s the only one
who gets a big serving! Give me one too!”

“Huh? Then give me one too!” Moe said. “If Lach gets a big serving
then I should get one too, right?”

Luke shrugged like it couldn’t be help. “Okay. Moe, you can have a
big serving too. But you slept in, Lach, so no can do~”

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“Whaaat!?” Lach said, shocked.

“Then I’ll give you my extra portion!” Milk said.

“Are you serious, Captain!? Yaay! I’ll follow you for the rest of my
life!”

“Lach, that’s not fair! I’ll follow her too!”

Luke smiled kindly at their conversation. “Let’s stop playing around

now and go eat breakfast. Lach, I’ll give you a big portion too so
don’t worry.”

“Okaay,” everyone said. They all nodded and walked down in a little
group. They were so relaxed that it was impossible to watch without
wondering if they were really the elite team they were supposed to
be…

Even so, Milk’s duty was heavy. It was to protect the balance
between countries. To protect the secret of magic…

In the first place, magic was completely different between countries.

How should one trigger it, what medium should they use? Should
they write an incantation or draw a magic circle? It was all
completely different. It could be said that if the secrets of the Roland
Empire’s magic got out, then their war ability was completely bared
to other countries’ eyes. If that happened it would be easier for
another country to declare war. It was possible that Roland would be
destroyed.

So Milk and her team had a great responsibility.

If even a single taboo breaker got away, a war could start and many
people might die. They had to apprehend or otherwise kill them
before that could happen.

72
It was a job where they had to kill their former comrades… and a
quite dangerous job at that. It was risky and they couldn’t save
anyone. It was important work… but they were feared and loathed
nonetheless. Nobody wanted to do it.

But if it was to protect their country, their families, their friends,

their happiness…

And it was work that somebody

had to do. So they were the ones given that duty.

They arrived at the inn’s dining room and began to eat with a cheery
atmosphere.

“Wah, this is tasty!” Moe said. “Look, look, here, Lach, you should
eat some of this too!”

“Augh, you know I hate vegetables!”

“Captain, Luke, Lach says he doesn’t like it!”

Luke’s kind face turned stern, but he somehow failed to be

threatening. “You don’t get any dessert if you don’t eat your
veggies.”

“Uu… I get it, I’ll eat ‘em… guuhh…”

Lach forced his vegetables down his throat without chewing them.

Milk laughed happily as she watched him. Because it was the first
time she’d gotten to eat such fun meals.

She wasn’t a real daughter of a noble family. She was a puppet

bought so their name could receive military honors. They didn’t need
a useless puppet. The useless would be disposed of. She wasn’t
treated like a person.

73
Living every day happily, talking with others like they were all people
over meals like this… wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t that it wasn’t
allowed. It just wasn’t necessary.

All that was wanted of her was absolute obedience and the ability to
be highly successful in the military.

So…

“Oh, Captain, you haven’t eaten much,” Luke said, worried. “A-are
you not feeling well?”

“Huh?”

Lach and Moe were looking at her a little uneasily now, too.

“Come to think of it, you haven’t been talkin’ much either. You
okay?”

“Captain Milk… are you unwell?”

They really went out of their way to ask her that…

“……”

For some reason, Milk was brought to the verge of tears for a
second. It was really only a second. She’d never thought a day like
this would come. She’d always thought she wouldn’t be allowed to
do this…

But she was their chief. She couldn’t show them weakness. Crying…
wasn’t necessary, so she couldn’t show them her tears.

Milk clung to her smile frantically. “No, I’m fine! And it’s so tasty!
Let’s eat!”

With that, she started to eat once more, smiling with all her might.

And yet her tears fell of their own accord…

74
“Huh!? Captain?” Luke raised his voice in a panic.

“Wawawawah, the Captain’s crying… w-w-w-w-what should we

do!?” Moe asked.

“This is ‘cause you made me eat my vegetables, you idiots! The

Captain must hate those vegetables too!” Lach said.

“What!? Really? Is that true?” Luke asked.

Milk shook her head back and forth vigorously. “No, no, that’s not it!
I’m fine, everyone can just keep eating! Um, um, umm, these aren’t
tears, so it’s alright!”

But Luke just continued, worried. “But you’re actually crying, aren’t
you? Does something hurt? If so, you shouldn’t just bear it. If you
don’t say it hurts, then…”

Milk shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I just… I’m so happy being
with you guys. I’ve never been able to enjoy talking to people over a
meal like this before… so…”

As soon as she said that Luke, Lach, and Moe all burst into tears with
her.

“R-really?” Luke said. “Don’t worry, Captain. You’ve found where you
belong now.”

“Uu… I’m so moved,” Lach said.

“Me too… I really will follow Captain Milk for the rest of my life,”
Moe said.

At that moment, the door opened to reveal a cool, clean-cut young

man. He eyed the four who were crying suspiciously. “Um… what in
the world happened here…?

Milk raised her head. “Ah… welcome back, Lear!!”

75
Lear was the last of Milk’s four subordinates. He’d been out
collecting information since their arrival in this town yesterday
evening. He nodded. “I’ve returned, Captain Milk, Luke. So what’s
happening?”

Moe answered first. “Ah, well—”

“Idiot,” Lach interrupted quietly. “Consider the Captain’s feelings.

She might be embarrassed about this.”

“Ah, um, right. Later then, Lear,” Moe promised.

“Right, right. Later. Then you’ll hear all about this heartrending
masterpiece,” Lach said.

Lear tilted his head. “Hah? Heartrending masterpiece? What?”

He looked awfully confused, but Luke tried to set that matter aside.
“So how were things, Lear?”

“Oh, and the food’s all ready,” Milk added. “Do you wanna eat too?”

Luke nodded. “Ah, that’s right. Let’s talk while we eat, Lear.”

“No,” Lear started then glanced at the door he’d just come through.
“Actually, I found some people with plausible information and
brought them back here…”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. He dropped his kind expression from before

entirely and assumed a tensed, prepared one instead. “So what are
they demanding in exchange for their plausible information? If you
brought them all the way here instead of just taking their
information alone, that means they demanded to meet with me…
no, with Captain Milk or they wouldn’t tell, correct?”

Lear was a little troubled at that. “Well…”

76
Lear started to talk but the door slamming open from behind him cut
him off.

“What? What’s this!? You’re going to eat breakfast over this

distressing information!? Don’t get stingy just because it smells so
good! So? D’ya feel like sharing some with me and my brother Sui?
No? If you don’t decide fast I’ll die of starvation!”

A lone girl had bust in. She was considerably smaller than Milk and
appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old. She was graceful and
beautiful, far different from what her aggressive tone implied.

A smiling apologetic man followed her. “Umm, leaving aside what my

sister said, is it really okay if we join you for breakfast? I like to have
fish for breakfast, personally.”

Lear looked quite bothered by them. “So that’s the state of things. I
thought I’d bring them to eat with you guys so that we could talk
over the meal…”

Luke looked to Milk. “What do you think?”

Milk nodded. “Then let’s all eat!”

And so they started their breakfast anew.

Lear set out in an explanation as he watched the newcomers

voraciously devouring their breakfasts. “According to these two,
they’re siblings. The older brother is Sui Orla and the younger sister
is Kuu Orla. Sui is a novelist. He’s taking Kuu with as he travels to
various countries to widen her horizons—”

“Wrong! It’s the other way around!” Kuu interrupted. “The other
way, the other way! I’m taking Sui to various places! ‘Cause he can’t
do anything on his own!”

Lear shot a kind of disgusted look over to Sui.

77
But Sui just smiled like always. “Please don’t worry about it. I really
can’t do anything by myself. I’m in her debt. Ahahaha.”

“It’s true! If I didn’t work so hard he’d wander off on his own and I’d
find him dead by the roadside! That’s why I hate novelists! They’ve
got zero life experience ‘cause their heads are always in the clouds!”

“But you’re always so reliable, so…”

“Geez… God really plays favorites. There’s nothing we can do about

that, so I’ll look after you… Look, you’ve got sauce on your face,” Kuu
said and reached over and dabbed at it with a napkin.

Milk smiled sincerely. Even if she called him names and insulted him,
in the end they were still siblings. They got along well. She was even
a little jealous. “So I heard that you guys had some information…?”

Milk exchanged a look with Lear, who nodded. “Yes. As soon as I told
them we were Taboo Hunters from the Roland Empire with
authorized entry into Imperial Nelpha, they said they had
information about taboo breakers.”

“I see. Let’s hear it,” Milk said.

Kuu looked up. “Umm, weeell, I’m busy eating. You tell them, Sui.”

“Huh!? You want me to talk? You know I’m bad with words…”

“But it’s bad if I talk too much too. If we’re gonna do this right, you
do it!”

“Well, maybe… if it’s alright with you.”

Luke smiled. “Please.”

With that, Sui began to speak.

78
Apparently they met two people in a fort a little south from the town
they were in now. One was horribly motivationless and the other
was a beautiful swordswoman. They’d introduced themselves as
secret investigators on a secret mission given to them by Nelpha’s
king.

“Nelphan secret investigators?” Milk repeated.

“That’s interesting,” Luke said. “I wonder if there is a position like

that in Nelpha? Maybe it’s like Roland’s Domestic Survey Agency?
But what does that have to do with us?”

“We thought it had to be a lie,” Kuu said. “Right, Sui?”

Sui nodded, smiling. “It’s gotta be a lie~”

“Huh? A lie?” Moe asked without thinking. “Why do you—”

Lach slapped him. “Idiot! Didn’t we decide to leave this stuff to Luke
back when he was chief?”

“Oh, umm… right, we did. I’ll leave it to you then, Luke.”

Luke sighed at their interruptions. “Sorry about that. Now then, why
do you think they were lying?”

Sui made to answer but Kuu covered his mouth and smiled meanly.
“Oh, you’re interested now, are you? Then if you want to hear more,
you get us lunch too.”

“Of course,” Luke agreed. “We can get you dinner, too, and a night’s
stay at this inn. Your brother is such a promising novelist after all. I
want him to be able to write in comfort.”

“Seriously!?”

“I’m so glad, Kuu.”

79
Luke continued, indifferent to their celebration. “Now that you have
no worries about tonight, please continue. Why do you think those
two were lying?”

“That’s easy!” Kuu said with a nod. “They were wearing armor with
Roland’s coat of arms on it!”

Luke was taken aback for a moment. He looked to Milk. “There’s no

mistake. These seem to be the same two taboo breakers that Major
Miller said escaped to Nelpha.”

“Yeah,” Milk said meekly. “Seems like it…”

“We must catch them. It’s your first assignment.”

“…Yeah,” Milk said. She nodded real big then looked to Sui and Kuu.
“And which way did the two wearing Rolander armor go?”

“Like I’d know!” Kuu said easily. “We followed them until they
arrived in this town…”

“This town—”

Lach whacked Moe for interrupting again. “You moron!”

“Uu… sorry…”

“We do have a pretty good guess for where they’ll go next,” Sui said
after watching their exchange. “We think they’ll go back to the forest
around that fort.”

“Why do you think that?” Luke asked.

“They’re apparently looking for something out there,” Sui said. “We
overheard them talking about it. Ah, but it kind of seemed like they’d
kill us if we asked about it, so we didn’t… right?”

80
Kuu nodded enthusiastically. “They were <i>super</i> strong.
Definitely dangerous. Sui said something stupid like how he’d be able
to make a good novel out of them while we were following ‘em…”

“Huh? But Kuu, you—”

“Leave what I said out of it!”

Milk’s group turned to look at each other while Kuu and Sui argued

Lear crossed his arms. “So they felt like they’d be killed for listening
in on that… sounds like they’re quite a villainous bunch. I wonder
what they’re searching for? Something they’ve hidden in the forest?”

Luke nodded. “Probably stolen goods they’d buried. That or they’re

growing hallucinogens or something of the sort that are illegal in
Roland out in that forest that they periodically smuggle back in…
Either way, they’re rowdy fellows. What should we do, Chief? Sui and
Kuu’s information is from last night so it’s still very fresh. I think we
should leave immediately. What about you?”

Milk nodded to show she heard and then closed her eyes to think.
This was her first assignment. From here on, she may have to fight
violent escapees from Roland. They would be strong enemies
capable of using magic, and on top of that, they might have more
allies laying in wait too…

It was a dangerous assignment. But she knew that’d be the cause

from the start. Capturing taboo breakers was something that had to
be done, and she had to do it without sacrificing anyone in her team.

That was all there was to it.

She hated seeing people die. She had to move as soon as possible in
order to avoid deaths. Ideally she’d get to the taboo breakers as soon
as possible and ambush them.

81
Milk opened her eyes, determined. “We’ll head out at once!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Her subordinates all answered at once. They cleaned

up and prepared themselves in the blink of an eye and were fast to
move out.

“W-wait a minute! Um,” Kuu, who was still eating, said.

Before she could finish, Luke dropped several gold coins before her.
“We’re grateful for your cooperation. We must advance at once.”

“Okaaay. If that’s all you needed then I guess we’re done here. See
ya,” Kuu said and waved them away curtly.

Milk waved back. “Thanks! See you some other time!”

With that, Milk and her Taboo Hunters team left the inn.

Three days later.

An unusually bright night was leading the way to tomorrow.

Milk was holding her breath from where she was crouched in a forest
thicket.

(Taboo breakers were here… they were really here…)

She found them quickly. Just like the information had stated, there
were two of them. One was a tall and lanky black haired man whose
slouched back made him look awfully lazy. The other was a delicate
swordswoman with unbelievably beautiful long blonde hair.

“…They’re taboo breakers,” she whispered to herself. Her pulse

quickened.

U, uwah, she was nervous…

82
She put a hand on her chest and groaned. It had been a long time
since she last felt like this. It was the same feeling she’d had when
she was on the verge of death during her training and during exams.
There were taboo breakers before her very eyes. She was more
nervous than she’d ever imagined she’d be.

Because they’d soon have to enter a life-or-death battle with the

taboo breakers…

And when that happened… Luke, Lach, Moe, and Lear… would all be
in danger.

She wasn’t this nervous when her life was the only one on the line.
But they’d all entrusted their lives to her.

N-no… what should she do…?

She shook her head real big at her weakness.

(C-calm down, Milk. You can do this! Yeah! It’ll be okay. I’ll beat ‘em
in seconds flat!)

She gave herself instructions from within her thicket. It’d go well. It’d
go well as long as she followed her training to the letter and no one
would get hurt!

Luke spoke to her quietly from behind. “Chief. I can’t see it perfectly
from here, but their armor certainly bears Roland’s crest.”

“Then they really are taboo breakers?” Milk asked and turned back
to study them one more time. They were digging at the ground with
a shovel exactly as their information suggested. With that, Luke’s
smuggling theory disappeared. Perhaps they’d hidden stolen goods
here?

83
Whatever they were doing, it smelled fishy. And she could sense that
despite the man’s lazy, listless movements he was someone who
could hurl another person in desperation.

Getting them to straightforwardly obey would be… “tough, huh,”

Milk whispered to herself.

What was going to happen? They still hadn’t noticed them, so they’d
stage a surprise attack and apprehend them. Wouldn’t that be the
most efficient way? Then how should they divide their power? She
could think of two plans.

Option one: since they didn’t know their opponent’s strength, they
could them all together rather then splitting up. They’d have a higher
survival rate that way.

Option two: believe in the abilities of Luke and the others and
surround them from all sides. This plan would make it harder for
their targets to escape, but Luke and the others would be in more
danger since they might have to fight one-on-one…

So which plan should she choose?

“What should we do, Chief?” Luke asked.

“Huh? Oh, um… what should I do, Luke?” Milk asked, flustered by his
sudden question.

“Please decide, Chief. Should we attack? Or should we continue

watching for awhile longer?”

She thought about it again at his prompting. She’d already decided

on that front. It’d be bad if they kept watching and their targets
noticed them so they had no option but to attack now. It’d be bad if
dawn broke, too. Surprise attacks were most effective under the
cover of night. They had to attack soon. The only question was if they
should do it as one or split up…

84
Milk glanced at Luke then back to their targets.

Did she value her mission more or the safety of her friends…?

Milk’s expression became determined. “All troops advance. We’re

ambushing them.”

“Understood,” Luke said and disappeared back into the thickets.

Some time later he came back with Lach, Lear, and Moe. Everyone
was combat ready. Luke made sure of that and then faced Milk.
“Your orders, Chief.”

“Oh, um, uhh, riiiight~,” Milk said and looked up at the sky. The
clouds had slightly obscured the moon, leaving the world in a deeper
darkness than before. “First we’ll restrain them with magic. Then
Luke, Lach, and Lear will attack with swords. I’ll take care of the
magic, so Moe, you’re on cover duty.”

Luke and the others nodded, satisfied, and soon set her tactics into
motion.

Milk raised her hand before her to draw a complicated design in the
air. It was a magic circle typical of the Roland Empire’s magic and she
was faster than most at drawing it. “I wish for thunder - Lightning
Flash!”

In an instant, a harsh light was born in her magic circle. It crashed like
a thunder strike as it fired towards their targets!

Or at least it was supposed to…

But the lazy man had turned towards them at the last second and
drew a magic circle of his own that swallowed Milk’s spell up.

“What!?” Milk and her subordinates shouted at once.

“D-did they notice us?”

85
“No… even if they did, they shouldn’t have had the time for that… I
think,” Luke said.

Then what had just happened?

Milk’s magic was pretty amazing, to put it bluntly, and this had
greatly overwhelmed her ability.

Someone who could not only notice that she was casting magic at
the speed she moved but also react quickly enough to counter with
antimagic while they were hidden and sneak attacking… wasn’t
human.

Everyone understood that fact in an instant. So it was a great attack

to Milk and her subordinates.

In the first place, antimagic was so difficult that it wasn’t practical. It

required knowing what spell one was being attacked with by looking
at it, then understanding what effect would counter it, then knowing
which spell would have the desired cancellation effect in response…
there was no such thing as a human who could do that.

If there were such a human… they’d be such a talented magician that

they were impossible to control. A monster…

This was bad this was bad this was bad this was bad this was bad this
was bad this was bad this was bad!?

What could she do? She had to protect everyone…

The blond women slowly unsheathed her sword in response to Milk’s

attack.

“This is bad!” Luke yelled. “Protect the Chief—”

86
Luke couldn’t finish the rest of his sentence. The swordswomen flew
towards them unbelievably fast and struck his back with the blunt
side of her sword. He fainted.

Then the swordswoman did the same to her three remaining

subordinates until Milk was the only one left…

Milk could only stare in shock.

Unbelievable. Her sword was too fast to even see, and now Luke and
the others were collapsed on the ground…

She couldn’t protect them. But she wasn’t dead yet. So…

She watched the blonde swordswoman as she approached her. She’d

be killed!

She was resigned to that fact after only a moment of watching her.
But… she took another look at her subordinates where they lay on
the ground.

And then those words echoed in her head. Those words that boy had
told her at the orphanage. “You can’t die either.”

She’d been able to live because those words supported her.

There was no way she could die here, having failed to protect her
friends. There was no way she could die…

The woman raised her sword above her head.

“I hate this!” Milk yelled. “No! I can’t be killed! There are still things I
have to do…”

That was as far as her words made it. She frantically tried to draw a
magic circle, but the swordswoman thrust her sword at her.

87
“Whether you’ll be killed and whether you have unfinished business
or not are entirely different matters,” the unbelievably beautiful
woman said, strangely lacking any expression…

She had the face of an assassin. Someone who had killed off all of her
emotions and now lived only to kill…

Milk didn’t think she could win. Not against the next level strength of
both this beauty and the motivationless man from before…

But…

“But, but even so, I can’t be killed!!”

“Mm. Is that so. Then run.”

“Huh?” Milk hadn’t expected her to say that at all.

The beauty continued disinterestedly, her expression urging Milk to

move, pointing back with a single finger. “The dumb looking guy back
there is a sex maniac. If you don’t run now, he’ll catch you and do
horrible things beyond what you can imagine…”

“Hey, don’t go calling me a sex maniac.”

That voice… and that way of speaking made her jump. She’d heard it
before.

It was a voice tired of living, one devoid of motivation. But it was

actually very kind…

What was she saying! That couldn’t be right! Because these were
taboo breakers! They’d easily deflected her magic! They were
dangerous!

Oh, but… it was possible that he

88
could deflect her magic like that. But there was no way he was a sex
maniac or an enemy of women! There was no way he’d leave her to
have an affair abroad with this beauty!

And then it finally dawned on her. She was hearing that boy’s voice…
Ryner’s voice now because she was on the verge of death. After all…
it was possible that Ryner had already died. He must have come to
get her.

She prepared herself for death. She would die here. But… but if that
was the case… it looked like she had one final duty. There was no
way she could let a sex maniac do as he pleased! And she needed to
make things a little easier on her team when they woke up so they
could escape alright. She had to wound these two somehow…

The sex maniac had come up to her. He was surely checking her out.

“What’re you doing, you leacher!? If you think I’ll let you do
whatever you want without a fight, you’re wrong… huh…”

However—

“…What?”

Milk looked deeply into his face. She was petrified. She looked at his
black hair, his lazy expression… She really did recall his face. And the
means by which he was able to react to Milk’s magic had even
floated to the forefront of his eyes: a red pentagram…

That power… that everyone feared and loathed…

Her body trembled. This was… crazy…

“You’ve got to be kidding me. That pentagram, that black hair… Are
you really Ryner?”

89
“Nngh? How do you know my name?” He asked and looked at her,
puzzled.

No way… it was really him. It was Ryner in the flesh. Milk suddenly
felt dizzy. They gazed at each other for some time… and then the
expressionless girl interrupted.

“Mm. So you know each other. They did attack us a minute ago
though, Ryner.”

“That’s wrong!” Milk and Ryner yelled in unison.

Milk scrunched up her face and stared at the beauty. What was up
with this woman? There was no way Ryner would do those things.
Geez, they didn’t have the time for that dumb stuff…

After all, Ryner was right before her eyes. She’d always, always been
searching for him. Always, always wanted to meet him. Always
wanted to thank him. And now that he was here… what should she
do? What should she say? Should she talk about how things have
been for her up until now? About what happened after she left the
orphanage? Or even… about their promise to get married…?

Uwah… s-she couldn’t just say that all of a sudden. That was a
promise between kids. More importantly, what should she try and
look like now for him? If she’d known this was going to happen, she
would’ve done her makeup better.

W-what should she talk about, what should she say…?

Milk’s head was spinning. “S-so that means you’re really the real
Ryner? Ryner Lute? From Roland’s Special Institute #307…?”

Ryner was surprised. “Huh, so you know about that place. So who
are you?”

90
Milk felt like she’d collapse from dizziness. “Huh? You mean… you
don’t remember me? It’s Milk! I’m Milk!”

Ryner’s eyes widened briefly like he’d realized something, but… “Ah,
aaah, umm… so who was that again?”

“Y-you can’t be serious, right? T-then that means you forgot that,
too, right? See, when I was sold to the nobility, we made a p-p-
promise to get married…”

As soon as Milk stuttered that out, the beauty from Ryner’s side
spoke with the same expressionless face as before. “What, so you’ve
been luring girls with promises of marriage from that young age—”

“I haven’t!” Ryner said, tired as always. “But anyway, well, guess

that’s how it is. Let’s do it. You know, Ferris, that.”

He exchanged a look with the blonde named Ferris. “Mm. Right.”

They both held Milk still and then tied her up with a rope Ryner
brought. “Huh? Wait, is this… this is a joke, right, Ryner? Um… I…”

They tied Luke, Lach, Lear, and Moe up once they were done with
Milk. She just stared in shock. What was happening? Why would
Ryner do this?

“So do you know this teenager or not?” Ferris asked.

Ryner groaned as he looked at her in deep concentration. “Umm…”

“You still haven’t remembered!?”

“No… it’s no use. I don’t remember. Anyway, we must’ve gone to the

same orphanage, made a promise to get married, and then you were
sold to the nobility, right? And then you really wanted to marry me
no matter what so you came after me, right?”

91
“N-no! That’s wrong! I-it’s true that we promised to get married,
but… t-that was just something between kids… we were just
childhood friends…”

S-she really just said that. Even though she’d been living up until now
just so she could meet him again…

Had those days in the orphanage been meaningless for Ryner…? How
could that be…

Then Ferris opened her mouth. “So why would the childhood friend
of a horrible man who threw her away come and attack us?”

“Thrown awa… I wasn’t thrown away! We were just kids… uu…”

A sword came flying towards her, stopping only just before her neck.
This woman was unbelievably dangerous. She was certainly
beautiful, but her strength was no joke. She moved in a way that was
fatal to mages: no matter how strong of a spell she could cast, if this
woman got to her before she could finish casting it, it was over. Milk
was unable to win against her.

And even Ryner…

The dangerous beauty cut her off. “Enough of that. Just answer me.”

Milk looked to where Luke and the others were passed out. If she
didn’t answer now, her allies might be in danger. That was how
dangerous this woman was.

She could betray her country or betray her friends. Those were
Milk’s two choices.

She chose without hesitation.

“I’m chief of a Taboo Hunter team, and as you’re presently taboo

breakers, we followed you out of Roland. T-that’s all there is too it!

92
Killing me or my subordinates would be meaningless! All that’d
happen is that they’d lose contact with us back home, and since we
already sent the information about your location back, another
Taboo Hunter team would come for you in our place!”

That was a lie. They hadn’t told their country that Ryner was here yet
so the chase against them would end if Milk’s team was killed here.
But there was no other way if she wanted to save her friends…

Ryner was astonished. “H-hah!? W, what’s up with this, Ferris!?

Roland’s after us? But we’re only here because of Sion’s orders in the
first place—”

The dangerous beauty’s sword flashed. Though Milk could hardly see
it, her swordsmanship was brilliant. Her sword stopped the width of
a piece of paper away from Ryner’s neck. “You sure are in trouble~
so you better start talking now or else…”

Ryner was tired. Filled with despair. “No, I—”

His words only made it halfway out. In that moment, Milk

understood the situation. So that’s what was going on!

Ryner was captured by this ferocious, ill-natured beauty and silenced

then threatened and used. She had to be using some weakness of his
against him…

If she thought of it like that then all the mysterious pieces fit
together. He pretended to not know or remember Milk to keep her
from getting on this dangerous woman’s bad side…

W-what should she do? She had to save Ryner. Nobody else could
save him anymore! Only she could do it!

Think, Milk! Ryner had to be trying to send her some kind of message
in their conversation. After all, he’d always been so smart.

93
He was a hero who always had the best grades at the end of the day
no matter what kind of situation they’d just been through.

What was it that Ryner said earlier? “But we’re only here because of
Sion’s orders in the first place…” and then Ferris cut him off.

‘Sion’ had to be the keyword there. He was probably the boss of the
criminal organization that was using Ryner. Thenhow was that
criminal organization using him…?

Milk’s worrying thoughts swirled around in her head as Ryner and

Ferris continued their conversation.

Ferris withdrew her sword and returned it to its scabbard with a fluid
motion. “Save what’s not necessary for later. We’re being chased by
Roland, so Nelpha’s army may attack us as well. But we can’t kill
without orders. If we kill people from our own country, it will be tried
as homicide. If we kill people from another country, there’s a chance
it could ignite a war. It’s a dangerous situation. If you understand,
then hurry up and get back to your job. Get to digging.”

“W-wait, okay? Why’re you t—”

Wham!

“Ohh alright alright. I’ll do it. You want me to do it, right!? So put
your sword away!”

“H-hey, wait you guys! Undo this rope!” Milk yelled. But Ryner and
Ferris easily ignored her.

“Ugh, I’m tired. My arms are sore. Enough. How many holes have I
dug since yesterday?”

“Seven.”

“And they were all misses? Well, obviously, right?”

94
“You did say it’d be here, didn’t you?”

“But like… it’s a two hundred year old legend, right~? There
definitely was a heroic relic here, buuut,” Ryner complained to the
beautiful swordswoman as they dug holes - he did so sluggish and
she did so bored and expressionlessly, “I’m just saying that this is a
heroic relic. It’s not like we’ll find it quickly just by digging all these
holes. I mean I know I’m the one who suggested we dig for it, but
like… whatever, I guess talking about this is pretty pointless. I mean,
Roland’s chasing us over some kinda misunderstanding and all…”

He stole a glance to where they’d thrown Milk and heaved a small

sigh.

“Let’s give up and go home, okay? I’m telling you, this is a bust. It’s a
bust it’s a bust it’s a bust—”

At that moment, Ryner’s words were cut off but the sound of his
shovel hitting metal. Ferris raised her face to look at him. They were
silent for a moment.

“A-are you serious?” Ryner said, half-laughing.

Ferris shrugged. It was hard to tell because of her absolute

expressionlessness, but it looked like that was supposed to be how
she showed surprise. They kept digging at it, and…

“S-seriously…?”

They unearthed something like a dagger. The blade portion of it was

made of someblue inorganic matter they’d never seen before, and it
didn’t appear to have any purpose but to cut, and it did have
something like a hilt so it was kinda like a dagger, but…

“Is this the heroic relic you said would be here? The sword?” Ferris
asked. “It doesn’t look anything like a sword…”

95
Ryner ignored her. His expression had been tired and apathetic until
now but as he investigated the dagger for the first time, he looked
honestly interested. “What is this material…? There’s a faint design
engraved here, too…”

“What is it? Does it line up with your thesis?”

“…Don’t be so impatient. I don’t know whether it’s the real deal or

not yet. I can’t tell anything with my Alpha Stigma either. There are
traces of some sort of power being applied to it, but… hm? Ah, what
if I do this…?”

They mumbled at each other like so as they looked it over.

At that time, Milk was frantically trying to wiggle free of the rope
Ryner and Ferris had tied her up in. She managed to throw herself at
Luke and the others while wiggling like some kind of worm. “Hey,
wake up! Luke, Lach, Lear, Moe!” She said loudly.

The first to wake was Luke. “Uu… Chief Milk! You’re safe!”

“Yeah! How about you, Luke? You’re unhurt? You’re okay?”

Luke twisted his neck to check that it was injured after being hit with
that sword. “I seem to be fine. But… what in the world—”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s take care of everyone else first.”

They woke the others one after another until everyone was up.

“Uwah!” Moe said. “We’re all wrapped up!”

“Kgh… take that! Ugh, I can’t cut it,” Lach said.

Last was Lear who tried to tug at the ropes with his wrists. They
made a strange sound like a animal’s cry, but he shook his head. “It’s
no use. I can’t pull free even though I can move my wrists. These
taboo breakers aren’t run of the mill guys.”

96
There was another one of those sounds as he pulled his joints…

Moe grimaced. “Um… Lear, is that the sound of your wrist

dislocating?

“Hm? Yes, it is…”

“Uwah… that has to hurt. Are you okay? You don’t look concerned at
all…”

“You can’t dislocate your wrists?” Lach asked. “Didn’t you learn that
at the start of your military training?”

“What!? I didn’t! And I don’t wanna learn that! Hey, Chief Milk. You
never had to do that kind of painful training, right?”

“Huh? I was taught to dislocate pretty much anything except for my

neck.”

Their team fell into an uproar at Milk’s easy confession.

“E-everything?” Luke asked.

Lear could only shake his head. “I’m once again struck by how severe
the path our Chief has walked until now was…”

“Your whole body?” Lach asked.

“I-I can’t even imagine how painful that must be,” Moe said.

Milk examined their surroundings. They didn’t have the time for this
kind of leisurely conversation. They had to figure out how to save
Ryner. They had to figure out how to get out of this rope before they
could confront that dangerous beauty…

Then she heard a voice approaching.

“This should be the way those Roland spies from this morning went,
right?”

97
“Those guys even went as far as to use magic on the patrol when
they attacked our Nelphan fort… it’s like they’re making fun of us!”

“Yeah. We’ll teach them a lesson! We’ll catch them and ask why they
were sneaking around in that fort and what they’re doing slinking
around this place. We’ll make them confess everything. And we’ll
capture that beauty… heh, heheheh. That’s why we came with this
brigade of fifty men.”

Soon all of Milk’s team held their breath.

“Hm,” Luke said quietly. “Nelphan soldiers. We’re Taboo Hunters

here with Nelphan permission so there shouldn’t be a problem even
if they capture us, but we don’t have time to prove all that. If we did
the taboo breakers would escape…”

Milk ignored him and faced the direction of the Nelphan troops. They
were looking for Ryner. This was bad. Ryner and Ferris were doing
something really suspicious here, no doubt about that, and now
there were fifty Nelphan soldiers out to catch them… To catch
Ryner…

This was absolutely terrible!!

What should she do? The Nelphan army was going to capture him
even though he was innocent and…

The word ‘death’ rose to the front of her mind. They’d kill Ryner if
they caught him…

Milk shook her head, flustered. There was no way she’d let that
happen. She definitely absolutely wouldn’t let that happen!

She could still make it. They should still be able to get away as long
as she told them about the Nelphan soldiers now.

If she did it now, then…

98
Her team would be fine if they were caught. Ryner wouldn’t be.

“In any case, we should roll away from here,” Luke said. “That way
the Nelphan soldiers won’t find us…”

She wasn’t listening to him at all. She just… she just had to protect
Ryner!

She opened her mouth as wide as possible. “B-bathroom!”

“Huh?” Luke said, surprised.

“What!? Don’t you think a girl would be embarrassed being tied up

like this!? Perverts! Hurry up and untie me! I’m begging you to come
untie me! A girl has all sorts of business she has to take care of! L-
like… going to the bathroom… see what you’re making me say!!”

“C-chief. This is enemy territory, okay? Please… refrain from speaking

so loudly!”

But Luke’s words were in vain. Milk’s feelings had reached the
Nelphan army.

“Found ‘em! Over there! Round ‘em all up! We’ll make them pay for
what they did!”

“You’re kidding!” Lach yelled. “This has got to be a joke!”

“What do we do, what do we do, what do we do!?” Moe yelled.

Lear narrowed his eyes. “Chief, why…?” He turned to Luke for

confirmation.

Luke nodded, then looked to Milk. “What’s the meaning of this,

Chief?” Luke asked. He did so kindly even in a situation like this.

99
Milk lowered her head instinctively. She couldn’t say anything. Ryner
was being chased by Roland, after all… But she couldn’t lie to Luke
and the others either. They were just too kind…

Even now, Luke smiled at her kindly. “I see. It seems like there are
extenuating circumstances. That’s fine. We’ll always be on your side,
Chief. Now let’s think of what we should do about our situation.”

What a thing to say for her… Milk bit her lip. “Um, Luke…”

“Who’re these guys!” Someone else yelled. “They aren’t the ones
from this morning!”

“But they’re wearing Roland’s coat of arms too. They’re probably in

cahoots with those brats.”

A huge number of Nelphan troops surrounded them.

Milk, flustered, tried to think of an excuse, but Luke beat her to it

with a calm and collected tone. “Please calm down. We aren’t
suspicious in the slighte—”

“You lying Rolander son of a bitch! Just because our kings are friends
doesn't mean you can go sending spies! I’m not some fucking idiot,
I’ll never believe Rolander scum like you!”

“Please wait! We really aren’t suspicious!” Luke said, frantically

trying to get their excuse out. “We’re Taboo Hunters with Nelphan
permission to pursue taboo breakers—”

Crack! A thunderous noise echoed through the trees as an intense

light sparked in the heavens and then the flash of lightning cracked
through the sky above them. It was so bright that it was dazzling.
Disorienting.

The Nelphan soldiers all looked up at the sky and started talking over
each other.

100
“U-uwaah!?”

“W-what was that!?”

“Wasn’t that… Lightning Flash? One of Roland’s spells—”

His words cut off and disappeared. The same happened to Nelphan
soldiers all around them - their words cut off and vanished into
nothing…

Milk and Luke exchanged a glance. They understood the situation.

A peculiar silencing spell had been used. It was a Rolander spell

called Dark Garden. Their country had used it against Estabul in the
war - it was developed to make it so that Estabul couldn’t cast any
magic during battles. All that it did was stop vibrations in the air.
That made it seem like a relatively simple spell, but… that was all it
took to make the Nelphan soldiers fall into disarray.

They’d been shocked with the lightning and then trapped in a

soundless world to solidify their fear. And then, sometime later,
sound returned…

“W-what’s happening!?”

“This is bad! It’s an enemy! It’s gotta be an enemy!”

The Nelphan soldiers were already in a state of complete panic.

Luke was shocked, too. “That was undeniably Roland’s magic… but
what does that mean? It couldn’t have been the taboo breakers,
right? They’d have no reason to save Taboo Hunters…

Those words made Milk’s whole body shiver.

That was right. They shouldn’t have come to save her. Ryner said he
didn’t remember her… but he actually…

101
Augh! And after she’d gone though all that trouble to make sure he
could escape! She would have been fine even if they captured her…

That’s what she thought, but for some reason, her face relaxed.

And then… one of the Nelphan troops collapsed.

H-he was here!? Ryner had come to save her…

But the one who appeared was the blonde beauty, gracefully
swinging her sword around to defeat the soldiers. It was only her -
the woman named Ferris.

She’d come to protect Milk from the Nelphan soldiers…

“Huh!?”

What the heck!? Why was she saving Milk!?

She couldn’t understand that. What did it mean?

I-it couldn’t be, but… what if she wasn’t a bad guy using Ryner but
instead… his lover…?

Ryner finally came running listlessly towards her. Milk spoke without
speaking as soon as she saw him. “Ryner, you idiot! What are you
doing?

I can’t believe this! You hurried to save me, right!? What would you
have done if I wet myself!?”

Even though Ryner worked hard and finally, finally

came to save her… Those were her feelings as a maiden…

What were Ryner and that girl even doing in the thickets up until
now? Just thinking about it brought Milk to the brink of tears.

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“Uu… you’re calling your savior an idiot? I kinda feel like I’m wasting
away…”

N-no… “A, anyway, hurry up and untie me! This is an order! I may not
look it, but I’m chief here…”

“I-if you understand your situation, then please be a little quieter,”

Ryner said. “We finally got them off our asses and you’re still over
here making a fuss…”

Then that woman

spoke with the same monotone as always. “We’re already too late.”

“Huh?” Ryner said without thinking and turned back to look at the
Nelphan troops. They were already reorganizing themselves. They
were armed with swords, axes, clubs; all sorts of weapons.

“So you bastards were allies! Die, you damned Rolander spies!”

“T-this is all a misunderstanding,” Luke said. “But why in the world

are taboo breakers saving us…?

The Nelphan soldiers leapt for Ryner, weapons at the ready.

“S-s-seriously!? U, uwawaah!” Ryner yelled and just barely managed

to dodge. He’d have been dead meat if he were a second later. He
pulled something strange out of his pocket as he avoided their
attacks. It was made of a strange inorganic blue.

It was something like a dagger but it was hard to pinpoint where the
blade ended and the hilt began. But it was even harder to imagine it
was anything but a weapon.

“Huh?” Milk said. “But even if you fight them, it’s not like you can
win…”

103
Sure enough, soldiers soon crowded around him, swinging their
weapons. “Shit,” Ryner said. “What should I do, Ferr—”

Just then, something unbelievable happened.

One of the soldiers’ clubs connected with Ryner’s head and sent him
flying. His whole body danced in midair… and when he smashed back
into the ground he didn’t move at all. He was like a puppet whose
strings had been cut. The club had hit his head hard at a dangerous
angle… and there was a real possibility that he’d die.

“Th… this can’t… be real…”

She couldn’t believe it.

Just when they were finally reunited. She hadn’t gotten the chance
to tell him anything yet. She couldn’t tell him how thankful she was
or how much she really loved him… she couldn’t tell him anything
about her true feelings.

Ryner was…

“N-nooooo!! Ryner!?” Milk screamed without thinking.

Next was that beauty. She sounded like she was enjoying this. “Oh,
he finally died? Nice.”

Unbelievable. Why would she say that!? She knew that Ryner had
been killed, and yet…! There was no way she was his lover! She had
to be using him.

Ryner was… Ryner was…

As if in response to the beauty’s voice, Ryner rose his head to face

her and got up slowly. “Hey! I could’ve really been killed!”

What a thing to say… All Milk could do was stare dumbfounded.

104
No way… He shouldn’t be able to stand after that…? No, more
importantly, did the beauty know he’d be fine…?

Milk looked to Ferris who clicked her tongue once. “You lived. I’m
glad,” Ferris said, a little disappointed.

“…But you don’t sound even a little happy?”

“Don’t worry about that. If you were capable of dying here you
would have died from my sword twenty thousand times over by
now.”

“Then hold back a little when you hit me,” Ryner said.

“Mm. Leaving the jokes aside… this situation is pretty bad, Ryner. It’s
difficult to deal with this many men while protecting the girl you
threw away as well. Do something about it.”

“Hah!? Do what?”

“It’s simple. What’s that item you just found? A hero’s sword, no?
Then that makes you, who now owns it, a hero, yes? So you can do
something about this, can’t you?”

“What kind of reasoning is that? I haven’t even gotten to investigate

this thing at all yet. I don’t know how to make it work.”

“Then investigate it now.”

“I don’t have the time for that in this situati—”

“I’ll cover for you,” Ferris said. She stepped forward, putting herself
between Ryner and the enemy army as if to protect him.

Milk was at a loss for words. What kind of relationship did those two
have…?

105
Ryner fiddled around with the dagger in his hands in the meantime.
“This is absurd,” he muttered. “I don’t even know if anything will
come of investigating… whoa!?”

Ferris thrust her sword at Ryner for an instant before turning it back
towards the enemy army. “The next time you complain, your head
and body are getting a divorce.”

“Uu… Yes, ma’am…”

Ryner panicked and set to investigating the dagger’s pattern. He

studied it frantically, exactly as Ferris ordered him to. He really
earnestly investigated, investigated, and investigated…

And then, at last!

“I dooooonnn’ttt geeeettt iiiitt!! There’s no way I can analyze it in a

tight situation like this!” Ryner yelled, giving up easily. Then he threw
the dagger to the ground, his expression clearly labelling it too much
of a pain. The dagger’s tip planted in the ground…

Hiiiiiiiiiiiihhh!!!

The dagger emitted a high-pitched noise as it spun around, burying

itself within the earth.

“What!?” Milk yelled.

There was a brief moment between when that happened and when
the next oddity occured. The earth began to shake with great vigor.

“Eh? Huh, what? What is this, what’s happening!?”

Luke spoke next from behind her. “What is this…?”

Lach, Lear, Moe, and the entire Nelphan brigade all screamed at the
catastrophic shaking. Only Ryner remained composed…

106
What were they doing? What did Ryner get himself into?

Milk wanted to ask, but Ferris looked to Ryner and beat her to it.
“What did you do?”

“Who knows?” Ryner said easily.

And then… something happened. A massive pillar of fire rose from

the hole the dagger disappeared into. No… not just a pillar. It had a
massive jaw with sharp fangs and blood red eyes…

The pillar of fire had taken a dragon’s shape. It opened its huge
mouth and screamed. It was a roar that could only belong to a
monster.

“Wh-what is thaaaat!” Milk screamed. It wasn’t normal. It was

unbelievable. A beast that should have only existed inside picture
books had appeared before them.

Death was before their eyes. It had a horrible intimidating air about
it.

“Whoa, a monster!”

“We’ll be kiiillled!!!”

The Nelphan soldiers screamed and ran this way and that. But Milk
and her squad were tied tightly with rope, fastened in place…

“Ch-chiieeffff, what is thaaaattt!” Moe screamed.

“Y-you think I know!?”

“This is bad! This is super bad! ‘Cause it’s really

bad!” Lach yelled. “There’s nothin’ we can do noooowwww!!”

“…Uuumm,” was all Lear had to say.

107
Last was Luke. “Calm down, everyone! M-move like a caterpillar! Get
away as fast as you c—”

The dragon let out another blood curdling roar. It stopped Milk and
her team’s thoughts in their tracks.

“Gyaaaahhh!!”

All they could do was scream…

About ten minutes passed like that.

The only people left were the massive dragon, Milk and her team
who were all tired from screaming, and Ryner and Ferris.

Ignoring Milk and her team who were collapsed on their sides, Ferris
spoke to Ryner as he stared up at the dragon with astonishment.
“Amazing,” she said. “So that’s the hero of legend?”

“No, no matter how you look at it that’s a dragon… it is pretty

legendary though.”

“Hm. Well, it did save us. It did well. But that enough. It’s pointlessly
dangerous, so put it away.”

“…How?”

“……”

What a horribly irresponsible conversation.

Milk took one last look at the unbelievable scene before her. Ryner
and Ferris were completely ignoring the strange fact that a literal
dragon had risen from the ground before them… and then they
started to walk away, even turning a blind eye to what they’d done
to Milk and her team…

“But it really seems like that dagger’s a heroic relic, huh?” Ryner said.

108
“Of course it is. We had information that said it would be.”

“W-wait, Ryner!” Milk screamed. “I told you to untie this rope!”

But he somehow managed to ignore her. He didn’t even turn back to

look at her or make any move to show that he’d heard.

“Y-you’re kidding, right? Why…?”

Ryner and Ferris just kept walking. “But it’s like, kinda a pain that
they actually exist, you know~? That means we gotta go look for the
next heroic relic too. I don’t wannaaa.”

“You’re right. It’s horribly dangerous for me to have to go with a lazy

sex maniac like you for the whole journey.”

“No, I’m more worried about the danger my neck’s in.”

This wasn’t the time to joke around!! Didn’t they see that there was
a dragon right beside them!? Come to think of it, “What are you
going to do about the dragon!? Are you just going to abandon it!?”

But they didn’t turn around at all… and in the end, they disappeared
from sight. It was all she could do to gaze after them in
astonishment.

“Just… what happened to Ryner?” Milk whispered. He hadn’t even

turned to look at her.

She understood that Ryner must be in an awful situation right now.

Because it was just too strange. Why would he go out of his way to
save her and then just leave her here without even turning around to
look at her?

Milk’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t just leave it at this. He’d saved
her life once.

109
If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to make it this far.
She didn’t understand what kind of relationship that blonde beauty
had with Ryner. But that didn’t really matter. The fact that Ryner had
gotten wrapped up in something horrible was undeniable.

So… this time it was Milk’s turn to save him! Even if she had to throw
away everything to do it…

“Augh, my teeth hurt!” Lach said. “But I managed to chew through

the rope!”

“Great work,” Luke said. “Now could you untie everyone else?”

They were getting loud back there but Milk didn’t turn to look at
them.

“Yess!” Moe said. “Now do Chief Milk’s!”

Even so…

“Um… Chief Milk?” Luke said.

“……”

Milk didn’t turn back. Because she already said she’d throw
everything away, even if that meant betraying them. She’d already
lost the qualification to be their chief…

Luke was silent for awhile before trying again. “Um… Chief Milk, do
you remember what I said before?”

What Luke said before? What did he say? Milk’s head was already
full of what Ryner had said. She couldn’t remember what Luke said at
all…

“Um, do you know what I said about being in Major Miller’s team?”

“What in the world… do you—”

110
Luke cut her off and continued in a kind voice. “In any case, I was
Major Miller’s subordinate. This is a story about when I was a new
Taboo Hunter…”

Milk turned around to study Luke’s face, puzzled. What was he trying
to say?

Luke just continued, smiling the same sincerely kind smile as always.
“Me and Miller’s team followed a taboo breaker trail into the Runa
Empire. I’ll spare you the details, but the taboo breakers we were
pursuing were a family of four… two adults and two children they’d
adopted from an orphanage. Roland ordered us to eliminate them
rather than apprehend them. And not just the parents, either. We
were to kill the children too…”

Milk grimaced.

Right. That was the line of work they were in. They had to obey
orders regardless of the situation the taboo breakers were in. They
mustn’t judge the taboo breakers themselves. There was no such
thing as a taboo breaker without extenuating circumstances.

She recalled what Miller had said on the matter: “What would
knowing who the taboo breakers really are change? What if you’re
sympathetic? Would you be able to kill them? That’s the kind of duty
we have. It’s dirty work that people don’t like doing. But it’s also
work that someone needs to do…”

Naturally, that applied to the family Luke was talking about too…

“Our aim was to capture them as soon as possible,” Luke said. “But
the parents resisted and it turned into an all-out battle… but we
managed to apprehend them. The parents cried and frantically
pleaded for their lives. They didn’t care what happened to
themselves but their kids… yes, that’s all they asked for. As you
know, Chief Milk, Major Miller…”

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Milk averted her eyes. She didn’t want to hear the ending.

Miller was probably correct. The way he did things would save the
largest number of lives. They were bestowed with a mission and he
had the resolve to accomplish it. But Milk didn’t want to have to
listen to such an explicit story.

Even so, Luke continued, detached. Like it had happened to someone

else. “I thought about it all sorts of ways at the time. There was no
way to save them.

They understood that, too. But when they heard the kids would be
killed too, they reluctantly escaped… that had been the reason they
left Roland in the first place.”

To protect the lives of their kids…

That was their reasoning. Milk found it just. Anyone would escape in
their situation, and no one would blame them for it…

No one should blame them for it, but…

“They told us they loved their sons,” Luke said. “That they hadn’t
been blessed with children of their own but that they’d spent over
five years with their adopted sons and loved them as their own. That
they couldn’t bear the idea of their sons being killed because of their
sins. So they had to protect them at all costs. They had to save them,
even if only the kids lived… but…”

Luke stopped for a moment before continuing.

“But Major Miller… killed the children first.”

Milk was left wordless.

“The parents were wounded and brought back to their country,”

Luke continued. “They were given the death penalty… and our job

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was done. Then we left on our next job. That’s the line of work we’re
in. People who can’t do that aren’t needed as Taboo Hunters.”

“…Yeah,” Milk said and nodded honestly.

She understood what Luke was saying: that he’d already realized that
Milk had wanted to save Ryner. He realized that she wasn’t needed
on their team anymore…

“I,” Milk whispered. “I… resig—”

“Ah, by the way, Chief Milk,” Luke suddenly interrupted. “Those two
kids that Major Miller killed were, coincidentally, named Moe and
Lach. What do you think of that?”

“Hueh?” Milk said without thinking. Why did she make such a dumb
noise?

But when she looked up and at her team, they were all smiling…

“Huh? What? But that means…”

“That’s how it happened,” Luke said. “In the end, Major Miller did
not kill the children. He couldn’t kill them. Even though he says all
those self-important things, he himself was unable to do it.” He
grimaced a bit. “Well, despite their circumstances, he didn’t save
their parents… but even so, he didn’t kill the children. There was a
possibility he’d be killed for treason in turn, seems as it was during
the previous king’s era… but he didn’t kill them and stealthy returned
them to Roland where he employed them as his subordinates.”

“Th, then, then that means…”

Milk started but was unable to come up with anything to say. So Luke
continued to speak. “There was a chance that I’d be tried for treason
as well, but I obeyed Major Miller’s orders. The others on our team
did, too. No, we didn’t simply obey. We really thought that Major

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Miller’s judgement was always correct. We all had complete faith in
Major Miller’s character and reasoning so we obeyed him without
judgement. I think that’s what it means to be a team. So…”

Luke exchanged a look with Lear. Though Lear’s cool expression

never crumbled, right now he was smiling sincerely. “I have faith in
Chief Milk.”

“Me too!” Moe said.

“Yeah, me too,” Lach agreed.

Last was Luke. His expression was uncharacteristically serious. “Chief

Milk, to tell you the truth, we all declined when Major Miller first
asked us to be your subordinates. We told him that we were his
subordinates first and foremost. Not anyone else’s.”

“Really?”

Luke nodded kindly. “But that changed after we met you and talked
to you. We decided to follow you. Since then, we’ve been your
family. That’s what a team is to us. We love you so we follow you.
We love you so we want to spend time with you. So if you want to
get back something that you’ve lost, then we want you to be happy.
We don’t fight for our country. We fight for our people. If someone is
important in your eyes, if you want to save them even a little,
then…”

He stared at Milk, unwavering. She didn’t know what to say.

So Luke continued. “So do what you think is right, Chief. We’ll follow
you and trust you just like we did with Major Miller. You don’t have
to worry. If you do something wrong, we’ll make it right. We’re your
allies no matter what happens. So you don’t need to worry no matter
what you decide to do. You’re our Chief no matter what happens.”

Luke smiled brightly for a moment before continuing.

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“So let’s eat another lively meal together. We are family, after all.”

“Family…”

Milk couldn’t move.

It was the first time anyone had told her that.

Family… family…

She didn’t think… she wanted that. She’d never had a family in the
first place, and… she didn’t even really know what having one
meant…

But the people here in front of her now… were her family…?

“Fami…”

For some reason, she couldn’t even say it.

She didn’t know what a family was. She didn’t even think she wanted
one. So why did that word resound so strongly in her heart…?

Her field of vision dampened and faded.

Luke, flustered and surprised by her tears, hurried over to her and
pet her head to try to calm her…

Lach and Moe started to frantically tell jokes to try and make her
laugh…

And Lear smiled and watched over her.

Milk had really, truly never known that this side of the world existed.

She didn’t know that people didn’t have to be alone.

When had this happened? When had the world become a warmer
place…?

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She… wasn’t alone.

And so they went to save Ryner.

She didn’t say that they were going to do it happily. Even though
tears were falling down her face and she looked awfully sad… she
smiled. Smiled lots and lots.

“Now then,” Luke said to Milk as she smiled. “We’re only getting to
this

quite late

, but now that we’ve settled our problems, what should our next
action be?”

“Our next action?” Milk repeated, not understanding.

Luke… no, everyone

raised their fingers at once and pointed to the side.

Then Milk understood. Her head was all full of Ryner so she’d
forgotten about it, but… when she looked to the side, there was
really still a massive, unmoving dragon there.

“Ah,” Milk said, lowering her voice. “Understood. All troops,

withdraw at once!”

“Yes, ma’am!” They all said, lowering their voices along with her.

Lach and Moe gathered up Milk, still tied up with rope, to carry her.
“Then we’ll escape at once!”

“Understood!”

Leaving aside what Milk’s team was thought of it all, they left quietly,
far different from the fuss they were making up until a minute ago.

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The dragon didn’t respond. It was like it wasn’t even alive…

117
Chapter 3: To Each His Own Melancholy

Roland was facing its biggest panic yet since Sion took the throne.

Estabul was rebelling. A great number of their soldiers were

sympathetic to the cause, too, and it’d become quite the force to be
reckoned with.

Outside of the public eye, Roland’s nobility was terrified.

They were currently in the grand royal palace. It was a huge,

excessive building that had been constructed by Roland’s previous
master for the sole purpose of flaunting his authority. Each pillar was
laid in his name, as was the throne itself.

It used to be that anyone who spoke to the king on his throne didn’t
have opinions of their own.

No, they might’ve, but they’d get the death penalty if they spoke
them… because the punishment for souring the king’s mood was the
death penalty. That was the kind of country this was. A country that
only rotted as the days passed…

But right now, Sion was sitting at the throne. Before him were many
nobles and people affiliated with the military. They of course
included Claugh, Calne and Froaude; Newbull of the pro-monarchy
party who’d followed and obeyed Sion since his early days of power;
and other nobles who obeyed Sion’s orders.

And… the head of the anti-monarchy party, Duke Staelied, and his
partymen.

As Sion looked through the faces swarming the throne, he let a little
smile show through. “This is pretty easy to understand,” he said
quietly.

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The organization of the pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy parties
assembled before him were as easy to understand: one was to his
left, the other his right. Of course there were probably spies from the
anti-monarchy party within the pro-monarchy party, but that went
both ways. It was just that the anti-monarchy party was open with
their reactionary behavior. They didn’t have the mind to hide it. That
alone was proof that they didn’t yet have the power to stand up
against Sion.

The people by Sion’s side right now consisted only of the upper
brackets of the military and nobles with relation to them. They too
were motivated to come here by political self-interest… Because if
they followed Sion, who’d gotten here through the military, their
own rank would rise. That was probably what they were thinking.

In the end, there was hardly anyone here who legitimately put their
country first.

“…Well, that was pretty obvious though…”

A voice from the anti-monarchy party’s side started their discussion.

When Sion looked over to him, he fit the picture his voice had
brought to mind exactly: Count Culliard, a man just starting his
forties. “Your Majesty, how do you intend on taking responsibility for
this matter? Will you, by chance, be forgiving the Estabulian
rebels…?”

“A tall and spindly older gentleman, Newbull, spoke next. “Sir

Culliard, that is quite rude of you to say to His Majesty!” Count
Newbull barked, glaring harshly at Culliard.

Culliard flinched, then turn back as if to keep anyone from reading

his face. But he soon regained his confidence. “Hah! Sir Newbull, I
only spoke the truth. Or do you have proof that the king has the
power to put the low-born rebels of Estabul in their place?”

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“Do you think that level of disrespect can be forgiven!?”

Sion smiled bitterly at their back-and-forth. He spoke so softly that it

was almost soundlessly so that no one else could hear. “I can forgive
it…”

That was the situation Sion was currently in. He couldn’t control the
influential nobility even while sitting in the throne. But he could
forgive the nobility for this.

Sion narrowed his eyes and glared past Culliard to where Duke
Staelied stood.

Culliard hadn’t been hiding his own complexion before. He’d been
checking Staelied’s. The one who held the most power here now
wasn’t Sion. It was Staelied.

He was a being who lived in darkness: he pulled strings with every

other noble, threatened them, and bribed them. He’d been a close
consort of the previous king.

He was a shrewd man.

Even though the previous king had been overthrown, Staelied’s own
status as the most influential noble went unchanged.

Sion had sent many spies to Staelied’s and yet they were all
unsuccessful in catching him Even so, no spy ever returned. Even so,
Staelied’s fief was always wealthy and he was popular with his
people.

He was a man in his late fifties with perfect posture and an agreeable
expression. But he was, without a doubt, at the top of the nobility
food chain.

To top it all off, Sion could feel the presence of a number of people
behind him who didn’t enter the fray at all…

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Sion shook his head, tired. Thinking about it now wouldn’t change
anything. Someday in the near future he’d have to face off squarely
with the nobility… but right now Estabul was more important. The
Estabulian rebellion was more important.

“……”

Sion looked to his own party. To a man watching Newbull and

Culliard’s row with a refreshed expression. He was the real
perpetrator of the Estabulian rebellion who’d suggested an
unthinkable plan to round up and kill all the dangerous factions in
Estabul. He was currently watching the nobility’s disorganized
confusion with a faint smile.

“Disrespect, you say?” Culliard said. “I speak nothing but the truth.
His Majesty was a bit too soft on the people. The common folk are
ignorant. Even though they cannot live without our care, they soon
take advantage of our kindness if we do not rule over them properly!
This all happened because His Majesty was too soft on them!”

Newbull’s face reddened. “Sir Culliard, you—”

His voice was drowned out by the anti-monarchy party raising their
voices in agreement with Culliard.

“He’s right! His majesty was a bit too soft!”

“He made light of us nobles to try to make things easier for the
commoners!”

“His Majesty treats us nobles like—”

“Shut up!!” Someone suddenly yelled. His voice carried well

throughout the room, accompanied by a strong intimidating aura.

The nobility all quieted so neatly that it was almost like it was
practiced. They all looked towards the man who’d yelled.

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Staelied.

Then Claugh, who stood closest to Sion’s side, spoke quietly. “Hm…
so he’s finally arrived,” Claugh spat.

Staelied looked around his surrounding nobles, seeming to look

down on them, then looked to Sion. “Please pardon their behavior,
Your Majesty,” he said calmly. “They are simply the opinions of the
young… even so, they say what they do because they have their
country’s best interests in mind. We too are perplexed regarding this
Estabulian rebellion.”

They had their country’s best interests in mind? How dare he?

Sion laughed scornfully internally, and outwardly nodded

exaggeratedly. “I understand. I’m grateful as always to Duke Staelied
as well as the rest of the nobles gathered here for their continued
devotion towards our country.”

Staelied lowered his head, bowing deeply. “My, my. I truly have no
words…”

Newbull and the others just glared at him as he did. Obviously. He’d
made Newbull lose face, after all. But with a shrug of their shoulders,
he was forgiven. They couldn’t afford to fight Staelied now. So they
had to act exactly how the anti-monarchy party expected…

This wasn’t the place for revenge. It was the place to talk about the
Estabulian rebellion. They had to make progress on that matter.

“Now then, Your Majesty, how do you plan to progress with the
matter of the rebellion in Estabul?” Staelied asked with a cunning
smile settled on his lips. “They have high status for being the losers
of a war, and the nobility can’t help but be scared. If at all possible,
we hope for a swift response to the matter…”

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They’d been formally notified of the rebellion two days ago. It should
have been utterly impossible to think of a plan on how to properly
deal with it in that time. That’s what was written on Staelied’s face.
There was no way they’d confirmed the rebellion’s ringleaders or
their stronghold’s location yet.

Sion smiled meanly. “Of course I’ve a counterplan. The very fact that
this sort of rebellion is occurring now is in line with my expectations.
Please do relax.”

The palace erupted in an uproar.

Staelied, surprised, studied Sion as if to try to look into his mind. No,
not just him. The pro-monarchy party - Claugh, Calne, and Newbull
among others - stared at him in shock as well.

“You expected a rebellion?” Claugh asked.

Sion nodded, but he never looked away from Staelied. “My

investigation also returned information on the ringleader. It is Lady
Noa Ehn, the daughter of the previous king of Estabul, Lughe Ehn,
who has always obstinately refused to meet with me. She is at the
center of a number of nobles and the soldiers who obey them.”

Staelied’s expression turned pained. “It can’t be… you’ve already…”

Sion didn’t let his mumbled remark escape. “Yes, I’ve already had it
all investigated. So I’d like it all the nobles here could rest assured
and reassure their people in turn. I am not as foolish as you all
think…”

He wasn’t so foolish that he’d always forgive the nobility for acting as
they pleased.

Sion glared openly at Staelied and the nobles gathered behind him.
Some of the nobles turned their fearful faces away.

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Others hung their heads. Only Staelied didn’t tear his eyes from Sion,
ever smiling…

“That is reassuring,” Staelied said. “It is because Your Majesty is here

that our country can remain a country…”

Sion ignored that remark. “Now then, I’d like the one who
investigated the situation in Estabul for me, Colonel Miran Froaude,
to take it from here.”

Froaude bowed lightly in acknowledgement then took a single step

forward. He waited for the nobles to quiet and for their eyes to
gather on him and then spoke in his cold, dead, devil-like voice. “The
situation is not especially favorable. According to the my
information… thirty thousand soldiers and counting have gathered
over the past few days. If we let the situation be, surely their
numbers would reach fifty thousand.”

The nobles paled.

“F-fifty thousand!?”

“That’s ridiculous… d-doesn’t that mean that about half of Estabul’s

former army is participating in this rebellion…?”

“That’s beyond a rebellion - it’s a war!”

Froaude appeared to ignore their comments altogether and

continued in a detached tone. “The battle will take place in former
Estabul, but… an amount of damage to Roland’s territory will likely
occur as well. Even so, I have a plan to keep the damage to a
minimum. The domain most at risk for a battle within Roland
according to my plan is… that of Lord Culliard’s…”

“Ngh!? I won’t allow—”

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“I do apologize, Lord Culliard, but please think of the enemy’s
movements and that geographical area’s merit. This is a move
necessary to minimize damage. I believed you, Lord Culliard, who
thinks only of his country would readily consent.”

“Gh… you,” Culliard started, but no more words came out.

Froaude waited a moment to ensure that he had nothing else to say

before continuing. “In addition, Lord Staelied’s domain, Lord
Newbull’s domain, Lord Ishurna’s domain, and Lord Paul’s domain…
may end up as battlefields as well. As such, I would like it if the
nobles could vacate their domains for awhile as this matter is settled
and take refuge within the castle. Oh, but rest assured. The military
and I will protect your domains in your absence…”

Sion smiled wryly. Aside from Newbull, they were all the domains of
nobles from the anti-monarchy party.

Culliard, Ishurna, and Paul naturally paled. “W-wait. Are you telling
us to leave our property for you to trample!?”

“I-I can’t forgive that. I absolutely won’t—”

Froaude fixed his dark eyes on them. “Won’t forgive? Won’t forgive
what? Do you have a problem with me visiting your domain in your
absence? Or is there something that you worry I’d see?”

“D-don’t be ridiculous! I have nothing of the sort! B, but…”

Staelied spoke from their side as if to save them. “Calm down, now,
Sir Culliard. I understand what you three are trying to say,” he said
and turned to Froaude. “My lord Colonel Miran Froaude. You aren’t
making an effort to be understanding of them, are you? You too are
of noble lineage so you must understand how much we love our
domain and its people are saddened to be seperated from them.

125
It saddens us to hear that they may have to be exposed to the
horrors of war. Is there anything we might be able to do for them?”

Froaude narrowed his eyes and spoke. “I see. If that’s the case,
please stay within your domains. Estabul’s forces number fifty
thousand at most… our military will surely protect you.”

Sion forced laughter back and smiled wryly. A single territory could
not be easily protected against fifty thousand soldiers. If they
remained on their land, there was a possibility they’d die…

The nobles paled. “N-no, I’m not so obstinate that I’d prefer to stay
within my territory…”

Staelied raised a hand to stop him. “Colonal Froaude… I am saying

that I’d like something to be done so as to avoid war spreading so far
into Roland. Is that not the purpose of our military?”

“Hoh. Are you suggesting we have the rebellion be subjugated within

Estabul?”

“Yes. Is it not better to avoid getting the people of Roland wrapped

up in this?”

“But Estabul too is now a part of Roland. Their people are Roland’s
people, are they not?”

“I wonder if you truly think that? They are a people who were
defeated in war—”

“The things you say, Duke,” Froaude interrupted. “One could not
truly maintain your belief after the recent developments within the
Roland Empire.”

Staelied’s eyes had been calm until now, but they went harsh in an
instant. “Colonal Froaude, I believe you just said too much, don’t
you? Do you know who I—”

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Froaude cut him off again, quickly bowing. “How rude of me. I will
accept your scolding after this meeting is adjourned. But in this
moment, what we should do about Estabul is what’s important. They
are growing more powerful as we speak. We could continue in
several ways, one of which being attempting to talk it out, but…”

He turned to Sion, who shook his head. “No. That would make
rebelling a forgivable offense. They’d rebel again and we’d enter a
second age of war where Estabul attempts to gain independence.”

Froaude nodded. “Then we shall suppress their rebellion. I will lead

the army to Estabul…”

That was something that’d been decided from the beginning.

Froaude would lead the army and kill all the soldiers and nobles of
Estabul… But Sion shook his head. “No, let’s leave it to Major General
Claugh Klom this time. I entrust the entirety of Estabul’s subjugation
to him.”

Froaude turned to look at Sion. His expression was just as dark and
cold as always, but Sion understood what he was trying to say.

That Sion had gotten it wrong.

The scenario that Froaude had written for him went like this -
Froaude would accept the position in charge of Estabul’s rebellion,
and while they scrambled to get in contact with the traitor, he’d
slaughter all of Estabul’s nobles. Furthermore, he’d expand the
battlefield to include territories within Roland and use the
opportunity to investigate and punish the anti-nobility faction.

However.

Froaude’s tone was as composed as ever. “Your Majesty, this is—”

“Will you do it, Claugh?” Sion asked, cutting Froaude off.

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Claugh looked to Froaude and smiled smugly. “Please leave it to me,”
he said, correcting his manners for the occasion.

“Froaude, you’ll play the part of information transmission. I’ll have

Claugh help you so that you can make the best of your intelligence
network.”

“Ahh? Supporting this guy is kinda—”

“It’s an order, Claugh. You too, Froaude - are you alright with this?”

It was an order. Sion said so himself. To Claugh and to Froaude.

Froaude smiled faintly.

“……Understood. That is fine. Please leave it to me,” Froaude said

emotionlessly.

“Then the matter of Estabul’s subjugation will be left entirely to

Major General Claugh Klom. That’s the end of that. As for the rest of
you, please relax and return to your duties. That’s final,” Sion said a
bit loudly.

Nobody objected.

The nobility left the palace - those who were dissatisfied as well as
those who were smiling in satisfaction, unabashedly happy that their
territories wouldn’t get wrapped up in any fighting. Only Staelied
broke away from the rest. He behaved as though nothing was wrong,
gazing into the place where darkness had settled despite being in the
midst of a crowd.

Miran Froaude.

He was currently standing a short distance from the pro-monarchy

party.

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Obviously. It was clear just by looking that the king had rejected his
views a moment ago.

Could Froaude not have caused the rebellion in bad faith?

That was Staelied’s guess. Otherwise there was no way to explain

how their young king managed to gain so much information on it so
quickly. Then Frouade would subjugate it and rise in the world due to
his achievements. Was that not Froaude’s plan from the beginning?

“……”

Staelied felt that he was a dangerous man. On top of being sharp, his
plan was merciless. It was like he was just playing with the lives of
others. He was a man one didn’t want as his enemy. Or… it was more
like it wasn’t necessary to make him his enemy.

Staelied waded through the smiling crowd and made his way over to
Froaude. Right. There was no need to make an enemy out of him.
After all, he was the same type as human as Staelied. If he was to get
in contact with him, now was the time. The king had slighted him, so
it was Staelied’s chance to get him on his side instead…

“Hey, Colonol Froaude, my lord.”

Froaude turned at the sound of his name. “If it isn’t the Lord Duke. I
apologize for my unthinkable rudeness before…”

Staelied raised his hand lightly to stop him, his expression as calm as
always. “No, no, don’t mind that now. You were compelled by your
feelings for your country. I’m always hearing quite a lot about your
great service. Your father Marquiss Froaude is no doubt proud of
you.”

Froaude’s face twitched. “Your words of praise are the highest honor
to me.”

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Father…

Staelied knew the significance of that word to Froaude. He was an

orphan adopted by the Froaude house for the purpose of gathering
military accomplishments. He was faithful to Marquiss Froaude, too,
and Staelied had heard that he’d use any trick in the book to rise in
rank, no matter what it took…

“I’m sure that you’re already aware, but your father Marquiss
Froaude and I are quite close,” Staelied continued. “I’ve always
wanted to be close to you as well.”

“My, my. I also have always wanted to talk with my lord Duke
Staelied at least once.”

“I see. I thought that might be the case. Because you and are are
quite similar people,” Staelied said as if to test the waters.

“…Yes, perhaps. We certainly may share similarities in that regard,

my lord Duke.”

Obviously.

He’d managed to make contact with him from the opposing party.
And madness wasn’t what reflected in his eyes…

Staelied smiled in satisfaction. “Yes, yes. What do you think, standing

at the young king’s side?”

Froaude cast his eyes downward in thought for a moment.

“Unfortunately, my ideas didn’t go over well today. It is certainly due
to his naivety. He lacks the severity necessary to deal with enemies.
Even if one might be right before his eyes, he still wonders if he can’t
save them. He has the strength to kill his enemies but also the ability
to sympathize with them; that is his weakness. That weakness causes
him to waver between good and evil.

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That is only my image of him, however. He does not prioritize the
most profitable outcome, so to be frank, he is difficult for me to deal
with.”

His words were decisive.

Staelied could win him over.

Even if he was adopted, a father was a father and a son was a son.
He was the same as Marquiss Froaude. If he was shown something
fascinating, he’d recklessly change sides. He was fully willing to
entrap others for his own profit.

“I see,” Staelied said joyfully. “So you think so too?”

“I do.”

“Then what do you think? Which side has the more profitable plan?”

Froaude tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

Staelied smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? Between following me or following

the king, which is more profitable?”

“…I do not understand.”

“…Heheh. You are quite careful. And outstanding. I’m talking about
which plan. It’s alright - who do you think I am? I can give you
whatever you’d like as compensation. A smart man such as yourself
is worth quite a lot. I can even make you my right-hand man.”

That was the truth.

The nobles who he associated with were content with just indulging
themselves in the desires before their eyes. There was no need to
talk about the future with people like that. But the man before his
eyes, Froaude…

131
“Try as you might, you are just as dim witted as the other nobles.”

“…Wh… what are you…”

Staelied stopped. Froaude’s expression had changed…

His lips, red as a trail of blood, opened.

“Have you already forgotten what I rudely said before?” Froaude

asked. “Our respectful and affectionate king is too kind for enemies.
When the worms of the nobility wiggle before him, he wants to do
something to save them. Even though I would kill them as soon as
possible for him, he wants to let a stunted people like you live. That
is why I must always kneel on the ground beside him and crush you
worms.”

Bloodlust spouted from him so strongly that even Staelied who was
never a military man understood.

W-was he going to kill him!?

Staelied couldn’t take a single step away. It was like he was

paralyzed.

“W-what are you…”

Miran laughed soundlessly. But Staelied could hear it.

It was the devil’s voice.

If he moved, he’d be killed. If he spoke, he’d be killed. If he opposed

him he’d be killed.

Staelied was full of regret.

He’d been wrong. Completely wrong. They weren’t the same type of
person at all. What on earth had he called out…?

He was truly… a demon…

132
Froaude spoke, detached. “You wanted to compensate me with what
I desire, did you not? But it is impossible for you. Sion Astal is the
only one who can turn my desire into a reality. Only he, with both his
strengths and his weaknesses, can become the true king. Only he can
conquer the entire continent of Menoris.”

A-all of Menoris… what was this man saying…? Did he truly intend to
engulf the whole world in war…?

“I will ask you the same,” Froaude said. “What do you intend to do?
Between the mastermind standing behind you who has not yet
shown their form… and my king… Let us decide soon for the sake of
your life. Before the rebellion in Estabul is quelled…”

Froaude suddenly smiled meanly. It wasn’t the blood curdling smile

from early. It was simply a cold, emotionless smile…

Staelied’s body snapped out of its paralysis. He could now move, but
his whole body was covered in cold sweat and exhausted. It was such
a severe exhaustion that he wasn’t sure how his knees didn’t
collapse on the spot.

“I sincerely thank you for your good advice,” Froaude said. “I will
now excuse myself.”

With that, he rejoined the pro-monarchy crowd.

Staelied watched him in shock. He knew he’d gotten tangled up in a

spider’s web. Froaude had gone out of his way to stand away from
the rest of the pro-monarchy party to make himself easier to
contact…

Staelied thought back to what Froaude had said.

“Let us decide soon for the sake of your life. Before the rebellion in
Estabul is quelled…”

133
He did not understand what that meant. He had to consider it a
while longer.

It was an old castle different from Rolands. It was a bit dirty all
around, and all in all its only redeeming feature was its spaciousness.
Well… it wasn’t really on the same scale as a castle at all, really. It
was one of many forts created to guard Estabul from Roland during
the war.

A girl was in one of the fort’s rooms.

Noa Ehn. Princess of the late Kingdom of Estabul. She had been the
sole successor to the throne.

She spoke in a clear voice. “So? Where is my father the king now?”

When she raised her head her beautiful hair, so dark blue that it was
almost black, wavered. She had strong, resolute blue eyes that one
wouldn’t think belonged to a girl of only seventeen. She inherited
her radiantly handsome face from her late mother, who was said to
be the most beautiful woman in all of Estabul. Noa had the same
grace and dignity as her a generation later.

In order to make her fit for this harsh place, Noa, who was the only
successor to the throne that Estabul was ever blessed with, had
decided to education for the ruling despite being a woman for
Estabul’s sake.

In the end, she was going to be made to be king…

The man she considered her most trusted confidant answered her
question. “His Majesty is currently using his status as a noble in
Roland to butter the enemy up. Sooner or later he will find a chance
and make an ally out of them.”

She smiled. “You would tell me a lie like that…? Sarawel…”

134
The man she’d called Sarawel’s only answer was a shrug. He was in
the later half of his twenties and the noble she’d known the longest.
He was a clever man who’d graduated at the top of his class in the
Royal Academy and was a son of the noble Sayle family.

Now it was his turn to ask. “Then how would you say it?”

“…How would I? Let me see… ‘Your father easily sold our country to
Roland in exchange for our safety and social status as Rolanders. Is it
alright if I say it like that? But I did not think you would worry about
him now after so long.’” Noa shook her head lightly at her own
words. “It isn’t… that I’m particularly worried. I have never been very
close to my father. After my mother’s death he was always busy here
and there despite his age… I just think that the people of Estabul
might be happier if my father was leading this rebellion instead of a
woman like me.”

Sarawel raised his head. “Lady Noa, I hadn’t noticed your

thoughtfulness… but our people and nobility say they adore you. The
word on the streets is that your wisdom will soon make you a good
king…”

Noa smiled bitterly. “Did you not spread that yourself?”

“If it were not the truth, then it wouldn’t have taken no matter how
much I tried to spread it,” Sarawel said without an ounce of shyness.
Estabul has been lying in wait, wishing for a true king.”

“…So you did do it,” Noa said with a small smile. It soon changed to a
tired smile. It might be the last time they shared pleasantries like
this… Noa’s expression stiffened.

Sarawel noticed and spoke kindly. “Are you scared, Princess?”

“Scared?” Noa looked to Sarawel, then closed her eyes.

135
“I am… The nobility convinced me to accept this position as leader of
the rebellion, but what if we can’t win against Roland? What will
happen then?”

“We will win,” Sarawel said sincerely. “We won’t lose against Roland,
which used vicious methods against us.”

“Vicious? But have they not by and large left our people unharmed?
Is fighting them really necessary?”

“Of course. Estabul’s legacy is being snuffed out by Roland’s hand—”

“Sarawel,” Noa interrupted. “I don’t care about countries. What is

the difference in a world where a country called Estabul exists
compared to one where it does not? The people are more important.
So will this truly make the people happy? Is this fight truly necessary?
Is it not just needless bloodshed?” Noa opened her eyes and gazed at
Sarawel. “If it allows our people to grow happy, then I do not mind.
You’re the one who taught me that, are you not? Sarawel.”

He considered it for a moment. “Your thought process is correct.

Even so, Princess. We must fight here and now.”

“……”

“It is because we are powerful that Roland has left us unharmed.

They respect Estabul’s people. But what of next time? What about
after Roland takes all of Estabul’s power for itself? Roland will likely
start to tyrannize our people then, won’t they? They’ll discriminate
against us. If they are truly heartless, they’ll enslave us. That is what
people and countries do. They want to push others down below
themselves. The nobility does it to commoners and commoners do it
to slaves. And Roland’s nobility does not have a very good
reputation, so this conjecture may turn into reality.

136
So us nobles who think of our people must act now while we still
have the power to do so.”

Noa listened wordlessly. She didn’t speak for awhile even after he
was done. She understood the weight of the key she held. It was the
heavy key to people’s lives…

“…Sarawel… if you say it, then it surely the case. That has been the
case until now… and it seems that I have been given control over a
great many lives - that of our people, our soldiers, our countrymen…”

“They do not balk at the idea of death if it is for your sake.”

Those were the words she hated most.

She didn’t want to become king or anything of the sort.

A king’s job was to weight the lives of people, saving the heavier lives
and cutting down those who were lighter. She’d learned that from
Sarawel.

Even if she didn’t want to do it, she had to. It was to save as many of
Estabul’s people as possible…

She stood. When she did, Sarawel made to open the door…

It opened slowly but surely. On the other side were many nobles and
military leaders who revered her as king.

And furthermore, she’d engulf her people and soldiers in the real
flames of war…

“Soldiers, raise your heads. Muster your courage. We are going to

save our people. We are going to revive Estabul’s legacy. We are just,
and this is a fight we will win. Will you trust and follow me?”

137
She was engulfed in screams of approval. Noa cast her eyes
downward for a moment before raising her head. Her resolute eyes
had lost their hesitation, and she stood as a goddess of war might.

She exhaled, then spoke once again. “Then let us invade Roland.”

And so the war began…

---

Sion sat in a daze in the throne of the empty palace of Roland.

The ceilings were decorated beautifully, but one wouldn’t notice

unless they looked up. Sion was gazing at the winged angels and the
demons aiming for them.

He just continued to stare and stare.

“Don’t… die,” he whispered softly to himself.

Many people would die. That was an unmistakable fact.

Because this was war. Even though they’d tried so hard to avoid war
with Estabul…

People like Ryner and Kiefer had payed for that with the wounds on
their hearts… Tyle, Tony, Falhe, and many many others had payed for
that with their lives and allowed them to avoid war with Estabul…
and yet…

In the end, it’d happened.

“…That Froaude…”

Sion shook his head as he said it. No, that was wrong. It was because
he too thought this war was correct that he didn’t stop Froaude,
right? And as if to excuse it to himself he ordered Claugh to
subjugate Estabul instead of Froaude.

138
Of course he already understood that this was the sort of path he
was walking. But… he couldn’t leave the subjugation to Froaude.
Because if he could save even the smallest thing, then he wanted to
do so.

He wasn’t being hypocritical. Froaude used his own methods, as did

Claugh. All sorts of methods were necessary…

“…I should also have… methods of my own…”

But even so, people would die. Not just one or two people, either.

People died on his orders. But he had to decide. Was the left or the
right heavier? Which lives were more important?

Claugh was already headed out to subjugate Estabul’s army.

“Claugh too… will have to kill again…”

Sion closed his eyes.

How many times had these kinds of things already happened…

When he opened his eyes again, he yelped. “Uwah!?”

Something had appeared before him. A woman… no, a girl whose

presence he hadn’t felt at all had appeared and was now staring at
Sion from her place dangling from the angel and devil ornaments on
the ceiling, surprising him like always.

The palace was so heavily guarded that a single rat shouldn’t have
been able to enter, nevermind a girl. And yet in spite of the guards,
there she was hanging from the ceiling, her unbelievably beautiful
face scrunched up in suspense. “Hey, hey, hey, um, umm, Iris has
been watching you for awhile now from that pillar over there, then
from behind the throne, then from up here on the ceiling, sneeeakily
watching you, so are you gonna cry? Are you gonna cry?”

139
She had beautiful blonde hair and a dress covered in frills, complete
with a backpack that didn’t quite fit her look.

Sion covered his face with his hands. “Ugh… how uncool… you’re
telling me that you’ve been wandering around watching me in my
time of worry all this time?”

Iris beamed. “Yeah! You make lots of funny faces! Like the kind of
crying face you see in picture books, right!? That’s the first time Iris
has seen that kind of expression in real life! ‘Cause, ‘cause Ferris
doesn’t do things like cry and instead of crying, Lucile’s always
smiling to the point that it’s scary…” Iris’ adorable face scrunched up
in disgust.

Sion smiled. “Ah, Lucile certainly is scary.”

Really, how scary he was wasn’t what they should be making a fuss
over…

Ferris and Iris’ older brother was the current head of the swordsman
family that’d guarded Roland’s king through the generations, the Eris
family. But ‘guard’ might be a bit of a misleading statement. In truth
their duty was to think of protecting the country regardless of its
king’s life.

Lucile would probably kill Sion as soon as he decided he was unfit to

be king, and no one would be able to stop him. He was a true
monster…

Well, Erises like Ferris and Iris had their cute points, but… due to
undergoing the endless strict training of the Eris family from a young
age, they lacked common sense…

Like having never seen anyone cry.

No matter how hard things were, how sad they were, they didn’t cry.
It wasn’t allowed. No, they probably didn’t even know feelings that

140
brought people to tears like that existed. That was the kind of place
the Eris house was.

According to Ferris, they didn’t even know how to live with other
people outside the family…

Iris wasn’t as bad as Ferris, but still…

Sion looked at Iris kindly and beckoned her over. “How long are you
going to hang from the ceiling? Come here.”

Iris took a mysterious expression. “Huh? You’re not gonna cry? Iris
was expecting good things of you and waited. Do you think you could
make yourself do it?”

“You want to make me cry?”

“Yeah! Because because crying relieves st… st… st-something or

other and makes you feel better! A book I read with my sister said
so!”

She said that without a care in the world. Sion’s face turned
troubled. “Stress, huh… well, whatever. Listen, boys can’t cry when
other people are looking.”

Iris looked surprised. “What!? Really!? Then is Iris getting in the way
of your crying!?”

“Huh? No, I never intended on crying…”

Iris pointed her finger far away, waving it around. “Then then Iris will
go over there, okay? Over there! So cry lots and lots, okay?” Iris said
and leapt over with movements one wouldn’t believe belonged to a
ten year old and disappeared into the shadows, her eyes sneakily
watching him all that was left…

141
Sion sighed. Iris’ eyes were shining with pure excitement. “Will this
not end until I cry…?”

Iris ignored his remark but whispered loudly back. “Are you ready?
Iris is all prepared. It’s okay to cry now.”

Sion couldn’t help looking at Iris’ eyes. She stared and stared
unblinkingly. Slowly, Sion’s eyes reluctantly…

“Oh! Did you see that!? I saw it! You just cried! Iris knows, see!
Because my sister also told me that boyds can’t cry when people are
watching!”

Sion watched Iris run in circles merrily, then wiped at the tears
spilling from his eyes and smiled, finally getting to the point. “So, Iris.
Did you bring the report from Ryner and Ferris?”

“Yeah! I did good and brought it! Here,” she said then dug a notepad
out from her backpack and handed it to Sion. He took it and opened
it to… of course… a report written - or rather, drawn - in Irisese.

Sion set to asking his questions one by one. “So what’s this drooling
dog?”

“That’s the beast! He’s all like grrrr, scary! If you touch that sex
maniac’s drool you’ll immediately become pregnant! My sister said
so!”

Sion nodded easily. “Ah, you mean Ryner.” He was already

completely used to this. “So the winged angel who’s collared him
and is having him pull the sled is Ferris?”

“Yeah! My angel of a sister, Ferris, who rewards good and punishes

evil!”

When he turned the page, the drawings of the just angel hitting the
evil beast continued. “Ah, it looks like they’re enjoying themselves as

142
always,” Sion said, smiling bitterly, flipping through the pages. His
hand stopped on the incomprehensible drawing on the sixth page. It
was as bizarre as ever.

Last time she’d drawn a house flying with incredible vigor from the
ocean into the sun, and its sequel was just as incredibly separated
from reality.

This time…

“Hm. Iris, what is this?”

Iris came to look. She pointed at the incomprehensible drawing

where a dragon had sprouted from the ground, the beast and angel
just watching it in astonishment.

“So this one, right? This is the beast and my sister watching the
dragon that sprouted from the ground in awe!”

“No, I understand the dog and the angel. I was more of wondering
about this dragon.” The picture from before with the sun, the sea,
and the flying houses did end up having various meanings. The sun
was Nelpha’s king, the sea was the people, and the flying house was
the prince the people supported. So this dragon should have
meaning of its own as well. “What does this dragon mean?”

Iris tilted her head, troubled. “Um, see, well, it’s a dragon? A Mr.
Dragon. He was seriously huge.”

“…No, I’m asking…” Sion’s words trailed off as he thought about it.
“No, let me ask that a different way. Did Ryner say anything about
this dragon?”

“Ah, he did! So he was digging and then he excavated something but

he didn’t get it so he threw it and then the dragon was born, but he
didn’t really know what to do with it so he ran away!”

143
Sion narrowed his eyes. “A relic,” he mumbled happily.

But Iris looked anxious. “Uh, um, if Iris didn’t her information stuff
right, will you get mad? But but, the beast said it was fine…”

Sion shook his head. “Don’t worry. You did your information relay
work just fine.”

“Really!? I wonder if my sister will praise me?”

“She’ll praise you, she’ll praise you.”

“Yaay! Geez, Iris, you sure are a genius!” Iris said and jumped around
happily. A smile rose to Sion’s face as he watched her.

“I see… so the relics really do exist… but geez, those two…”

Sion smiled bitterly and flipped the page. There, the angel was
swinging her sword around, and the sleepy dog was being chased
around by a girl whose face was the only thing sticking out of a pink
trash can. Then the dog finally had enough and ate and killed the sly
fox…

Sion smiled. The sly fox was always Sion.

Then the girl whose face was sticking out from the trashcan was
probably…

“So they finally caught him… heheh. I bet Ryner was mad,” Sion said,
looking terribly happy. He decided to ask about the girl in the pink
trash can and see.

“So it’s like this, see! My sister said she met the pervert when they
were kids and he threw her away like she was smelly garbage, so
that’s why she’s in a trash can! And the inside of her head’s all pink!”

Sion really felt that Iris was able to fit an amazing amount of
information into these drawings of hers.

144
But anyway.

“You must be tired after coming here all the way from Nelpha. You
should rest some. Is there anything you want to eat?”

“Dango! Because my sister praises me when I eat it!”

Sion smiled. Thanks to Iris, he was feeling a little less depressed. But
right then—

“Your Majesty!”

A lone man who Sion recognized easily entered the hall. He had an
intense and deeply wrinkled face, though he was really only a man of
about thirty. He’d made great contributions to the revolution, and he
walked in briskly.

Lieutenant General Rahel Miller… or at least he should’ve been. But

he’d rejected that promotion - “I don’t need you to help me rise
through the world. Besides, there’s still work that needs done here.”
And with that, he remained a major. That’s the kind of person he
was.

Right now, his expression was bitter and harsh as always. He spoke in
a low voice that revertibrated well. “We have received information
regarding the matter from before…”

Miller held out a document. Sion took it. His expression changed in
an instant. “It can’t be… Is this reliable information…?”

Miller nodded. “The information is from him. You know of him well,
do you not?”

Sion groaned and turned his eyes back to the document. Something
unbelievable was written there. “Just what is happening here…?”

Iris peaked at the document. “What is it, what is it?”

145
Sion didn’t answer her question. “Iris. What are Ryner and Ferris
doing right now?”

“Huh? They said they were gonna wait in a Nelphan town while they
waited for you to contact them again…”

Sion nodded.

Then…

---

Ryner lay with his head down on a table, exhausted to the bone and
unable to do anything else.

He was currently in a large Nelphan city called Lancas.

He’d gotten up late and just ate lunch, and thanks to his fullness, he
was being attacked by a powerful sleepiness. “Geez, I only just woke
up and I’m already tired. It’s ‘cause I’ve been moving around too
much lately…”

“Moved too much?” Ferris said. “Am I imagining things, or are you
saying that after we’ve been here for three whole days?”

“Noo, it’s not your imagination. But it’s only a three day long break.
Ahh, this is bad. I feel tired when I say stuff like that. I might die if I
don’t get another hundred years of this…”

Ferris looked like she was about to make light of Ryner’s hardships,
but that’s not what came out of her mouth. “Oh, I have to go. The
dango shop has a special sale starting at three today. We’ll miss it if
we don’t hurry.”

“Hey, haven’t you gone to some dango special sale or other every
day we’ve been here?”

146
“Mhm. There’s always a special sale at three in this city, so I continue
to buy it. I’ll still be going in one hundred years without fail, even if
my body is rotting away.”

“Ahh~ That sounds like a happy life too. Eating dango’s nice. It’d be
nice if things could continue like this without any messages from
Sion…”

That was the sort of conversation they’d been having. Not

conversations about the dragon and the heroic relic they’d left…

“I’ll be going then.”

“Get me the kind with the three colors, would ya?”

“Mm,” Ferris said and left.

Ryner yawned again, and not minding how much of a bother he was
being to the inn’s owner, slept right there.

They were peaceful days.

Even so, the gears were turning, each hiding their own motives.

Many destinies were intersecting…

---

147
Chapter 4: The World that Began its
Awakening
---

A sandstorm whirled around afar.

They were followed by beams of light. Pillar after pillar after pillar of
light flickered, followed by thunderous crashes.

Claugh watched them with his red eyes from atop a horse from his
vantage point on a hill. “Ahh~. Shuss, how many soldiers are down
there?”

“About eight or nine thousand…”

“Hm,” Claugh said, nodding slightly at his subordinate.

A harsh battle had begun at the base of the hill.

They were currently in the Hewled region of Roland. Estabul’s forces

were headed in the direction of Count Culliard of the anti-monarchy
party’s castle. According to the information Froaude gave him
before, there would be about 8,000 troops here.

“That bastard,” Claugh muttered. “His information’s so spot on that

it’s irritating… So how long does it look like Culliard’s castle will hold
out?”

The same young knight from before answered. He was still a young
man of only seventeen or eighteen. “Not long at all. Count Culliard’s
private army is under one thousand men, after all.”

Claugh smiled at that. “Then that Culliard bastard’s definitely scared

shitless right about now. Should’ve evacuated. There’s gotta be
something he really doesn’t want us to see in that castle. Think we
should just wait ‘till he dies, Shuss?”

148
“I know you’re not someone who could do that,” Shuss replied
instantly.

“Aah? If you read me that easy, you’re gonna me look simple,”

Claugh said, disappointed. “Kinda pisses me off.”

“It’s part of your appeal, Major General.”

“Don’t be silly,” Claugh said and pat the young knight’s head. Then
his expression stiffened. “Guess we should get going. We’ll descend
the hill then divide and flank them. From there you can command
‘em however you want. We’ve got 15,000, after all… they’re no
match for us.”

“It’ll be a boring battle, won’t it?”

Claugh smirked. “Hoh. Listen to you. You know best that battles
aren’t fun.”

“That’s why I said it’ll be boring,” Shuss said, ultimately serious.

“There’s no need to fight battles that we know we’ll win before we
even start. I hate it when people die for no good reason.”

Claugh nodded. “But that’s just how it is.” Then he raised his voice so
that the troops in reserve behind him could hear too. “We’re
obviously gonna win this battle, so none of you better die!” He
moved his eyes to their objective and took out his horse’s whip. “All
forces advance!”

The army moved in time with his voice. First was the horsemen, who
drew their swords and galloped out. Next were the footsoldiers, their
mages.

The Estabulian soldiers noticed and began to carve letters into the
open air, a motion characteristic of magic of the Kingdom of Estabul.
But they were too late.

149
Claugh and the rest of the vanguard at his sides were already
charging. They cut the Estabulian soldiers into pieces.

The Estabulian soldiers fell into chaos.

“W-where did you Rolander dogs come from!?”

“Shit! We can’t use large-scale magic if we’re this disorganized!”

They were afraid of getting their own wrapped up in large-scale

spells. Large-scale magic was something that was used from afar in
the first place. So now that they’d fallen into disorder amidst a free-
for-all fight, they’d lost the ability to cast large-scale magic on
Roland’s troops to decrease their numbers.

But Roland was in the same position…

In truth, they could have fired large-scale magic if they’d just left ten
mages behind, then use shock troops to break through their ranks.
That would’ve been the most efficient way to win with the fewest
Rolander sacrifices…

But Claugh didn’t do that. He shouted from the middle of the

battlefield. “Shuss, I’m goin’ on ahead! Try and keep the casualties to
an absolute minimum!”

Shuss’ sword cut through the head of a chanting Estabulian mage.

Then he quickly drew a magic circle. “I wish for thunder - Lightning
Flash!”

A bolt of lightning fired from his magic circle. It hit a knight who’d
been slashing at Roland’s mages, and he crumbed soundlessly…

Shuss turned back once he confirmed the knight was down and out.
“Please be quick about it! If you aren’t, Major General, then both
enemies and allies alike will accumulate casualties!”

150
Claugh’s horse raced ahead as an answer. He surveyed his
surroundings and mumbled to himself. “Where is he?”

Claugh didn’t bring a weapon and didn’t fire magic as he raced

through the battlefield, and yet fresh blood spurted around behind
him. Those who tried to attack him screamed only in fear.

“Tch… I’m going out of my way to spare you, so shut it already…”

Of course saying that didn’t change anything. It was because he

spared their lives that they were still able to scream, after all.

Claugh continued to spare them as he cut through the battlefield

alone. Then he spotted him: the very conspicuous knight who was
commanding the castle siege. He was wearing a military uniform
bearing six red lines and an intersecting blue one. The red lines were
his military rank and the blue was proof of his nobility.

“Are you this army’s commander?” Claugh asked.

The Estabulian noble turned at his question and studied Claugh.

Claugh got a bad feeling about him. He had sharp, unwavering eyes
that took pride in what he was doing. He was different from the
nobles like Culliard who stayed cooped up in their castles crying like
babies without doing any fighting of their own. He was someone who
sincerely put his country first…

“You’re Roland’s Major—”

Before he could finish, Claugh ran past him. His hand came away
dyed red.

Estabul’s noble’s expression was confused like he didn’t know what

was happening. His head fell like that, separated entirely from its
body that soon followed.

151
Claugh lightly shook his blood-stained hand. “Geez… If you wanna do
what’s best for your country, then don’t do this… they’re gonna be
sad to see you dead,” Claugh mumbled softly. Then he rose his head.
“Look! I killed your guys’ commander! You must’ve realized you guys
are at a disadvantage already! If you continue to resist, then… we’ll
slaughter every last one of you!”

The resulting screams were loud enough to shake the ground.

The Estabulian army had lost its will to fight. Claugh alone had cut
through and shaken their vanguard horribly.

“The commander of Roland’s army, Major General Claugh Klom, has

taken the head of your leader!” Shuss yelled from the center of the
battlefield. “Our army of 15,000 will now proceed to gather the
remnants! All who resist will be killed!”

More of the same sort of voices raised in the back.

And so the battle easily came to an end…

Estabul’s troops had soon entirely lost the will to fight. But that was
obvious. First of all, their leader had been killed. Another reason was
that the enemy had a far larger army than them. Yet another was
that their battle formation had been irrevocably broken…

But the largest reason of all was that they heard Claugh Klom’s
name.

Crimson-fingered Claugh Klom…

His name was famous in Estabul, which had been fighting with
Roland for many years, due to his hand being stained bright red with
blood in a great many battlefields.

His very existence was as scary as that of the Magical Knights…

152
So they reached an easy conclusion. The 8,000 troops who attacked
Culliard’s territory surrendered without a fight.

---

The battles after that developed approximately the same.

All it took was attacking the places Froaude indicated to devastate

Estabul’s troops one after another… It was almost like the Estabulian
army was being manipulated by something powerful. But that power
quickly declined.

And so in the end, they pushed them back into Estabul…

---

Estabul’s military camp was in turmoil in the room of a fort. Both the
nobility and the upper-crusts of the military were raising hell.

“What is the meaning of this!? The enemy has managed a surprise

attack on us each and every time!”

“Our efforts are futile! How do they know where we’ll attack!?”

“What are you saying after all this time!? I do not approve of this! It
is as if you want those hateful Rolanders to take Estabul back!”

“Still!”

Still…

Noa listened to them carry on with closed eyes. Still… soldiers were
dying. They were dying without making a difference at all. That was
fact, and it meant that there was no meaning in fighting.

Everyone… was dying for nothing…

Noa grimaed.

153
She opened her eyes to watch the nobles frantically making a fuss
over their next operation… an operation they hoped would be able
to break this deadlock. But they’d already lost over half of their
50,000 soldiers. How were they planning to oppose Roland like this?

Roland’s army was frighteningly powerful. It wasn’t just that they

had an impressive brute force, either. They also gathered
information skillfully, to an extent that Estabul just couldn’t match.
No matter where they decided to attack when, by the time they got
there, the army commanded by Major General Claugh Klom was
already there waiting like they’d predicted everything perfectly and
skillfully attacked.

Their one saving grace was that Major General Klom was a wise man.
He avoided killing Estabul’s soldiers to the best of his ability, instead
choosing to render them powerless…

It was proof that there were people in Roland who thought the same
way Noa did. She didn’t want to see anyone else die. That was what
she wanted, and yet… the nobles before her were not giving up. They
still intended to fight.

Noa spoke softly so that only the man beside her could hear. “How
ironic.”

Sarawel looked to her. “What is, Princess?”

“Shouldn’t that be obvious? The enemy commander is saving

Estabulian lives and our nobility is stealing Estabulian lives. What
could possibly be more ironic than that?”

Sarawel looked troubled. “Princess, we are fighting a just battle.

There is no way we can lose…”

154
“And yet we will lose. Am I wrong?” Noa asked. She’d gotten a bit
loud, causing the nobles to stop talking among themselves. Their
gazes fixed on her all at once…

Noa let them watch her. She looked straight ahead to each of them
in turn. “Should we not end our fight here? If it is clear that our
battle has no future, then shouldn’t we end it now, even if only to
avoid sacrificing a few more people?”

“Wh-what are you saying, Princess! Do you mean that we should

wave a white flag at Roland without doing anything more? There is
no way we could do that. We must fight until we can no longer fight
back…”

“So you intend to keep throwing lives away just so that we reach that
point?”

“B-but… at this rate…”

Noa didn’t even listen to the rest. She already knew what he was
going to say.

At this rate, they’d kill the ringleaders of the rebellion. So they had to
continue until they had ground to negotiate on. But to do that,
they’d have to expose the lives of their soldiers to horrible dangers…

Noa shook her head. “Enough. Don’t worry. I alone am this

rebellion’s leader. I threatened the rest of you into obeying me… that
should be enough, yes?”

“What!? Princess, we cannot let you alone bear that…”

“Th, then we too will do the same…”

“Please wait. It won’t come to that as long as we don’t lose,”Sarawel

said, talking over the nobles and Noa. “Why should you all present
your lives to Roland?”

155
“That is true,” one of the nobles said. “But our army is only 20,000
men now. Roland’s forces easily surpass the 100,000 mark, yes? How
should we…”

Sarawel’s expression didn’t waver in the slightest. Instead, he smiled

rather confidently. “Battles aren’t just numbers, everyone. They’re
also about resourcefulness and vigor… And if we crush the army
commanded by Crimson-fingered Claugh Klom, we’ll be
tremendously vigorous. I’ve just the bright idea for the occasion,
too.”

“Oooh!? Is that true!? Just what could it be…?”

Sarawel nodded, all smiles. “It’s simple. We attack Roland’s weak

point.”

“Weak point?”

“Yes. Did you not get a feel for anything while watching the army
Claugh Klom commanded fight?”

The nobles looked at each other. “Even if you ask…”

“I felt that they were endowed with overwhelming strength and

speed, but other than that…”

“They did not needlessly kill our soldiers,” Noa said. “Is that what
you’re referring to?”

Sarawel nodded happily. “That’s exactly right, Princess. That is their

weakness. They are fighting so as to avoid provoking our anger and
drawing out a grudge for when they’ve captured us again. What does
that mean, I wonder? Sarawel asked and looked around the room.
But no one answered. They only stood with tilted heads…

And then Noa realized. Sarawel intended to do something… truly

frightening…

156
B-but that was foolish. Sarawel shouldn’t be the kind of person to do
that…

“It c-can’t be that you…”

Sarawel nodded as Noa whispered. “That’s right, Princess. What do

you think would happened if we used Estabul’s people and Roland’s
other opponents as hostages?”

“Sarawel! What are you—”

Sarawel ignored her and talked over her. “Of course I am not
thinking of actually sacrificing our people. But I do mean to take
hostages. And I do not think I am bad for meaning to use them to
turn the battle’s tide in our favor. We will strike when Klom can’t.
The army I command will abduct and take Roland’s people as
hostage… We should be able to make some favorable negotiations
with just that. I am doubtful that they’d be able to take our
headquarters from us like that.”

“Ooh!”

“Excellent as always, Lord Sarawel. I’ve caught sight of a brighter

future!”

Noa didn’t say a thing.

Taking hostages and the like were inexcusable to a simple ringleader

of a rebellion. Suppose they did manage to crush Commander Clom’s
army and defeat Roland…

There was still no future for them down that path. There was no such
thing as a prosperous country that disrespected its people, after all.
She wanted to say that, but…

157
“Princess,” Sarawel said from her said. “I understand what you want
to say, but this must be done. I want to protect you, our princess,
after all…”

Noa glared at him with willful eyes. “And you mean to protect me by
taking others hostage!?”

Sarawel shook his head. “I’ve always watched you ever since you
were a child. I want to protect you… that feeling is one reason. But
another reason is that I’m thinking of Estabul’s people. What would
happen to them if we lost now? Do you understand how much
humiliation we’d put them through as the losing country? They’d be
abducted, raped, and then if they still weren’t tired of torturing us,
they’d be killed… That is the fate of a losing country. I want to save
them from it no matter what…”

“Even if it means you must take hostages… and even if it means you
must tyrannize the people?”

Sarawel didn’t answer.

“…We can’t… stop this anymore, can we?”

“…We can’t,” Sarawel said and distanced himself from Noa and
began to discuss their plan with the nobles.

A sad but beautiful smile rose to Noa’s face as she watched them.
“Right. I was only taken in as a puppet king. In the end, I can’t save
anybody…”

She closed her eyes.

---

A lone fort stood on the prairie. It had been constructed by Estabul

once.

158
It wasn’t all that large, but it was surrounded by a moat on all sides
as well as a magically fortified castle wall. It wouldn’t give an inch to
anything less than a full-scale attack.

It was the Estabulian rebellion’s ringleaders’ base. They were right

before Claugh’s eyes, and yet… he was at his wit’s end.

Estabul had taken an unbelievable amount of both Roland’s and their

own people as hostage.

Claugh’s eyes were drawn back to the correspondence Estabul had

sent. “What’re they thinking?” Claugh spat. “No matter how
cornered you are, you’ve gotta still understand what’s right and
what’s wrong. Or did you decide there’s no difference between the
two?”

The correspondence they’d received was as follows.

Our first condition: Claugh Klom separates from the army under his
command and leaves the army.

Our second condition: Release every soldier from the Kingdom of

Estabul you’ve captured until now.

If you fail to abide by these conditions, the various people of Roland

and Estabul here will be indiscriminately decapitated.

It was a very concise letter.

But…

“But it is a very effective method, and their conditions are things we

could do,” Shuss said calmly. “If they’d asked for something like
Roland’s complete surrender, we’d have been able to ignore the
hostages and attack… but as things are now, we can’t…”

159
Claugh crushed the letter and tossed it aside. “Whaddya mean it’s
effective? We’re not gonna lose either way. All they’re doing is giving
us the moral justification to kill them. Taking hostages makes them
war criminals… and then they’ll just get the death penalty.”

“Then tell me, Major General. Will you ignore the hostages and
attack?”

“Ahh? Shit, there’s no way!” Claugh said, grimacing. “Geez, I give.

What should we do? Split up and ask Sion? What’d happen if we let
all of Estabul’s soldiers go?”

“…It’d be an all-out war, wouldn’t it?”

That was the worst case scenario…

“But there’s no way we can just let the hostages die,” Claugh said.
“Then we’d be no different from Roland’s last king. Ugh, geez, going
and talking it over with Sion’d be so shameful though.” He turned his
horse around as he spoke.

Shuss smiled sincerely. “I love you that shameful side of you too,
Major General.”

“Well, I kinda hate you,” Claugh said and took a breath. Shuss just
smiled even more.

An urgent tone suddenly called for them. “Major General! R-Roland’s

soldiers are attacking Estabul’s stronghold!”

“Hah!?” Claugh said and turned. “The hell? They’ve got hostages!
Why would they attack without waiting for my orders!?”

The knight who’d come to relay the information shrunk at Claugh’s

yelling. “W, well… they seem to be part of some organization we
didn’t know about…”

160
“Shit! Shuss!”

Shuss’ horse raced off at the sound of Claugh’s yell. He was going to
check and see who ordered an army of over 30,000 men to move.
But there was no time to wait for his return. Claugh took out his
horse’s whip. But then he heard Shuss’ yell.

“Our troops are still in order!”

“Aah!? Then whose troops are they!?”

Shuss didn’t answer. He didn’t know.

Fuck! What was this? He had to think. Think about before the
hostages died. Was it okay for him to move then or was it not okay?

They would’ve waited if Sion had been the one ordering them. But if
that was wrong… no. Sion had left everything to Claugh. So…

Claugh scowled.

There was only one person it could be. He hadn’t showed himself
here, but… the information he’d been sending was eerily correct.
Claugh hadn’t thought he’d come to the front lines…

“That son of a bitch Froaude!”

Claugh’s horse raced off.

“Major General!” Shuss yelled from behind. “It’s dangerous to go

alone—”

“Shuss!” Claugh interrupted. “No matter what happens, don’t let the
soldiers move! Keep ‘em all there!”

And so Claugh alone entered the harsh battlefield unfolding before

his eyes.

---

161
Estabul had fallen into chaos.

“Th-this is ridiculous!” The nobles screamed.

The unthinkable had occurred. Roland ignored the hostages and

moved their army in.

The nobles fixed their anger on Sarawel at Noa’s side. “Wh-what is

this!? Now were… we’re already…”

“Sarawel, you knave, how do you intend on taking responsibility for

this!?”

Sarawel looked quite troubled. “W-well, even if you ask… Who would
have thought that Roland would stage an unjust attack like this with
hostages present?”

“You didn’t think they would, but it’s a fact that they did! How will
you take responsibility! We’ll be c-completely destroyed at this rate!
And we took both Rolanders and Estabulians as hostages… we’re war
criminals… we’ll get the death penalty! So I’m asking you how you
intend to take responsibility for that!”

“I, w-well… But we haven’t lost yet…”

Noa sighed, tired.

They would lose. They lost the moment they decided to take
hostages. She’d known then that this would happen. But after
watching how Claugh Klom fought, she hadn’t thought that he’d
ignore the hostages and attack so quickly…

It was as if their rebellion was nothing more than a silly dance in the
palm of their enemy’s hand.

162
“R-right,” one of the nobles said, addressing Sarawel. “Our loss isn’t
set in stone… If we stay here and kill the hostages in line with our
contract, Roland may cease their attack…”

“You’re right! They must be attacking because they didn’t think we

were serious! We’ll show them how serious we are! Kill the—”

“Silence!” Noa yelled.

The nobles gathered in the large hall jumped in surprise and

quieted.

Noa looked at them with narrowed eyes.

Everyone was tired. Their faces were fatigued from the thought of
their approaching death and their failed rebellion. They were
miserable. The end was fast approaching. No… it was already ending.

“You mustn’t lose sight of your path, everyone,” Noa said kindly.

“B-but…”

Noa shook her head. “You all did well, but it ends here. Let’s release
the hostages. That is something we can still do; utmost best thing for
us to do.”

“But Princess, we—”

Noa shook her head again to cut them off. “I don’t know what will
happen to us… but I will do everything in my power to make it so
that I alone—”

“You mustn’t, Princess! I cannot allow you alone to die… please,

allow me to die with you!”

Not everyone shared that sentiment, but a few other nobles soon
shouted the same thing.

163
But that was more than enough for Noa. “I’m… happy,” she said. “I
think being surrounded by people who care so deeply about Estabul
is a happy thing. But please, Sarawel… everyone… please live.
Anything can be accomplished so long as one is alive, but death is the
end of that. No matter what disgrace Roland forces upon us, we can
somehow manage. There will still be a way to become happy. Estabul
will…”

Her voice wavered.

She was scared to say what she wanted to say next. It was hard.

She still had lingering attachments. She was born and raised in
Estabul…

As Estabul’s princess, she’d always wanted to make it a country

where anyone could smile. She wanted to make it into a country
where anyone could become happy as long as they wanted to. She’d
studied lots and lots for that sake. Sarawel taught her lots and lots
for that sake.

And yet… this was the result…

It made her want to cry.

All they accomplished was taking Roland and even Estabul’s people
hostage while they hid in the shadows of their soldiers cooped up in
this fort…

It was the worst. It wasn’t what she’d wanted. So…

Noa steadied her shaking voice and desperately held her tears back.
But everyone else had already realized what she was trying to say.
Some turned their faces away. Some cried openly.

Noa smiled and continued. “Even if Estabul ceases to exist… Even if it

is never revived… I believe everyone can still grasp happiness. So

164
please, everyone, live. And if it lets the people of Estabul find even a
little happiness, I…”

She didn’t need to say any more. All that was left was for her to
accept her fate.

Noa closed her eyes to keep her tears from falling. But in the instant
she closed them, she heard a voice. A frigid voice from the
unfathomable depths of darkness…

“This is troubling… I am very moved by how much you all care for
your country. However… I myself do not believe the life of Princess
Noa Ehn alone is quite enough to pay for the sins of this rebellion…”

His voice reverberated through the room. Noa opened her eyes and
looked towards the source of it.

There was a man standing at the room’s entrance. He had beautiful

and long pitch black hair as well as dark and cold deep blue eyes. His
smile was dyed scarlet, and slowly opened. “Yes… Don’t you think it’s
only fitting that the curtain should lower on the tragic loss of Estabul
itself with a tragedy still on set?”

The first to react was Sarawel. He took a step forward as if to protect

Noa. “Wh, who are you!?” He yelled.

The man inclined his head politely. “How rude of me. I am Miran
Froaude, a colonel in the Roland Empire’s army…”

That was all it took for the nobles to fall into disarray. “R-Roland!?
How d-did you… It c-can’t be that the army outside was already
obliterated…?”

Froaude shook his head. “Not at all. Your Estabulian troops are still
putting up a good fight. In any case, my army is only 10,000 men
while the army that protects this fort is 22,400… This castle will not

165
fall easily. No, even if it did fall, Roland’s troops would be unable to
enter… in any case…”

Froaude changed in that instant. No, he himself didn’t change… what

changed was his murderous intent. He smiled faintly, but his
unbelievably cold eyes seemed to wish for the death of all life. They
were the eyes of a demon.

Froaude slowly, softly spread his arms. “Here and now, I will lower
the final curtain on this tragedy…”

He held a hand out towards them. Towards where a single noble

stood.

“O darkness… appear.”

Something truly unbelievable happened.

The shadows crawling about on the floor swelled up into the open
air…

“Guah…”

That was all he said. It was probably all he could say. Because his
head was soon torn from his body…

Nobody said anything for some time. Blood was spurting from that
nobles neck. It hit the ceiling, the floor, everything. It dyed all it
touched bright red.

“Uu… uuaaahhh…”

That voice didn’t continue either. An unbelievably huge beast

grabbed his torso and bit at it, gobbling his body up whole…

All that was left of him were blood splatters.

Red, red, red.

166
The room was dyed red in an instant.

“Wh… what…?”

That was all Noa could say. Her body was stuck in place, unable to
move.

The nobles were screaming like they’d gone mad, running around at
a loss for what to do. Another was killed. Another…

“S-someone help! Isn’t anyone there!? Guards! There’s an enemy!

An enemy inside the castl—”

His scream was cut off halfway, and he himself was left as the lower
half of his body…

And then his limbs… were taken one by one into the darkness…

Froaude wasn’t hit by a single drop of his victim’s blood. He looked

to the dead man who’d lost his entire top half and spoke
disinterestedly. “I do apologize. With all due respect, this castle’s
guards have already passed away. You see, they were getting in the
way of making the end of Estabul a splendid play.”

Good lord…

Noa shivered. This castle should have had fifty guards. That was no
small number, but this man… had killed them all, and said so with
little care.

He was a monster…

He wasn’t h-human… but a monster…

If not that, then he was a demon…

It devoured everything. The darkness this man called Froaude was

born from devoured everything…

167
Sarawel took Noa’s hand. “Princess! Th-this is the end. But I at least
want to save y—”

“B-but…”

Someone else called to them from the other side of the room.
“Sarawel! We’ll keep him at bay here! Please, please save the
princess somehow—”

That was as far as he got. Because he was killed. He was killed!!

“Princess, let’s escape!” Sarawel yelled.

“No! Everyone… everyone’s—”

“Shit! I apologize in advance!” Sarawel said and gathered Noa up in

his arms and ran.

“Let go of me, Sarawel!”

“No! Please cooperate!”

Sarawel leapt out of the room, Noa in his arms. She was in a daze.

Why? Why did this happen? She couldn’t understand it.

She should have died, but the ones dying were the people who she
wanted to protect. They were all dying so she could escape…

It was a crushing defeat.

Noa looked back into the hall they’d just left. The last of her people
died, and Froaude turned her way to watch her… with the eyes of
the devil himself…

But right then… then…

“Princess, I’m going to put you down. I’ve gotten tired.”

“Huh….? Ah, alright…”

168
Noa nodded and got down. Then she looked around. They’d made it
to a conference room a bit smaller than the hall from before. Though
when they’d arrived at this fort the chairs and tables had already
been cleared, so it could hardly serve its original purpose as a
conference room anymore…

They’d ended up using a first floor conference room for meetings

instead because it’d been easier to carry tables and chairs in.
Everyone - Sarawel, the guards, the nobles - had carried the tables
and chairs in, regardless of their status, while smiling and saying
they’d make a conference room out of it yet…

They’d been smiling about Estabul’s revival such a short time ago…

Noa looked around the completely empty conference room. “It was
all… was for nothing…”

“No,” Sarawel said. “There’s still something left.”

“What’s left? All of us who wanted the best for our country, all of our
allies, lost even our pride when we took hostages. We don’t have
anything left.”

There was no meaning in even continuing to live…

That monster Froaude would come for them before long anyway…
and Noa didn’t intend to run away anymore. Even if she did, she’d
just get the death penalty later. No matter where she went, it was
with death.

Sarawel gazed at her. For some reason, he looked like he was

enjoying himself. “We still have something. You’re still alive, aren’t
you Princess? Our plan was as follows: to take the people hostage
and barricade Estabul in. Then Roland wouldn’t be able to raise a
hand against us.

169
But then Estabul, cornered, rampages and begins to kill the people…
and you were to play the part of the rampager, Princess.”

“S-Sarawel… What are you saying…?” Noa asked. But she already
understood everything. Because Sarawel had taught her the
knowledge she needed to understand it.

It would have been better if she’d died without realizing… Then at

least she could die with the nobles in that room and enjoy the same
dream of happiness in death…

But instead she was faced with cruel reality…

His face had changed from that of the man she’d put her trust in
since she was a child. He was grinning. It filled her with disgust.

“There were plans in place so that I, Sarawel Sayle, would stop

Estabul’s rampage and be heralded as a patriotic hero and welcomed
into Roland’s nobility.”

This was a nightmare…

She understood Froaude’s words now. How he said that this play was
a tragedy. They were making them dance from the beginning.
Estabul’s entire rebellion was made to dance in the palm of Roland’s
hand…

“Ah, my goodness… I have been a fool. Looking back, the clues were
all there. Roland was always able to lead a surprise attack on
Estabul’s army… it would have been better if I’d realized it then. If
not then, I should have realized it when you said we should take the
people hostage… let alone when that monster came around
downstairs. But instead I realized it while we were running away…
while I was helplessly being led away. If I had only seen the truth
sooner…”

170
“No, no, you aren’t a fool, Princess. You trusted me, that’s all. You
ignored anything you found strange… because there should have
been no way that I, who you’ve trusted since you were a child, would
do this.”

“……”

That was true. Sarawel shouldn’t have betrayed her. Even if others
might, Sarawel shouldn’t…

She had truly believed that, and yet…

“I knew that’s how you would think. Because I only taught you about
beautiful things. I taught you that I’m beautiful, that countries are
beautiful, and that the world is beautiful… and that’s why you’re
beautiful. Because I raised you to be both unbelievably beautiful and
strong.” Sarawel’s expression turned disappointed. “What a waste…
Since I went through the trouble of raising you to be so beautiful, I’d
originally planned to take you as my wife and seize Estabul for
myself, you see.”

Noa didn’t say anything. So Sarawel… so this guy had been deceiving
everyone from the beginning. Everyone, everyone died for the sake
of a guy like this…

“But, well, Roland promised me some pretty good status… I have no

choice but to be satisfied with just that. It’s not exactly what you said
before, Princess, but everything starts with life.”

Noa shivered, but it wasn’t from fear. It was from rage.

This was reality… it was her punishment for only knowing the
beautiful things in life…

Noa put her hand behind her back and took out the knife hidden in
the lining of her sash.

171
She… couldn’t forgive him.

“I… I wanted to create a world where anyone could smile…”

“Again with the beautiful words. Pretty things don’t make a country
move.”

“Even so! Even so, that’s the kind of country I wanted to build! Even
if it’s nothing but pretty words… Even if there’s always someone
crying in the shadows of someone else’s smile… is it wrong to wish
for the best!?”

Sarawel smiled deeply. “Wishes are just wishes, and the idiots who
wished that will die while I am heralded as a hero. That’s how things
work. Now then, I’d best—”

Noa bared her knife. “I won’t just die—”

Sarawel easily took the knife from her hand… and smiled, satisfied.
“You sure are cute, Princess. You performed exactly how I taught you
to the very end: purely, correctly. I expect everything you do to the
point that it’s almost like I’m pulling the strings on every move you
make. I’m the one who taught you to hide a knife there, you know.”

All it took was a twist of her wrist for him to steal her knife…

He raised it overhead. Noa despaired.

Even though everyone had died because of him… even though they’d
all been made to dance and die for him… In the end, she couldn’t
even retaliate.

She didn’t want to die. It was the first time she’d ever thought that.
She’d at least wanted to do something about him, but… but she
didn’t have the power for that.

172
“This is the end for you,” Sarawel said. “Please, die a meaningless
death just like everyone else did.”

He raised the knife up high, aimed for her chest, and lowered it
forcefully…

But just then… his arm that held the knife flew off.

“What!?” Sarawel yelled. His head, mouth still open, flew off next.
His body collapsed on the ground…

“Alas, Sir Sarawel. The truth is that you’re a fool. You performed
exactly how I planned to the very end: vulgarly, without a shred of
kindness. I expect everything you do to the point that it is almost like
I’m pulling the strings on every move you make… That is about like
how he speaks, isn’t it? Princess Noa Ehn.”

With his outlandish words… that man entered the room. That
monster… Roland’s monster, Froaude…

He looked down at Sarawel, whose head slowly rolled to his feet. “Do
not fret, princess,” he said in the same disinterested tone from
before. “Roland is not so in need of heroes that it’d trouble itself
with a man of his caliber,” Froaude said. Then his cold eyes faced his
next target coldly, without any real emotion…

“Hero? Roland’s hero!?” Noa spat. “Would a hero do this!? Has your
country’s hero king, Sion Astal, not toyed with our feelings and
mocked us all this time?”

Froaude looked a bit troubled at that. “…You are wrong. A hero…

would not do something like this. My king would not do something
like this. I acted on my own judgement. I did bring it up with my king
once, but… he flat refused.”

“…Then you are the mastermind behind this incident?”

173
“Yes… I am the one who started the rebellion… but the king did not
send me to subjugate it; instead he sent Major General Claugh
Klom… You are a sensible princess, so you must understand the
rest.”

She did.

That meant that the way Claugh Klom fought was what Roland’s king
had wished for.

“But what Sir Sarawel said about how pretty words do not make a
country move was the truth,” Froaude said. “That is my people such
as myself are necessary. Princess. I do not hate wanting to make a
country where anyone could smile. I do not hate people such as
yourself. If I were a retainer of Estabul, I may have chosen you as my
master. However…”

Froaude took the knife Sarawel’s dead hand was still gripping and
raised it above his head.

“Princess Noa Ehn committed suicide after taking Roland and

Estabul’s people alike as hostage and killing them. That is the plot of
this play.”

Noa glared at him. “Killed… the hostages?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe King Astal, who wished for a humane fight, would
forgive you for that?”

Froaude again looked troubled… but also somehow happy. “It would
be best if he never found out, but… he may find out. But… I wonder. I
do think that he would forgive me, being a king of his caliber…”

Froaude looked like he wanted to keep talking, but stopped and

turned around.

174
An unfamiliar man jumped out from where Froaude looked and
grabbed Noa, pulling her close. “Hey, Princess. You’re not hurt, are
you?”

He was a man with fiery red hair. He glared at Froaude with sharp
eyes. “Stop fucking around, you shitty bastard. So what? You’re the
mastermind behind this rebellion?”

Froaude fixed his dead eyes on them. “You come, Major General
Klom. I did not think you’d make it here so quickly… How is the battle
outside?”

Klom…?

This was Crimson-fingered Claugh Klom…?

Noa looked up at the man holding her gently. His handsome,

masculine face was seething with rage, which certainly made him
look quite strong.

But he was somehow different from what she’d been imagining.

When she pictured Crimson-fingered Claugh Klom, whose presence
on a battlefield made each and every one of Estabul’s soldiers shiver
in fear, she’d always pictured a horrible monster. And yet…

He was angry. Angry at Froaude, who’d ignored the hostages and

attacked their fort. He was angry at Froaude who’d played with
Estabul’s rebel’s feelings for Estabul’s sake…

This was… Claugh Klom…

So there were people who were as contrary to each other as him and
Froaude in Roland…

Claugh glared at Froaude like he was ready to jump him. “Answer my

question, Froaude! Depending on your answer—”

175
A faint smile rose to Froaude’s lips. “Depending on my answer, you
may kill me. Correct?”

“…Right. Sion doesn’t need you. I’ve thought that since the first time
I saw you. You’ll make Sion go mad.”

“Is that all you think, Major General Klom? I don’t see why he
bothers with you. If you move forward with eliminating me, then you
lack the qualification to serve His Majesty.”

“…You don’t understand anything. I don’t need ‘qualifications’ to

stand by Sion’s side.”

Froaude shook his head sadly. “It is certainly true that you do not
need to be qualified just to stand by his side. But he has already been
made king. He was no longer human by then. He became someone
who must weigh lives’ numerical weight against each other. He must
be able to kill the hostages without hesitation for the sake of tens
of… no, hundreds of thousands of Rolander and Estabulian lives. That
is the sort of path Lord Astal follows… And so I will kill the hostages
and Noa Ehn to protect that path. And if you should get in my way, I
will kill you without hesitation as well.”

Claugh looked down at Noa, then prepared himself for a fight. “Think
you’re capable of that?”

Froaude slowly raised his hand. It was that same pose from before.
“It is simple…”

Claugh’s movements were explosive as he charged forward with

unreal agility.

Noa shook her head. “No…”

Froaude… was something dangerous.

“No…”

176
Noa had already seen it. She knew. The power that Froaude was
using wasn’t as simple as magic. It wasn’t a human power…

Even Crimson-fingered Claugh Klom would be…

Froaude raised his hand up before him. “O darkness…”

The many magic circles tattooed on Claugh’s arm began to shine.

No, no, no…

She couldn’t let Claugh die here. He was someone that Roland
absolutely needed. He supported Roland’s king. He supported their
country.

He was a man that was absolutely needed for Estabul’s people, who
had become part of Roland, to become happy…

No.

There was no way he could die here…

“Froaaaaaauuuuuuuddee!” Noa shrieked.

Claugh and Froaude stopped moving to look at her.

Now that she had their attention, she spoke. “Colonel Froaude. If you
want to kill the hostages for Roland to completely capture Estabul,
then… I will persuade them. I will persuade Estabul’s people and
army to give their full cooperation to Roland. Do you not think that
would be a more effective method of capturing Estabul?”

“What’re you—”

“What are you trying to do?” Froaude interrupted Claugh. “Why

would you…”

177
“So that you don’t kill the hostages. If you do, Estabul’s reputation
will suffer. Don’t you think the result will be infinitely more favorable
if they’re left alive?”

“So that I don’t kill the hostages… I see. But… I see. Yes, you could
certainly effectively persuade them. You are quite popular in Estabul,
after all. But you are aware that there are those who speak ill of you
as well?”

Noa stared at Froaude, undaunted. “I do not mind. If you’d like, you

may kill me afterwards. I do not mind. So please… please stop
fighting.”

Froaude smiled faintly, looking at her like he saw through everything.

“Yes, I see… you are indeed a sensible person… Sure, why not. I will
stop. Any more sacrifices now are in vain. The attacking army will
soon withdraw as well,” Frouade said. He turned his back to them
and started to walk out.

Claugh was perplexed. “Wh… hey, what…”

Claugh made to give chase, but Noa grabbed his arm and stopped
him, holding him back with all her strength. She watched Froaude’s
back until he disappeared from the room.. and out into the deep
black of darkness…

With him gone, she suddenly felt exhausted. Noa plopped herself
down on the floor.

“Whoa, hey, are you okay?” Claugh asked, surprised.

He called out to her kindly. She looked up at Claugh from where she
sat on the ground. He looked honestly concerned, his face a mixture
of strength and human virtue…

With that alone, Noa knew she wasn’t wrong.

178
“No, um, what’s happening?” Claugh asked, confused.

But Noa didn’t explain. She surveyed her surroundings. She didn’t
have anything left anymore. She’d lost it all. Her country, her family,
her allies…

But she couldn’t die yet. There were still things she had to do.

Even if Estabul ceased to be… its people would still live.

There were still so many things she had to do. She pressed a hand to
her head as they spun around in her mind, and spoke lightly. “Ah,
geez… thinking about it makes me tired.”

“Hah? You talkin’ to me? What in the world’s happening…”

Noa didn’t answer his question. For now, there was something else.
“Alright. Major General Klom, I’ve gone weak in the knees. Could you
help me up?”

“Aah?” Claugh said, astonished. Noa held her hand out to him.

---

And so the curtain drew on Estabul’s last rebellion.

Froaude soon made arrangements for Noa, accompanied by Claugh,

to enter Roland’s territory as part of his plot. Details regarding the
rebellion were posted on their arrival…

Roland made the topic rather one-note.

Sarawel and other nobles of Estabul imprisoned their princess, Noa

Ehn, and committed atrocities under her name. But Noa was pained
by their use of hostages, and stood up against them all by herself.
She defeated the nobles and surrendered to Roland, and was in the
end successful in keeping damage to a minimum.

179
As her efforts saved people of Estabul and Roland alike, she was
hailed as a hero and given a fairly high social position in Roland…

That was the plot of the affair.

Though many of Estabul’s people and soldiers were not loyal to

Roland, they should be loyal to and serve Noa who had now become
an exceedingly noble person within Roland…

There were already signs that was happening.

As Noa rode her horse on the path to Roland, Estabul and even
Roland’s people cheered for her, hailing her as a hero…

Of course a portion of people yelled that she was a traitor and held
grudges against her, too, and Roland’s nobility were uncomfortable
with her becoming such a high esteemed noble in Roland. Their
voices would probably get louder as time went on.

But that didn’t bother Noa. That’s what she thought as she gazed
into the joyous crowds cheering her on.

She wasn’t someone who felt shame at being hated or by others

holding grudges against her anymore.

There wasn’t anyone left anymore. Nobody who served her, nobody
who smiled with her, nobody who would scold her. But she wouldn’t
let that stop her anymore.

Sarawel wouldn’t make a fool out of her any longer. It wasn’t just
pretty words; she’d act for the sake of creating a world where
everyone could be raised smiling.

This time, she’d fight on the front stage in the realest sense of the
word.

180
She fixed her gaze on the building towering before her. It was
massive. The largest in all of Roland.

Roland Castle.

At the time, she… no, at the time nobody had yet realized it at all.

The biggest turmoil yet was not in the past; it was waiting in the
future.

The signs had already begun to manifest all over, and yet… nobody
realized.

---

Imperial Nelpha.

A shadow lurked amidst the darkness.

The shadow held its breath as it hunted its prey. Its movements were
perfect, and it had no presence to detect. Nobody noticed its
existence. The shadow determined its target and gathered its energy,
preparing itself for attack. Its back curved, prepared to strike…

“Ta-dah! It was Iris… wawah!!”

Iris had pounced from the ceiling, fist prepared for a strike, but Ryner
caught her arm easily.

“Yeah, yeah. Stop punching me every time you visit already.”

He was already completely used to her.

They were, again, in the dining room of an inn in a Nelphan town.

Ryner, sluggish and sleepy as always, didn’t let Iris’ arm go as he
chided her.

For some reason, Iris looked awfully despair-stricken. “Aah!? D-don’t

touch Iris! If the beast touches me, I’ll—”

181
But Ryner was used to that, too. He looked pretty tired. “Yeah, yeah.
That again, right? Ferris’ spiel she indoctrinated you with about how
if you talk to me or touch me, you’ll get pregnant. There’s no way in
hell that’d actually happen, so don’t worry about it.”

Iris looked terribly disappointed that he beat her to it. “N-no, that’s
wrong! Um, but, uhh, so anyway, it’s like, it’s bad if you touch me!”
In the end, she couldn’t think of anything and just puffed her cheeks
up at him cutely.

Ryner smiled bitterly. “Yeah, yeah. That is bad.”

Suddenly he felt an unmistakable bloodlust from behind that soon

reached his side.

Ryner grimaced and groaned, somehow very tired.

He heard the sharp sound of a sword being unsheathed, and soon it

was against his neck. “Hm. You’ve grabbed my sister’s arm—”

“You’re obviously just gonna start talking about how I kidnap and
attack toddlers or whatever and knock girls up, right?”

“……”

Ferris took it similarly to Iris: she looked a bored and a little sad, like
she was sulking…

Ryner sighed. “Yknow, I kinda feel like I’m getting good at reading
your expression through your expressionless. Scary, huh…”

What a thing to say…

“Ah! Sisteeeeeeerrrrrr!” Iris yelled, shooting herself towards Ferris’

chest as always. Ferris dodged her, then caught the collar of her
clothes before she could crash into the table behind them.

“You’re back. Did your trip go well?” Ferris asked.

182
Iris was still hanging from her neck, turning redder and redder as she
choked. “Yeah! I wanted to see you so I came as fast as I could!” Iris
said in that Iris way of hers, energetic as ever despite being choked.

Ferris nodded, satisfied. “Mm. I was looking forward to the dango

from Roland just like always too. That’s all I spend my days looking
forward to.”

“Yay! You wanted to see Iris too!”

“Mm. Wynnit Dango’s dango is really the best.”

Iris’ face had gotten as red as it was getting. “Was Iris… a

remarkable… child…?”

“Mm.”

“Sister… I love you so much…”

All Ryner could do was stare in mute amazement. Iris lost

consciousness, and Ferris just nodded with a “Mm.”

“Whoa, hey, don’t just ‘mm!’” Ryner said, flustered. “She fainted!”

“Mm? Is there something wrong with that?”

“N-no, I wouldn’t say something’s wrong… I’d say everything’s so

wrong that I don’t even know where to start, even if I wanna
seriously object to it…”

Ferris didn’t look like she understood. “Object? And what would you
say? I lulled my cute little sister to sleep, as is normally done. What’s
wrong with that?”

“No, see… making someone faint is different from lulling them to

sleep…”

183
“Hehe. Iris used to be unable to sleep for her fear of the dark and
often asked me to come to her bed and make her faint,” Ferris said,
nostalgic and unconcerned. “If one didn’t sleep properly, they were
at risk for losing their life during our daily training, after all. When I
was a kid I often had my brother make me faint, too.”

“Wh… what kind of a family is that…”

“Mm? I think we were an extremely normal family… But come to

think of it, you don’t have a family. That’s what families are like, you
know?”

“There’s no fuckin’ way that’s true!! Ugh, it doesn't even matter if I

deny it or not,” Ryner said and sighed. Because she always just
ignored his retorts anyway…

Ferris held her fainted sister and pet her head. She looked like she
felt pretty good about it. “In any case, it looks like she didn’t get
much sleep so she could get here quickly. I have to let her sleep a
little.”

“Huh? Really?” Ryner asked, surprised. “You could tell?”

“Mm. Her movements were a bit sluggish. She should be able to

move faster than that at her age.”

“…No, no matter how I look at it, that punch was pretty amazing for
a ten year old.”

“Hehe. Next time my sister will kill the world’s enemy, the perverted
sex maniac, with her punch…”

Ryner yelled.

---

184
Ryner and Ferris let Iris sleep, chomping down on the dango she
brought with, passing time just as sluggishly as before… and then
slept.

By the way, the reason Iris was in such a hurry to see them that she
didn’t get a wink of sleep was because she had an urgent message
from Sion…

Iris woke up the next morning, refreshed. She looked at Ferris, who’d
shared a bed with her, and hugged her warm body. “Sister, I love you
so much!”

“Mm,” Ferris mumbled and pet Iris’ head…

They lay like that for some time, yawning and getting sleepier and
sleepier…

The next time they woke up, it was already noon. “Mm, are you
awake, Iris? There’s a special sale on dango. Come with me.”

“Oh, yeah! I’m coming!”

They went to buy dango together and had a dango party.

“Sister, this kind’s so tasty!”

“Mm.”

They went to the dango special sale the next day, too, and had
another dango party.

“Sister, I love you so much!!”

“Mm.”

Every day was dazzlingly fun, and they just flew by.

Then Iris suddenly remembered.

185
Sion had given her an urgent letter to deliver.

“Ah, um, um, see, Iris has, like, this letter for you. Sion said it was
super urgent…”

Ferris had been enjoying the height of their dango party. “A letter?”

“Yeah! He said it’s a suuuper important letter! So read it, read it!”

“Hoh. So where is this letter?”

“Huh!? Um, umm, well, ah, right, it’s stuck to the back of a dango
box in Iris’ bag!”

Ferris narrowed her eyes. “I already threw those boxes away.”

“Whaat!? W-what should I do?”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. Did he tell you anything about
what it was about?”

“Huh? Ummm, right, Sion was like, really worked up about it.”

“Hoh. And?”

“And like, he said the dragon suddenly disappeared.”

“Dragon? Ahh. That pointlessly dangerous dragon. He must have

been ordering us to investigate the area, right?”

Iris crossed her arms. “Umm, umm, I just feel like there’s something
else he said was important too… hmm.”

Ferris patted Iris’ head kindly. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we’ll
understand when we get there. I’ll go as soon as possible. Alright,
Iris. Let’s find the beast, and then you go back to Sion and tell him
we’re headed back to the dragon’s location.

186
By the way, because of such-and-such difficulties here and there, it
was another two days before she departed…

---

The next night.

When the inn’s owner was doing her weekly deep cleaning of the
dining room, she noticed a piece of strangely gorgeous stationary in
the garbage.

“My, what a beautiful paper. It’s such a waste to just throw it out…”

She took it out of the trash and ran her eyes over it.

I know it sounds unbelievable, but someone killed all the residents of

the forest the dragon was born in, and the dragon appears to have
disappeared. There’s something dangerous roaming around there.
Abandon the relic and don’t go near the forest, no matter what.

“Ahaha. A dragon? Must be a novel or something,” the inn’s

propetieress said. “But a novel about a dragon born from the ground
sounds pretty boring. And someone killing the residents… if it were
me, I’d make the dragon play a lead role. Well, it sounds pretty scary,
but I doubt this author sells well,” she said, full of pity, and threw the
stationary back in the trash.

Then she promptly forgot everything she just read and went back to
cleaning.

---

Two days later and Ryner and Ferris had made some progress along
the road to the forest, but not without Ryner’s moaning and
groaning.

187
He sighed. “What a paaain… Y’know, about that dragon, right? We
don’t know anything about what it’s made of, but now he says to go
investigate it just ‘cause it disappeared. I think he’s full of shit
though…”

“……”

“If he’s worried about it, then Sion can come out here and search for
it himself. But instead he’s just relaxing in the castle all the time… Bet
they’ve got good food… Don’t you think he’s working us too hard,
pushing us to go investigate the dragon and stuff?”

Ferris, who’d been walking briskly and with a light step compared to
Ryner, turned at that. “Good food? Like dango?”

“…No, there’s probably tons of other delicious stuff there too…”

“Three colors dan—”

“Stop just thinking about dango…”

Ferris looked puzzled. “Hm. You mean to say there’s other delicious
food in this world besides dango?”

“Yeah. At least in the world I live in.”

“Hoh. Then what do you like?”

“Me? Hmm, let’s see. What do I like…”

Ryner crossed his arms in thought and looked up at the sky. A

refreshing breeze was blowing through the trees, making a little
whirring sound as it did. The sun had passed its peak in the sky
already and it was pleasantly warm… It was the perfect weather.

Ryner’s brain’s chemistry was wired to react a certain way to that.

Good weather like this meant nap time!

188
He was gonna nap!

Naps were the best!

“Ah, I… I love napping…”

“Mm? But naps aren’t a food.”

“Well no, they’re not, but my love for them transcends categories.
They’re just that amazing.”

For some reason Ferris nodded in satisfaction. “Dango is like that for
me.”

They continued to walk while having their strange conversations.

Just like Ryner said, it was truly good weather. The road was empty
of other travellers as far as they could see. It was just the birds
singing, the bugs chirping, and the wind blowing.

Those sounds were gentle on the ear. “Sure is peaceful~”

“Mm. It’d be quite elegant of us to have tea here.”

“Oh, sounds good. The place that dragon sprouted from is coming up
soon. Let’s rest for a minute once we get there. You make delicious
tea, after all.”

“Hehe. Obviously. The way of dango is a steep road without

mastering tea as well. Now then, shall we have cold tea since the
weather is nice?”

They talked like that as they entered the forest, but then…

“……”

When Ryner looked up… he didn’t say a thing.

“…Hm. Impressive,” Ferris said.

189
“Are those… people?”

“They are.”

“Why’re they in such a tall tree?”

“Tree climbing must be their hobby.”

“There’s no fucking way!” Ryner said. He closed his eyes for a

moment, then opened them again to look at the unbelievable sight.
One of the many people had turned into a tree…

No, that wasn’t right.

More precisely, he crashed in the tree with incredible vigour,

crumpling his whole body up, then dangled from it…

It was eerie.

Corpse after corpse hung from the trees. Even so, not a single drop
of blood had fallen…

“…What’s happening?” Ryner asked, his voice tense.

Ferris didn’t say anything.

Ryner grimaced. “I-it can’t be… that the dragon we spawned—”

“No, thinking about it won’t change anything,” Ferris interrupted.

“Let’s investigate the source.”

“…You’re right. Let’s go.”

“Mm.”

They stepped further into the forest where something even worse
waited for them.

The corpses weren’t just in the trees. They were rolling on the
ground, too…

190
Men, women, children, the elderly, Nelphan soldiers, even beasts…
they were all indiscriminately called to an equal death. Their bodies
were cut into two even sides, but there was no blood…

It was unbelievable.

When that many people were killed in cold-blood, one expected the
smell of blood to permeate the air. But it didn’t smell at all.

“Why… did this…”

Ferris held her hand up to silence him.

“Huh?”

Ryner followed Ferris’ line of sight to where the dragon had been.
There were two people standing still where it had been… two living
people.

“Hey, you’re…”

The two turned to look at them, and the short girl spoke. “Ah! You’re
Nelpha’s secret investigators!!”

Then the tall man bowed, a weak expression on his face. “I apologize
for not contacting you guys for so long…”

They were the two people they’d met at the Nelphan fort around
here: Kuu and Sui. If he recalled, Sui said he was an author and that
they were travelling here and there to find unusual things to write
about…

“What happened—?”

“I wonder what happened here?” Sui asked before Ryner could

finish.

“…What’re you guys even doing here?” Ryner asked.

191
“Oh, listen to this!” Kuu said, the same as always. “Sui heard a rumor
that sounded awful fake to me about how a dragon sprouted up here
and made it a tourist spot! I said it was definitely fake, but he said we
were definitely going and wouldn’t listen to me!”

“But Kuu, you said yourself that you’d like to see the dragon if it’s
really there,” Sui said. “And of course a fantasy author such as myself
would want to see the dragon…”

“You said you wanted to be a mystery author before!!”

“No, lately I realized that my genius shouldn’t be confined to

mystery. The dragon appeared suddenly and sweeps the princess
away. Then—”

Kuu squinted at him. “I hope this isn’t the case, but lemme guess: it’s
the kinda story where a brave hero stands up and fights against the
dragon? Isn’t that a pretty crappy story?”

Sui groaned, despair-stricken and an empty shell of what he once

was…

Kuu sighed. She ignored her brother and looked around, grimacing.
“Anyway, that’s why we came here but it looks like there’s been
some kind of fight. It’s full of bodies. Wonder what happened?”

Ryner shrugged. “That’s about what I was gonna say too.”

He stepped forward towards the place Sui and Kuu were standing.
The place where the dragon had been.

But… Ferris grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“What’s up, Ferris?”

Ferris didn’t answer. She just studied the place the dragon had been
with sharp eyes…

192
“Hey, Ferris?”

She didn’t answer him again. It was like she was ignoring him
entirely. “Why don’t you explain that?”

“Huh? Explain what?” Ryner asked.

Ferris looked annoyed. “You still haven’t noticed it? What does that
aspiring novelist have at his waist?”

“Huh? His waist?” Now that she mentioned it, Ryner looked his way.
His eyes narrowed and he continued, tired. “Ah, this is the worst…
it’s one of those gadgets…”

He recalled the dagger on sight. It was just a single dagger, made of

some unidentified inorganic material. It was the same dagger they’d
thrown into the ground that caused the dragon to sprout up.

Sui was smiling pleasantly just like before. “Tsk tsk, I figured you’d
notice. This is what you want me to explain, isn’t it?” He had a clearly
different air about him from before. He wasn’t the same timid guy
from before at all.

Ryner glanced to Sui’s sister next. She’d changed too and was
suddenly docile… no, rather than docile, it was more that she’d gone
silent. There was something dark about her.

“Did you kill the people laying around here?” Ferris asked. “What
happens next depends on your answer,” she said, laying a hand on
her sword.

“Whoa,” Sui said. “I was going to answer even if you didn’t threaten
me. You two seem like you know a lot anyway. You seem like people
who are okay to talk to.”

“Know a lot?” Ryner repeated. “Okay to talk to?”

193
Sui nodded. “Yes. Ah, but where should I start? Perhaps it’s easier if I
say our aim at the fort the other day was the same as yours?”

Ryner narrowed his eyes. “So you’re looking for the heroic relics
too?”

“Hm? Oh, I see… so that’s what you Rolanders call them,” Sui said. “I
see. That describes them perfectly. Let’s call them heroic relics, then.
We were eavesdropping on your conversation about their
whereabouts that day… so…”

Ryner sighed. “So you let us go find the relic for you… right?”

“That’s right. You did us a huge favor to not only find it but also leave
it right here for us. I’m very grateful,” Sui said and smiled.

Ryner scowled. “This isn’t something to smile about…”

“Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t smile about using someone.”

“That’s not what I mean!” Ryner said. “You guys killed everyone who
saw the dragon to silence them… To keep there from being more
people who know about the relics…”

Sui looked surprised. “Huh? You’re mad about that? But you must do
it too, right? We all want a monopoly on this strange new power. So
when someone finds out, we have no choice but to kill—”

“Shut up!”

“No, it’s too late for that. As I said before, you already know a lot.
We’ll have to get rid of you. We told you the situation, so die for us.”

“Get rid… of us? Did you always mean to kill us? Always—”

Ferris pulled Ryner back to her, stopping him. “Hm. I understand the
situation. I want you to tell me something before you kill us.”

194
“What is it?” Sui asked.

Ferris pat Ryner’s back. “Let’s do it. I never back down from an
opponent. Prepare yourself.”

Ryner’s eyes narrowed.

“Who are you?” Ferris asked them. “What are you trying to
accomplish by gathering the heroic relics?”

“Ah, you intend to survive,” Sui said quietly. “So that’s why you want
to know…”

“No, there’s no need for me to ask that,” Ferris said. “The truth is
that I already know what country you’re from.”

“What!?” Sui said, surprised.

Ryner suddenly unleashed the energy he’d been gathering and ran.
As he did, he drew letters in the air. It was a spell he stole from
Estabul’s Magical Knights using his special eyes… his Alpha Stigma.

“Hmm,” Sui said. “So Roland’s magic is letters. I know that every
country has its own spells, but I’m still surprised every time I see
them.”

“I dedicate the words of our contract - give birth to the beast of

malice sleeping within the earth!” Ryner said and accelerated the
second he finished his spell.

He approached Sui with incredible force… but Sui didn’t move. “Oh, a
spell that increases your physical ability. You’re so fast.” He leapt
back, then drew numerous intersecting lines. “From the west, from
nothing, from battle, from the sun—”

Sui stopped there. He watched Ryner as he approached, his smile

from before disappearing altogether…

195
“Huh? Your eyes… have red pentagrams… shit! You’re an Alpha
Stigma bearer!!”

“You’re too late!” Ryner said and drew the same lines Sui had a
moment ago, weaving a lattice of light with incredible speed. “From
the west, from nothing, from battle, from the sun, I bring forth
brilliance.”

“Tch… They can steal spells even if they stop halfway? I didn’t think
these Alpha Stigma Cursed Eyes were all that strong before they
went berserk, but they’re pretty troublesome…”

Ryner’s spell finished while Sui was talking. It shot a spear of light
from its lattice towards Sui. At the same time, Ferris sped past Ryner
all the way to Sui’s back where she swung her sword overhead.

“Kuu, are you ready?”

“…I’m good.”

“Then protect us against all of of it.”

“…Yeah.”

A wall of water suddenly gushed up from the ground in front of

Ryner. “Huh!?”

The wall destroyed his magic.

And to top it off, Sui’s back was protected from Ferris with the clank
of metal hitting metal…

Ryner couldn’t believe his eyes.

Nothing should have been able to stave off Ferris’ sword… at the
very least, hardly anything should have been able to do it. And yet
here and now, a mere fourteen year old girl had done it…

196
Kuu.

She’d hardly said a word since a few minutes ago, and now she was
suddenly holding a massive scythe even bigger than Ryner was that
Ferris’ sword was taking the brunt of.

Then Ferris turned her sword to break their deadlock and tried to
attack from another angle, slamming it down with all her might.
Sparks flew in the moment the two weapons connected.

“Mm…”

Ferris’ body flew back forcefully. If she’d hit a tree like that, then…
she’d meet the same fate as those bodies they saw when they
entered the forest… all crumpled up against the trees…

“Augh, shit!” Ryner yelled and leapt forward with incredible force to
catch Ferris from the side, their momentum cancelling each other
out somewhat. But even then they ended up rolling against the hard
ground. Ferris managed to stab her sword into a tree and catch
Ryner by the foot and stop them.

“……”

It was an incredibly powerful attack that had far transcended what a

human should be able to do.

If Ferris hadn’t been able to anchor her sword into a tree and stop
them, and they’d collided with something instead, they would’ve
died…

“Th-this is bad,” Ryner mumbled.

Who were these people?

197
“How long do you plan to be dazzled by my beauty?” Ferris asked
from under him. “Are you thinking of attacking me even in a
situation like this?”

Ryner looked down at her. He’d ended up holding her down. “Umm…
do you really have the time to be cracking those jokes while we’re
fighting an enemy as strong as her?” Ryner asked. “Actually, I’d really
like it if we did have that kind of leeway…”

“Time?” Ferris said as she stood herself up. “I always have some
leeway.”

“Whoa, seriously? How much time are we talking? You think you’re
gonna win against them?”

Ferris nodded easily. “Mm. I have the kind of leeway where I would
have died if you hadn’t saved me.”

“Oh. What a coincidence. I have about the same amount,” Ryner

said. He glared back to where those two were standing a ways away
from them.

Sui and Kuu…

No, Kuu was the problem. Sui was well trained, but his abilities were
within the scope of Ryner’s expectations. To put it plainly, he was at
the level where Ryner could beat him only using Roland’s magic. But
Kuu…

Ryner looked to her. Her long hair was pink - a rare color - and her
black dress was quite suit-like. She was small, and she always talked
way too much and way too loudly in open contrast with her graceful,
cold beauty. But she wasn’t talking much at all now. Knowing her, it
was awfully conspicuous. She was still holding her grim reaper’s
scythe. That scythe was bad news…

198
Its blade was made of a blue metal that Ryner couldn’t identify, and
a winding pattern was drawn down its handle.

It was clearly…

“A relic,” Ferris said. “They’re already putting them to use.”

“Think we can match them?” Ryner asked.

“Do you?”

“…Hmm. I think we’d probably manage if it was the two of us versus

just Kuu? I wonder if her scythe improves her physical ability?”

Ferris showed Ryner her sword. It’d been covered here and there
with ice.

“…Augh, shit, so it does that too. What legend is that relic from…?
I’ve never heard of a weapon like it in any story. And that water wall
from before was probably one of that scythe’s abulities too, and so
was the lack of blood from the bodies… maybe it froze all their blood
when it cut them?”

“Mm. It’s a more dangerous weapon that expected. If it hits my

sword too much, it’ll get heavy. And on top of that it lowers the air
temperature and makes movement more difficult.”

“Hmm. It’s pretty practical. Okay, so let’s ignore Sui and go for Kuu.
I’ll support you with fire magic, and you attack during when you can.
How’s that sound?”

“…We don’t have much else of a choice.”

“Oh, well, that’s true,” Ryner said. He again studied their enemy.

“Have you decided on a plan?” Sui asked.

Ryner shrugged. “Yeah, kinda.”

199
“I’m glad. You’re a valuable Alpha Stigma, so we won’t let you
escape. We will crystalize and steal them.”

“Hah? W-w-w-wait. Crystalize? Do you guys know something about

my eyes? About the Alpha Stigma?” Ryner asked, flustered.

Sui was a bit surprised to hear that. “Huh? You don’t know anything
about Alpha Stigma bearers even though you yourself are one? How
about this?” Sui asked and took a little pouch out of his pocket and
removed various colorful jewels, holding them up for Ryner to see.
“You don’t know about these crystals?”

“…I already said I didn’t, so just tell me!” Ryner yelled. The man
before him knew more about Ryner than he himself did… more
about his eyes than he did. His eyes, which were feared and loathed
by all… his eyes that people called monstrous… his eyes that killed all
the people he didn’t want to kill, the people who were important to
him…

And this man knew about them.

Ryner glared at him, but Sui just laughed. “Hmm… Kuu, it looks like
they don’t know about it.”

“…Yeah.”

“Well, even these Rule Fragments can be found scattered here and
there.”

“…Yeah,” Kuu said. It was like all her emotions had gone flat, leaving
her so monotonous that she was more like a puppet than a person.
She nodded without any interest at all in a way that was different
from Ferris. It almost seemed as if her water scythe had frozen all of
her emotions…

“Don’t make fun of me,” Ryner said. “I…”

200
“Calm down, Ryner,” Ferris said. “Let’s leave talk of the Alpha Stigma
for later. Right now…”

“I know! But…”

“It’s fine as long as we win. If we can immobilize Kuu, capturing Sui

will be simple. I doubt it will be too late to ask him about the Alpha
Stigma then.”

“…R, right. I get it. Then let’s go,” Ryner said and made to leap at
them.

“Then I’ll show you something interesting,” Sui said. “I’ll show you
how to use the relic you abandoned. For substitution types like this,
you have to…”

Sui stabbed the relic into his right arm. It immediately began to
quiver, and then… roared.

His arm stopped being an arm altogether. A chin sprouted from it

then formed sharp fangs, scales, and bright red eyes…

It was a dragon. Sui’s arm had turned into a dragon…

He raised it and the dragon moved with it, setting the surrounding
trees on fire.

“This is how it’s really used,” Sui said. “It can burn whatever its user
wants to target. Of course, the ground has no will of its own, so
when you just leave it there it’s harmless. Now, shall we start? I
should probably tell you that I have a weapon even stronger than
Kuu’s Scythe of Ailuchrono that I intend to use.”

Ryner and Ferris exchanged a look.

“Shit,” Ryner said, pained. “Then this match is…”

“One we have no chance of winning,” Ferris finished. “Let’s retreat.”

201
“……”

“Ryner.”

“…I know!”

With that, they ran.

There were countless places to hide in the forest. They could get
away.

“I won’t let you escape,” Sui said. I especially won’t let you go,
Ryner… now then, shall I crystalize your Alpha Stigma?” Sui asked. He
grasped one of the jewels from before, then threw it up into the air.
“Resonate.”

Ryner suddenly stopped in place.

“Don’t just stand there,” Ferris said. But instead of moving, he

crouched down.

“Ah… uugh… hhr…”

Ryner’s field of vision filled with white clouds. No, not just his vision.
His mind itself went blank. Everything… everything was…

“Hey, Ryner. What’s wrong?” Ferris asked. She was approaching him,
but even so…

His consciousness began to fade. It faded and faded and faded. He

was completely oblivious to the death approaching him from behind.

He couldn’t feel anything anymore. Not the things he found precious,

not the things he didn’t give a shit about…

N, no… this is wrong…

It’s want you want. You want everything to disappear.

202
Ferris turned to Sui and Kuu. “What did you do to Ryner?”

“Haha. I’m just harvesting the fruits of his efforts. I can’t take his
crystals if I don’t have him wake up first.”

“Wake up? What?”

“You can’t not know the reason Alpha Stigmas are feared and
loathed… They’re insane demons. Abominable mass murderers.”

He could hear their conversation, but that too… didn’t matter…

No, he…

Didn’t… care…

Ryner held his head in his hands. “Uuugh, uwahh, Feh…”

Ryner frantically pressed into his head as it was dyed pure white.

“Fe… Ferris… Run…”

“What?”

“Get away from me… d-don’t look… I’m a mon… ster… I don’t want…
to… ki… ll… you…”

His mind cleared of sensations. Cleared and cleared and cleared and
cleared.

He could see how all existence was configured, widening his field of
vision. It displayed in numerical values, graphs, and patterns.

People would die. But that didn’t matter.

It was time to end things. End everything.

He’d be free and do whatever he wanted. He’d open it and kill

everything.

203
He wouldn’t stop until everything he could see with his eyes was
gone.

“Ah, aaahh.”

It was a voice that poured from him without a conscious thought to

direct it. But what of it? Nothing mattered anymore. He was only
faintly aware of what was happening.

Disappear, everything.

Whether people lived or died… it was all such a pain.

“Ah, aaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaahaha!” Ryner laughed. It was a

mad sound.

“Bearer confirmed to be berserk,” Sui said calmly. “He’s awakened.”

“What did you guys do to him?” Ferris asked.

Sui smiled. “Ryner doesn’t exist anymore. Once an Alpha Stigma

bearer has gone berserk and lost their humanity, it never comes
back. They can’t go back to the way they were before. They can only
destroy everything in their path… We kill them and excavate their
crystals before then, though.”

Ryner’s eyes suddenly opened wide, a crimson pentagram at their

centers. Another crimson pentagram. Another.

It wasn’t just one. They multiplied inside his eyes, and then one shot
from them. Towards Sui.

“That won’t work on me,” Sui said. “I’ve hunted Alpha Stigmas time
and time again. That’s the power of my Rule Fragments… and the
godly power of Elemio’s Comb, which renders you ineffective,” Sui
said and removed the ornamental comb from his hair. When he
swung it, it shot an intense shockwave towards Ryner. “Huh…?”

204
The shockwave was absorbed, and the pentagram continued along
its path, sticking itself to Sui’s comb.

A voice descended upon him from the heavens. “Analyzing matter.

Cancel. Disappear, worm.”

The comb disappeared. It wasn’t just the comb, either. Sui’s right
arm gradually turned to sand… and disappeared.

“W-what…? Uugh, aaaaaahh!!” Sui screamed. He turned his right

shoulder to his mouth and tried to bite it off as it turned to sand and
faded. “Gah… uugh,” Sui groaned and fell to his knees.

“Sui,” Kuu said in a doll-like, emotionless voice. “Are you… alive?”

“Y-yeah, I’m alive. I’ve cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding
too… but…” Sui looked up at Ryner with a face full of fear. “Wh-
what’s with him? He isn’t a normal Alpha Stigma bearer, is he? That
power… and that voice. What in the world was talking!? It was like it
was someone else entirely…”

The voice again descended on him. “You mean to kill me? Kill me
with your current power? With items such as Elemio’s? You are
nothing but a worm crawling on the ground. Ha, hahaha,
hahahahaha. Disappear. disappear. DISAPPEAR. Everything is
nothing. Idle. Return to nothing.”

Ryner raised his hand and affixed a magic circle to it from his eye.

“R-run, Kuu!” Sui yelled. “Th-that isn’t an Alpha Stigma bearer! It’s—
”

Kuu grabbed Sui in her arms, and shot off with inhuman speed
before he could finish.

205
Not a moment later, the ground they’d just been standing on
disappeared without a trace, like it’d never been there from the
beginning. The trees, the earth, the atmosphere itself…

It was an amazing power.

“No matter where you run to, everything will still turn into nothing.
In the beginning, there was destruction. We didn’t create, bless, or
save. We just erased until everything was pure white.”

And so the destruction began.

Pentagrams scattered across the forest. The world disappeared with

them.

The forest, the earth, and the bodies all disappeared without a
trace…

But.

Ferris gazed at Ryner in the midst of it.

She made no move to escape, and she’d sheathed her sword. She
just stared at him. Stared as he continued to scatter destruction
across the world.

“Hey. What are you?” Ferris asked the berserk monster.

Ryner turned to face her, and that voice from before crashed down
on her. “Ha, hahah. A god. A demon. An evil god. A hero. Call me
whatever you’d like. You’ll just disappear anyway.”

He raised his arm, and that great power of his - the pentagram -
faced her way.

If he shot it at her, then that was the end. It was the kind of power
that one couldn’t escape or fight back against. Ferris wasn’t going
out of her way to guard against it. She just watched. Stared. “Hm. Sui

206
was surprised and said that you weren’t an ordinary Alpha Stigma
bearer, but it looks like isn’t worth much.”

The pentagram fired.

Ferris conceded and dodged. The second after she made it out of the
way, the spot she’d been in disappeared. “That’s right,” she said.
“You aren’t just any Alpha Stigma bearer. I in particular understand
that. “You aren’t a monster. You’re far worse than that: a legendarily
perverted man. On top of being a sex maniac, you’re lazy, good-for-
nothing blockhead.”

Another pentagram shot at her. They shot in other directions too,

scattering random destruction where they could…

Ferris would absolutely certainly die if she remained here. Even so,
she didn’t run. She didn’t try to put any distance between herself
and Ryner. She just stared. “I never mentioned it, but Sion showed
me the first page of your report. So I read it. If I remember, you said
something like this: ‘I hate it when people die. I also hate killing. I
hate crying and I hate being made to cry. What’s the feeling called
when you know you can’t chose your life? When your family dies?
What about when the person you love dies?”

She dodged another pentagram then continued to speak,

unconcerned. “I thought the author was an idiot when I read it. You
hate it when people die? People are just something that dies. You
hate killing? Where one person lives, another dies. You think
everything’s a pain, you’re lazy, and you’re timid. A coward…”

Ferris dodged another pentagram. “I thought I’d have no problem

killing someone like that.” She dodged another pentagram, then
looked Ryner straight in the eyes. “Hey, Ryner… You wanted to move
forward, right? You hated being called a monster, right? You hated
killing, right?

207
I’ve already dodged five of your attacks, but I won’t dodge the next
one. After that, you need to make a decision. I don’t think you’re a
monster. Okay? You aren’t a monster. You’re my ally, my slave, and
my friend who I drink tea with. You’re nothing like a monster. Can
you hear me, Ryner?”

As if reacting to Ferris’ voice, Ryner raised an arm. He pointed the

palm he’d fixed a crimson pentagram on at her…

Ferris just stared. She didn’t make another move. Just stared right at
him.

And then she yelled, unbelievably loud. “Can you hear me?
Ryneeer!!”

Ryner’s hand trembled. His whole body trembled.

The voice descended again, this time pained. “What are you—”

Ryner’s mouth opened. He too sounded pained, but like himself.

“Sh.. it… s, shut up… Your turn’s… already over… Sorry, Ferris… but
could you close my eyes…?”

Ferris smiled sincerely and closed the distance between them.

She closed his eyes and he collapsed to the ground, his bones
creaking. He was seeped of all his power, left unable to say anything
at all now.

Ferris didn’t say anything either.

The sun was already descending along the sky. Normally a forest
would be dark around this time because the trees blocked the sun,
but every one of those trees had been destroyed. So it was really
quite bright.

208
“I was really… gonna kill you,” Ryner said as he lay on the ground.
“Haha. This is what I am. A monster feared and loathed by all… a
monster that can just kill. I don’t wanna kill anyone I know anymore,
so let’s end our travels here. Go back to Roland. I’m sure Sion won’t
complain if you tell him why.”

She didn’t reply.

He didn’t feel her presence either…

“Hey, did you leave?” Ryner asked and raised his head. As soon as he
did, a foot stepped on him and pushed him back into the ground.

“Hey!! What’re you… gyaaah!!”

Ferris crushed his head with her foot. “A monster that can just kill?
Did you kill anyone just now?”

“Huh? No, but that was just by chance. I was gonna kill y—”

“I won’t die. You shouldn’t be able to kill me even if you really

intended to. That pentagram sneezing nuisance from before acted
like he was ignoring me entirely. Basically, you’re a coward incapable
of killing a lone woman. You call that a monster? Don’t make me
laugh.”

“B-but—”

“I’ll say it one more time. Someone like you cannot kill me. If you try
to complain again I’ll slice your head off.”

Ryner heard her unsheathe her sword. “Whoa, don’t you think that’s
getting kinda serious!?” He asked, panicked.

“Naturally. I have to show you that I could kill you.”

209
“You don’t gotta show me that!” Ryner yelled just like always. And
then he smiled a little at how he could act like he always did even
now.

“Hm. Then shall I make some cold tea?”

“…Oh, that sounds good… But I dunno about drinking it in the

middle of the forest,” Ryner teased and stood.

“Cold tea can be had anywhere,” Ferris said and walked off.

Ryner caught up sluggishly. “Heeyy, wait for me. No need to rush.

See, I’m real tired—”

“Ryner.”

“Mm?” Ryner said and looked up.

Ferris didn’t turn around. She was silent for a long while before she
finally spoke. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Ryner was quite for a moment, scratching his head slowly before
replying. “Yeah. I’m back.”

That didn’t need a reply.

---

210
Prologue II: And Yet We Continue to Gaze
Into it
---

They flooded in.

Joy, love, smiles…

Sadness, hatred, anger…

They flooded in.

More and more gushed in, and they moved forward. Not moving
forward was the same as not existing at all. If he didn’t move
forward… if he didn’t move forward… then…

He had to keep going no matter what he may lose.

But was that correct? Were things alright like that?

No matter how much he worried, he had to make a choice. The need

to make a choice was always closing in on him as long as he lived. As
long as he didn’t die.

---

Sion sat in the royal throne. He shrugged at the man before him -
Froaude. “So you’re telling me that all of the anti-monarchy party
save Staelied - Culliard, Ishurna, and Paul - died during the
Estabulian rebellion?”

A faint smile rose to Froaude’s face. He nodded easily. “Yes. Instead

of leaving the battles to Roland’s army, they gallantly took to the
front lines and received an honorable death in battle.”

Goodness. Sion was left unable to speak.

211
That was obviously a complete and total lie. Froaude obviously took
advantage of the confusion of battle to kill Culliard, Ishurna, and
Paul.

“…So, Froaude. Why didn’t you kill Staelied?”

”Duke Staelied betrayed his faction just before this. I believe there is
still value in using him. But traitors will betray time and time again,
so he will need to be dealt with at some point.”

“So you’ll use him and then kill him?”

“Should I not? If I instead left him alive, he would decide to hurt Your
Majesty. There is a possibility that he would kill precious personnel
as with the case of Fiole Folkal.”

Sion was silent for a moment before speaking. “You’re right. I’ll leave
Staelied to you.”

Froaude smiled. “Please do. You are really exactly what I desired: a
true king.”

“…What do you mean?”

“…Well,” Froaude said but then shook his head. “I will let you be.”

With that, Froaude left. He crossed paths with Claugh and their
newest noble and member of the pro-monarchy party as he did. Sion
understood the reason Froaude left - the beautiful woman who had
appeared.

Sion looked at Noa Ehn and spoke. “Have you found Roland
comfortable thus far, Lady Ehn?”

Noa smiled. “It has been nothing but pleasant thanks to you, Your
Majesty. Major General Klom has done much for me as well.”

212
Sion’s eyes flicked to Claugh. “Oh? Claugh, you haven’t taken her
anywhere weird, have you?”

“Aah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sion smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? You haven’t shown her to anywhere

disgraceful in Roland, have you?”

“Like I’d do that!”

Noa wasn’t concerned in the slightest. “Your Majesty, Major General

Klom has done wonderfully in guiding me through Roland. For
example, last night, a pub with dancing naked women—”

“Wha!?”

“Claugh!!”

Noa just smiled. “—isn’t where we ended up. Please rest easy.”

What a joke. Sion smiled. “It seems that you’ve grown quite
accustomed to Roland. I’m happy to hear that.”

“Yes,” Noa said. “This is a country with more smiles than I’d
expected. I am certain that it’s due to Your Majesty’s efforts.”

“We aren’t quite there yet.”

Noa stared at him. “I am sure that things will be fine so long as that is
what Your Majesty thinks. I shall not butt into your affairs as long as
your rule does not become haughty.”

She looked serious. She was standing here so that Sion knew he
could rely on her. That was what she meant to convey.

Froaude’s evaluation of her had been as follows: “She is quite a fine

person - she thinks of the future, is sensible, and has a big heart. I
would like it if Your Majesty made her king and had her bear an heir.

213
Then Estabul would be integrated into Roland both in name and
reality...and even if you were to die, Roland would still be blessed
with a king.”

What a thing to say… but her strong eyes were probably what made
Froaude say that.

Sion was considering those things even as they just made light
conversation.

She’d lost everything, but still wondered what she still had to do and
moved forward with her life. She’d even smiled at Froaude who stole
everything from her…

She was strong. That’s what Sion thought.

Well…

Sion looked to Claugh and Noa, who were chatting familiarly. He

probably wouldn’t be able to grant Froaude’s desire to make her
queen…

Sion shrugged, smiling.

“What’re you all smiley about?” Claugh asked. “It’s gross.”

“I was just thinking that it’s great that you and Lady Ehn are so
close.”

“Aah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My, are you dissatisfied with a partner like me?” Noa asked.

“No, that’s not what I mean…” Augh, geez! Sion, you ass!”

Sion just smiled. “If you’ve got nothing else to do, why not show Lady
Ehn around a little while longer? I’m quite busy you know.”

“Shut up, I know that. C’mon, Noa.”

214
“Yes, sir.”

Sion watched them go, smiling all the while. But that smile was soon
distorted by sadness. “A country where the people are happy and
everyone can grow up smiling, huh…”

With that, Sion returned to his office where he looked at documents

regarding the matter Froaude had brought up before.

Then he looked to the letter Ryner and Ferris had given Iris to bring
back. He read it and then slouched back in his seat.

He gazed out the window. The words he’d been thinking before rose
back up into his mind. If he didn’t move forward… if he didn’t move
forward… then…

He had to keep going no matter what he may lose.

But was that correct? Were things alright like that?

No matter how much he worried, he had to make a choice. The need

to make a choice was always closing in on him as long as he lived. As
long as he didn’t die.

Whether it made people laugh or made them cry… his decision was
closing in.

“…Shit,” Sion whispered to himself.

---

At that time, Ryner and Ferris were sitting in the dining room of the
Nelphan inn they’d become regulars at, waiting for Iris to come back
with a correspondence from Sion.

Ryner was - of course - sleepy after eating a late lunch. “Hey, Ferris. If
you ask me, I’m already tired. I wanna live the rest of my life eating
and sleeping at this inn.”

215
Ferris was chomping on her post-lunch dango beside him. “Mhm. It
wouldn’t be too bad to live here and go to the dango special sales
every day.”

“But there’s no way we could really do that, huh…”

“Mm. That’s right. We have to think more realistically. The first

problem is money. Without the money Sion sends us, we would lose
C, F, H, and D, the four necessities of life—”

“Uh, wait,” Ryner interrupted. “I have a question.”

“What?”

“So like, I get C, F, and H - clothes, food, and housing, right? So…
what’s the last one, the D? It can’t be dango, right?”

“Obviously? How are humans supposed to live without dango?”

“Ah, nevermind. I thought that’d be the case since it was you and all,
but I just wanted to make sure. We were having a serious
conversation about how to keep living here after all. I wanted to
make sure I had everything right.”

“Mhm. Let’s keep talking then. How about we cut Sion’s head off and
steal his money?”

“Ooh, nice. But going to Roland’s a pain so how about we just have
Iris start bringing us money without all the other stuff?”

“Ah, I see. That sort of thing could work too.”

It was a completely unproductive conversation.

It was peaceful.

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It was so peaceful that one could be tricked into thinking that wars
didn’t exist, and time could just be passed calmly eating and
sleeping.

But that peace… was short-lived.

Dark shadows approached the inn. Its door opened slowly. “Miss,
we’re baaack!”

“My, my,” the propitieress said. “Thank you for your patronage.”

The guests raced from the entryway to the reception desk.

If that were all, it’d be a totally ordinary thing. But as soon as Ryner
raised his head to look, he turned and met Ferris’ eyes. “Why?
Why’re they here?”

“Mm. Because of your habitual poor conduct—”

Ryner couldn’t hear the rest of what Ferris said. A different louder
voice drowned her out.

The door slammed open. “Aaaaaaaaahhhhh Ryner, I found

youuuuuuuu!!!”

“Uwah… it really is Milk! And the rest of the Taboo Hunters too…”

“Luke, Lach, Lear, Moe! I found Ryner! He’s here having an affair with
that woman who’s nothing but beauty! Capture him!”

“Roger!”

“Don’t ‘roger’ thaaaaat!!!” Ryner yelled as Milk chased him around

the inside of the inn.

Ferris just watched, strangely composed. “Oh, it’s almost time for the
dango special sale. Do your absolute best, Ryner.”

“Hey, don’t leave me here alone—”

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“I won’t let you escape!” Milk yelled. “I wish for thunder—”

“Uwah… we’re inside, you know. Don’t use that kind of offensive
magic indoors… gyaaaaahhh!!”

In the end, their peaceful days continued to pass slowly…

Even so, the world had started to move. It slowly, slowly moved
forward. It couldn’t very well exist otherwise… so it ended up moving
forward on a wave of joy and sadness.

Everyone knew sadness. Everyone knew nostalgia for the peaceful

past.

And so it began to move forward.

---

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