“Damn it!”

She needed Arena’s power right now, but this liquid kept getting in the way.

Liquid?

Camilla immediately touched her throat—then clenched the necklace hanging there in her fist.

“Isla.”

FWOOSH!

There was no way it was her imagination—the temperature around them dropped sharply in an instant.

[...What? What is this situation?]

A voice as cold as ice followed.

The one who appeared, her pure white hair streaming just as Camilla remembered, was Isla—the Spirit King of Winter.

PZZZT!

After taking in the situation, Isla didn’t wait for Camilla to even ask for help. She froze the black liquid binding Camilla and shattered it on the spot.

And Bill, who had been facing Camilla, was frozen solid as well—caught in Isla’s cold.

“Arena!”

Freed from the black liquid, Camilla ran straight to Arsian.

Arena understood her intent and seeped into Camilla’s body.

FWOOSH!

A tremendous holy power wrapped around Arsian in an instant.

The wound in him—practically a hole—knit shut rapidly. As if there’d never been an injury there to begin with.

The moment Arsian was healed, Arena immediately withdrew from Camilla’s body. The longer she stayed inside her, the worse Camilla’s aftereffects would be.

“Arsian!”

At her call, Arsian forced his eyes open.

Holy power had sealed him perfectly, but he’d lost far too much blood in the meantime.

“Are you... o-okay?”

Seeing Arsian ask about her first, Camilla barely swallowed down the tears that threatened to spill.

CRACK—!

In that moment, she heard something breaking. When she turned her head, she saw Bill forcing his frozen body to move.

Ice and flesh shattered off him in places, but he didn’t care at all. In an instant, black liquid reassembled his body.

“What is this now?”

Bill’s gaze on Isla turned chilling.

Because Isla had been summoned properly using the ice crystal she’d given, others could see her clearly too.

[That’s what I want to ask. What is this? That black liquid... Eva Faith?]

She recognized the nature of the power Bill was using at a glance.

[Eva Faith is still around? Mars wiped it out.]

“...Mars?”

The moment Isla said Mars’s name, Bill flinched and his expression stiffened fast. Calling Mars that familiarly meant—

“Isla!”

Realizing one fact, Camilla called Isla urgently. The Spirit King of Winter flew to her side in a blink.

“Do you know?”

[Know what?]

“The name of the leader of Eva Faith that Mars killed!”

Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner—Isla!

The one who’d watched every moment of Mars’s clash with Eva Faith from the closest place possible!

Dorman’s younger sibling—the Mirror of Truth who could read True Names—had been described as one of Mars’s colleagues.

Which meant... maybe—

[I do.]

“......!”

Camilla’s mouth fell open, and Bill flinched, glaring at them.

He unleashed his power again. The black liquid surged, rushing Camilla and Isla.

[John Carter.]

“Huh?”

[That leader’s name is John Carter.]

...What? Why did it sound so ordinary—so painfully common?

“Shut up!”

For the first time, Bill’s face twisted in discomfort as his True Name was spoken after hundreds of years.

He pulled in even more power.

“John Carter.”

“...! S-shut up!”

She could feel his panic clearly. Camilla stood and took a step toward him, shouting louder.

“John. Carter!”

“Ugh...!”

[AAAAAAARGH!]

Even he couldn’t resist a True Name. His soul was ripped from the body. He looked like an utterly average man in his mid-forties.

After screaming for a moment in pure fury, he tried to flee on the spot.

He’d done it before, too. He’d made sure to erase the Mirror of Truth first, then abandoned ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the original body he’d ruled as the leader without a shred of attachment.

Instead, he shoved someone else into that body—and hid himself completely.

And he simply watched, unmoving, as Mars killed the leader and dealt with Eva Faith’s remnants.

Once the world quieted down and people’s memories of Eva Faith began to blur, he slipped into the imperial family in secret.

Then, little by little, he stole bodies—until at last, he could even take the Emperor’s.

After all the work he’d poured into it...!

[How dare—how dare someone like you!]

Ruining it all!

[Damn it!]

He tried to run without looking back. He meant to take another body and hide again, just like before.

“John Carter.”

[......!]

But in that instant, countless figures revealed themselves around him.

Reapers.

Habel was among them.

[W-what?!]

He clearly hadn’t expected this. Confusion spread across John Carter’s face.

“You can’t even go straight to hell.”

[W-what...?!]

“Even hell is too good for you.”

How much chaos had his crimes caused in the ledger—how much they’d suffered because of him!

A superior’s harassment, endless overtime, coworkers fleeing “for health reasons”...!

All the reapers, remembering every humiliation up to now, pressed him with murderous eyes.

“First....”

“We’ve got a lot to say to you, right?”

“Wow, shit. Just thinking about how my boss chewed me out because of this bastard—”

“Hey, you bastard! Why do I have to work overtime?! Why do I have to get told I’m incompetent because I can’t finish on time?! I’m gonna kill you!”

Before they dragged him away, it seemed like everyone had business to handle—teeth grinding hard enough to crack.

“Shoes with heels hurt more than you’d think.”

At Reaper Habel’s advice, they all swept the area with lethal focus, hunting for any discarded shoes.

[N-no, I—!]

Only then, as if he finally understood the situation, the Fable Emperor—no, John Carter—trembled violently.

Surrounding him, the reapers vanished from the spot just as quickly.

“.......”

Habel, too, looked at Dorman and Camilla for a brief moment—then disappeared in an instant.

Is this some kind of “reflect reality” thing? They show up once everything’s over.

The reapers popping in and out like that was absurd. What were they doing, showing up only now?!

“Hah....”

And just like that, the area fell silent.

A hollow laugh slipped out.

A man who had toyed with the world for so long vanished, trembling, after being surrounded by reapers.

Feeling, viscerally, that he really had been just another human was both satisfying and empty at the same time.

All those people died... because of something like that? All the suffering I went through was because of that bastard?

I’m tired.

Suddenly, all strength drained out of her.

Was it the aftereffects of using holy power? Sigh after sigh spilled out, and she didn’t want to move even a single finger.

“Miss.”

Dorman slowly approached her.

“How did you get here?”

She’d told him to stay home.

Still, she was grateful—he’d helped at exactly the right timing.

If it hadn’t been for him, she wouldn’t have been able to summon Isla, and she wouldn’t have had time to heal Arsian.

“I’ll ask one more time.”

“Hm?”

Camilla, slumped on the floor, looked up at Dorman in confusion as he knelt on one knee to meet her eyes.

What is he doing, setting the mood like this again?

Stop making people anxious.

At her look, Dorman gave a faint smile.

“If you were given the chance to live your life again, would you accept it?”

“...What?”

What was he talking about now?

“I will erase all your memories so you can live a new life.”

“A new life?”

“Yes. A good environment, a new family... all the painful memories you’ve carried will be erased.”

“.......” 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Camilla’s eyes widened little by little.

So that question he’d thrown out so casually back then—wasn’t just talk? When he asked if her life was still hard, was this what he meant?

Her gaze shook without stopping.

A new life. A new family.

All my memories get erased?

You piece of shit!

Die! Just die!

Someone like you never should’ve been born!

She could forget all of it?

“Camilla!”

“Hey! Are you okay?”

“What the hell happened here?!”

Duke of Sorpel and the others revealed themselves where she was.

They looked around, bewildered—at the collapsed buildings, Arsian lying limp, and the dead servant—unable to make sense of what they were seeing.

“Are you hurt?!”

“Why are you sitting down like that? Are you really hurt?”

No matter what the situation was, they checked her safety first.

Camilla stared at them, blankly.

SMACK!

“Huh?”

But the moment Dorman flicked his finger lightly, everything around them stopped.

“I didn’t think it would be good for others to come in.”

“Ah....”

Camilla’s gaze returned to the people standing around her.

Family....

Forget them...?

Forget them?

“Camilla.”

Camilla’s head turned slowly.

“...No, but why is he fine?”

“...I’m not sure. It looks like he resisted with magic.”

There was Arsian, looking at her with difficulty.

As if he’d heard every word between her and Dorman, his eyes were desperate—his face terrified she might leave at any second.

Seeing him, Camilla’s chest ached too.

Arsian, too....

She would forget him, too.

Camilla slowly looked around one more time—then, at last, her gaze settled on Dorman.

And a faint smile gradually formed at the corner of her lips.

The answer was already decided, wasn’t it?

“I refuse.”

“...Do you truly mean that?”

Dorman asked, watching her closely.

“I’ll ask again. You don’t want a new life? Don’t you want a new family?”

“Yeah. I refuse.”

Her gaze moved back to the people around her.

“I already have a family.”

And...

“.......”

Camilla looked at Arsian one last time.

“I don’t want to leave.”

I don’t want to be separated from them—my family.

“Won’t you regret it?”

Dorman asked one last time. Camilla let out a small laugh.

“I’ll regret it. But—”

Because she always had.

She’d be happy, then regret it. Then regret it, and then...

“I’ll start again.”

That was the life she’d lived up to now.

And it would be the same going forward.

“So I refuse.”

At her firm answer, a smile appeared on Dorman’s lips as well.

“Understood.”

SMACK!

He nodded, flicking his finger—and as that face was the last thing she saw, her vision gradually blurred.

“Camilla!”

“Hey!”

Her family wrapping her in their arms as she lost consciousness. Arsian fighting desperately to reach her.

And—

[Camilla, are you okay?]

[Wake up!]

[GYUU.]

Just as much as her family, the ones looking at her with worry—

My other family.

Looking at them, Camilla’s lips curved into a bright smile again.

Feeling a strange sense of stability just from knowing they were by her side.