Luciano stared straight ahead.

For some time now, short little legs had been dangling in front of his eyes.

"People say you must never lie to His Holiness the Pope."

A powerless sigh escaped.

"Because even if you lie, everything gets found out anyway. So Tie thought about it for a really, really long time too."

"Ha ha......."

At last, a laugh slipped from Luciano’s mouth.

Inside the audience chamber, where only the two of them remained, the King of the Dead stayed completely at ease.

It was the first time Luciano had ever seen someone capable of behaving so naturally while alone with him.

"But now I told you everything, so that’s good, right?"

Astie lifted her clear, open face toward him.

Luciano silently closed his mouth.

Even now, he continued drawing out his power, carefully probing the King of the Dead.

Was there any unusual energy around her?

Had something suspicious mixed into her magic?

Or perhaps something connected to the World Tree hidden somewhere within it?

But there was nothing.

'A shocking amount of nothing.'

A crease formed between Luciano’s brows.

'There is nothing unusual about this child, Your Holiness.'

Nordix’s reports, which he had heard over and over again for the past several months, overlapped with his thoughts.

'An ordinary orphan. It seems her parents abandoned her after strange magic manifested in her. That sort of thing happens across the continent from time to time.'

Luciano quietly tightened his grip on the armrest.

Most children who awakened holy power or magic inherited it from their parents.

But sometimes, children were born with power despite having no such lineage at all.

'Most of them became mages or Holy Knights without much trouble.'

And the wealthier and more influential the family was, the easier everything became.

If a noble family gave birth to a child with manifested power, no expense or support was spared for them.

But the poorer the family.

The more insignificant and ignorant the parents were, the differently things turned out.

Luciano knew such children well.

'T, thank you, Holy Father......'

Children brought into the Grand Temple thanked him with empty eyes.

'M, my papa tried to kill me.'

'People... sob... said I was a monster.......'

Most of those children came from small villages isolated from the outside world by Magic Crystals.

In closed-off, brutal places like those, the fate of children born with power was usually the same.

'Sob... it, it was an accident!'

'I... I hurt my little brother.......'

Children unable to control their power destroyed everything around them.

They accidentally maimed family members and neighbors, and sometimes were simply thrown into forests crawling with magical creatures.

But.

'And this was all the thing standing before me amounted to?'

Luciano recalled everything Astie had told him earlier.

'Tie isn’t some huge scary man at all.'

Stories he had never expected to hear.

'I’m really, really four years old!'

It was absurd.

Wasn’t it already known across the continent that the King of the Dead was a great mage who had taken the form of a child?

The moment he heard that, Luciano stopped hesitating.

Whether the King of the Dead noticed or not, he began thoroughly examining her with his power.

But the result was staggering.

Just as the girl had said, there truly was no magic or illusion cast over the King of the Dead’s appearance.

"Mr. Pope. Is everything okay?"

A tiny body and a childlike face.

Even the gaze that held not a trace of hostility.

All of it was real.

"Yes."

Luciano slowly leaned forward.

The moment he relaxed his concentration, the countless tendrils of power directed toward the King of the Dead withdrew back into him.

"Everything is fine. I simply wanted to make sure I understood you correctly."

The child tilted her head.

"You said your father abandoned you and disappeared. And you never had a mother to begin with. Is that true?"

The large eyes lowered, and the girl nodded gloomily.

"Yeees......."

There was no sign of deception.

No anxiety or unease that usually leaked from people when they fabricated lies.

"And after that, you met Basto Paerix."

"Yes! And big brother Bale, and Grandpa Nordix too! But Grandpa Nordix is gone now......."

"I see."

Luciano nodded.

"And your power turned out to be far stronger than expected, and it seems you possessed an innate talent for controlling it?"

"What does innate mean?"

"It means you were extremely talented. So talented that nobody else in the world could compare to you."

Astie nodded energetically.

"Yees. Uncle and the big brothers said there’s no mage as good at summoning bone friends as Tie."

Just as the girl said, there had never before been anyone in the world capable of using dark magic.

And Luciano himself had never even imagined a human could communicate with something belonging to the Underworld.

The world of the living and the world of the dead were completely separate realms.

Even the World Tree could not easily spread its power there.

"Actually... that’s why...... they told Tie that because I’m so strong, people would hunt me."

The girl muttered quietly.

Luciano could no longer suppress his laughter.

Resting his hands on his knees, he continued listening.

"So I decided to become the King of the Dead! I wanted to earn lots of money for uncle and the big brothers, so I worked really, really hard, and then the vice squad leader came and started talking about fighting......."

After that, Luciano already knew the rest.

After leaving the Luminel family, Tesetan became a mercenary.

And it was almost as though succeeding as a mercenary and exterminating magical creatures had become the meaning of his life.

For someone like that, the appearance of another person threatening his place must have been a tremendous shock.

"And then you had a sword duel?"

"Yees! But Tie won!"

Once, he had doubted it, but everything truly was exactly as Nordix had reported.

Astie had won.

And Tesetan, after discovering who she really was, must have been horrified.

Naturally. He had intended to kill his opponent, only to discover it was a naive child.

'With that softhearted personality of his, it’s no surprise he developed such pointless guilt.'

Tesetan became Agavert’s vice squad leader.

At the same time, he personally volunteered to become Astie’s guardian.

And then came the state mission.

During the mission near the Watchtower, the Luminel family and Agavert crossed paths.

Everything after that was easy to imagine.

Valentis almost certainly realized Astie’s true identity immediately.

They had lived together in the same camp for several days. It would have been stranger if he had failed to discover the King of the Dead’s true appearance.

And with his youngest son, with whom relations had nearly been severed, caring for Astie, Valentis himself had likely grown attached to the child.

"And then Tie got a grandpa."

The girl smiled brightly.

"The Commander in Chief said he’d become Tie’s grandpa. And then I got a papa and uncles too!"

Mockery surfaced once more at the corners of Luciano’s lips.

He had suspected hidden motives.

Tried to figure out what they were concealing from him.

But in the end, it all boiled down to a pitiful little family game.

"And you know, the princess is really nice to Tie too."

"......."

"The princess said Tie is pretty and good. And she talked to Tie during the naming ceremony too."

Luciano already knew what kind of relationship existed between Theseos and the princess.

"When we destroy all the Magic Crystals here, we’re going to have a party! Together — Tie, Grandpa, Papa, and all our comrades!"

Luciano rose to his feet.

"I see...... it must have been difficult for you."

The sharp edge of his senses, stretched taut this entire time, gradually dulled.

'It is merely a slightly unfamiliar form of magic.'

And yet, even after checking ten times over, he still could not sense even the slightest trace of energy connected to the World Tree within Astie.

No, twenty times.

The result remained exactly the same.

"But Mr. Pope, you’ll keep Tie’s secret, right?"

Smiling, the girl ran over to him.

"Grandpa said Mr. Pope is the kindest and most merciful person in the world."

"......."

"And someday, if Tie reveals my secret to the world, you’ll stand on Tie’s side."

"Is that so?"

"Yes!"

Dimples appeared in her pale cheeks.

"You must be hungry."

Luciano deliberately changed the subject.

Then he extended a hand toward Astie.

"A small dinner was prepared for the expedition squad. Let us go together."

Without the slightest hesitation or fear, the girl immediately grabbed his hand.

"Okay!"

As they walked beneath the sunlit ceiling of the audience chamber, Luciano thought:

'What should I do with this now.'

He realized the King of the Dead, whom he had considered a thorn in his side, was actually an extremely convenient tool.

'To possess this level of magical power at such an age.......'

Perhaps, at last.

'I have found an experimental subject capable of enduring that ritual.'

The moment they stepped out into the corridor, Tesetan and the squad members waiting outside approached them.

"......Tie."

Seeing the wary expression on Tesetan’s face, Luciano smiled gently.

'Ahhh! Ngh... sob, please save me......!'

Back then, had Tesetan also been four years old?

Before his eyes appeared the image of a child screaming after failing to endure the "ritual."

The corners of Luciano’s lips twisted upward.

'The thing you could not endure... I wonder whether your adopted daughter will be able to withstand it.'

Lowering his gaze, he felt something being transmitted to him through Astie’s palm.

A warmth so weak and pitiful it could easily be ignored.