At first, she did not believe it. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

She thought that because she had died and come back to life, her mind had simply broken.

'Otherwise, this makes no sense!'

But the memories became clearer and clearer.

Ribia, gripping her sword with a trembling hand, bit her lip.

Even now, images of the past flashed rapidly before her eyes.

'Did you see? Did you see?! My lady smiled!'

Astie had been like a gift to Tregava.

Not only because she was Tesetan’s daughter—she was simply that adorable.

'How does she even smile like that. Not like the squad leader at all.'

When Tesetan first brought Astie, the atmosphere in Tregava had been heavy.

No one knew the reason, but at that time Tesetan seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into a swamp.

He spoke less, lost interest in sieges.

He barely ate or slept.

It felt as if he was about to disband the squad.

More precisely, he looked like someone who had lost the meaning of his life.

But one day—

he returned with a child in his arms.

That was Astie.

And from that day on, she became Tregava’s treasure.

'Damn it, I went to the trade district... nothing like that there.'

'What?! Then what are we supposed to do?!'

'What do you mean what. We’ll have to make do with this.'

'What are you even saying?! There are twenty seven of us, and only twenty six gifts for my lady’s birthday—does that make sense?! Go get another one! The most expensive and best one in this entire city!'

Tie was like sunlight.

She smiled at everyone, and just her presence alone made exhaustion melt away.

Ribia, Allerik, and Victor, as the older ones, were especially close to her.

'When will our lady start walking~'

'She can’t even hold her head up yet, what are you expecting from her, Ribia.'

'Victor, shut up. Our lady is a genius, she might stand up and walk in a single day, got it?!'

It felt like happiness lay ahead.

The sieges proceeded as usual, Astie grew up healthy.

And above all, the changes in Tesetan after his daughter appeared astonished everyone.

A man who had suffered from insomnia fell asleep so deeply beside Tie that he could not hear the fighters passing by.

And not only that.

He began to speak warmly, even joke... things he had never done before.

"It was good back then."

A vein bulged along Ribia’s jaw.

"The squad leader bought a house, bought land. He said he would retire and live happily with my lady!"

At that time, Tesetan hurried through the sieges.

But now it was not for money.

He wanted to clear a place where he could live with Astie.

That was why he chose the plains of Elderin.

That region was elevated.

From there, one could see far and wide—making it possible to detect the appearance of a magic crystal quickly and prepare for attacks from magical creatures in advance.

The only problem was that in the gorge beneath the plains, several medium sized magic crystals remained—

"You disgusting... creature."

Ribia bared her teeth as she glared at Lucarion.

When they set out for reconnaissance, no one had known what lay beyond.

Medium magic crystals—so it should have been simple.

Kill a few creatures, and that would be all.

But it was not.

"You were different. You had a mind. You understood everything... and still you killed my comrades..."

Hot tears welled in her eyes.

That day had been just like today.

The Day of Ruin had begun suddenly, and Tregava was trapped.

Lucarion stood before them.

He drove the squad members into his trap—and killed them one by one.

The fact that he looked like a child made it even more horrifying.

Magical creatures obeyed his commands—it was beyond comprehension.

"You killed Victor... Allerik..."

Ribia tightened her grip on the sword.

"And me too. And after that—what did you do to the squad leader and my lady?!"

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Perhaps because this was the second time—

she could clearly feel the moment her heart stopped.

Lucarion was a being that could not be defeated.

Even Tesetan—the strongest mercenary of his time—could not overcome him.

He was on a completely different level.

This was not merely a magical creature.

It was as if the ruler of all magical creatures stood before them.

When the entire squad had been annihilated—

and as she handed Astie to Tesetan, she had asked for only one thing:

If there was a god in this world, then let at least those two escape this hell.

If her fate was to dig through the entrails of monsters until death, so be it—but not for her lady.

What had a child who had barely been born done to deserve this?

It was a prayer no one answered.

But now—

"Answer me! Right now! What did you do?!"

Now that Astie had healed her, and the memories had come flooding back, she knew.

"Why is my lady here now?"

By her reckoning, Tie should not exist.

How could a child who had not yet been born be here?

And—

"Why... why does the squad leader remember nothing?"

Tears streamed down her frozen face.

Over Tesetan pushing Astie away overlapped her own memories of the past weeks.

"Why didn’t I recognize my lady either?!"

She had grown—but it was definitely Astie.

Once her memory returned, there was no mistaking it.

And yet...

'Aunt Ribia, good morning!'

'Auntie, Tie loves you.'

'Auntie! Auntie!'

So many times, she had simply brushed the child aside.

Because she did not know it was Astie.

"I’ll cut you down."

Ribia, gritting her teeth, stepped toward Lucarion.

Right now, she could think of nothing else.

And back then, he had the same face.

The harmless face of a boy—with burning crimson eyes.

And he had killed them all.

"I’ll take revenge! Bring my lady back! Bring her back right now—!"

Ribia shouted—and staggered.

Allerik hurriedly caught her.

She dropped her sword.

She glared at the fallen weapon with hatred—

and finally collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

Lucarion froze.

'...Did I do this?'

What exactly had he done?

He had searched through the records of the entire world—and found [N O V E L I G H T] nothing about himself.

He did not even know what had happened before he ended up in the black stone—the resting vessel.

Lucarion clenched his teeth involuntarily.

His first memory was Astie’s laughter.

Inside the resting vessel, he had heard her laugh, cry, babble.

At that moment, his gaze wavered.

"Right now... what are you even talking about."

Basto stepped forward, who had remained silent until now.

He looked between Ribia and Lucarion and frowned.

"Who are you calling my lady. Don’t tell me..."

Bale had been standing there, holding his breath.

As if he could not even bring himself to speak, trying to process what he had heard.

"...I."

Lucarion lowered his head.

He feared being pursued.

Even with fragmented memories, he constantly felt as if someone was chasing him.

So he hid.

And believed that the only way to protect Tie was to conceal everything.

But—

if, as Ribia said, he was the cause of all this?

If everything had begun because of him?

Lucarion’s tightly pressed lips parted.

"I... crossed over a timeline."

Ribia, who had been sobbing, froze.

The others held their breath.

Lucarion raised his head.

He remembered that day.

The day everything began.

In another world.

The day Tesetan returned as an urn of belongings.

At the same time.

"Hey, look. What even is that?"

Two students, returning from a movie after watching a fantasy film, stopped.

"Look at his clothes. Damn... wait, he’s bleeding!"

"Oh. There’s a kid next to him too."

At those words, someone lying on the grass in the park suddenly opened their eyes.

Confused green eyes slowly looked around.

An unnaturally bright night sky.

Tall buildings, the lights of a night city.

Tie whispered in disbelief:

"Korea...?"