The next day.

“Are you leaving now?”

“Yes. I’ve finished handling everything I needed to handle.”

“Ahaha—man, I’m really sorry, big brother. I didn’t end up being much help again this time.”

Alon looked at Radan, who was cracking jokes like he felt he had no face to show, with his usual blank expression.

“Don’t think that way. If you hadn’t been there, we couldn’t have even started the fight. You were definitely help.”

“Is that so......?”

“It is.”

After talking with Radan for a while—

“Then I’ll be going.”

leaving a farewell behind, Alon turned around.

“Yes, big brother! I’ll see you later!”

Radan also gave Alon a final goodbye, and kept staring at Alon’s back for a while.

And the moment Alon finally disappeared from his sight—

“.......”

Radan wiped the smile he’d had plastered on his face in an instant, and returned to a calm expression.

“Whew—”

Staring at the empty spot, Radan went back into his room and dragged a hand down his face.

A deep sigh followed.

‘This time too... I couldn’t be any help.’

With his blank face now furrowed, Radan recalled the battle with the Sin of Sloth.

Back then, to be blunt, he hadn’t been much help.

Of course, because of the thing big brother had given him, he’d temporarily called forth a “strong” version of himself, and at the end it looked like he’d been a big help, but—

that wasn’t any hidden talent of his.

If Alon had used that on Seollang or Elivan, the situation wouldn’t have been much different either.

“.......”

Radan suddenly thought of Seollang.

Even if Seollang might have been similar to him, Seollang was clearly different from last time.

No, it wasn’t just that much.

‘She definitely got stronger.’

Yeah. She got stronger.

Even if it didn’t show that much right away, Radan could feel it clearly.

Seollang was getting stronger.

And he could even tell Seollang would get even stronger.

Compared to that, what about Radan?

He was the same.

It wasn’t that Radan hadn’t tried.

After getting called by Alon in Greynifra and fighting a Sin, he’d kept working steadily to get stronger up to now.

Training more than usual.

Finding more relics and researching how to use them.

But no matter what he did—

Radan couldn’t get any stronger anymore.

Of course, every time he got a relic and learned how to use it, the things he could do increased.

But that was only diversification of power, and it didn’t make Radan fundamentally stronger.

The helplessness that came from that.

The impatience that everyone else was moving forward while he couldn’t.

The moment that started filling Radan’s heart like black mud—

[Hey—]

“!”

At the voice he heard in the empty room—a voice that sounded far too similar to his—

Radan’s face was instantly dyed with tension.

But only for a moment.

[Don’t tense up like that.]

Radan realized the voice was coming from his own chest, and put his hand into his pocket, pulling out the object that was the source of the sound.

And—

“......This is.”

The sound was coming from a blue gemstone.

From the blue gemstone Alon had passed to Radan right after the battle with the Sin.

“.......”

Radan stared at the gemstone.

Even when he’d received the blue gemstone that “his future self” had sent to him through Alon, Radan had thought maybe there was some special power inside it.

But he’d been wrong.

It was just a gemstone that shone, with nothing special about it at all.

So even while not understanding why his future self had sent him something like this, Radan had been carrying it around anyway.

[Did you finally relax?]

“......You.”

At the voice talking to him again, Radan felt a strange sense of dissonance.

And before long, he grasped what that dissonance was.

No, he had no choice but to grasp it.

“Me......?”

The voice from the blue gemstone.

A voice similar to his.

No—

that was Radan’s voice.

[Correct.]

The blue gemstone answered cheerfully.

[First, I’m telling you now— I’m not taking questions like “how did you do it” or anything.]

“What?”

[It was too short a time, so I couldn’t pack deep intent into it. The time left is— at most, about five minutes?]

No, even shorter than that.

Muttering the rest, the blue gemstone quickly continued.

[I’m going to tell you how to get stronger starting now, because you’re probably worrying right now. About how useless you should do what to get stronger here. No, about how to not fall behind... is it?]

Something like that, I think—well, the situation might be different, so I can’t be sure.

At the blue gemstone’s words that sounded like either a monologue or a complaint—

“......Can I really get definitely stronger than I am now?”

Radan asked.

And the blue gemstone—

[Of course.]

burst into a cheerful laugh.

[If you follow my words well—]

And then.

[-If you just revive the Sin, and devour it.]

whispered.

After parting with Radan, Alon immediately went around to say goodbye to the others.

“Then I’ll see you next time, Saintess.”

“Yes, brother. I hope you’ll definitely stop by Rosario soon.”

“You said the Sironia goddess called you, right?”

“Yes.”

“All right.”

After Yuman, Alon met—

“I want to go too, Teacher!”

“......You too?”

“Yeah! I got a long vacation, so they said once this is over, I can go play.”

Seollang, ears perked up.

“It doesn’t really matter.”

“Then let’s go together!”

“Do that.”

“Waa—!”

The moment Alon gave permission, Seollang spread both arms wide like she was extremely happy.

And the moment Seollang went off, saying she’d go tell people around her properly—

[Th-there’s no way!? What did you just do!?]

[Kyuu—! Kyukyukyukyuu—!!]

As if they’d been waiting, Basiliora and Blackie popped out violently from the ring and the pocket, respectively.

[This makes no sense! No sense at all! In that great battle, after I fought that hard, you can treat me this coldly!?]

[Kyuu! Kyukyukyukyuu!!!!]

Like it was fiercely agreeing—This can’t be allowed!!!

Blackie stomped its front paws, and Alon made an awkward face.

‘......Is taking Seollang with me that big of a deal?’

Then he briefly recalled the past.

The things Seollang had done to Basiliora and Blackie.

......

......

......

......Yeah. It made sense.

‘Hm—’

He only rewound those memories alone for a moment.

The instant Seollang came back, Blackie and Basiliora vanished back into his pocket as if they’d never existed in the first place.

Clicking his tongue at how fast the two of them were, Alon looked at Seollang shouting brightly—

“Okay, then let’s go! Teacher!”

and calmly nodded.

“Let’s head out.”

“Yes. Penia said they’re ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) going to stop by the Blue Mage Tower again for a bit this time, so I think we can depart on our own.”

Soon, the carriage departed for Marquis Palatio’s estate.

A little over a week later.

“Zzz—”

Seollang was sleeping on Alon’s lap, looking like she felt amazing.

And while Alon was stroking her head, he heard some not-bad news from Evan.

“You found information about the Jewel of the Closed-Eyed One?”

“Yes. We just heard from the information guild in the last village.”

“Did you find its location?”

“No, not that. But—they say they found a book that has information.”

“A book with information in it.”

Alon nodded.

“Even just finding that much isn’t bad.”

It was much better than when there had been nothing at all about the Jewel of the Closed-Eyed One.

Feeling satisfied in his own way, Alon asked.

“So where do we go to get that book?”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. They said they already obtained the book, so they’ll bring it to you.”

“......It feels like we’re only getting helped.”

“Mmm—yeah, it does, right?”

As Alon was about to think whether he should do something for them, Evan continued again.

“Ah, and there’s something else I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“You told me last time to check whether there was any movement on the Empire’s side.”

“Ah, that—”

Ashtalon hadn’t completely fallen, so the chance of the Empire invading was low, but just in case, Alon had told Evan to look into that side too.

“Did something come up?”

“No. The information guild said the Empire’s side is quiet with no major movement.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“......That’s a relief.”

Alon let out a sigh of relief.

Even if he knew the chance the Empire would invade wasn’t that high, as long as it wasn’t 0%, he couldn’t not worry about it.

‘This is a problem I can solve if I catch the spy over on the Empire’s side, but—’

Thinking back to when the Empire invaded in the first place.

A big reason was that an Empire spy had slipped into a key position in the kingdom.

When the Allied Kingdoms were in danger, the spy started sending signals to the Empire in earnest, and the invasion began.

But even knowing that—

the reason Alon wasn’t catching that spy in advance to prevent it was simple.

Obviously, because he didn’t know who the spy was.

Unless it was the Empire-falls ending, the Empire spy’s identity didn’t even get revealed, and the person changed every time, too.

Meaning no matter how much he tried to dig up information, even using a guild—

he couldn’t easily find and confirm it.

‘There were a few spy quests you could do separately around the mid-to-late part of the game story. If you followed those, you could catch them.’

But since Alon wasn’t Elivan in the first place, it was impossible to do those side quests.

After mulling it over for a while, Alon decided to shove away thoughts he couldn’t resolve.

Alexion was exhausted to the point of being wrung dry.

It couldn’t be helped.

Work for the marquis’s estate was incredibly hard.

At first, he suffered over the fact that he had to handle the marquis’s duties—without any compensation at that—and do it diligently.

But those complaints had disappeared long ago by now.

Because the money the marquis gave Alexion was absurdly large.

...So large that every time he got paid, a smile would form on his lips without him realizing it.

Anyway, thanks to that, Alexion was living a life where he was happy to make a lot of money, and sad at the same time because there was too much work, and he let out a sigh again.

‘Find a partner....’

Alexion could guess, to some extent, why Marquis Palatio needed a partner.

‘Was it three months from now? He’s probably finding a partner for the ball where the entire Allied Kingdoms gather.’

Alexion started thinking about what kind of way he should find a partner now.

Since he’d been contacted, he had to handle it somehow.

But he soon realized.

There was no need to make it hard.

‘......Come to think of it. There were quite a lot of young ladies who threw themselves at the marquis.’

In truth, since the marquis had said he didn’t have to pass along letters outside of work, Alexion hadn’t uploaded most of the suspicious letters, in case the marquis would find them annoying.

But the letters sent to him really were extremely numerous.

It was only natural.

The person Alexion served was none other than “Marquis Palatio.”

So.

‘I’ll ask those young ladies who made advances what their intentions are. Of course, only the ones who roughly match the marquis in standing.’

As he quickly recalled the list of people who had sent letters—

‘......And after I run interviews on my end, the marquis won’t be uncomfortable either. Yeah, doing it that way will be best.’

he pulled out writing paper.

Without even imagining that someone would come looking for him...