On the night of the day Alon had talked for a full three hours in that meeting.

"Hoo—"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

At Evan’s worry, Alon nodded.

Even though both eyes were soaked in fatigue.

"Did what you wanted to do end well?"

"Well, more or less."

"Hm— Well, if the marquis is the one speaking, there isn’t really a reason for them not to listen."

"......Is that so?"

It wasn’t Evan who answered Alon’s reaction, but Basiliora, who had slipped out of the ring.

[Hmph, they were obviously idiots just stomping their feet without an answer—there’s no way they wouldn’t follow what you said, is there?]

"Even so, they looked like they were weighing this and that."

[Humans are greedy by nature, so of course they don’t want to take any kind of loss, no matter what. What was it called....... Other than the queen you’re close with, every single one of them was stupid.]

Tsk tsk— Basiliora went on, dissing the kings.

Alon agreed with that, but at the same time, he understood the kings too.

The world could be destroyed, so this was truly important, but they were kings leading nations.

Thinking about what came after was only natural.

'Well, in the end, if everything gets destroyed, it’s all pointless anyway.'

As Alon was thinking that, Evan opened his mouth.

"But, marquis. I’m just curious, but do we really need the kings’ help?"

"What do you mean?"

"The major forces of each Allied Kingdom are mostly people who come if you tell them to come, aren’t they?"

"But soldiers won’t come."

"......Do you need soldiers?"

I took a quick look earlier, and it seemed like soldiers would just get slaughtered by a single swing.......

—Evan added skeptically.

Alon nodded as well.

Evan wasn’t wrong.

Honestly, what you needed when facing a sin was overwhelming individual power.

Ordinary soldiers were more likely to become poison than help.

And yet, even knowing that, Alon had deliberately participated in the meeting and gathered soldiers.

The reason was simple.

The sin they were facing this time was Wrath.

"We need them."

"......You do?"

"Yeah. Especially this time."

Thinking of the characteristics of the Sin of Wrath, Alon continued.

"Ah, and did you pass along the message?"

"To the others, you mean? I told everything to the information guild. Just in case, Magrina asked Historia and Ryang-a as well."

At the report that the information guild would definitely have contacted everyone, Alon nodded and murmured quietly.

"......I hope they gather in time."

What Alon had told Evan to do was call in the major forces.

To win this fight against the sin, they needed as much power as possible.

"......"

All of a sudden, Alon recalled the scene he’d seen in the meeting room earlier.

Ashtalon, which had fully become a hellscape.

That miserable scenery was horrific even to Alon’s eyes, but there was one fortunate point.

'I hope it stays stopped.'

Within the knowledge Alon had, the Sin of Wrath, the moment it fully awakened, from then on, rampaged through kingdoms, killing humans and building mountains of corpses.

And the mountains of corpses created that way strengthened the Sin of Wrath’s power.

In other words, the more corpse mountains formed, the stronger the Sin of Wrath’s martial might became, and more and more.

That was why Alon had felt relief seeing that Wrath had stopped at the point of destroying Ashtalon.

And yet, at the same time, it was strange.

Of course, Alon knew well that a sin’s movements could change.

But unlike Sloth, if the Sin of Wrath could move, it benefited from moving as much as possible and stacking corpse mountains.

The mountains «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» it built would become power.

That was also why Alon had let out a hollow laugh when he heard about Ashtalon’s fall.

If the sin started operating at that ridiculous speed from now on, honestly, from Alon’s perspective, stopping it would be quite difficult.

But the sin that had moved before even a full day had passed since manifesting and destroyed Ashtalon had shown no particular movement after that.

As if that was enough.

Maybe as if this much was enough.

To Alon, that felt endlessly bizarre.

Most of the other sins had been like that too.

They didn’t move according to Alon’s thoughts.

But still.

Among them, the Sin of Wrath was the one Alon understood the least.

Unlike a sin’s nature of moving with all its strength to destroy the world once preparations were complete, it was staying silent.

"......"

After continuing those thoughts for a while, Alon shook his head.

For now, Alon couldn’t understand why the Sin of Wrath was acting like that.

......Or why Elivan had become a sin, either.

"......"

Alon thought of Elivan.

What still surfaced in Alon’s mind was Elivan’s face, wearing a bright, cheerful smile.

But the Elivan Alon had seen in the magic orb this time was.......

"......"

Even after hearing that information, Alon had, deep down, been denying that Elivan had become a sin.

Maybe it was simply misinformation, Alon even thought.

And that made sense—because it was Elivan.

But the moment Alon saw that figure in the magic orb, Alon had no choice but to realize it.

No choice but to accept it.

Alon tried to deny it, but Elivan really had become a sin.

'......Why?'

Alon hadn’t spent a long time with Elivan.

Over the past few years, the time Alon had even met Elivan was little.

And yet, it bothered Alon.

Because Elivan was the protagonist of Psychedelia?

No.

Because Elivan would become the worst enemy in history?

No.

Elivan was absolute good.

Alon firmly believed that fact.

Unlike others, in the game and here, Elivan truly was a hero like something drawn in a picture.

......If Alon hadn’t interfered from the start, would everything have flowed the way the story said in the end?

......If so.

Right now.

The Elivan of now—

this Elivan of now was, in the end, something Alon had directly made—

"......Marquis?"

At that moment.

Evan’s voice broke Alon’s thoughts.

"What is it?"

"No, um...... did something unpleasant happen?"

"......What is it?"

"It’s just, you were frowning a lot......."

Without realizing it, Alon touched Alon’s face.

Clearly, it was enough that Alon could feel there had been a change on a face that had been expressionless until now.

"Was I?"

"Yes. It was a face I’ve never seen before, either......."

Evan’s voice was thick with worry.

Alon, before he knew it, was pressing a hand to Alon’s throbbing head as Alon let out a sigh.

Alon needed to stop thinking.

Alon stood up from the seat.

"Where are you going?"

Evan asked with a tired face.

Evan was someone who had driven the carriage with hardly any sleep to avoid being late to the meeting.

After checking Evan’s condition, Alon moved alone.

"I’m going to Heinkel. Get some rest."

To discuss the plan Alon had set up.

####

The Ilanef Empire’s guardian weapon.

Sin (evil). 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"......"

Rine went back into the Library of Ten Thousand Ages, into the forbidden section once again.

She frowned as if she couldn’t understand the contents she had confirmed.

Up until now, she had been searching for knowledge about sins in the forbidden books, and even though there were still many questions, she had gained a great deal of knowledge in many ways.

But the content written in the book she had discovered now created a contradiction in the knowledge she had gained in the Library of Ten Thousand Ages with only two lines.

'The one who birthed sin was the Closed-Eyed One.'

Of course, Rine had almost no knowledge about the Closed-Eyed One.

All Rine knew was that the Closed-Eyed One had been a True Mage.

Rine didn’t even know since when that being had lived.

But even so.

This sentence was enough to create a contradiction with the words,

'The one who birthed sin was the Closed-Eyed One.'

'......Could there be lies among the knowledge recorded in the Library of Ten Thousand Ages?'

Rine soon shook her head.

Everything recorded in the Library of Ten Thousand Ages was “truth.”

From the start, nothing that wasn’t truth was recorded in this library.

So, in this library, lies could not exist.

Which meant.

The two pieces of knowledge Rine knew were both “truth.”

For a while, Rine was swept into confusion.

After barely calming her mind down, she started poring over the book again, and—

"......Ah."

She let out a low exclamation as if she understood.

In truth, the book she was holding didn’t have that much content.

Even so, it was more than enough to resolve the question.

If she summarized that content—

"......The Ilanef Empire created sin, but did not use it."

That was what it was.

The Ilanef Empire created sin, but did not use it, and the sin created that way was eventually handed over to the Closed-Eyed One, where it was birthed.

"......"

Having resolved the contradiction in the knowledge, Rine examined the book again.

There wasn’t much left.

Rine calmly kept reading on, and could gain additional knowledge.

About the strength of sin.

As befitted an empire that had created Pluto, which Rine could practically not even handle properly, the sin, when it merged with the ideal manifested vessel drawn in the knowledge and “matched (alignment)” perfectly, was so strong that it far surpassed Rine’s expectations.

"......"

For a moment, Rine considered whether Rine could deal with this perfectly reproduced sin with Pluto, but Rine shook her head alone.

From the start, Rine couldn’t even handle Pluto properly, and Rine had never even seen a perfectly reproduced sin.

So it was impossible for Rine to gauge it.

Still, if she had to guess—

Rine had the feeling that, one way or another, Pluto wouldn’t have been able to stop sin.

Because in the end, the Ilanef Empire had been destroyed.

'Pluto couldn’t stop sin.......'

Rine murmured without realizing it.

What Rine knew about Pluto still wasn’t much.

Rine could summon Pluto, but she still didn’t properly understand how to use it, and the knowledge about it was scattered like fragments, making it extremely hard to find.

But no matter how much she thought about it, even after making the guess herself, Rine found it hard to easily accept the idea that Pluto would lose to sin.

Because she could guess what kind of power Pluto held.

'......Of course, that’s assuming the empire could fully handle Pluto properly at a full 100%, but.'

And on top of that, even though it was really only theoretical—

if, as the book said, sin simply “matched,” it might be difficult after all.

"Hm......?"

While thinking that, Rine felt a strange sense of mismatch.

Like she wasn’t thinking about something important.

Discomfort like a tiny thorn caught in her throat.

But even after trying for a moment to find it, nothing came to mind, so Rine shrugged and continued reading the text, and finally reached the end of the book.

But there wasn’t much additional knowledge Rine could gain.

Ridiculously, even though this book clearly explained the origin of sin, it didn’t write the information of why sin had been created.

The only thing she could at least guess was one thing—

'Sin was created for delay.'

—That strange knowledge, and nothing more.

Other than that, the only thing that could even be called knowledge was a single sentence at the very end of the book.

"Sin was not used until the Ilanef Empire’s end......?"

As Rine organized the book’s last piece of knowledge, her head filled with question marks, and the sense of déjà vu she’d felt earlier grew stronger.

A profoundly unpleasant feeling.

And as she blankly chewed over that sentence—

"......!"

Rine realized the identity of that déjà vu.

Rine’s mind thought once again.

'Sin was not used until the Ilanef Empire’s end......? Then that means—'

The Ilanef Empire was not destroyed by sin.

"......!"

Rine’s eyes went wide.

In them, there was confusion even clearer than before.

Many things started to make sense, and at the same time, a new question was born.

As far as Rine knew, the Ilanef Empire had definitely been destroyed by an “enemy.”

That was the truth she had seen in the library.

But at the time, Rine hadn’t paid it much mind.

Because until now, Rine had recognized that what destroyed the empire was sin.

But sin was not used until the Ilanef Empire was destroyed.

Then—

The Ilanef Empire, which created Pluto and created sin, what destroyed it.......

Who in the world was it?

......Rine quietly fell into silence.